How to Change Server MinRole After Installing SharePoint 2016?

One of the exciting new features in SharePoint 2016 is Minrole. It defines the server’s role in the SharePoint 2016 farm and ensures all necessary services are running on that server! SharePoint 2016 comes with the below Minroles:

  1. Single Server Farm
  2. Front End
  3. Application
  4. Distributed Cache
  5. Search
  6. Custom

Change MinRole in  SharePoint 2016:

Server roles are selected during the installation of SharePoint 2016 or when you join a server to your farm. Based on the Server role selected, certain services will get activated on designated servers. What if you want to change the server role after SharePoint has been provisioned? With the introduction of MinRoles in SharePoint 2016, it’s fairly straightforward to switch server roles between anyone among them:

  • Go to SharePoint 2016 Central Administration >> System Settings 
  • Click on Convert server role in this farm under Servers
How to Change Server Role in SharePoint 2016

Now, It takes you to the “Role conversion” page, where you will see the options for all Minroles. Pick the new role from the dropdown and click Apply, and Your server will be changed to the New role!

swith server MinRole after provisioning SharePoint 2016

You can’t combine two or more MinRoles in one server. However, You can use the Custom role to achieve the same! To check roles assigned to servers in the farm, Go to: SharePoint 2016 Central Administration >> System Settings > Manage servers in this farm. This page lists all servers and their roles on the farm.

How to Switch Server MinRole using PowerShell?

To change the server role using PowerShell, use the Set-SPServer cmdlet.

Set-SPServer -Identity SERVER1 -Role Application
#Set-SPServer -Identity SERVER2 -Role WebFrontEnd

Salaudeen Rajack

Salaudeen Rajack - Information Technology Expert with Two-decades of hands-on experience, specializing in SharePoint, PowerShell, Microsoft 365, and related products. He has held various positions including SharePoint Architect, Administrator, Developer and consultant, has helped many organizations to implement and optimize SharePoint solutions. Known for his deep technical expertise, He's passionate about sharing the knowledge and insights to help others, through the real-world articles!

One thought on “How to Change Server MinRole After Installing SharePoint 2016?

  • Hi Salaudeen – hope you are well.
    We have a SP2016 environment where the PS command Get-SpService -Identity SERVER
    returns Role: Invalid
    Ww cannot change this in the SP CA or using PS command to set.
    Any idea how we cna resolve this?

    Reply

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