| 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 |
3. Storage Hierarchy
In an operational environment, the document repository and collaboration are traditional uses of MOSS. Separate content just like a storage hierarchy. Have a scheduled process to move less-used content into a separate content database.
Don not underestimate storage requirements. For SharePoint deployments, for every 1GB of data, set aside 5-6GB of storage capacity. If you don't adequately size your disk space, you'll be forever adding space at inconvenient times.
For large deployments, additional content databases should be created at the development phase of your SharePoint custom application. A separate content database should be used for all of the sites except for the default portal site, which uses the first content database. You can do this during initial installation and deployment by adding one or more content databases for the portal site, and limiting the default content database containing the portal site to one site.
Most collaboration content has aged significantly over 30-90 days depending on the application and usage. Determine the business requirements of your end-users in order to develop a storage hierarchy based on the planned usage. This may vary by each site application.
TO store the aged files, move them to a backup file server and then update the file location in SQL so the new location is hidden from the user and they don't even know it has been moved. Conversely, documents on older, slower storage that have been accessed recently can be moved back to the faster storage.
SharePoint's architecture does have some cost and scalability limitaions when it comes to disk usage and management, largely due to SQL Databases and the limitaion of Site Collections for content databases. So how can we move less valuable documents onto less expensive disk hardware?
In SharePoint, you must implementa COM interface (called the EBS Provider) to keep these two stores in sync. The COM interface recognizes file Save and Open commands and invokes redirection calls to the EBS. The EBS Provider also ensures that thte SQL Server content database contains metadata references to their associated BLOB streams in the external BLOB store. You install and configure the EBS Provider on each web front-end server.
By creating these additional databases and storage in advance, you can structure a storage hierarchy based on the system usage that will ensure application performance and end-user productivity for successful SharePoint application delivery.
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