Hey team - I'll be implementing a MOSS farm in Amazon Web Services. Initially I'm planning on using 4 servers for the farm (2 additional for standby WFEs based on load) - 1 for the dumbed down version if ADAM for the accounts, two for the WFEs with one of those housing CA, and one for the SQL database - the 2 additional servers will join the farm as needed. Two questions are: 1) In implementing SaaS, how can I use the addtional servers based on load - meaning, I want them to start-up if a load reaches X..? 2) How can I bring a server online/offline say if a server reaches a certain load? I mean, I want to be able to bring servers online/offline as the need dictates. Perhaps these are AWS related questions but I want to know the SharePoint perspective/implications of having a server going offline/online - hmm, which brings up a third question, would those 2 addtional servers already have to be joined to the farm and just in an offline state? Thanks in advance.

Hi, 1) In implementing SaaS, how can I use the addtional servers based on load - meaning, I want them to start-up if a load reaches X..? 2) How can I bring a server online/offline say if a server reaches a certain load? I mean, I want to be able to bring servers online/offline as the need dictates. The first two questions have to be answered by AWS team, from Amazon. The implications from a SharePoint perspective would be the following: The servers need to be joined to the farm first before bringing them online/offline. If you bring a server that is not joined to the farm, then need some sort of script will be needed to get it joined. It will need “psconfig –cmd configdb –connect ...” more details about that command is listed here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263093(office.12).aspx Once this server is joined, the timer service will start provisioning the web apps on the new server, this is a pretty quick process. If you have custom solutions that are not listed in the solutions management page, then you will need a method of bringing those over to as well. If you decide to bring a server offline later, then you will need some sort of load balancing mechanism to stop sending traffic to that offline server. SharePoint does not auto load balance requests so will need some type of load balancer.Regards, Savoeurn Va Microsoft Online Community Support