Configure Workflow Manager with the SharePoint Server 2013 farm

Configure Workflow Manager to work with the SharePoint Server 2013 farm

You must consider the following two key factors before configuring Workflow Manager to work with SharePoint Server 2013.

• Is Workflow Manager installed on a server that is part of the SharePoint farm?
• Will communication between Workflow Manager and SharePoint Server 2013 use HTTP or HTTPS?

Prerequisites

Workflow Manager is not a part of the SharePoint installation media and must be downloaded from Microsoft website.
1. We need an additional service account for Workflow Manager Service.
2. User Profile Service application must be configured and running.
3. App Management Service application must be configured and running.

Required

1.    Database Server Name and Credential

2.    WF Installation Account/SharePoint Farm Group Account

3.    Certificate Generation Key to Add Existing Farm

Installation

The first step is to download installation files. We have 2 options:

·         Install through Web Platform Installer v4

·         Install through Web Platform Installer v4 Command Line

I will use the Command Line tool – this tool allows us to download all the required components and install Workflow Manager on an online or offline machine.

1.      Download and install Web Platform Installer v4 Command Line

2.      Open an elevated command prompt and go to the installation directory
cd “c:\Program Files\Microsoft\Web Platform Installer”

3.      Run the following command. It will download Workflow Manager and the other required services: webpicmd /offline /Products:WorkflowManager /Path:c:\WorkflowManagerFiles

4.      Copy the folder with the downloaded Manager (c:\WorkflowManagerFiles) to the destination server.

5.      Open an elevated command prompt and go to the directory cd “c:\WorkflowManagerFiles\bin”

6.      Run the following command to install Workflow Manager WebpiCmd.exe /Install /Products:WorkflowManager /XML:c:/WorkflowManagerFiles/feeds/latest/webproductlist.xml
This command will install the required sevices.

7.      Run the following command to install Workfow Client WebpiCmd.exe /Install /Products:WorkflowClient /XML:c:/WorkflowManagerFiles/feeds/latest/webproductlist.xml
This command will install the required sevices.

8.      Open Workflow Manager Configuration wizard and select Configure Workflow Manager with Default Settings (Recommended).

9.      Fill in the required fields on the next page:

·         SQL SERVER INSTANCE – your SQL Server name

·         USER ID – service account for Workflow Manager service

·         PASSWORD – password for the service account

·         Allow Workflow management over HTTP on this computer – check if you need to use HTTP for testing or development. For production it is recommended to use only SSL.

·         Certificate Generation Key – key required for joining other servers to the farm

10.   Review and confirm all the information on the next page. You can also get all the installation commands for PowerShell.

11.   Review the installation status.

12.   Test the installation by browsing to the Workflow Manager site. You should see a XML definition of Workflow Service.

Configuration

Now we need to connect Workflow service with our SharePoint farm. To achieve this run the following command in SharePoint 2013 Management Shell:

1.  Register-SPWorkflowService -SPSite http://vmsp13 -WorkflowHostUri http://vmsp13:12291 –AllowOAuthHttp

SPSite parameter is your SharePoint site,  WorkflowHostUri is the Workflow Manager service URL (port 12291 is for HTTP, port 12290 is for SSL).

2.  Open SharePoint Central Administration

1. On the Central Administration Home page, click Application Management.
2. On the Application Management page, in the Service Applications section, click Configure service application associations.
3. On the Service Application Associations page, select Web Applications from the View drop-down menu.
4. In the list of Web applications, in the Application Proxy Group column, click the name of the service application connection group that you want to change.
5. To add a service connection to the group, select the check box that is next to the service application that you want to add to the connection group. To remove a service application connection from the connection group, clear the check box next to the service application that you want to remove from the connection group. When you have made the changes that you want, click OK.

Now we can create SharePoint 2013 Workflow from SharePoint Designer 2013!

Troubleshooting of SharePoint 2013 Workflow