How to install sharepoint in 4 servers

mbmh

hi

i have 4 servers with win 2003 Ent. R2 edition

i need to install sharepopint server

i know that i should install sharepoint in first server as application server

the second server is astorage server (600 GB ) so i will install SQL server Enterprice Edition on it

what about the last 2 server

should i make it as web front end server or what....

andrew woodward

I would look at the following

If you need resiliance then you would probably install

2 x Web Front End and Search

1 x Index and application (note you get no fail over for features like BDC or Excel services if running on this server)

2 x SQL Server in a cluster

Your choice for removing one roll or doing consolidation will depend on what you expect you users to do. Note if you consolidate the search and index service you will not have any resiliance here as the server will not propogate the index.

Your probable solution will be to drop the SQL Cluster option, although you need to understand the impact this will have on the solution if this fails and has to be rebuilt/restored. Adding one additonal server will significantly improve you availability.

Andrew

Rene Peinl

With 4 servers you have to choose between performance and availability.
If you go for availability you put on 2 web frontends and 2 sql server installations, the first two configured with MS NLB (low cost) or a hardware load balancer (much better, but quite expensive) and the latter two as a MS cluster (requires a shared disk space).
You could but the indexing service on one of the web frontends which will significantly tamper your performance for end users on this server.

If you don't have a shared disk space you can already forget about this scenario and go for 2 web frontends, one indexing server and one sql server installation which will then be your single point of failure.
Hope that helps.
Rene

mbmh

i wil do this

the server 1 will be an aplication server

the server 2 and 3 will be front end web server

the server 4 will be sql server

Jason Chan

Which server should I install the indexing service if I have 3 servers

We are planning to install 2 front end web servers + 1 sql server.

Should I install the indexing service in both web servers
Thanks

Jason

andrew woodward

Jason,

If you install Index and search on the same server it will not propgate the index to other servers.

In this instance you may want to just run 2 x wfe, one of which runs the search and index services and one sql. However you are not providing any resiliance and load balancing bewteen the front end servers may be skewed.

Andrew

Rene Peinl

Andrew is absolutely right. Just one addition: indexing service cannot be installed on more than one server. Only the search role can be redundant.