dell large share point farm

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Designing and Bui ld ing aLar ge Far m for MOSS 2007

SharePoint Solut ions

Engineer ing

By Kevin Guinn

Dell Product GroupJuly 2009


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DesigningandBuildingaLargeFarmforMOSS2007

Pageii

ExecutiveSummary

ImplementingaMicrosoftSharePointsolutionpresentsmanydecisionpointsandchallenges.Thispaper

discussessomeofthosechallengesandprovidespossiblesolutions.Italsoproposesreferencearchitecturesfor

integratingDellserverandstoragehardwareintoalargeserverfarmforMicrosoftOfficeSharePointServer

(MOSS)2007.

The

typical

large

farm,

as

documented

in

this

paper,

is

designed

to

handle

up

to

10000

users;

such

a

farmgenerallyhousesandindexeshundredsofgigabytesofmixedcontent.

Manyoftheearlyplanningstepsanddesigndecisionsthatdefinethesizeandtopologyofthefarmare

instrumentalindefiningthefarmsinformationarchitecture.DeterminingthetopologyforaSharePointsolution

thatcanaccommodateupto10000usersandprovidecollaboration,search,portal,anddocumentlibrary

functionsacrossdepartmentalboundariesrequiresplanning.Thesolutionshouldbedesignedtoaccommodate

businesscontrolsandregulatoryrequirements,andmustalsoprovideroomforfutureflexibilityandscalability.To

meetthesegoals,theinformationarchitectureshouldbecarefullyplannedpriortodeployingalargeSharePoint

farm.

Alarge

SharePoint

farm

uses

many

servers:

these

fulfill

roles

in

the

database

tier,

the

application

tier,

and

the

presentationtier.ChoosingtherighthardwaresuchasDellPowerEdgeserversandDellEqualLogic,Dell

PowerVault,orDell/EMCstoragearraysprovidesasolidfoundationforthefarmandallowsscalabilityto

accommodatefuturegrowth.Thispaperprovidesplanningconsiderationsandrecommendationsfordeploying

serversineachtierofthefarm.

Atthisscale,mostSharePointdeploymentsareconsideredcriticalandmustbeabletomeetstringentservicelevel

agreements.Insuchscenarios,thefarmmustbedesignedtoprovideadditionalredundancyandavailability.For

thedatabasetier,MicrosoftWindowsServerFailoverClusteringandMicrosoftSQLServerDatabaseMirroring

offerhighlevelsofprotection;however,eachsolutionhasitsbenefitsanddrawbacks.Attheapplicationtier,

distributingthevariousSharePointrolesacrossmultipleserversprovidesenhancedavailabilityforthesolution.

Finally,

at

the

presentation

tier,

Network

Load

Balancing

or

other

similar

technologies

can

be

used

for

the

Web

frontendservices.

THISWHITEPAPERISFORINFORMATIONALPURPOSESONLY,ANDMAYCONTAINTYPOGRAPHICALERRORSAND

TECHNICALINACCURACIES. THECONTENTISPROVIDEDASIS,WITHOUTEXPRESSORIMPLIEDWARRANTIESOF

ANYKIND.

2009DellInc.Allrightsreserved.Reproductionofthismaterialinanymannerwhatsoeverwithouttheexpress

written

permission

of

Dell

Inc.

is

strictly

forbidden.

For

more

information,

contact

Dell.

Dell,theDELLlogo,PowerEdge,PowerVault,andEqualLogicaretrademarksofDellInc.Microsoft,Windows,WindowsServer,SQLServer,Excel,Word,PowerPoint,Outlook,ActiveDirectory,andSharePointareregisteredtrademarksofMicrosoftCorporationintheUnitedStatesand/orothercountries.IntelandXeonareregistered

trademarksofIntelCorporation.


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Page1

Table of ContentsIntroduction...................................................................................................................................................................2

OverviewofSharePointProductsandTechnologies.....................................................................................................2

MOSSContainment

Hierarchy

...................................................................................................................................

4

MOSSRolesandServices...........................................................................................................................................6

DesigningandBuildingaLargeFarmforMOSS2007....................................................................................................7

InformationArchitecture...........................................................................................................................................7

OtherInfrastructureElements..................................................................................................................................9

LargeFarmTopology...............................................................................................................................................10

ConsiderationsfortheDatabaseServer..................................................................................................................11

DatabaseServerSystemArchitecture.................................................................................................................11

WindowsServer

and

SQL

Server

Editions

for

the

Database

Server

.....................................................................

11

DatabaseStorage.................................................................................................................................................12

EstimatingStorageCapacity....................................................................................................................................14

ConsiderationsfortheMOSSApplicationandWebFrontEndServers..................................................................15

ApplicationandPresentationServerSystemArchitecture.................................................................................15

WindowsServerandOfficeSharePointServerEditionsforApplicationandPresentationServers....................16

IndexServerStorage............................................................................................................................................16

QueryServerStorage...........................................................................................................................................17

ProvidingHigh

Availability

and

Redundancy

for

aLarge

Farm

....................................................................................

18

ProvidingHighAvailabilityfortheSharePointDatabases.......................................................................................19

SQLServerwithWindowsServerFailoverClustering..........................................................................................19

SQLServerDatabaseMirroring...........................................................................................................................21

ProvidingHighAvailabilityfortheApplicationandPresentationTiers...................................................................22

SharedServiceProviderandIndexServer...........................................................................................................22

QueryServer........................................................................................................................................................22

LoadBalancingWebFrontEndServers...............................................................................................................23

Conclusions..................................................................................................................................................................

24

Figures.........................................................................................................................................................................24

Tables...........................................................................................................................................................................25

References...................................................................................................................................................................25

AppendixA:SelectingaDellStorageArray.................................................................................................................26

AppendixB:SelectingPowerEdgeServersandBladeServers.....................................................................................27


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Page2

IntroductionSharePointiswidelyusedtoprovidecollaborativesites,portals,documentrepositories,andotherWebbased

content.MOSSincludestemplatesformanycommonusecases,andoffersadevelopmentplatformthatallowsfor

significantcustomization.ThispaperprovidesanoverviewofSharePointproducts,andproposesarecommended

architectureforalargefarm.

Thebasictopologyofalargefarmconsistsofoneormorebackenddatabaseservers,andmultipleserversforthe

midtierandfrontendroles.Thistypeoffarmistypicallydesignedasaproductionenvironmentforupto10,000

users.ThispaperprovidesrecommendationsfordesigningalargefarmusingDellserverandstoragehardwareand

forconfiguringtheservicesinthefarm.

SharePointsolutionsofthisscaleoftenspecifyaservicelevelagreement(SLA)thatrequiresredundancyandfault

tolerance.Tomeetthiscommonneed,thispaperalsodiscussestechniquesthatincreasetheavailabilityof

serviceshostedbythefarm.

Overviewof

SharePoint

Products

and

Technologies

ThetermSharePointisbroadlyusedtodescribeafamilyofproductsandtechnologiesthatinteractwithMicrosoft

SQLServerandInternetInformationServer(IIS)toprovideaWebbasedengineandaplatformfordeployinga

widerangeofbusinessservices.Themostcommonsolutionsdeployedusingthisplatformarecollaborativesites,

contentmanagementsystems,andWebportals.SharePointsolutionsareusuallydeployedinafarmenvironment

thatprovidesscalabilitybydistributingdatabase,application,andpresentationrolesacrossagroupofservers.

WindowsSharePointServices3.0(WSS3.0)providesthecoreengine,platformservices,andfacilitiesforcreating

andusingtemplates.ThiscorefunctionalityisbasedontheASP.NET2.0framework;itcanbeenhancedand

extendedbydeployingMOSS2007andbydevelopingcustomtemplatesandcode.Alldatathatisstoredwithina

SharePointinfrastructureresideswithinaSQLServerdatabase.

Figure1outlinesthekeyservicesprovidedbyWSS3.0andthekeyenhancementsprovidedbyMOSS2007.It

illustrateshowaSharePointdeploymentbuildsonfoundationalelementsprovidedbySQLServerandWindows

Server,addsplatforminfrastructureelementsintheformofservicesprovidedbyWSS3.0,andenhancesthe

featuresandfunctionalityoftheseelementsthroughadditionalservicesprovidedbyMOSS2007.Improved

indexingandsearchcapabilities,theabilitytodefineaudiencesandshareuserprofiledatathroughoutthe

infrastructure,andextensivereportingandanalyticcapabilitiesmakeacompellingcaseforselectingMOSSasthe

technologyonwhichtobuildaSharePointsolution.

SomeMOSS2007servicesareonlyavailablewithEnterpriseEdition1,includingtheBusinessDataCatalogand

otherservicesintendedtofacilitatecreatingBusinessIntelligencesystems,suchasMicrosoftExcel2007Services.

TheBusiness

Data

Catalog

allows

SharePoint

users

to

search

against

and

interact

with

external

data

sources,

such

asEnterpriseResourcePlanning(ERP)andCustomerRelationshipManagement(CRM)systems,orOracleandSQL

Serverdatabases.ExcelServicesenablearichinteractionwithExcel,includingasnapshotfacilityforspreadsheets

andtheabilitytouseWebServicesprotocolstoremotelyinteractwithdatastoredinanExcelspreadsheet.

Ultimately,theBusinessDataCatalogandExcelServicesallowuserstoquicklyandeasilydevelopBusiness

1Foramoredetailedlist,seeWhichSharePointtechnologyisrightforyou?onMicrosoft.com


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Page3

IntelligenceapplicationsandworkflowsbysimplifyingaccessandenablingSharePointuserstoworkwithdata

thatmustotherwisebeimportedthroughmanualprocesses.

Figure1:SharePointServicesProvidedbyWSS3.0andMOSS2007

Asitsnameimplies,MOSS2007isconsideredtobeapartoftheMicrosoftOfficefamily.Assuch,itoffers

integrationandeaseofusebenefitswhenusedinconjunctionwithMicrosoftOfficeclientapplications.For

example,documentsstoredinaSharePointlibrarycanbedirectlyopenedfromMicrosoftWord,Microsoft

PowerPoint,orExcel.Also,fromwithinMicrosoftOutlook,userscansubscribetoanddisplaylistitemsfroma

SharePointsiteorRSS(ReallySimpleSyndication)feedsprovidedbyaSharePointpoweredblog.Thisintegration

makes

data

stored

in

a

SharePoint

infrastructure

more

accessible

to

end

users.


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Page4

MOSSContainmentHierarchy

WhendesigningandmaintainingaSharePointsolution,itisimportanttounderstandthevariouslevelsatwhich

informationisorganizedandcontained.ThecontainerswithinaSharePointinfrastructureareoutlinedinTable1.

Themostgranularindividualitemsarelocatedatthebottomofthetable,andthelevelofaggregationincreasesas

youprogresstothetopofthetable.Thesecontainersprovidephysicalandlogicalboundaries2toconsiderwhile

designingand

deploying

aSharePoint

infrastructure.

Table1:MOSSContainmentHierarchy

Container Description

SharePointFarmAsetofserversthatcollectivelyprovides thedatabases,applications,andWebservicesthat

compriseaSharePointsolution.

SharePointServers

Individualserversthatruntheoperatingsystemandapplicationsoftwarerequiredto

performrolesorprovideservicesfortheSharePointfarm.ExamplesincludeaWebfrontend

server,anapplicationserver,andadatabaseserver.

IISApplication

Pool

AcontainerthatisconfiguredwithinInternetInformationServer(IIS)toconstrainadefined

setofcontenttooperatewithinadefinedsetofsystemprocesses.ApplicationPoolsprovide

logicalbarriersthatprotectagainstthethreatofacompromisedsitebeingusedasavector

toattackothersiteshostedonthesameWebserver.

IISWeb

Application

AnIISWebsitewithauniquedomainnamethatiscreatedandusedbySharePointproducts.

ThreeWebapplicationsmustbeconfigured:CentralAdministration,SharedServices

Provider(SSP),andcontent.AdditionalWebapplicationsmaybeusefulforprovidingcontent

isolationorforestablishingdistinctmanagementorSLAboundarieswithinthefarm.

SharePoint

Database

IndividualSQLServerdatabasesthatareusedtostoreinformationaboutordatafromwithin

aSharePointfarm.ThecoredatabasesusedbySharePointareConfiguration,Administration,

SSP,Search,andContent.Dependingonitsarchitectureandneeds,afarmmayfeature

multipleSSP,Search,andContentdatabases.

SiteCollection

Asetofsitesthatfeaturethesameownersandadministrativesettings(suchascontent

typesorquotas).AsitecollectionfeaturesatoplevelWebsiteandmayalsocontainseveral

subsites.Generally,allofthesiteswithinasitecollectionshareacommonnavigational

design.One

content

database

can

host

multiple

site

collections,

but

data

from

agiven

site

collectionmustresideinthesamecontentdatabase.Similarly,oneormoresitecollections

maybeconfiguredwithinthesameWebapplication.

Site

AsetofWebpagesstoredwithinasitecollectionthatprovidecommonfeaturesorcontent

tousers.Sitesmaybestructured,suchasatoplevelportalsite,ormaybeadhoc,suchas

teamsitesforcollaboration.MOSSprovidestemplatesforseveraltypesofsites,suchas

blogs,wikis,teamsites,andportals.

ListAmeansofcollecting,storing,andorganizingdatawithinasite.Somecommonexamples

includedocumentcollections,calendars,andtasks.

ItemAnindividualdataobjectwithinalist.Somecommonexamplesincludedocumentorimage

files,contacts,andcalendarentries.

2Formoreinformation,seePlanforsoftwareboundaries(OfficeSharePointServer)onMicrosoftTechNet.


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Page6

MOSSRolesandServices

WithinaSharePointfarm,therearemanydifferentservicesthatcanbehostedonvariousserversinthefarmto

providespecificroleswithinthesolution.ThemostcommonrolesandservicesareoutlinedinTable2.Duetothe

sizeandcomplexityofalargefarm,theseroleswilltypicallybedistributedamongmanyservers.Thenextsection

ofthispapermakesrecommendationsabouthowtoallocaterolesinalargeSharePointfarm.

Table2:MOSSRolesandServices

Role/Service Description

CentralAdministrationProvidestheservicesandinterfacesnecessaryforconfiguration,provisioning,and

managementofthefarmandthesitesthatitcontains.

SharedServiceProvider

(SSP)

AsetofcoreservicesthatcanbesharedacrossseveralWebApplicationsinthe

farm.Theseservicesincludeuserprofiles,usagereporting,search,Excelservices,

andthebusinessdatacatalog.OneSharedServiceProvider(SSP)cangenerallyserve

theentirefarm,butadditionalSSPsmaybedesiredincircumstanceswherebusiness

requirementsdictateastrictlevelofdataisolationthatexceedsthecapabilitiesof

definingaudiences.

WSSSearch

Providesbasicsearchservicesforcontentthatiswithinthefarmandprovidedby

SharePointServices

features.

The

enhanced

search

functionality

of

aMOSS

farm

primarilyreliesontheSSPSearchcomponent.

Index

Responsibleforcrawling contentandbuildingindexeswhichcontainkeywordsand

metadatarelatedtothecontent.Theseindexesfacilitatesearchingforpeopleand

content.OnlyoneindexservercanbeconfiguredforeachSSP,butitispossiblefora

singleindexservertobeassociatedwithmultipleSSPs.

Query

Acceptssearchqueriesthatenableuserstolocatepreviouslyindexedcontent.

Whenthisroleisconfiguredseparatelyfromtheindexserver,acopyoftheindexis

propagatedtoeachqueryserver.

WebFrontEnd(WFE)Actsasthepresentationtier,andusesInternetInformationServer(IIS)todisplaythe

SharePointsitesandtheircontenttoendusers.

DocumentConversion

Launcher

Providesameansforconvertingadocumentfromoneformattoanother(e.g., from

MicrosoftWord

to

an

HTML

Web

page).

This

facilitates

publishing

of

content,

and

is

particularlyusefulwhenusingtheEnterpriseContentManagement(ECM)features

ofSharePoint.

DocumentConversion

LoadBalancer

Processesdocumentconversionrequestsandassignsconversiontaskstoan

availableDocumentConversionLauncher.Ifdocumentconversionservicesare

needed,atleastoneLoadBalancerandoneormoreLaunchersmustberunningin

thefarm.Bothoftheseservicescanbehostedonthesameserver. BecauseaLoad

BalancercanselectanyavailableLauncher,customconvertersmustbeinstalledon

allserversthathosttheLauncherservice.

ExcelServices

[EnterpriseEditionOnly]

ConsistsofExcelWebAccess,ExcelWebServices,andExcelCalculationServices.The

WebaccesscomponentrunsonaWebfrontendserverandprovidesthefacilityto

renderanExcelspreadsheetasanHTMLpage.TheWebservicescomponentrunson

aWebfrontendserver,andenablesprogrammaticaccesstodatastoredina

spreadsheet.Finally,thecalculationservicesrunontheSSP,andallowloading,

calculation,andinteractionwithasharedspreadsheet.

BusinessDataCatalog

[EnterpriseEditionOnly]

ProvidesameanstointeractwithdatasourcesthatareoutsideoftheSharePoint

farm.ExamplesincludeotherSQLServerorOracledatabases,EnterpriseResource

Planning(ERP)solutions,andCustomerRelationshipManagement(CRM)

applications.


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Page7

DesigningandBuildingaLargeFarmforMOSS2007ASharePointserverfarmisasetofserverswhichcollectivelyprovidestheservicesneededbyaSharePoint

deployment.Someoftheseservices,orsetsofservices,comprisepredefinedrolesandmustbeconfiguredwithin

thesolution.Otherservicesandrolesareoptional,buttheyprovideadditionalfeaturesandfunctionalitythatare

oftendesirable.Therearesomeconstraintsandbestpracticesthathelpdeterminewhichrolesshouldbelocated

oneachserverinthefarm.Also,byconsideringhowtherolesaredistributed,thefarmcanbedesignedtomore

easilyaccommodatelatergrowth.

InformationArchitecture

Alargefarmwilltypicallyincludemultipleapplicationpools,contentdatabases,andsitecollections.Thewaythat

theseentitiesareallocatedandarrangedhelpsdeterminetheinformationarchitectureforthefarm,whichshould

bedevelopedinconjunctionwiththefarmshardwaretopology.Considerationsfordevelopingtheinformation

architecturearebasedontheintendedusesofthefarmandontheSLAsthatgoverntheseuses,including

performancetargets,dataisolation,andbackupwindows.Afarmmayprovideservicestointranet,extranet,and

internetenvironments;itmayfeaturelargedocumentrepositories,portals,enterprisesearch,andcollaborative

sites.

The

end

user

experience

will

depend

heavily

on

how

hardware

and

software

resources

are

used

in

the

farm.

TheinformationarchitectureforalargeSharePointfarmshouldbedesignedtoallowforflexibilityandgrowth,and

mustaccountforthisgrowthintermsofmanyoverlappingfactors.Someofthesefactorsincludephysicalstorage,

numberofsitesandsubsites,numberoflistitems,andnumberofusers.Thescalabilityboundaryconditions3

listedinTable3serveasastartingpointfordiscussinghowinformationwillbeorganizedwithintheMOSS2007

farm.

Table3:UpperBoundsforVariousFarmObjects

Object AdvisedUpperBound Discussion

SharedServicesProvider

(SSP)

3perfarm Theabsolutelimitis20SSPsperfarm,butnomorethan

threeareadvisedtomaintainoptimalperformance.

WebApplications 99perSSP ChildfarmsthatusethesameSSPareincludedinthis

maximum.

ContentDatabases 100perWebapplication Agivenqueryservercanalsosupportupto100content

databases.

SiteCollections 50,000percontent

database

Overallfarmthroughputhasbeenseentodecreaseas

thenumberofsitecollectionsincreases.

Sites 125(toplevel)sitesper

sitecollection

Ifnestedinthismanner,atotalof250,000totalsites

canbeprovisioned.Exceedingtheseboundariescan

impacttheperformanceoftheentiresitecollection.Subsites 2,000subsitespertop

levelsite

Documents 5millionperlibrary Thetypeandsizeofdocumentsthatarestoredwill

impactthislimit.Nestedfolders,views,andother

organizationtechniques

enable

larger

libraries.

Lists 2,000persite(orsubsite) Theseguidelinesareintendedtomaintainagooduser

experiencewhenrenderinglistviews.Somelargerlists

maybeacceptableiffilteredviewsareused.

Items 2,000perview

WebParts 50(basic)WebPartsper

page

AsWebPartcomplexityincreases,thenumberofWeb

Partsperpageshouldbereduced.

3Formoredetails,seePlanforsoftwareboundaries(OfficeSharePointServer)onMicrosoftTechnet


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Page8

Object AdvisedUpperBound Discussion

ManagedPaths 20perWebapplication Morethan20maybeallocated,buteachmanagedpath

canconsumememoryandprocessorresourcesonWeb

frontendservers.

Usersinsecuritygroups 2millionperWebsite Whenthereisalargeuserpopulation,useWindows

securitygroupsinsteadofmanagingsecurityonan

individualuser

basis.

Userprofiles 5millionperfarm Thisisthemaximumnumberofuserprofilesthatcan

beimportedfromMicrosoftActiveDirectoryintothe

SharePointfarmsprofilestore.

ThefactorsinTable3influencethescalabilityandperformanceconsiderationsoftheinformationarchitecture.For

anoptimalenduserexperience,allbasicfarmnavigationoperationsandpageloadsshouldbeabletocomplete

withsubsecondresponsetimes.Thisisnotalwayspractical,butresponsetimesthatexceedthreesecondsfor

highfrequencyoperationssuchasloadingaportalhomepageoradocumentlibraryarelikelytogenerateuser

complaints.Predictionsandmodelingareanimportantpartoftheinformationarchitecture.However,whena

farmisreleasedtoproduction,itsusewillevolveovertime.Inadditiontoplanningforgrowth,administrators

shouldmonitorresponsetimes,indexingtimes,andothercriteriaasthefarmisused.Basedontheactual

observations,assumptions

may

change

and

it

may

prove

useful

to

reallocate

roles

among

the

servers

in

the

farm.

Businessandregulatorycontrolsmayalsorequirevariouslevelsofdataisolation.Strictdataisolation

requirementsmaynotonlynecessitateadditionalcontentdatabases,webapplications,andsitecollections,but

mayalsostipulatethatseparateSSPsordatabaseserversbeprovisionedwithinafarm.Ifthefarmneedstomeet

thesetypesofrequirements,thentheinformationarchitectureandphysicalhardwaretopologymaybothbe

impacted.

Similarly,planningtheinformationarchitecturecanhelpimprovesearchperformanceinthefarm.Afewfactors

thatwillinfluencethecapabilitiesofthesearchinfrastructureincludethenumberof(internalandexternal)

contentsourcesthatareindexed,howBestBetsandsynonymsareassignedtokeywords,andwhichproperties

andmetadataarediscoveredduringacrawloperation.Additionally,howcrawlrulesaredefined,andifresults

removalis

required

for

various

audiences

will

influence

the

time

required

to

complete

an

indexing

operation.

That

timedirectlyimpactsthefreshnessoftheindexand,therefore,howrapidlynewcontentcanbefoundbyend

users.

Completebookscanbewrittenaboutmanyoftheareasforwhichplanningtheinformationarchitectureofthe

farmisimportant,andanindepthexaminationofthesetopicsisbeyondthescopeofthispaper.However,Dell

ProConsultserviceshavedetailedassessment,design,andimplementationofferingsthatbringourexpertsonsite

toassistyouwithyourspecificSharePointrequirementsandneeds.


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Page9

OtherInfrastructureElements

InstallingaserverfarmforMOSS2007requirestheinclusionofcertaininfrastructureandservicestofullyexploit

SharePointfeaturesandfunctionality.Forexample,ActiveDirectory(AD)isaprerequisite,becauseitprovides

authenticationandauthorizationamongtheserversinaMOSS2007farmandcanbeusedtoimportuserprofile

informationfromADintoSharePoint.Ifyourfarmisheavilyused,addingadditionaldirectoryserversmaybe

necessaryto

handle

the

authentication

traffic.

Figure3:IntegratingSharePointintoanEnterpriseInfrastructure

Exchange Server 2007 can be used for the mailout and mailin connections for SharePoint. These connections

enablefeaturessuchasemailnotificationofchangestoaSharePointcollaborationsiteandtheabilitytocreate

blog entries by sending an email. In addition, if Outlook Web Access (OWA) is configured in the Exchange

environment,thendatastored inExchangesuchasauserorgroupcalendar,task list,oremailitemscanbe

directlydisplayedwithinapageonaSharePointsite.

Similarly,OfficeCommunicationsServer(OCS)2007enablesuserpresenceinformationtobedisplayedon

SharePointpages.Forexample,thefamiliargumballfromOfficeCommunicatorisdisplayednexttousernames

ontheSharePointpage,providingtheabilitytoviewfree/busydata,initiateinstantmessagingconversations,send

email,

or

even

initiate

acall

with

another

user.

Depending

on

the

configuration

of

Exchange

and

OCS

and

on

the

loginstateofotherusers,someofthesefunctionsmaynotbeavailable.Tofullyexploitfunctionality,aSharePoint

endusermustbeloggedintobothOfficeCommunicator2007andOutlook2007.


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Page10

LargeFarmTopology

ThesetuputilityforMOSS2007offerseitheraBasicInstallationoranAdvancedInstallation.BasicInstallationisintendedonlyforsingleserverdeployments.Therefore,theAdvancedInstallationoptionwillberequiredforall

applicationserversandwebfrontendserversinalargeSharePointfarm.Atypicallargefarmusesathreetier

architecture:featuringdatabase,application,andpresentationtiers.SQLServerishostedbyoneserver(ora

failovercluster)

to

form

the

database

tier,

systems

hosting

the

MOSS

application

server

roles

form

the

middle

tier,

andtheWebfrontendserverroleisdistributedacrossseveralserverstoformthepresentationtier.Anexample

ofthisarchitectureisillustratedinFigure4.

Figure4:TypicalLargeFarmforMOSS2007

Ingeneral,thistypeoflargefarmisexpectedtohosthundredsofgigabytes(orpossiblyeventerabytes)ofcontent

andtoprovideservicesforupto10,000users.However,thewayaSharePointdeploymentisusedcanvarywidely.

Thenumberandtypeofuserrequestsultimatelydetermineswhetheraparticulartopologyissuitableforthe

intendeduseofaSharePointfarm.Forexample,ifmuchofthecontentisstaticorarchival,thenthedatacapacity

ofthefarmcangrowconsiderablywithoutplacingadditionalstressonthewebservers.However,theadditional

contentwillcauseafullsearchindexingoperationtotakelongertocomplete.Similarly,ifenterprisesearch

representsasignificant

proportion

of

the

user

activities,

it

can

be

beneficial

to

separate

the

query

server

role

to

dedicatedservers.Becausetherearemanysuchfactorsatplaywithinafarmofthisscale,itisextremelyimportant

toconsidertheinformationarchitectureaswellasthehardwaretopologywhendeterminingthefarmtopology.


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Page11

ConsiderationsfortheDatabaseServer

ThefirststeptowarddeployingaSharePointfarmistopreparethedatabaseserver.Alloftheinformationthatis

madeavailablefromSharePointsitesisstoredinSQLServerdatabases.SQLServer2008hasbeensupportedas

thedatabaseforSharePointfarmssincethereleaseofServicePack1(SP1)4forMOSS2007.Severalfeaturesof

SQLServer2008canbeusedtoenhancethefunctionalityorperformanceofaMOSSfarm5.Forexample,database

backupcompression

can

reduce

both

the

size

of

backup

sets

and

the

time

required

to

complete

abackup

operation.Similarly,TransparentDataEncryptioncanplayaroleinprovidingadditionalsecurityfordatastored

withinaSharePointfarm.

DatabaseServerSystemArchitecture

The64bitextended(x64)systemarchitectureenablesdirectaddressingofmemorybeyondthe4GBceiling

imposedby32bitsystems.Utilizingthiscapabilitytoincreasethenumberofconnectionsandtransactionsthat

thedatabaseservercanhandlerequiresx64serverhardware,anx64operatingsystem,andanx64versionofthe

databasesoftware.ADellPowerEdgedualsocketserverrunningx64editionsofWindowsServer2008andSQL

Server2008providesastrongfoundationforaMOSSfarmsdatabaseserver.ForatypicallargeMOSSfarm,eight

processingcoresand16GBofmemoryarerecommendedforthedatabaseserver.Tomeetthestorageneedsfor

thedatabase,

an

external

storage

array

is

recommended.

The

DatabaseStoragesectionofthispaperprovides

moreinformationaboutthestoragecapacityandI/Orequirements.

Anotherreasontoselectx64architectureisthatMicrosofthasannouncedthatMicrosoftSharePointServer2010

willonlybeofferedfor64bitenvironments6.Planningforandimplementinga64bitarchitectureforaMOSS2007

farmhelpsensurethattheinfrastructurewillbeabletoaccommodatefutureSharePointupgrades.

WindowsServerandSQLServerEditionsfortheDatabaseServer

ChoosingamongthevariouseditionsofWindowsServer2008andSQLServer2008isprimarilyafunctionofwhich

systemspecificationsandsoftwarefeaturesareimportantintheintendedenvironment.Themostimportant

considerationsfortheoperatingsystem7arelistedinTable4,andthoseforthedatabasesoftware

8arelistedin

Table5.Thehighavailabilityfeatureslistedinthesetables,suchasfailoverclusteringanddatabasemirroring,are

examinedlaterinthispaper.

Table4:CriticalFactorsforSelectinganOperatingSystemEdition

WindowsServer2008x64Standard

Edition

WindowsServer2008x64

EnterpriseEdition

SupportforFailoverClustering No Yes,upto16nodes

Maximumx64ServerRAM 32GB 2TB

4At

the

time

this

paper

was

written,

MOSS

2007

SP2

and

an

additional

cumulative

update

package

had

been

released.Additionally,SQLServer2008SP1hadalsobeenreleasedandcouldbeusedwithSharePointfarms.5FormoreinformationaboutusingSQLServer2008featureswithMOSS2007,refertoIntegrationofSQLServer

2008andOfficeSharePointServer2007onMicrosoftTechnet6Formoreinformation,seeAnnouncingSharePointServer2010PreliminarySystemRequirementsonthe

MicrosoftSharePointTeamBlog.7Foramoredetailedcomparison,seeWindowsServer2008:CompareTechnicalFeaturesandSpecificationson

Microsoft.com8Foramoredetailedcomparison,seeSQLServer2008:CompareEditionFeaturesonMicrosoft.com


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Page12

Table5:KeyFactorsforSelectingaSQLServerEdition

SQLServer2008x64Standard

Edition

SQLServer2008x64Enterprise

Edition

SupportforFailoverClustering 2nodes Maximumnumberofnodes

supportedbytheOS

DatabaseMirroring

High

safety

mode

only

All

High

performance

and

High

safetymodes

DatabaseBackupCompression No Yes

TransparentDataEncryption No Yes

ResourceGovernor No Yes

ThecombinationofthesefactorswillinfluencewhicheditionsoftheOSanddatabasearerequiredforagiven

farm.Considerthefollowingexample:mirroreddatabaseserverswith16GBofRAMaresufficienttomeetthe

availabilityandscalabilitygoalsforacompanysSharePointfarm,andhighsafety(synchronous)mirroringis

desired.Thereisalsoabusinessneedtodeploytransparentdataencryptiontoenhancedatasecurityinthe

SharePointcontentdatabasesthatareassociatedwithsomesitecollectionsthatthefarmwillprovide.Ifnoother

decisionpoints

are

involved,

the

mirrored

database

servers

for

this

example

farm

could

employ

Windows

Server

2008x64StandardEditionandSQLServer2008x64EnterpriseEdition.

DatabaseStorage

TheoverallperformanceofadatabaseserverisoftenconstrainedbyitsdiskI/Osubsystem.EqualLogic,

PowerVault,andDell/EMCstoragearraysallprovideastoragesubsystemthatoffersbatterybackedcache,

redundantarraypowersupplies,multipleRAIDlevels,andothercoreavailabilityfeaturesthatarecommonly

requestedinservicelevelagreementsforaMOSSfarm.Formoreinformationaboutthesearrays,seeAppendixA.

Forbestperformance,itisrecommendedtosegregateData,Log,andTempDBfilesforaSharePointfarmonto

separatesetsofspindlesinaccordancewithSQLServerbestpractices.ForalargeMOSSfarm,separate,dedicated

spindles

should

also

be

used

for

the

SSP

search

database;

it

is

particularly

beneficial

to

create

a

dedicated

file

groupforthetablesthatareheavilyinvolvedincrawloperations9.LiketheSSPsearchdatabase,thecontent

databasescanbenefitfromusingmorethanonefilegroup.However,thenativeSharePointbackuputilitiescannot

beusedinconjunctionwithmultiplefilegroupsinsuchcases,otherSQLServerbackupstrategiesmustbeused.

TheseincludethedatabasebackupfacilitiesprovidedbySQLServer2008,orotherapplicationssuchasMicrosoft

DataProtectionManager.

DiskI/Olatencyanddiskqueuelengtharecriticalfactorstomonitorasasolutionisdeployedandadopted.If

requeststakelongerthan20millisecondstocomplete,theenduserexperiencewilldecline.Additionaldisksor

arrayscanbeaddedifthedemandsofafarmareplacingtoomuchstressonthedatabasestoragesubsystem.The

expansioncapabilityofEqualLogic,PowerVault,andDell/EMCstoragearraysalsoprovidesapaththatcanbe

usedtoaccommodategrowthorincreaseduseoftheSharePointfarm.

OptimizingI/OforSharePointDatabasesTheoverallperformanceofaSharePointsolutioncanbelimitedbyanI/Obottleneckwithinthedatabase.Asa

result,itisimportanttoconsiderhowthesolutionwillbeusedwhendeterminingRAIDlevelsanddesigningthe

9ForalistofthesetablesandmoreinformationaboutplanningstorageforaMOSS2007deployment,seePhysical

storagerecommendations(OfficeSharePointServer)onMicrosoftTechnet.


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layoutoflogicaldisksfortheSharePointdatabases.Theinformationarchitectureforthefarmwillhelpdetermine

thenumberandsizeofcontentdatabasesthatarerequired,andwhattheI/Oprioritiesareforeachdatabase.For

sitecollectionsthatfeaturemanycollaborationsites,therewillbemanywriteoperationstothedatabase.In

contrast,portalsanddocumentlibrariestendtofavorreads.Table6outlinessomeofthefunctionsthatshould

havededicatedspindles,identifiesaperformancepriority,andrecommendsoptimalRAIDandfileconfigurations.

Theperformance

priority

offers

guidance

for

determining

the

order

in

which

I/O

optimizations

such

as

faster

disks,optimalRAIDlevels,andmultipleSQLServerdataorlogfilesshouldbeapplied.

Additionally,therearesomeoptimizationsthatcanbeappliedwhenvolumesarecreatedwithintheoperating

system.WindowsServer2008usesa1024KBNTFSvolumeoffsetthateliminatestheneedtoprovidemanual

partitionalignmentusingdiskpart.exe.NTFSvolumesusedforSQLServerdata,logs,andTempDBshouldbe

configuredwitha64KBallocationunitsize.

Table6:I/OConsiderationsforSharePointDatabaseComponents

FunctionPerformance

Priority

PreferredRAID

LevelNotes

TempDB

Data

and

TransactionLogs 1

RAID

1/0

TempDB

is

used

fairly

heavily

in

a

SharePoint

environment.Alwaysallocatededicatedspindles,

andpreferablyprovisionone(equalsized)

TempDBdatafileperprocessorcore.

TransactionLogsforall

OtherDatabases

2 RAID1/0 Transactionlogsareaccessedoftenandare

writeintensive.Alwaysallocatededicated

spindles,andpreferablyprovisiononelogfileper

processorcore.

SSPSearchDatabase

Data

3 RAID1/0 Whenpossible,allocatededicatedspindlesfor

thesearchdatabaseandconsiderprovisioning

onedatafileperprocessorcore.Toimprove

indexingperformance,considerseparatefile

groupsforthetablesthatareheavilyaccessed

duringindexing.

ContentDatabaseData 4 RAID1/0for

collaborativesites

orwhentherewill

besignificantwrite

activity

RAID5is

appropriatefor

readintensive

content

repositoriesor

portals

Considerseparatecontentdatabasesforsite

collectionsthatareparticularlyactiveorforsite

collectionswithaccesspatternsthatdiffer

greatly.Considerprovisioningonedatafileper

processorcoreforthecontentdatabases.

ConfigurationDatabase

Data

5 RAID5orRAID1/0 Theconfigurationdatabaseischangedand

writtentolessfrequentlythantheother

SharePointdatabases;itisgenerallythebest

candidateRAIDsetswithfewerorslowerdisks.


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EstimatingStorageCapacity

EstimatingthetotaldatastoragespacerequiredforaMOSSfarmcanbechallenging,andishighlydependenton

howMOSSwillbeusedwithintheorganization.Adepartmentalorcompanywideportalmaydemandsignificantly

morestoragebeallocatedversusateamsiteoranindividualMySite;however,therearelikelytobemanymoreof

thesesmallersiteshostedwithinthefarm.Inaddition,documentlibrarieswillgenerallyrequiremorestoragethan

sitefeatures

such

as

blogs,

wikis,

and

other

types

of

lists.

If

the

versioning

and

recycle

bin

features

of

SharePoint

aretobeused,thenadditionalspacemustalsobeallocatedforthisdata.

Thegeneralrecommendation isthateachcontentdatabaseshouldbelimitedtostoring100GBofcontent.

However,experimentsatDellandelsewhere10

indicatethatthatthislimitmaybeabletobeincreasedtoashigh

as300GB. Evenwiththisrelaxedconstraint,alargefarmislikelytorequiremorethanonecontentdatabase.The

allocationofcontainers(e.g.,applicationpoolsandsitecollections)thatawellplannedinformationarchitecture

prescribeswillalsoinfluencehowmanyseparatecontentdatabasesarerequired.Eachcontentdatabaseis

associatedwithaWebapplication,whichmayencompassoneormoresitecollections.

Table7outlinesaruleofthumbandprovidessomeexamplesforestimatingtherequiredamountofstoragefora

content

database.

The

database

overhead

in

this

calculation

also

provides

for

metadata

storage.

Specifying

a

lower

fillfactorprovidesadditionalspaceinthedatabasethatcanbeusedtostoredocumentversionandsiterecycle

bins.Thisunusedspacealsoservesasabufferthatcanaccommodategrowthofthecontentstoredinthefarm.

Table7:EstimatingContentDatabaseSizeRequirements

Sizeofcontent

tobe stored

Database

overhead

Fillfactor(forgrowth

andversioning)

Minimumdiskspace

toallocate

RuleofThumb X 20%(0.2*X)

50 70%recommended ~1.7*X(70%fillfactor)

~2.4*X(50%fillfactor)

100GBofcontent 100GB 20GB 50% 240GB

175GBofcontent 175GB 35GB 70% 300GB

Inadditiontothecontentdatabases,theSQLServerhostwillalsorequirespaceforhousingtheconfigurationand

searchdatabases.Theminimumdiskspacetoallocateforthesearchdatabaseshouldberoughlyfourtimesas

largeastheapproximateindexsizethatiscalculatedusingtheformulainTable8.Asdiscussedinthatsection,thesizeoftheindexcanvarybasedonthetypeofcontentthatisstoredandindexedbythefarm.Thesearchdatabase

islargerthanitscorrespondingindexbecausethesearchsystemstoresadditionalmetadatathatisnotpartofthe

index.

Employingquotastolimitthesizeofindividualsitesandestablishinggovernancepoliciestomanagethecontent

andcontrolthenumberofsitesinthefarmcanhelpcontrolthetotalspacerequiredbyagivenfarm.Thesefactors

alsoplayaroleindeterminingtheinformationarchitectureforthefarm.Regardless,itisimportanttoplanfor

capacityto

increase

over

time,

and

to

build

aflexible

and

scalable

infrastructure

that

will

enable

the

farm

to

grow.

10Forexample,seethepresentationregardingConsiderationsforLargeScaleSharePointDeploymentson

MicrosoftSQLServeronJoelOlesonsBlogatsharepointjoel.com.


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ConsiderationsfortheMOSSApplicationandWebFrontEndServers

Inalargefarmtopology,thedatabaseserveristypicallyhostedononeserver(orasetofclusteredormirrored

servers)andtheremainingapplicationserverandWebfrontendrolesaredistributedacrossseveralotherservers.

Thistopologyenablesadditionalserverstobeaddedandrolestobereallocatedasthefarmgrowstomeetthe

changingneedsofthebusiness.ToconfiguretheSharePointfarm,completethefollowinghighlevelsteps:

1. Deploythedatabaseserverfirst.2. InstalltheMOSS2007softwareandanyrelevantupdatesonallapplicationandWebfrontendservers.

NOTE:DuringtheMOSSinstallation,selecttheAdvancedoption(toavoidprovisioningasingleserver

solution),andthenselecttheCompleteoption,evenforsystemsthatwillinitiallyserveasWebfrontend

servers.Thisoptionallowsaservertohostdifferentrolesasthefarmchangesovertime.

3. ConfigurehardwareorsoftwareloadbalancingfortheWebfrontendservers.4. StarttoconfigurethefarmbyrunningtheSharePointProductsandTechnologiesConfigurationWizard

ononeoftheserversthatwillhosttheCentralAdministrationrole.

5. RuntheSharePointProductsandTechnologiesConfigurationWizardtoaddadditionalserverstothefarm.

6. UsetheCentralAdministrationinterface(orthestsadmcommand)toconfiguretherolesforeachserverinthefarm.

Atthetimethispaperwaswritten,SP2andanadditional(April2009)CumulativeUpdatewereavailableforWSS

3.0andMOSS2007.Allserversinthefarmmustrunthesamecodelevels.Tofacilitatetheprocessofkeepingcode

levelssynchronized,andtoreducethetimerequiredtomanuallyapplymultipleupdates,creatingaslipstreamed

installationsourceisstronglyrecommended.Formoreinformationaboutavailableupdates,thepreferred

installationsequence,andthestepsrequiredtocreateaslipstreamedinstallationsource,seeDeploysoftware

updatesforOfficeSharePointServer2007onMicrosoftTechnet.

Applicationand

Presentation

Server

System

Architecture

AswithSQLServer,thevariousservicesthatconstitutetheapplicationandpresentationtiersoftheMOSS2007

farmareavailableforboth32bit(x86)and64bitextended(x64)architectures.Somecustomcodeandthirdparty

packagedfunctionshavebeendevelopedusing32bitnativecode;iftheseelementsareneededinyour

environment,thenyoumaychoosetohostthe32bitMOSSandIIScomponentsonanx86versionofthe

operatingsystem.Ifyouareprimarilyusingoutoftheboxfunctionality,orplantodevelopcustomfunctionsand

Webpartsbuiltwiththe.NETframework,deploythex64versionsoftheoperatingsystemandMOSS2007.Infact,

MicrosofthasalreadyannouncedthatWindowsSharePointServices3.0andOfficeSharePointServer2007are

thelastSharePointProductsandTechnologiesversionsabletorunon32bithardwareandoperatingsystems.Do

takethisintoaccountincurrentandfuturehardwaredecisions:Buying64bithardwaretodayhelpsensurethat

yourenvironmentcanaccommodatefuturerequirementsandhelpsyoutotakeadvantageoftheperformance

andscale

of

64

bit

technologies.

11

PowerEdgeserverswithx64versionsofWindowsServer2008provideasolidfoundationforsuchanenvironment.

Inthislargefarmarchitecture,eachserverthathoststheWebfrontendroleshouldbeconfiguredwithatleast

fourprocessingcoresandatleast6GBofRAM.WhencombiningthequeryandWebfrontendroles,increasethe

amountofRAMtoatleast8GB.TotakeadvantageofallthreememorychannelsonNehalembasedservers,

11ServicePack1forWindowsSharePointServices3.0andOfficeSharePointServer2007,p3.


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considerdeploying12GBonserversthathostbothroles.Ifsearchesareexpectedtoconstitutemorethan20%of

useractivity,considerincreasingtheRAMfurther.

WindowsServerandOfficeSharePointServerEditionsforApplicationandPresentationServers

ItisuncommonforaSharePointapplicationserverorWebfrontendservertobeabletobenefitfromthe

enhancementsinWindowsServer2008EnterpriseEditionthatarenotavailableinStandardEdition.Atthe

applicationtierandpresentationtier,failoverclusteringisnotemployedforavailability;instead,roleswithinthe

farmareconfiguredtorunonmultipleservers.Thismeansthat,inmostcases,WindowsServer2008Standard

EditionwillbesufficientfortheapplicationandWebfrontendservers.

ForMOSS2007,thebiggestdifferentiatorbetweenStandardEditionandEnterpriseEditionisrelatedtothe

featuresandservicesusedtodevelopsolutionsforBusinessIntelligenceandBusinessAnalytics.Thesefeaturesare

enabledbytheBusinessDataCatalogandExcelServices12

thatwereoutlinedinTable2.Ifthesefeaturesare(or

willbe)neededinthefarm,thenselectMOSS2007EnterpriseEdition;otherwise,StandardEditionislikelytobe

sufficient.

IndexServerStorage

Thelarge

farm

illustrated

in

Figure

4features

an

index

server

that

crawls

sites

and

makes

it

possible

to

search

the

contentstoredwithinthefarm.Acontentsourcespecifiesthelocations,depth,andtypeofcontentthatwillbe

crawled.Table8outlinesaruleofthumbandprovidessomeexamplesforestimatingtherequiredamountof

storageforthesearchindex.Exactlyoneindexserverisassociatedwithasharedserviceprovider,andcanhandle

contentfromseveraldifferentcontentdatabases.

Table8:EstimatingIndexSizeRequirements

Sizeofdatacrawled

(basedoncontentsource)

Approximate

indexsize

Minimumdiskspacetoallocate

(notincludingfuturegrowth)

RuleofThumb X ~12%*X 2.85*(IndexSize)=~34%*X200GBofdata 200GB 24GB 68.4GB

750GB

of

data

750

GB

90

GB 256.5

GB

Whilethisruleofthumbisuseful,theindexsizewillvarybasedonthedefinitionsprovidedbythecontentsource.

Ifafileshareorlargecontentrepositorycontainsasignificantamountoftheindexedcontent,theindexwill

generallycontainmoremetadata.Insuchascenario,theindexsizecouldbecloserto30%ofthebasecontentsize,

resultinginarecommendedallocationthatisonly15%smallerthantheactualcontent.If,however,thereareno

documentlibrariesandnoexternalcontentisindexed,thentheindexsizecouldbeaslowas1%to5%ofthebase

contentsize.Thesefactorsshouldbeconsideredwhenplanningthefarmsinformationarchitecture.

Forbestperformance,theindexshouldbelocatedonadedicatedRAID1/0volume.Anindexvolumewithgood

writeperformancecanreducethetimerequiredtocompleteacrawloperation.RAID1/0provideswrite

performancethatiswellsuitedforthispurpose.TheinternaldisksinmanyPowerEdgeserverscanbeusedto

provide

a

high

performance

index

volume.

If

there

are

insufficient

internal

disks

for

this

purpose,

then

a

volume

fromanexternalstoragearraycanbeprovisionedforthispurpose.

12SeeUnsupportedFeaturesinExcelServicesontheMicrosoftOfficeDeveloperCentertodeterminewhether

ExcelServicesaredesirableinyourenvironment.


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ProvidingHighAvailabilityandRedundancyforaLargeFarmASharePointsolutionmayprovidefunctionalitythatisdeemedtobeofhighimportanceforthebusiness.Insuch

cases,itisimportanttodesignthefarminamannerthatenhancesthatavailabilityofthesolution.

Theserver

and

storage

components

used

throughout

this

paper

offer

redundant

hardware

components,

including

powersuppliesandRAIDvolumes.Unfortunately,hardwareredundancyisofteninsufficienttomeettheservice

levelagreement(SLA)demandedofimportantbusinessinfrastructurecomponents.Toovercometheselimitations,

additionalhardwarecanbedeployedtoprotectthesolutionagainstagreaterrangeofpotentialfailurescenarios,

andtoensurethatmostoperationscancontinueintheeventthatasingleserveriscompletelyoffline.

ThissectiondiscussestechniquesforincreasingtheavailabilityofalargeSharePointfarmandexplainsthebenefits

andlimitationsofthehighlyavailablefarmarchitecture.Specificrecommendationsforbackupandrecovery,

businesscontinuity,anddisasterrecoveryareoutsidethescopeofthispaper.

Table9providesanoverviewoftheimpactofhavingvariousfarmrolesunavailableforaperiodoftime.Thisdata

ishelpful

when

making

decisions

about

the

information

architecture

for

the

farm.

Table9:ImpactofDowntimeforFarmRoles

RolethatSuffersDowntime Impacttothefarmanditsusers

IndexServer

Anyscheduledfullorincrementalcrawlswillnottakeplace.

Newcontentcanbeadded,butwillnotbeindexed.

Userscanstillsearchagainstthestaleversionoftheindexstoredonthe

Queryservers.

QueryServer

Userscannotperformsearches.

Allcontentremainsavailable,andnewcontentcanbeadded.

Scheduledcrawlscontinue,butupdatedindexisnotusabletoexecute

searchesuntilafterthequeryserverhasbeenrestoredandtheindexhas

beenpropagated.

WebFrontEndServerDedicated

toCrawlingOperations

ContentwithintheSharePointfarmwillnotbecrawled.Indexesassociated

withtheaffectedSSPmaybecomeoutdated.

Userscanstillsearchagainstthestaleversionoftheindexstoredonthe

Queryservers.

Externalcontentsourceswillstillbecrawledbytheindexer.

Allcontentremainsavailable.

Newcontentcanbeadded,butwillnotbeindexeduntiltheroleisrestored

ortheindexerisredirectedtousealternateWebfrontendservers.

DatabaseServer Theimpactdependsonwhichdatabasesareunavailable:

ConfigurationDatabase Theentirefarmandallofitscontentiscompletelyinaccessible.

SSPSearch

Database

Allcrawlingandindexingoperationsaredisabled.

Contentremains

accessible,

and

site

browsing

is

possible.

Noqueryresponses(searchresults)canbegenerated.

ContentDatabaseAnycontentwithinwebapplicationsandsitecollectionsassociatedwitha

contentdatabasethatisdownarecompletelyinaccessible.


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ProvidingHighAvailabilityfortheSharePointDatabases

Table9revealedthatdatabasedowntimecanbeextremelydisruptivetothefarm.Therefore,limitingthepotential

fordatabasedowntimeshouldbeconsideredahighpriority.Thetwomostcommonwaystoenhancethe

availabilityofthedatabasetieraretodeployafailoverclusterthatrunsaSQLServerinstanceortoemploySQL

Serverdatabasemirroring.WhenusedwithinaSharePointfarm,eachofthesemethodshasitsownadvantages

anddisadvantages.

These

are

summarized

in

Table

10,

and

discussed

in

the

following

sub

sections.

Table10:ComparisonofAvailabilityTechniquesforSQLServer

SQLServer onaFailoverCluster SQLServerDatabaseMirroring

ProtectionProvided Dataisstoredonasingle,sharedstorage

arrayandemploysRAID,hardware

redundancy,andmultipathI/Ofor

protection.TheclusteredSQLServer

instancecanrunonanynodeinthe

cluster,providingtoleranceforawide

rangeofhardwareorsoftwarefaultson

thehostservers.Thedesigngoalfora

failovercluster

is

to

militate

against

a

singlepointoffailurecausingthe

databasetoremainoffline.

BoththeprimarySQLServerandits

mirroringpartnerhavetheirowncopyof

thedata,andeachnodesstorage

subsystemfeaturesRAIDandhardware

redundancy.Althoughmanualrecoveryis

necessary,thefactthatthereare

independentdatabaseserversprovides

protectionagainstfaultsthatmay

adverselyimpact

one

of

the

database

host

servers.

RecoveryMethod Whenthereisafailoverevent,therewill

besomedowntimeasSQLServer

servicesarestartedonthealternate

clusternodeandthedatabasesteps

throughtheredologstoensure

consistency.Oncethisiscomplete,

serviceswillresumewithout

intervention.

Althoughitispossibletouseawitness

systemandprovideautomatedfailoverof

thedatabasetothemirroringpartner,the

SharePointapplicationserverwillstillhave

tobeupdatedtoconnecttothealternate

databaseserver.UsingSQLServer

connectionaliasescanhelpreducethe

timerequiredtoperformthemanual(or

scripted)recoverysteps.

PerformanceImpact

The

overhead

associated

with

running

a

clusteredinstanceversusastandalone

instanceofSQLServerisgenerally

consideredtobenegligible.

Logsare

compressed

and

transmitted

to

thedatabasemirroringpartner.Thiswill

addsomeadditionalCPU,network,and

I/OloadtotheprimarySQLServersystem.

OSandSQLServer

Editions

OperatingSystem: EnterpriseEditionis

requiredforFailoverClusters.

SQLServer:StandardEditionsupports

exactlytwoclusternodes.Enterprise

Editionsupportsasmanynodesasthe

operatingsystem.

OperatingSystem:StandardEditionis

generallysufficient.

SQLServer:StandardEditionprovides

highsafety(synchronous)mirroring.

EnterpriseEditionaddssupportforhigh

performance(asynchronous)mirrors.

SQLServerwithWindowsServerFailoverClustering

AfailoverclusterallowsaSQLServerinstancetorunonanyonenodethatisaclustermember.Ifthehostingnode

fails,theinstancewillberelocatedandstarttorunonanalternatenode;thisprocessisknownasfailover.During

theinstallationofSQLServer2008,optionsareprovidedforconfiguringaclusteredinstanceandforaddingan

additionalnodetoaclusteredinstance13

.TheclusteredinstanceisconfiguredwithinadedicatedclusterresourcegroupthatincludesthenecessarySQLServerservices,acommonnetworknameandIPaddressfortheinstance,

13Formoreinformation,seeGettingStartedwithSQLServer2008FailoverClusteringonMSDN


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andthesharedNTFSvolumesthatwillbeusedfordata,transactionlog,andTempDBstorage.Thisresourcegroup,

andtheSQLinstancethatitcontains,willrunononephysicalnodeatanygivenpointintime.Afailovercluster

hostingtheSQLServerdatabaseforalargefarmisillustratedinFigure5.

NOTE:Insteadofconsolidatingtheroles,thefarminFigure5alsofeaturesseparateWebfrontendandquery

servers.Suchaconfigurationwouldbepreferredifasignificantpercentageofthefarmsactivitiesinvolvedsearch

functionality.TheM710wasselectedforindexandqueryserversbecauseitoffersgreaterstoragecapacitythan

theM610.Ifthiscapacityisinsufficient,thenM610serverscouldbeusedinconjunctionwithvolumesconfigured

onanexternalstoragearray.

Figure5:SQLServerFailoverClusterHostingaLargeSharePointFarm

ThefailoverclusteremploysashareddatastoragearraywithintegratedRAIDcontrollers,suchastheEqualLogic

arraysinFigure5.TheintegratedRAIDcontrollersinEqualLogic,PowerVault14

,andDell/EMCarrayshelpensure

thatuncommittedwriteswhichresideincachememoryarepreservedintheeventthataclusternodefails.

ThesestoragearraysalsoprovidemultipathI/O,whichprotectstheclusteredSQLServerinstancefromfailures

relatedto

the

data

paths

between

the

host

nodes

and

the

storage

array.

In

addition,

expansion

arrays

can

be

connectedtoexpandthecapacityofthesestoragesystems.Detailedinstallationandconfigurationdetailsfor

14ThePowerVaultMD3000andMD3000ifeatureintegratedRAIDcontrollers,andcanthereforebeusedtobuild

SQLServerfailoverclusters.ThePowerVaultMD1120andMD1000requirehostbasedRAIDcontrollers,butcanbe

usedwithSQLServerDatabaseMirroring.


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failoverclusterswithDellPowerEdgeserversandtheEqualLogic,PowerVault,andDell/EMCarraysareavailable

atwww.dell.com/haandsupport.dell.com.

SQLServerDatabaseMirroring

DatabasemirroringprovidesameanstokeeptwocopiesofadatabaseonseparateinstancesofSQLServer.In

ordertoprovidebetterdataprotection,theprincipalinstanceandmirrorinstanceshouldbeconfiguredondistinct

servers,andshouldstoredataonseparatestoragedevices.ThisconfigurationisillustratedinFigure6.Themirror

relationshipisestablishedonaperdatabasebasis;therefore,mirroringacontentdatabasedoesnotautomatically

causeconfigurationorsearchdatabasestobemirrored.

Themirroroperatesbysendingsetsoftransactionlogrecordsfromtheprincipalservertothemirrorserver,which

thenappliestheselogrecordstoitscopyofthedatabase.15

So,adatabasethatismirroredmustusethefull

recoverymodel.ThisrecoverymodelisthedefaultforSharePointcontentandconfigurationdatabases,butsearch

databasesdefaulttousingquickrecovery.Changingtherecoverymodeofthesearchdatabasesmayrequire

allocatingadditionalspacefortheirtransactionlogs.Thecostofthisdiskspacecanbeweighedagainstthetime

thatwouldberequiredtoperformafullcrawlandregeneratesearchdataintheeventthatthemirrorwasnot

available.Also,itisagoodpracticetodedicateanetworkconnectiontoallowthelogdatatobecopiedbetween

thetwo

servers.

Figure6:MirroredSQLServersHostingaLargeSharePointFarm

15Formoreinformation,seeDatabaseMirroringOverviewinSQLServer2008BooksOnline


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high,thenseparatingthequeryserverroleontodedicatedserversmayprovebeneficial.Thistypeoffarmis

illustratedinFigure5.

LoadBalancingWebFrontEndServers

FortheWebfrontendserverrole,aloadbalancingsolutioncanprovidebothperformanceandavailabilityforthe

farmsservices.PerformanceisderivedfromthefactthatuserrequeststotheSharePointwebsitesaredistributed

amongapoolofseveralserversthathosttheWebfrontendrole.Availabilityisderivedbyprovisioningan

additionalserverorserverstoprovidemorecapacitythanisrequiredtohandlethevolumeofuserrequeststothe

Websites.

SeveralloadbalancingsolutionsaresuitableforusewithaSharePointfarm,includingbothhardware and

softwarebasedoptions.Manyofthesesolutions,suchasMicrosoftInternetSecurityandAcceleration(ISA)Server

orhardwareloadbalancers,canoftenprovidebettermonitoringandmoregranularfaultdetectionthanispossible

withtheMicrosoftNetworkLoadBalancing(NLB)service.However,NLBisprovidedasacomponentofWindows

Server2008andthereforeoffersalowcostoptionforincreasingtheoverallavailabilityofaSharePointfarm.

WhenaloadbalancingsolutionsuchasNLBisconfigured,asinglenetworknameandIPaddressisusedto

representthe

pool

of

load

balanced

servers.

In

addition

to

distributing

the

load

among

several

nodes,

NLB

can

detectafailedhostandreroutethetraffictoprovideincreasedavailability.However,NLBdoesnothavethe

intelligencetodetectmanysoftfaults,suchastheIISservicenotrunningonanode.Othersolutionsareableto

overcomethislimitation,butwerenottestedduringthedevelopmentofthispaper.

WhencreatingSharePointWebapplications,thereisanoptiontospecifyaloadbalancedURL,whichshouldbeset

tousethelogicalnetworknamethatisprovidedbyNLB(oranotherloadbalancingsolution).Thisloadbalanced

URLisspecifiedwhenaWebapplicationiscreatedfromthefarmsCentralAdministrationsite,asseeninFigure7.

Ifmaintainingthestateofasessionisimportant,NLBAffinitycancauseasessiontopersistonthesamenode.This

persistencecanalsoprovehelpfulfortroubleshootingconnectivityproblems.Similarpersistencefeaturesare

availablewithmostloadbalancingsolutions.

Figure7:SpecifyingaLoadbalancedURLforaWebApplication


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WhenusingNLB(oranotherloadbalancingsolution),theIISApplicationPoolsandWebApplicationsareassigned

totheshared,loadbalanced,logicalnetworkname.Asaresult,itispreferabletodeployandverifythattheNLB

cluster(orotherloadbalancingsolution)isoperationalbeforeconfiguringtheMOSScomponents.

TheNLBservicesupportsbothunicastandmulticastmodes.Toallowittooperateinunicastmode,eachWeb

frontendhostshouldhavemorethanoneavailablenetworkinterface.Thesharednetworknameandaddresswill

beconfiguredontheinterfacethatservesenduserWebrequests,andnodetonodecommunicationwillemploy

theothernetwork.ThissecondnetworkcanalsobeusedforcommunicationwiththeSQLServerandotherservers

inthefarm.

ConclusionsBecauseitislikelytohostmanydifferentWebapplications,sitecollections,andprovideservicesbroadlyacross

thebusiness,carefulplanningisrequiredbeforedeployingalargeSharePointfarm.Determiningtheinformation

architectureforthefarm,andunderstandingimportantphysicalandlogicalboundarieswithinthesystemhelps

determinethefarmstopology.DellPowerEdgeservers,andEqualLogic,PowerVault,orDell/EMCstoragearrays

aregood

building

blocks

for

each

role

in

the

farm.

In

addition,

Dell

has

the

expertise

and

offers

services

to

help

determinetheinformationarchitectureandtodesign,deploy,andcustomizethefarm.

Highavailabilityisoftenessentialforlargefarms,becausetheytendtohostcriticaldataorservices.Whenasingle

roleisnotavailableinthefarm,theeffectsrangefromenduserinconveniencethroughcompleteunavailabilityof

thefarmanditsservices.ProtectingtheSharePointdatabasesisthemostcritical,andcanbeaccomplishedwith

eitheraWindowsServerfailoverclusterorSQLServerDatabaseMirroring.Techniquesarealsoreadilyavailableto

protecttherolesattheapplicationandpresentationtiers.

FiguresFigure1:SharePointServicesProvidedbyWSS3.0andMOSS2007........................................................... 3

Figure2:RelationshipsbetweenEntitieswithinaSiteCollection................................................................ 5

Figure3:IntegratingSharePointintoanEnterpriseInfrastructure.............................................................. 9

Figure4:TypicalLargeFarmforMOSS2007.............................................................................................. 10

Figure5:SQLServerFailoverClusterHostingaLargeSharePointFarm.................................................... 20

Figure6:MirroredSQLServersHostingaLargeSharePointFarm............................................................. 21

Figure7:SpecifyingaLoadbalancedURLforaWebApplication.............................................................. 23


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Page25

TablesTable1:MOSSContainmentHierarchy........................................................................................................ 4

Table2:MOSSRolesandServices................................................................................................................ 6

Table3:UpperBoundsforVariousFarmObjects........................................................................................ 7

Table4:

Critical

Factors

for

Selecting

an

Operating

System

Edition

...........................................................

11

Table5:KeyFactorsforSelectingaSQLServerEdition.............................................................................. 12

Table6:I/OConsiderationsforSharePointDatabaseComponents........................................................... 13

Table7:EstimatingContentDatabaseSizeRequirements......................................................................... 14

Table8:EstimatingIndexSizeRequirements............................................................................................. 16

Table9:ImpactofDowntimeforFarmRoles............................................................................................. 18

Table10:ComparisonofAvailabilityTechniquesforSQLServer............................................................... 19

Table11:DellStorageArraysforDatabaseorIndex/QueryVolumes....................................................... 26

Table12:PowerEdgeServersforVariousFarmRoles................................................................................ 27

References

DellResources

SharePointSolutions:www.dell.com/sharepoint SQLServer2008Solutions:www.dell.com/sql2008 WindowsServer2008:www.dell.com/microsoft HighAvailabilitySolutions:www.dell.com/ha ExchangeServerSolutions:www.dell.com/exchange UnifiedCommunicationsSolutions(withOCS):www.dell.com/unified

MicrosoftResources

AdministratorsGuideofTopicstoConsiderbeforeDeployment:http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=139163&clcid=0x409

WhichSharePointTechnologyisRightforYou:http://office.microsoft.com/enus/sharepointtechnology/FX101758691033.aspx?ofcresset=1

ServicePack1forWindowsSharePointServices3.0andOfficeSharePointServer2007:http://technet.microsoft.com/enus/library/cc262529.aspx

PlanforSoftwareBoundaries:http://technet.microsoft.com/enus/library/cc262787.aspx PhysicalStorageRecommendations:http://technet.microsoft.com/enus/library/cc298801.aspx IntegrationofSQLServer2008andOfficeSharePointServer2007:

http://technet.microsoft.com/enus/library/cc990273.aspx

UsingSQLServerDatabaseMirroringwithOfficeSharePointServerandWindowsSharePointServices:http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=83725&clcid=0x409

PlanforAvailability(OfficeSharePointServer):http://technet.microsoft.com/enus/library/cc748824.aspx


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Page26

AppendixA:SelectingaDellStorageArrayDelloffersseveralstoragearraysthatcanbeusedtofulfillthecapacityandperformanceneedfortheSQLServer

databasesandIndex/QueryServervolumesinalargeSharePointfarm.Thefollowingtableoutlinessomeofthe

keyconsiderationsthatimpacttheselectionamongthemostpopularofthesearrays.Additionalinformation

aboutdeployingthesearrayswithSQLServerisavailableatwww.dell.com/sql.

Table11:DellStorageArraysforDatabaseorIndex/QueryVolumes

Storage

Array

Storage

Technology

Capacity

(#ofDisks)OtherNotes

EqualLogic

PSSeries

iSCSI Sixteen3.5disksperarray.

Upto12arrayspergroup.

Oneservercanaccessvolumesfrom

multiplegroups.

Supportsthinprovisioningthatcanbe

usedtoenablefuturegrowth.

Arrayscanbeaddednondisruptively.

Volumesaredesignatedbasedon

capacity;administratorsdonotneedto

considerspindlecount.

Dell/EMC

CX4SeriesFibre

Channel

oriSCSIFifteen

3.5

disks

per

array

or

expansionenclosure.

Totalnumberofdisksvariesbasedon

thearraymodel.CX4120,CX4240,

CX4480,andCX4960allofferupto

thenumberofdisksdesignatedbythe

arraysmodelnumber.

Supportsthin

provisioning

that

can

be

usedtoenablefuturegrowth.

PowerVault

MD1120

SAS Twentyfour2.5disksperarray.

Uptothreearrays(72disks)canbe

daisychainedandconnectedtoa

singlex4SASbus.

Foroptimalperformance,limitdaisy

chainingandconsideradding

additionalPERC6/Econtrollers.

HostbasedRAID(PERC6/E),socannot

beusedwithfailoverclusters.

SAS,socannotbeattachedtomodular

(blade)servers.


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Page27

AppendixB:SelectingPowerEdgeServersandBladeServersThetablebelowintroducesDellPowerEdgeserversthatarewellsuitedfordeployinglargeSharePointfarms,such

asthoseillustratedinFigure4,Figure5,andFigure6.ThebasicspecificationsthataremostimportantfortheSQL

Serverarelistedfirst,followedbyinternalstorageconsiderationsthatareimportantiftheserverwillbeusedto

hosttheIndexServerorQueryServerroles.Thefiguresinthisdocumentshowedafewrepresentativesamplesof

farmsthatcanbebuiltusingdifferentmodelsofstandaloneandmodular(blade)servers.Itisreasonableto

assumethatsystemswithsimilarspecificationscanbereadilysubstituted;regardlessoftheirformfactor,these

systemsserveasstrongbuildingblocksforalargeSharePointfarm.

Table12:PowerEdgeServersforVariousFarmRoles

FarmRole Server Notes

DatabaseServer

R610 1URackformfactordualsocketserver.

12totalDIMMslots(6persocket):forbestmemorybandwidth,populateallthree

channels.

FourintegratedGbEnetworkports.

TwoPCIe

x8

expansion

slots

(e.g.,

for

storage

HBAs).

R710 2URackformfactordualsocketserver.


channels.


UptofourPCIeexpansionslots(e.g.,forstorageHBAsoradditionalnetworkports).

M610 Halfheightmodularformfactordualsocketserver(16perM1000echassis).


channels.

TwointegratedGbEnetworkports.

Twodualportexpansioncards(e.g.,forstorageHBAsoradditionalnetworkports).

M710 Fullheightmodularformfactordualsocketserver(8perM1000echassis).

18total

DIMM

slots

(9

per

socket):

for

best

memory

bandwidth,

populate

all

three

channels.


Fourdualportexpansioncards(e.g.,forstorageHBAsoradditionalnetworkports).

T710 Toweror5URackmountableformfactordualsocketserver.


channels.


SixPCIeexpansionslots(e.g.,forstorageHBAsoradditionalnetworkports).

R900 4URackformfactorfoursocketserver.(Intel Xeon)

32DIMMslots.


SevenPCIeexpansionslots(e.g.,forstorageHBAsoradditionalnetworkports).

R905 4URackformfactorfoursocketserver.(AMDOpteron)

32DIMMslots.


SevenPCIeexpansionslots(e.g.,forstorageHBAsoradditionalnetworkports).


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FarmRole Server Notes

IndexServer

R610 SeebasicspecsintheDatabaseServersectionabove.

Sixtotal2.5HDDs.

Externalstoragemaybenecessarytoincreasethecapacityorperformanceofthe

indexvolume.


Sixtotal

3.5

or

eight

total

2.5

HDDs.

Four450GB3.515krpmSASdrivesinaRAID1/0configurationprovidessufficient

capacityformostindexvolumes.

M610 SeebasicspecsinDatabaseServersectionabove.

Twototal2.5HDDs.

Externalstorage(FibreChanneloriSCSI)shouldbeusedfortheindexvolume.

M710 SeebasicspecsintheDatabaseServersectionabove.

Fourtotal2.5HDDs.

Forfarmswithminimalsearchneeds,itmaybepossibletohousetheindex

internally.However,externalstorage(FibreChanneloriSCSI)isstillrecommended.

T710 SeebasicspecsintheDatabaseServersectionabove.

Sixteentotal2.5HDDs.

Internaldisks

offer

adequate

performance

and

capacity

for

the

index

volume

for

almostanyfarm.

WebFrontEnd

and/orQuery

Server


Iftheserverwillbehostingaqueryrole,thesamestorageconsiderationsinthe

IndexServersectionabovewillapply.

IftheserverwillhosttheWFErolebutnotthequeryrole,thenthestorage

considerationsaremostlyirrelevant.

R710

M610

M710

T710