SharePoint 2010 Capacity Limits Updated

Microsoft has updated their capacity limits with the Service Pack 1 release for SharePoint 2010. Full details of the new limits can be found here:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262787.aspx

This is an update to my previous post found here:

https://thebitsthatbyte.com/know-your-limits-capacity-planning-in-sharepoint-2010/

A few key considerations to keep in mind in relation to content database sizing, per TechNet, are as follows:

(My preference is to still maintain 200 GB per collaboration based content databases, and up to 1TB per record/archive based content database, as the requirements to exceed this disrupt the capability to utilize workflows and other features.)

Content database size (all usage scenarios)

Content databases of up to 4 TB are supported when the following requirements are met:

Disk sub-system performance of 0.25 IOPs per GB. 2 IIOPs per GB is recommended for optimal performance.

You must have developed plans for high availability, disaster recovery, future capacity, and performance testing.

You should also carefully consider the following factors:

• Requirements for backup and restore may not be met by the native SharePoint Server 2010 backup for content databases larger than 200 GB. It is recommended to evaluate and test SharePoint Server 2010 backup and alternative backup solutions to determine the best solution for your specific environment.
• It is strongly recommended to have proactive skilled administrator management of the SharePoint Server 2010 and SQL Server installations.
• The complexity of customizations and configurations on SharePoint Server 2010 may necessitate refactoring (or splitting) of data into multiple content databases. Seek advice from a skilled professional architect and perform testing to determine the optimum content database size for your implementation. Examples of complexity may include custom code deployments, use of more than 20 columns in property promotion, or features listed as not to be used in the over 4 TB section below.
• Refactoring of site collections allows for scale out of a SharePoint Server 2010 implementation across multiple content databases. This permits SharePoint Server 2010 implementations to scale indefinitely. This refactoring will be easier and faster when content databases are less than 200 GB.
• It is suggested that for ease of backup and restore that individual site collections within a content database be limited to 100 GB. For more information, see Site collection limits.

For more information on SharePoint Server 2010 data size planning, see Storage and SQL Server capacity planning and configuration (SharePoint Server 2010).

Content database size (document archive scenario)

Content databases with no explicit size limit for use in document archive scenarios are supported when the following requirements are met:

• You must meet all requirements from the “Content database size (all usage scenarios)” limit earlier in this table, and you should ensure that you have carefully considered all the factors discussed in the Notes field of that limit.
• SharePoint Server 2010 sites must be based on Document Center or Records Center site templates.
• Less than 5% of the content in the content database is accessed each month on average, and less than 1% of content is modified or written each month on average.
• Do not use alerts, workflows, link fix-ups, or item level security on any SharePoint Server 2010 objects in the content database.

Note:
Document archive content databases can be configured to accept documents from Content Routing workflows.

For more information about large-scale document repositories, see Estimate Performance and Capacity Requirements for Large Scale Document Repositories (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff608068.aspx), and the Typical large-scale content management scenarios section of the article Enterprise content storage planning (SharePoint Server 2010).