Overview of SharePoint 2013’s Services

With the new version, we get new features and functionality. The following lists off the services available with SharePoint 2013 Enterprise, and briefly explains what they do. I made this for my own reference, but thought I’d share.

I’ve also added links to TechNet articles on how to install/configure. There is a great article which covers these services, and how they could be deployed on an ideal farm topology http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj219591.aspx.

Enjoy!

Access Database Service 2010

Access Services 2010 is a service application that allows users to modify and publish in SharePoint Server 2013 an Access web database that was previously created in SharePoint Server 2010. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee748653.aspx

Access Services

Access Services enables you to create and customize Access apps for SharePoint. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj714714.aspx

App Management Service

App Management Service is part of the new App support within SharePoint 2013. This service, along with the Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Subscription Settings Service, have to be configured properly to support the new App model. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/fp161236.aspx#ConfigureAppServices

Business Data Connectivity Service

Business Data Connectivity Service allows you to pull in external data sources into SharePoint, and treat them much like a normal SharePoint list. This allows businesses to connect to existing line of business applications with minimal effort. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee681491.aspx

Central Administration

This service is what provides Central Administration on the server. Make sure at least one server in your farm has this running. I don’t know if you can stop this on all servers, I haven’t tried, and I don’t recommend it!

Claims to Windows Token Service

The Claims to Windows Token Service (c2WTS) is a feature of Windows Identity Foundation (WIF). The c2WTS extracts user principal name (UPN) claims from non-Windows security tokens, such as SAML and X.509 tokens, and generates impersonation-level Windows security tokens. This allows a relying party application to impersonate the user. This might be needed to access back-end resources, such as Microsoft SQL Servers, that are external to the computer running the relying party application. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee539091.aspx

Distributed Cache

The Distributed Cache service provides caching features in SharePoint Server 2013. The microblog features and feeds rely on the Distributed Cache to store data for very fast retrieval across all entities. The Distributed Cache service is built on Windows Server AppFabric, which implements the AppFabric Caching service. Windows Server AppFabric installs with the prerequisites for SharePoint Server 2013. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj219700.aspx#cache http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj219613.aspx

Document Conversions Launcher Service

This service schedules and initiates the document conversions. When SharePoint Foundation passes a document conversion request to the document conversion launcher service, the service must call the appropriate document converter. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa979484(v=office.14).aspx

Document Conversions Load Balancer Service

This service balances the document conversion requests from across the server farm. When it receives a converter request from SharePoint Foundation, the document conversion load balancer service must return a URI to the appropriate document conversion launcher service. SharePoint Foundation connects to the specified launcher via .NET Remoting and requests that it convert the specified document. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa979484(v=office.14).aspx

Excel Calculation Services

Excel Services is a SharePoint Server 2013 service application that allows users to share and view Excel workbooks. The service application also enables data-connected Excel workbooks and work sheets to be refreshed and updated from a variety of data sources. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj219698.aspx

Lotus Notes Connector

Lotus Notes Connector provides connectivity for search to crawl Lotus Notes content within a Domino database. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj591606.aspx

Machine Translation Service

Machine Translation Service provides automatic machine translation of files and sites. When the Machine Translation Service application processes a translation request, it forwards the request to a cloud-hosted machine translation service, where the actual translation work is performed. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj163145.aspx

Managed Metadata Web Service

The managed metadata service application makes it possible to use managed metadata and share content types across site collections and web applications. A managed metadata service publishes a term store and, optionally, content types; a managed metadata connection consumes these. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee424403.aspx

Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Incoming E-Mail

The Incoming E-Mail service allows for users to send emails to libraries within your sites. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262947.aspx

Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Sandboxed Code Service

A sandbox is a restricted execution environment that enables programs to access only certain resources and keeps problems that occur in the sandbox from affecting the rest of the server environment. Solutions that you deploy into a sandbox, which are known as sandboxed solutions, cannot use certain computer and network resources and cannot access content outside the site collection they are deployed in. Because sandboxed solutions cannot affect the whole server farm, they do not have to be deployed by a farm administrator. If sandboxed solutions have been enabled on at least one server in the farm, a site collection administrator can deploy solutions to a run in a sandbox on any server in the farm. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff535775(v=office.15).aspx

Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Subscription Settings Service

This service was primarily used for multi-tenency support in SharePoint 2010. In SharePoint 2013, it is also necessary for apps.  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/fp161236.aspx#ConfigureAppServices

Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Web Application

This is the core service for running your sites. It configures IIS to host the sites providing the SharePoint to end users.

Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Workflow Timer Service

This service supplements the main Timer service with configuration settings for timed workflow events.

PerformancePoint Service

PerformancePoint Services in SharePoint Server 2013 is a performance management service that you can use to monitor and analyze your business. By providing flexible, easy-to-use tools for building dashboards, scorecards, and key performance indicators (KPIs), PerformancePoint Services can help individuals across an organization make informed business decisions that align with companywide objectives and strategy. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee424392.aspx

PowerPoint Conversion Service

PowerPoint Conversion Service provides unattended, server-side conversion of presentations into other formats. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/fp179894.aspx

Request Management

Request Manager is functionality in SharePoint Server 2013 that enables administrators to manage incoming requests and determine how SharePoint Server 2013 routes these requests. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj712708.aspx

Search Host Controller Service

This service manages the search topology components. The service is automatically started on all servers that run search topology components. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg502597.aspx

Search Query and Site Settings Service

This service load balances queries within the search topology. It also detects farm-level changes to the search service and puts these in the Search Admin database. The service is automatically started on all servers that run the query processing component. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg502597.aspx

Secure Store Service

The Secure Store Service is an authorization service that runs on an application server and provides a database that is used to store credentials. These credentials usually consist of a user identity and password, but can also contain other fields that you define http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee806866.aspx

SharePoint Server Search

This service crawls content for the search index. This service is automatically started on all servers that run search topology components. The service cannot be stopped or started from the Services on Server page. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg502597.aspx

User Profile Service

The User Profile service application stores information about users in a central location. Social computing features use this information to enable productive interactions so that users can collaborate efficiently. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee662538.aspx

User Profile Synchronization Service

The User Profile Synchronization Service facilitates the creation of user profiles by importing data from directory services, such as Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS). You can augment user profiles by importing data from business systems, such as SAP or SQL Server. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg188041.aspx

Visio Graphics Service

The Visio Graphics Service allows users to share and view Visio diagrams by using Visio Services. The service application also enables data-connected Visio 2013 diagrams to be refreshed and updated from different data sources. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee524059.aspx

Word Automation Services

Word Automation Services enables unattended, server-side conversion of documents that are supported by Microsoft Word. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee558278(v=office.14).aspx

Work Management Service

The Work Management Service automates consolidating tasks from SharePoint, Exchange and Project Server. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj554516.aspx

Happy SharePointing!