SharePoint 2010 Site Collection Maximum Size

Question

Title says it all, I hope!

We have a SharePoint 2010 SP1 and one of our collections regularly goes over their quota (and ask for us to extend it).

We would like to know if there is an absolute ceiling limit for a collection size that we can set for their collection and tell them once this is reached there is nothing further we can do without creating a new collection for them to split their storage, or migrate them to SharePoint Online (we will be moving to this, but not yet so it's not an ideal solution if anyone suggests this)?

Reading https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262787(office.14).aspx suggests that there is a supported 4TB content database limit so should we, in theory, be able to have a single collection within this database which could have a maximum supported storage limit of 4TB for whatever content they choose to upload?

The collection is for an estates department who regularly receive large documents and data files (the largest files are raw and 3D and other rendering software types) and they have explicitly stated that they require everything stored on there to remain in case they ever have to go back to access any data.

Thank you

Answer 1

I dont think if there is an absolute limit as it is depend how one is using the site collections, But there are certain things which one should consider before going beyond 100GB ( 100Gb is recommended limit for a site collection by Microsoft).

1. Do you have a good backup & restore solution, which works for large site
2. You have enough server resource to support a large site collections.
3. customer really understand the risk. If a site collection is too big then page load performance or retrieving the documents will take time.
4. Manageability of large site collection is nightmare.
5. In DR situation, it will take a lot of time to recover the database, as you will not get it restore via SharePoint backup & restore process.

6. as purpose of the site is for document storage, Microsoft recommendation is use Document Center or Record Center template.

7. Keep the site is simple, i.e. no customization or workflows etc.

But what i am thinking you should do.

1. Create i main site and multiple site collections for archive
2. now you can make a strategy to move the documents after x days to archive site collections. this way you can limit your site collection. may be one site collection to archive one year documents or lower the threshold if you are getting too many documents monthly.