The document provides tips and tricks for configuring and optimizing SharePoint Server 2013. It discusses best practices for Windows Server, SQL Server, and SharePoint Server configuration. It also covers monitoring, patching, and client-side considerations. The key recommendations include using a load balancer for SharePoint farms, tuning Windows Server and SQL Server for performance, separating resource-intensive services like search onto dedicated servers, automating administrative tasks with PowerShell, and applying patches carefully with testing.

1. 24 September 2015
Top 15 SharePoint Server 2013 configuration
and off loaded service mistakes, which lead
your company to move to the cloud.
Gokan Ozcifci
Managing Consultant Neoxy, MVP.

2. Hi. I’m Gokan.
Brussels, BELGIUM neoxy.be SharePoint MVP
Community Member @GokanOzcifci http://gokan.ms

3. Sorry for the French accent!
My apologies for the strange accent, but English can be
weird.
/! It can be understood through tough thorough thought,
though. /!

4. Agenda
1. Windows Server
2. SQL Server
3. SharePoint Server
4. Office 365
5. Monitoring
6. Patching
7. Clients

5. Azure & O365
Exchange &
Lync + Voice
Cloud Ready
Windows
Server
Authentication
and
Authorization
System Center
2012 ITSM /
ITIL
Migrations
Integrations
OTB Workflows Dashboards
Home Made
Applications
Portals And
Intranets
ReportsOffice Pack
Infrastructure Business Productivities
The Microsoft Expertise. A real added value.
The difference in Vision

6. Infrastructure Business Productivities
The Microsoft Expertise. A real added value.
The difference in Vision

7. SharePoint
is down!

9. According to Gartner early last year (2013) and
repeated by Microsoft at their Worldwide Partner
Conference (WPC13) in Houston, in the next 6-8
years:
35% of existing SharePoint customers will never move to the cloud
15% will become “pure cloud” customers
50% will adopt a hybrid SharePoint platform
Statistics

10. One year later, at the Worldwide Partner Conference
in Washington DC (WPC14), a senior Microsoft leader
admitted hybrid was bigger than earlier estimated:
15-20% of existing SharePoint customers will never move to the cloud
10% will become “pure cloud” customers
70-75% will adopt a hybrid SharePoint platform
Statistics

11. Through at least 2025, at least 25% of enterprises will
choose to keep their core communications and
collaboration systems on-premises due to security
and privacy concerns.
Several new features from Microsoft such as Delve,
Clutter and Office for iOS/Android are only available
to cloud customers.
Statistics

12. Statistics
Microsoft is clearly shifting to a "cloud-first" and
even a "cloud-only“ development process in some
cases.
On-premises users will generally pay more, get less
and wait longer for enhancements and new
functionality as a natural result of these cloud-
friendly policies.

13. Microsoft has shared limited statistics on how Office
365 is being adopted, but did provide some detail into
the reasons why customers purchased Office 365:
90% use the platform for
06% use the platform for
04% use the platform for
Statistics

14. Windows Server
Tips and Tricks

15. Fine-tuning Windows Server
Windows Server performance
options
Computer > Properties >
Advanced system settings >
Performance > Settings >
Visual Effects

16. Fine-tuning Windows Server
Use the proper power plan | High Performance
Start > Control Panel > Power Options

17. Fine-tuning Windows Server
Reduce I/O
System, Log and Index files:
• C: System
• G: Index
• H: Logs

18. Fine-tuning Windows Server
Stop / disable unused services
• Spooler
• AudioSrv
• TabletInputService
• WerSvc services

19. Fine-tuning Windows Server
Determine page file size
Factor 1,5 of the server RAM. Ex:
8192 MB RAM x 1,5 = 12288 MB page file
Computer > Properties > Advanced system
settings > Performance > Settings >
Advanced > Virtual Memory > Settings

20. • Latency between SharePoint Server and SQL Server should be less than
1ms
• Host all the servers in the same datacenter.
• /! If the datacenter has a problem, your SharePoint farm can be down /!
• Don’t use Network Load Balancing (NLB), but a real load balancer like
• In case of problem:
Requests to one server
Remove the load (http requests)
/! 3 is the new 2 /!
• Fully Redundant SharePoint Farm
/! 7 is the new 5 /!
Importance of a Load Balancer

21. • Use a Swap Server
d: is the production of your developers
q: is the production of your content owners
p: is the production of your Business
• Script as much as possible
Create your own PowerShell (PoSH) Framework
• Use the object model
Web.Config
Regroup operational tasks

22. SQL Server
Tips and Tricks

23. cliconfg.exe
• Operational tasks
• maintenance is easier.
• Upgrades
• Downgrades
SQL Server Alias

24. SharePoint & Always On Availability
Groups

25. SQL 1
SharePoint
Farm 1
SQL 2
High
Availability
Synchronous
Always On Availability& SharePoint

26. SQL 1
SharePoint
Farm 1
SQL 2
Synchronous
Always On Availability& SharePoint
High
Availability

27. Database Supported
Admin Content Yes
App Management Yes
BDC Yes
Config Yes
Content Yes
Managed Metadata Yes
PerformancePoint Yes
PowerPivot Not Tested
Project Yes
Search Analytic Reporting Yes
Search Admin Yes
Database Supported
Search Crawl Yes
Search Links Yes
Secure Store Yes
State Service Yes
Subscription Settings Yes
Translation Services Yes
UPA Profile Yes
UPA Social Yes
UPA Sync Yes
Usage(=loggingDB) Yes
Word Automation Yes
Database Support – Sync Commit

28. SQL 1 SQL 2 SQL 3
Asynchronous
Disaster
Recovery
Synchronous
DR with Always On Availability Groups &
SharePoint
SharePoint
Farm 1
SharePoint
Farm 2

29. Database Supported
Admin Content No
App Management Yes
BDC Yes
Config No
Content Yes
Managed Metadata Yes
PerformancePoint Yes
PowerPivot Not Tested*
Project Yes
Search Analytic Reporting No
Search Admin No
Database Supported
Search Crawl Yes
Search Links Yes
Secure Store Yes
State Service No
Subscription Settings Yes
Translation Services Yes
UPA Profile Yes
UPA Social Yes
UPA Sync No
Usage Yes
Word Automation Yes
Database Support – Async Commit

30. Small Farm
Deployment
(0-500GB of
Data)
Medium
Farm
Deployment
(501-1TB of
data)
Large Farm
Deployment
(1-2TB of
Data)
Very Large
Farm
Deployment
(2-5 TB of
Data)
Special
Cases
RAM 8 16 32 64 64+
CPU 4 4 8 8 8
SQL Server - RAM

31. Dedicated SQL Server
For optimal performance when operating server farms, we
recommend that you install SQL Server 2008 R2 with SP1 and SQL Server 2012 on a
dedicated server that is not running other roles of farm and does not host databases
for other
Collation:
Latin1_General_CI_AS_KS_WS
Cannot be changed afterwards
Fine Tuning SQL Server

32. • NFTS Allocation Unit Size: 64K
SQL reads and writes 64K at a time, but your disk
allows only 4K by default. This change alone may show
you up to 30% improvement in speed.
“chkdsk c:”
Cannot be changed afterwards. Format disk is
necessary.
Fine Tuning SQL Server

33. Fine-tuning SQL Server
Set min. and max. Server
/! Total amount memory x 0,80 /! The default value of SQL Server for
Maximum Memory is : 2147483647 MB
Maximum fill factor per index (80%)
Activate backup compression
It’s faster and needs less disk space
Max Degree of Parallelism (MAXDOP) = 1
Prerequisite for SharePoint 2013

34. Fine-tuning SQL Server
Use a dedicated search instance > 10’000’000 items
Antivirus: Exclude data files, transaction logs and
backup files from real-time scan
Install only features and components you need.
SharePoint only requires: Database Engine Services
Do not enable Statistics

35. Create your Databases with PoSH
Fine Tuning SQL Server

36. Fine-tuning SQL Server
Data prioritization among faster disks (descending)
• Temp DB data files
• Temp DB logs
• Content DB logs
• Search DB data files
• Content DB data files
• Search DB logs
• SharePoint data files
• SharePoint logs

37. SharePoint Server
Tips and Tricks

38. It covers a huge set of individual technologies
under the Platform umbrella
It’s continuously changing
Know when to use OOTB vs CC
Know your users (aka Yammer haters )
Understand SharePoint

39. • Distribute the load on multiple crawl servers
• Throttle crawling, adjust crawling schedule
• Incremental vs continuous crawl
• Content sources
• Group by
SharePoint Fine Tuning

40. SharePoint Fine Tuning

41. Fine-tuning SharePoint Server
(Resource-intensive Service
Applications)
• Excel Service Application
• Search Service Application
• Usage and Health Data collection
• User Profile Service Application

42. • Application Pool Recycle && IISReset
• Crawl Jobs (continuous crawl)
• Backup Jobs
• Large list operations
SharePoint Fine Tuning

43. • Distributed Cache
• 5% of RAM is used for Newsfeed, Microblogging etc..
• Object Cache ( SuperUser, SuperReader)
• Client Cache (Websites with CSS, Javascript)
• Output cache (caches SC, Publishing features)
SharePoint Fine Tuning

44. • Content Databases shouldn’t be more than 200GB
Backup / Restore
Operational tasks
• 5000 Site collections per Content Database
• 10 Application Pools (can be extended depending on
hardware)
• 20 web Applications per SharePoint Farm
• Don’t use Product Configuration Wizard
SharePoint Fine Tuning

45. • Set Quotas on all Web Applications
• Disable Certificate Revocation List
• Authentication
Anonymous, Claims, Kerberos, NTLM, Forms, ADFS
• Wake-Up
• Only extend if you have a different authentication
protocol.
SharePoint Fine Tuning

46. New Service Applications (Machine Translation)
Offloaded Services: Yammer, OneDrive for Business, Office
Web Apps, Workflow Manager…
Improved Service Applications (Fast)
Not UI Binded Services to be managed with PoSH (Subscription
Management)
Re-architected Service Applications (Search & OWA)
Different release schedule
OWA can be used for other platforms like Lync, Exchange, …
Understand SharePoint

47. Not supported: Dynamic Memory
Discontinued : Web Analytics
Prerequisites: Hardware and software requirements for a
single server with a built-in database:
24 GB, 64-bit, 4 cores, 80 GB for system drive
SQL Server 2014 requires the May 2014 CU to be installed
Windows Server 2012 R2 is only supported on a SharePoint
Server 2013 Service Pack 1 environment
Understand SharePoint

48. Share services across farms
Business Connectivity Services, Managed Metadata Service, Search Service (Crawl, Index, Query),
Secure Store Service, User Profile Service…
App Management Service = NOT!
New way of works: HNSC
Claims: expect a grat deal of work if you have custom code
which is dealing with Classic code and upgrades. It’s
recommended to set your authentication model in 2010 as
Claims, then to migrate.
Understand SharePoint

49. Office 365
Tips and Tricks

50. No Maintenance.
No Updates.
No Upgrades.
No Scripting.
No Hardware costs.
No Backup.
No (Reduce) Costs.
Office 365 Advantages
Storage (OneDrive and
SharePoint).
Delve.
iOS Apps.
Remote working.
External Sharing.
Clutter / Groups.
…

51. SharePoint Drawbacks
Performance:
Working on it.
Licenses:
Windows, SQL, SharePoint, Office 2013, Office
Web Apps Licenses and CAL’s
Maintenance:
Consultant costs ( he costs a lot )
Upgrades/Downgrades:
What does each hour of downtime cost your
business?
SQL Server: Keeping Default SharePoint
Database Settings
IT Infrastructure related
errors: DNS, WAF, F5, Hyper-V …
Scrimping on RAM
The magic Farm
Configuration Wizard

52. According to Microsoft: there is a few methods
available to minimize the amount of downtime;
however it’s just not possible to achieve a zero
downtime solution for your upgrade. A common way
to minimize downtime is via implementation of a
parallel upgrade farm.
Zero Downtime
« should be possible
with #SP2016 »

54. SharePoint is
a
PLATFORM
ListLibrary
DNS Error
Server
Correlation ID
Site
Application Domain
Slow

55. For the business, if…

56. N-Tier, N-Layer

57. Monitoring
Tips and Tricks

58. • Monitor the complete SharePoint Server environment
• Monitor database space usage
• Monitor the status and health of SharePoint services and Web
applications, as well as the uptime of the SharePoint server
• Monitor the default Search service and crawl status
• Monitor Recycle Bin usage and ensure the Recycle Bin does not
exceed the site quota.
• Monitor and report on how long the SharePoint server has
been running since the last reboot
You should know it before business

59. Patching
Tips and Tricks

60. Patching
Your simple SharePoint Farm Patching on server 1 Backward capability mode. Needs Config Needed.
Patching on server 2 Server 1; PS Config Server 2; PS Config Farm is up again

61. • Don't Install CUs Automatically
• The CUs will now show up in Windows Update as Important
updates, meaning that they get installed automatically, without
notice.
• 'Download only' or
• WSUS [Windows Server Update Services]
• If custom components are used, they can break some
functionalities.
• Testers are needed.
• No real governance for Dev – Non-Prod and Prod environments.
Patching

62. Clients
Tips and Tricks

63. Fine-tuning Client Side
Operating System.
Install Latest updates. [/WSUS]
Antivirus.
Exclude files from real-time scan for Enterprise computers:
Turn off scanning:
Windows Update or Automatic Update
Windows Security files
Group Policy related files
SYSVOL files
DFS and DHCP files

64. Fine-tuning Client Side
Microsoft Office.
Use the latest Office Version for best compatibility
Internet Explorer.
Supported:
Internet Explorer 11,
Internet Explorer 10,
Internet, Explorer 9,
Internet Explorer 8

65. Summary

66. If budget is no problem
If you can’t promise 99,99% uptime
If you don’t have the knowledge
If you have an existing SharePoint that fits the
business requirements
If the cloud is “nogo” for you.
Custom Codes, layouts, settings, …
Use SharePoint Server, if…

67. If the cloud is not a problem for your organisation
If you can’t handle SharePoint and its friends
If you don’t have the budget for a Fully Redundant
Farm or consultants
If you have to begin from scratch
If you want to have all new features/solutions and
pay less.
Can’t promise 99,9% of SLA
Use SharePoint Online, if…

68. Summary
Performance - it depends
Other platforms also matter
SharePoint is fast, but depends much on others
You can improve, improve and improve

69. • https://technet.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/cc748824.aspx
• https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj715263.aspx
• http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sambetts/archive/2013/08/22/sh
arepoint-farm-patching-explained.aspx
References

70. questions?

71. thank you.