Avoiding 10 common SharePoint Administration mistakes

Dodge thebullet10 ways to avoid commonmistakes in SharePointAdministration#SPSUK08Benjamin Athaweswww.benjaminathawes.com@benjaminathawes

Who am I? − SharePoint server junkie for just over 3 years − Head of IT Infrastructure at eShare Limited in West Berkshire (near Reading) − SharePoint 2010 admin/dev MCTS, MCITP & MOS − SharePoint User Group speaker (#SUGUK) 2

The slide my bossmade me add…• The only specialist provider of “governance” software • 220 + trusts • Pensions / Health / Charities / Corporates • UK / Holland / Australia / South Africa• Hosted solution based on SharePoint Server and K2• Data centre located in Newbury, Berkshire

Our clients

Who are you? • IT PRO? • Dev? • Business? • A bit of everything? • Wrong session?

Why this session?Similar administration questions keep recurring with eachnew version of SharePoint... “I’ve made changes in <SQL/IIS/the file “I have 100 Web apps system>, why have I and my farm seems got “an unexpected slow. How do I speed error”? things up?” “I have a 500GB content database and “Why am I getting a I’m having trouble warning in Central upgrading to Administration saying SharePoint <version>, that the Farm Account what can I do?” shouldn’t be a local admin?” 6

Why the same old questions? • Sophisticated product • Poor documentation • Success involves collaboration • Growing complexity!

Ok, so how do we dodge the bullet?

1. Put SharePoint in your job title − BIG product - not just SharePoint − „One man army‟ probably not realistic − Training

2. Start with an appropriate topology Yup,− Beware of SharePoint‟s another default settings: standalone install  SQL Server Express (R2 =10GB/DB limit)  No User Profile Service!− Plan the install

The evil button SQL Server ExpressFull fat SQL – use this  

3. Understand capacity planning recommendations − Easy to push under the rug − Software boundaries normally involve a trade-off − No magic numbers or a silver bullet (e.g. RBS) − Not always documented e.g. Web application scalability

Capacity Planning Example: too many Web appsWeb Apps Department Department Public Site A Project A Project B A BCollections Department Department Public Site A Project A Project B A BSiteDatabasesContent Department Department Public Site A Project A Project B A B…n Web apps; up to a recommended maximum of 20/farm

Capacity Planning Example: scaling with site collections Web Apps Secure Web Public Web SPCA MySites CTHub App (HTTPS) Sites (HTTP) Collections A B C D E A B C D E A B C D E F G H I J F G H I J SPCA F G H I J CTHub K L M N O K L M N O K L M N O Site P Q . . . P Q . . . P Q . . . Databases Content Secure Web Public Web SPCA MySites CTHub App (HTTPS) Sites (HTTP)…n site collections; recommended max 2000/content DB (!)

Common reasons for Web apps…Reason Potential SolutionVanity URLs Host named site collections Extend Web app (2007); multiple providers in 2010Authentication provider in single Web appSSL Extend Web appPartitioning Multi-tenancy (not trivial to implement)Web.config customisations Try to avoid them! 

4. Utilise SharePoints provisioning capability− If it‟s not packaged in a solution, don‟t deploy it!− Solutions are: − Scalable − Backed up − Quicker (e.g. branding artefacts on file system)

Provisioning example: manual assembly deployment

5. Avoid the default SQL DB growth settings − Default SQL autogrowth settings mean fragmentation  Pre size ldf/mdf files  Autogrow in MB not % − Index maintenance still relevant to SSDs − Mechanical disks – don‟t forget OS fragmentation!

6. Remember that virtualisation isn’tmagic sauce− You can‟t get away from normal physical limitations: − SQL IOPS − Hardware failure − NIC throughput− Ensure Non Uniform Memory Access (NUMA) has a direct impact on: − RAM installed in box − Allocation of RAM to VMs

NUMA NUMA?

The NUMA misnomer?− NUMA = a scalable CPU design for multi core processors (a good thing).− The “rule of thumb” guidance for determining NUMA boundaries: − RAM / logical cores − E.g. 64 GB RAM / [2 * quad core CPU] = 8GB boundary− My guidance: “It depends” on your hardware: check your specific configuration using CoreInfo & PerfMon− Hypervisor agnostic

NUMA exampleA HP DL380 G7 with 64GB RAM and 2 hex core processorsHyper threading enabledIn this particular case, there is a 1:1 ratio between CPU sockets and NUMA nodes,meaning that there are 2 NUMA nodes of 32 GB each.

7. Design and test a back up strategy − Align strategy with SLAs − Remember SQL backups don‟t cover everything (farm config) − Document your farm configuration using PowerShell or 3rd party tools e.g. SPDocKit

What’s backed up? Configuration Setting 2007 SP2010 farm-only config SP2010 with SPDocKit A/V settings. N Y Y Diagnostic logging settings. N Y Y IRM N Y Y Farm solution store N Y Y Application pool settings, including service accounts (all accounts that run as Web applications, including the crawler N N account and the search account). Y Alternate access mapping settings. N N Y Farm-level search settings. N N Y External service connection settings. N N Y Workflow management settings. N N Y E-mail settings. N Outbound only Y Usage analysis processing settings. N N Y Content deployment settings. N N Y Timer job settings. N N Y Recycle Bin settings and other Web application general N N settings. Y Administrator-deployed form templates. N N Y Default quota templates. N N Y Database names and locations. N N Y Web application names and databases. Be sure to document the content database names associated with each Web N N application. Y Crawler impact rules. N N Y Activated features. N N Y Blocked file types. N N Y Check out SPDocKit at http://tinyurl.com/c6p6lus

8. Test, test and test again “No test farm equals no production farm!” Andrew Woodward− Includes:  Cumulative updates  Service Packs  Topology changes  IIS changes− Every environment is different

9. Utilise PowerShell − STSADM is deprecated − Not just for developers − MS product agnostic − Dozens of uses: removing GUIDs, automating installs, log checking, etc …but don’t forget to test your scripts!

10. Use crowd wisdom− “Many Are Smarter Than the Few”− Use social networking tools to keep up to date, e.g. “RBS is not „the solution to world hunger‟” Spencer Harbar “Cumulative Updates are not Service packs” Todd Klindt “SharePoint‟s farm-only config leaves a lot to be desired” Sean McDonough

Summary− It‟s not just SharePoint− Understand the capabilities and supported scenarios− “Default settings” aren‟t always sufficient− Social tools can aid decision making− Plan early to “dodge the bullet” 28

Thanks… …to you for listening …to Sean McDonough for reviewing most of the slides

Avoiding 10 common SharePoint Administration mistakes

by Benjamin Athawes on Jan 25, 2012

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Avoiding 10 common SharePoint Administration mistakes — Presentation Transcript