Everyday, I work with customers who are attempting to maintain their SharePoint environment so that the farm can handle more users, more requests or additional functionality. There are many ways to approach the prospect of maintaining SharePoint in a way that you can build the platform and handle all of your users’ requirements. Let’s start the overview reviewing the components that are apart of SharePoint.

There are many components and sub-components that need to be understood before you can approach the entire package. Here are the main components:

• SQL Server (Database)
• Network
• Active Directory (Authentication and Authorization)
• Managed Code (Solutions)
• Software maintenance (Patching)
• SharePoint (either Windows SharePoint Services or Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010)

With all these components, the many sub-components require attention on a continuous basis and are the building blocks that the platform maintains it’s scalability and performance. The first block is the prescribed “Software and Hardware Boundaries” prescribed by Microsoft. Following these guidelines will not only allow you to install the software, but allow you to create multiple lifecycles (development, test, QA and pre-production). Having the appropriate memory and CPU specifications or ensuring that you create the amount of web applications that is known to be supported for the product is very important.

Additionally, separating the different roles (Web Front End, Search, Excel Services, etc.) based on the number of users and server load will enhance the user experience. Separating web applications or maintaining site collections with appropriate security is critical to your business’ adoption.

In the next articles, we will point out specific ways that you can maintain and then increase your Farm’s health and show how these methods will proactively resolve problems and reduce support requirements. These methods will help either in keep your current SharePoint servers healthy or help prepare for future upgrades.

Next: When and how should I evaluate my environment?