Different type of SharePoint Server 2007 server farm topologies. (System Architecture)

Introduction

This article discuss about understanding the different type of SharePoint server farm topologies.

Overview

The SharePoint Server 2007 server farm design vary based on the customer requirements, security perspective and size requirement. The topology designs can be created based on the size of the server farm namely small, medium, and large which can focus on either a single or multiple farm models.

Different type SharePoint Server Roles

Web Front End Server : A front-end server that provides the web services used to render applications (Presentation layer).

Application Server : A front-end server that provides applications services such as search and index (Services layer)

SQL Database Server : A dedicated server running either Microsoft SQL Server 2005. In large farms, this is typically a SQL Server clustered configuration with two or more servers.

Domain controller : Provide authorization and authentication service to Office SharePoint users.

Small server farm :

Small server farm which consist of two-server, one of the servers hosts the Web front end and the application services, while the second server hosts the SQL Server database. This provides a way to manage the database separately but adds complexity without adding scalability or availability.

This type of smallest deployment that is recommended for demonstration, training environment or very small organization or user group.

If you notice that architecture diagram has domain controller, either demonstration environment or very small group, I am sure that there will be existing domain controller server, you may consider re-use.

Small Farm System Architecture

Medium server farm :

Part of this article is to help you determine the minimum requirements which allow you design and achieve your customer goal.

To design high-availability solution, you must deploy a server farm. To decide you may need to discuss following items with your customer and analysis the outcome.

Question	Yes	No
Is your overall availability requirement below 99%?
Is the availability of your data critical?

Question 1 Is your availability requirement 99% or greater? If your customer response to “YES”, which means organization looking for high availability on Office SharePoint Server 2007.

I order to meet above requirement you need to design your Web Front End Server to the two-server deployment, which will gain scalability and availability by load-balancing requests so that if one server goes down, the system up and running.

Question 2 Is the availability of your data critical?, If your customer response to “YES”, which means organization is looking for high availability and gain scalability to safe from data loss, so your design need to be clustered or mirrored database server .

Medium Farm System Architecture

Large server farm :

Part of this article is to help you determine the Large server farm configuration which is suitable for an enterprise-level SharePoint environment:

To design enterprise-level SharePoint environment, you may need to discuss following point with your customer and analysis the outcome (This question are in-addition to medium farm server questions).

Application server role	Service
Query
Excel Calculation Services
Index & Search (External System i.e. ERP, CRM, File share and Lotus Notes)
Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 search

Enterprise-level SharePoint environment :

_ Two or more load-balanced front-end web servers running Office SharePoint Server 2007

_ Two or more application servers running Office SharePoint Server 2007

_ One Index & Search servers running Office SharePoint Server 2007

_ Two or more clustered database servers running SQL Server 2000 or 2005

_ SAN Storage

The above architecture diagram shows Web Tier, Application Tier and DB Tier which design to serve different purposes, each of the servers provides specific SharePoint Server 2007 services such as Index Services or Excel Calculation Services, and the front-end servers provide web content services.

The servers in server farm (WFE server, Application server, Index server) must run with Office SharePoint Server 2007.

Database server which configure clustered or mirrored environment with SAN storages.

Conclusion

There is nothing special or difficult on above architect design, basically understanding the customer requirements (i.e. future user growth rate, storage capacity, system availability, security, and system performance requirements) put this pieces of information together and analysis and provide possible solutions architecture that meet your customer goal.

Other SharePoint related article :

1. Microsoft Office Servers Overview with Logical Architecture

2. Office SharePoint Server 2007 Features

3. Setup and Install SharePoint 2007 Server (MOSS) on Virtual PC

codeproject

Setup and Install SharePoint 2007 Server (MOSS) on Virtual PC

This article describes how to Setup and Install SharePoint 2007 Server (MOSS 2007) on Virtual PC

Before you start installing, Make sure that you downloaded following software’s.

1. 1. .NET Framework 2.0
2. 2. .NET Framework 3.0
3. 3. Windows SharePoint Service 3.0
4. 4. Windows SharePoint Service 3.0 SP 1
5. 5. Virtual PC 2007 and
6. 6. Windows Sever 2003 R2.

The following process includes creating a new VM definition, adjusting the settings, and installing the operating system (OS) and .NET Frameworks. (Take note that this process will take about three hours.)

Setup Victual PC

1. 1. Click New... and Click Next

1. 2. Select Create a new virtual machine. Click Next.
2. 3. Type the name and location. The default is New Virtual Machine. To create the VM on your external hard drive, enter the location and a name called WindowsEntServer2003BaseImage. and Click Next.

1. 4. Select an operating system as Windows Server 2003 and Click Next.

1. 5. Adjust the RAM. For this base image 1 GB or 1024 MB will suffice and Click Next.

1. 6. Select A new virtual hard disk option and Click Next.

1. 7. Create the hard disk in the same location that you selected in step 4. Adjust the virtual hard disk size 6 GB is a good start. You can resize the disk at any time and Click Next.
2. 8. Click Next and Finish to completed the process.

Setup Loopback Adapter

Once the machine is created, add a second network adapter on the virtual machine to your host machine's Loopback Adapter.

1. 1. Click Settings.

2. 2. Click Networking.

3. 3. Change the setting Number of network adapters to 2.

1. Incase if you do not know how to Install Microsoft Loopback Adapter. Go to this website and follow the steps to install (How to install the Microsoft Loopback adapter in Windows XP)
2. 4. Change the setting Adapter 2 to Microsoft Loopback Adapter.

3. 5. Click OK.

Install an operating system on Virtual PC.

1. 1. Virtual PC, click Start

2. 2. If you have a Windows Server 2003 Enterprise R2 CD or DVD, insert it in your host machine now. If you have a Windows Server 2003 Enterprise R2 ISO image file, Go to menu bar, click CD, then Capture an ISO Image, and browse to the location of your Windows Server 2003 Enterprise R2 ISO image. Open the image.

3. 3. Follow the instructions to install the server operating system.

Once everything done, then the OS need to activate and Windows Update is run to install all available service packs and patches.

Edit the HOSTS File

Since the virtual network will not going to be served by the same DNS server used by the host machine. You need to locate a virtual machine by name rather than IP address, To edit Host file follow the steps.

1. 1. Got Run and enter C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc Right-click the HOSTS file and select Open.

2. 
3. 2. In the pop-up, select Notepad. Click OK.

4. 3. Add the IP address and machine name of your virtual machine on a blank line.

5. 5. Close the Window, and click Yes when prompted to save the changes.

Install ASP.NET 2.0 and ASP.NET 3.0

ASP.NET and Windows Workflow Foundation (WF). Both are required by SharePoint. ASP.NET 3.0 package Include above items, So follow the steps to Install.

1. 1. Copy .NET setup file to your VPC or Share folder and access form VPC

2. 2. When you double click it prompted to Run, Open, or Cancel, click Run or Open.

3. 

4. 3. Prerequisites will be checked and files will be copied.

5. 4. Agree with the terms, accept the license and click Install.

6. 5. When installation is complete, click Exit.

Allow ASP.NET 2.0 Web Service Extensions in IIS

1. 1. Select Start - Administrative Tools - Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager
2. 2. In the Internet Information Services management console, expand the server name in the left pane, then select Web Service Extensions:
3. 3. In the right pane, select ASP.NET v2.0.50727, then click the Allow button:

Install Windows SharePoint Service 3.0 SP 1

1. 1. Copy .NET setup file to your VPC or Share folder and access form VPC
2. 2. When you double click it prompted to Run, Open, or Cancel, click Run or Open.

3. 4. Agree with the terms, accept the license and click Install.

4. 5. When installation is complete, click Exit.

Back Up Your Base Image

Congratulation... Now you have created a reusable base image. Start to make a backup this image. So that you can save time when creating servers in the future.

1. 1. Click Start and Shut down your VM. Enter a reason of "Base Image Backup".
2. 2. Once the files are backed up, you can create a new machine by moving or copying the VHD into another folder, renaming it according to purpose

3. 3. Prerequisites will be checked and files will be copied.

Install SharePoint on Virtual Machine

1. 1. Virtual PC, click Start

2. 2. If you have a SharePoint 2007 Server with Service Pack 1 CD or DVD, insert it in your host machine now. If you have a SharePoint 2007 Server with Service Pack 1 ISO image file, Go to menu bar, click CD, then Capture an ISO Image, and browse to the location of your Windows Server 2003 Enterprise R2 ISO image. Open the image.

3. 3. Follow the instructions to install the server operating system.

4. 4. Insert the MOSS 2007 installation media, start the installation, enter the Standard / Enterprise product key, then click the Continue button:

1. 5. Select I accept the terms of this agreement checkbox, then click the Continue button:
2. 6. On the Select the installation you want screen, click the Advanced button:

1. 7. Server Type tab, select the Complete option and then click the Install Now button:

1. 8. Once the installation is complete, select the Run the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard now checkbox, then click the Close button

1. 9. Run and SharePoint Configuration Wizard
2. 10. On the Welcome to SharePoint Products and Technologies screen, click the Next button:

1. 11. In the services may have to be started or reset dialog box, click the Yes button:

1. 12 On the Connect to a server farm screen, select the No, I want to create a new server farm option, then click the Next button:
2. 13. SharePoint Setup will complete 1of10 steps to auto configure
3. 14. Congratulation.. You  installed and configured MOSS 2007 application running inside the virtual machine.

You can also view this article at www.codeproject.com to view click here

codeproject

Upcoming SharePoint Webcasts

MSDN Webcast: SharePoint Products and Technologies for Internet Site Development: Getting Started (Level 100)

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

11:00 A.M.–12:00 P.M. Pacific Time

MSDN Webcast: SharePoint Products and Technologies for Internet Site Development: .COM Branding (Level 200)

Thursday, December 4, 2008

11:00 A.M.–12:00 P.M. Pacific Time

MSDN Webcast: SharePoint Products and Technologies for Internet Site Development: Custom Fields, Web Parts, and Lists (Level 200)

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

11:00 A.M.–12:00 P.M. Pacific Time

MSDN Webcast: BenkoTips Live and On Demand: SharePoint Server Features with Scot Hillier (Level 100)

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

9:00 A.M.–10:00 A.M. Pacific Time

MSDN Webcast: SharePoint Products and Technologies for Internet Site Development: Authentication (Level 200)

Thursday, December 11, 2008

11:00 A.M.–12:00 P.M. Pacific Time

Free online, community-based learning program

Ramp Up is a free, online, community-based learning program, with a number of different tracks that will help you build your portfolio of professional development skills. Ramp Up has a solid foundation of premium technical content from subject-matter gurus, and provides easy-to-access content in a variety of forms that guide you in learning the important skills. Join Ramp Up (it's free!)

Enjoy learning....

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server for Developers

As a developer, would you like to learn more about Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS)? MOSS is based on Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services, which gives developers the opportunity to get more problems solved with less effort.

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 takes full advantage of Microsoft ASP.NET and the Microsoft .NET runtime. The new features and added programmability support in MOSS provide a wealth of development opportunities. This course will immerse you in many of the developer-centric capabilities of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server.

You learn following topic

Level 1: Web Parts
Did you know that in SharePoint you can build pages as easy as in ASP.NET – and allow end users to create dashboards? Web parts allow for creating components of Web user interface that can be reused on multiple Web pages. These are introduced in ASP.NET and built on in SharePoint where they can be added to pages by end users and managed by IT Professionals. In this topic you will learn about building simple Web parts for SharePoint and how to connect them back to SharePoint site data.

Level 2: Data Lists
Did you know that SharePoint developers can work with data from lists that users get access to too? Data lists provide data storage for end users in SharePoint. End users can create lists with schema all through the SharePoint user interface and they can create, edit, and view the data. All of this data can be programmatically accessed by developers and this topic is all about that.

Level 3: Event Handlers
Did you know that SharePoint developers can automatically process data that your users upload via a spreadsheet? Event handlers (or event receivers) are custom code that runs on the SharePoint server in response to something that happens on the server. Event handlers can be useful for running business logic in response to data being added to the site. This topic shows how to create simple event handlers and investigates ways that event handlers can be used in SharePoint.

Level 4: Workflow
Did you know that you can write WF workflows in SharePoint without having to worry about storage, persistence, or how to interact with the user? Workflow in SharePoint allows for implementation of processes that require interaction such as email approvals or form completion by people in your organization. This topic shows you how to create simple workflows in SharePoint using Visual Studio that involve approvals from people by email and for meeting room resource bookings with an administrator.

Level 5: Silverlight Web Parts
Did you know that you can build rich Internet applications with SharePoint? Silverlight is a new Web user interface technology from Microsoft that allows for each implementation of animations and videos. This topic shows how a SharePoint user interface can be enhanced by using Silverlight in Web parts as part of a SharePoint site.

To Sign up visit : http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/rampup/dd221355.aspx

Microsoft Certified Master: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

The Microsoft Certified Master: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 program provides the most in-depth and comprehensive training available today for Office SharePoint Server 2007. This three-week training program is delivered by recognized experts from Microsoft and Microsoft partner organizations.

 

Prerequisites

Applicants must meet or exceed the prerequisite requirements for their chosen program track in order to be accepted into the Microsoft Certified Master program. Required exams and certifications will be verified.

Experience (Two or more years of hands-on experience)

There are two options: Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2003 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 option:

OR

Content Management Server 2002 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 option:

Successful completion of the following exams and certifications

• Exam 70-630: TS: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Configuring (for IT professionals)

• Exam 70-631: TS: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, Configuring (for IT professionals)

• Exam 70-541: TS: Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 – Application Development (for developers)

• Exam 70-542: TS: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Application Development (for Developers)

Pricing structure

Nonrefundable program application fee: US$125
Program fee: US$18,500
Non-lab exam retakes: US$250
Lab exam retakes: US$1,500

More details click here

Download document library as a zip

What a cool feature release by Mohamed Zaki (MVP)  an open source tool which allows users to download an entire document library as a zip file.

The new menu added to the sharepoint document library actions menu
To Learn more about Take a look at his blog post about it.

How to use Calculated value column

This article focus on three SharePoint functionality.

1. 1.) How to use Calculated value column.
2. 2.) How to format text using LOWER() and PROPER () functions.
3. 3.) How to Merge two column value.

Let's begin, We seen from our past experience that, Individual users use to enter data their own style or non-standard format. Since this is part of end users habit, its very difficult to train everyone in the organization.

Given below example shows how end user's entered SharePoint contact list information.

User Data Input

SharePoint List View

Above scree shots show that the data entered inconsistence way and display in same manner.

Since this known problem in the industry we need to manage these issue.

Let's see how can manage below requirements

1. 1.) Display eMail Address to lower case,
2. 2) Merge First and Last name and Display as Full Name.

SharePoint : Go to Contact List and Click Settings and then Click List Settings.

Create new column called "FormatedeMailAddress" and click "Calculated" On Formula text box type following formula.

=LOWER (eMailAddress)

Save and Go back to Contact List view you can see the email address display on Lower case format.

Let us look how to merge two column value "First and Last" as "Full Name" and format text in to proper case.

SharePoint : Go to Contact List and Click Settings and then Click List Settings. Create new column called "Full Name" and click "Calculated" On Formula text box type following formula.

=CONCATENATE(PROPER(First)," ",PROPER(Last)) 

Save and Go back to Contact List view you can see the email address display on Lower case format.

CONCATENATE () - Joins several text strings into one text string.

PROPER() - Capitalizes the first letter in a text string and any other letters in text that follow any character other than a letter. Converts all other letters to lowercase letters.

LOWER() - Converts all uppercase letters in a text string to lowercase

TechNet Forums

SharePoint - Collaboration

Discussion about team sites, project tracking, document collaboration, extranets, etc.

SharePoint - Community Advancement

Discussion about improving or expanding the worldwide SharePoint community through blogs, forums, social networking, conferences, user groups, code camps, etc.

SharePoint - General Question and Answers and Discussion

Discussion about presales oriented questions and discussions.

SharePoint - Search

Discussion about Search capabilities in SharePoint.

SharePoint - Setup, Upgrade, Administration and Operation

Discussionabout installation/setup and upgrade/migration as well as administration and operation.

SharePoint - Social Computing
Discussion about MySites, blogs, wikis, tagging, social networking, knowledge search and brokering, communities, etc

SharePoint MSDN Forum

Given below SharePoint discussion forum for various SharePoint related topics this may help SharePoint professional to query or find answer to the issue they face.

SharePoint - Design and Customization

Discussion about site design (i.e. definitions, templates) and page customization (i.e. layouts) as well as SharePoint Designer and similar tools.

SharePoint - Development and Programming

Discussion  about development and programming (i.e. web parts, features, etc.), SDKs, and tools (i.e. Visual Studio).

SharePoint - Enterprise Content Management

Discussion  about document management, records management, and web content management capabilities in SharePoint products and technologies.

SharePoint - Excel Services

Discussion  about Excel Services capabilities in Office SharePoint Server.

SharePoint - InfoPath Forms Services

Discussion  about InfoPath Forms Services capabilities in Office SharePoint Server.

SharePoint - Workflow

Discussion about workflow capabilities in SharePoint products and technologies.

SharePoint - Accessibility

Discussion about improving accessibility and usability for the physically challenged.

SharePoint - Business Data Catalog

Discussion about the Business Data Catalog capabilities in Office SharePoint Server.

SharePoint - Business Intelligence

Discussion  about implementing SharePoint for business intelligence oriented solutions.

Windows SharePoint Services - WSS 3.0

Windows SharePoint Services is a component of Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Downloadable at no additional charge. Microsoft recently release Microsoft® Windows® SharePoint® Services 3.0 is technology of Windows Server® which offers an integrated portfolio of collaboration and communication services.

Given below the Component overview you can also view more information at Office website

Component overview

Collaboration: Help keep teams connected and productive by providing easy access to the people, documents, and information users need to make more well-informed decisions within their jobs. Windows SharePoint products and technologies include collaboration and community, document life cycle capabilities, alters, task notifications, Really Simple Syndication (RSS), the basic Web-based user interface and navigation.

Portal: The portal components of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 include features that are especially useful for designing, deploying, and managing enterprise intranet portals, corporate Internet presence Web sites, and divisional portal sites.

Search: The search component has been significantly enhanced in this release. The new features provide a consistent and familiar search experience, increased relevance of search results, and new functionalities along with improved scalability, manageability, and extensibility.

Enterprise Content Management: Windows SharePoint Services provides core document management functionality: major and minor versioning, check-in/check-out document locking, rich descriptive metadata, workflow, content type–based policies, auditing, and role-based-access controls at the document library, folder, and individual document levels. Office SharePoint Server 2007 builds on these capabilities to deliver enhanced authoring, business document processing, Web content management and publishing, records management, policy management, and support for multilingual publishing.

Forms Driven Business Process: Streamline forms-driven business processes with easy-to-use, intelligent, XML-based electronic forms that integrate smoothly with existing systems. This security-enhanced, client/server platform provides rapid-solution creation and deployment, centralizes form management and maintenance, and helps to extend business processes to customers, partners, and suppliers.

Business Intelligence: Provide business intelligence (BI) capabilities to every employee, so they can share, control, and reuse business information in order to make better business decisions. The BI features of Office SharePoint Server 2007 provide Web and programmatic access to published Microsoft Office Excel spreadsheets, programmatic reuse of critical line-of-business data, and easy development of Web-based BI dashboards that can incorporate rich, data-bound key performance indicators (KPIs), Web Parts, and published spreadsheets