Configuration Flexibility

Different organizations can use SharePoint Portal Server in different ways. Some want to make use of the product's document management features, whereas others want to take advantage of the sophisticated search capabilities to provide access to documents that are stored across multiple information stores. SharePoint Portal Server provides the flexibility to handle the following scenarios:

• Hundreds of thousands of documents stored in a single server, single document management workspace.
• Hundreds of thousands of documents using a similar single server configuration where a majority of the content is stored on external information stores.
• Millions of documents when dedicated SharePoint Portal Server content index and search server configurations are used to crawl external content stores for inclusion in an index.

The scenarios that follow are examples of how the configuration flexibility of SharePoint Portal Server accommodates each of these distinct sets of requirements.

Group Collaboration

In this scenario, illustrated in Figure 3.3, a department's primary requirements include the ability to create documents, implement version control, and publish documents within the group.

Figure 3.3. Single server configuration for document management

In this example, the team sets up a single SharePoint Portal Server computer with a workspace that consists almost entirely of content stored locally. The amount of content stored outside the workspace is small and consists of content sources pointing to one or two competitors' Web sites. The emphasis is on the document management capabilities of SharePoint Portal Server rather than its search capabilities.

Information Search Services

In this scenario, illustrated in Figure 3.4, a group uses SharePoint Portal Server to search content stored on its file servers, database servers, and an Internet Web site. The dashboard site also displays organization-wide communication such as announcements, holiday schedules, and human resources information.

Figure 3.4. Single server configuration for search services

The SharePoint Portal Server computer stores indexes for the configured content sources and makes them available to the dashboard site associated with the workspace. In addition to the content sources that link to documents that are stored outside the workspace, the workspace itself can contain documents. The group primarily searches its own content, with limited searching on Internet sites. Document management is required only for the documents stored in the workspace. The only users performing document management tasks are those responsible for updating the dashboard site.

Aggregated Search and Document Management

When your organization needs division-wide or enterprise-wide search capabilities across a wide variety of content sources, you can increase performance and efficiency by deploying SharePoint Portal Server on multiple servers that perform dedicated tasks. For example, you can configure one server to be dedicated to creating indexes and another to function as a search and dashboard site server.

The configuration shown in Figure 3.5 supports an intranet site for an organization that needs extended search functionality but has limited document management needs. This deployment uses two SharePoint Portal Server computers: a server dedicated to creating and maintaining indexes and a server dedicated to searching. One server performs the tasks that relate to the creation and maintenance of indexes through an index workspace; the other server, which is used for searching, stores workspace content and provides the dashboard site that is associated with the workspace.

Figure 3.5. Multiple-server configuration for enterprise-level search services

For example, an organization uses SharePoint Portal Server to search content stored on its file servers, Lotus Notes database servers, intranet sites, and the Web sites of several competitors. The server with the index workspace creates an index of this content and then propagates the index to the search server. The search server provides the dashboard site that is used for searching this content and stores the documents that are displayed on the dashboard site, such as announcements, holiday schedules, and company press releases.

The index workspace, located on the server that creates and maintains indexes, is dedicated to the resource-intensive task of creating an index of content stored outside the workspace. This index workspace stores only indexes that are associated with content sources. After SharePoint Portal Server creates the index, it propagates the index to the server that is used for searching. SharePoint Portal Server can propagate the index immediately after creating it, or you can schedule propagation to coincide with periods of low network traffic.

On the server that is dedicated to search services and the dashboard site, search queries encompass both intranet and Internet content. Only users who are responsible for configuring and updating the dashboard site can perform document management tasks.

This deployment configuration supports an intranet site for an organization that needs extended search functionality but has limited document management needs. This deployment uses two SharePoint Portal Server computers: a server dedicated to creating and maintaining indexes and a server dedicated to searching. The server with the index workspace performs the tasks relating to creating and maintaining indexes; the search server stores workspace content and provides the dashboard site associated with the workspace.

The configuration shown in Figure 3.6 supports an organization that requires both document management features and robust search capability. This deployment includes at least three SharePoint Portal Server computers: a server dedicated to searching, a server dedicated to creating and maintaining indexes, and one or more document management servers. It is important to include a sufficient number of document management servers to support users who require the document management functionality. For example, each division in a large organization might have a document management server.

Figure 3.6. Multiple-server configuration for enterprise-level document management and search services

The document management server stores documents in its workspace. The index workspace, located on the server that is dedicated to creating and crawling indexes, creates an index of all the content on each document management server, in addition to other content from the intranet and Internet. The index workspace propagates its index to the search server. The search server provides the dashboard site that is used for searching this content and stores documents that are displayed on the dashboard site, such as announcements, holiday schedules, and organization information.

Organizations can also choose to duplicate read-only versions of the search server in this topology to provide improved response time across a geographically dispersed network. For example, you could have a search server located in your company's headquarters in Geneva duplicated to Singapore, New York, and Vancouver. Users in those locations would be able to view the dashboard site and perform searches without having response times slowed by low-bandwidth network connections.