Most of the CRM installations I have done have been small installations and all on the same server.
So I found it quite interesting reading about the server roles and how you can split up the installation into Front and Back end server roles. Installing CRM on one or more servers can give you some performance benefits and according to the manual is recommended for enterprise deployments.
This technet article explains the different roles and then goes through in more depth what is run and where (e.g. discovery web service, help server etc)
| Server Role Group | Description | Scope | Installation Method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full Server | Contains all roles from Front End Server, Back End Server, and . By default, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server Setup deploys the system as Full Server. In a Full Server deployment, server roles are not listed separately in Control Panel. To view the installed roles or make changes, right-click Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server 2011, click Uninstall/Change, and then clickConfigure. | Deployment | Full |
| Front End Server | Enables the server roles for running client applications and applications developed with the Microsoft Dynamics CRM SDK. | Deployment | Group or Full |
| Back End Server | Includes the server roles that handle processing asynchronous events, such as workflows and custom plug-ins. These roles are usually not exposed to the Internet.
For a list of server roles that are included in this group, see the following table. |
Deployment | Group or Full |
| Enables the server roles for components that are used to manage the Microsoft Dynamics CRM deployment either by using the methods described in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM SDK or the deployment tools.
For a list of server roles that are included in this group, see the following table. |
Deployment | Group or Full |
in basic terms the front end server runs
- The web application
- discovery web service
- organisational web service
- help server
The back end server will run the CRM Services, e.g
- Asynchronous Processing Service
- Sandbox Processing
The manual suggest the back end roles is not exposed to the internet, which makes sense because the back end roles is basically where all your .NET plugins and code are run.
You can also choose where to install the Deployment manager and deployment webservice, which is under Deployment Administration server role.
Another interesting point I noticed is the Microsoft CRM Unzip services is on the front end server and this service handles the uncompressing of zipped files for data import and I also imagine the solution imports.
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