Building the ‘Perfect’ SharePoint 2010 Farm

Best Practices from the Field

Michael Noel

Convergent Computing (CCO.com)

@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)• Learn how to Enable Kerberos for Best Practice Security• A large amount of best practices covered (i.e. Drinking

through a fire hose), expectation is that you can take away 2-3 useful pieces of information that can be used in your environment

Architecting the Farm

• ‘All-in-One’ (Avoid)

SharePoint 2010 ArchitectureSmall Farms

DB and SP Roles Separate

• 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

SharePoint 2010 Architecture“Smallest 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

SharePoint 2010 Architecture“The Six Server Farm”

SharePoint 2010 ArchitectureLarge 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

SharePoint 2010 Virtualization Architecture

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

Virtualized Farm ArchitectureCost-effective Virtual Environment / No HA

High-Availability across Hosts

All components Virtualized

Uses only two Windows Ent Edition Licenses

Virtualized Farm ArchitectureHighly Available Farm with only Two Servers

Highest transaction servers are physical

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

Virtualized Farm ArchitectureBest Practice Virtual/Physical with HA/Perf

Virtualized Farm ArchitectureLarge Virtual Farms

Content Database and Site Admin Architecture

Content Database and Site Collection Planning

• 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

Farm1

home.companyabc.com

/dept(Mg Path)

mysite.companyabc.com SP Central Adminssp1.companyabc.com

ABC_Farm1_SSP1_Content ABC_Farm1_SPCA_ContentABC_Farm1_Dept1_Content ABC_Farm1_Dept3_Content

ABC_Farm1_Dept2_Content

ABC_Farm1_Config

ABC_Farm1_Root_Content

AdditionalDeptartmental

Site Collections,each withSeparatecontent

databases

ABC_Farm1_MySite2_Content

ABC_Farm1_MySite3_Content

ABC_Farm1_MySite4_Content

ABC_Farm1_MySite5_Content

ABC_Farm1_MySite6_Content

ABC_Farm1_MySite7_Content

ABC_Farm1_MySite8_Content

ABC_Farm1_MySite9_Content

ABC_Farm1_MySite10_Content

ABC_Farm1_MySite1_Content

ABC_Farm1_SSP1

ABC_Farm1_Search

/dept1 /dept3/dept2

Shared Services Provider (SSP1)

Remote BLOB Storage (RBS)

• First version was known as EBS, now RBS• SQL level technology that moves the BLOBs to

different storage location, thus reducing Content DB size by 80-90%.

• Note this is primarily a Data Management tech, not so much a performance technology.

• Typically used with third-party product, though MS does provide for limited native FILESTREAM options

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: 100GB total Content DB on Four-way SQL Server would have four database files distributed across four sets of drive spindles = 25GB pre-sized for each file.

SQL Database OptimizationTempDB Tips

• 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 Mirroring

Single Site HA Mirrored Farm

• 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

Cross-Site Mirrored HA Farm

• Two Sites• 1 ms

Latency• 1GB

Bandwidth• Farm

Servers in each location

• Auto Failover

Two Farm / Mirrored Content DBs

• Two Sites• Two

Farms• Mirror only

Content DBs

• Failover is Manual

• Must Re-index

Mirroring Database Supportability Matrix (1 of 2)

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

Mirroring Database Supportability Matrix (2 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

Hardware/Software

Hardware Planning ConsiderationsDisk, Memory, and Processor

• SQL Database role requires a great deal of space, especially if versioning is turned on in Document Libraries. Don’t underestimate!

• Servers running the Search Service Application Index or Query need hard drive space to store the Index files, which can be 5%-30% of the size of the items being indexed.

• The more memory and processor cores that can be given to SharePoint the better, in the following priority:

● Database Role● Search Service Application Role● Other Service Application Roles● Web Role

Operating System Best practicesVersions

• Highly recommended: Windows Server 2008 R2 (with SP1) for security, performance (client/server traffic improvements), and ease of setup.

• Windows Server 2008 RTM is also possible, but requires some custom configuration (Kerberos, etc.)

• Enterprise Edition of Windows only required for very large SQL instances (More than two cluster nodes, high transaction volume, etc.) Standard edition of Windows is adequate in nearly all other cases.

Operating System Best practicesSQL Server

• SQL Server 2008 R2 Recommended, particularly if you have high security requirements, as it allows for transparent encryption of databases and PowerPivot (R2 only)

• SQL Server 2005 x64 also supported• Enterprise edition of SQL only required for more than two

nodes in a cluster, Asynchronous database mirror replication, TDE, RBS with non-local BLOB storage, or other advanced scenarios

• Separate Reporting Services server may be required for intensive reporting

• Separate Analysis Services server may be required for PowerPivot

• Create exception in Windows Firewall policy for port 1433

SharePoint Installation

SharePoint InstallationSample Service Accounts

Service Account Name Role of Service Account Special PermissionsCOMPANYABC\SRV-SP-Setup SharePoint Installation Account Local Admin on all SharePoint

serversCOMPANYABC\SRV-SP-SQL SQL Service Account Local Admin on Database

Serverr(s)

COMPANYABC\SRV-SP-Farm SharePoint Farm Account;Application Pool Identity account for the Central Admin App Pool

N/A

COMPANYABC\SRV-SP-Search Search Account N/ACOMPANYABC\SRV-SP-Content Default Content Access Account Read rights to any external

data sources to be crawledCOMPANYABC\SRV-SP-Prof Default Profiles Content Account Member of Domain Users (to

be able to read attributes from users in domain.

COMPANYABC\SRV-SP-MySite Application Pool Identity account for the MySite App Pool

N/A

COMPANYABC\SRV-SP-Home Application Pool Identity account for the Home App Pool

N/A

SharePoint InstallationInstallation Process

• For most flexibility, choose ‘Complete’ Installation, even if not installing all of the roles on the server. This will allow for the addition of roles in the future as needed.

• Be sure not to select ‘Stand-Alone’, unless you plan on having a very small farm with a limited database (SQL Server Express)

SharePoint InstallationInstallation Process

• Highly recommended to choose the final destination for the Index/Query to live (i.e. if it’s on a different drive, enter that during installation). It’s difficult to change index location later.

• Remember, after installing the binaries, the server is not a farm member yet…it can be added to any farm. Good concept to use to pre-stage servers.

SharePoint InstallationCommand-line Installation of SharePoint

• 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.

• User PowerShell

Script: http://tinyurl.com/SPFarm-Config

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")

{

Start-Sleep -Seconds 10

}

}

}

SharePoint InstallationSome Manual Service Apps Still Required

• Due to bugs in SharePoint, certain Service Apps will need to be manually configured, they won’t work in PowerShell yet, hopefully fixed in later versions

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

Configuring the Farm

Configuring the FarmRunning the Config Wizard to Install Servers (If used)

• Consider using an easy to remember port for the Central Admin service (i.e. 8888). Change to 443 later.

• You are welcome to change the Config Database name to match a common naming convention

• Your database access account is the SP Service account, which only needs DBCreator and Security Admin rights on SQL. Don’t give it more!

• Run the wizard on additional servers as necessary

• A SQL Alias will help you if you need to change your DB location. For example, if your SQL server name is ‘SQL1’, use something like ‘SPSQL’ to connect, and have DNS point to the proper server location. This makes it MUCH more flexible.

• Use the SQL Native Client 10.0 Configuration (32bit) node to create the alias

Configuring the FarmSQL Alias

• Install SQL Client Tools, including the Backwards Compatibility Client Tools.

• Launch the SQL Server Configuration Manager and create three SQL aliases using the 32bit Alias section:

● spdbcontent.companyabc.com ● spdbsearch.companyabc.com● spdbservices.companyabc.com

• Point all to the SQL server name, port 1433.• Launch the SQL Server Client Network Utility (\System32\

cliconfg.exe) and create the same 3 aliases as above using TCP/IP and port 1433. Make sure to map the alias to the SQL netbios name (or cluster netbios name) as above

Configuring the FarmSQL Alias

Configuring the FarmNetwork Load Balancing

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

• Software Windows Network Load Balancing fully supported

• 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)

Configuring the FarmNetwork Load Balancing

• 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

Configuring the FarmSecurity Considerations

• Infrastructure Security and Best Practices● Best Practice Service Account Setup● Kerberos Authentication

• Data Security● SharePoint Security ACLs and Role Based Access

Control (RBAC)● Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) of SQL Databases

• Transport Security● Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) from Server to Client● IPSec from Server to Server● Inbound Internet Security (Forefront UAG/TMG) / Certs

• Rights Management

Configuring the FarmSSL Certificates

• External or Internal Certs highly recommended

• Protects Transport of content• 20% overhead on Web Servers• Can be offloaded via SSL offloaders if

needed• Don’t forget for SPCA as well!

Configuring the FarmUser Profile Sync (UPS) Setup

• Most complex part of a SharePoint installation• Uses the Forefront Identity Manager (FIM)

subcomponent on the server to synch My Site Profiles with external directory source such Active Directory

• Would take an entire session to describe the process, but best blog on the topic is SharePoint MVP Spencer Harbar’s (harbar.net)

• To configure diagnostic logging● On the Central Administration Home page, click Monitoring.● In the Reporting section, click Configure diagnostic logging.● On the Diagnostic Logging page, verify that Enable Event Log Flood

Protection is selected. If not, click the corresponding check box to enable this feature.

● Leave default values for other items● Click OK to save your changes.

• To configure usage and health data collection:● On the Central Administration Monitoring page, click Configure usage and

health data collection.● Click the check box to Enable Usage Data Collection.● Click the check box to Enable Health Data Collection.● Name database ● Leave all other settings at default● Click OK.

Configuring the FarmEnabling Diagnostic Logging and Usage and Health Data Collection

Configuring the FarmBest Practices

• For Email enabled content, create a dedicated OU for Email enabled contacts and distribution lists and give the SP Admin account rights to create and modify contacts and groups in that OU.

• Don’t forget Alternate Access Mappings if connecting to the content in more than one way (i.e. https://home.companyabc.com vs. just http://home)

• If using SSL on a web app, it must have a dedicated IP address, not just a host header

• Don’t forget to install Antivirus (MS Forefront Protection for SharePoint recommended)

• Don’t forget a comprehensive backup solution (MS System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) 2010 or 3rd party)

Kerberos

• When creating any Web Applications for Content, USE KERBEROS. It is much more secure and also faster with heavy loads as the SP server doesn’t have to keep asking for auth requests from AD.

• Kerberos auth does require extra steps, which makes people shy away from it, but once configured, it improves security considerably and can improve performance on high-load sites.

KerberosBest practice: Enable Kerberos!

KerberosStep 1: Create the Service Principal Names

• Use the setspn utility to create Service Principle Names in AD, the following syntax for example:

● Setspn.exe -A HTTP/mysite.companyabc.com DOMAINNAME\MYSiteAppAccount

● Setspn.exe -A HTTP/mysite DOMAINNAME\MYSITEAppAccount● Setspn.exe -A HTTP/home.companyabc.com DOMAINNAME\

HOMEAppAccount● Setspn.exe -A HTTP/sp DOMAINNAME\HOMEAppAccount

KerberosStep 2: Enable Kerberos from SP Servers to SQL

• Use setspn to create SPNs for SQL Service Account

• SPNs need to match the name that SharePoint uses to connect to SQL (Ideally SQL Alias, more on this later)

• Syntax similar to following:● Setspn.exe -A MSSQLSvc/spsql:1433 COMPANYABC\SRV-

SQL-DB● Setspn.exe –A MSSQLSvc/spsql.companyabc.com:1433

COMPANYABC\SRV-SQL-DB

• MSSQLSvc = Default instance, if named instance, specify the name instead

• In this example, SRV-SQL-DB is the SQL Admin account

• Required for Excel Services and other impersonation applications.

• On all SP Computer accounts and on the Application Identity accounts, check the box in ADUC to allow for delegation.

● In ADUC, navigate to the computer or user account, right-click and choose Properties.

● Go to the Delegation tab ● Choose Trust this

user/computer for delegation to any service (Kerberos)

Kerberos Step 3: Allow User and Computer Accounts to Delegate (Optional)

• Go to Application Management – Authentication Providers• Choose the appropriate Web Application• Click on the link for ‘Default’ under Zone• Change to Integrated Windows Authentication - Kerberos

(Negotiate)• Run iisreset /noforce from the command prompt• If creating Web App from scratch, this step may be

unnecessary if you choose Negotiate from the beginning

KerberosStep 4: Enable Kerberos on Web Application

• Logon to SharePoint Web Front-End as the setup account• Launch the SQL Management Studio• At the Connect to Server screen, connect to one of the alias

names (spdbcontent, sbdbservices, spdbsearch)• Make sure you are able to connect to the SQL server instance• Login to the SQL server as SQL Admin account

● Launch Server Manager● View Security event log under Diagnostics● Look for Event ID 4624/Logon● Open the event and look under the Detailed Authentication

Information section which should read Kerberos for both Logon Process and Authentication Package for the Setup account

KerberosStep 5: Validate Kerberos Functionality

• Bonus #1: Enable Kerberos● Add the SPNs for SPCA

• HTTP/spca.companyabc.com, HTTP/spca (Add to App Pool Identity Account for SPCA)

Configure Kerberos as defined in this presentation

• Bonus #2: Configure for SSL● Encrypts traffic and Admin passwords● Create and install Web certs for spca.companyabc.com

• Bonus #3: Load Balance SPCA● Install SPCA on multiple web role servers● Enable either Hardware NLB or Software Windows Network Load Balancing● Requires DNS A record (spca.companyabc.com), registry key and AAM modification (below)

• Bonus #4: Setup SPCA on port 443/80● Delete default IIS Web Site● Assign dedicated IP (VIP if load balancing) to SPCA Web App● Change Port to 80 and 443 in IIS, Assign Cert (if using SSL)● Modify SPCA URL on SP Servers - “HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server

Extensions\14.0\WSS\CentralAdministrationURL” (REG_SZ) = https://spca.companyabc.com/

● Change your default AAM to https://spca.companyabc.com

KerberosBonuses for SPCA – Kerberos, NLB, SSL, and Default Port

Session Takeaways

• Use multiple service accounts, definitely don’t mix Application Pool identity accounts with the farm admin accounts

• Use Kerberos when at all possible• Use a SQL DB Alias for greatest flexibility

with a SP Farm• Consider DB Mirroring as a DR option• A four server farm is the smallest that is

highly available• Contact us at cco.com for help

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desk.

Thank you!

Thanks for attending!Questions?

Michael Noel

Twitter: @MichaelTNoel

www.cco.com