SharePoint Architecture

SharePoint Architecture

User Management in SharePoint with different options and architecture is a very complex subject, and thus it will be worthwhile for us to discuss and understand the out-of-the-box SharePoint user management, security and architecture. The chart in Figure 1 represents the logical SharePoint technology architecture. SharePoint is in its third major release and is comprised of Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) version 3.0 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007. WSS v3 is a free add-on to the Windows 2003 Server, running on top of SQL Server, Windows 2003 Server and ASP.NET 2.0. MOSS is available in various editions (Standard vs. Enterprise) and options (Excel Services, Content Management, etc.), and runs on top of WSS.




Figure 1: SharePoint Architecture Overview

Since MOSS is built on Windows SharePoint Services (WSS), they share similar architecture and foundations. MOSS provides more application level features and services. It also has different and more extensive User Profile management than WSS. The important point about this architecture is that SharePoint relies on many user management and security principles from the Network Operating system, Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) and ASP.Net foundation. In the rest of this section we will take a look at:

· WSS and MOSS architecture

· SharePoint Security (Authentication and Authorization)

· SharePoint User Profiles in MOSS and WSS


Windows SharePoint Services Architecture
WSS is the core platform for SharePoint services. WSS is a logical three-tier that contains a Front End Web Server, a Search and Index server and a Database Server (see Figure 2).



Figure 2: WSS Architecture

WSS is essentially a web-based ASP.NET application that extends an IIS web site processing HTML requests through a set of ASP.NET (.aspx) pages, .Net application programming interface (API), and XML web services. It processes and executes the business logic using a combination of .Net and SharePoint objects assemblies. The data is stored in the backend SQL database. SharePoint presents the information to end users in the standard HTML format compatible with most web browsers. An IIS web site that has been extended with WSS is called a Web Application (virtual server in previous WSS versions). SharePoint Web Applications use an HttpModule and an HttpHandler to re-route incoming traffic to the SharePoint business logic, thus enabling the SharePoint Web Application to coexist with other IIS web applications. Note that this architecture also allows SharePoint and other web applications to share the same user security infrastructure, mainly Windows Server and ASP.NET.

The Search and Index server is an executable (MSSearch.exe) that is installed as web services in Windows Server. Its primary job is to index the content of the database to enable searching on SharePoint lists, documents, and files. Note that MOSS uses entirely different search architecture than WSS.

WSS uses Microsoft SQL Server to store both the configuration and the content in the databases. When WSS is installed it creates a configuration database that stores the metadata, physical configuration and information about every web application that has been extended, as well as all the servers and their roles in the farm. WSS also create an Admin database that stores the content of the Central Administrator tool. In addition, for every extended virtual server, WSS creates a Content Database that stores the actual site content. Note that WSS stores the user information in its content database.



Figure 3: WSS Farm Provision

WSS is also designed to be scalable. In a large or medium server farm, you can assign a multiple cluster database backend and install load balanced architecture for the front end web server as shown in Figure 3. Note that there is only a single Configuration database for all SharePoint servers in the farm.

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