Determine which SharePoint Web Front End Server you are hitting

Often, we need to identify which WFE server on SharePoint we are hitting when the farm has load balancing.

I decided to create a very simple feature that would display the server name by overriding the GlobalNavigation delegate control of each page that was being accessed across every site collection and sub sites in a web application.

When accessing any page, you will see the server name similar to below:

First, I created the user control, and added one simple label:

<asp:Label ID="lblServerName" runat="server" BackColor="Green" ForeColor="White"></asp:Label>

In the code behind, I put code to check whether the current user is a farm administrator, or if the query parameter, "showserver" has been passed into the url. If either are true, then I display the name of the sharepoint server on the label:

 protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            try
            {
                if (IsFarmAdmin() || ServerParamIsSet())
                {
                    this.lblServerName.Width = new Unit("100%");
                    this.lblServerName.Text = string.Format("{0}", Page.Server.MachineName);
                }
            }
            catch { }
        }

Next, I added an Elements manifest, and specified the path to where the control template will be deployed to on the server, a sequence number lower than 100, and specified it to place the user control in the GlobalNavigation delegate control placeholder.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
  <Control Id="GlobalNavigation" Sequence="90" ControlSrc="~/_ControlTemplates/SPServerName/SPServerName.ascx" />
</Elements>

Finally, I created a feature and set it to deploy to the web application.


Installation instructions:
1. Download the wsp I uploaded to http://spservername.codeplex.com/
2. Deploy the solution to your farm
3. Go to the web application features, and enable the SPServerName feature


Notes:

• There are no changes made to any master page and the feature can easily be turned on and off
• By default, Farm administrators will always see the server name at the top of the page.
• Non-farm administrators can also display the server name if they pass in the query parameter "showserver=1"

Ex:

http://myportal.com/siteabc?showserver=1