Another SharePoint Goodie: Minimal Deployment Infrastructure
December 7, 2008
In London, I got a real laugh from my audience of about 200 people. Usually the audience boos and throws balls of paper at me. I heard several people talking about the low cost of SharePoint and how the basic install ran so well on available hardware. I did not address these cheerful thoughts directly. I showed a diagram of a recommended SharePoint deployment process, and the audience howled. Developed by a certified partner, the diagram is so complex it is overwhelming. Imagine my delight when I came across “The Minimal Full Deployment Infrastructure” for SharePoint. You must read the write up here. Chris Mullendore, the author, provides a useful discussion of why the minimal deployment is needed for SharePoint. For example, he explains some considerations for using SharePoint in a virtual and non-virtual environment. The non-virtual part is needed to test original code with third-party code and to perform load and performance testing. I know most SharePoint users are quite happy with the snappiness of a SharePoint system. To find out how snappy and how to make SharePoint even more speedy, you have to have a minimal deployment. So what’s a minimal deployment include. Here’s the diagram from Mr. Mullendore’s write up:
The minimal set up is a combination of virtual and non-virtual systems. Counting the non-virtual systems–what I would call servers–one needs only 11 servers. When I hear azure-chip or gray-chip consultants (these are consultants who have not worked at Bain, BCG, Booz, or McKinsey) talk about SharePoint’s low cost and ease of use, I marvel at their “wisdom”.
What’s the minimal hardware you are using for your SharePoint system. Have you been able to get by with fewer than 11 servers? What’s the actual number of servers a large SharePoint installation requires. Recommendations such as Mr. Mullendore’s are not easy to get in my experience.
Stephen Arnold, December 7, 2008
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2 Responses to “Another SharePoint Goodie: Minimal Deployment Infrastructure”
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It’s always an honor when someone felt your blog entry was interesting or important enough to do a reciprocal blog entry about… so thanks for the compliment. 🙂 I do sense a little tongue-in-cheek though, so just a few comments…
Of course, 11 servers aren’t required to run SharePoint… in fact, many of my customers operate with much less and are quite happy. However, those customers aren’t necessarily supporting global deployments with tens-of-thousands of users who’s access to the information stored in SharePoint is critical to making the business run. When keeping any system up is of paramount importance, fault tolerance, testing, and clearly defined boundaries and deployment processes are of almost equal importance.
While I don’t necessarily expect that everyone in the world will be able or interested in doing what I suggest, my goal is less to give a directive and more to inspire thought. I hope that when people read the blog entry you’re referencing they think about what their needs are against those listed and make the decision that is best for them…. and the entry intentionally has enough information to stir those thoughts and help people consciously make those decisions.
Ultimately, I prefer not to think in terms of “right” and “wrong”… and so to that end, not doing the “minimal” infrastructure is certainly not wrong. Rather, there are benefits and trade-offs to every decision that is made, and all too often people make the decision without considering or accepting the trade-offs of that decision.
I hope that when people finish reading my blog they don’t leave thinking they’re required to do something a certain way… but have enough information to understand why they might or might not need to.
Thanks for the read! 🙂
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