SharePoint 2010 Application server Load Balancer

Question:

I've been tasked with setting up a 3-tier SharePoint farm.

1. Two load balanced webservers
2. Two applications servers
3. A SQL server

Everything is all set up and working with load balancing etc. etc.

My question is what do I do with the application servers?

• Do I load balance the two application servers?
• Do I cluster them?
• Do I run certain services on each server?
• Do I have the same services running on each server and SharePoint automatically chooses a server?

I'm not quite sure why we have two application servers. Currently I just have the same services running on each app server.

Answers: 

1. What you do with the application servers largely depends on what services you are running in the    farm and how heavy they are utilized (i.e. it depends on your requirements). SharePoint 2010 will handle it's own internal load balancing with the service applications, so no need to set those up behind  a load balancer. It just depends which application servers you have activated to run those services.

2. You do want to load balance the web front ends, but you do not want to load balance or cluster the Application Servers. The App servers should be where you run your Service Applications. These Service Applications can be started on more than one server. When they are started automatically on more than one server they are load balanced between the 2 app servers. If one goes down the server gets marked down and the other server handles the load by itself. When the other server comes back up it will eventually get marked as active again and load balancing will resume. I agree the query role should be located on the WFE. However in your situation I would run the Indexing Service on both App servers along with almost all of the other services so you get performance and redundancy.

3. SharePoint servers that hold roles such as search are typically labeled as application servers. These servers do not require load-balancing technology, since SharePoint provides load-balancing internally for service applications. In reality, servers labeled as either WFE servers or application servers may hold many different roles. For example, it is common for the search query role to be configured on WFE servers.

Refer to this ebook: 

SharePoint 2010 Enterprise Architect's Guidebook

Or donwnload it at:

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?jb3mozyqcu9jyzc

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Architecture design for SharePoint Server 2010

Architecture design consists of physical architecture and logical architecture. Use the articles and models on this page to help you start designing your architecture.

Models are posters that detail a specific technical area. You can download and modify the files to illustrate how you plan to incorporate Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 in your own environment.

Find links to all of the SharePoint Server 2010 model posters on the technical diagrams page in the TechNet library.

Get started

• Read about the services architecture
• Download the model for topologies
• Download the model for the extranet topologies

Physical architecture

• Read Getting started with enterprise search in SharePoint 2010 Products to learn about planning for the search service.
• Visit the Security and authentication resource center to become familiar with security considerations.

Use the following models to learn about the physical architecture of SharePoint Server 2010.

Topologies for SharePoint Server 2010 This model describes common ways to build and scale farm topologies. Learn about Web server, application server, and database server roles Read about how the new services model applies to physical topologies Review detailed guidance on which services to start on farm servers See sample topologies for small, medium, and large environments Download the model Zoom into the model in full detail with Zoom.it from Microsoft

Extranet topologies for SharePoint 2010 Products This model illustrates the specific extranet topologies that have been tested with SharePoint 2010 Products. See a comparison of ISA Server, Forefront TMG, and Forefront UAG when used as a firewall or gateway product with SharePoint 2010 Products. View the access scenarios such as remote employee and web hosting. Download the model Zoom into the model in full detail with Zoom.it from Microsoft

Search architectures for SharePoint Server 2010 Learn about the physical and logical components of architecture, scale-out decision points, and see examples of architectures. Download the model Zoom into the model in full detail with Zoom.it from Microsoft

Logical architecture

Read Logical architecture components and Plan virtual architectures to learn about planning your architecture.

Read about how to plan your services architecture, and then read about the top services that affect design architecture:

• Enterprise search
• User Profile service
• Managed metadata

Use the following models to learn about the logical architecture of SharePoint Server 2010.

Services in SharePoint 2010 Products This model describes the updated services infrastructure in SharePoint 2010 Products. See architecture examples for a single farm See a description of service applications Download the model Zoom into the model in full detail with Zoom.it from Microsoft

Cross-farm services in SharePoint 2010 Products This model describes services shared across farms in SharePoint 2010 Products. See the process for deploying services across farms See architecture examples: enterprise services farm, specialized-service farms, cross-organization farms Download the model Zoom into the model in full detail with Zoom.it from Microsoft

Hosting environments in SharePoint 2010 Products This model helps you understand hosting environments and provides an overview of the following: Hosting features and concepts such as multitenancy, site subscriptions, and service partitioning Enterprise hosting environments Shared hosting environments Download the model Zoom into the model in full detail with Zoom.it from Microsoft

Databases that support SharePoint 2010 Products This model describes the SQL Server databases that are integral to SharePoint 2010 Products. The databases used in a specific environment are determined by the product, version, edition, and features that are running. Download the model Zoom into the model in full detail with Zoom.it from Microsoft Refer to: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/ff601871.aspx

Design sample: Corporate portal with classic authentication This model illustrates a typical corporate deployment, with the most common types of SharePoint sites represented, using classic authentication. Download the model Zoom into the model in full detail with Zoom.it from Microsoft

Design sample: Corporate portal with claims-based authentication This model illustrates a typical corporate deployment, with the most common types of SharePoint sites represented, using claims-based authentication. Download the model Zoom into the model in full detail with Zoom.it from Microsoft

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