My SPSUK 2011 session on common SharePoint Administration Mistakes. For any queries contact me on Twitter: @benjaminathawes

1. Dodge the
bullet
10 ways to avoid common
mistakes in SharePoint
Administration
#SPSUK08
Benjamin Athawes
www.benjaminathawes.com
@benjaminathawes

2. 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)
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3. The slide my boss
made 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

4. Our clients

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

6. Why this session?
Similar administration questions keep recurring with each
new 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?”
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7. Why the same old questions?
• Sophisticated product
• Poor documentation
• Success involves
collaboration
• Growing complexity!

8. Ok, so how do we dodge the bullet?

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

10. 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

11. The evil button
SQL Server Express
Full fat SQL – use this  

12. 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

13. Capacity Planning Example: too many
Web apps
Web Apps
Department Department Public Site A Project A Project B
A B
Collections
Department Department Public Site A Project A Project B
A B
Site
Databases
Content
Department Department Public Site A Project A Project B
A B
…n Web apps; up to a recommended maximum of 20/farm

14. 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 (!)

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

16. 4. Utilise SharePoint's 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)

17. Provisioning example: manual
assembly deployment

18. 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!

19. 6. Remember that virtualisation isn’t
magic 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

20. NUMA NUMA?

21. 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

22. NUMA example
A HP DL380 G7 with 64GB RAM and 2 hex core processors
Hyper threading enabled
In 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.

23. 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

24. 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

25. 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

26. 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!

27. 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

28. 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”
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29. Thanks…
…to you for listening
…to Sean McDonough
for reviewing most of the
slides