SP2013 Host Web App on WFE and not on CA server

Question

I creating a new SP2013 farm, with 3 servers. A database, a CA and a WFE.

The CA server will only host CentralAdmin, when the WFE will host my differents web apps.

I guess I understand that if I create a new web application, it will be hosted on both SP servers (CA + WFE) because they are part of my farm, right ?

If so, is there a way to "detach" the web app to be only hosted by the WFE server ?

Else I don't really understand the need to install a three-tier farm ...

And by the way, do you recommend me to separate intranet web app from extranet one ? So should I install the intranet web app with the CA and the extranet alone in my WFE ?

Or installing CA alone and web app (nvm intra/extra) on another side is the best practises ?

TIA

Answer 1

Go to Central administration - Application Management - Under Service Applications click Manage Services on Server .

On the top Right corner you will see the server name. Click on it. Select CA server. The most important services that have to be stopped are

• "Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Web Application" (that prevent the server from hosting web app)
• "Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Workflow Timer Service"

It is suggested to deactivate all other services except a service called Central Administration.

In the server name now, select the WFE server. Keep all services that you need activated and stop Central Administration service from it.

Useful technet link

Answer 2

It has never been correct that Foundation Web should only run on FEs. Prior to 2016, SharePoint wasn't smart about where timer jobs would run. This may cause certain timer jobs (typically custom) to fail.

Even with 2016/2019 with their intelligent routing of timer jobs, the back end servers should run Foundation Web and you should point your search crawler boxes at those servers (typically using hosts files to override DNS). This reduces the resource consumption on your end user FEs providing increased responsiveness for your end users.