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CHAPTER 1 SharePoint Foundation 2010 under the hood

This chapter will give you an idea of what you need to know to prepare for installing

SharePoint Foundation. This kind of product does require planning. This isn’t an “install it

and then think about what you want to do with it later” kind of product. To make sure the

initial installation and conﬁguration of your SharePoint implementation goes smoothly, it

is a good idea to know what you are going to need for success before you start.

In this chapter, you’ll learn to

Determine the software and hardware requirements you need for installing SharePoint

•u

Foundation.

Identify the three ways of installing SharePoint Foundation.

•u

Set up the necessary accounts that SharePoint needs to run.•u

Recognize the new features and requirements of SharePoint.•u

Hardware Requirements

Trying to pin down the exact hardware requirements for a product like SharePoint is tough

(And when I say SharePoint, I generally mean SharePoint Foundation in this book unless I

specify otherwise.). There are many different ways to use it; therefore, there are many ways

to conﬁgure the resources.

Microsoft has some suggested hardware requirements. This time around, Microsoft seems

to be hedging its bets and beeﬁng up the requirements. Your mileage may vary, but chances are

good that these suggestions will easily handle an average server load. There is no suggested

minimum anymore, only “recommended” requirements.

Processor 64-bit, multi-core (4 preferably), 2.5 GHz per core minimum.

RAM 4 GB for developer or evaluation installations (usually meaning single-server, testing

situations, not production loads), 8 GB or more for production use. Microsoft is serious about

the 8 GB recommendation. SharePoint uses IIS Web Sites and application pools, which, for

each one, use a considerable amount of RAM. So, the more IIS Web Sites (which correspond

with a SharePoint “web application”) you need, the more RAM you’ll need.

Disk 80 GB, NTFS. More disk space is recommended, depending on your storage needs,

such as SQL databases (if you are going to do a single-server install) or anything else run-

ning on the server.

Disk Space: Bigger Is Better

I have noticed that, for the virtual machines I am running for this book, about 28 GB are used just

for Server 2008 R2 and SharePoint Foundation. Generally, plan for about 28 GB just for OS and

SharePoint, if nothing else. Also keep in mind that log ﬁles and indexes can grow to be unexpectedly

large very quickly, so 80 GB is a good suggested minimum.

Planning for storage is particularly important if you are running SQL and SharePoint on the same

server (as is the case in a single-server environment). You will need to plan for the storage space

of SharePoint pages in IIS, SMTP mail store (if you enable incoming email), indexing ﬁles used for

search, all storage space the databases would use for site lists and libraries, and all other databases

SharePoint uses for additional services, such as Logging and Business Data Connectivity. As you

can see, the space that SharePoint might need for its ﬁles is not the only space you’ll need. In this

case, everything is stored in one place. Size it well, and guard it carefully.

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