What is a SharePoint farm?
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It forms the backbone of SharePoint’s architecture, enabling organizations to deploy, manage, and scale their SharePoint applications. Each server in the farm plays a specific role, such as hosting databases, running web applications, or managing search services, and they all collaborate to deliver a unified platform for content management, collaboration, and communication.
SharePoint farm server types
In a SharePoint farm, there are typically several types of servers, including:
- Web Servers: Handle incoming web requests and serve web pages to users.
- Application Servers: Host services like search, Excel services, or the SharePoint timer service.
- Database Servers: Store content and configuration data in SQL Server databases, managed by SharePoint.
Single vs multi-farm
A SharePoint farm can range from a single server handling all roles in smaller environments to a complex setup with multiple dedicated servers in larger, enterprise-level deployments – referred to as a SharePoint farm topology. This architecture allows for scalability, high availability, and load balancing, ensuring that SharePoint can meet the varying needs of organizations.