Building SharePoint farms for development and testing is easy. But building highly available farms to meet enterprise service level agreements that are fault tolerant, scalable and connected to the cloud? Not quite so easy. In this workshop you will learn how to plan, design and implement a highly availability farm architecture based upon proven techniques and practical guidance.

1. A Real World Guide to Building High Availability
SharePoint Farms

2. Sponsored by:
Visit us on the web at www.binarywave.com

3. @eshupps sharepointcowboywww.sharepointcowboy.com
slideshare.net/eshupps linkedin.com/in/eshupps
Eric Shupps
SharePoint Server MVP

4. Agenda

5. Fundamentals

6. Elimination of single points
of failure
Fully redundant systems
Seamless continuity
Automated failover
Operational Stability

7. Risk mitigation
Compliance
Customer Satisfaction
Revenue Protection
Safety
Performance
Security
Public Relations

8. Infrastructure
Devices
Servers
Bandwidth
Storage
Software
Windows Server 2012/2012 R2
Failover Clustering
File Shares
SQL Server 2012/2014
Always On Availability Groups

9. Resources
Cost
Complexity
Licensing
Troubleshooting
Patching & Updates

10. Architecture

11. WFE
SharePoint Server 2013
Front-end Server
SQL Server 2012 SP2 (2014) PowerPivot Add-In
SQL Server 2012 SP2 (2014) Reporting Services Add-In
APP
SharePoint Server 2013
Application Server
Excel Services Service Application
SQL Server 2012 SP2 (2014) PowerPivot Service Application
SQL Server 2012 SP2 (2014) PowerPivot Add-In
SQL Server 2012 SP2 (2014) Reporting Services Service Application
SQL Server 2012 SP2 (2014) Reporting Services Add-In
WAC
Office Web Apps 2013 Server
SQL
SQL Server 2012 SP2+ (2014)
Database Engine
All Databases and Roles
SQL Server Analysis Services for SharePoint (PowerPivot)
WFM
Workflow Manager Server

12. JUST SharePoint
Is everything on
this diagram
‘highly
available’?
What about
environment?
Virtual Host A Virtual Host B
SQL Server installed and configured to support SQL AlwaysOn Availability Groups.
WFE01
SharePoint 2013
Front-end Server
APP01
SharePoint 2013
Application Server
SQL01
SQL Server 2012 SP1+
All Databases and Roles
WFE02
SharePoint 2013
Front-end Server
APP02
SharePoint 2013
Application Server
SQL02
SQL Server 2012 SP1+
All Databases and Roles
F5 BigIP
Network Load Balancer
WFM01
Workflow
Manager
Server
WFM03
Workflow
Manager
Server
WFM02
Workflow
Manager
Server
wfm.<domain>.com
WSFC01
SQLAGL01
WAC01
Office Web Apps 2013
Server
WAC02
Office Web Apps 2013
Server
wac.<domain>.com

13. Architecture

16. Dedicated vs. Shared Storage
Quorum Types
Node Majority
Node and File Share
Majority
Node and Disk Majority
Disk Only
Witnesses
Disk
File Share

17. Logins
Service Accounts
SQL Accounts
Computer Objects
File shares
Cluster permissions
Read all properties
Create computer objects

18. Configuration
Location
Availability
Replication
Entries
Machines
Cluster
Listeners
Permissions

19. Encryption
Communication (SSL)
Data (TDE)
Certificate Types
SAN
Wildcard
Challenges
Cost
Complexity
Configuration

20. Windows Server Failover
Clustering
Required
Provides base cluster
capabilities
Server level
SQL Failover Cluster
Instance
Optional
Instance level
No automatic failover w/
Availability Groups

23. Database Name Sync Async
User Profile
Application
Yes Yes
User Profile Sync Yes No
User Profile Social Yes Yes
Word Automation Yes Yes
Managed Metadata Yes Yes
Translation Yes Yes
BDC Yes Yes
Project Server Yes Yes
PowerPivot Yes Yes
PerformancePoint Yes Yes
Database Name Sync Async
Config Yes No
Central Admin Yes No
Content Yes Yes
App Management Yes Yes
Search Admin Yes No
Search Analytics Yes No
Search Crawl Yes No
State Service Yes No
Secure Store Yes Yes
Usage and Health Yes* No
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj841106(v=office.15).aspx
* Remove prior to running PSCONFIG

24. Async replication NOT
supported
Risk of deltas between on-
disk indexes and databases
is HIGH
Sync Replication Challenges
Administration
Site-level configuration
Analytics
Database size
Crawl/Re-Indexing time

25. Full database replication
possible but can be
problematic
Synchronization is best
done “live”
Options
Backup and restore
Reprovision
User Profile Service Application
Profile
DB
Sync
DB
User Profile
Synchronization Service
Active
Directory
Profile
DB
Sync
DB
Forefront Identity
Manager
FIM FIM Sync

26. Independent cache with no DB
persistence
Configurable memory
allocation
Max 16GB per server
Max 32GB per farm
Dedicated mode recommended
for High Availability
HA possible in collocated
mode with sufficient hardware
resources
Cache Dependencies
Feeds
Content
Search
Web Part
Login
Tokens
Access
Cache
Security
Trimming
App
Tokens
View
State
OneNote
Throttling

27. Integrated Dedicated

28. Leverages “Contained
Databases” feature of SQL
2012
Requires changes to SQL
Server protocols, settings
and authentication mode
HA requires Contained
Database Authentication
Access DB’s are NOT
automatically added to
availability groups

29. SSAS
Can be configured for read-
only replicas
SSRS
Requires .NET 3.5 hotfix
KB2654347
No automatic failover
PowerPivot
Not yet tested for Sync or
Async commit operations

30. Implementation

31. Group of databases organized
into PRIMARY (1) and
SECONDARY (4 – 2012, 8 –
2014)
Automatic data
synchronization
Synchronous and
Asynchronous modes
Optional read-only replicas
Database-only redundancy
Listeners (Virtual Network
Names)

32. Provide flexibility and
abstraction
Best practice
HA aliases target AG
Listeners NOT servers or
instances
Use multiple listeners for
scalability

33. Windows Server Failover
Cluster
File Share Quorom
Disk Witness Quorom
Failover Cluster Instances
Shared storage between cluster
members
Storage “owned” by active
member
Availability Groups
Discrete storage for each replica

34. Windows Server Failover
Cluster
File Share quorum
Disk witness quorum
Failover Cluster Instances
Shared storage between
cluster members
Storage “owned” by active
member
Availability Groups
Discrete storage for each
replica

35. SQL overhead ALWAYS
impacts performance
Ensure adequate bandwidth
for database replication
Secondary infrastructure
does not have to match
primary
Beware reduced performance
Plan for rapid scale-out
Async faster than sync
Possible data loss

37. Sponsored by:
Visit us on the web at www.binarywave.com