harbar.net component based software & platform hygiene
April 2016 Blog Posts

SharePoint 2016 Nugget #2: Distributed Cache Size in MinRole Farms

In SharePoint 2013, the Distributed Cache size is set to half of ten percent of the total RAM on the server. This means that on a server with 8Gb RAM, the Cache Size (the allocation for data storage) is 410Mb. Another 410Mb is used for the overhead of running the Cache. This is a reasonable default as the system has no way of knowing which other services will be provisioned onto the server. And of course by default in SharePoint 2013 every machine in the farm will host Distributed Cache, unless you build your farm properly using the –SkipRegisterAsDistributedCacheHost...

SharePoint 2016 Nugget #1: Topology Service in MinRole Farms

Whilst I have some much more in depth coverage of SharePoint 2016 coming soon, this is the first in a mini series of “nuggets” – tidbits of information on the new release. Unlike with previous releases I decided against publishing a lot of material whilst the product was in public preview and to wait until the RTM. This decision was driven by a number of factors I won’t bore you with. Many will be of the opinion that not a great deal has changed in SharePoint 2016. That is somewhat true, especially in respect to visible end user...

Distributed Cache Service Identity: Turning the Playbook into real Tools

A couple of weeks ago I posted about the Playbook Imperative and Changing the Distributed Cache Service Identity, which generated a lot of interest and feedback regarding the “tooling approach” presented. The original intention of the post was to articulate the importance of understanding the playbook when performing operational service management of SharePoint farms. I had never intended to show “how to do it” in terms of creating tooling in Windows PowerShell. The PowerShell examples were created purely to demonstrate the playbook and were deliberately done in a way that meant the focus was on the tasks being performed rather...