SharePoint Web Applications Test

Web Applications (WAs) are top-level containers for content in a SharePoint farm, and are typically the interface through which a user interacts with SharePoint - site collections, lists, and libraries come underneath the web application. A web application is associated with a set of access mappings or URLs which are defined in the SharePoint central management console, then automatically replicated into the IIS configuration of every server configured in the farm. WAs are typically independent of each other, have their own application pools, and can be restarted independently in Internet Information Services. Web Applications provide the ability to isolate content, processes, features and users. For example, you can separate the content anonymous users can see vs. what authenticated users can see by hosting the same content in different web apps.

A web application can grow in size over time! If this growth is not kept under control, then you may end up with a situation where a few web applications are hogging the storage resources provided by the SharePoint environment, leaving the other web applications with limited to no resources! To avoid this, administrators need to be able to quickly isolate the web applications that are growing rapidly, understand their composition, and isolate the reasons for the abnormal growth. The SharePoint Web Applications test helps administrators with this! For each web application deployed on a SharePoint server, this test monitors the current size of that web application and captures a consistent increase in the size of the same, thus pointing you to those web applications that are growing in size at a steady pace and the content databases they are using. In addition, the test also leads you to the probable reasons for the abnormal size of the web application – is it because the web application is handling documents of huge sizes? or is it because the web application is storing too many versions of a document, which is in fact adding to its size? Or is it owing to the numerous sites, site collections, and document libraries that are being hosted by that web application?

Target of the test : A Microsoft SharePoint Server

Agent deploying the test : An internal agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for each web application on the SharePoint Server being monitored

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameters	Description
Test period	This indicates how often should the test be executed.
Host	The host for which the test is to be configured.
Port	The port at which the host server listens.
Least Active Site Collection Days	If a site collection is not modified for a duration exceeding the value (in days) specified here, then this test will count that site collection as a Least active site collection.
Fetch Farm Measures	Typically, farm-level metrics - eg., metrics on farm status, site collections, usage analytics – will not vary from one SharePoint server in the farm to another. If these metrics are collected and stored in the eG database for each monitored server in the SharePoint farm, it is bound to unnecessarily consume space in the database and increase processing overheads. To avoid this, farm-level metrics collection is by default switched off for the member servers in the SharePoint farm, and enabled only if the server being monitored is provisioned as the Central Administration site. Accordingly, this parameter is set to If Central Administration by default. This default setting ensures that farm-level metrics are collected from and stored in the database for only a single SharePoint server in the farm. If you want to completely switch-off farm-level metrics collection for a SharePoint farm, then set this parameter to No. Some high-security environments may not allow an eG agent to be deployed on the Central Administration site. Administrators of such environments may however require farm-level insights into status and performance. To provide these insights for such environments, you can optionally enable farm-level metrics collection from any monitored member server in the farm, even if that server is not provisioned as the Central Administration site. For this, set this parameter to Yes when configuring this test for that member server.
Domain, Domain User, Password, and Confirm Password	If the Fetch Farm Measures flag of these tests is set to No or to If Central Administration Site, then this test should be configured with the credentials of a user with the following privileges: The user should be part of the SharePoint Farm Administrators group. To know how to add a user to this group, refer to Adding a User to a Farm Administrators Group. The user should have shell admin access to all databases in SharePoint. To know how to grant such an access to a user, refer to Granting a User Shell Admin Access to All SharePoint Databases. The user should have full control access to each web application that needs to be monitored on the SharePoint server. To know how to grant such an access to a user, refer to Granting a User Full Control Access to Web Applications on Microsoft SharePoint. The user should have read and execute access to the eG agent install directory. To know how to grant this access to a user, refer to Granting a User Read and Execute Permissions to the eG Agent Install Directory. On the other hand, if the Fetch Farm Measures flag of these tests is set to Yes, then the user configured for the tests not only requires the four privileges discussed above, but should also be part of the following groups on the eG agent host: Administrators WSS_ADMIN_WPG IIS_USRS Performance Monitor Users WSS_WPG Users It is recommended that you create a special user for this purpose and assign the aforesaid privileges to him/her. Once such a user is created, specify the domain to which that user belongs in the Domain text box, and then, enter the credentials of the user in the Domain User and Password text boxes. To confirm the password, retype it in the Confirm Password text box.
Detailed Diagnosis	To make diagnosis more efficient and accurate, the eG Enterprise embeds an optional detailed diagnostic capability. With this capability, the eG agents can be configured to run detailed, more elaborate tests as and when specific problems are detected. To enable the detailed diagnosis capability of this test for a particular server, choose the On option. To disable the capability, click on the Off option. The option to selectively enable/disable the detailed diagnosis capability will be available only if the following conditions are fulfilled: The eG manager license should allow the detailed diagnosis capability Both the normal and abnormal frequencies configured for the detailed diagnosis measures should not be 0.

Measurements made by the test
Measurement	Description	Measurement Unit	Interpretation
Size of this web application	Indicates the current size of this web application.	GB
Web application growth rate	Indicates the percentage growth in the size of this web application since the last measurement period.	Percent	Compare the value of this measure across web applications to know which web application has grown the maximum since the previous measurement period. By closely tracking the variations in this measure for that web application over time, you can determine whether/not the web application is growing rapidly in size! If so, it is a cause for concern, as it indicates that that web application has the potential of consuming all available storage resources! In such a situation, you may want to reset the size limit for the site collections that are within the web application, so as to curb its growth. A site collection can be as large as the content database size limit for the applicable usage scenario. For more information about the different content database size limits for specific usage scenarios, see the Content database limits discussed in the Interpretation column of the Cotent database size measure of the SharePoint Content Database test. In general, Microsoft strongly recommends limiting the size of site collections to 100 GB for the following reasons: Certain site collection actions, such as site collection backup/restore, cause large SQL Server operations which can affect performance or fail if other site collections are active in the same database. SharePoint site collection backup and restore is only supported for a maximum site collection size of 100 GB. For larger site collections, the complete content database must be backed up. If multiple site collections larger than 100 GB are contained in a single content database, backup and restore operations can take a long time and are at risk of failure.
Users in this web application	Indicates the number of users in this web application.	Number	Compare the value of this measure across web applications to identify that application which has the maximum number of users.
Content databases used by this web application	Indicates the number of content databases that were used by this web application.	Number
Site collections part of this web application	Indicates the number of site collections in this web application.	Number	The maximum recommended number of site collections per farm is: Personal Sites - 500,000, Other site templates - 250,000. The Sites can all reside on one web application, or can be distributed across multiple web applications. Compare the value of this measure across web applications to know which application consists of the maximum number of site collections. In the event of a sudden increase in the size of a web application, you can check how the value of this measure has grown over the same period to figure out whether/not the addition of site collections has anything to do with the increase in web application size.
Sites part of this web application	Indicates the total number of sites in the site collections that are part of this web application.	Number	Microsoft recommends the creation of a maximum of 250,000 sites and subsites per site collection. You can create a very large total number of web sites by nesting subsites. For example, in a shallow hierarchy with 100 sites, each with 1,000 subsites, you would have a total of 100,000 web sites. Compare the value of this measure across web applications to know which application consists of the maximum number of sites. In the event of a sudden increase in the size of a web application, you can check how the value of this measure has grown over the same period to figure out whether/not the addition of sites has anything to do with the increase in web application size.
Number of document libraries	Indicates the number of document libraries in this web application.	Number	Document libraries are collections of files that you can share with team members on a Web based on Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services. By comparing the value of this measure across web applications, you can figure out which web application has the maximum number of document libraries. In the event of a sudden increase in the size of a web application, you can check how the value of this measure has grown over the same period to figure out whether/not the addition of document libraries has anything to do with the increase in web application size.
Lists in this web application	Indicates the number of lists in this web application.	Number	A list in SharePoint is used to store data across columns in separate rows. By comparing the value of this measure across web applications, you can figure out which web application has the maximum number of SharePoint lists. In the event of a sudden increase in the size of a web application, you can check how the value of this measure has grown over the same period to figure out whether/not the addition of lists has in any way impacted the web application size.
Attachments	Indicates the number of attachments in this web application.	Number	By comparing the value of this measure across web applications, you can figure out which web application has the maximum number of attachments. In the event of a sudden increase in the size of a web application, you can check how the value of this measure has grown over the same period to figure out whether/not the addition of attachments has in any way impacted the web application size.
Documents in this web application	Indicates the total number of documents in this web application.	Number	By comparing the value of this measure across web applications, you can figure out which web application has the maximum number of documents. In the event of a sudden increase in the size of a web application, you can check how the value of this measure has grown over the same period to figure out whether/not the addition of documents has in any way impacted the web application size.
Size of documents	Indicates the total size of all documents that are available in this web application.	GB	Compare the value of this measure across web applications to identify that application with the maximum document size. This can be attributed to the existence of one/more large-sized documents or many moderately sized documents in the web application. If that web application appears to be growing in size rapidly, you may want to keep an eye on this measure to figure out if it is owing to the increase in document size.
Document versions	Indicates the number of document versions in this web application.	Number	Typically, SharePoint can support a maximum of 40,000 major versions and 511 minor versions of documents. If this limit is exceeded basic file operations—such as file open or save, delete, and viewing the version history— may not succeed.
Average number of documents per document library	Indicates the average number of documents per library in this web application.	Number