Designing a Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Infrastructure Vol 1 part 15 potx

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Planning for Performance and Capacity 3-7
Performance of Web Front End Servers

Key Points
WFE servers form the SharePoint connection point for clients that request content
or services. This means that all client requests place some load on the WFE servers.
WFE servers render pages before returning requested pages to a browser.
In small farms, WFE servers often perform application roles in addition to the
WFE role.
WFE servers do not require large quantities of disk storage, but rely heavily on
processor and memory for performance. The following table describes the
processor and memory load characteristics for WFE servers.
Service application or feature CPU load Memory load
SharePoint Foundation Service High High
Timer Service Medium Medium
Logging Service Medium Medium
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3-8 Designing a Microsoft® SharePoint® 2010 Infrastructure
Service application or feature CPU load Memory load
User Profile Service Low Medium
Word Viewing Service Low Low
PowerPoint Service Medium Medium
Excel Calculation Service Medium Low
Visio Service Low Low
Access Service Low Low
Managed Metadata Service Low Medium
Web Analytics Service Low Low
Business Connection Service Medium Medium
InfoPath Forms Service Medium Medium
Word Conversion Service Low Low

PerformancePoint Service Medium Medium
Sandboxed Solutions Low Low
Workflow Capabilities High High


Note: These load characteristics exist even when all service applications are running on
dedicated application servers. For example, the Excel Calculation Service will increase
CPU usage on the WFE server, even if you have an application server dedicated to
running Excel Services.
You can use the table as a guideline to help when you calculate workload for WFE
servers. Use the following information when calculating server workload:
• Consider that medium-cost CPU operations are three times heavier on
workload than low-cost CPU operations.
• Consider that high-cost CPU operations are five times heavier on workload
than low-cost CPU operations.
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Planning for Performance and Capacity 3-9
To improve performance of page rendering and client access, you can add more
WFE servers to the farm and implement network load balancing.
Additional Reading
For more information about sizing for SharePoint Server 2010, see



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3-10 Designing a Microsoft® SharePoint® 2010 Infrastructure
Performance of Application Servers

Key Points
Application servers host service applications. Service applications offer a more

flexible approach to farm services than previous versions of Microsoft Office
SharePoint; you now have more options for controlling which servers in the farm
run specific service applications.
Different service applications have different workload profiles, but you can
dedicate specific servers to specific service applications. You can also scale out by
specifying multiple servers for a specific service application.
Different service applications have different workload profiles, but most
application services do not require local storage on the application server. The
main hardware requirements for application servers are processor and memory.
The following table describes the processor and memory load characteristics for
application servers.


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Planning for Performance and Capacity 3-11
Service application or feature CPU load Memory load
SharePoint Foundation Service None None
Timer Service Medium Medium
Logging Service None None
User Profile Service Medium Medium
Word Viewing Service High Medium
PowerPoint Service High Medium
Excel Calculation Service Medium High
Visio Service High High
Access Service High Medium
Managed Metadata Service Medium Medium
Web Analytics Service None None
Business Connection Service High High
InfoPath Forms Service Medium Medium
Word Conversion Service High Medium

PerformancePoint Service High High
Sandboxed Solutions High High
Workflow Capabilities None None

Generally, for best performance, server roles should not share service applications
with a high load. Consider that some service applications will also increase the
workload on the WFE servers.
Additional Reading
For more information about performance test results and recommendations, see


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3-12 Designing a Microsoft® SharePoint® 2010 Infrastructure
Performance of Search Servers

Key Points
Search is typically a significant benefit of implementing SharePoint 2010, but it
places a large workload burden on the farm. When you consider farm
performance, you must often consider search performance specifically in the
context of the farm.
Search servers can perform two functions:
• The crawl component crawls and indexes content primarily in the SharePoint
content databases, although it can also index other types of storage repository.
The crawl role builds the index and submits index updates to the search query
role. Crawl components aggressively use CPU bandwidth. Optimally, a given
crawl component can utilize four CPU cores. Memory is not as critical for the
crawl component.
• The query component responds to user search requests. When users enter a
search in a SharePoint site, SharePoint 2010 submits the query to a server that
hosts the query role to return a result set. All servers that host the query role

have a copy of the index that the crawl role generates. However, additional
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Planning for Performance and Capacity 3-13
search databases also hold specific search information. The query role typically
has high processor and memory requirements.


Note: A single search server can perform both crawl and query functions.
In addition, the Search service has a significant impact on database servers. The
Search service places a high load on CPU, input/output (I/O), and storage
components. Crawl databases aggressively use I/O bandwidth. A crawl database
needs 3,500 I/O operations per second (IOps) for crawling activities; it will
consume as much as 6,000 IOPS, based on the available bandwidth.
Question: Can you spread the crawl component across multiple servers in a farm?

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3-14 Designing a Microsoft® SharePoint® 2010 Infrastructure
Performance of Database Servers

Key Points
Database servers store most SharePoint content and most SharePoint configuration
data. Not all service applications affect database servers, because some service
applications do not require databases. However, storage access times and storage
capacity are a key focus for the role.
The following table describes the processor, I/O load, and storage characteristics
for database servers.
Service application CPU load I/O load Storage
SharePoint Foundation Service Medium High High
Timer Service None None None
Logging Service Medium High High

User Profile Service High High Medium
Word Viewing Service None None None
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Planning for Performance and Capacity 3-15
Service application CPU load I/O load Storage
PowerPoint Service None None None
Excel Calculation Service None None None
Visio Service Low Low Low
Access Service Low Low Low
Managed Metadata Service Low Low Medium
Web Analytics Service High High High
Business Connection Service None None None
InfoPath Forms Service Low Low Low
Word Conversion Service Low Low Low
PerformancePoint Service Low Low Low
Sandboxed Solutions None None None
Workflow Capabilities None None None

Disk Storage
Disk storage types and redundant array of independent disks (RAID) configuration
can have a significant impact on the performance of database servers.
Direct attached storage (DAS) is a configuration where a storage controller without
a network interface connects the server and disk hardware. DAS typically uses
Small Computer System Interface (SCSI), Serial Attached SCSI (SAS), or Serial ATA
(SATA) disks.
A storage area network (SAN) connects server hardware to disk hardware over a
dedicated network. This can be an Ethernet-based network or a Fibre Channel–
based network. SAN storage appears to the operating system as locally attached
disks. SANs offer high-speed, high-capacity storage with additional capabilities,
such as the ability to support SQL Server clusters. However, they create a

significant cost increase over DAS.
Network attached storage (NAS) is a self-contained storage device that a server or
client can access over the network, typically through traditional file-share methods.
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3-16 Designing a Microsoft® SharePoint® 2010 Infrastructure

Note: Only content databases that use remote binary large object (BLOB) storage
support NAS storage. Any network storage architecture must return the first byte of data
within 20 ms.
You can use different disk types and different RAID configurations to support
specific performance requirements. SAS disks typically support faster access times,
although specific RAID configurations—such as RAID 1, RAID 5, or RAID 10—can
also affect read or write access times.

Note: You should consult the guidelines that the storage hardware manufacturer
provides to determine the RAID configuration effect on performance.
If you experience performance or storage bottlenecks with the database server role,
you can add more database servers to the farm and spread your database
requirements across multiple servers.
Question: Why should you consider RAID storage options for your database and
transaction log file storage?