workflow manager in sharepoint 2013

Workflow Framework:

Workflow Manager which was originally known as Windows Azure Workflow (WAW) introduced.

It is not installed by default. Default installation of SP 2013 use the same workflows as in 2010.

When workflow manager installed, we can use both as per need.

New workflow framework is not designed to work with Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2013.

Workflow manager can be installed on same or separate SharePoint server.

Only SharePoint 2013 workflows can make use of the Workflow Manager farm.

SharePoint 2013 workflows and SharePoint 2013 workflow templates need to be created before you can take advantage of the Workflow Manger farm.

Workflow Manager Architecture:

Workflow Services Manager (WSM) introduced in SP 2013 used for communicating between SharePoint and the Workflow Manager.

WSM uses WSM proxy to connect other SP services & connect to workflow manager using workflow manager client (WMC).

Workflow manager can be installed in same SharePoint servers (colocated model) as well as in separate servers. (federated model)

In case of federated model you need to install WMC in SharePoint servers to communicate with workflow manager.

WSM contains many services as below,

Deployment - Used to deploy/ publish workflow to SharePoint

Messaging – Used when properties of document changed and sends then as message to workflow manager.

Instance – Used to manage workflow instances like status of instance, terminate instance etc.

Interop – This service invoke SP 2010 workflows.

On servers within the workflow farm, within Internet Information Server (IIS) Manager, you will see one application pool, WorkflowMgmtPool, and one site, Workflow Management Site.

When a workflow farm is created, six databases are created on an SQL Server

·         Workflow databases:

o   WFManagementDB

o   WFInstanceManagementDB

o   WFResourceManagemetDB

·         Service bus databases:

o   SBManagementDB

o   SbGatewayDatabase

o   SBMessageContainer01

Installation of workflow manager farm:

Must have following configuration

·         Access to SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1, SQL Server Express 2008 R2 SP1, or SQL Server 2012 where DB can be created

·         Relevant port numbers. Port 12290 and 12291 are default

·         Only works with IPv4 and not in pure IPv6 environments. So a mixed IPv4/IPv6 environment

·         Workflow Manager Installer that matches the build number of SP 2013 with which you want to use it.

·         Service account known as the RunAs account must have read/write permission in SQL

·         Installation account must be added in s=admin group.

Installation:

·         When start installation, installer checks for any prerequisites and installs any that it does not find.

·         After installation, workflow configuration Wizard starts which can also be started manually

·         When creating workflow farm, on very first server it asks for SQL server instance to create the farm databases

·         Also it generate key like passphrase which will required when you join subsequent servers

·         On each farm, edit the Domain Name System (DNS) and install load balancers so that any workflow node can respond to a request from your SharePoint farm.

·         After workflow farm is ready, use PowerShell to register it with SharePoint farm

o   Register-SPWorkflowService –SPSite “SP web app URL” –WorkflowHostUri http://wmnlbname:12291 -AllowOauthHttp

·         Now we can see Workflow Service Application Proxy in SharePoint server.

If you run the above PS command in a server that is not a workflow node then install client version of workflow manager to run command. -AllOAuthHttp protocol needed to communicate between two farms, for production we can use HTTPS

Manage Workflow Farm: