The meaning of an unsupported Sharepoint topology configuration
From: <JoWinchester@discussions.microsoft.com>
Subject: Sharepoint Portal Architecture Question
Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2005 03:31:03 -0700
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.sharepoint.portalserver
We are planning an new deployment of Sharepoint Portal. The initial deployment will be for a pilot set of users, but may be rolled out to a larger audience. We are planning to have 2 front end servers, and one backend SQL hosting server. I was hoping that the two front end servers could be load balanced using NLB to give fault tolerance, but reading the Microsoft Documentation I am not sure if this is possible, based on the different server roles for a Medium farm configuration:
(one or 2 servers)
Search component
Index component
(1 server)
Job server
(1 or more servers)
SQL Server 2000
Is there an reason why we can't use the following configuration:
Server 1
Search component
Index component
Server 2
Search component
Index component
Job server
(Server 3)
SQL Server 2000
i.e. have two "Front end" servers, using NLB, with one of them hosting the job server?
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From: "Shane Young [SPS MVP]"
Subject: Re: Sharepoint Portal Architecture Question
Date: Sat, 29 Oct 2005 16:35:47 -0400
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.sharepoint.portalserver
That is an unsupported config. Can you do it? Yes SharePoint will let you do it. But when in this config you can not create a new portal or run backups. You may encounter other strange behavior so I would recommend this setup unless you are truly comfortable with how SPS works.
--
Shane Young - Now with MVP power
SharePoint911 - "SharePoint Help...Now!"
http://www.SharePoint911.com
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From: <JoWinchester@discussions.microsoft.com>
Subject: Re: Sharepoint Portal Architecture Question
Date: Mon, 31 Oct 2005 01:21:03 -0800
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.sharepoint.portalserver
Shane,
Thanks for your reply. Please can you give more technical detail about why this configuration won't work? The test configuration that we have at the moment has everything on a single server, and it works OK. What would be the difference if you split the configuration onto multiple servers as I have described?
Why wouldn't it be possible to create additional portals?
Thanks
Jo
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From: "Shane Young [SPS MVP]" <Shane @ SharePoint911 dot com>
Subject: Re: Sharepoint Portal Architecture Question
Date: Mon, 31 Oct 2005 11:00:29 -0500
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.sharepoint.portalserver
Technically it will let you setup this environment. But then SharePoint will give you an error message telling you that you have an unsupported config. Whenever SharePoint is displaying that error message it will not allow you to create new portals and it will not allow you to use its backup utility. This is just how it works.
--
Shane Young - Now with MVP power
SharePoint911 - "SharePoint Help...Now!"
http://www.SharePoint911.com