SharePoint 2016 Overview document provides an overview of SharePoint 2016 including: - Key new features such as improved mobile access, document storage and collaboration capabilities, and Office 365 integration. - Hardware and software requirements including supported Windows Server, SQL Server versions and browsers. - Limits and boundaries related to content database size, site collections per database, and list thresholds. - The migration approach to upgrading from previous versions including required build numbers. - New capabilities in SharePoint 2016 like MinRole deployment architecture, zero downtime patching, and feature packs.

1. SharePoint 2016 Overview
By Vignesh Ganesan | MCP, MCITP,MCTS & ITIL V3
SharePoint Consultant
Blog site : www.vigneshsharepointthoughts.com
Active Blogger on SharePoint Community & C Sharp corner
DISCLAIMER: Ideas may differ but these are my own thoughts
@sharepointnerd / vignesh.ganesan.14

2. Software &
Hardware
Requirements
What’s new &
what’s
deprecated?
Agenda
Recap & Conclusion
Migration
Approach to
SharePoint 2016
Feature Packs
,MinRole & Zero
downtime patching
Deployment Guidelines and Best practices

3. Evolution of SharePoint

4. SharePoint 2016
SharePoint Server 2016 RTM was released on March 14th
2016
Later was subsequently made available to the public on
May 2016
Most of the features were cherry picked from Office 365
and implemented here.
Based on SharePoint online learnings

6. Infrastructure
Handle more data, more efficiently, at less cost
Maximize existing infrastructure
Flexible deployments

7. Scalable Flexible Cloud Connected
Lower IT costs with a scalable
collaboration platform
Flexibility to deploy on-premises,
in the cloud, or in a hybrid
scenario
Naturally extend business
applications to the cloud with
simple, integrated hybrid solutions
MinRole for improved role-based
installation architecture
Support for Windows Server / SQL Server
2016 and Windows Azure
Enable discovery with Office Graph/Delve
and on-premises content
Follow documents, sites, and people across
on-premises and Office 365
Rapidly deploy new extranet scenarios with
Office 365 integration
New streamlined topology
2x improvement in search scale to 500
million documents
Ability to update and patch SharePoint
Server 2016 with no downtime
Spotlight capabilities
Cloud-inspired infrastructure
Major server release with significant scalability, flexibility, and functional enhancements

8. User Experience:
Office 365 integration
Hybrid implementation
Improved mobile access
Touch-based experiences
Document storage and collaboration
People-centric

9. Improved browsing experiences on mobile
devices
New APIs to develop solutions that span
SharePoint and Office 365
Faster page load performance
Improved link share experience
Rapid provisioning logic for fast site
creation
Spotlight capabilities
Access and Share Mobile Developer Experience
Instant access and share to
people, applications, and content
Consistent user experience across
screens and devices with a new
and improved touch UX
Create contextual solutions and
apps that integrate with Office
applications
New intuitive experiences help you get things done—more
quickly and cost effectively

10. Compliance
Keep information secure
New features and capabilities
Greater access control

11. Built-in and cloud-connected compliance,
security, and threat protection for both
administrators and end users
Enable item-level encryption when combined
with Office 365
Enable document encryption when combined
with IRM or cloud-accelerated with Office 365
Compliance Center integration
Built-in DLP policy templates
Document Hold and Deletion centers
Discover sensitive content via eDiscovery
Find sensitive information with 51 unique
classification IDs
Spotlight capabilities
Auditing and Reporting Compliance Data Loss Prevention
Monitor and report who actually
accessed and modified critical
information
Better manage risk by
safeguarding your business with
secure and reliable capabilities
Exercise fine control over who has
access to information
Compliance
Find the perfect balance between compliance and collaboration

12. Hardware requirements for SharePoint 2016
Physical servers must be in the same network
Stretched farm is supported with <1ms intra-latency and 1 Gbps Ethernet
connections

13. For MinRole Architecture:
Deployment type and scale Description
Two computer farm with:
•One SharePoint server that uses the Single-Server role.
•One SQL Server
This is the Single-Server farm role in the MinRole feature.
Use this role to test installation, create a farm and use common
features that have minimal changes, good for basic assessment
of SharePoint Server 2016.
Four or five computer farm with:
•One SQL Server
•One Front-end web server.
•One Application server.
•One Distributed Cache server.
•One Search server.
Good for testing more complex topologies and all the services.
Suited for testing Enterprise Search and provides a foundation to
build on for doing build-to-build upgrades.

14. Software requirements for SharePoint 2016
Latest generation of Windows and SQL server are needed
Operating system requirements:
• Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard or Datacenter
• Windows Server 2016 Standard or Datacenter
SQL Server requirements:
• The 64-bit edition of Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Service Pack 1 (SP1)
• The 64-bit edition of Microsoft SQL Server 2016
• SQL Server Express is not supported
Note : SP1 for SQL Server 2016 is out

15. Prerequisites:
• Web Server (IIS) role
• Application Server role
• Microsoft .NET Framework version 4.6
• Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Service Pack 1 Native Client
• Microsoft WCF Data Services 5.6
• Microsoft Information Protection and Control Client (MSIPC)
• Microsoft Sync Framework Runtime v1.0 SP1 (x64)
• Windows Server AppFabric 1.1
• Cumulative Update Package 7 for Microsoft AppFabric 1.1 for Windows Server (KB
3092423)
• Microsoft ODBC Driver 11 for SQL Server
• Visual C++ Redistributable Package for Visual Studio 2012
• Visual C++ Redistributable Package for Visual Studio 2015

16. Supported browsers for SharePoint 2016:
Browser Supported Not supported
Microsoft Edge X
Internet Explorer 11 X
Internet Explorer 10 X
Internet Explorer 9 X
Internet Explorer 8 X
Internet Explorer 7 X
Internet Explorer 6 X
Google Chrome (latest released version) X
Mozilla Firefox (latest released version plus
immediate previous version)
X
Apple Safari (latest released version) X

17. Boundaries and limits:
SharePoint 2016 SharePoint 2013
SharePoint 2010
Content Database Size
Content database sizing into
TB’s
200 GB in general usage
scenarios.
200 GB in general usage
scenarios.
Site Collections per
Content Database
100,000 site collections per
content database
2,000 recommended
5,000 maximum
2,000 recommended
5,000 maximum
List Threshold
Increased List Threshold
>5,000
5,000 items 5,000 items
MaxFile Size
MaxFile Size increases to
10GB and removed character
restrictions
Default maximum file size is
250 MB which can increase
up to 2GB
Default maximum file size
is 250 MB which can
increase up to 2GB
Indexed Items
2x increase in Search scale
to 500 million items
100 million per search service
application.
10 million per index partition
100 million per search
service application.
10 million per index
partition

18. What’s new and updated in SP 2016:
Access Services
Compliance
features
Customized web
parts
Document Library
accessibility
Durable links
Encrypted
Connections
Fast Site Collection
Creation
Filenames -
expanded support
for special
characters
Hybrid in
SharePoint 2016
Identify and Search
for sensitive
content
Image and Video
previews
Information Rights
Management
Large file support MinRole Mobile experience
New controls for
working with
OneDrive for
Business
New Recycle Bin in
OneDrive and
Team sites
Open Document
Format (ODF)
Project Server
ReFS file system
support
SharePoint
business
intelligence
SharePoint Search
Sharing
improvements
Site Folders view
Sites page pinning
SMTP Connection
Encryption
SMTP ports (non-
default)
Web Application
Open Platform
Interface Protocol
(WOPI)

19. Deprecated and removed from SP 2016:
SharePoint
Foundation
&Stand alone
Install mode
Duet Enterprise for
Microsoft
SharePoint
Forefront Identity
Manager client
(FIM)
Excel Services in
SharePoint
SharePoint BI
capabilities
(SQL2016)
Tags and
Notes/Stsadm.exe
Work Management
Service Application
SharePoint
Designer
&InfoPath

20. Hybrid Features:
• Hybrid is just not meant to bring your business to the cloud but to bring cloud
to your business 
Hybrid Sites Hybrid Follow
Office 365
Profiles
Hybrid OneDrive
for Business
Cloud Hybrid
Search

21. Where are we now?
…..
SharePoint 2016 has a converged code base that
serves both cloud and on-premises customers
Features are released in Office 365 first
SharePoint Server 2016 will be serviced
with many of these features
Major releases remain on a traditional 2-3 year
release cycle
SharePoint

22. Converged codebase

23. Feature Packs
Leverage cloud features with SharePoint Server 2016
What’s a Feature Pack?
Unlike previous versions of SharePoint, release-to-manufacture (RTM) did not define the
end of innovation, but the beginning. As we continue to develop SharePoint Server 2016,
we’ve paid close attention to customer feedback, trends in content management, team
collaboration, user experiences across devices, and how the cloud can be blended into
existing on-premises scenarios in new and compelling ways. Feature Packs allow us to
accelerate delivery of cloud-first features to our Software Assurance customers (where
noted) of SharePoint Server 2016 outside of the traditional 2- to 3-year release cadence.

24. New in Nov 2016 PU for SharePoint Server 2016
(Feature Pack 1):
MinRole
enhancements
SharePoint Custom
Tiles
SharePoint Hybrid
Taxonomy(Preview)
Administrative
Actions Logging
OneDrive API for
SharePoint on-
premises and
Office 365
SharePoint Hybrid
Auditing(Preview)
OneDrive for
Business modern
experience

25. Administrative action logging 

26. OneDrive for Business Modern UX
 New Modern UX accrued from Office 365
• Adds Move to and Copy to
• Adds new Information Panel
• Adds Rename
• Fast and responsive
 Available for Software Assurance
customers

27. Custom Tiles
• It was already available on Office 365 and now it's available on SharePoint
2016 as well .
• Simple, list-based support for creating custom App
• Mainly based on a list item called “Custom tiles”

28. Custom tiles list
• Hidden list which is configured at the web application level so that all the site
collections can make use of it .
• Use PowerShell to configure this

29. Hybrid Auditing (Preview):
Users can choose to upload their SharePoint diagnostic and usage logs and
have reports generated for them in Office 365.
With SharePoint Hybrid Auditing, the SharePoint Administrators now have
visibility to user's file access activities in their SharePoint 2016 on-premises
farms or in their SharePoint Online sites
If you opt in for this service, audit logs get collected and uploaded to Office
365 regularly.
Reports are available via Office 365 audit log search
Configuring Hybrid Auditing : https://technet.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/mt622371(v=office.16).aspx

31. Hybrid Taxonomy (Preview):
A one stop shop solution to create and maintain a shared Taxonomy
between your On-Premises farm and Office 365 SharePoint Online tenant
Terms, Term Sets, and Groups are available in both environments
Update your taxonomy in SharePoint Online and the changes are
automatically propagated across all of your site collections and lists
Local terms (site specific) remain local and are not replicated
You control which term groups are shared between On-Premises and
SharePoint Online
You can choose to keep some term groups as On-Premises only or SharePoint
Online only
Configuring Hybrid Taxonomy :_ https://support.office.com/en-
us/article/Configure-hybrid-SharePoint-taxonomy-Preview-dd287a75-09e0-
403e-974e-4cc84a152815

33. Administrative Actions Logging
To track changes made to SharePoint Server settings which can sometimes
cause errors or have unintended effects
Logging is available for both Central Administration and Windows PowerShell
actions.
New PowerShell command - “Merge-SPUsageLog” to retrieve administrative
actions logs .
Detailed description :_ https://technet.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/mt790698(v=office.16).aspx

35. PowerShell – “Merge-SPUsageLog”

36. Migration approach to SharePoint 2016:

37. How to upgrade?
• Version to Version upgrade
• All Site Collections must be in 15 mode
• Database attach upgrade (content only)
• Create new SharePoint 2016 farm and attach SharePoint 2013 databases to
SharePoint 2016
• SharePoint Server 2016 does not support SharePoint 2010 mode (i.e.,
compatibility level 14) site collections.
• SharePoint Server 2016 supports an upgrade from SharePoint Server 2013
with Service Pack 1 (SP1) with March 2013 PU, version 15.0.4481.1005 or
higher

38. Upgrading to the next version :
If you are planning to upgrade to the next major release of SharePoint, make
sure your existing environment is running a version of SharePoint that can be
upgraded to the next one.
Fix the errors in the current version before upgrading
List of the build numbers required to upgrade to the next major version of
SharePoint:
To upgrade from SharePoint 2007 to 2010, minimal build: SharePoint 2007
SP2, build number (12.0.6421.1000)
To upgrade from SharePoint 2010 to 2013, minimal build: SharePoint 2010
SP1, build number (14.0.6029.1000)
To upgrade from SharePoint Server 2013 to 2016, minimal build SharePoint
Server 2013 SP1 + March 2013 PU, build number (15.0.4481.1005)

39. Overall Upgrade Process
Plan & Audit
Existing
Architect,
Build & Test
Run Tests
(Pre-Upgrade)
Run Upgrade
TestCommitDecommission

40. Points to consider for upgrading
No more preupgradecheck . Use PowerShell
Test-SPContentDatabase –name Intranet_Content_DB -Webapplication http://upgrade.sp.com
 Works the same in 2010, 2013, and 2016
SharePoint 2016 is Claims based . However, Classic is still there but don’t use it until really required
 Recommended to upgrade to 2016 (or 2013) and then convert to claims
 Detailed explanation : https://blog.qipoint.com/2016/08/14/upgrading-to-sharepoint-2016-step-by-
step/

41. SharePoint 2016 build numbers:

42. You also need these updates:
Office Online Server
App Fabric (2013)
Language Packs
Project Server
Configuring Office Online server for SP 2016:_
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff431687(v=office.16).aspx

43. Office Online Server version compatibility list:
Product Office Web Apps Server Office Online Server
SharePoint Server 2013 Yes Yes*
SharePoint Server 216 No Yes
Lync Server 2013 Yes Yes
Skype for Business Server 2015 Yes Yes
Exchange Server 2013 No No
Exchange Server 2016 No Yes

44. Deployment guidelines
Two types of deployment method
1. GUI Installation
2. Using PowerShell

45. Onsight
Method 1: GUI Installation
Install everything manually: the ”Next-Next” install 
Pros Cons
Very easy  Hides a lot of logic and configures things
with potential issues
Errors trapped in
the UI
Re-running setup might fix errors, or
introduce new issues
Fastest way Also the ugliest way! Just look at it.
1) Download Prerequisites online (prerequisitesinstaller.exe)
2) Reboot
3) Run Setup
4) Run Configuration Wizard
5) Enjoy SharePoint 2016 if everything goes well 

46. Onsight
Method 2: Using PowerShell
Create a custom PowerShell script and run it
Pros Cons
Deployment can
be customized
Requires a lot of work for end-to-end custom
scripts
Can be automated
and fully
controlled
Error-prone
Bit slow You don’t need to keep staring at the screen
1) Install Prerequisites online
2) Run the script
3) Finalize with GUI if prompted

47. Deep Dive into MinRole , Zero Downtime Patching
and other noteworthy features in SharePoint
2016…….

48. MinRole
Leverages our experience of operating
the service in the cloud and the
optimizations we’ve made in the code
to maximize performance and stability

49. Onsight
What is MinRole?
 Ability to create SharePoint farms
based on pre-defined server roles
 Each role maps to pre-defined
services, rules and settings on a
server
 Roles together include all services
in a SharePoint farm
 You still have the option to build a
single-server farm.

50. Onsight
Why MinRole?
Simplified deployment
 SharePoint Admin no longer needs to worry about which service has been enabled on
which server
 Reduce the risk of misconfigurations
 You can focus on what functionlaity to enable in the farm and let SP do the rest
Improved performance and reliability
 MS has been running SP Online since 2011
 Optimization based on Office 365 findings and learnings- CPU memory, disk IO and
network latency
Simpler capacity planning and Farm scalability
 Predictable and easier to manage
 Easy to add new servers to the farm as the need grows
 Easy role conversion – A server which was WFE today can be made as APP tmrw
 Self healing- Auto fixes misconfigurations

51. Onsight
MinRole roles and services
Role Contains
Web Frontend
End user requests and services, such as SharePoint Foundation Web Application, Administration,
Managed Metadata Web Service etc.
Application
Backend jobs and services, such as Machine Translation Service, App Management Service and
Word Automation Service
Search Search related services, such as Host Controller Service, Search Query and Site Settings Service
Distributed Cache Distributed cache services for the farm
Custom A custom combination of services and tasks – also backward compatibility with SP2013

52. Other roles
Single-Server Farm
• Service applications, services, and components required for a single-server farm
belong on a server running the Single-Server Farm role. Use this role for
development, testing, and limited production tasks.
Custom
• Service applications, services, and components that you want to manage, instead
of using MinRole to manage them, belong on a Custom server.

54. Onsight
MinRole topology
 Smallest supported MinRole farm is 4 servers –SP alone
 Smallest MinRole farm with high availability is 8 servers –SP alone
Application
Distributed
Cache
Web Front endSearch
Application
Distributed
Cache
Web Front endSearch
Search Application
Disbuted
Cache
Web Front end

55. Comparing a Typical SP 2013 topology with SP2016 MinRole topology

56. Highly Available SharePoint 2016
MinRoleTopology
 Two of each server role is recommended
 Three servers required for Distributed cache
in a cluster quorum
 Add SQL availability groups to achieve HA in
the SQL layer.
 Potentially requires 11 servers
 Added Office Online Servers totals 13 Servers

57. Custom 3 Tier MinRoleTopology
 Front end servers benefit from MinRole.
 Configure custom servers to run majority of
SharePoint service applications and reduce number of servers.
 Manual configuration of services and
monitoring required on custom servers.
 SharePoint Administrators determine which
custom server will run which services.

58. Onsight
No of servers required for deploying a HA farm with
MinRole
How many servers are needed?
4
+5
+2
+3
+2
+2
18
MinRole
High availability(some services
might need 3)
Provider hosted apps
Workflow Manager
Office Online Server
Databases

59. MinRole post Feature Pack 1 release:

60. Onsight
MinRole topology post Feature Pack 1
 Smallest supported MinRole farm is just 2 servers –SP alone
 Smallest MinRole farm with high availability is 4servers –SP alone
Application+ Search
Distributed
Cache + Web Front end
Application+ Search Distributed Cache + Web Front end
Application+ Search Distributed Cache + Web Front end

61. Onsight
Administering & Managing MinRole
Using PowerShell to change or specify a role
Set-SPServer –Role { WebFrontEnd | Application |
SingleServer | SingleServerFarm | DistributedCache |
Search | Custom }
Changing or specifying a role from Central Admin

62. Onsight
MinRole health monitoring
 Health monitoring for MinRole is built
into Health Analyzer
 Automatic repair for all MinRole roles
except Custom
 You can disable auto-repair easily,
enabled by default
 Single-Server Farm cannot coexist with
MinRole roles

63. Onsight
Issues and challenges with MinRole
Optimized for larger farms
 Often do not have the luxury to start +10 servers
Still bugs with role conversion
 Distributed Cache is sometimes still the problematic
one
Cannot combine roles on same server
 Custom roles not supported 

64. Zero downtime patching
• The dream became real folks
• Deploy and fixes while minimizing downtime and user disruption
• You get full read and write uptime when the farm is getting patched and
when the content databases are getting updated.
Video Demo https://technet.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/mt767550(v=office.16).aspx

65. Things to know about Zero downtime patching
• Only feasible when you're running a SP 2016 farm with High Availability
• Not possible when you're running a single-server farm
• Time taken to patch the farm has been reduced by consolidating the
upgrade packages . Now you just have two packages , you have a core
package which has all the files and the language pack package which has
the update for all the language pack files .
• Point to Note –MinRole is not required for Zero downtime patching .
Detailed explanation :_
https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/stefan_gossner/2016/04/29/sharepo
int-2016-zero-downtime-patching-demystified/

66. Comparing the ZD patching experience with SP 2013:
SP 2013
• Involves 2 phases :
Installing the binaries
Running the SharePoint configuration wizard.
• Installing the actual binaries requires to stop/restart SharePoint specific windows services
and IIS websites to ensure that the updated files (e.g. dlls) are loaded.
• Zero downtime patching is achievable in 2013 as well with HA .However , you don’t get
complete farm uptime. It’s only possible during hot fix installation with SP 2013 with LB
• Total farm outage while running the configuration wizard which does the DB upgrade
process
• DB upgrade takes care of updating stored procedures, views, triggers . SharePoint calls to
SQL stored procedure will fail during this process
• Use Upgrade-SPContentDatabase –UseSnapshot ( available only on SQL Server Enterprise
edition )
• Work around –(Run Upgrade-SPContentDatabase parallely in all the DB’s to speed up the
upgradation operations )

67. SP 2016 –ZD Patching experience
MSP file size is reduced which in turn reduces the time taken to patch .
HA is mandatory for each server role .
Biggest improvement on the upgrade phase .
Stored procedures are made backward compatible to ensure that if one
stored procedure is updated with a hotfix it can still be called by an older
stored procedure which gets updated through a later step in the update
cycle.
Stored procedures gets updated without being dropped .
These changes are long tested in SharePoint online where upgrades are
performed for all SharePoint online servers every couple of weeks while the
service is live without any read-only windows for customers.

68. Other noteworthy features:
• Durable links –Requires SP 2016 + Office online server. Earlier the docs were
being looked up by name but now docs are looked up by Identifier ( ID )
• New Compliance center is introduced to take care of DLP
• PROJECT SERVER –Not a separate product .It’s a separate service application in
SP 2016 but has different set of licenses
• Fast site collection creation
• Forefront Identity Manager is gone, Microsoft Identity Manager is in!

69. DLP

70. The owner gets to resolve it

72. SQL Server Best Practices
 Use a dedicated server for SQL Server
 Configure specific SQL Server settings before you deploy SharePoint Server 2013
 Harden the database server before you deploy SharePoint Server 2013
 Configure database servers for performance and availability
 Design storage for optimal throughput and manageability
 Proactively manage the growth of data and log files
 Continuously monitor SQL Server storage and performance
 Use backup compression to speed up backups and reduce file sizes
Detailed explanation :_ https://technet.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/hh292622.aspx
White paper for SQL Server :_
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/13146.white-paper-
gallery-for-sql-server.aspx

73. DB Best Practices
• Database files and transaction log files should not be on the primary drive
• Storing all files in the same location and on the system drive can lead to
severe performance issues in the SQL Server.
• TempDB (Number of files, size, response times)
• Disk allocation size
• ModelDB (growth, initial file size)
• Set Maximum Degree of Parallelism (MAXDOP) to 1
• Use SQL alias whenever possible. Cliconfg.exe is your friend 
• Database autogrowth and initial size

74. Onsight
High Availability in SQL Server
 Configure SQL Server AlwaysOn Availability Groups
 Guidance https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj715261.aspx
 Consider MinRole allocations and the need for MinRole
 Configure Log Shipping for Disaster Recovery
 Guidance http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms190640.aspx

75. Other best practices to be followed for optimization
Managing Logs :
• SQL
• Databases
• Logs
• SharePoint
• Logs (ULS, Usage)
• Also make sure ULS is enabled and restricted
• Make sure logging is not in Verbose if not necessary
• Search Index
• IIS
• Logs

76. Quick Recap
SharePoint 2016 Evolution
SharePoint 2016 Focus areas
Hardware & Software requirements
What’s new and what’s deprecated ?
Feature Packs
Migration approach to SharePoint 2016
MinRole
Zero Downtime patching and other noteworthy features
SQL Server and DB best practices

77. July 2016 PU
June 2016 PU
August 2016 PU
September
2016 PU
May 2016 PU
SP 2016 Review & Roadmap

78. Conclusion:
SharePoint 2016 is truly phenomenal and is definitely the next go to on-
premises version of SharePoint.
It’s indeed a multi-tentacle beast
SharePoint 2016 was built for continuous innovation .
SharePoint 2016 uses the SharePoint Online source code, which in turn is
based on the SharePoint 2013 source code, indicating that SharePoint 2016
is stable  .
Please endorse SharePoint 2016 to your customers for it’s beauty 
As always , SharePoint is just not meant to dump your files. It’s meant to
make wonders 
HAPPY SHAREPOINTING …….THANKS FOR JOINING

79. Questions???????????