Understanding the SharePoint Server Roles

What an end user of a SharePoint environment sees on a SharePoint page is the result of a complex interaction that occurs on one or more servers performing varying tasks. Information is stored in complex databases, web rendering is displayed courtesy of the web role, and searches and processes are driven by the Search service application role on servers.

Depending on the size of the environment, these roles may be on one or many servers. In very small environments, all roles may exist on a single server, whereas in very large-scale farms, the roles may be spread across tens or even hundreds of servers. These server roles are the base architectural elements in a SharePoint farm, or collection, of servers that provide for SharePoint services in an environment. It is subsequently critical to understand what these server roles are and how they are used in a SharePoint farm.