FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint solution: environment and topology

Summary: Learn about the environment and topology for the Microsoft IT deployment of FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint.

Applies to: Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

This is the sixth of 12 articles that compose How Microsoft IT deployed FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint (white paper). In this article:

• Environment and topology overview

• SharePoint Server 2010 server farm

• FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint server farm

• Database servers

Environment and topology overview

MSIT operates and maintains the Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint deployment as a centralized search solution. This solution provides enterprise search capability for all of the Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 sites that MSIT hosts and manages.

Enterprise search is a resource-intensive service, especially when it is deployed on a large scale. Therefore, to provide high capacity and performance, and to speed up system administration and maintenance, the FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint deployment is dedicated to search. The deployment does not host any content and does not host any SharePoint services other than the search service.

The FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint deployment has the following topology:

• A SharePoint Server 2010 farm that contains four servers

• A FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint farm that contains 30 servers

• Two database clusters that contain a total of four servers

Figure 1 shows the FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint deployment, and farms and sites that consume the search service from the deployment.

Figure 1. MSIT enterprise search topology in the FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint solution

To download Figure 1 as a full-size Microsoft Visio drawing, go to the Microsoft Download Center (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=248254).

The following sections describe the topology of the FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint deployment in more detail.

SharePoint Server 2010 server farm

The SharePoint Server 2010 farm consists of the following four servers:

• Two servers that host crawl components that crawl all content other than user profiles. Each server hosts two search service application (SSA) crawl components for content. The four crawl components can crawl content at the same time.

• Two servers that host crawl components that crawl only user profiles. One server is primary. The additional server is a backup for high availability. Each server hosts one query SSA crawl component. Only one query SSA crawl component crawls user profiles at a time. In addition, these servers connect to the consumer farms to serve search queries.

FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint server farm

The associated FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint farm consists of the following 30 servers:

• Six servers that perform one or more tasks such as the following: distribute crawled items to the index, extract properties, maintain managed properties, perform indexing, and match queries.

• 24 servers in a configuration of two rows with 12 columns each. The primary task of the servers in the index row is to index content. The primary task of the servers in the search row is to query the index. To provide high availability, if one of the servers in a column becomes unavailable, the other server in the column can perform both the index and the query tasks. The content index is distributed across the 12 columns so that each column has a partition of approximately equal size. Each column or partition has a capacity of 15 million items, so that the total capacity of the content index is 200 million items. (The solution is designed to meet enterprise search requirements at Microsoft until the index grows to 200 million items in about 2013 or later.) For indexing efficiency, each index partition has four sub-partitions.

Database servers

There are two database clusters associated with the FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint deployment. Each cluster contains two database servers. The clusters store the following databases:

• Cluster 1:

  • Content crawl database 1

  • Content property database

  • People property database

  • Content SSA database

• Cluster 2:

  • Content crawl database 2

  • SharePoint configuration database

  • People crawl database

  • FAST administration database

  • Query SSA database

Other articles in this white paper

For more information, see the other articles in this series:

• How Microsoft IT deployed FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint (white paper)

• Executive summary (Enterprise search at Microsoft, white paper)

• Background on the use of enterprise search at Microsoft

• Microsoft enterprise search teams

• Migration to FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint

• Measurable gains from implementing FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint

• Administration at the search service application level

• Collaboration with site owners (Enterprise search at Microsoft, white paper)

• Enterprise search center (Enterprise search at Microsoft, white paper)

• Lessons learned and MSIT best practices (Enterprise search at Microsoft, white paper)

• Conclusion (Enterprise search at Microsoft, white paper)

To view the white paper as a single article on TechNet, or to download it, see Improving enterprise search at Microsoft: How FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint Powers Worldwide Intranet Search at Microsoft (https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb735129.aspx).