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20Feb/100

Software Requirements For SharePoint 2010

Whether you are starting a new SharePoint 2010 environment or migrating pre-existing SharePoint 2007 content, proper preparation and planning is key to building a solid collaboration platform that will grow with your organization. As we previously discussed in Hardware Requirements For SharePoint 2010 post, the most important requirement you should know before beginning your SharePoint 2010 or SharePoint Foundation 2010 environment is that SharePoint can only run on a 64-bit server with 64-bit (x64) software. The following software requirements should be considered before building your SharePoint environment:

64-bit Software

With all the new features and improvements incorporated into SharePoint Server 2010 and SharePoint Foundation 2010, Microsoft had to move to a 64-bit architecture to support the intense processing power required for medium to large scale deployments. The benefits of using a 64-bit software with a 64-bit server is the ability to access physical memory (RAM) above 4 gigabytes (GB) and process two times the number of bits a 32-bit processor can process in one computation. To take full advantage of the increased performance of a 64-bit server both the operating system and applications must 64-bit or x64 to be optimized for the processor and memory.

Supported Operating Systems

SharePoint 2010 is only supported on a 64-bit server with a 64-bit (x64) version of Windows Server 2008 SP2 or Windows Server 2008 R2. SharePoint is not supported on "Server Core"installations of Windows Server 2008 and R2 as it does not contain some of the components required for SharePoint to be configured or run.

It is also possible to install SharePoint 2010 on 64-bit (x64) versions of Windows Vista SP2 and Windows 7, however it is only recommended for development environments as upgrading to future SharePoint versions will not be supported. You will want to make sure that you install either Business or Professional editions of Windows.

For more information on supported operating systems visit the Microsoft SharePoint Team Blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2010/01/22/operating-system-requirements-of-sharepoint-2010.aspx or TechNet at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262485%28office.14%29.aspx#section3.

Required Pre-installation Server Software

Before installing the Beta version of SharePoint 2010 it is important to install the following service packs, cumulative updates, and hot fixes on your server:

Optional Server Applications

The following server applications are not required to install SharePoint 2010, however they can provide additional robust functionality that can be integrated into your environment:

SQL Server

SharePoint 2010 installs SQL Server Express as part of the standalone installation and includes a database engine, reporting, and a database management application. SQL Server Express only utilizes 1 physical processor (including multiples cores), up to 1 GB RAM, and up to 4 GB storage to support development and small-scale environments. If you decide to use SQL Server Express you should install Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express Edition Service Pack 1.

For medium to large scale SharePoint environments, I highly recommend installing a retail version of 64-bit SQL Server 2005 or SQL Server 2008 for performance and scalability into the future. Standard and Enterprise editions of SQL Server are able to support the maximum amount of RAM install in your sevrer and has no limit on the data base size. The Enterprise edition of SQL Server will also allow paritioning, parallel index operations, and indexed views. The following service packs (SP), cumulative updates, and hot fixes should be installed for SQL Server before installing SharePoint 2010:

64-bit edition of Microsoft SQL Server 2005

64-bit edition of Microsoft SQL Server 2008

Microsoft Server Speech Platform

Another optional application that can be installed as part of your SharePoint deployment is Microsoft Server Speech Platform that performs speech recognition and speech synthesis for applications. Microsoft Server Speech Platform is used in SharePoint 2010 for its phonetic matching (matching words based on how they sound) capabilities. Microsoft Server Speech Platform supports English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese and German phonetic matching. The following files should be installed before installed SharePoint 2010:

Additionally, you should update the [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Speech Server\v10.0\Recognizers\Tokens\SR_MS__TELE_10.0\Attributes] registry key for every language that you install. Click Start, and then run regedit. Find the registry key, and then update the Vendor value to Microsoft Corporation. The following is the language codes for each speech recognition pack:

English : 1033
French : 1036
Spanish: 1034
German: 1031
Japanese: 1041
Chinese: 2052

For more information on supported optional applications visit the TechNet at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262485%28office.14%29.aspx#section3. For more information on SQL Server Editions go to http://www.microsoft.com/Sqlserver/2005/en/us/compare-features.aspx and http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/editions.aspx. For more information on installing SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services Add-In for SharePoint Server 2010 go to http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee662542%28office.14%29.aspx. For more information on Microsoft speech technology go to http://www.microsoft.com/speech/speech2004/default.mspx and http://www.microsoft.com/speech/default.aspx.

FAST Search Server 2010

Acquired from the Norway-based Fast Search &Transfer company, FAST Search Server 2010 provides a high-performance distributed search solution within Microsoft SharePoint Server that supports content-processing pipeline, metadata extraction, visual search, and advanced linguistics. You should consider using FAST Search Server 2010 in your environment if you:

Have the Enterprise edition of SharePoint 2010
Require scalability and performance
Require enriched search experience with the ability to tailor relevant search results and navigation
Have to crawl internal and external content sources that include large-scale Web content
Want sophisticated content processing including metadata or property extraction

According to the Planning and Architecture for FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint (Beta) document, FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint solution consists of three main parts:

FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint that provides processing, indexing and query capabilities, and the administration of these features.
FAST Query Search Service Application (SSA) provides the query Web front-end capabilities. You install and deploy this SSA on a SharePoint Web server, and it hosts query Web parts and SDK query integration capabilities for your search solution.
FAST Search Connector (Content SSA) that retrieves content for indexing from SharePoint farms and other content repositories. You install and deploy this SSA on a SharePoint application server.

FAST Search Server 2010 minimum hardware requirements are a 64-bit quad core processor server with a 2.0 GHz CPU, 4 GB of RAM and 50 GB of disk space. FAST Search Server 2010 is recommended to be run on a 64-bit eight core processor with 2.0 GHz of CPU, 16 GB of RAM and 1 TB of disk space on RAID across 6 spindles or more. FAST Search Server 2010 can be installed on either Windows Server 2008 SP2 x64 or Windows Server 2008 R2 x64.You can download the beta version of FAST Search Server 2010 at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/evalcenter/ee424282.aspx.

Microsoft Communicator Server 2007 R2

Microsoft Communicator Server 2007 R2, better known as OCS, is a software platform for presence information, instant messaging (IM), voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), video, call forwarding, and desktop sharing that helps end users be more productive by enabling them to communicate and collaborate easily with others in different locations or time zones using a range of different. In SharePoint 2010, OCS 2007 provide online presence gives individuals the ability to identify who is online and available to communicate with them at any given moment. With the new improvement in SharePoint 2010’s user profiles and social data, Microsoft Communicator Server and SharePoint 2010 are power tools for facilitating communication across departments and companies around the world.

Microsoft Communicator Server 2007 R2 is recommended to be run on a 64-bit quad-core 2.0 GHz server with 16 GB of RAM, 2x RAID 1 (mirrored) 10K RPM or 15K RPM for system files, 2x RAID 1 (mirrored) 15K RPM for database log files, 8x RAID 10 (striped and mirrored) 15K RPM disks for database data files, and 2-port 1 Gbps network adapter. Microsoft Communicator Server 2007 can be installed on 64-bit edition of Windows Server 2008, or Windows Server 2003 R2 x64 Edition with Service Pack 2 (SP2), or Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition with SP2. Microsoft Communicator Server 2007 also requires Microsoft SQL Server 2008 or Microsoft SQL Server 2005 to host the database files required of the application to run.

Download a 60-day trial version of Microsoft Communicator Server 2007 R2 at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/bb684921.aspx.

For more information on how of Microsoft Communicator Server 2007 can help you company communication more efficiently and economically visit http://www.microsoft.com/communicationsserver/en/us/product-details.aspx, http://www.microsoft.com/uc/en/us/products.aspx, http://communicatorteam.com/, http://www.microsoft.com/Office/2010/en/communicator/default.aspx, http://www.gartner.com/technology/media-products/reprints/microsoft/vol7/article3/article3.html, and http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd298136.aspx.

Client Machine Software

Taking into consideration what is installed on client machines is just as important for planning the software requirements for your servers. The following are areas you should consider about software on your company’s client machines:

Web Browser Support

SharePoint 2010 offers a two tiered level of support for standard XHTML 1.0 compliant web browsers. Level 1 web browsers are able to take advantage of Active X controls and are able to use all the functionality SharePoint has to provide. Level 1 web browsers include:

Operating System	Browser
Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008	Internet Explorer 7, Internet Explorer 8 (32-bit), Mozilla Firefox 3.5*
Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2	Internet Explorer 8 (32-bit), Firefox 3.5

*Some ActiveX features, such as list Datasheet view and the control that displays user presence information, do not work in Mozilla Firefox 3.5.
Note: The level 1 web browser requirements above can be found on Microsoft TechNet website at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/cc263526%28office.14%29.aspx

Level 2 web browsers not take advantage of Active X controls and are provide basic functionality to read, write, and administrate SharePoint sites. Level 2 web browsers include:

Operating System	Browser
Apple Mac OS X Snow Leopard	Apple Safari 4.x, Mozilla Firefox 3.5
Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008	Internet Explorer 7, Internet Explorer 8 (64-bit)
Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2	Internet Explorer 8 (64-bit)
UNIX/Linux 8.1	Firefox 3.5

Note: The level 2 web browser requirements above can be found on Microsoft TechNet website at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/cc263526%28office.14%29.aspx

Web browsers that are not included in the tabled above are not considered by Microsoft to be tested and supported with SharePoint 2010. You will notice that Microsoft has decided not to support IE 6. From at Internet prospective users will still be able to access your web content with fewer issues because of the high level of control you have over the markup through master pages, page layouts, and CSS styles. Problems will arise is when users with unsupported browsers try to author content and use administrative features within SharePoint.

Microsoft Silverlight 3

Microsoft Silverlight is a powerful web application framework for creating multimedia, graphics, animations and user interactive experiences for Web, desktop, and mobile applications when online or offline. In SharePoint 2010, Silverlight is used heavily in user interfaces for content editing, menus, and administrative screens. SharePoint 2010 developers also have the ability to host a Microsoft Silverlight application in a Web Part. The free Silverlight 3 plug-in can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/get-started/install/default.aspx and is compatible with the following operating systems and web browsers:

Operating System	Windows Internet Explorer 8	Windows Internet Explorer 7	Internet Explorer 6	Firefox 2, 3	Safari 3	Safari 4
Windows Vista			-		-	-
Windows 7		-	-		-
Windows Server 2008			-		-	-
Windows Server 2008 R2		-	-	-	-	-
Windows XP SP2, SP3					-	-
Windows 2000 SP4 + KB 891861	-	-	**	-	-	-
Windows Server 2003 (excluding IA-64)					-	-
Mac OS 10.4.8+ (PowerPC)	-	-	-	*	*	-
Mac OS 10.4.8+ (Intel-based)	-	-	-
Linux, FreeBSD or SolarisOS (Requries Moonlight)	-	-	-		-	-

* Silverlight 1.0 Only ; ** Silverlight 2, 3 Only

Note: The operating systems and web browsers compatibility chart above can be found on the Silverlight website .

For more information about Silverlight visit http://silverlight.net/, http://mono-project.com/Moonlight, and http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee539062%28office.14%29.aspx.

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15Dec/090

Hardware Requirements For SharePoint 2010

Whether you are starting a new SharePoint 2010 environment or migrating pre-existing SharePoint 2007 content, proper preparation and planning is key to building a solid collaboration platform that will grow with your organization. The most important requirement you should know before beginning is that SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint Foundation 2010 will only run in a 64-bit environment. The following hardware requirements should be considered before building your SharePoint infrastructure:

Minimum Hardware Requirements

Component	Minimum Requirement
Processor	64-bit, dual processor, 3 GHz
RAM	4 GB for stand-alone or evaluation installation 8 GB for single server and multiple server farm installation for production use
Hard disk	80 GB

Note: The minimum hardware requirements above can be found on Microsoft TechNet website at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/cc262485%28office.14%29.aspx.

64-Bit Hardware

One of the greatest advantages of using a 64-bit version of SharePoint 2010 is the ability to access physical memory (RAM) that is above 4 gigabytes (GB) and up to 16 exabytes (EB). 64-bit hardware can also be more responsive when running several programs at the same time and switching between them frequently because they handle twice as many bits of information in the same clock cycle than a 32-bit system. With all services SharePoint 2010 has to offer, such as Excel, Visio, Search, PerformancePoint, PowerPoint, Access, Business Connectivity, Word Automation, and InfoPath, you can understand SharePoint had to make the leap solely to 64-bit systems so that all the services could run together and have all the RAM they require for processing.

To run a 64-bit version of SharePoint, your computer must have a 64-bit processor. If you do not know if your computer or server has a 64-bit processor and meets the minimum hardware requirements for SharePoint 2010 try the following steps:

Click on "Start" in the task bar at the bottom of your screen.
Click on Run or Start Search.
Type "winmsd.exe". The "System Information" screen should appear.
Click on "System Summary".
In the details pane, locate Processor under Item.

If the value that corresponds to Processor starts with x86, the computer has a 32-bit processor.
If the value that corresponds to Processor starts with EM64T, Intel64, or ia64, the computer has a 64-bit processor.
If the value that corresponds to Processor contains the words "dual" or "quad" and a number above 3 GHz then your type of processor meets the minimum requirements.

In the details pane, locate Total Physical Memory under Item.

If the value that corresponds to Total Physical Memory is greater than 4 GB or 4,096 MB then your hard drive meets the minimum requirements.

In the right pane, click on the + sign next to Components.
Next click on the + sign beside Storage.
Under Storage, click on Disks.
In the details pane, locate Size under Item.

If the value that corresponds to Size is greater than 80 GB or 81,920 MB then your hard drive meets the minimum requirements.

It is important to note that Intel’s Itanium series of 64-bit processors uses a proprietary design that is not compatible with Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies. Be sure to check the processor type when you acquire hardware for SharePoint 2010.

For more information about 64-bit hardware visit Microsoft 64-bit Computing, 64-bit System Design, and
Advantages of 64-bit hardware and software.

Topologies

Although your server or computer may meet the minimum requirements, this does not mean that your environment's performance is optimized. Even if your infrastructure at first meets performance expectations, growing numbers of documents, groups, lists, and sites may increase page load times and decrease satisfaction. SharePoint 2010 farm can be deployed on a single server or many servers to create different topologies. There are three deployment tiers you can use to create your SharePoint farm to meet your company's needs:

In a single tier deployment the SharePoint Server and the database server are installed on the same server or computer.
In a two tiers deployment the SharePoint Server and the database are installed on separate servers. This type of deployment would be used to create a small farm.
In a three tier deployment there is a Web front-end server, an application server (SharePoint services like Excel, Search, etc.), and the database server are installed on different servers or computers. A three-tier deployment is commonly used for medium and large farms.

It is important to note that each deployment tier can have multiple servers. Often SharePoint deployments have multiple Web front-end server, one database server and one application server. For more information about SharePoint 2010 topology visit TechNet's Sharepoint 2010 Topology Technical Diagram, SharePoint 2010 Topologies, and SharePoint 2010 Deployment Scenarios.

Virtualization

Often SharePoint deployments require multiple servers to ensure efficiency, availability, and redundancy. It is possible to have multiple web front end servers, application servers, and database servers for production, staging, and development environments. This can quickly lead to abundance of servers which may go unutilized or underutilized.

Virtualization consolidates multiple virtual environments within a single physical server sharing the hardware resources across the virtual machines. The benefits of virtualization are that it reduces hardware costs, allows for rapidly deploy new servers, increases server utilization, reduces facility costs, and extends the utility of the physical server.

Microsoft Hyper-V, Windows 7, Microsoft Virtual PC, and Microsoft Virtual Server, can virtualize a SharePoint environment. Hyper-V is the preferred Microsoft virtualization software for SharePoint servers as it runs as a bare metal hypervisor that works between the physical hardware and the operating systems in each virtual environment for greater performance and security. It is important to note that the performance difference between a physical server and a virtual environment is minimal. For more information about SharePoint virtualization visit Deploying SharePoint 2010 Hyper-V environment, Setting Up the Development Environment for SharePoint Server 2010, SharePoint Virtualization Performance, and Native VHD Support in Windows 7.

Capacity Planning

To help predict and anticipate the most cost-effective topology, hardware, and bandwidth requirements for you company, Microsoft released a SharePoint Capacity Planning Tool for IT administrators and professionals. The Capacity Planning Tool is a general purpose modeling tool that allows you to simulate and analyze different SharePoint deployment scenarios. After you provide the tool with basic information about your organization, the tool also provides an approximation of the topology your organization needs. Unfortunately, Microsoft has not released a version of the Capacity Planning Tool for SharePoint 2010 yet, however you can use the SharePoint 2007 version to give you an idea of what you need. The SharePoint Capacity Planning Tool can be downloaded at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=DBEE0227-D4F7-48F8-85F0-E71493B2FD87&displaylang=en.

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