Servers and Configuration (Windows SharePoint Services 2.0)

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The Internet Platform and Operations group used the following types of servers to support scalable hosting mode with Active Directory account creation, SMTP notification, and high availability:

  • Front-end Web servers   Run Windows SharePoint Services, language templates, value packs, and virus scanner.

  • Back-end servers running SQL Server   Store documents and data and serve as the central data repository.

  • SMTP server   Sends out e-mail for invitations and alerts.

  • Active Directory servers   Manage accounts and provide authentication and authorization.

  • Backup server   Backs up data from the rest of the deployment.

  • Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) server   Monitors system and application status. (For more information about monitoring, see the fourth white paper in this series, Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 Monitoring Design and Implementation.)

  • Imaging and installation server   Runs Altiris software for imaging and rebuilding servers.

Based on the initial prototype testing, cost analysis, and solution research results, the Internet Platform and Operations group decided to use a scale-out solution on the front-end Web servers and a highly scalable solution on the back-end SQL Server clusters and storage area networks (SAN) storage unit. The front-end servers have two processors and the back-end servers have four processors. SAN provides high availability and scalability. Figure 1 shows a high-level view of the Windows SharePoint Services (Beta) server farm topology.

Figure 1: Server Farm Configuration

Server farm configuration

  1. Public DNS servers

  2. Internet

  3. Router (Cisco Systems)

  4. Load balancer (F5 Networks BIG-IP)

  5. Load balancer (F5 Networks BIG-IP)

  6. Front-end Web server farm (six servers)

  7. SMTP and DNS server

  8. Terminal services, debugging, and administration server

  9. SQL Server server 1

  10. SQL Server server 2

  11. SQL Server server 3

  12. SQL Server server 4

  13. SAN unit (Hewlett Packard)

  14. Active Directory domain controller 1

  15. Active Directory domain controller 2

  16. MOM server

  17. Backup server (Veritas software)

  18. Backup tape device

  19. HTML transformation server

  20. Imaging and installation server (Altiris deployment server)

  21. Router (Cisco Systems)

  22. Edge network

The configurations of MOM and Altiris servers follow the recommended installation steps, which are not repeated here. Both servers run Windows 2000 Advanced Server with Service Pack 4 (SP4) and all hotfixes or Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition (English). For additional MOM configuration information for this deployment, see the fourth white paper in this series, Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 Monitoring Design and Implementation.

The following sections describe how the Internet Platform and Operations group configured the various server types. These descriptions are of the Internet Platform and Operations group deployment; if you choose to deploy a similar configuration, you can choose different software. For example, where Microsoft Office is mentioned, you can use any productivity software compatible with Windows SharePoint Services.