Create a SharePoint Application Pool using PowerShell

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As you may know there isn't an out of the box PowerShell cmdlet available in SharePoint 2010 or 2013 that can be used to create an Application Pool for a Web Application, New-SPServiceApplicationPool (https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff607595(v=office.15).aspx) is available however this can only be used to create an Application Pool for a Service Application.

A customer recently asked me to help them to re-configure one of their Web Applications to use a new Application Pool, I put this script together to facilitate this. The script performs the following actions:

  • Creates a new Application Pool
  • Associates the new Application Pool with an existing Web Application

Three variables need to be updated prior to running the script:

$WebAppURL is the URL of the Web App to change the Application Pool of.
$NewAppPoolName is the name of the name Application Pool that will be created.
$NewAppPoolUserName is the user account that the Application Pool will run under the context of.

The script will prompt for the credentials of the account specified in $NewAppPoolUserName. This account should be registered as a Managed Account in SharePoint prior to executing the script - New-SPManagedAccount:  https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff607831(v=office.15).aspx

asnp *SharePoint* -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
$WebAppURL = "https://WebApp"
$NewAppPoolName = "NewAppPool"
$NewAppPoolUserName = "contoso\apppool"

$Farm = Get-SPFarm
$Service = $Farm.Services | where {$_.TypeName -eq "Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Web Application"}
$Password = Read-Host -Prompt "Please enter your password" -AsSecureString
$NewAppPool = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPApplicationPool($NewAppPoolName,$Service)
$NewAppPool.CurrentIdentityType = "SpecificUser"
$NewAppPool.Username = $NewAppPoolUserName
$NewAppPool.SetPassword($Password)
$NewAppPool.Provision()
$NewAppPool.Update($true)

$NewAppPool = $Service.ApplicationPools[$NewAppPoolName]
$WebApp = Get-SPWebApplication $WebAppURL
$WAAppPool = $WebApp.ApplicationPool = $NewAppPool
$WebApp.Update()
$WebApp.ProvisionGlobally()

Brendan Griffin - @brendankarl