Earlier this week Microsoft released a tool that will help customers figure out how many servers of what type they will need in the environment to support the user scenarios that they envision.  It's great to know up front how many web servers, database servers, index servers one will need BEFORE while in the planning on upgrade phase, versus finding out when the portal starts to experience growing pains!

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Here's the overview of the tool:

The SharePoint Capacity Planning Tool is a set of free models of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (WSS) and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS). The two models use the analysis and simulation features of System Center Capacity Planner 2007 (SCCP) to help you explore suitable IT infrastructure options for your SharePoint deployment, based on the SharePoint usage requirements for your organization that you provide to the tool. It can give you a head start on planning your SharePoint topology by producing a first approximation of the topology your organization needs. Architects, systems integrators, and deployment engineers will find it to be a valuable starting point for further refinements of the topology.

Feature Bullet Summary

  • Simple installation and setup
  • Built-in knowledge of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
  • Built-in knowledge of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
  • Recommended topology in a Graphical User Interface
  • Export topology to Visio and server configuration to Excel
  • Create custom hardware


The SharePoint Capacity Planning Tool depends on System Center Capacity Planner, which is available as a free download from Microsoft (see Related Resources).

Here's the link for the article and download: Click here (download link on the right)

Enjoy,

~ Robert Shelton