Modify the Default Service Connection Group for a SharePoint 2013 Web Application

A sometimes overlooked features of SharePoint 2013 is the ability to create custom Service Application Proxy Groups for individual web applications. You can use this functionality to specify which of your service applications will be available for each of your web applications. For example, you might want to have two search service applications with different configurations and make one service application only open to your external facing web application and the other available to all your other web applications.

From Central Administration, you can see the connection groups under the web application settings (Application Management>Web Applications>Manage Web Applications) by selecting a web application and clicking Service Connections from the ribbon. Out-of-the-box, you will see that a single instance of each service application you have created has been checked and added to the default connection group.

You will notice that you are not able to change the members of the default proxy group using the Central Administration GUI, but you can select [custom] from the dropdown menu at the top of the window and create a custom proxy group for your web application. You can also use PowerShell to create additional custom proxy groups (more on this in my next post). But, what happens if you want to change the default group?

The default proxy group cannot be changed through the Central Administration GUI, you need to use PowerShell.

Follow these steps to add a member to the default group:

1) Run SharePoint 2013 Management Shell as an administrator

2) Get the default service application proxy group and store it in a variable:

 

$defprox = Get-SPServiceApplicationProxyGroup -default

3) Get the service application proxy that you want to add to or remove from the default group and store it in a variable. Note, the name in the where statement is the name of the service application proxy that can be found in Central Administration under Application Management>Service Applications>Manage Service Applications or by running Get-SpServiceApplicationProxy from PowerShell:

$newsearch = get-SpServiceApplicationProxy | where {$_.displayname -eq "Search15 Proxy"}

4) To add a member to the default group, run this command:

Add-SPServiceApplicationProxyGroupMember $defprox -Member $newsearch.id

5) To remove a member from the default group, run this command and confirm the removal when prompted:

Remove-SPServiceApplicationProxyGroupMember $defprox -Member $newsearch.id

6) Multiple proxy members can be added or removed from a group by adding them to the -Member property separated by commas, for example:

Add-SPServiceApplicationProxyGroupMember $defprox -Member $newsearch.id, $search.id, $access.id

You can check your results by reopening the Service Connections window in Central Administration. You should see the proxy groups you added with a check in the checkbox next to the item. Items that have been removed will be unchecked.