5 Considerations for Setting up a SQL Server 2008 Backend for SharePoint 2010

At next week's SQL Server Connections (March 27-30), you'll find dozens of sessions, including topics such as programming SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services (SSRS), SQL Server clustering,  DBA myths debunked, and many more.

One session, titled "Remote BLOB Storage: The Questions and the Answers," will focus on issues around externalizing BLOB data to remote storage or the cloud (a new feature in SQL Server 2008 R2), which is a key capability for using SQL Server with document-centric solutions, such as SharePoint. As a quick teaser for the session, we asked speaker Victor Isakov for the top five things DBAs must consider before setting up a SQL Server 2008 backend for SharePoint. Below are his responses.

1. SharePoint databases. "Understand the different databases that exist in SharePoint 2010. Their purpose, their I/O patterns, and whether you need to scale them up or out in the future."

2. Capacity plan the content databases. "In virtually all cases the content databases will be the most important databases within your SharePoint environment, as they hold your critical data (including BLOBs). Understand the relationship between Site Collections and the content databases. Understand the recommended limits for content databases. Develop a strategy for provisioning multiple content databases within your SharePoint solution."

3. SharePoint Services. "Understand the different SharePoint Services that run in the SharePoint Farm and the impact they have on your SQL Server instances. Understand how you can scale out the SharePoint services to improve the RPS that your SharePoint environment can handle and reduce their impact on your SQL Server instance."

4. Disaster recovery. "Research and develop an appropriate disaster recovery plan, including your recovery time objective (RTO) and recovery point objective (RPO). Determine how you are going to back up your databases, which ones need to be backed up versus ones that can be rebuilt, and so on."

5. High availability. "Research and develop an appropriate HA strategy. Understand which SharePoint databases can be mirrored and what mirroring mode they support."

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