Chapter 5

Scaling and High Availability

IN THIS CHAPTER, YOU WILL LEARN TO:

• UNDERSTAND FARM TOPOLOGIES
  • Understanding the Single-Server Farm
  • Understanding the Two-Server Farm
  • Understanding the Three-Server Farm
  • Understanding the Medium-Server Farm
  • Understanding the Large Farm
• CONFIGURE SERVERS AND SERVICES
  • Adding and Removing Servers from a Farm
  • Managing SharePoint Services
• SCALE OUT WEB SERVERS
  • Configuring Windows-Based NLB
  • Using a Hardware-Based Load Balancer
  • Running Central Administration on Multiple Servers
• SCALE OUT APPLICATION SERVERS
  • Understanding Cross-Farm Services
  • Configuring Cross-Farm Services
  • Scaling the Search Service
• SCALE OUT DATABASE SERVERS
  • Adding New SQL Servers
  • Scaling Using Database Mirroring
  • Scaling Using Clustered SQL Servers

As a 64 bit-only platform, SharePoint does a great job of scaling up to some of the best hardware on the market today. However, scaling out by adding additional servers is usually necessary to achieve your goals, and this is where the greatest flexibility is. This chapter looks at common farm topologies, describes how to configure where services run, and explores how to scale each of the server roles: WFE, application, and database.