Change passwords for application pools (Windows SharePoint Services)

  • Article

Applies To: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

 

Topic Last Modified: 2008-10-06

Use this procedure to change the password for the application pool identity. The application pool is the context in which the Web application runs and the identity is the account under which the application pool runs. The application pool stores the identity account’s credential information and will continue to function even after the password has expired. However, if the application pool is restarted, the stored credential information is lost, and the application pool cannot be started until the credential information is updated.

If the application pool cannot start, a "Service Unavailable" HTTP error will be displayed to the users of any Web pages or services that the Web application provides.

Note

These procedures can be performed only after the password has been changed on the domain controller. The credentials entered are checked against those on the domain controller. If you enter the new password before the password has been changed on the domain controller, an error will result and the settings will not be changed.

Note

To save the changes, you must restart the application pool. This will cause the content or services that that the Web application provides to be momentarily unavailable while the application pool restarts.

Note

This procedure needs to be run only on the server that is running the SharePoint Central Administration Web site.

Important

Membership in the Administrators group on the local computer, or equivalent, is required to complete the following procedures. Membership in the Farm Administrators group (WSS_RESTRICTED_WPG Windows security group) is not sufficient to complete these procedures.

Change the password for the application pool identity by using the user interface

  1. In the SharePoint Central Administration Web site, on the left navigation bar, click Operations.

  2. On the Operations page, under Security Configuration, click Service Accounts.

  3. In the Credentials Management section, under Select the component to update, select the Web application option.

  4. From the Web service drop list, select the service that the application pool was created under. The default is Windows SharePoint Services Web application.

    Note

    You cannot use this procedure to change the password for the Central Administration Web application. To do this, see Change passwords for Central Administration and Timer service (Windows SharePoint Services).

  5. From the Application pool drop list, select the application pool you want to update the credentials for.

  6. Type the new password in the Password box.

  7. Click OK.

Change the password for the application pool identity by using the Stsadm command-line tool

  1. On the drive on which SharePoint Products and Technologies is installed, change to the following directory: %COMMONPROGRAMFILES%\Microsoft shared\Web server extensions\12\Bin.

  2. Type the following command, and then press ENTER:

    stsadm -o updateaccountpassword -userlogin <domain\username> -password <newpassword> -noadmin

    Note

    userlogin is the application pool identity account.

    For additional information, see Updateaccountpassword: Stsadm operation (Windows SharePoint Services).

  3. At a command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER:

    iisreset /noforce