1. A Close Look Inside the SharePoint Engine Randy Williams, MVP MOSS Synergy Corporate Technologies rwilliams@synergyonline.com

2. Session Overview SharePoint as a Product and Technology Provisioning Engine ● IIS ● SQL Server ● Application / Site Pages (12 Hive) Execution Engine ● ASP.NET Virtualization and Redirection

3. SharePoint Product Stack Windows Server IIS.NET Framework WSS AD SQL Server MOSS

4. SharePoint Layers.NET 2.0 Framework.NET 3.0 Framework WSS & MOSS UI Windows API OS.NET SharePoint Technologies (API) Web Services SharePoint Products SharePoint Object Models

5. Layers in Action Object Model UI Windows API Web Services.NET Framework Word Browser Client Server External Systems

6. Role of IIS Requests are directed to IIS Web Site ● Defined by IP address, port & host header Virtual Directories Application Pools ● Defines worker processes (w3wp.exe) ● Isolation vs efficiency ● Process identity Coordinates authentication ● Active Directory (Kerberos/NTLM/Basic) ● LDAP / FBA

7. ASP.NET Part of.NET Framework 2.0 Integrates with IIS via ISAPI extension ● aspnet_isapi.dll Provides processing engine for pages ●.aspx,.ascx,.master, etc. Configured using web.config

8. web.config XML file for SharePoint configuration One per web application Controls provisioning engine Controls authentication Defines security

9. Provisioning Web Applications SharePoint creates/extends IIS Web Site ● Creates files inside inetpub\wwwroot ● Customizes web.config ● Creates four virtual directories ● Replicates this on multiple WFEs Done using Central Admin or stsadm Requires farm-level admin All site collections and webs are virtual

10. Role of SQL Server Repository for config, search, and content databases Config database ● Farm-wide configuration settings Accessing tables directly is strongly discouraged and unsupported

11. SQL Content Database Container for site collections ● Holds all SharePoint content Basic rules ● Web application can have more than one ● One database cannot span Web applications ● One site collection cannot span db’s With Windows authentication, login to SQL is with app pool identity

12. SQL Content Database When creating a site collection ● SharePoint selects “most available” db Based on site warning and max number levels ● STSADM –o createsiteinnewdb to specify ● STSADM –o mergecontentdbs to move Best practices ● Keep db’s small (< 100-200 GB) ● Spread site collections among multiple db’s

13. Demo - Provisioning Web Application

14. 12 Hive SharePoint’s file system components ● C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\ Contains: ● Application pages ● User controls ● Web services ● Assemblies and executables ● Site definitions ● Features

15. 12 Hive Web Service files Admin Pages User Controls Features Images Application Pages Site Definitions Custom Field Types

16. SharePoint as a Provisioning Engine Primary design goals ● Scalable ● Flexible (Customizable) Challenges in achieving both The solution is to support different types of pages ● Application pages ● Site pages

17. Application Pages Farm wide - stored in 12 Hive ● Referenced in _layouts virtual directory Shared by all webs, site collections and web applications Example ● http://contoso/_layouts/settings.aspx ● http://contoso/web/_layouts/settings.aspx ● http://www.contoso.com/_layouts/settings.aspx

18. Site Pages Consist of list pages, home pages, master pages, new pages created, and others ● NewForm.aspx, default.aspx, mypage.aspx Can be stored in 12 Hive or content database Can be customized using SPD ● Customized vs uncustomized

19. Uncustomized Pages Similar to application pages Stored in 12 Hive ● SiteTemplates & Features folders Page is virtualized across multiple SharePoint webs Pages are compiled and code is cached Very scalable AKA ghosted pages

20. Customized Pages Site page that has been modified using SPD Now stored in content db Page is not compiled ● Security risks Page is not cached Much slower due to overhead Very flexible

21. Virtualization and Redirection Q: How does SharePoint support both customized & uncustomized pages? A: By a virtual path provider called SPVirtualPathProvider Part of SPRequest HTTP module ● Referenced in web.config Based on ASP.NET 2.0 technology

22. SharePoint’s HTTP Request Pipeline Browser W3wp.exe ASP.NET ISAPI SPVirtual PathProvider Content db File System Customized Uncustomized HTTP.SYS

23. Site Page Rendering Master Page Nav CSS JS Images WebPart Manager Site Page Master Page Web Parts WebPart Zone WebPart Zones Delegate Controls Content Place Holders

24. Questions? My blog ● http://sharepointhawaii.com/randywilliams http://sharepointhawaii.com/randywilliams