Microsoft office sharePoint server

DELL POWER SOLUTIONS | March 20091 Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, March 2009. Copyright © 2009 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS)

2007 is an enterprise productivity platform

that incorporates rich integrated capabilities

and provides a common end-user experience. It can

support a wide range of IT functions, including enter-

prise Web presence, employee intranets, regulatory

compliance repositories, satellite office sites, extranets,

team and project sites, and social networking.

MOSS is built on Microsoft Windows® SharePoint

Services (WSS), which is integrated into the Microsoft

Windows Server® 2003 OS and available as a com-

plimentary download for Windows Server 2008.

WSS provides the base infrastructure for MOSS as

well as basic functionality such as document col-

laboration, calendars, task lists, discussion boards,

and blogs. To this infrastructure MOSS 2007 adds

rich business process functionality including content

management, search, portals, and business pro-

cesses and intelligence. When appropriately imple-

mented, WSS and MOSS 2007 can help organizations

of all sizes address a variety of challenges:

Simplified management:■■ Given the relative ease

of deploying a group or departmental collabora-

tion platform, the proliferation of uncontrolled

servers can quickly create management prob-

lems. A well-designed MOSS 2007 deployment

enables end users to create and manage collabo-

ration sites (such as blogs, wikis, and departmen-

tal Web sites) while retaining administrator

control over the overall deployment. Users can

provision sites, maintain their own security and

access controls, and even delete sites when they

are no longer needed. Administrators, mean-

while, can monitor site usage, add or remove

resources as required, and automatically archive

abandoned sites.

Comprehensive search capabilities:■■ Finding infor-

mation is an ongoing enterprise challenge. Existing

search implementations may not span the enter-

prise or may not return the information users

expect. MOSS 2007 provides enterprise search

functionality that can index not only MOSS data,

but also data in other applications—combining

enterprise scalability and contextual relevance to

provide rich search capabilities.

Enterprise and regulatory compliance: ■■ Enterprise

guidelines and regulatory legislation often require

indexing and storing information. Noncompliance

with regulatory legislation can lead to severe

financial penalties or even criminal charges. MOSS

2007 content management features can seamlessly

integrate with existing processes and provide a

final repository for stored information.

The Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007 platform offers powerful, flexible support for a wide variety of collaboration functions. By following best practices for deploying and configuring this solution on farms of Dell™ PowerEdge™ servers, organizations can create a robust, manageable foundation for end-user productivity.

By Gong Wang

Steven A. Grigsby

Deploying Microsoft office sharepoint server 2007 on Dell server farMs

Related Categories:

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Microsoft Office SharePoint Server

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2DELL.COM/PowerSolutionsReprinted from Dell Power Solutions, March 2009. Copyright © 2009 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

Understanding the MOSS topology

and taking appropriate deployment

steps can help organizations create an

infrastructure that can meet their spe-

cific needs. By following best practices

to deploy MOSS 2007 on a farm of Dell

PowerEdge servers, create the neces-

sary Web applications and Shared

Services Provider (SSP), and configure

site collections, administrators can

create a robust, manageable foundation

for end-user productivity.

Understanding the Moss 2007 toPologyMOSS is a Web-based application built on

the Microsoft Internet Information Services

(IIS) and ASP.NET platforms with a

Microsoft SQL Server® back-end data

repository for MOSS content. MOSS imple-

mentations are very flexible and can range

from single-server deployments up to

large server farm deployments. Single-

server deployments, which run all MOSS

services on a single physical server, are

well suited for small businesses with rela-

tively few users and a small amount of

data. This type of implementation can also

be useful in a lab environment for proof-

of-concept deployments and testing.

A more typical MOSS implementation,

however, would use a farm of multiple

servers (see Figure 1):

Database server: ■■ This server supports

the MOSS database services. In large

implementations, multiple clustered

SQL Server systems may be necessary

to handle the database workload. The

physical disk storage can be moved

to direct attach storage (such as Dell

PowerVault™ systems) or networked

storage (such as Dell PowerVault, Dell

EqualLogic™, or Dell/EMC systems) on

an existing Internet SCSI (iSCSI) or

Fibre Channel infrastructure.

Web front-end server: ■■ This server sup-

ports the MOSS Web sites. Multiple

servers may be necessary to handle

heavy Web traffic accessing the MOSS

farm, including Windows Network

Load Balancing to help balance the

load between the servers.

Search index and query server:■■ This

server supports the MOSS enterprise

search functionality, which comprises

index and query services. The index

services crawl the MOSS content for

indexing, while the query services handle

user search queries. These services can

be offloaded to separate servers.

Other application servers: ■■ These serv-

ers support the MOSS Central

Administration site, Microsoft Excel®

Calculation Services, document con-

version services, and so on.

BUilding the server farM infrastrUctUreSeveral resources are available to help

organizations build a cost-effective MOSS

server farm, including a Dell implementation

sizing guide1 and the Microsoft SharePoint

Capacity Planning Tool, a complimentary

extension for Microsoft System Center

Capacity Planner 2007 that provides

analysis and simulation features.2

Installing MOSS 2007 requires the fol-

lowing user accounts:3

Setup user account:■■ This account

should be a domain account in the

local administrators group on every

server in the MOSS server farm. Using

a local account may cause access

problems with MOSS shared services.

SQL Server service account: ■■ This

account is needed during SQL Server

setup to run the MSSQLSERVER and

SQLSERVERAGENT services.

MOSS server farm account:■■ Also

known as a database access account,

this account acts as an identity for

the MOSS Central Administration

application pool and runs the WSS

Timer service.

Figure 1. Example Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 implementation on a multi-server farm

1 “Sharepoint 2007 Sizing Guide: Sizing Moss 2007 and WSS v3 on Dell Servers and Storage,” by the Dell Product Group, July 2008, DELL.COM/Downloads/Global/Services/sharepoint_2007_sizing_guide_v2.pdf.2 Available at www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=DBEE0227-D4F7-48F8-85F0-E71493B2FD87.3 For details on these accounts’ settings, see the MOSS 2007 installation guide, available at technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc298924.aspx.

iSCSI storage

End users

Web front-end server 1 Web front-end server 2

Search index and query server

Other applications

Directory domain controller

Database server

Microsoft office sharePoint server

DELL POWER SOLUTIONS | March 20093 Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, March 2009. Copyright © 2009 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

Creating a MOSS SSP also requires

several domain user accounts: the SSP

Web application pool account, SSP service

account, MOSS Search service account,

content access account, and Excel Services

unattended service account. Following the

principle of least privilege, these accounts

should not be members of the administra-

tors group on the Web front-end servers

or the back-end servers.

PreParing the dataBase, WeB, and aPPlication serversMOSS requires either Microsoft SQL

Server 2005 with Service Pack 1 (SP1) or

later or SQL Server 2000 with SP3a or

later to store its data. If no database ser-

vice is running in the environment, MOSS

installs an instance of Microsoft SQL

Server 2005 Express Edition. In small

environments that require only a stand-

alone MOSS server that runs all MOSS

components, this instance is typically

sufficient; in larger environments, a dedi-

cated database server or database server

cluster may be necessary.

The Dell SQL Server 2005 Advisor

tool (available at DELL.COM/SQL) can

help organizations identify an appropri-

ate SQL Server 2005 architecture for

their environments, providing a compre-

hensive view of hardware, software, and

services options. Based on an analysis of

administrator specifications, it outputs a

SQL Server configuration based on per-

formance sizing and Dell-recommended

best practices.

Best practices for database server

deployment in a MOSS farm of Dell

PowerEdge servers include the following:

OS deployment:■■ Microsoft Windows

Server 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition with

SP2 is the recommended OS for a MOSS

database server. Administrators can

use the Dell Systems Build and Update

Utility to help simplify OS deployment

on Dell PowerEdge servers.

Storage management:■■ Dell Modular

Disk Storage Manager software helps

simplify the operation and manage-

ment of Dell storage arrays. It provides

a host-based storage agent, multipath

driver, and the Modular Disk Storage

Manager interface, which administra-

tors can use to configure, manage, and

monitor the storage.

iSCSI storage:■■ Because the database

server runs Windows Server 2003,

administrators must install the

Microsoft iSCSI Software Initiator on

the host server before installing the

Dell Modular Disk Storage software.4

Surface area settings:■■ In SQL Server

2005, configure the surface area set-

tings to enable using both TCP/IP and

named pipes for local and remote

connections.

Database collation:■■ Administrators can

optionally preinstall the databases for

the MOSS server farm. If they do, they

must configure the SQL Server collation

to be case insensitive and the database

collation to be case insensitive, accent

sensitive, kana sensitive, and width sen-

sitive. Doing so helps ensure file name

uniqueness consistent with Windows

operating systems. This step is not

required if administrators choose to

have the MOSS setup program create

its databases during MOSS installation

and configuration.

Tempdb:■■ Because SQL Server 2005 is

installed on a boot drive, by default the

tempdb file is placed on the same

drive. To help optimize database per-

formance, administrators can move

this file to a different drive by first

opening SQL Server Management

Studio, connecting to the database

server, and clicking the New Query

button. They can then paste the script

shown in Figure 2 into the query pane

(replacing location with the path to

the new location), click the Execute

button, and restart SQL Server.

MOSS Web and application servers

must run the 32-bit or 64-bit Windows

Server 2003 OS and have the Microsoft

IIS 6.0, .NET Framework 3.0 or 3.5, and

ASP.NET 2.0 features installed or enabled.

Using the Dell Systems Build and Update

Utility can help simplify OS installation on

these servers.

installing and configUring Moss 2007After preparing the database, Web, and

application servers, administrators next

install the MOSS software. Figure 3 illus-

trates the overall installation process for

a MOSS server. A MOSS server farm is

established when the MOSS software is

installed on the first server; installing

MOSS on subsequent servers leads them

to join this farm.

4 For detailed instructions on setting up Dell PowerVault iSCSI storage using the Microsoft iSCSI Software Initiator and Dell Modular Disk Storage Manager, see the Dell PowerVault systems installation guides available at support.dell.com.

Figure 2. Script for moving a Microsoft SQL Server 2005 tempdb file to a different drive

USE master;

GO

ALTER DATABASE tempdb

MODIFY FILE (NAME = tempdev, FILENAME = 'location\tempdb.mdf');

GO

ALTER DATABASE tempdb

MODIFY FILE (NAME = templog, FILENAME = 'location\templog.ldf');

GO

4DELL.COM/PowerSolutionsReprinted from Dell Power Solutions, March 2009. Copyright © 2009 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

In general, setting up a MOSS server

as part of a server farm requires two

steps. First, administrators install the

MOSS software on the server. Second,

they launch the SharePoint Product and

Technologies Configuration Wizard to

configure the server for the farm. Both

steps are similar across different types of

MOSS servers, but administrators should

be sure to use the appropriate installation

type for each server and perform the

installation of each server in the appropri-

ate sequence.

As for the installation type, administra-

tors need to select from three installation

types that affect which MOSS compo-

nents and services are installed: complete

installation, Web front-end installation,

and stand-alone installation. Stand-alone

installations are intended for single-server

MOSS deployments and should not be

used in MOSS server farm environments.

As for the installation sequence, on the

first server, the configuration wizard

guides administrators through the process

of creating a MOSS configuration data-

base, a Central Administration Web site,

and other related services. The wizard can

then add additional servers to the existing

server farm, update an existing configura-

tion database, and install other related

services. Because of the dependency

between MOSS services, best practices

recommend installing servers in the fol-

lowing sequence using the installation

types noted:

1. Central Administration Web applica-

tion server (complete or Web front-

end installation)

2. Web servers (complete or Web front-

end installation)

3. Search index server (complete

installation)

4. Search query server (complete

installation)

5. Other application servers (complete

installation)

creating a shared services ProviderAfter installing and configuring the

MOSS server farm, administrators can

next create and configure a MOSS SSP.

SSPs are logical groups of shared ser-

vices and their supporting resources;

these services can include user profiles,

personal sites, enterprise search, and so

on. MOSS server farms can generally

host one or more SSPs.

To create the first SSP, administrators

must first configure the MOSS Search ser-

vice on the index and query server (see

Figure 4). If the environment includes

separate index and query servers, they

should configure the service on both

servers. A WSS Search service is also

available, and must be started on systems

that require searching help content.

Next, administrators must create a

Web application to host the SSP (see

Figure 5). Best practices recommend

including the same identity when naming

Figure 3. High-level process for installing a Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 server

No

Yes

Yes

No

Run theSharePoint Productand Technologies

Configuration Wizard

Yes

No

No

Yes

Create the MOSSconfiguration

database

Prepare thedatabase server

Complete theMOSS

installation

Retrieve theMOSS

configurationdatabase

Prepare the server(IIS 6.0, .NET

Framework 3.0 or 3.5,ASP.NET 2.0)

Install MOSS

Is thisa Central

Administrationserver only?

Is thisa Web server

only?

Is thisthe first MOSS

server?

Is therea preinstalled

MOSS configurationdatabase?Select Web

front-endinstallation

Completethe softwareinstallation

Selectcomplete

installation

Microsoft office sharePoint server

DELL POWER SOLUTIONS | March 20095 Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, March 2009. Copyright © 2009 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

the IIS Web site description, application

pool, database pool, and site collection or

site. When creating additional SSPs or site

collections, this consistent naming conven-

tion helps ease the identification and man-

agement of these sites and their respective

Web applications and databases, espe-

cially for backup and restore tasks.

In general, administrators should create

two Web applications in advance: one for

SSP site administration, which is used to

identify the SSP in administration pages,

and another for My Sites, which is used to

host personal sites and profile pages.

Although both sites can share the same

Web application, best practices recom-

mend using a separate Web application for

each. Using separate Web applications

helps ensure that an error in the end-user

Web application does not prevent admin-

istrators from accessing the administration

sites, and enables the personal sites to be

backed up and restored independently.

After the SSP has been successfully

created, the MOSS farm is ready to host

new site collections, subsites, and content.

Administrators can then configure and

enable several additional MOSS services

and applications to enhance the platform

and its manageability, including Excel

Calculation Services, WSS incoming and

outgoing e-mail services, and settings for

antivirus protection, searches, workflows,

and diagnostic logging. Figure 6 shows an

overview of an example MOSS farm and

its hosting services designed for a small

or medium business.

configUring Moss 2007 site collectionsSite collections are containers with tree

structures of subsites. They can distribute

administration from IT administrators to

authorized site users, providing a way for

end users to manage their own security

and access control and enabling adminis-

trators to maintain only the application

itself rather than also needing to maintain

security or content hierarchies.

Site collections can be defined based

on search scope, Web parts, site templates,

Figure 4. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Search service configuration on an index and query server

Figure 5. Shared Services Provider creation in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

Figure 6. Overview of an example Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 server farm and hosting services

6DELL.COM/PowerSolutionsReprinted from Dell Power Solutions, March 2009. Copyright © 2009 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

recycling bins, and so on. To control a site

collection, administrators can manage its

site quota, maintain its database, lock indi-

vidual sites, perform backup and restore

operations, and so on. Best practices rec-

ommend using a dedicated Web applica-

tion for each site collection. After a site

collection is created, authorized users can

create sites or subsites within the collec-

tion without requiring administrator

intervention.

creating a foUndation for ProdUctivityMOSS 2007 incorporates a wide variety of

rich enterprise features and capabilities—

ranging from collaboration sites to blogs

to data repositories. By deploying this

platform on a farm of Dell PowerEdge

servers and adhering to recommended

best practices for installation and configu-

ration, organizations can create a founda-

tion that supports end-user productivity

while maintaining a manageable infra-

structure for IT administrators.

Gong Wang is a software engineer in the

Dell Server Operating Systems Group, and

has worked as a test engineer on Dell

systems management software in the

past. Before joining Dell, he worked as a

research scientist at the Georgia Institute

of Technology and as an instructor at

Wuhan University in China. He has an M.S.

in Human-Computer Interaction and an

M.S. in Experimental Psychology from the

Georgia Institute of Technology.

Steven A. Grigsby is a software engineer

in the Dell Server Operating Systems

Group. He has a B.S. in Computer Science

from the University of Oklahoma.

QUicK linKs

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server:DELL.COM/SharePointwww.microsoft.com/sharepoint