Exploring Sample Virtualized SharePoint 2010 Architecture

There are many ways to deploy SharePoint 2010 in a virtualized environment. However, some designs are more widespread than others and reflect common needs across many organizations. For example, high availability is becoming a must for the critical document management and collaboration functionality in SharePoint. All the new high-availability options in SharePoint 2010 are available for virtual environments and can actually be easier to deploy because of the flexibility that virtualization provides.

Figure 12.1 illustrates a small virtualized SharePoint 2010 environment with all components running on a single virtual host. This type of deployment doesn’t have any built-in high availability or disaster recovery, but it’s the simplest environment to set up, and it can still take advantage of virtualization benefits and scalability. Table 12.2 shows sample server specifications for an environment of this size. These specifications assume 500 active users in the environment.

Figure 12.1. Conceptualizing a small virtualized SharePoint farm.

Table 12.2. Small Virtual SharePoint Environment Deployment Specifications

The next design, illustrated in Figure 12.2, provides a virtualization architecture that provides a high level of availability, disaster tolerance, and scalability for an environment with 2,000 active users. The entire SharePoint environment is deployed across two virtual hosts, which provides for high availability of the environment. SQL Server databases are mirrored from one virtual guest to another, and a third SQL witness server monitors the SQL principal server, providing for automatic failover in the event the virtual host or virtual guest fails. For more information about using SQL database mirroring for high availability, see Chapter 17, “Safeguarding Confidential Data in SharePoint 2010.”

Figure 12.2. Conceptualizing a medium-sized SharePoint farm.

These high-availability and disaster-recovery options are possible without the need for shared storage, a SAN, or host availability solutions. Table 12.3 lists the sample virtual host and guest architecture guidelines for the solution in Figure 12.2.

Table 12.3. Medium-Sized Virtual SharePoint Environment Deployment Specifications

Virtualization technologies allow for a high degree of scalability and aren’t limited to small and mid-sized organizations. For example, the architecture that Figure 12.3 shows allows for tens of thousands of SharePoint users, full disaster tolerance, and high availability, all with the high performance expected from SharePoint. In this particular model, multiple SQL Server machines are used for the various SharePoint databases, with one used for content databases, one for service application databases, and one for the search databases. Server groups are created for different SharePoint server roles, and the web tier is broken into two components: one for users and another for crawl and administration. In this example, host-based failover solutions such as Hyper-V Live Migration could also conceivably provide for failover of individual guest sessions between failed hosts.

Figure 12.3. Conceptualizing a large virtualized SharePoint 2010 environment.

These three samples illustrate some of the potential design options available for a virtual SharePoint environment. Every environment is unique, and specifics will vary based on business and technology needs. However, you can use these sample architectures as a starting point for developing a high-performance virtualized SharePoint 2010 environment.