Traditional Topologies for SharePoint 2013

Topology design principles Topology concepts for SharePoint 2013

Overview Smallest fault-tolerant farm Search optimized farm Distributed cache Office Web Apps Server Request management and load balancing
The traditional three-tier roles of a Microsoft® For example: Server Roles The smallest fully redundant physical farm A search-optimized farm separates the query The distributed cache feature is enabled by Office Web Apps Server is a separate server product Request Management is a feature that gives SharePoint farms control over
SharePoint® 2013 farm can be deployed on a single  The Search service application includes multiple Web server incorporates six servers — two for each tier. processing component and index component default and the Distributed Cache service is that can: incoming requests and how these are routed. Routing rules are prioritized and
server for evaluation or development, or on many application components and multiple databases.  Hosts web pages, Web services, and Web Parts User requests are automatically load-balanced to dedicated application servers. The remainder automatically started on all web and application apply logic to determine the nature of requests and to apply the most
servers. The three-tier roles include:  The User Profile service application includes that are necessary to process requests served across the web servers and application servers of the search components and all other servers in a farm. Distributed cache improves  Serve multiple SharePoint Server farms for appropriate response, such as the following types of actions:
 Web server role — Fast, light-weight server which multiple databases. by the farm. are utilized equally. application roles remain on two all-purpose performance by: viewing and editing.
responds to user requests for web pages. All web  Directs requests to the appropriate application application servers.  View files from Exchange Server, Microsoft Lync.  Route requests to web servers that have good health characteristics.
servers in a farm are mirrors of each other and are Each service application is associated with at least servers. For SharePoint 2013, the query processing  Caching social data, such as news feeds.  Integrate with URL-accessible file servers.  Identify and block known bad requests .
load balanced. one service on the Services on Server page in Central  In dedicated services farms, this role is not component replaces the query role of previous If crawling is producing more traffic on web  Caching authentication tokens.  Route requests of specific types (such as search) to specific servers in the farm.
 Application server role — Provides the service Administration. necessary because web servers at remote farms versions. The query processing component servers than user requests, you can dedicate By separating Office Web Apps from the SharePoint
features of SharePoint products and technologies. contact application servers directly. requires more resources and is not one or more web servers for crawling. We In very large environments distributed cache can farm, servers can be updated more frequently and Request management does not replace the role of a load balancer and it is not
An application server often provides all or a subset Services on the Server recommended for web servers unless these are recommend this in environments that crawl be offloaded to dedicated servers. scale and performance can be managed enabled by default.
of service features. Multiple redundant application The Services on Server page in Central Administration Application server roles sized appropriately. large amounts of data. In SharePoint 2013, it is independent of the SharePoint environment. Office
servers can be load balanced. lists services that are started or stopped on specific Use the Services on Server page in Central Administration to not necessary or recommended to configure Web Apps Server can be used with all versions of The Request Management component can run in integrated mode on chosen
 Database server role — Stores content and service servers in the farm: assign services to specific application servers. Use SQL Server clustering, mirroring, or affinity for these servers on the load balancer. SharePoint 2013. The Office Web Apps Server web servers in a farm. Alternatively, the Request Management component can
data. All databases can be assigned to one  Some of these services are associated with service  In many farms, all services will run on two AlwaysOn for the database servers. AlwaysOn architecture does not include a database. run on dedicated servers that are not part of the SharePoint farm.
database server. Or databases can be spread applications. After you deploy service applications identically configured application servers for requires SQL Server 2012.
across multiple servers. All databases can be to the farm, go to the Services on Server page and redundancy.  Integrated mode — Request Management runs on the web servers you
clustered or mirrored for failover protection. ensure that the associated services are started on  The Search service application automatically Dedicated Distributed cache is started Office Web choose in a farm. This mode is appropriate for most environments (shown
the appropriate servers. configures the necessary services on application Web servers Web servers web server
for crawling
Web servers on all Web and application
servers by default.
Web servers Apps Server
farm below).
In a small farm, server roles can be combined on one  Some of these services are not associated with servers. Using the Services on Server page is  Dedicated mode — Servers in a separate Request Management farm sit
or two servers. For example, web server and service applications. not necessary. Application servers Application servers Application servers Application servers between the hardware load balancer and one or more SharePoint farms. This
running all other running all other running all other
application server roles can be combined on a single  After deployment, look for services that running all service
application roles service application service application service application mode is appropriate for large-scale environments. With this configuration,
roles roles roles
server or on two or more servers to achieve After you plan the farm topology, see Plan services on consume a disproportionate amount of Request Management can serve several SharePoint farms. A Request
redundancy. server in the TechNet library to plan the mapping of resources and consider placing these services All databases
Dedicated application servers
for the query processing
Query processing
components and index
Query processing
components and Management farm can be scaled independently based on utilization (not
services to server applications. Note: To deploy on dedicated hardware. All databases component and the index
component
All databases components All databases index components
shown).
Service Applications search components to servers, you use the Search Database server
Load Balancer
Service applications are services that are shared across service application pages in Central Administration
In a small farm environment, all databases can
sites within a farm (for example, Search and Excel instead of the Services on Server page.
be deployed to a single server. In larger Important: The query processing component in SharePoint 2013 offloads much of the CPU and Stretched farms for SharePoint 2013 are supported as of April 2013: Some enterprises have data centers
Services). Some service applications can be shared
environments, group databases by roles and deploy disk load from SQL Server. The footprint and performance requirements for SQL Server in that are located in close proximity to one another, connected by high-bandwidth fiber optic links. When Request Management runs Office Web
across multiple farms. Virtual Topologies Web servers on all web servers in a farm Apps Server
these to multiple database servers. SharePoint 2013 are lower than the previous product version. As a result of this architecture this environment is available it is possible to configure the two data centers as a single farm. This when in integrated mode farm
This model provides examples of virtualized improvement, the query processing component requires more local resources than previous distributed farm topology is called a "stretched" farm. For stretched farm architecture to work as a
Service applications are deployed to the application topologies. Virtualized topologies depend on the Application servers Request Management does not apply to Office Web Apps Server.
versions. The query role can be combined with the web server role on a server only if there are supported high availability solution the follow prerequisites must be met: running all other
server tier. Some services include multiple capacity of physical hosts, desired ratio or virtual service application Request Manager runs within SharePoint under SPRequestModule
enough resources. Running both of these roles on a single virtual machine requires a 6-8-core  There is a highly consistent intra-farm latency of <1ms, 99.9% of the time over a period of ten roles and responds to HTTP requests only.
components, and deployment of these components machines to hosts, and the underlying virtualization Legend for Single database Two redundant
VM and a physical host that runs Windows Server 2012. A 4-core VM does not provide enough minutes. (Intra-farm latency is commonly defined as the latency between the front-end web servers Query processing
requires planning. technology. database icons server database servers
components and
To configure Request Manager:
resources for both the query processing component and the Web server role. and the database servers.) All databases index components  Start the Request Management service on desired web servers.
 Configure rules by using Windows PowerShell.
 The bandwidth speed must be at least 1 gigabit per second.
To provide fault tolerance in a stretched farm, use the standard best practice guidance to configure
redundant service applications and databases.

Example topologies
Limited deployments (1-2 servers) Small multipurpose farms (3-4 servers) Medium farm architectures (6+ servers) Medium farm with Office Web Apps Server and articulated search roles
Limited deployments are typically used for product Small farm architectures serve a larger number of users and scale out based on how heavily services are used. Not all small farms are fault-tolerant. Medium farm architectures can be multi-purpose or optimized for specific purposes. This farm illustrates a fully fault-tolerant, virtual environment that includes Office Web Apps Server VMs and a plan for
evaluation, development and testing, or for environments Medium-size farms are fully fault-tolerant. Some environments might require more web scaling out databases. This diagram also calls out all search application roles.
that have limited numbers of users and don t require Three-server virtualized farm Four-server physical farms Smallest fault-tolerant farm utilizing virtualization servers. Factor 10,000 users per web server as a starting point.
fault-tolerance. Use virtualization to maximize the potential Add a dedicated application server for All farm server roles virtualized and distributed across two or four host servers (depending
of a smaller number of servers. environments with moderate service usage. on the operating system) to provide fault tolerance using the minimum number of servers. Six-server physical farm Six-server virtualized farm Windows Server 2008 R2
One-server farm Two-tier farm Windows Server 2008 R2
Evaluation or <100 users Up to 10,000 users Two web servers are predicted to serve Windows Server 2008 R2 Windows Server 2012 Load Balancer
Host A Host B
10,000-20,000 users. Web Servers
All Web and Host A Host B Host A Host B Host A Host A
All roles on one Web Server Web Server
server, including application
SQL Server server roles Web/Query server Web Server Web Server Web Server Web Server Web Office Web Office Office Web Apps Server VMs can share the same host as a SharePoint Web or
Host A Host A Application servers Server Web Server Web application server. If more than one Office Web Apps Server VM is included in the
Apps Apps architecture, add a load balancer or configure Application Request Routing in IIS.
running all service Server Server
application roles Web Server Dedicated
Databases Web Server Web Server Application Server Web Server
All All All All for Crawling
Application Application Application Application Host C Host D
Server Roles Server Roles Server Roles Server Roles All SharePoint
All All Databases The index is stored across replicas.
All SharePoint Databases Application Server Application Server
Application Application Host C Host D Each replica for a given index
Server Roles Server Roles Host C Host D Query Processing Query Processing partition contains the same data. The
Development Environments Query and Query and
Replica Index Partition 0 Replica
data within index replicas is stored in
the file system on the server.
Index Index Search Databases
Mimic a three-tier environment by using virtualization. If fault-tolerance of services is more important than user
performance, configure the farm with redundant
All
Databases
All
Databases
All
Databases
All
Databases
application servers instead of redundant Web servers. Eight-server physical farm optimized Application Server – All other Application Server – All other The rest of the search components: Crawl DB
Application Server Roles Application Server Roles Crawl, Search Admin, Content
Host A All SharePoint Databases for search All other All other
Crawl Crawl
Processing Component, Analytics Admin DB
Application Application Processing Component. Link DB
Web Server Web server SQL Server installed and configured to support SQL SQL Server installed and configured to support SQL Server Roles Server Roles
clustering, mirroring, or AlwaysOn. AlwaysOn requires clustering, mirroring, or AlwaysOn. AlwaysOn requires Web Servers Analytics DB
High availability — For environments above 1,000 users, two SQL Server 2012. SQL Server 2012.
servers utilizing SQL Server clustering, mirroring, or AlwaysOn Host E Host F All other Services DB
is recommended. AlwaysOn requires SQL Server 2012. Host E Host F
All Application Server Application Servers Virtualizing with Windows Server 2008 R2 versus Windows Server 2012 All SharePoint Databases All SharePoint Databases
Roles Windows Server 2012 allows a greater number of resources to be allocated to each virtual machine, and thus allows running a Application servers All All Scale out the database layer by first Config DB
SharePoint farm with fewer virtual machines than Windows Server 2008 R2. Due to the virtual architectures that are possible, this running all service Databases Databases Crawl DB
separating content DBs from services
application roles DBs. The Config DB can share a server Crawl DB
topology model indicates which operating system a virtual topology is designed for.
with the content DBs.
Database Server All SharePoint Databases
Query processing SQL Server installed and configured to support SQL clustering, mirroring, or AlwaysOn
All Databases components and index SQL Server installed and configured to support SQL clustering, across both of the hosts.
components mirroring, or AlwaysOn. AlwaysOn requires SQL Server 2012.

Scaling farms with server groups and storage groups

Medium farm with Office Web Apps Server and articulated search roles Sever groups Scaling out medium-size farms Scaling out large-size farms
If the cost of server hardware is a limiting factor (as opposed to the cost of licensing), four VMs can be The recommendation for scaling out a farm is to group services or databases that have Scale out medium-size farms based on the workload. This illustrated medium server farm is The recommendation for scaling out a large farm is to group service applications, services, or databases that have similar performance characteristics onto dedicated servers and then scale out the
consolidated onto a single physical host given enough server resources. similar performance characteristics onto dedicated servers and then scale out the scaled to host sites with large amounts of content. Scale the web servers and content servers as a group. The following topology illustrates a practical example of this concept. The text below each group of servers (red text) lists one possible way to build server groups.
servers as a group.
database servers as needed for growth. Scale out all other servers based on the utilization of
Windows Server 2008 R2 These topology examples group service applications and related components (for other service applications and services within the farm and the volume of content the farm Web Web server group 1 Web server group 2
example, databases) into several different logical groupings that can be used as a will host. Servers

Load Balancer
starting point. In large environments, the specific groups that evolve for a farm depend
on the specific demands for each service. Dedicated The number of users will affect the requirement for web
Physical Host A Physical Host B Web servers web server servers. Factor 10,000 users per web server as a starting
Up to four VMs can be combined onto one Note: Server groups is a planning concept. This term and concept is not found in Central for crawling point. Adjust the number based on how heavily the servers
Web servers for all incoming Dedicated web server(s) for
Web Office Web Office physical host if the host has sufficient CPU are utilized. Heavy use of client services will increase the
Server Web Server Web cores and RAM.
Administration. load on web servers. Physical Host 3 Physical Host 4
requests crawling and administration
Apps Apps Query processing
Server Server
Dedicated application servers for the Application Server - Index Application Server - Index
Scaling out search
components and
distributed cache service are recommended index components Start with two application servers dedicated to the query Application Application server group 1 Application server group 2 Application server group 3 Application server group 4
Application Server – Application Server – in environments that use social features, such processing component and index partitions and place all other Servers
Distribution Cache Service Distribution Service as social feeds and microblogging. service application components on a separate application
As illustrated, the farm on the right is designed to crawl 10 million items (~800 GB of All other application server server. Based on utilization, consider either adding all-purpose Replica Index Partition 0 Replica
Combining all application server roles onto components and services application servers that are configured similarly, or adding
one VM requires Windows Server 2012 which data). The correlation between items and volume of data will vary depending on the application servers to dedicate resources to specific service
Application Server - Index Application Server - Index
Application Server – All Application Server – All allows a greater amount of resources to be types of data that are crawled. It is important to understand the characteristics of the applications. For example, if performance data indicates that
Excel Services is using a disproportionate amount of Host B
Application Server Roles Application Server Roles allocated to individual VMs. Query and index servers All other search components All other services (use these servers Servers for running sandboxed code
data within the environment. Above 40 million items, consider a dedicated search farm. resources, offload this service to a dedicated server. for the Central Admin site)
Database
Replica 1a Index Partition 0 Replica 1b
The following table provides starting-point numbers for search components based on Servers Replica Index Partition 1 Replica
When scaling at the database layer, start separating
Crawl DB Crawl DB
number of items. databases by role. First, separate the content databases Database Database group 1 Database group 2 Database group 3
from the rest of the databases (as illustrated). Add database When scaling out search, typically one index partition is spread across two servers or Servers
Content databases All other SharePoint
servers based on the volume of content in your environment VMs. In this configuration, a server or VM hosts only one index replica. Index replicas
For more information and examples on scaling search farms, see the following model: databases and sizing targets for your organization. for the same partition must run on separate physical hosts (whether virtualized or not)
Example Search Architectures for Enterprise Search. to achieve fault tolerance. In SharePoint 2013, more index components are required
Physical Host C Physical Host D than query processing components.

All SharePoint Databases All SharePoint Databases Content databases and configuration Search databases All other SharePoint databases
database
Crawl DB

Starting-point numbers for search components based on number of items* Storage groups
SQL Server installed and configured to support SQL clustering, mirroring, or AlwaysOn Storage groups is a concept in which similar types of databases are grouped together and scaled out independent of the rest
across both of the hosts. NUMBER INDEX QUERY PROCESSING CONTENT ANALYTICS CRAWLERS CRAWL LINK ANALYTICS REPORTING SEARCH ADMNISTRATION of the databases based on need. All databases within a storage group are treated the same with backup procedures and
restore protocols. The best practice is to include the configuration database with the content database group.
OF ITEMS COMPONENTS COMPONENTS PROCCESING PROCCESING DATABASES DATABASE DATABASE COMPONENT
AND PARTITIONS COMPONENTS COMPONENTS
General Add 1 index Use 2 query processing Add 1 crawl Add 1 crawl Add one analytics reporting database for Use 2 search administration components for
Guidance partition per 10 components for redundancy. database per 20 database per 60 each 500K unique items viewed each day redundancy, for all farm sizes
million items Above 80 million items, increase million items million items or every 10-20M total items
to 4.

10 million 2 components 2 2 2 2 1 1 Variable 2

1 partition

10-40 million 8 components 2 4 2 2 2 1 Variable 2

4 partitions

100 million 20 components 4 6 6 2 5 2 Variable 2

10 partition

* This guidance is intended for enterprise search within an organization. Guidance for Internet sites is provided in a different document.

© 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. To send feedback about this documentation, please write to us at ITSPdocs@microsoft.com.