About Physical and Virtual Nodes

SharePoint physical servers appear as physical nodes in the Enterprise. DPX will display all SharePoint-dependent applications, including SQL databases and SharePoint Index files, within the physical node structure.

Due to the distributed architecture typically employed with SharePoint, DPX does not display the SharePoint application under the physical nodes that host the SharePoint installation. The SharePoint application appears in a virtual node, in a separate virtual node group called the SharePoint_Group.

Depicting the SharePoint application in this manner lets each of the distributed components map to a single backup location, without having to consider the actual physical configuration of each SharePoint node. The SharePoint virtual node representation acts as a single point of reference, enabling coordinated backups that are consistent and reliable.

Note. Physical nodes (or node groups) deleted from the Enterprise will appear in red on the Restore tab. These nodes continue to appear in the Enterprise, because, according to the Enterprise, individual backup jobs (or backup instances) remain in storage for those entities. The virtual node will be deleted when all of the SharePoint control nodes associated with that virtual node are deleted from the Enterprise. DPX will only permit the direct deletion of a virtual node from the Enterprise when that virtual node does not have any associations to a SharePoint control node.

Grouping Farm Nodes into Node Groups

A SharePoint farm can include a node from any node group in the Enterprise.

It is best to group all of the SharePoint nodes into one designated physical node group for a SharePoint farm. This grouping makes it easier to identify the individual nodes that belong to the SharePoint farm, and it will also facilitate the performance of any administrative tasks for this group of nodes. However, if the SharePoint application’s SQL nodes are part of a cluster, those nodes will have to belong to a separate physical node group that is designated for that cluster. When SQL server is clustered, we recommend using two node groups in the configuration of a Enterprise, one for SQL SharePoint servers, and another for non-SQL SharePoint servers.

Do not place SharePoint physical nodes in the virtual group SharePoint_Group.