WHAT IS?
Boundaries: are Static limits that cannot be exceeded by design. An example of a boundary is the 2 GB document size limit.
Thresholds: are configurable limits that can be exceeded to accommodate specific requirements. A good example is the document size limit.
Supported limits: are configurable limits that have been set by default to a tested value. An example of a supported limit is the number of
site collections per farm.
In other words, let's try to explain quickly what means those terms for non-IT people !
Let's take Human subject 
:
- A Boundary would be defined by the limits of one's personal space.
-
A threshold would be the point at which a stimulus is great enough to produce an effect.
For example, a pain threshold is the point at which a person becomes aware of pain. - The supported limits would be the body/brain limitation "by default" which could be enhanced by practicing sport or learning.
However basic important ones are listed below
- Application pools: 10 per web server
The maximum number is determined by hardware capabilities.
This limit is dependent largely upon:
The amount of memory allocated to the web servers
The workload that the farm is serving, that is, the user base and the usage characteristics (a single highly active application pool can utilize 10 GB or more)
- Site collections per farm: 750,000 (500,000 Personal Sites and 250,000 other sites per farm)
- Web site: 250,000 per site collection
- Number of content databases: 500 per farm
The maximum number of content databases per farm is 500. With 500 content databases per web application, end user operations such as opening the site or site collections are not affected. But administrative operations such as creating a new site collection will experience decreasing performance. We recommend that you use Windows PowerShell to manage the web application when a large number of content databases are present, because the management interface might become slow and difficult to navigate.
- Content database size (general usage scenarios): 200 GB per content database
We strongly recommended limiting the size of content databases to 200 GB.
If you are using Remote BLOB Storage (RBS), the total volume of remote BLOB storage and metadata in the content database must not exceed this limit.
- Content database items: 60 million items including documents and list items
The largest number of items per content database that has been tested on SharePoint Server 2013 is 60 million items, including documents and list items. If you plan to store more than 60 million items in SharePoint Server 2013, you must deploy multiple content databases.
- File size: 2 GB
The default maximum file size is 250 MB. This is a configurable limit that can be increased up to 2 GB (2,047 MB). However, a large volume of very large files can affect farm performance.
- Documents: 30,000,000 per library
You can create very large document libraries by nested folders, or using standard views and site hierarchy. This value may vary depending on how documents and folders are organized, and by the type and size of documents stored.
- Major versions: 400,000
If you exceed this limit, basic file operations—such as file open or save, delete, and viewing the version history— may not succeed.
- Minor versions: 511
The maximum number of minor file versions is 511. This limit cannot be exceeded.
- Items: 30,000,000 per list
You can create very large lists using standard views, site hierarchies, and metadata navigation. This value may vary depending on the number of columns in the list and the usage of the list.
- Bulk operations: 100 items per bulk operation
The user interface allows a maximum of 100 items to be selected for bulk operations.
- Coauthoring in Word and PowerPoint for .docx, .pptx and .ppsx files: 10 concurrent editors per document
Recommended maximum number of concurrent editors is 10. The boundary is 99.
If there are 99 co-authors who have a single document opened for concurrent editing, each successive user sees a “File in use” error, and can only open a read-only copy.
More than 10 co-editors will lead to a gradually degraded user experience with more conflicts, and users might have to go through more iteration to successfully upload their changes to the server.
- Web parts: 25 per wiki or Web Part page
This figure is an estimate based on simple Web Parts. The complexity of the Web Parts dictates how many Web Parts can be used on a page before performance is affected.
- Blog posts: 5,000 per site
- Comments: 1,000 per post
The maximum number of comments is 1,000 per post.
- File size of Visio web drawings: 50 MB
Visio Services has a configuration setting that enables the administrator to change the maximum size of web drawings that Visio processes.
Larger file sizes have the following side effects:
Increase in the memory footprint of Visio Services.
Increase in CPU usage.
Reduction in application server requests per second.
Increase overall latency.
Increase SharePoint farm network load
- Users in a site collection: 2 million per site collection
COMPARISON CHART:
|
Limit Name |
SharePoint 2010 Maximum Value |
SharePoint 2013 Maximum Value |
|
Web application limits |
||
|
Web application |
Not Published |
20 per farm |
|
Content database |
300 per Web application |
300 per Web application |
|
Zone |
5 per Web application |
5 per Web application |
|
Managed path |
20 per Web application |
20 per Web application |
|
Solution cache size |
300 MB per Web application |
300 MB per Web application |
|
Site collection |
250,000 per Web application |
250,000 per Web application |
|
Web server and application server limits |
||
|
Application pools |
10 per Web server |
10 per Web server |
|
Content database limits |
||
|
of content databases |
300 per Web application |
500 per farm |
|
Content database size (general usage scenarios) |
200 GB per content database |
200 GB per content database |
|
Content database size (all usage scenarios) |
4 TB per content database |
4 TB per content database |
|
Content database size (document archive scenario) |
No explicit content database limit |
No explicit content database limit |
|
Content database items |
60 million items including documents and list items |
60 million items including documents and list items |
|
Site collections per content database |
2,000 recommended 5,000 maximum |
2,000 recommended 5,000 maximum |
|
MySites per content database |
Not Published |
5,000 per content database |
|
Remote BLOB Storage (RBS) storage subsystem on Network Attached Storage (NAS) |
Time to first byte of any response from the NAS cannot exceed 20 milliseconds |
Time to first byte of any response from the NAS cannot exceed 20 milliseconds |
|
Site collection limits |
||
|
Site collection |
Not Published |
2,000,000 per farm |
|
Web site |
250,000 per site collection |
250,000 per site collection |
|
MySites per farm |
Not Published |
500,000 per farm |
|
Site collection size |
Maximum size of the content database |
Maximum size of the content database |
|
Number of device channels per publishing site collection |
Not Available in SharePoint 2010 |
10 |
|
List and library limits |
||
|
List row size |
8,000 bytes per row |
8,000 bytes per row |
|
File size |
2 GB |
2 GB |
|
Documents |
30,000,000 per library |
30,000,000 per library |
|
Major versions |
400,000 |
400,000 |
|
Minor versions |
Not Published |
511 |
|
Items |
30,000,000 per list |
30,000,000 per list |
|
Rows size limit |
6 table rows internal to the database used for a list or library item |
6 table rows internal to the database used for a list or library item |
|
Bulk operations |
100 items per bulk operation |
100 items per bulk operation |
|
List view lookup threshold |
8 join operations per query |
8 join operations per query |
|
List view threshold |
5,000 |
5,000 |
|
List view threshold for auditors and administrators |
20,000 |
20,000 |
|
Subsite |
2,000 per site view |
2,000 per site view |
|
Coauthoring in Word and PowerPoint for .docx, .pptx and .ppsx files |
10 concurrent editors per document |
10 concurrent editors per document |
|
Security scope |
1,000 per list |
1,000 per list |
|
Column limits |
||
|
Single line of text |
276 |
276 |
|
Multiple Lines of Text |
192 |
192 |
|
Choice |
276 |
276 |
|
Number |
72 |
72 |
|
Currency |
72 |
72 |
|
Date and Time |
48 |
48 |
|
Lookup |
96 |
96 |
|
Yes / No |
96 |
96 |
|
Person or group |
96 |
96 |
|
Hyperlink or picture |
138 |
138 |
|
Calculated |
48 |
48 |
|
GUID |
6 |
6 |
|
Int |
96 |
96 |
|
Managed metadata |
94 |
94 |
|
Page limits |
||
|
Web parts |
25 per wiki or Web part page |
25 per wiki or Web part page |
|
Security limits |
||
|
Number of SharePoint groups a user can belong to |
5,000 |
5,000 |
|
Users in a site collection |
2 million per site collection |
2 million per site collection |
|
Active Directory Principles/Users in a SharePoint group |
5,000 per SharePoint group |
5,000 per SharePoint group |
|
SharePoint groups |
10,000 per site collection |
10,000 per site collection |
|
Security principal: size of the Security Scope |
5,000 per Access Control List (ACL) |
5,000 per Access Control List (ACL) |
|
Search limits |
||
|
Search service applications |
20 per farm |
20 per farm |
|
Crawl databases |
10 crawl databases per search service application 25 million items per crawl database |
5 crawl databases per search service application |
|
Crawl components |
16 per search service application |
2 per search service application |
|
Index components |
Not Published |
60 per Search service application |
|
Index partitions |
20 per search service application 128 total |
20 per search service application |
|
Index replicas |
Not Available in SharePoint 2010 |
3 per index partition |
|
Indexed items |
100 million per search service application; 10 million per index partition |
100 million per search service application; 10 million per index partition |
|
Crawl log entries |
100 million per search application |
100 million per search application |
|
Property databases |
10 per search service application;128 total |
10 per search service application;128 total |
|
Link database |
Not Available in SharePoint 2010 |
Two per Search service application |
|
Query processing components |
128 per search application 64/(total crawl components) per server |
1 per server computer |
|
Content processing components |
Not Published |
One per server computer |
|
Scope rules |
100 scope rules per scope; 600 total per search service application |
100 scope rules per scope; 600 total per search service application |
|
Scopes |
200 site scopes and 200 shared scopes per search service application |
200 site scopes and 200 shared scopes per search service application |
|
Display groups |
25 per site |
25 per site |
|
Alerts |
1,000,000 per search application (seems like a mistake) |
100,000 per search application |
|
Content sources |
50 per search service application |
50 per search service application |
|
Start addresses |
100 per content source |
100 per content source |
|
Concurrent crawls |
20 per search application |
20 per search application |
|
Crawled properties |
500,000 per search application |
500,000 per search application |
|
Crawl impact rule |
100 |
no limit |
|
Crawl rules |
100 per search service application |
no limit |
|
Managed properties |
100,000 per search service application |
50,000 per search service application |
|
Values per managed property |
Not Published |
100 |
|
Indexed managed property size |
Not Published |
512 KB per searchable/queryable managed property |
|
Managed property mappings |
100 per managed property |
100 per managed property |
|
Retrievable managed property size |
Not Published |
16 KB per managed property |
|
Sortable and refinable managed property size |
Not Published |
16 KB per managed property |
|
URL removals |
100 removals per operation |
100 removals per operation |
|
Authoritative pages |
1 top level and minimal second and third level pages per search service application |
1 top level and minimal second and third level pages per search service application |
|
Keywords |
200 per site collection |
200 per site collection |
|
Metadata properties recognized |
10,000 per item crawled |
10,000 per item crawled |
|
Analytics processing components |
Not Available in SharePoint 2010 |
6 per Search service application |
|
Analytics reporting database |
Not Available in SharePoint 2010 |
Four per Search service application |
|
Maximum eDiscovery KeywordQuery text length |
Not Available in SharePoint 2010 |
16 KB |
|
Maximum KeywordQuery text length |
Not Available in SharePoint 2010 |
4 KB |
|
Maximum length of eDiscovery KeywordQuery text at Search service application level |
Not Available in SharePoint 2010 |
20 KB |
|
Maximum length of KeywordQuery text at Search service application level |
Not Available in SharePoint 2010 |
20 KB |
|
Maximum size of documents pulled down by crawler |
Not Available in SharePoint 2010 |
64 MB (3 MB for Excel documents) |
|
Navigable results from search |
Not Available in SharePoint 2010 |
100,000 per query request per Search service application |
|
Number of entries in a custom entity extraction dictionary |
Not Available in SharePoint 2010 |
1 million |
|
Number of entries in a custom search dictionary |
Not Available in SharePoint 2010 |
5,000 terms per tenant |
|
Number of entries in a thesaurus |
Not Available in SharePoint 2010 |
1 million |
|
Ranking models |
Not Available in SharePoint 2010 |
1,000 per tenant |
|
Results removal |
Not Available in SharePoint 2010 |
No limit |
|
Term size |
Not Available in SharePoint 2010 |
300 characters |
|
Unique terms in the index |
Not Available in SharePoint 2010 |
2^31 (>2 billion terms) |
|
Unique contexts used for ranking |
Not Available in SharePoint 2010 |
15 unique contexts per rank model |
|
User defined full text indexes |
Not Available in SharePoint 2010 |
10 |
|
User Profile Service limits |
||
|
User profiles |
2,000,000 per service application |
2,000,000 per service application |
|
Social tags, notes and ratings |
500,000,000 per social database |
500,000,000 per social database |
|
Maximum Number of Users Imported Via FIM |
Not Published |
1000000 |
|
Content deployment limits |
||
|
Content deployment jobs running on different paths |
20 |
20 |
|
Blog limits |
||
|
Blog posts |
5,000 per site |
5,000 per site |
|
Comments |
1,000 per post |
1,000 per post |
|
Business Connectivity Services limits |
||
|
ECT (in-memory) |
5,000 per Web server (per tenant) |
5,000 per Web server (per tenant) |
|
External system connections |
500 per Web server |
500 per Web server |
|
Database items returned per request |
2,000 per database connector |
2,000 per database connector |
|
Response latency |
Not Published |
600 seconds |
|
Service response size |
Not Published |
150,000,000 bytes |
|
Filter Descriptor (in-store) |
Not Published |
200 per ECT method |
|
ECT Identifier (in-store) |
Not Published |
20 per ECT |
|
Database Item |
Not Published |
1,000,000 per request |
|
Workflow limits |
||
|
Workflow postpone threshold |
15 |
15 |
|
Workflow timer batch size |
100 |
100 |
|
Workflow associations |
Not Published |
100 per list |
|
List items or documents that can be bulk created or uploaded to start workflow instances |
Not Published |
5,000 items |
|
Published workflow definitions per site |
Not Published |
1,000 per site |
|
Total workflow associations per site |
Not Published |
1,799 per site |
|
Maximum workflow definition (xaml) size |
Not Published |
5,120 KB |
|
Maximum depth of a workflow sub-step in xaml (workflow complexity) |
Not Published |
121 levels |
|
Workflow instance activations per second per web server |
Not Published |
6 per second |
|
Rest calls from SharePoint workflow per second per web server |
Not Published |
60 per second |
|
Workflow variable value size |
Not Published |
256 KB |
|
Maximum list size for workflow lookups to non-indexed fields |
Not Published |
5,000 items per list view |
|
Maximum list size for auto-start workflow associations |
Not Published |
10 million items per list |
|
Managed Metadata term store (database) limits |
||
|
Maximum number of levels of nested terms in a term store |
7 |
7 |
|
Maximum number of term sets in a term store |
1,000 |
1,000 |
|
Maximum number of terms in a term set |
30,000 |
30,000 |
|
Total number of items in a term store |
1,000,000 |
1,000,000 |
|
Number of Variation Labels |
Not Available in SharePoint 2010 |
209 per term store |
|
Visio Services limits |
||
|
File size of Visio Web drawings |
50 MB |
50 MB |
|
Visio Web drawing recalculation time-out |
120 seconds |
120 seconds |
|
Visio Services minimum cache age (data connected diagrams) |
Minimum cache age: 0 to 24hrs |
Minimum cache age: 0 to 24hrs |
|
Visio Services maximum cache age (non-data connected diagrams) |
Maximum cache age: 0 to 24hrs |
Maximum cache age: 0 to 24hrs |
|
SharePoint Web Analytics service limits |
||
|
SharePoint entities |
30,000 per farm when Web Analytics is enabled |
Deprecated |
|
PerformancePoint Services limits |
||
|
Cells |
1,000,000 per query on Excel Services data source |
1,000,000 per query on Excel Services data source |
|
Columns and rows |
15 columns by 60,000 rows |
15 columns by 60,000 rows |
|
Query on a SharePoint list |
15 columns by 5,000 rows |
15 columns by 5,000 rows |
|
Query on a SQL Server data source |
15 columns by 20,000 rows |
15 columns by 20,000 rows |
|
Word Automation Services limits |
||
|
Input file Size |
512 MB |
512 MB |
|
Frequency with which to start conversions (minutes) |
1 minute (recommended) 15 minutes (default) 59 minutes (boundary) |
1 minute (recommended) 15 minutes (default) 59 minutes (boundary) |
|
Number of conversions to start per conversion process |
For PDF/XPS output formats: 30 x M For all other output formats: 72 x M Where M is the value of Frequency with which to start conversions (minutes) |
For PDF/XPS output formats: 30 x M For all other output formats: 72 x M Where M is the value of Frequency with which to start conversions (minutes) |
|
Conversion job size |
100,000 conversion items |
100,000 conversion items |
|
Total active conversion processes |
N-1, where N is the number of cores on each application server |
N-1, where N is the number of cores on each application server |
|
Word Automation Services database size |
2 million conversion items |
2 million conversion items |
|
SharePoint Workspace limits (Renamed to Office Live Workspace) |
||
|
Office Live Workspace list items |
30,000 items per list |
30,000 items per list |
|
Office Live Workspace documents |
1,800 documents limit in SharePoint Workspace |
1,800 documents in Office Live Workspace |
|
OneNote limits |
||
|
Number of Sections and Section Groups in a OneNote Notebook (on SharePoint) |
See limit for “Documents” in List and library limits |
See limit for “Documents” in List and library limits |
|
Maximum size of a section |
See limit for “File size” in List and library limits |
See limit for “File size” in List and library limits |
|
Maximum size of an image, embedded file, and XPS OneNote printout in a OneNote section. |
See limit for “File size” in List and library limits |
See limit for “File size” in List and library limits |
|
Maximum size of all images, embedded files, and XPS printouts in a single OneNote page. |
Default limit is double the “File size” limit. |
Default limit is double the “File size” limit. |
|
Merge operations |
One per CPU core per Web server |
One per CPU core per Web server |
|
Excel Services limits |
||
|
Maximum workbook size |
Not Published |
10 MB |
|
Machine Translation Service limits |
||
|
Input file size for binary files |
Not Available in SharePoint 2010 |
524,288 KB per file |
|
Input file size for text files |
Not Available in SharePoint 2010 |
15,360 KB per file |
|
Maximum character count for Microsoft Word Documents |
Not Available in SharePoint 2010 |
10,000,000 per document |
|
Total concurrent translation processes |
Not Available in SharePoint 2010 |
5 |
|
Delay between translations |
Not Available in SharePoint 2010 |
59 minutes |
|
Number of translations per translation process |
Not Available in SharePoint 2010 |
For more reference :
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262787(v=office.14).aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262787(office.15).aspx
CONCLUSION
Always tested performance & capacity limits of a software and how limits relate to acceptable
performance.
Having this knowledge before a deployment will help to appropriately configured limits in your environment
in order to get a safe and strong structure.
"It's good to have money and the things that money can buy, but it's good, too, to check up once in a while and
make sure that you haven't lost the things that money can't buy." George Lorimer