eG Monitoring
 

Measures reported by SPSCSitesTest

A site collection is made up of one top-level site and all sites below it. A site collection is the top level of organization in a SharePoint 2013 web application.

The number of site collections you can have in a single web application depends on the capacity of your server infrastructure.

From an architecture standpoint, all the content of a site collection must be stored in a single content database. You cannot have a site collection's content spread out across multiple content databases. Content databases scale with your infrastructure capacity so site collections can share a content database. A site collection can exist in only one content database, but one content database can host the content for multiple site collections. Similarly, any given SharePoint 2013 site can only exist in one site collection, but a site collection can host a multitude of sites. A site cannot exist outside of a site collection.

The number of site collections and sites sharing a single content database can impact the size of the database and its performance; administrators should therefore exercise restraint when associating sites and site collections with a content database. In addition, the amount of content that the sites and site collections store in their content database is also a key factor influencing the size of the content database. Variations to these two parameters - count and size - hence need to be closely monitored, so that administrators can proactively detect abnormal growth in the size of the content databases, isolate the site collections and sites that may be contributing to this, and take measures to fine-tune the site and site collection configurations to ensure peak performance of the content databases. The SPSCSitesTest test aids administrators in this endeavor!

This test captures the total number of site collections and sites on the Sharepoint server / farm and reports whether/not these numbers exceed the permissible limits. In addition, the test also tracks changes in the size of the site collections and sites over time, and promptly intimates administrators if the actual size is about to reach/exceed the size quota set for the site collection. In the process, the test points you to those site collections that are growing rapidly and the sites that may be contributing to their growth. If administrators initiate measures to curb the abnormal growth in the number or the size of the site collections and sites, they can once again take the help of this test to understand which sites and site collections are the least popular, so that such sites and site collections can be marked as probable targets for deletion or trimming.

The measures made by this test are as follows:

Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation
SC_count Indicates the number of site collections in the Sharepoint environment. 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.

Note that this limit is affected by other factors that might reduce the effective number of site collections that can be supported by a given content database. Care must be exercised to avoid exceeding supported limits when a container object, such as a content database, contains a large number of other objects. For example, if a farm contains a smaller total number of content databases, each of which contains a large number of site collections, farm performance might be adversely affected long before the supported limit for the number of site collections is reached.
SC_totalsize Indicates the total size of all site collections in the Sharepoint environment. MB 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 ContentDB_size measure of the SPContentDBTest 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.
SC_exceed_quota Indicates the number of site collections that are of a size that is greater than the configured quota template. Number A Quota Template allows Sharepoint administrators to specify the maximum amount of content that can be stored within a Site Collection. This way, administrators can exercise greater control on the amount of content that a site collection can store in the content database, which in turn, makes for better performance and a high quality user experience with Sharepoint.

A non-zero value for this measure is indicative of the fact that one/more site collections are consuming more storage resources than they should. The detailed diagnosis of this measure will lead you to those errant site collections, so that you can figure out which sites on those collections are violating the set storage thresholds.
Unused_SC_count Indicates the number of site collections that are not frequently used. Number This measure reports the count of those sites that were not modified for a duration greater than the value of the LEAST ACTIVE SITE COLLECTION DAYS parameter. You can use the detailed diagnosis of this measure to know which site collections are seldom used.

If the value of the SC_count measure appears to be rapidly approaching the maximum recommended site collection limit, then the detailed metrics will help you identify those site collections that are rarely used and are hence candidates for removal.
Active_SC_count Indicates the number of site collections that were modified even yesterday. Number Use the detailed diagnosis of this measure to identify those site collections that are very actively used.
User_count Indicates the number of users in site collections. Number Besides storage, quota templates can also restrict the number of users who can be added to the Active Directory directory service from a single site collection. When the maximum number of users for a site collection has been reached, no additional user accounts can be added unless one or more user accounts are deleted from the site collection. It is hence good practice to keep an eye on the changes to this measure, so as to proactively detect a potential user quota violation.
Site_count Indicates the total number of sites in site collections. 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 site collections to know which collection consists of the maximum number of sites.

Site_size Indicates the total size of the sites in site collections. MB Typically, the value of this measure will be the same as that of the Total size of site collections measure. 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, we strongly recommend 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.
Mostactive_SC_count Indicates the number of sites that were accessed even yesterday. Number Use the detailed diagnosis of this measure to identify those site collections that are very actively used.
Leastactive_SC_count Indicates the number of sites that are not used frequently. Number This measure reports the count of those sites that were not modified for a duration greater than the value of the LEAST ACTIVE SITE DAYS parameter. You can use the detailed diagnosis of this measure to know sites are seldom used.

If the value of the Site_count measure appears to be rapidly approaching the maximum recommended site limit, then the detailed metrics will help you identify those sites that are rarely used and are hence candidates for removal.