Identify the roles and topologies of SharePoint farms

Exam: Microsoft 70-667 - TS: Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Configuring

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 is one of those platforms that are dependent on many other technologies of Microsoft. It is important to check and prepare the hardware and the software before SharePoint 2010 is installed. It is also important to check the existing environment for dependencies and interaction with technologies and products of SharePoint 2010. The article discusses the various types of roles pertaining to SharePoint Farms as well as their configuration. It also discusses the hardware and software requirements of the farm.

Server Infrastructure

The first step that we need to take towards installing SharePoint Server 2010, is to check and determine the server that is to host the SharePoint farm. A SharePoint farm can be installed on one or multiple servers. The points to consider for installing a SharePoint server are discussed below.

SharePoint: An Insight into its various components and schematics

Whenever SharePoint is implemented, it comprises of components that are in the nature of services, web applications and databases.

• Services - services includes in itself the crawler. The task of a crawler is to index the content for the purposes of search.
• Web Applications - The websites that the users normally intract with are termed as Web applications. Corporate intranet is an example of a Web Application.
• Databases - Databases store all content related to SharePoint. It also hosts the configurations.

A single or multiple servers in a farm can act as a host for the above mentioned components. The topology of the form is dependent on how the components are distributed or consolidated. A single-server farm can be used for running both SharePoint and SQL Server along with the components on a single-server. A single server farm is suitable for the environments related to training and development and sites that exhibit a low pattern of utilization. Small offices or offices at remote locations are examples of low utilization.

Performance of the SQL server is crucial for the performance of a SharePoint is dependent on it. This serves as the primary reason prompting organizations to run SQL server and SharePoint farm on separate server or cluster. Running them on separate servers has a positive impact on the level of utilization and hence increases efficiency. In addition to this installation of distributing web applications, load balancing applications and services on more than one servers improves performance levels. Performance can also be enhanced by allotting specific and separate servers for specific tasks. This strategy works well for complex environments.

The drawback with a single server SharePoint farm is that if the server fails, SharePoint sites become unavailable. Running a SharePoint farm on two servers along with the components being present on both the servers, helps deal with this drawback. The components and features that are available on a server is determined by the plan according to which the service agreement is drawn out.

Requirements of Hardware and Software

SharePoint Server 2010 is a platform that can be that can be used easily for any level of organizational setup and furthermore it can be scaled up to satisfy the demands of a growing enterprise.

When it comes to the hardware, it can be installed with a 4 cores having eight gigabytes of RAM and 2.5 mega hertz processor speed

When it comes to the software requirements, it is mandatory for have a sixty-four bit operating system since SharePoint 2010 itself is a 64 bit platform. It has to be a 64 bit platform for every SharePoint and SQL server. The other requirements include Windows Server 2008 with Service Pack 2 or Windows Server 2008 R2 which are both sixty-four bit versions.

The required database platform is SQL and the minimum requirements for that are that it can be SQL Server 2005 with Service Pack 3 with Cumulative Update 3 or SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1 with Cumulative Update 2 or Cumulative Update 5 or later or SQL Server 2008 R2, needless to say all of them should be sixty-four bit.