Creating SharePoint 2013 Application does not create IIS Site

Question

I am trying to restore a backup of my SharePoint 2013 Farm to a new Server configuration. Everything works fine and I do not get any error messages in any of the logs that I am able to connect to the error - however the IIS site corresponding to the SharePoint Web Application does not get created.

I can go in to Central Administration on the Application Server and create a new web application, it gets created successfully, reports from powershell indicate that it has the correct application pool and iis web site - however the iis site is nowhere to be found.

We are running out of ideas on what might cause this behaviour so any input would be greatly appreciated.

Here's some output from PowerShell for one of the applications if it's of any help. I think it's interesting that it actually reports the application pool to be "online" - but it does not exist.

Thanks for any help and please request any additional info and I'll provide it if I can.

Best regards

Richard

    PS C:\ISO Files\SharePoint Scripts\Appserver\Setup> $app2.ApplicationPool


CurrentIdentityType           : SpecificUser
CurrentSecurityIdentifier     : S-1-5-21-1413516615-2907545188-3143828144-48612
ManagedAccount                : SPManagedAccount Name=managed-account-S-1-5-21-1413516615-2907545188-3143828144-48612
ProcessAccount                : S-1-5-21-1413516615-2907545188-3143828144-48612
Username                      : TBSCHOOL\sp_farm
Password                      : 
SecurePassword                : 
IsCredentialUpdateEnabled     : True
IsCredentialDeploymentEnabled : True
Name                          : SharePoint - intraweb0223100
TypeName                      : Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPApplicationPool
DisplayName                   : SharePoint - intraweb0223100
Id                            : 8a44a2bf-001a-4312-945c-e7e61e590c01
Status                        : Online
Parent                        : SPWebService
Version                       : 15294
Properties                    : {}
Farm                          : SPFarm Name=sp_config
UpgradedPersistedProperties   : {}




PS C:\ISO Files\SharePoint Scripts\Appserver\Setup> $app2.IisSettings.Values


AuthenticationMode                               : Forms
MembershipProvider                               : i
RoleManager                                      : c
AllowAnonymous                                   : False
EnableClientIntegration                          : True
ServerBindings                                   : {Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPServerBinding}
SecureBindings                                   : {}
UseWindowsIntegratedAuthentication               : True
UseBasicAuthentication                           : False
DisableKerberos                                  : True
ServerComment                                    : SharePoint - intraweb0223100
Path                                             : C:\inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\intraweb0223100
PreferredInstanceId                              : 1213345313
UseClaimsAuthentication                          : True
ClaimsAuthenticationRedirectionUrl               : 
UseFormsClaimsAuthenticationProvider             : False
FormsClaimsAuthenticationProvider                : 
UseTrustedClaimsAuthenticationProvider           : False
UseWindowsClaimsAuthenticationProvider           : True
OnlyUseWindowsClaimsAuthenticationProvider       : True
WindowsClaimsAuthenticationProvider              : Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPWindowsAuthenticationProvider
ClaimsAuthenticationProviders                    : {Windows Authentication}
ClaimsProviders                                  : {}
ClientObjectModelRequiresUseRemoteAPIsPermission : True
UpgradedPersistedProperties                      : {}

Answer 1

Turns out it was something trivial.. drumroll

The timer service was not running on the WFE.

Answer 2

You should recreate the Web Applications manually before restoring the content databases if you use the SQL approach.

You should be able to restore a whole Web Application by using PowerShell or Central Administration though!

Restore-SPFarm -Directory <BackupFolderName> -RestoreMethod Overwrite -Item  <WebApplicationName> [-BackupId <GUID>] [-Verbose]

Source to script and more details about those two approaches: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee748647.aspx