SharePoint Farm: Understanding the Architecture and Working of SharePoint

SharePoint is a popular enterprise-level content management system that allows organizations to create, share, and manage documents and information in a centralized location. It is widely used in large and small organizations alike, and its popularity has grown significantly over the years. In this article, we will discuss what SharePoint Farm is, and how the SharePoint architecture works.

What is SharePoint Farm?

SharePoint Farm is a group of servers that work together to provide SharePoint services to users. A farm can consist of one or more servers, and each server can perform one or more roles. The farm can be installed on-premises or in the cloud, and it can be scaled up or down based on the organization’s needs.

The SharePoint Farm consists of the following components:

1. Web Front End (WFE) Servers: These servers are responsible for handling user requests, such as browsing sites and accessing documents. They also run the SharePoint web application and provide the user interface for SharePoint.
2. Application Servers: These servers run the SharePoint application services, such as Search, User Profile, and Managed Metadata.
3. Database Servers: These servers store the SharePoint content databases, configuration databases, and other data required by SharePoint.
4. Load Balancers: These devices distribute user requests to the WFE servers to ensure that the load is evenly distributed across the servers.

How SharePoint Architecture Works

SharePoint is a complex system that consists of many components working together to provide its features and functionalities. Below are the major components of the SharePoint architecture and how they work together.

1. SharePoint Web Application
   A SharePoint web application is a website that uses SharePoint technology for content management. It is hosted on one or more WFE servers and serves as the user interface for SharePoint. Users can access SharePoint web applications through a URL, and they can browse sites, lists, libraries, and other content in the web application.
2. SharePoint Content Database
   A SharePoint content database stores the actual content of SharePoint, such as documents, lists, and web pages. The content database is stored on a database server and can be scaled up or down based on the organization’s needs. Each web application can have multiple content databases, and each content database can be used by multiple web applications.
3. SharePoint Service Applications
   SharePoint Service Applications are services that run on application servers and provide additional functionality to SharePoint. Examples of SharePoint Service Applications include Search, User Profile, and Managed Metadata. Service applications are associated with a specific web application and can be shared across multiple SharePoint farms.
4. SharePoint Farm Configuration Database
   The SharePoint Farm Configuration Database stores configuration data for the SharePoint farm. This database is stored on a database server and contains information about the SharePoint servers, service applications, web applications, and other configuration data required by SharePoint.
5. SharePoint Central Administration
   SharePoint Central Administration is a web application that provides a centralized location for managing and configuring SharePoint. It can be accessed by administrators and can be used to manage the farm, create and configure web applications and service applications, manage users and permissions, and perform other administrative tasks.
6. SharePoint Server Object Model
   The SharePoint Server Object Model is a set of APIs that can be used to interact with SharePoint programmatically. Developers can use these APIs to create custom solutions and applications that leverage SharePoint’s features and functionalities.
7. SharePoint Client Object Model
   The SharePoint Client Object Model is a set of APIs that can be used to interact with SharePoint from a client application, such as a desktop or mobile application. Developers can use these APIs to create custom solutions that can access SharePoint content and data.

Conclusion SharePoint Farm is a complex system that consists of many components working together to provide its features and functionalities. Understanding the architecture of SharePoint is essential for administrators and developers who want to create and manage SharePoint deployments.