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single server OR multiple servers in SharePoint 2010

Answered single server OR multiple servers in SharePoint 2010

  • Saturday, May 05, 2012 7:30 AM
     
     
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    Hi all, 

    I have two servers in my production environment (web + DB). I asked my boss to have the same environment topology in development and Pre-Production. 

    He replied to me: OK, I'll give you development and Pre-Production environments, but why you don't make it single server (web and DB) in each environment to save resources. 

    I want to know the Pros and Cons in if I make it single or multiple servers in this case in details?  Number of users are not more than 10.000


    Thank you in advance. 





     

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  • Saturday, May 05, 2012 8:11 AM
     
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    Hi Saad.

    If server resources like hardware really is an issue, which it can often be, then you can just as well go with a single server. The functionality of SharePoint will not be affected by this. An advantage could be to have a replica of the connection between the servers as well so that you can test access web/app to DB.
    It could happen, that you in the future would need to test a scenario where this came into play, then you would be well prepared to have at least one non-prod environment available with the same setup. If virtualized, it would not take a lot of resources extra.

    And one thing, if you are planning to use Reporting Services Integration or Power Pivot or Analyzes Services, then is it almost a requirement to have separate servers, you would want to copy the multi hop scenario so that it does not work in dev/test/preprod and fail in production.

    So, the answer my friend, is like it often is with SharePoint...It depends.
    If you have the cash, go with separate web and DB at least in one more env.
    If you don't have the cash, make do with single servers.

    Hope this helps

    Regards

    Thomas Balkeståhl - Technical Specialist - SharePoint - http://blog.blksthl.com
    Download the SharePoint Branding Project here

     
  • Saturday, May 05, 2012 12:27 PM
     
     
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    Thanks a lot Thomas for this great clarification.

    What about these services, can I make it work in single server deployment:
    - Reporting Services Integration
    - Power Pivot or Analyzes Services
    - User Profile Synchronization

    Also, what happened if database size exceed 4 GB?

    Do me a favor and mention some references

    Thank you once again.






     
  • Sunday, May 06, 2012 10:01 AM
     
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    One thing that you should keep in mind that for development, the Visual Studio 2010 SharePoint Developer Tools support only single server setups. As soon as you add another server you will get errors while deploying packages from Visual Studio. You still would be able to deploy them manually but it would introduce manual effort to your development process.

    w: http://blog.mastykarz.nl | t: @waldekm | c: http://mavention.codeplex.com | c: http://mavention.nl

     
  • Wednesday, May 23, 2012 6:19 AM
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    Follow up your questions:

    We can make the following service work in single server too:
    - Reporting Service Integration
    - PowerPivot or Analysis Service
    - User Profile Service

    Single-server is not the meaning that we can just use SQL Server Express edition as the backend data storage. We can still use SQL Server Datacenter, Enterprise edition to store the data too. While not using SQL Server Express, there are no 4 GB limitation.

    Jinchun Chen
    Forum Support
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