Central Admin SharePoint 2016 install

Question

I have a SharePoint 2016 install, 1 WFE and 1 app server,

where is it best to put Central Admin?

Answer 1

As a short answer: The server that hosts Central Administration in the farm is the Application Server.

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Details

Front-end web server role

• The fundamental role of a front-end web server is to host web pages, web services, and the Web Parts that are required to process requests from users. The web server directs these requests to the application server, which returns the results to the front-end web server.

A WFE server is responsible for:

• Processing incoming requests through IIS.
• Requesting any data from service applications and databases that are required to service the request.
• Processing the data returned by service applications and databases.
• Compiling responses as ASP.NET pages and sending the responses to the requestor.

Application server role

• By default, the server that hosts Central Administration in a three-tier farm is an application server. You can add application servers to host services that can be deployed to a single server and used by all the servers in a farm.

Read more at Add SharePoint server to a farm in SharePoint Server 2016