1. Visual Studio Connections Michael Noel @MichaelTNoel
Building the ‘Perfect’ SharePoint 2010 Farm Infrastructure Best Practices from the Field
Michael Noel
@MichaelTNoel
Updates will be available at

2. 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 ( / +1(510) ) – San Francisco Bay Area based Infrastructure/Security specialists for SharePoint, AD, Exchange, Security

3. Microsoft ASP.NET Connections
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
Updates will be available at _06/ASP_Connections

4. Architecting the Farm 4

5. Architecting the Farm Understanding the Three Tiers of SharePoint Infrastructure
Web
Service Apps
Data

6. Architecting the Farm Small Farm Examples
‘All-in-One’ (Avoid)
DB and SP Roles Separate

7. Architecting the Farm Smallest Highly Available Farm
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

8. Architecting the Farm Best Practice ‘Six Server 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

9. Architecting the Farm Scaling to Large Farms
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

10. Architecting the Farm FAST Search
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.

11. SharePoint Foundation 2010 FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint
Architecting the Farm FAST Search – Comparison Matrix – Slide 1 of 2
Feature
SharePoint Foundation 2010
Search Server Express
Search Server 2010
SharePoint Server 2010
FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint
Basic search X
Best Bets
Search Scopes
Crawled and Managed Properties
Query Federation
Query Suggestions
Relevancy Tuning by Document or Site Promotions
Shallow Results Refinement
Windows 7 Federation

12. SharePoint Foundation 2010 FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint
Architecting the Farm FAST Search – Comparison Matrix – Slide 2 of 2
Feature
SharePoint Foundation 2010
Search Server Express
Search Server 2010
SharePoint Server 2010
FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint
People Search X
Social Search
Taxonomy Integration
Multi-Tenant Hosting
Visual Best Bets
Similar Results
Duplicate Results
Search Enhancement based on user context
Sort Results on Managed Properties or Rank Profiles
Deep Results Refinement
Document Preview
Rich Web Indexing Support

13. Virtualization of SharePoint Servers13

14. Virtualization of SharePoint Servers Caveats – Be Sure to Understand Virtualization Concepts
Virtual Hosts
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)
Disk
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
Network
Aggregate multiple NICs on host for the guest networks
Allocate Passthrough/RDM NICs for best perf
Virtual Guests
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!

15. Virtualization of SharePoint Servers Virtual Guest Processor and Memory Guidelines
vCPU
RAM (Bare Minimum)
RAM (Recommend)
RAM (Ideal)
Web Only* 2
6GB
8GB
12GB
Service Application Roles Only
Dedicated Search Service App
10GB
16GB
Combined Web/Search/Service Apps 4
18GB
Database*
24GB

16. Virtualization of SharePoint Servers Sample 1: Small Single Server Environment / No HA
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

17. Virtualization of SharePoint Servers Sample 2: Two Server Highly Available Farm
High-Availability across Hosts
All components Virtualized
Uses only two Windows Ent Edition Licenses

18. Virtualization of SharePoint Servers Sample 3: Mix of Physical and Virtual Servers – Best Perf
Highest transaction servers are physical
Multiple farm support, with DBs for all farms on the SQL cluster

19. Virtualization of SharePoint Servers Sample 4: Scaling to Large Virtual Environments

20. Virtualization of SharePoint Servers Virtualization Performance Monitoring
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
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

21. Virtualization of SharePoint Servers Quick Farm Provisioning using VMM/Virtual Center
Create new Virtual Guest (Windows Server 2008 R2)
Install SP2010 Binaries. Stop before running Config Wizard
Turn Virtual Guest into Template, modify template to allow it to be added into domain
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

22. Data Management 22

23. Data Management Distribute Data Across Content DBs and Site Collections
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

25. Data Management Binary Large OBject (BLOB) Storage
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

26. Data Management Getting your BLOBs out of the Content DBs
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

27. SQL Database Optimization27

28. SQL Database Optimization Content Databases Distributed Between Multiple Volumes
DB-A
File 1
DB-B
File 1
DB-A
File 2
DB-B
File 2
DB-A
File 3
DB-B
File 3
DB-A
File 4
DB-B
File 4
Tempdb File 1
Tempdb File 2
Tempdb File 3
Tempdb File 4

29. SQL Database Optimization Content 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.

30. SQL Database Optimization TempDB Best practices
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.

31. SQL Database Optimization SQL Maintenance Plans
Implement SQL Maintenance Plans!
Include DBCC (Check Consistency) and either Reorganize Indexes or Rebuild Indexes, but not both!
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…)

32. SQL Database Optimization Truncate Transaction Logs Sample Statement
USE CompanyABC_SP2010_ContentDB01; GO
ALTER DATABASE CompanyABC_SP2010_ContentDB01
SET RECOVERY SIMPLE;
DBCC SHRINKFILE (CompanyABC_SP2010_ContentDB01_log, 100);
SET RECOVERY FULL;

33. High Availability and Disaster Recovery33

34. High Availability and Disaster Recovery Data Tier – Clustering vs
High Availability and Disaster Recovery Data 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)

35. 4/14/ :34 PM
High Availability and Disaster Recovery Data 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!)
© 2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows, Windows Vista and other product names are or may be registered trademarks and/or trademarks in the U.S. and/or other countries.
The information herein is for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation as of the date of this presentation. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information provided after the date of this presentation. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

36. High Availability and Disaster Recovery Data Tier – Database Mirroring Model #1 – 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

37. High Availability and Disaster Recovery Data Tier – Database Mirroring Model #2 – Cross-Site with HA
Two Sites
1-10 ms Latency max
1Gb Bandwidth minimum
Farm Servers in each location
Auto Failover

38. High Availability and Disaster Recovery Data Tier – Database Mirroring Model #2 – Remote Farm
Two Sites
Two Farms
Mirror only Content DBs
Failover is Manual
Read-only Mode possible
Must Re-Attach and Re-Index

39. High Availability and Disaster Recovery Data Tier – Database Support for Mirroring – Slide 1 of 2
Synchronous Mirror Support
Asynchronous Mirror Support
Configuration X
Central Administration content
Content Databases
Usage and Health Data Collection
Business Data Connectivity
Application Registry service * (BDC Upgrade)
Subscription Settings service * (PowerShell Enabled)
Search – Search Administration
Search - Crawl
Search - Property

40. High Availability and Disaster Recovery Data Tier – Database Support for Mirroring – Slide 2 of 2
Synchronous Mirror Support
Asynchronous Mirror Support
User Profile - Profile X
User Profile - Synchronization
User Profile – Social Tagging
Web Analytics - Staging
Web Analytics - Reporting
Secure Store
Stage
Managed Metadata
Word Automation Services
PerformancePoint

41. High Availability and Disaster Recovery Two Node/Two Instance Cluster – Take Advantage of both servers

42. High Availability and Disaster Recovery Network 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 (

43. High Availability and Disaster Recovery Windows Software Network Load Balancing Recommendations
Best Practice – Create Multiple Web Apps with Load-balanced VIPs (Sample below)
Web Role Servers
sp1.companyabc.com ( ) – Web Role Server #1
sp2.companyabc.com ( ) – Web Role Server #2
Clustered VIPs shared between SP1 and SP2 (Create A records in DNS)
spnlb.companyabc.com ( ) - Cluster
spca.companyabc.com ( ) – SP Central Admin
spsmtp.companyabc.com ( ) – Inbound VIP
home.companyabc.com ( ) – Main SP Web App (can be multiple)
mysite.companyabc.com ( ) – Main MySites Web App

44. SharePoint Installation44

45. SharePoint Installation Scripted 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…

46. SharePoint Installation Samples Scripts – http://tinyurl
Function Configure-SPSearch { PARAM($AppPool, $FarmName, $SearchServiceAccount) $searchServiceInstance = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance -local Start-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") { $crawlTopology | Set-SPEnterpriseSearchCrawlTopology -Active -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue if ($crawlTopology.State -ne "Active") Start-Sleep -Seconds 10 } $queryTopology = New-SPenterpriseSEarchQueryTopology -SearchApplication $searchApplication -partitions 1 $searchIndexPartition = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchIndexPartition -QueryTopology $queryTopology New-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")

47. SharePoint Installation Some 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

48. SharePoint Installation Document 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

49. Security 49

50. SharePoint Security Layers 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

51. Microsoft ASP.NET Connections
For More Information
SharePoint 2010 Unleashed from SAMS Publishing (
Windows Server 2008 R2 Unleashed and/or Hyper-V Unleashed (
Microsoft ‘Virtualizing SharePoint Infrastructure’ Whitepaper (
Microsoft SQL Mirroring Case Study ( )
Failover Mirror PowerShell Script ( )
SharePoint Kerberos Guidance (
SharePoint Installation Scripts (
SharePoint Documentation Toolkit (
Contact us at CCO.com
Updates will be available at _06/ASP_Connections

52. Your Feedback is Important
Visual Studio Connections
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Please fill out a session evaluation form drop it off at the conference registration desk. Thank you!
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53. Thanks for attending! Questions?
Michael Noel
Slides: slideshare.net/michaeltnoel
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