Archive for category Plan

Migrating Workflows to SharePoint 2010 Question

Posted by The 14 Folder in Plan, Questions & Answers on July 25, 2010

Question

An anonymous visitor asked “Is it possible to migrate running workflows (built on SPD 2007 or VS 2008) when migrating 2007 farm to 2010? I tested on a very simple SPD workflow and it worked, but can we take it for granted for any kind of workflow…?”.

Answer

This is a very interesting question anonymous visitor. It sounds like you are doing your homework before doing your migration which is great. I think the best way to answer your question is to briefly speak about how workflows work. The following summaries how workflows are executed from start to finish:

  1. A person or process initiates some action that causes the workflow to begin. In SharePoint 2007, workflows can be:
    • Started on demand by a user by using the SharePoint user interface.
    • Started or resumed in response to the On Item Created event for an item in a list or document library.
    • Started or resumed in response to the On Item Changed event for an item in a list or document library.
    • Started or resumed programmatically through the SharePoint object model.
    • Started programmatically through the Workflow Web service.
  2. Once the workflow begins a process is created to execute tasks or actions in the workflow code. Not all workflows use the same hosting process.
    • Workflows started from the SharePoint user interface use the W3wp.exe process that is specific to the IIS Web application the workflow was initiate from.
    • If the workflow uses DelayActivity code or has a noncatastrophic error when the workflow instance begins then the Owstimer.exe server process is the host process. The Owstimer.exe is the SharePoint timer service process and is used in this context to start workflows when DelayActivity code is used or to try executing a failing workflow again at a later time.
    • When an external application (such as a console application, Web service, or Windows Communication Foundation service) creates items programmatically through the SharePoint object model, the process running the code becomes the workflow host.
  3. The workflow determines what action needs to perform next and executes the code.
  4. If the workflow needs to wait for a response before it can continue, then the SharePoint event handlers tell the Windows Workflow Foundation Runtime Engine to put the workflow to sleep using the SQL workflow persistence service.
    1. When a workflow becomes idle the Windows Workflow Foundation Runtime Engine calls the SQL workflow persistence service to save the workflow state into the content database of your SharePoint website.
    2. The SQL workflow persistence service assigns correlation tokens for the workflow and to each task as that the workflow engine can use unique identifiers to map events and actions to the correct workflow object. Next, the SQL workflow persistence serializes the workflow object turning into a binary string, and then saves it with a unique Workflow Instance ID to the SharePoint content database. This process is called dehydration.
    3. Once the workflow object is safely stored within the database the memory used to run the workflow is released and the workflow is considered to be put to sleep.
  5. When SharePoint receives a response to carry out the next action from ones of its event handlers, the Windows Workflow Foundation Runtime Engine wakes up the sleeping workflow using the SQL workflow persistence service. When the new response data and the data from the store workflow object the workflow can run the code to perform the remaining actions.
    1. When a user or system respond to a workflow action, the unique Workflow Instance ID is passed to the Windows Workflow Foundation Runtime Engine and SQL workflow persistence service finds the workflow object in the SharePoint web application’s content database.
    2. When the Windows Workflow Foundation Runtime Engine retrieves and deserializes the workflow object from the database, it performs many checks to ensure that the workflow object is mapped to the correct response. The checks ensure the workflow DLL has the correct namespaces, entities, and correlation tokens. The process of retrieving the workflow object is called hydration.
    3. Once the workflow object is successfully retrieved and passed all its checks the workflow is awake and is able to execute the rest of the action code.
  6. Steps 3 to 5 are repeated for each action as necessary until the workflow is complete. Once the workflow is complete, the workflow status is updated and the workflow memory and hosting process are released.

To answer your question there are ways that workflows might not make it through the migration process. The following are situations you should consider before migrating your SharePoint 2007 workflows to SharePoint 2010:

  1. A person or process initiates some action that causes the workflow to begin as a migration occurs: Workflows that are executing code are processing data in the memory of the server. If you begin a migration while the workflow is still in memory it is possible for the information and the workflow instance to be lost. Before starting your migration it is wise to make sure that your SharePoint sites are not able to be accessed by users. This ensures that no new workflow instances are initiated and any workflows that were running are hopefully completed or sleeping within the SharePoint web application content database.
  2. Identify any custom workflows that use DelayActivity code: The DelayActivity code delays an activate workflow from executing. If a workflow becomes completely idle during the delay and the UnloadOnIdle method is set to true, then the workflow may be unloaded from memory, put to sleep, and then reloaded into memory when the specified delay time expires. If the UnloadOnIdle method is set false then the workflow will remain in the server’s memory and may be lost during a migration process. You want to ensure no new workflow instances are initiated and any workflow that were running are hopefully completed or sleeping within the SharePoint web application content database.
  3. Make sure any external applications do not start workflows during the migration process: If you have external applications in your company interacting with SharePoint you want ensure that no new workflow instances are initiated. The workflow instance could be in memory and could be lost. Again the best strategy to limit access to the SharePoint environment.
  4. Ensure all custom workflow code is working correctly before the migration: If your workflow is not working correctly then the Owstimer.exe server process might trying to reactive the workflow action repeatedly. Especially if you are moving content databases to another SharePoint 2010 farm, this workflow instance could get lost. Make sure custom workflow code is in working order by checking the event and SharePoint logs on your server. Once the code is corrected the workflow will either finish or become idle and be saved to the content database.
  5. Run the pre-upgrade checker to look for potential issues: The pre-upgrade checker reports missing customizations and issues with orphaned sites, and more, so that you can address these issues before you perform your upgrade. The pre-upgrade checker also checks your workflows for the following issues:
    • 956447: The ModifiedWorkflowActionsFile rule in Pre-Upgrade Checker can warn that the default declarative workflow actions file has been modified
    • 956448: The CustomWorkflowActionsFiles rule in Pre-Upgrade Checker in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Service Pack 2 can warn that custom .ACTIONS files exist in the farm
    • 956449: The ModifiedWebConfigWorkflowAuthorizedTypes rule in Pre-Upgrade Checker for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Service Pack 2 can warn that Web.config files contain modified authorized types for workflow

    If the pre-upgrade checker is not run and the issues not corrected it is possible that your workflow will not work correctly. For more information about the pre-upgrade checker that comes with Office SharePoint Server 2007 with Service Pack 2 visit TechNet’s Run the pre-upgrade checker article.

  6. Check to see if the Workflow Auto Cleanup timer has been disabled: If your Workflow Auto Cleanup timer job is disabled in your Office SharePoint Server 2007 environment, make sure that you disable this timer job in your new environment also. If this timer job is enabled in the new environment and disabled in the previous version environment, you might lose workflow associations when you upgrade. For more information about this timer job visit Disable preservation of workflow history.

If you are using out-of-the-box SharePoint workflows do not worry too much. Microsoft developers know how to handle their own solutions and migrate them forward correctly. You will notice in the web.config files of the SharePoint 2010 virtual directories that there are redirect statements so that if code is looking for the SharePoint 2007 DLLs they are redirected to the SharePoint 2010 workflow DLLs. The following are web.config entries for redirecting workflow DLL versions:

<dependentAssembly>
        <assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.SharePoint.WorkflowActions" publicKeyToken="71e9bce111e9429c" culture="neutral" />
        <bindingRedirect oldVersion="12.0.0.0" newVersion="14.0.0.0" />
</dependentAssembly>

<dependentAssembly>
        <assemblyIdentity name="System.Web.Extensions" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" />
        <bindingRedirect oldVersion="1.0.0.0-1.1.0.0" newVersion="3.5.0.0" />
</dependentAssembly>

<dependentAssembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1">
        <assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.Office.Workflow.Routing" publicKeyToken="71e9bce111e9429c" culture="neutral" />
        <bindingRedirect oldVersion="12.0.0.0" newVersion="14.0.0.0" />
</dependentAssembly>

<dependentAssembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1">
        <assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.Office.Workflow.Tasks" publicKeyToken="71e9bce111e9429c" culture="neutral" />
        <bindingRedirect oldVersion="12.0.0.0" newVersion="14.0.0.0" />
</dependentAssembly>

<dependentAssembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1">
        <assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.Office.Workflow.Feature" publicKeyToken="71e9bce111e9429c" culture="neutral" />
        <bindingRedirect oldVersion="12.0.0.0" newVersion="14.0.0.0" />
</dependentAssembly>

These DLLs likely have code for the old SharePoint 2007 workflow actions and also the new SharePoint 2010 workflow actions. By having two sets of code the old workflow actions can finish correctly and then any new workflows going forward will use the new SharePoint 2010 workflow actions.

When it comes to your custom workflow code make sure all the code is copied on the SharePoint 2010 environment and that any web.config or app.config settings are already in place. When the websites are finished being migrated you want everything to be in place so that workflows can complete their jobs.

If you are moving between farms remember that you want to make sure that your workflows are either completed or sleeping in the content database of your site. Any workflows in memory have the highest risk of getting lost or not finishing as the processes will not be active in your new farm.

I hope I have answered your question and gave you some things to think about. Thank you for submitting your question and good luck on your SharePoint 2007 to 2010 migration. Please feel free to send any additional questions you may have.

For more information about SharePoint workflows visit Workflows in SharePoint Server 2010, Workflows in SharePoint Foundation, Cutting Edge: Windows Workflow Foundation – Part 1, Cutting Edge: Windows Workflow Foundation – Part 2, Developing Workflows in VS: Part 1 – Workflow Objects and A Crash Course on Mechanics, Improvements in SharePoint 2010: Workflow, Developing Workflow Solutions with SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows Workflow Foundation, WF Scenarios Guidance: SharePoint and Workflow, Workflow Scalability and Performance in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, Microsoft SharePoint Team Blog workflow posts, Understanding the Lifecycle of a Workflow, Channel 9 Workflow Videos, Best Practices For Windows Workflow Foundation Apps, Creating Custom Workflows for Windows SharePoint Services and Office SharePoint Server, Versioning long running workfows, and Site Collection Backups and Workflow Portability in SharePoint 2010.

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SharePoint 2010 Planning Resources Question

Posted by The 14 Folder in Plan, Questions & Answers on July 13, 2010

Question

An anonymous visitor asked “Did Microsoft release a project plan for SP2010 ? If so could you direct me to where I can download?”.

Answer

Planning for SharePoint 2010 can be difficult and find the right documentation to help you can even be harder to find. With SharePoint 2010, Microsoft has been pretty good about producing documentation. You will not find one document that explains start to finish how to go about your project. How to implemented SharePoint 2010 is different for every company and its needs. The following are five general stages that every company should go through to properly plan and execute their SharePoint environment:

  1. Evaluation: This stage involves installing a version of SharePoint 2010 to use and explore. You want to make sure that SharePoint is the right fit for your company and understand how it can be applied to help meet your strategy goals.
  2. Planning and Architecture: This stage involves creating the blueprints of how your SharePoint 2010 environment will be built, configured, and maintained. Planning and architecture is often over looked or simplified because companies have immediately needs they want to satisfy. I cannot express how important it is to properly plan your SharePoint environment. If you do not spend the time up front you will surely spend more time and money in the end when your environment crashes, has very poor performance, or has become too unwieldy to maintain.
  3. Configuration and Development: This stage involves building your SharePoint environment based on the documents produced from the planning and architecture stage. You want to have a good idea of the best practices you should follow while developing customizations to ensure long term scalability and maintenance. You should always have a development, staging, and production environment. Everything that is built by developers should be thoroughly tested in the staging environment before being deployed to the production environment.
  4. Deployment: This stage involves preparing and moving your code and configurations to your production environment. This can involve deployment of code, training of users, and content migration.
  5. Support and Maintenance: This stage involves administration of the infrastructure. You will want a back up and disaster discovery plan in place. Additionally you will want to schedules monthly outages to apply major code customization, software updates, and performance enhancements.

In case you have not evaluated SharePoint 2010 you should know that you can download a trail version of the software from the TechNet evaluation center that is good for 180 days. If you are thinking about running a virtualized environment you can download a demo Hyper-V image from the Microsoft Download Center that can be also used for 180 days and includes Microsoft Office Communication Server 2007 R2, Microsoft Visual Studio 2010, Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise Edition, Microsoft Office Web Applications, Microsoft FAST Search for SharePoint 2010, Microsoft Project Server 2010, Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010, Microsoft Visio 2010, Microsoft Project 2010, and Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 R2. Please visit the http://www.the14folder.com for more information on SharePoint 2010 Editions, Hardware Requirements for SharePoint 2010, and Software Requirements for SharePoint 2010.

As for your question it sounds like you would like to begin stage 2. You should begin by downloading the Planning guide for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 or the Planning guide for Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 from the Microsoft Download Center. These documents provide a lot of useful information and guidelines on how to lead a team through the planning stage of a SharePoint 2010 deployment. Microsoft’s TechNet website also has a whole section devoted to planning and architecture at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-ca/library/cc261834.aspx. The TechNet website includes planning worksheets and technical diagrams that you will find handy. The Microsoft Download Center also has guides, worksheets, and white papers on SharePoint 2010 that provide a lot of useful information. Additionally, at www.the14folder.com I have a section in my right side of the screen with links completely devoted to resources for SharePoint 2010 planning that you may find interesting.

You should definitely do your own research, however I would also recommend talking to a SharePoint consulting firm in your area. SharePoint is a big product and good consultants can help you avoid common pit fall that they have learned the hard way through experience. To find a SharePoint consulting firm in your area please visit the SharePoint partner finder.

Thank you for asking your question and I hope my response has helped you. I plan to talk more about this particular topic in greater detail in future posts. Please feel free to ask any additional questions you may have. Good luck!

~The 14 Folder

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Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Editions

Posted by The 14 Folder in Overview, Plan on May 12, 2010

Microsoft SharePoint 2010 has four different editions to choose from to help meet your business needs.The following is a small overview of each edition and what features each provide:

SharePoint Foundation 2010

Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 is a good starting point of business that want to try a free Web-based collaboration software to create blogs, wikis, community workspaces, web and document collaboration quickly and easily. SharePoint Foundation is intended for small to medium size businesses who want to get involved in Web 2.0 technologies without having to make a large investment. SharePoint Foundation uses SQL Server Express and Search Express out of the box so there will be limitation as to how big your SharePoint environment can grow (See Software Requirements For SharePoint 2010 article for more details). SharePoint Foundation 2010 includes the following features that are outlined www.sharepoint.com:

  • Accessibility
  • Audience Targeting
  • Blogs
  • Browser-based Customizations
  • Business Connectivity Services
  • Business Data Connectivity Service
  • Developer Dashboard
  • Discussions
  • Event Receivers
  • External Data Column
  • External Lists
  • Backup and Restore
  • Language Integrated Query (LINQ) for SharePoint
  • Large List Scalability and Management
  • Managed Accounts
  • Mobile Connectivity
  • Multilingual User Interface
  • Multi-Tenancy
  • Out-of-the-Box Web Parts
  • Permissions Management
  • Presence
  • Quota Templates
  • Read-Only Database Support
  • Remote Blob Storage (SQL Feature)
  • REST and ATOM Data Feeds
  • Ribbon and Dialog Framework
  • Sandboxed Solutions
  • SharePoint Designer
  • SharePoint Health Analyzer
  • SharePoint Lists
  • SharePoint Workspace
  • Silverlight Web Part
  • Site Search
  • Solution Packages
  • Support for Office Web Apps
  • Unattached Content Database Recovery
  • Usage Reporting and Logging
  • Visual Upgrade
  • Web Parts
  • Wikis
  • Workflow

If you have never tried SharePoint before and are wondering if it is a right fit for your company you can download Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 for free at from the Microsoft Download Center. For more information Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 visit What’s new in SharePoint 2010?, Feature Differences between SharePoint 2010 Foundation vs. Server Standard vs. Server Enterprise, SharePoint Foundation 2010 Product Information, Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 Business Value, Getting started with SharePoint Foundation 2010, Planning guide for SharePoint Foundation 2010, Operations guide for SharePoint Foundation 2010, TechNet’s Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 Resource Center, and SharPoint 2010 Feature Gallery.

SharePoint Server 2010 Standard

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Standard Edition contains all the functionality within Microsoft SharePoint Fountains and includes enhanced document management, content management, records management, collaboration sites, social computing sites (MySite, blogs, wikis, etc), and enterprise search features. As discussed in the Software Requirements For SharePoint 2010 article, Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 only comes in a 64-bit version. SharePoint Server 2010 Standard includes the following features outlined that are outlined on www.sharepoint.com:

  • Ask Me About
  • Basic Sorting
  • Best Bets
  • Business Connectivity Services Profile Page
  • Click Through Relevancy
  • Colleague Suggestions
  • Colleagues Network
  • Compliance Everywhere
  • Content Organizer
  • Document Sets
  • Duplicate Detection
  • Enterprise Scale Search
  • Enterprise Wikis
  • Federated Search
  • Improved Governance
  • Keyword Suggestions
  • Managed Metadata Service
  • Memberships
  • Metadata-driven Navigation
  • Metadata-driven Refinement
  • Mobile Search Experience
  • Multistage Disposition
  • My Content
  • My Newsfeed
  • My Profile
  • MySites
  • Note Board
  • Organization Browser
  • People and Expertise Search
  • Phonetic and Nickname Search
  • Query Suggestions, “Did You Mean?”, and Related Queries
  • Ratings
  • Recent Activities
  • Recently Authored Content
  • Refinement with Social Tags
  • Relevancy Tuning
  • Rich Media Management
  • Search Scopes
  • Shared Content Types
  • SharePoint 2010 Search Connector Framework
  • Status Updates
  • Tag Clouds
  • Tag Profiles
  • Tags
  • Tags and Notes Tool
  • Unique Document IDs
  • Windows 7 Search
  • Word Automation Services
  • Workflow Templates

For more information about SharePoint Server Standard Edition visit What’s new in SharePoint 2010?, TechNet’s SharePoint Server 2010 Resource Center, Micorsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Product Information, Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Capabilities, SharePoint 2010 Overview Evaluation Guide, SharePoint 2010 Walkthrough Guide, SharPoint 2010 Feature Gallery, Deployment Guide For Microsoft Sharepoint Server 2010, and Feature Differences between SharePoint 2010 Foundation vs. Server Standard vs. Server Enterprise.

SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise Edition contains all the functionality within the standard edition of SharePoint Intranet and additionally includes Access Services, InfoPath Form Services, Excel Services, Performance Point Services, Business Data Services, Visio Services, Word Automation Services, web service capabilities, and the ability to upgrade to FAST search. As discussed in the Software Requirements For SharePoint 2010 article, Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 only comes in a 64-bit version. SharePoint Server 2010 Standard includes the following features outlined that are outlined on www.sharepoint.com:

  • Access Services
  • Advanced Content Processing
  • Advanced Sorting
  • Business Data Integration with the Office Client
  • Business Data Web Parts
  • Business Intelligence Center
  • Business Intelligence Indexing Connector
  • Calculated KPIs
  • Chart Web Parts
  • Contextual Search
  • Dashboards
  • Data Connection Library
  • Decomposition Tree
  • Deep Refinement
  • Excel Services
  • Excel Services and PowerPivot for SharePoint
  • Extensible Search Platform
  • Extreme Scale Search
  • InfoPath Forms Services
  • PerformancePoint Services
  • Rich Web Indexing
  • Similar Results
  • Thumbnails and Previews
  • Tunable Relevance with Multiple Rank Profiles
  • Visio Services
  • Visual Best Bets
  • Web Analytics

For more information about SharePoint Server Enterprise Edition visit What’s new in SharePoint 2010?, TechNet’s SharePoint Server 2010 Resource Center, Micorsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Product Information, Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Capabilities, SharePoint 2010 Overview Evaluation Guide, SharePoint 2010 Walkthrough Guide, SharPoint 2010 Feature Gallery, Deployment Guide For Microsoft Sharepoint Server 2010, and Feature Differences between SharePoint 2010 Foundation vs. Server Standard vs. Server Enterprise.

SharePoint 2010 Online

Microsoft SharePoint Online 2010 is a hosted Microsoft SharePoint Server that is setup, provisioned, maintained and upgraded by Microsoft. Using cloud computing technology, Microsoft SharePoint Online provides you with the functionality of SharePoint 2010 without a team of dedicated IT staff managing the environment. Microsoft SharePoint Online is ideal for small or medium size companies that want to simple collaborate online. Although it will not be available until the first quarter of 2011, SharePoint 2010 Online will have standard and enterprise editions that include sandbox solutions so customers can upload customs code to their SharePoint Online environment. You can try Microsoft SharePoint 2007 Online for 30 days at the Microsoft Online Services Customer Portal. For more information on cost and features visit SharePoint Online Product Information, Microsoft SharePoint Online, SharePoint Online Video, SharePoint Online 2010 Overview, and SharePoint Online in the 2010 wave.

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Software Requirements For SharePoint 2010

Posted by The 14 Folder in Plan on February 20, 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 you 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 or the TechNet Library.


Required Pre-installation Server Software

Before installing 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 server and has no limit on the data base size. The Enterprise edition of SQL Server will also allow partitioning, 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 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.

For more information on FAST Search Server 2010 and whether it is a good fit for your company please visit Microsoft FAST Search Video, TechNet FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint (Beta), Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint Enterprise Search Evaluation Guide, Planning and Architecture for FAST Search Server for SharePoint 2010 (Beta), Deployment and Configuration for FAST Search Server for SharePoint 2010 (Beta), Monitoring for FAST Search Server for SharePoint 2010 (Beta), FAST Search Server for SharePoint 2010 Windows PowerShell Cmdlet Overview (Beta), FAST Search Server for SharePoint 2010 Windows PowerShell Cmdlet Help (Beta), FAST Search Server for SharePoint 2010 Site Admin and Central Admin (Beta), Optimize search relevance with Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint (Beta), and Query Integration in Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint (Beta).

Microsoft Communications Server 2007 R2

Microsoft Communications 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 Communications Server and SharePoint 2010 are power tools for facilitating communication across departments and companies around the world.

Microsoft Communications 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 Communications 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 Communications 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 Communications Server 2007 R2 at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/bb684921.aspx.

For more information on how of Microsoft Communications Server 2007 can help you company communication more efficiently and economically visit http://www.microsoft.com/communicationsserver/en/us/product-details.aspx, http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/ocs/default.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.

Microsoft Project Server 2010

Built on top of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, Microsoft Project Server 2010 extends SharePoint’s business collaboration services with end-to-end project and portfolio management capabilities to provide a robust work management solution. Microsoft Project Server 2010 helps organizations select project portfolios that align with their business strategy, gain insight into resource availability to maximize utilization while adhering to schedule dependencies, track progress with Web-based project management tools (such as task lists, timesheets, Gantt charts and schedules), improve productivity with collaborative workspace for team members to share information, and gain business transparency through reporting and business intelligence. Since Microsoft Project Server 2010 is so tightly integrated with Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 their software and hardware requirements are the same. Please visit the Hardware Requirements For SharePoint 2010 post to see the necessary hardware requirements. Microsoft Project Server 2010 trial is available to download at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/ee410540.aspx.

For more information about Microsoft Project Server 2010 visit Microsoft Project Server 2010 Website, What’s new in Microsoft Project Server 2010, Microsoft Project Server 2010 Version Comparison Chart, Project TechNet Forum, Project 2010 Videos, Best Project 2010 Blogs, Microsoft Project Conference 2009, and TechNet Microsoft Project Server 2010.


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.

For detailed information about SharePoint 2010 web browser support visit TechNet’s Plan browser support.

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.


Optional Client Machine Software

Microsoft Office 2010

Although SharePoint 2010 can store any type of document, the Microsoft Office 2010 suite of applications has additional features that interact with SharePoint to allow you to do more with your documents. The following are interoperability features with SharePoint and Office 2010:

  • Visio documents can be displayed and interacted with in a web browser as part of SharePoint website.
  • You can now design a workflow in Visio 2010 and then import it into SharePoint Designer for configuration.
  • InfoPath forms can be displayed and interacted with within a web browser as part of SharePoint website.
  • With InfoPath 2010 you can edit SharePoint 2010 list on the fly from within InfoPath application for faster editing and publishing.
  • InfoPath forms can now be used in mobile devices.
  • Excel documents can be displayed and interacted with within a web browser as part of SharePoint website.
  • Access databases can be displayed and interacted with within a web browser as part of SharePoint website.
  • OneNote 2010, PowerPoint 2010, and Word 2010 documents can co-authoring so that more than one user can be changing a document at the same time.
  • PowerPivot in Excel 2010 allows Excel to return more rows of information faster than ever before.
  • Within Word you can publish wiki and blog postings directly to SharePoint.
  • Within Word users can add metadata to documents quickly and easily when saving to SharePoint.
  • Outlook 2010 can connect to SharePoint 2010 duscussions, lists, and libraries to display and alter content within Outlook.
  • Office documents can be altered offline with asynchronous saves.
  • With Outlook you can view full documents stored in SharePoint.
  • With Outlook 2010 use the Outlook Social Connector you can view activity feeds generated by SharePoint. Activity Feeds are very similar Linkedin, MySpace, and Facebook activity feeds and allow you to track activities that have been posted by your colleagues. You can track content ratings, status messages, new colleague announcements, job title changes, manager changes, new blog posts, new memberships, sharing interesting ideas, tagging by colleagues, note board posts, tagging interests, upcoming birthdays, birthday announcements, upcoming workplace anniversary, workplace anniversary announcements, and employee profile updates.
  • Microsoft Office Web Apps are online companions to Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote, enabling people to access and do light editing or sharing of Office documents from virtually anywhere using SharePoint Server 2010 or SharePoint Fountain 2010.

Please noted that if you wish to use Visio services, which is now part of SharePoint 2010, to add functionality and interact with Visio documents you must purchase the Visio Ultimate edition. Visio Ultimate is not part of Office Ultimate edition and must be purchased separately.

Microsoft Office 2010 requires a computer with at least a 500 MHz processor, 512 MB RAM, 3 GB available hard disk space, 1024 x 768 resolution monitor, and a DirectX 9.0c compatible graphics card with 64 MB of on board memory. Microsoft Office 2010 can only be installed on Windows XP with Service Pack (SP) 3 (32-bit operating system (OS) only) or Windows Vista with SP1, Windows 7, Windows Server 2003 R2 with MSXML 6.0, and Windows Server 2008. Microsoft Office 2010 includes both 32- and 64-bit versions. 32-bit version is recommended because it runs on both 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows. People who routinely use very large documents or spreadsheets that need more than 2 GB of memory may want to run the 64-bit version, but many common add-ins for Office don’t run correctly in the 64-bit edition.

If you are interested in using Microsoft Office 2010 you can download a 60 day trial version of the software from the TechNet Evaluation Center. For more information about Microsoft Office 2010 visit the Official Microsoft Office 2010 Website, Microsoft Office 2010 TechNet Resource Center, Office on Twitter, Office on YouTube, Microsoft Office Blog, Microsoft Office 2010 Engineering Blog, Office 2010 the Movie, Microsoft Office 2010 Free E-Book, Deployment guide for Microsoft Office 2010, Microsoft Office 2010 Blogs, Office 2010 Developer Center, and Ribbon Hero.

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010

Visual Studio 2010 is a robust development environment intended for developers and facilitates rapid SharePoint development by providing advanced debugging tools, IntelliSense, statement completion, and project templates. SharePoint projects can be developed by using either Visual Basic or Visual C#, although Visual C# is the language standard for SharePoint. Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 comes in 32-bit and 64-bit versions. Visual Studio 2010 professional, premium, or ultimate editions can be used to develop SharePoint solutions. The following are features that can be found in Visual Studio 2010 to help your SharePoint development:

  • New visual web part project that allows controls to be dragged and dropped in a designer view.
  • Project templates for creating SharePoint sites, list definitions, workflows, business data connectivity models, and site definitions.
  • The new client object model enables access SharePoint objects through a referenced DLL as opposed to making Web service calls.
  • The Server Explorer view connects SharePoint to display sites, document libraries, lists within your web application.
  • The Feature Designer helps generates the Feature.xml file that describes the scope, dependencies, and code elements that your feature will deploy on activation.
  • The Package Designer helps generates a xml file that describes the grouping of SharePoint elements and features into a single solution package and configure whether to reset the Web server during deployment.
  • The Package Explorer view displays and allows modification of files that will be packaged to be deployed to your SharePoint environment.
  • F5 will now allow you to compile, build, debug and deploy SharePoint solutions.
  • Sandboxed Solutions allow developers to write server-side code that interacts with the SharePoint object model, but the code restricted, managed, and monitored.

Visual Studio 2010 requires at computer with at least 1.6 GHz processor, 1 GB (32-bit) or 2 GB (64-bit) RAM with an additional 512 MB if running in a virtual machine, a 5400 Revolutions Per Minute (RPM) hard drive with 3 GB hard drive space, and a DirectX 9 capable video card running at 1024 x 768 or higher-resolution display. Visual Studio 2010 can be installed on Windows XP (x86) with Service Pack 3 (except Starter Edition), Windows XP (x64) with Service Pack 2 (except Starter Edition), Windows Vista (x86 & x64) with Service Pack 1 (except Starter Edition), Windows 7 (x86 and x64), Windows Server 2003 (x86 & x64) with Service Pack 2, Windows Server 2003 R2 (x86 and x64), Windows Server 2008 (x86 and x64) with Service Pack 2, and Windows Server 2008 R2 (x64).

If you are interested in using Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 you can download a 60 day trial version of the software from the Visual Studio 2010 Downloads. For more information about Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 visit the Official Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Website, Channel 9′s SharePoint Development with Visual Studio 2010, Visual Studio 2010 Tools for SharePoint 2010, SharePoint 2010 Visual Studio 2010 Extensions, MSDN Code Gallery: SharePoint Development in Visual Studio 2010, and TechNet’s SharePoint Development in Visual Studio.

Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2010

SharePoint Designer 2010 is an optional Windows application offered free by Microsoft for developers and advanced users to rapidly develop SharePoint applications using software wizards and “What You See Is What You Get” (WYSIWYG) editors. SharePoint Designer 2010 is often used to create or modify master pages, page layouts, CSS, libraries, workflow, Line-Of-Business data integration, and business intelligence solutions. Unfortunately SharePoint Designer 2010 is not backward compatible and can only be used with SharePoint 2010 sites.

SharePoint Designer 2010 requires at computer with at least 500 MHz processor, 256 megabytes (MB) of RAM, 2.5 GB of hard drive space, and a DirectX 9.0c compatible graphics card with 64 MB. SharePoint Designer 2010 can be run on Windows 7, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista Service Pack 1, or Windows XP Service Pack 3. The 32-bit and 64-bit versions of SharePoint Designer 2010 can be downloaded from the Microsoft Download Center. For more information about SharePoint Designer 2010 visit the Microsoft SharePoint Designer Team Blog, Introducing SharePoint Designer 2010, and Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2010 Datasheet.

Microsoft Project Professional 2010

Microsoft Project Professional 2010 is an optional project management software program developed and sold by Microsoft that has been designed to assist project managers in developing plans, assigning resources to tasks, tracking progress, demand management, managing budgets, and analyzing workloads. Microsoft Project Professional 2010 can sync with Microsoft Project Server 2010 or SharePoint Foundation to provide an overall view of how your company is doing and provide enhanced collaboration, task management, and business intelligence reporting. The following are additional software requirements to use all the additional features Microsoft Project Professional 2010 has to offer:

  • Certain advanced collaboration functionality requires Microsoft Project Professional 2010 and connectivity to Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise.
  • The Import Outlook Tasks feature requires Outlook 2003 SP2 or later.
  • Visual Reports require Excel 2003 SP2 or later and Visio Professional 2007 or later.
  • Enterprise project, portfolio, and resource management capabilities require Microsoft Project Professional 2010 and Microsoft Project Server 2010.
  • Importing tasks to an Outlook calendar or tasks list requires Microsoft Project Web App and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 SP1 or later.
  • Synchronizing Project Tasks Lists requires Microsoft Project Professional 2010 and Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010.
  • Publishing projects and Windows Workflow Foundation require Microsoft Project Professional 2010 and Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise (installed with Microsoft Project Server 2010).
  • The Resource Substitution Wizard requires Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5.
  • Certain online functionality requires a Windows Live ID.
  • Product functionality and graphics may vary based on your system configuration. Some features may require additional or advanced hardware or server connectivity.

Microsoft Project Professional 2010 requires a computer with at least a 700 MHz processor, 512 MB RAM, 2 GB available hard disk space, 1024 x 768 resolution monitor, and 32-bit Windows Internet Explorer 7 or later. Microsoft Project Professional 2010 can only be installed on Windows 7, Windows Vista with SP1, Windows XP (must have SP3) (32-bit), Windows Server 2008, or Windows Server 2003 R2 with MSXML 6.0. Microsoft Project Professional 2010 includes both 32- and 64-bit versions. 32-bit version is recommended because it runs on both 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows. People who routinely use very large documents or spreadsheets that need more than 2 GB of memory may want to run the 64-bit version, but many common add-ins for Office don’t run correctly in the 64-bit edition.

If you are interested in using Microsoft Project Professional 2010 you can download a trial version of the software from the TechNet Evaluation Center. For more information about Microsoft Project Professional 2010 visit the Microsoft Project Professional 2010 website, Microsoft Project Professional 2010 Demos, Microsoft Project Professional 2010 Help and How-Tos, Microsoft Project Professional 2010 Forum, and Microsoft Project 2010 “Ignite”training slide presentations.

Microsoft SharePoint Workspace 2010

Microsoft SharePoint Workspace 2010 is the new name and version of Microsoft Office Groove. SharePoint Workspace 2010 is a client application provides direct bi-directional synchronization of library and list content between a SharePoint site and a workspace on an individual client computer. The power of SharePoint Workspaces is that you can take SharePoint documents and list anywhere with your laptop, make changes, and then update SharePoint when you get back to the office. SharePoint Workspace works well for employees who have to work in the field all day without Internet connective.

Microsoft SharePoint Workspace 2010 requires a computer with at least a 500 MHz processor, 256 MB RAM, 1.5 GB available hard disk space, 1024 x 768 resolution monitor, and a graphics card with 64 and DirectX 9.0c compatible. Microsoft SharePoint Workspace 2010 can only be installed on Windows XP with Service Pack (SP) 3 (32-bit operating system (OS) only) or Windows Vista with SP1, Windows 7, Windows Server 2003 R2 with MSXML 6.0, and Windows Server 2008. Microsoft SharePoint Workspace 2010 includes both 32- and 64-bit versions. 32-bit version is recommended because it runs on both 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows. People who routinely use very large documents or spreadsheets that need more than 2 GB of memory may want to run the 64-bit version

If you are interested in using Microsoft SharePoint Workspace 2010 you can download a 60 day trial version of Office Professional Plus 2010 that includes SharePoint Workspace from the TechNet Evaluation Center. For more information about Microsoft SharePoint Workspace 2010 visit the Offical Microsoft SharePoint Workspace 2010 Website, SharePoint Workspace 2010 Overview, SharePoint Workspace 2010 Development Team Blog, Getting started with SharePoint Workspace 2010, Microsoft SharePoint Workspace 2010 Introduction Video, Changes in SharePoint Workspace 2010, and It’s all about Groove and SharePoint Workspace Blog.

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Hardware Requirements For SharePoint 2010

Posted by The 14 Folder in Plan on December 15, 2009

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:

  1. Click on “Start” in the task bar at the bottom of your screen.
  2. Click on Run or Start Search.
  3. Type “winmsd.exe”. The “System Information” screen should appear.
  4. Click on “System Summary”.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. In the right pane, click on the + sign next to Components.
  8. Next click on the + sign beside Storage.
  9. Under Storage, click on Disks.
  10. 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 modelling 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. For more information on capacity planning visit SharePoint Foundation 2010 performance and capacity test results and recommendations, SharePoint Server 2010 performance and capacity test results, FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint Capacity Planning, Capacity Management for SharePoint Server 2010, and TechNet’s Performance and Capacity Management.

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