Sharepoint 2010: Practical Architecture from the Field

Tihomir Ignatovcontact@sugbg.org

• Session Objective(s): – Recognize the importance of having a detailed understanding of the

different SharePoint deployment models and options– Understand the implications of the different options, and the

ramifications and consequences of each– Focus on choosing the appropriate option for our customers based on

their business and technical requirements

• Take away(s):– Truly successful architecture design for SharePoint requires both broad

and deep technology skills, essentially requiring an understanding of both IT Pro and Development aspects

Session Objectives and Takeaways

Architecture in Sharepoint Deployments

Software ArchitectureDeployment Architecture

Network ArchitectureDeployment Architecture

Enterprise architectureServer architecture

Information architectureData architecture

Business architecture

Permission architectureCloud architecture

Infrastructure architecture

• To build application that satisfies the business and IT requirements

• Choosing appropriate technical solution based on the requirement and the maturity of the team involved

Sharepoint Architecture – What is it for?

• Always use best practices (BP) when is possible• Adapt your design to the business requirements• Do not hesitate to jump over the BP if is reasonable,

but leave a track why (document it)• Always weigh out the business requirements against

feature TCO (complexity, time, resources, price, etc.)• Say “NO” to your client, when the feature is

expensive and low business impact

Best Practices vs. Real World

Supportability

• Use only SUPPORTED scenarios for customization and configuration

• Do not use Quick & Dirty approach for production• What is supported?• Ask for supportability!

• Boundaries are absolute limits that cannot be exceeded by design.

• Thresholds are those that have a default value that cannot be exceeded unless the value is modified.

• Supported limits define the tested value for a given parameter.

Limits

Thresholds and supported limits guidelines are determined by performance.

Some Important LimitsLimit Max value Limit type

Zone 5 per web application Boundary

Application pools 10 per web server Supported

Content database size 200 GB per Content DB Supported

Site Collections number 500,000 per Web Application Supported

Site Collection Size 100 GB per Site Collection Supported

Web site 250,000 per Site Collection Supported

List view threshold 5,000/20,000 Threshold

List row size 8,000 bytes per row Boundary

File size 2 GB Boundary

Documents / Items 30 M per library / list Supported

Bulk operations 100 items per bulk operation (UI) Boundary

AD Principles/Users in a SharePoint group

5,000 per SharePoint group Supported

Web parts 25 per page ThresholdSoftware boundaries and limits at TechNet

• Capacity is directly affected by scalability• If your solution plans exceed the recommended

guidelines – Evaluate the solution to ensure that

compensations are made in other areas.– Flag these areas for testing and monitoring as you

build your deployment.– Redesign or partition the solution to ensure that

you do not exceed capacity guidelines.

Take Into Account…

• How to design the solution (Sub Sites vs. Site Collections vs. Web Applications)

• Which SA to provision• Do not use the Farm Configuration Wizard

Important Decisions

• “Some” resources in Technet…• Consider the limits!• Storage and SQL capacity planning– For content databases– For Service Applications

• Always test storage performance with SQLIO tool• Make meetings with storage administrators

Capacity Planning

My capacity planning tool: http://tihomirignatov.blogspot.com/2010/12/sharepoint-2010-capacity-planning-and.html

• Browser and version• MS Office version• Client PCs – HW & SW configuration, load, other

applications• Monitor and test page rendering performance on

regular PC (not development)

Client Compatibilities

• Is the Sharepoint a business critical application?• Try to define SLA and down time – cost, operations,

reliability • From scalability and capacity to availability• Database availability strategies – clustering or

mirroring?• Service Applications redundancy strategies– SA that store data outside a database – SA that store data in databases

• Search Service Application redundancy

High Availability

• Scale up or scale out?• When to scale?• What to scale?

Scalability

• Understand the connectivity between Data center and branches

• Mobile views• Office Web Apps• Office 2010 Document Cache and the MS-FSSHTTP

protocol• Outlook 2010• Sharepoint Workspace 2010• BranchCache with Windows 7 and Windows Server

2008 R2

The connectivity

• Consider OOB Backup/Restore tools• SQL backup for content• MS DPM 2010 and 3rd party tools• Disaster Recovery scenarios

Backup and Recovery

• Customizations and content• Sharepoint deployment framework• Logging and monitoring• Exception handling

Development

• SharePoint designer increases flexibility, but if misused, can have direct impact on versioning model

• Hybrid models– SPD allowed for site customizations, but not for page

layouts or master pages– SPD allowed for team sites, but not in corporate

communicational intranet

To SPD or not SPD?

• What is this?• MS Online considerations– BPOS-D – limitations and releases– Office 365 SharePoint deployment is in single site

collection (sandbox)

Sharepoint Online

• It’s all about governance– Define the development process– Define the quality assurance process in the individual project

and in the full deployment– Define the ground rules of the deployment– Define the models to administer and manage the deployment

• Application Life Cycle Management (ALM)• Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)• Software Quality Lifecycle• Business Continuity Management (BCM)

Portal Life Cycle ManagementNot just ALM or BCM, it’s the entire process for the lifecycle of the deployment...

• My blog: http://tihomirignatovblogspot.com• Sharepoint User Group Bulgaria:

http://www.sugbg.org • E-mail: contact@sugbg.org

Contact me

Q & A