Although there are significant networking improvements present in both the Windows Server 2008 and 2012 platforms, some minor alterations to your SharePoint 2013 network environment can result in significant performance gains.
Domain controllers and authentication
A SharePoint Server 2013 farm can potentially place a significant authentication load on domain controllers (DCs) within your network. As general guidance, Microsoft recommends that you deploy a new DC per every three web tier servers present in your SharePoint farm. It should be noted that the DC for this task should not be a read-only DC.
hardware versus software load balancers
Microsoft includes the Microsoft Network Load Balancing (NLB) feature in Windows Server 2012. When active, this functionality presents a virtual IP address to the network for connections to the SharePoint web apps.
Each host in a Microsoft NLB arrangement must run the feature, which involves some overhead from an operating system perspective. If these servers are on the brink of being overcommitted already, this additional load could cause client connections to be slow or to cease altogether.
Consider installing and configuring a dedicated hardware-based NLB solution if the performance of your software NLB causes client connectivity issues.
Separating client and intrafarm network traffic
A SharePoint Server 2013 environment can start on only a single server and grow into an environment consisting of several servers in a three-tier environment. Depending on the arrangement chosen, a SharePoint environment could have client and intraserver traffic traversing the same interfaces, potentially disrupting or slowing services for SharePoint users.
Consider installing two network adapters on each web tier server:
- One connected to a client subnet/virtual LAN (VLAN): serves client requests
- The other connected to an intraserver subnet/VLAN: enables interserver connectivity
Network administration is not a core requirement for being a SharePoint administrator. Knowing how concepts such as subnets and VLaNs can work to separate client and server communications, however, may be key to understanding a very simple way to improve SharePoint connectivity and performance.
Wide area network connectivity
If your clients are connecting across a wide area network (WAN), their connectivity to SharePoint may suffer from a higher-than-normal network latency. Using a WAN accelerator
