Building the ‘Perfect’ SharePoint 2010 FarmInfrastructure Best Practices from the Field

Michael Noel@MichaelTNoel

Michael Noel• Author of SAMS Publishing titles “SharePoint 2010 Unleashed,” “SharePoint 2007

Unleashed,” “SharePoint 2003 Unleashed”, “Teach Yourself SharePoint 2003 in 10 Minutes,” “Windows Server 2008 R2 Unleashed,” “Exchange Server 2010 Unleashed”, “ISA Server 2006 Unleashed”, and many other titles .

• Partner at Convergent Computing (www.cco.com / +1(510)444-5700) – San Francisco Bay Area based Infrastructure/Security specialists for SharePoint, AD, Exchange, Security

What we will cover• Examine various SharePoint 2010 farm architecture best

practices that have developed over the past year• Examine SharePoint Best Practice Farm Architecture• Understand SharePoint Virtualization Options• Explore SharePoint DR and HA strategies using Database

Mirroring• Explore other common best practices (RBS, SSL, NLB)• Examine best practice security for SharePoint• A large amount of best practices covered (i.e. Drinking

through a fire hose,) goal is for you to be able to take away at least 2-3 useful pieces of information that can be used in your environment

ARCHITECTING THE FARM

Web

Service Apps

Data

Architecting the FarmUnderstanding the Three Tiers of SharePoint Infrastructure

• ‘All-in-One’ (Avoid)

DB and SP Roles Separate

Architecting the FarmSmall Farm Examples

• 2 SharePoint Servers running Web and Service Apps

• 2 Database Servers (Clustered or Mirrored)

• 1 or 2 Index Partitions with equivalent query components

• Smallest farm size that is fully highly available

Architecting the FarmSmallest Highly Available Farm

• 2 Dedicated Web Servers (NLB)

• 2 Service Application Servers• 2 Database Servers

(Clustered or Mirrored)• 1 or 2 Index Partitions with

equivalent query components

Architecting the FarmBest Practice ‘Six Server Farm’

• Multiple Dedicated Web Servers

• Multiple Dedicated Service App Servers

• Multiple Dedicated Query Servers

• Multiple Dedicated Crawl Servers, with multiple Crawl DBs to increase parallelization of the crawl process

• Multiple distributed Index partitions (max of 10 million items per index partition)

• Two query components for each Index partition, spread among servers

Architecting the FarmScaling to Large Farms

• Previously a third party product ($$$$)• More reasonable pricing now• Highly tuned and specialized search engine for

SharePoint and also as an enterprise search platform

• Replaces SharePoint 2010 Native Search if used

• ‘Net new’ features built-in.

Architecting the FarmFAST Search

Feature

SharePoint Foundation

2010

Search Server 2010 Express

Search Server 2010

SharePoint Server 2010

FAST Search Server 2010 for

SharePoint

Basic search X X X X XBest Bets X X X XSearch Scopes X X X XCrawled and Managed Properties X X X X

Query Federation X X X XQuery Suggestions X X X XRelevancy Tuning by Document or Site Promotions

X X X X

Shallow Results Refinement X X X XWindows 7 Federation X X X X

Architecting the FarmFAST Search – Comparison Matrix – Slide 1 of 2

Feature

SharePoint Foundation

2010

Search Server 2010 Express

Search Server 2010

SharePoint Server 2010

FAST Search Server 2010 for

SharePoint

People Search X XSocial Search X XTaxonomy Integration X XMulti-Tenant Hosting X XVisual Best Bets XSimilar Results XDuplicate Results XSearch Enhancement based on user context XSort Results on Managed Properties or Rank Profiles X

Deep Results Refinement XDocument Preview XRich Web Indexing Support X

Architecting the FarmFAST Search – Comparison Matrix – Slide 2 of 2

VIRTUALIZATION OF SHAREPOINT SERVERS

• Dedicated hosts for SharePoint Virtual Guests• No Software on Host OS! (Except A/V or Backup)• Don’t overallocate memory (ballooning) or Processor

(2:1 ratio max)

Virtual Hosts

• Ensure proper amount of IO (0.75 IOPs / GB min, 2.0 IOPS/GB recommended)

• Allocate Passthrough/RDM disk for best perf• If using virtual disks, use fixed-sized, not dynamically

expanding

Disk

• Aggregate multiple NICs on host for the guest networks

• Allocate Passthrough/RDM NICs for best perfNetwork

• Web Role is best candidate, but be cautious if using multiple app pools (800MB/pool)

• Service App systems generally good candidates• Use caution with the database role!

Virtual Guests

Virtualization of SharePoint ServersCaveats – Be Sure to Understand Virtualization Concepts

vCPU RAM (Bare Minimum)

RAM (Recommend)

RAM (Ideal)

Web Only* 2 6GB 8GB 12GB

Service Application Roles Only

2 6GB 8GB 12GB

Dedicated Search Service App

2 8GB 10GB 16GB

Combined Web/Search/Service Apps

4 10GB 12GB 18GB

Database* 4 10GB 16GB 24GB

Virtualization of SharePoint ServersVirtual Guest Processor and Memory Guidelines

Allows organizations that wouldn’t normally be able to have a test environment to run one

Allows for separation of the database role onto a dedicated server Can be more easily scaled out in the future

Virtualization of SharePoint ServersSample 1: Small Single Server Environment / No HA

High-Availability across Hosts

All components Virtualized

Uses only two Windows Ent Edition Licenses

Virtualization of SharePoint ServersSample 2: Two Server Highly Available Farm

Highest transaction servers are physical

Multiple farm support, with DBs for all farms on the SQL cluster

Virtualization of SharePoint ServersSample 3: Mix of Physical and Virtual Servers – Best Perf

Virtualization of SharePoint ServersSample 4: Scaling to Large Virtual Environments

• Processor (Host Only)– <60% Utilization = Good– 60%-90% = Caution– >90% = Trouble

• Available Memory – 50% and above = Good– 10%-50% = OK– <10% = Trouble

• Disk – Avg. Disk sec/Read or Avg. Disk sec/Write– Up to 15ms = fine– 15ms-25ms = Caution– >25ms = Trouble

• Network Bandwidth – Bytes Total/sec– <40% Utilization = Good– 41%-64% = Caution– >65% = Trouble

• Network Latency - Output Queue Length– 0 = Good– 1-2= OK– >2 = Trouble

Virtualization of SharePoint ServersVirtualization Performance Monitoring

1. Create new Virtual Guest (Windows Server 2008 R2)2. Install SP2010 Binaries. Stop before running Config

Wizard3. Turn Virtual Guest into Template, modify template to

allow it to be added into domain4. Add PowerShell script to run on first login, allowing SP

to be added into farm or to create new farm

End Result - 15 minute entire farm provisioning…quickly add servers into existing farms or create new farms (Test, Dev,

Prod) on demand

Virtualization of SharePoint ServersQuick Farm Provisioning using VMM/Virtual Center

DATA MANAGEMENT

• Start with a distributed architecture of content databases from the beginning, within reason (more than 50 per SQL instance is not recommended)

• Distribute content across Site Collections from the beginning as well, it is very difficult to extract content after the face

• Allow your environment to scale and your users to ‘grow into’ their SharePoint site collections

Data ManagementDistribute Data Across Content DBs and Site Collections

• BLOBs are unstructured content stored in SQL• Includes all documents, pictures, and files stored in

SharePoint• Excludes Metadata and Context, information about

the document, version #, etc.• Until recently, could not be removed from

SharePoint Content Databases• Classic problem of structured vs. unstructured data

– unstructured data doesn’t really belong in a SQL Server environment

Data ManagementBinary Large OBject (BLOB) Storage

• Can reduce dramatically the size of Content DBs, as upwards of 80%-90% of space in content DBs is composed of BLOBs

• Can move BLOB storage to more efficient/cheaper storage• Improve performance and scalability of your SharePoint

deployment – But highly recommended to use third party

Data ManagementGetting your BLOBs out of the Content DBs

SQL DATABASE OPTIMIZATION

SQL Database OptimizationContent Databases Distributed Between Multiple Volumes

DB-AFile 1

DB-BFile 1

Volume #1

DB-AFile 2

DB-BFile 2

Volume #2

DB-AFile 3

DB-BFile 3

Volume #3

DB-AFile 4

DB-BFile 4

Volume #4

Tempdb File 1 Tempdb File 2 Tempdb File 3 Tempdb File 4

SQL Database OptimizationContent Databases Distributed Between Multiple Volumes

• Break Content Databases and TempDB into multiple files (MDF, NDF), total should equal number of physical processors (not cores) on SQL server.

• Pre-size Content DBs and TempDB to avoid fragmentation• Separate files onto different drive spindles for best IO perf.• Example: 50GB total Content DB on Two-way SQL Server would

have two database files distributed across two sets of drive spindles = 25GB pre-sized for each file.

• TempDB is critical for performance• Pre-size to 20% of the size of the largest content database.• Break into multiple files across spindles as noted• Note there is a separate TempDB for each physical instance• Note that if using SQL Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) for

any databases in an instance, the tempDB is encrypted.

SQL Database OptimizationTempDB Best practices

• Implement SQL Maintenance Plans!• Include DBCC (Check Consistency) and either

Reorganize Indexes or Rebuild Indexes, but not both!

SQL Database OptimizationSQL Maintenance Plans

• Add backups into the maintenance plan if they don’t exist already

• Be sure to truncate transaction logs with a T-SQL Script (after full backups have run…)

USE CompanyABC_SP2010_ContentDB01;GOALTER DATABASE CompanyABC_SP2010_ContentDB01SET RECOVERY SIMPLE;GODBCC SHRINKFILE (CompanyABC_SP2010_ContentDB01_log, 100);GOALTER DATABASE CompanyABC_SP2010_ContentDB01SET RECOVERY FULL;GO

SQL Database OptimizationTruncate Transaction Logs Sample Statement

HIGH AVAILABILITY AND DISASTER RECOVERY

High Availability and Disaster RecoveryData Tier – Clustering vs. Mirroring

• Clustering is Shared Storage, can’t survive storage failure, makes Mirroring more attractive

• Clustering fails over more quickly• Mirroring is not supported for all databases,

but Clustering is• Both Clustering and Mirroring can be used at

the same time (Instance to Instance)

High Availability and Disaster RecoveryData Tier – SQL Database Mirroring

• Introduced in SQL 2005 SP1• Greatly improved in SQL 2008 and now SQL 2008 R2• Available in Enterprise and Standard (Synchronous only)

editions• Works by keeping a mirror copy of a database or databases

on two servers• Can be combined with traditional shared storage clustering

to further improve redundancy• SharePoint 2010 is now Mirroring aware!• Upcoming SQL 2012 has some great Mirroring

improvements (Multiple copies of databases, both asynch and synch, and read-only copies in remote!)

• Single Site• Synchronous Replication• Uses a SQL Witness

Server to Failover Automatically

• Mirror all SharePoint DBs in the Farm

• Use a SQL Alias to switch to Mirror Instance

High Availability and Disaster RecoveryData Tier – Database Mirroring Model #1 – Single Site

• Two Sites• 1-10 ms

Latency max• 1Gb Bandwidth

minimum• Farm Servers in

each location• Auto Failover

High Availability and Disaster RecoveryData Tier – Database Mirroring Model #2 – Cross-Site with HA

• Two Sites• Two Farms• Mirror only

Content DBs• Failover is

Manual• Read-only

Mode possible• Must Re-Attach

and Re-Index

High Availability and Disaster RecoveryData Tier – Database Mirroring Model #2 – Remote Farm

Synchronous Mirror Support

Asynchronous Mirror Support

Configuration XCentral Administration content XContent Databases X XUsage and Health Data Collection

Business Data Connectivity XApplication Registry service * (BDC Upgrade)

Subscription Settings service * (PowerShell Enabled) XSearch – Search Administration XSearch - Crawl XSearch - Property X

High Availability and Disaster RecoveryData Tier – Database Support for Mirroring – Slide 1 of 2

Synchronous Mirror Support

Asynchronous Mirror Support

User Profile - Profile XUser Profile - Synchronization

User Profile – Social Tagging

Web Analytics - Staging

Web Analytics - Reporting XSecure Store X XStage XManaged Metadata XWord Automation Services XPerformancePoint X

High Availability and Disaster RecoveryData Tier – Database Support for Mirroring – Slide 2 of 2

High Availability and Disaster RecoveryTwo Node/Two Instance Cluster – Take Advantage of both servers

High Availability and Disaster RecoveryNetwork Load Balancing

• Hardware Based Load Balancing (F5, Cisco, Citrix NetScaler – Best performance and scalability

• Software Windows Network Load Balancing fully supported by MS, but requires Layer 2 VLAN (all packets must reach all hosts.) Layer 3 Switches must be configured to allow Layer 2 to the specific VLAN.

• If using Unicast, use two NICs on the server, one for communications between nodes.

• If using Multicast, be sure to configure routers appropriately

• Set Affinity to Single (Sticky Sessions)• If using VMware, note fix to NLB RARP issue

(http://tinyurl.com/vmwarenlbfix)

High Availability and Disaster RecoveryWindows Software Network Load Balancing Recommendations

• Best Practice – Create Multiple Web Apps with Load-balanced VIPs (Sample below)– Web Role Servers

• sp1.companyabc.com (10.0.0.101) – Web Role Server #1• sp2.companyabc.com (10.0.0.102) – Web Role Server #2

– Clustered VIPs shared between SP1 and SP2 (Create A records in DNS)

• spnlb.companyabc.com (10.0.0.103) - Cluster• spca.companyabc.com (10.0.0.104) – SP Central Admin• spsmtp.companyabc.com (10.0.0.105) – Inbound Email VIP• home.companyabc.com (10.0.0.106) – Main SP Web App (can be

multiple)• mysite.companyabc.com (10.0.0.107) – Main MySites Web App

SHAREPOINT INSTALLATION

SharePoint InstallationScripted Installations

• Good to understand how to install SharePoint from the command-line, especially if setting up multiple servers.

• Allows for options not available in the GUI, such as the option to rename databases to something easier to understand.

• Use PowerShell with SharePoint 2010• Sample scripts available for download…

SharePoint InstallationSamples Scripts – http://tinyurl.com/SPFarm-Config

Function Configure-SPSearch {PARAM($AppPool, $FarmName, $SearchServiceAccount)

$searchServiceInstance = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance -localStart-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance -Identity $searchServiceInstance

$dbName = $FarmName + "_SearchServiceApplication"

$searchApplication = New-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceApplication -Name "$FarmName Search Service Application" -ApplicationPool $AppPool -DatabaseName $dbName$searchApplicationProxy = New-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceApplicationProxy -name "$FarmName Search Service Application Proxy" -SearchApplication $searchApplication

Set-SPEnterpriseSearchAdministrationComponent -SearchApplication $searchApplication -SearchServiceInstance $searchServiceInstance

$crawlTopology = New-SPEnterpriseSearchCrawlTopology -SearchApplication $searchApplication$crawlDatabase = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchCrawlDatabase -SearchApplication $searchApplication

New-SPEnterpriseSearchCrawlComponent -CrawlTopology $crawlTopology -CrawlDatabase $crawlDatabase -SearchServiceInstance $searchServiceInstance

while($crawlTopology.State -ne "Active"){$crawlTopology | Set-SPEnterpriseSearchCrawlTopology -Active -ErrorAction SilentlyContinueif ($crawlTopology.State -ne "Active"){Start-Sleep -Seconds 10}}

$queryTopology = New-SPenterpriseSEarchQueryTopology -SearchApplication $searchApplication -partitions 1$searchIndexPartition = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchIndexPartition -QueryTopology $queryTopologyNew-SPEnterpriseSearchQueryComponent -indexpartition $searchIndexPartition -QueryTopology $queryTopology -SearchServiceInstance $searchServiceInstance

$propertyDB = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchPropertyDatabase -SearchApplication $searchApplication

Set-SPEnterpriseSearchIndexPartition $searchIndexPartition -PropertyDatabase $propertyDB

while ($queryTopology.State -ne "Active"){$queryTopology | Set-SPEnterpriseSearchQueryTopology -Active -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

if ($queryTopology.State -ne "Active"){Start-Sleep -Seconds 10}}

}

SharePoint InstallationSome Manual Service Apps Still Required

• Due to complexity and/or bugs, certain Service Apps will need to be manually configured in most cases.

• This includes the following:– PerformancePoint Service Application– User Profile Service Application– Web Analytics Service Application

SharePoint InstallationDocument the Configuration and Monitor Changes

• Document all key settings in IIS, SharePoint, after installation• Consider monitoring for changes after installation for Config

Mgmt.• Fantastic tool for this is the SPDocKit - can be found at

http://tinyurl.com/spdockit

Security

SharePoint SecurityLayers of Security in a SharePoint Environment

• Infrastructure Security and Best practices– Physical Security– Best Practice Service Account Setup– Kerberos Authentication

• Data Security– Role Based Access Control (RBAC)– Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) of SQL Databases– Antivirus

• Transport Security– Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) from Server to Client– IPSec from Server to Server

• Edge Security– Inbound Internet Security (Forefront UAG/TMG)

• Rights Management

For More Information

• SharePoint 2010 Unleashed from SAMS Publishing (http://www.samspublishing.com)

• Windows Server 2008 R2 Unleashed and/or Hyper-V Unleashed (http://www.samspublishing.com)

• Microsoft ‘Virtualizing SharePoint Infrastructure’ Whitepaper (http://tinyurl.com/virtualsp)

• Microsoft SQL Mirroring Case Study (http://tinyurl.com/mirrorsp )

• Failover Mirror PowerShell Script (http://tinyurl.com/failovermirrorsp )

• SharePoint Kerberos Guidance (http://tinyurl.com/kerbsp)

• SharePoint Installation Scripts (http://tinyurl.com/SPFarm-Config)

• SharePoint Documentation Toolkit• (http://tinyurl.com/SPDocKit) • Contact us at CCO.com

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Michael NoelTwitter: @MichaelTNoel

www.cco.comSlides: slideshare.net/michaeltnoel