A Deep Dive into SharePoint 2016 architecture and deployment

A Deep Dive into SharePoint 2016 architecture and deployment
JUSSI ROINE
[CTO] [ONSIGHT HELSINKI]

Jussi Roine
MVP, MCM, MCT
Onsight Helsinki
www.jussiroine.com
@JussiRoine

Onsight
High fives!
Architecture
Deployment & patching
Scalability & high availability
We made it!

Session takeaways
SharePoint 2016 architecture and planning
Deployment guidance
Patching, high availability & optimization

Onsight
Hardware requirements for SharePoint 2016
 Physical servers must be in the same network
 Stretched farm is supported with <1ms intra-latency and 1 Gbps
Ethernet connections
Installation scenario Deployment type and scale RAM Processor Hard disk space
Single server role that uses SQL Server Development or evaluation
installation
16 GB 64-bit, 4 cores 80 GB for system drive
100 GB for second drive
Single server role that uses SQL Server Pilot or user acceptance test
installation
and additional drives
Web server or application server in a
three-tier farm
Development or evaluation
installation
Web server or application server in a
three-tier farm
Pilot, user acceptance test, or
production
80 GB for second drive and
additional drives

Onsight
Software requirements
Item Required
Operating System Windows Server 2012 R2 (Windows Server 2016 support is coming later)
Prerequisites Web Server (IIS) role
Application Server role
Microsoft .NET Framework version 4.5.2
Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Native Client
Microsoft WCF Data Services 5.6
Microsoft Information Protection and Control Client (MSIPC)
Microsoft Sync Framework Runtime v1.0 SP1 (x64)
Windows Management Framework 3.0 which includes Windows PowerShell 3.0
Microsoft Identity Extensions
Windows Server AppFabric 1.1
Cumulative Update Package 1 for Microsoft AppFabric 1.1 for Windows Server (KB 2671763)
Microsoft ODBC Driver 11 for SQL Server
Update for Microsoft .NET Framework to disable RC4 in Transport Layer Security (KB2898850)
Visual C++ Redistributable Package for Visual Studio 2013
.NET Framework .NET Framework 4.5.2
Database SQL Server 2014 SP1 or newer / SQL Server 2016 support: June 1st when available

Onsight
Software boundaries and limits
 Guidance updated for SharePoint 2016:
http://bit.ly/sp16limits
 Updates and changes
Limit Maximum value Limit type Notes
File size 10 GB Boundary The default maximum file size is 250 MB. This is a configurable limit that can be
increased up to 2 GB (2,047 MB). However, a large volume of very large files can affect
farm performance.
List view threshold greater than 5,000 Threshold Specifies the maximum number of list or library items that a database operation, such
as a query, can process at the same time outside the daily time window set by the
administrator during which queries are unrestricted.
When adding or removing a column index, the threshold is 20,000 by default.
When deleting a list or folder, the threshold is 100,000 by default.
When renaming a folder within the same library, the threshold is 100,000 by default.

Onsight
What is MinRole?
 Ability to create SharePoint farms
based on pre-defined server roles
 Each role maps to pre-defined
services, rules and settings on a
server
 Roles together include all services
in a SharePoint farm
 Option to build a single-server
farm still exists

Onsight
Why MinRole?
 Simplified deployment
 Deploy a role, and you’ll get a role
 No need to tweak the services per server
 All deployments follow the same rules & models
 Improved performance and reliability
 Optimization based on Office 365 findings and learnings
 Simpler capacity planning
 Predictable and easier to manage
 Easy to scale – just add n servers to y roles

Onsight
MinRole roles and services
Role Contains
Web Frontend
End user requests and services, such as SharePoint Foundation Web Application, Administration,
Managed Metadata Web Service etc.
Application
Backend jobs and services, such as Machine Translation Service, App Management Service and
Word Automation Service
Search Search related services, such as Host Controller Service, Search Query and Site Settings Service
Distributed Cache Distributed cache services for the farm
Custom A custom combination of services and tasks – also backward compatibility with SP2013

Onsight
MinRole health monitoring
 Health monitoring for
MinRole is built into Health
Analyzer
 Automatic repair for all
MinRole roles except Custom
 You can disable auto-repair
easily, enabled by default
 Single-Server Farm cannot
coexist with MinRole roles

Onsight
MinRole topology
 Smallest supported MinRole farm is 4 servers
 Smallest MinRole farm with high availability is 9 servers
Application
Distributed
Cache
Web Front endSearch
Application
Distributed
Cache
Web Front endSearch
Search Application
Distributed
Cache
Distributed
Cache
Web Front end
7

Onsight
Managing MinRole
Change or specify server role with PowerShell
Set-SPServer –Role { WebFrontEnd | Application |
SingleServer | SingleServerFarm | DistributedCache |
Search | Custom }
Change or specify server role with Central Admin

Onsight
My own SharePoint 2016 farm setup
SQLServer2016
RC3
Hyper-V host
WFE
CA
App
CA
Search Distributed
Cache
Custom
ProjectServer
OOS
500 GB
64,0 GB
CPU

Onsight
MinRole
How many servers needed for the following requirements?
4
+3
+2
+3
+2
+2
16
MinRole
High availability
Custom add-ins
Workflow Manager
Office Online Server
Databases

Onsight
Sample topology for a large production intranet platform
Load balancing & DNS
App Servers and CA
Distributed Cache
Backend:
AD, Databases, MIM
Web frontends
Workflow
Manager
Custom add-ins
Office Online
Server

Onsight
Issues and challenges with MinRole
Optimized for larger farms
 Often do not have the luxury to start +10 servers
Still bugs with role conversion
 Distributed Cache is sometimes still the problematic one
Cannot combine roles on same server
 Custom custom roles not supported 

Onsight
Distributed Cache
 NTLM authentication is not used in SharePoint 2016
 This applies to calls between cache cluster and SharePoint
 Relies now on encryption of cache data before transport
 Scales up number of clients that can be served
 SharePoint shouldn’t be more unresponsive under high
load now
 Distributed Cache is enabled (by default) only on
SingleServerFarmRole and Cache roles

Onsight
Distributed Cache
 Dedicated vs. Collocated
 Microsoft recommendation for SP2013 on Technet:
 Licensing implications?
 Is it worth it?
 One or more Distributed Cache hosts?

Onsight
Get-AFCache | % {Get-AFCacheConfiguration -CacheName $_.CacheName}
Distributed Cache high availability
CacheName :
DistributedViewStateCache_f3bd4763-f482-4bb8-
a5a5-f40806460bdd
TimeToLive : 10 mins
CacheType : Partitioned
Secondaries : 0
MinSecondaries : 0

Onsight
Deployment method 1: GUI Installation
Install everything manually: the ”Next-Next” install)
Pros Cons
Very easy  Hides a lot of logic and configures things with potential
issues
Errors trapped in the UI Re-running setup might fix errors, or introduce new issues
Fastest way Also the ugliest way! Just look at it.
1) Download Prerequisites online (prerequisitesinstaller.exe)
2) Reboot
3) Run Setup
4) Run Configuration Wizard

Onsight
Deployment method 2: Custom PowerShell
Create custom PowerShell deployment scripts
Pros Cons
Deployment can be customized Requires a lot of work for end-to-end
custom scripts
Can be automated and fully controlled Error-prone
1) Install prerequisites online
2) Run custom provisioning scripts
3) Finalize with GUI if needed

Onsight
Deployment method 3: AutoSPInstaller
Provision using AutoSPInstaller
Pros Cons
Repeatable templates Open source and ”community supported”
Very good for larger deployments You might not know what’s being deployed
1) Prepare installation media with AutoSPSourceBuilder
2) Create template for AutoSPInstaller with AutoSPInstaller Online
3) Download AutoSPInstaller + copy media files
4) Execute install and get coffee
5) Done!

Onsight
AutoSPInstaller
 https://autospinstaller.com/
 Beta support for SharePoint 2016
 Also works with Windows Server 2016
Technical Previews
 Support for SQL Server 2016 CTP/RC is not
officially there, but works
 I tried 

Onsight
Installation: Prerequisites
 Use Prerequisiteinstaller.exe
 Offline install with
http://bit.ly/sp16offline
 Reboot when finished
 First server hosts Central Admin
 Note! 2 cores for each server

Onsight
SharePoint 2016 installation

Onsight
Zero Downtime Patching
 Updates are delivered as patches
 Each patch has only a few (2-3) packages
 Instead of 30-50 as with SP2013
 Patching is very fast: minutes, not hours
 Changes are in server-side patching & database changes
Current builds
16.0.4107.1002 IT Preview
16.0.4306.1002 Beta 2
16.0.4336.1000 Release Candidate
16.0.4351.1000 RTM

Onsight
Build numbers
Name Build Number
SharePoint 2016 IT Preview 16.0.4107.1002
SharePoint 2016 Beta 2 16.0.4306.1002
SharePoint 2016 Release Candidate (Jan.2016) 16.0.4327.1000
SharePoint 2016 RC updated 16.0.4336.1000
SharePoint 2016 RTM 16.0.4351.1000
April CU 2016 16.0.4366.1000
May CU 2016 16.0.4378.1000

Onsight
Patching SharePoint 2016
 In-Place Upgrade
 2 Phase process
 Patching
 Upgrade
 Patching and upgrade are online
operations
 All roles must have HA to achieve
“zero downtime”
Web frontends
App & Search
Distributed Cache
AD & Databases

Onsight
 Patching approach from 4351 (RTM) to May CU (4378)
 Run PSConfig
 Repeat on each farm server
 Slipstreamed installs are not yet supported
 Note: (Get-SPFarm).BuildVersion might not be updated, if
there are no database level changes
Patch prerequisites install
Build 16.0.4378.1000
Patching example
Baseline install
Build 16.0.4351.1000
Patch install
Build 16.0.4378.1000

Onsight
Process for patching with Zero Downtime
Backup the farm
Remove WFE from LB and
patch
Repeat for all WFE’s
Patch each App server
individually
Patching is complete
Run Upgrade-
SPContentDatabase in
parallel
Run .psconfig.exe -cmd
secureresources -cmd
installfeatures -cmd upgrade
-inplace b2b -force -wait -
cmd applicationcontent –
install on app servers
Remove WFE from LB and
run PSConfig
Upgrade complete
Verify BuildVersion

Onsight
Performing Zero Downtime Patching

Scalability and high
availability

Onsight
High availability and SharePoint
 Always balance your architecture against real business
needs
 With MinRole, HA is possibly easier to achieve and manage
 HA is not just about ”enough servers”
 It’s about planning for a solid architecture, of which HA is a by-
product
 You can also get HA without MinRole
 Consider what your HA level is
Full HA with MinRoleSingle Server A lot of options here

Onsight
The road to High Availability & Performance
 Use SQL alias for database connections
 Cliconfg.exe is your friend  AutoSPInstaller does this for you
 For SQL Server, perform the following changes
Enable Lock Pages in
Memory
Set Max Degree of
Parallelism (MAXDOP) to 1
Configure Max Memory
Settings
Configure Tempdb to
reduce page allocation
contention
Locking pages may
boost performance when
paging memory to disk
To configure:
1) Run gpedit.msc
2) Go to Security Settings > User Rights
Assignment
3) Lock pages in memory: Add account
that has privileges to run sqlservr.exe
4) Log out & log in
May boost performance
To configure:
1) Right click server in Management Studio
2) Select Advanced node
3) Set Max Degree of Parallelism to 1
Optimal memory settings
To configure:
1) Deduct 4 GB from current system
memory
2) Right click server in Management
Studio
3) Click Memory node
4) Set max memory to (current RAM –
4GB)
This has a substantial
performance impact
To configure:
1) Open SQL Server Configuration Manager
2) Select SQL Server Services
3) Right click MSSQLSERVER and select Properties
4) Add a new startup parameter: -T1118
5) Restart SQL Server service

Onsight
 Configure SQL Server AlwaysOn Availability Groups
 Guidance https://technet.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/jj715261.aspx
 Consider MinRole allocations and the need for MinRole
 Configure Log Shipping for Disaster Recovery
 Guidance http://technet.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/ms190640.aspx

Onsight
 Modify Model and Tempdb settings
 Increase initial size
 Autogrowth to MB, not % based increments
 For Tempdb, use simple recovery model
 Multiple tempdb files on multiple drives
 Avoid using auto shrinking for databases

Onsight
 Configure HTTP Compression for Static and Dynamic
Content in IIS
appcmd set config /section:urlCompression /doStaticCompression:True
appcmd set config /section:urlCompression /doDynamicCompression:True
 Configure Distributed Cache
 Memory allocation to “current OS memory - 2 GB divided by 2 = cache allocation
size
 https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj219613.aspx#memory
 Verify that Background Garbage Collection is enabled
<appSettings><add key="backgroundGC" value="true"/></appSettings>
 Set Content App Pool permission
Grant-CacheAllowedClientAccount –Account “DOMAINSP_AppPool”

Onsight
Data deduplication with SharePoint 2016
 Windows Server 2016 TP4 (and newer) support data
deduplication with Hyper-V role

Onsight
Recap
MinRole gives a lot, but also demands quite a lot
Optimize SQL Server and Distributed Cache
Deploy using AutoSPInstaller
Zero Downtime Patching is costly but achievable

thank you
questions?
live ratings
WWW.JUSSIROINE.COM@JUSSIROINE
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A Deep Dive into SharePoint 2016 architecture and deployment

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