Each SharePoint Portal Server configuration combines a variety of role servers, including stateless front-end web servers, search servers, index management servers, job servers, and back-end SQL database servers, into a single logical model. These server roles can be performed by a single standalone server, or the roles can be spread out among multiple servers in a server farm.
In a standalone SharePoint Portal Server environment, a single server is configured to run SharePoint Portal Server, which also includes Windows SharePoint Services (WSS), Internet Information Services (IIS), and Microsoft SQL Server. Double Take can be used to replicate and failover the SQL server database to a Double Take target machine and SharePoint Portal Server can be pre-configured as a front-end web server on that target machine to continue processing requests in the event the primary server fails.
In a server farm configuration, multiple role servers are configured to access data from a SQL Server database located on an independent server. Again, Double Take can be used to replicate and failover the SQL server to an independent target server. Since a server farm configuration uses multiple SharePoint Portal Server role servers, usually in some type of load balancing configuration with its own failover capability (such as Windows Load Balancing), it is usually only necessary to failover the SQL databases storing the data so that surviving SharePoint Portal Server role servers can continue to access the database. However, just as in the single standalone server case, it is also possible to configure an SharePoint Portal Server front-end server to run on the Double Take target as well, if desired, ensuring that SharePoint Portal Server can continue to operate even with a single surviving server. In that case, the Double Take target could be both a front-end SharePoint Portal Server server and a back-end SQL database Server. The following diagram illustrates a server farm configuration.
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