Hardware Recommendations and SCCP SharePoint Capacity Planning Tool beta models
Announcing the System Center Capacity Planner Tool *Beta* Models for WSS 3.0 and SharePoint Server 2007
I'm excited to share information about a new beta capacity planning tool built by the solution accelerator team with the SharePoint team. This new capacity planning tool based on System Center Capacity Planner has two new models. These models based on WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 are not perfect. They are designed to fit into the System Center Capacity Planner framework. The tool is designed to provide you with some ideas and help you figure out early planning and design ideas. It should not be seen as a replacement for a good consultant or experienced architect to help you design the topology and layout of your systems. Especially for large and complex deployments the tool should be seen as a simple design tool to provide some suggestions. To be honest with you in early versions we started with 1 million users and 50TB, but found some of the large results to be misleading. Beta limits for these models are at 100K users and 2 TB to help provide estimates that we can more easily compare with existing and common deployments. These limits in the tool should not be seen as farm limits as they are arbitrary limits in the tool. Deployments with more than 2TB and more than 100K should really involve experienced consultants and not rely on a simple capacity tool alone. The larger and more complex the environment the less likely the results will address the needs of the environment. SharePoint deployments can be one scaled up server with a single web app with one large document library to a large spread out my site deployment for example. Information architecture and database, disk configuration, storage designs are all NOT part of the model and were not addressed with the test.
The tool is give you some general idea... designed to evaluate number of users, basic concurrency with requests per second, authentication (anonymous or NTLM/AD), internet or intranet, with configurable transaction based (i.e. light/average/heavy) user profiles. There are a number of hard coded assumptions around average file sizes, and home page sizes. The SCCP framework provides some limited hardware configurations that can be used.
There is information in the tool on branch offices and lines with latency and bandwidth. This information comes with the framework. This WAN related information should not be considered accurate. The memory is not part of the model, so any RAM you see in the tool is preconfigured and changing the settings has no impact on the results. Please note the text in red on the results which provides additional limitations.
I also recommend using the HP capacity planner tool. It's always great to have more than one opinion to compare. Below you'll find the instructions to download System Center Capacity Planner (SCCP) and download the beta models.
For quick download reference to the beta programs:
SCCP: https://connect.microsoft.com/programdetails.aspx?ProgramDetailsID=1265
WSS 3.0 & MOSS 2007 beta models:
<Update>
Dear Connect Customer
You are receiving this communication because you signed up for the SharePoint Capacity Planning Tool Beta.
The Beta period has ended and the Solution Accelerator will soon be released to the Microsoft download center. As a result, you will no longer be able to download the beta from Microsoft Connect.
Version 1.0 to be released shortly has benefitted greatly from your participation and feedback. We believe you will benefit from downloading the final version and for use in your SharePoint planning efforts.
An email will be sent to you uppon release of the tool to TechNet.
Regards
The SharePoint Capacity Planning Tool team
Receiving e-mail messages from programs in which you are a participant is a mandatory part of your participation on Microsoft Connect. You can end your participation in a program at any time by visiting the My Participation (http://connect.microsoft.com/myparticipation.aspx) page and choosing "Decline Participation" for that program. If you do not wish to receive non-program related e-mails from Microsoft Connect, change the contact preference you have set on Your Microsoft Connect Profile (http://connect.microsoft.com/profile.aspx). This is an unmonitored e-mail address, so do not reply to this message.
</update>
Buy 64-bit Capable Hardware
At IT Forum the SharePoint team shared information that this was going to be the last 32-bit version of SharePoint. This was reconfirmed in the WSS 3.0 SP1 and SharePoint Server 2007 SP1 overview article. You'll see more and more of this message incorporated into the content. All of the peformance and capacity planning content on TechNet on both WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 was based on 64-bit systems. If you are purchasing new hardware, it is recommended by Microsoft and the various hardware vendors to buy x64 systems to "future proof" your investments. Although SQL supports Itanium and x64 for performance and scale, SharePoint supports x64 and will continue to support this hardware standard for SharePoint servers.
64-bit Windows Operating System
Although you can run 32-bit OS on many 64-bit systems with emulation. With less than 4GB of RAM it's true you won't see much difference between 32-bit and 64-bit SharePoint server roles and in some test cases it may seem faster with 32-bit. For environments where more than 4GB is needed, 64-bit OS and 64-bit WSS or MOSS 2007 is recommended. With Windows Server 2008 deployments we recommend running the 64-bit version fo the operating system as 64-bit native support in Windows Server 2008 will provide better scale and better performance. What about ifilters? More and more vendors are addressing the needs of the 64-bit Index server.
Multi Socket and Multi Core
Tests done by the SharePoint perf team, HP, Intel, and validated by testing done by the solution accelerator team in the beta model of the SharePoint Capacity Planner suggest that going from single processor to single processor with dual core nearly doubles the throughput/requests per second. Going with quad core in multiple sockets is even better :)
Memory
RAM is important. More often than not we see customers not using enough RAM. SharePoint IIS 7 Worker processes do need RAM. It is a good practice to start with 4GB of RAM. In recent discussions with more detail in the storage whitepaper you'll see recommendations for 8GB for large environments on the SharePoint WFEs, Query, Index and 16GB on large SQL Servers. More details in the storage paper: Performance Recommendations for Storage Planning.
Network
Between the servers in the farm, the faster the better. I've heard of 10GB backbones and heard impressive stories. GB is a great place to start and a great recommendation. You really want no latency and potentially dedicated backend networks when possible. Although VLANs require some planning and operations/support training network optimization does pay off in large environments. More detail on this in the storage paper. Don't know if I mentioned it enough, but there are some good nuggets in that storage paper.
Signup for the Beta and Download the System Center Capacity Planner and WSS and MOSS beta models
1. Download the System Center Capacity Planner 2007 by clicking here: https://connect.microsoft.com/programdetails.aspx?ProgramDetailsID=1265, click “Apply for Participation in this Program”. You may then be asked to register for a Windows live ID or confirm your current Windows live ID details before proceeding to a short survey. After the survey you click on “System Center Operations and Service Management” which takes you to the Microsoft Connect home page for System Center Capacity Planner 2007.
Click on the “Downloads” menu on the left, and then click the link to “SCCP 2007 Release Candidate” which will show a list of downloadable components. By default all components are checked for download and you can now start the Transfer Manager by clicking the “Download” button. You may be asked to install the Microsoft File Transfer manager. The Transfer Manager will allow you to specify a location for the downloaded files which will be placed in a sub-directory called “SCCP 2007 Release Candidate” on your local disk. When you are ready, press “Transfer” to receive the files. After the download is complete you can close the Transfer Manager by pressing the “Close” button.
Uninstall any existing versions of the SharePoint Capacity Planner and any existing version of the System Center Capacity Planner.
Install SCCP 2007 Release Candidate by running "Setup.msi". After install SCCP will run by default, please close it before proceeding.
2. Install the SharePoint Capacity Planning Models for WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007
To add the SharePoint models go to https://connect.microsoft.com/site/sitehome.aspx?siteID=14 which is the home of the SharePoint Capacity Planning Tool and click the “Downloads” link on the left and find the download called “SharePointCapacityPlanningTool.msi”. Click on the download.
Run “SharePointCapacityPlanningTool.msi” after download.
Run 'SharePoint Capacity Planning Tool->SharePoint Capacity Model' from your 'Start Menu'
Select 'Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (Beta)' or 'Windows SharePoint Service (Beta)' from the drop down menu and click 'Create a new Capacity Model' to start evaluating the tool.
We are very interested to hear your opinions and observations from using the tool and you should expect to receive an email in the near future with a few pointed questions to gather your feedback.
Tell us what you like and don't like!
Email questions or feedback to: saccfb01@microsoft.com
Thanks,
Satish Mathew from SAT (PM for the models)
Joel Oleson from the SharePoint Team
