Absolute Performance Inc.

Article Index
SharePoint Solutions
Managing SharePoint
Development Tips
TIP 1: Server Resources
TIP 2: End-User Experience
TIP 3: Storage Hierarchy
Recommended Resources
All Pages

1. Server Resources

Make certain your servers are not resource constrained. They will take more memory than you might first expect. The code needs to be optimized from the beginning. The server is constrained by resources required to meet the constant demands of indexing, work flow, and task list generation.

Most architects often place the largest, most powerful hardware at the back-end of an application deployment with SQL. For SharePoint, however, server-processing power is required at the web front-end for crawling content and serving user requests.

Different SharePoint functions have a wide range of resource needs and performance.

• Simple functions (events, announcements, home page) consume minimal CPU and I/O resources and have "sub-second" response times
• Moderate functions (search, doclib browsing, viewing document) take more CPU and/or I/O resources and typically have response times of "a few seconds"
• Complex functions (check-out/in, uploading) can take more significant CPU and I/O resources and have response times that can be "many seconds"

Because of the myriad of complexity levels and user base of SharePoint custom applications, it is difficult to come up with a single rule of thumb for resource requirements. From experience, with competition for RAM space from Windows, IIS, and SQL Server, most deployments should consider a minimum of 8GB of RAM on the servers deployed. Higher RAM requirements should be considered on the front-end server for more complex and moderate to heavy functioning applications. RAM requirements for SQL Server depends on the farm size of a deployment. Complex or medium to large farm deployments require an increasing investment in RAM to assist in expediting responses.

Summary - Build with Measurement and Management

Optimization of resources in a SharePoint deployment is critical to support end-user growth, content, and complexity. More RAM and more servers is not the best answer for long-term ROI on your SharePoint program. More RAM and more servers is also not the only solution for maintaining end-user performance. By using tools that combine real-time testing of end-user performance against application infrastructure, development teams are best able to optimize investments and maintain end-user performance.