White paper: Working with large lists in Office SharePoint Server 2007

Via: SharePoint Server Technet

Microsoft performed performance testing against Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007 to determine the performance characteristics of large SharePoint lists under different loads and modes of operation. This white paper presents their findings.

The test results in this white paper are intended to demonstrate the difference in the performance characteristics of SharePoint lists containing large numbers of items when different data access types are used to present list contents. Test results in this white paper show how to optimize list performance through limits on the number of items that appear in a list, and by choosing the most appropriate method of retrieving list contents.

Download this white paper as a Microsoft Word document (.doc).

White paper: Working with large lists in Office SharePoint Server 2007 (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=95450&clcid=0x409)

Data access methods

• Browser


• SPList with For/Each


• SPList with SPQuery


• SPList with DataTable


• SPListItems with DataTable


• Lists Web service


• Search


• PortalSiteMapProvider

Analyzing the results
The test results in this white paper validate the fact that with proper testing in your own environment, it is quite possible that you can use more than 2,000 items in a container without an adverse impact on performance. The best results will be obtained if you write your own user interface to work with the data in the list, and make some carefully considered choices about what data access method works best for your requirements. The data access method you choose may very well impact other aspects of your site or list implementation.

For example, using data access methods that require the SPList class will greatly benefit from indexing columns used in a WHERE clause. However, the benefit of indexing these columns is marginal if the data is retrieved using the Search service, the Lists Web service or the PortalSiteMapProvider class. Conversely, if you are not using the SPList class for data retrieval, data access will likely be much faster if you are able to retrieve data based on the ID of items, rather than the value of a specific column in a list.


Additional Resources: Plan for performance and capacity (Office SharePoint Server)