What Makes The Sanity Point Run?

Today I'm going to give you a little peek under the hood of my new site. I'll compare what I used before, and what I have now, and how that impacts what I could do. Then I'll go into some technical detail about my current environment, and point out a few things to look for when selecting your own provider. Finally, I'll show you how I customized what I got from the ISP to produce The Sanity Point you are reading now.

The Importance of Dedication

Although I have brought most of my articles over from my previous blog, in many ways this site is the polar opposite of what I had before. The biggest change, of course, is that I have moved from a shared hosting environment (Office Live and Windows Live Spaces) onto a dedicated server. The key difference is, as its name implies, on a shared environment, your web site is using the same hardware as other users - potentially many others; while on a dedicated server, you are the only person on the box.

This greatly impacts what you are allowed to do with your site. Virtually all shared hosting providers pre-configure their servers with a selection of templates, tools, and utility applications (e.g. eStores, blog software, etc...). The usually allow (but don't always encourage) you to upload your own pages and images (typically via FTP or FrontPage extensions), and may offer connectivity to some shared database resources for server-side scripting. However, because you are sharing the host with other users, you won't usually be allowed to create compiled applications, or install and use components that the ISP hasn't already provided.

With a dedicated server, on the other hand, the ISP usually sets up a box, installs an OS, maybe some Antivirus software and a few free utilities, and hands you an administrator password. From then on, it is essentially "your box". Unless you buy enhanced support, the only thing they'll do is poke the power switch if you accidentally shut it down or otherwise lock it up, reset the admin password, or replace a component that gets fried. Otherwise, you are on your own and free to install any (legal) software, and customize the environment to your heart's content.

Yes, Virginia... You can Run SharePoint on Windows Web Server

Of course, with that freedom comes additional responsibility. Since only you know what you plan to do, you have to be careful in choosing options. Ordering a dedicated server is just like buying one for your own office. You need to consider:

• The Operating System (Windows or a Linux/Unix variant)
• The CPU
• How much memory to order
• How much network bandwidth you expect to use

And, of course, all of this is tempered by how much you can afford. Dedicated servers can get very expensive. If you look around, though, you can find some decent deals. The provider I chose, for example, (APlus.net) offers dedicated servers for as little as $45 a month.

In my case, since I wanted to run SharePoint, my first requirement was running Windows Server. That slimmed my choices a little, but not by much. Since I was only going to get a single box, for Internet-only users, and wasn't going to be running a domain, that made the obvious choice Windows Web Server 2008.

I can hear some of you saying "But wait! You can't run SharePoint on the Web Edition of Windows!!" Well, I'm pleased to say, that isn't entirely accurate. There has never been any restriction against running SharePoint on any edition of Windows Server. However, with Windows Server 2003 web edition, you weren't allowed to install a database server on that edition. This meant you needed at least two boxes in order to run SharePoint, which made dedicated hosting prohibitive for most users.

The good news is, with Windows Web Server 2008, Microsoft no longer has that restriction, so now you can effectively create a low-cost single-box SharePoint environment for Internet sites with either Windows SharePoint Services, or Search Server Express. That's what I've done here. While you can technically install WSS on 512MB, it really doesn't work very well, so I bumped the memory up to 3GB (the most SharePoint can effectively use on 32-bit Windows). I'm also running a dual-core CPU. This results in the Windows about page shown below:

Note: APlus doesn't offer Web Edition in 64 bits, but for my usage, 32-bits is fine. By the time SharePoint 2010 rolls around with its 64-bit requirement, I'll be ready to replace this server.

Installing My Stuff

After sitting down and figuring out my realistic usage, I decided to directly install SQL Server 2008 Express and do an advanced Search Server 2008 Express installation, rather than setting up a basic Windows SharePoint Services install first. While this does limit me to 4GB per database, even for the WSS content databases, it also allowed me the full flexibility to set my service accounts and decide how to manage my databases.

Rule #1: Default Settings + Internet Facing = Bad Move!

Once I had SharePoint (well, MSSX) installed, all that gave me is the default stuff of SharePoint:

Now, that's all great, but if I just wanted the stock SharePoint look, I could have used a shared hosting provider. So next I added the Community Kit for SharePoint: Enhanced Blog Edition (CKS:EBE), and a few other goodies that I wanted to use in my sites. I've used the Intensive Theme in the past:

But again, I wanted something a bit more unique. So, with SharePoint Designer in hand, I took creating and applying a theme I call "Sanity Road", which is the theme you see today.

Going Beyond

Of course, going to a dedicated server is usually overkill if you only have one site, and can be a little flexible in your demands for customization. In my case, however, I'm going to use the server for some other things, such as demonstrations, and hosting other personal and community sites not necessarily related to SharePoint.

In this article, I've tried to give you a feel for the tasks involved in selecting and setting up hosting on a dedicated server. I hope you have found it helpful!