In some scenarios, you may need to share the same content to different types of users [Internal / External] through different URLs or different authentication types. In this case, you will need to extend your SharePoint web application.
Before we get started reviewing the extending steps, you should be aware of the following.
- When the web application is extended, a different Web Application and IIS are created.
- The main Web Application and the extended one will share the same Content Database.
- You can extend the web application to change the port number. Meanwhile, you can extend the web application to port 80 in case you use Host Header.
- Extending web application is used for extranet deployments in which different users access to the same content through different domains and different authentication type.
Below, I will show the simple steps to extend a SharePoint Web Application.
Steps
- Open Central Administration > Application Management --> Manage web applications.
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- Select the source web application and from the ribbon click on Extend.
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- The Extend web application dialog will be shown.
- Fill the required information like the port number, change the authentication type ...etc based on your requirements.
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