It was recommended to me to stop, if not delete, the "Default Web Site" and associated "DefaultAppPool" on a SharePoint server since they were not used.  But it also looks like there are 5 other unused applications pools.

• .NET v2.0
• .NET v2.0 Classic
• .NET v4.5
• .NET v4.5 Classic
• Classic .NET AppPool

Has anyone else stopped, or even deleted, this default web site and 6 application pools on their SharePoint 2013 farm?  Or are they somehow used by SharePoint?

Thanks, Bruce...

An Application Pool refers to the underlying worker process that is assigned to your web application. The worker processes belonging to a particular application pool will have a set of predefined, common settings depending on the .Net framework version and the managed pipeline mode. When one sets up SharePoint server, there is a need to create a web application. This web application can be created using an existing Application Pool or a New Application pool can be defined. As mentioned above the worker processes are defined on basis of framework and managed pipeline. The .Net framework can take values like v2.0 or v4.0 while managed pipeline takes values 'Integrated' and 'Classic'. In simpler terms, to use the capabilities of IIS 7.0 one need to use Integrated whereas IIS 6.0 or less uses Classic. If you need to understand the exact difference between them then go here.

Now .Net v2.0 indicates an application pool with .Net framework 2.0 and Integrated managed pipeline, whereas .Netv2.0 Classic has Classic as its managed pipeline.

Now, coming to your question, if no exisitng web application is using the aforementioned application pool then you may go ahead and stop them. The idea of creating application pool is to attach them to a web application so as to define the property of the underlying worker process. You may open IIS and look at the application pool used by your exisitng sharepoint components (including the central admin) and if they don't use the above mentioned then you may go ahead and close them.

Please refer to the following link to understand setup and deployment of SharePoint : http://sharepointgeorge.com/2012/create-web-application-site-collection-sharepoint-2013-preview/

and to understand the Application Pool on IIS 7: http://www.iis.net/configreference/system.applicationhost/applicationpools

Do let me know if this addresses your query.

Thanks,

Vishal

I regularly stop the default web site so that I can easily create a SharePoint Web Application on port 80 without using a host header.  But I don't think its a good idea to ever delete things that Microsoft installed on the system.  I don't normally stop or remove any of the extra Application Pools, but you should be able to stop any of the App Pools that don't have any Applications.

I also generally stop the extra Application Pools.  It is generally good practice as it can reduce memory usage.

Thanks Vishal.  I think the point you were getting too is what Paul also says below - that it's okay to stop the application pool if it's not used by any applications.

Thanks Paul and Trevor.  I am going to stop all of them and if our functional test encounters no issues I will also disable any automatic startup so that they don't start again on the next reboot.

When I worked at MS in O365, we removed all of the default app pools before starting the SharePoint farm build. If you don't have anything that is using them, they don't *need* to be there.