Configuring Excel Servers in the Farm

To configure Excel Calculation Services on a server, you need to install the server with the Complete option. The next step is to start Excel Calculation Services in the Services On Server page in Central Administration. Because Excel Calculation Services is hosted in a Shared Services Provider (SSP) in SharePoint Server, you need to create at least one SSP before you can use Excel Calculation Services.

Enabling Excel Calculation Services

1. Open Central Administration from the Start menu.

2. Click the Operations tab.

3. Click Services On Server.

4. If the Status Of Excel Calculation Services is Stopped, click the Start link to the right.

Single-Server and Small Farm Deployment

To configure Excel Calculation Services (ECS) in a single-server or in a small farm deployment, simply enable it on the same server as the Web application services, as shown in Figure 11-1. In this configuration, the server that renders Web pages to the user is the same one that performs the ECS processing on the workbooks. The benefit of consolidating services is that all processing and caching are done on one server, thereby eliminating traffic delays between servers. The disadvantage of this model is that more services are competing for resources on the server and the responsiveness of the server to the user may degrade. This configuration is optimal in scenarios in which the demand for ECS is relatively light.

Figure 11-1: Excel Calculation Services in a small farm deployment.

Dedicated Excel Server Deployment

ECS runs as a separate service within the SharePoint Server architecture and can be run on a separate server from the Web application service. For organizations looking for a more scalable solution, a dedicated application server running ECS, as shown in Figure 11-2, is cost effective.

Figure 11-2: Excel Calculation Services in a dedicated server deployment.

Configuring a Dedicated Excel Calculation Server

1. Install SharePoint Server on the dedicated server and join it to the farm. See Chapter 2, "Deploying SharePoint Products and Technologies," for more information.

2. Open Central Administration from the Start menu.

3. Click the Operations tab.

4. Click Services On Server.

5. Next to Excel Calculation Services, click the Start link to the right. Do not start any other services on the server.

Load-Balanced Excel Server Deployment

When a single dedicated Excel Calculation server does not provide adequate performance or fault-tolerance, it may be necessary to scale out the capacity to multiple servers. Excel Calculation Services architecture supports automatic load balancing of requests across multiple application servers configured with Excel Calculation Services, as shown in Figure 11-3. To configure a farm in this model, perform the steps above for a dedicated server deployment on each of the Excel Calculation servers, and then select the Load Balancing Scheme in Excel Services Settings. See the section, "Configuring Excel Services Settings," later in this chapter for details about setting the Load Balancing Scheme. In addition, you must install any custom assemblies or user-defined function files required by Excel Calculation Services on each load-balanced server.

Figure 11-3: Excel Calculation Services in a load-balanced deployment.

Note 

Although front-end Web server applications in the farm require an external load-balancing device or software, such as Microsoft Network Load Balancing service, ECS does not. Load balancing is managed by the Proxy component.

In addition to increasing performance of ECS in the farm, adding multiple application servers provides redundancy and ensures continuous service if one of the Excel Calculation Servers fails. Scaling out ECS is covered in Chapter 13, "Scaling Out to a SharePoint Technologies Server Farm."