Site Collection Sizing – a pragmatic view
Joel Olseson has posted more wisdom from MSIT, this time related to the common theme of site collection sizing, database sizing, the number of site collections per content db and the number of content dbs per active SQL instance.
Read the full post here. What this does confirm, my own experiences of very large farms has also confirmed this, is that SharePoint can handle large amounts of data and site collections. The key to getting the best from your environment is to plan things upfront but also plan to change things before they get out of control. If you plan for change it won’t be a suprise.
The improved stsadm commands mean the migration of site collections is simpler, the previous limits around SQL server performance need to be re-evaluated to ensure you get the most from the 64-bit servers and the extra memory capacity they can take, care should be taken as performance tuning always moves the bottle neck and although the SQL box may cope with it something else will suffer.
It is very comforting to know that this information is being made available up front to help ensure the 2007 rollouts have the best chance of being successful.
Additional Resources:
SharePoint Server 2007 Site Directory – Want Site Collections?
How large for a single SharePoint content database?
TechNet: Plan for software boundaries (Office SharePoint Server)
