Bill Baer /bɛːr/

SharePoint Premium is the next evolution of Microsoft Syntex with an emphasis on advanced content management in Microsoft 365. Read the announcement at https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/sharepoint-premium-blog/introducing-sharepoint-premium-the-future-of-ai-powered-content/ba-p/3981076. SharePoint Premium enriches, organizes, and secures content to improve Copilot experiences through services like document tagging to extract metadata from images and documents, manage and secure SharePoint sites and libraries, and protect and archive information across Microsoft 365, and more. To help you get started with pay-as-you-services as part of SharePoint Premium, a new promotional offer will be available on January 1st, 2024 that provides monthly free capacity for select SharePoint Premium services including:

External File Request is now available in Microsoft 365 for SharePoint document libraries, while OneDrive has provided this capability for a few years (see https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-onedrive-blog/onedrive-roadmap-roundup-november-2019/ba-p/1054066), this expansion now supports an easy and secure means to request files from anywhere, to include where there is not a Microsoft 365 entitlement (I.e. individuals who are not licensed for Microsoft 365). What’s a File Request? File requests can orignate by a variety of means, for example, file requests can originate through a workflow tied to a business process or a simple hyperlink.

As Authoratative Pages are scheduled to be deprecated in SharePoint Online, now is the time to start thinking about how to deliver similar functionality with Microsoft Search. For background, authoritative pages are those that link to the most relevant information as decided by the search administrator, specified as a URL. SharePoint search uses this list to calculate the rank of every page in the index. For example, if an administrator wanted to rank the companies HR site above ranked results, an authoratative page could be configured for https://contoso.

We’re excited to announce new improvements to the SharePoint Migration Tool for the month of February. Designed to be used for migrations ranging from the smallest set of files to a large scale enterprise migration, the SharePoint Migration Tool will let you bring your information to the cloud and take advantage of the latest collaboration, intelligence, and security solutions with Office 365. Over the past several months we’ve been continually working to add features to the SharePoint Migration Tool to help you accelerate your journey to Microsoft 365, from support for full site migrations, to incremental improvements to the user experience – the SharePoint Migration Tool is designed to support migrations of all sizes.

We’re excited to announce new improvements to the SharePoint Migration Tool for the month of January. Designed to be used for migrations ranging from the smallest set of files to a large scale enterprise migration, the SharePoint Migration Tool will let you bring your information to the cloud and take advantage of the latest collaboration, intelligence, and security solutions with Office 365. Improvements this month include: A new, updated UI aligned with the Office 365 user experience This release of the SharePoint Migration Tool includes improvements to the user interface with a new, simplified control service more aligned to the visual themes of SharePoint Online.

The SharePoint Migration Tool lets you migrate lists or files from your SharePoint on-premises document libraries or from your on-premises file shares and easily move them to either SharePoint, OneDrive or Microsoft Teams in Office 365. It is available to Office 365 users. Designed to be used for migrations ranging from the smallest set of files to a large scale enterprise migration, the SharePoint Migration Tool will let you bring your information to the cloud and take advantage of the latest collaboration, intelligence, and security solutions with Office 365.

What’s new and what’s coming with SharePoint & OneDrive Security, Compliance, and Administration – October 2018 Edition In today’s complex and regulated environment, businesses need to focus on building more secure solutions that deliver value to their customers, partners, and shareholders—both in the cloud and on-premises. Microsoft has been building enterprise software for decades and running some of the largest online services in the world. We draw from this experience to keep making SharePoint and OneDrive more secure for users, by implementing and continuously improving security-aware software development, operational management, and threat-mitigation practices that are essential to the strong protection of your services and data.

At Microsoft Ignite, we announced several exciting new features coming to the new SharePoint admin center. Today we’re excited to share that we’ll start to roll out these features worldwide later this month to organizations that have “Targeted release for everyone” turned on. What’s coming in this release? Make the new admin center your default admin center… The new SharePoint admin experience provides a completely revamped SharePoint admin center that draws heavily on our modern principles… an administrative console designed to help IT achieve more, so their users can achieve more.

_Everything you can imagine is real. _ **-Pablo Picasso ** Last week at Microsoft Ignite we continued to build on the momentum of our 2018 SharePoint Conference in May - sharing the latest news, announcements, and investments we’re bringing to SharePoint Online as your intelligent and engaging intranet in Office 365. In addition to delivering innovation to bring you an intelligent and engaging intranet, we’re also continuing our journey to introduce a new dimension to your intranet through SharePoint spaces.

Join us at the SharePoint Virtual Summit, for the live-stream coverage of the opening keynote at SharePoint Conference North America on May 21, 2018. At this free online event, you will hear from Microsoft Corporate Vice President Jeff Teper and General Manager Seth Patton as they share the latest product innovations and roadmap across SharePoint, OneDrive, Yammer, Microsoft Teams, and Office 365. See live demos illustrating how you can transform your workplace and learn how to tap into rich experiences across your intranet to inform and engage people.

Last month we announced open beta for the next generation of the SharePoint Migration Tool with new capabilities to include support for SharePoint Lists, programmatic destination site creation and more. Today we’re pleased to announce this version (v2) of the SharePoint Migration Tool is now generally available. The SharePoint Migration Tool is designed to simplify your journey to the cloud through a free, simple, and fast solution to migrate content from on-premises SharePoint sites and file shares to SharePoint or OneDrive in Office 365.

Attending SPCNA? Come learn about hybrid scenarios with SharePoint and Office 365 in a post-conference workshop. As an attendee of the workshop you’ll receive a $500.00 Azure Pass, a complete SharePoint Server 2016 environment and an Office 365 Tenant that you can use to build your skills and complete hands on labs, both while at the workshop and even after the event. If you’ve already registered for the conference you can add the workshop to your registration by creating a new workshop-only registration at http://sharepointna.

In March 2017 we introduced device-based policies for SharePoint and OneDrive, that enable administrators to configure Tenant-level policies. Device-based access policies for SharePoint and OneDrive help administrators ensure corporate data is not leaked onto unmanaged devices such as non-domain joined or non-compliant devices by limiting access to the content to the browser, preventing files from being taken offline, printed, or synchronized with OneDrive. On September 1st, 2017 we continued to evolve our conditional access investments to address the ever-changing security landscape and business needs by introducing new levels of granularity with conditional access that allow administrators to scope device-based policies at the site collection level.

Security is at the heart of what we do… Microsoft has been building enterprise software for decades and running some of the largest online services in the world. We draw from this experience to keep making SharePoint and OneDrive more secure for users, implementing and continuously improving security-aware software development, operational management, and threat-mitigation practices that are essential to the strong protection of your services and data. Today we’re pleased to announce a new resource center where you can get the latest news on our security and compliance investments for SharePoint and OneDrive in addition to presentations, free training, eBooks and more.

In May 2017 we unveiled our plans [https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/SharePoint-Blog/Introducing-the-new-SharePoint-Admin-Center/ba-p/70294] to simplify SharePoint administration through delivering an administrative experience that’s intuitive, intelligent, and simple. Since then we’ve made available the new admin experience as Preview for customers who have enabled Targeted Release at the Tenant level. In the next several weeks in our preview we’ll be introducing new updates on our journey to deliver an administrative console designed to help IT achieve more, so their users can achieve more.

SharePoint Conference North America has it all, and MORE! Get more by registering NOW! http://tiny.cc/SPCNA_REG There are 4 main reasons why people attend technical conferences and the SharePoint Conference North America (SPCNA) has all of them, and MORE! With the constantly changing world of technology, people need to know what’s new before the competition does. SPCNA has the sessions and workshops to keep you ahead of the curve. Learning with the best of the best from Microsoft and top industry thought leaders from engineering and marketing.

This summer we introduced a consistent, coherent sharing experience across the Web and desktop – these improvements allow you to share Office 365 files directly from File Explorer on PC and Finder on Mac, in addition to the latest versions of Office on the desktop and Office 365 web experiences. The updates we made provide a simplified sharing experience, so you can share files and folders easily with partners both internal and external, while retaining the right level of security – so whether you share on the web, in Explorer on Windows 10 and Windows 7, or Finder or the Mac, the sharing experience is secure, consistent and simple.

In this post: SharePoint Admin Center Updates SharePoint Migration Tool Updates OneDrive Files Restore Microsoft has been building enterprise software for decades and running some of the largest online services in the world. We draw from this experience to keep making SharePoint and OneDrive more secure for users, implementing and continuously improving security-aware software development, operational management, and threat-mitigation practices that are essential to the strong protection of your services and data.

The SharePoint Conference North America is less than ~123 days away, if you’re an IT Professional, implementer, decision maker, business user, or developer you don’t want to miss this SharePoint Conference. The SharePoint Conference North America promises to be 2018’s premier event for SharePoint and related technologies, featuring over 140 sessions (8,400 minutes) of content under one roof. In addition, SharePoint Conference North America is the host for this years SharePoint Virtual Summit where we’ll share the latest innovations, vision, and strategy across SharePoint and OneDrive.

GENERAL AVAILABILITY TODAY Taking advantage of cloud services doesn’t have to be difficult or a long-phased migration project. Today we’re excited to announce General Availability of the SharePoint Migration Tool, a simple, and fast migration solution to help you migrate content from on-premises SharePoint sites and file shares to SharePoint or OneDrive in Office 365. Based on the learning and experience from Microsoft FastTrack, the SharePoint Migration Tool from Microsoft was designed to help you bring your information to the cloud and take advantage of the latest collaboration, intelligence, and security solutions with Office 365.

When moving your organization to cloud services, security concerns add another layer of consideration; one of trust. Security and compliance is an ongoing process, not a steady state. It is constantly maintained, enhanced, and verified by highly-skilled, experienced and trained personnel. We strive to keep software and hardware technologies up to date through robust processes. To help keep Office 365 security at the top of the industry, we use processes such as the Security Development Lifecycle; we also employ techniques that throttle traffic and prevent, detect, and mitigate breaches.

Hybrid self-service site creation allows an administrator of SharePoint Server 2016 to redirect the site creation experience to SharePoint Online where users are prompted to create sites through the modern site and group creation flow. To configure hybrid self-service site creation: Install the November 2017 Public Update for SharePoint Server 2016. Once installed, the option to configure hybrid self-service site creation will be available in SharePoint Central Administration. To configure hybrid self-service site creation, select the Web application to configure and follow the configure options.

There’s a new culture of work; one that is increasingly diverse, geographically distributed, and mobile. Connectivity is ubiquitous and the ability to work remotely has become an ingrained part of the work practice. People have come to expect to be able to access email and documents from anywhere on any device - and for that experience to be seamless, among these trends includes the increasing use of shared systems, such as kiosks to access and work with corporate data.

Last week we announced Office 365 Data Loss Prevention Block Access (https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Security-Privacy-and-Compliance/Policy-Tips-in-SharePoint-Online-and-OneDrive-for-Business-at/ba-p/116158) with SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business. Office 365 Data Loss Prevention Block Access prevents the potential for overexposure of sensitive information by allowing a Tenant administrator to configure Data Loss Prevention Policies limiting how and with whom sensitive information can be shared. For example, if a document is determined to contain sensitive information, for example U.S. Financial Data, a DLP policy can prevent that information from being shared externally or with guests while providing real-time policy information to the user attempting to initiate the share.

Balancing security and usability are core to ensuring people can collaborate effectively without interrupting the necessary flow of information across organizations. With SharePoint Online we’ve been at work developing security and sharing controls that are scoped at the site collection level. This allows Tenant administrators to configure more restrictive controls at the site collection level, than those that are configured at the Tenant level providing a balance between the need to protect corporate information and the requirement to collaborate effectively across and outside of the corporate boundary.

There are no limits to what people can achieve when technology reflects the diversity of everyone who uses it. We believe in what people make possible - at Microsoft, our mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Across SharePoint and OneDrive our most important work is making our technology accessible to people of all abilities. Over the past several months we’ve been working towards this vision with improvements across how and where people collaborate ensuring our experiences both create and support opportunities for everyone.

In March 2017 we introduced device-based policies for SharePoint and OneDrive, that enable administrators to configure Tenant-level policies. Device-based policies for SharePoint and OneDrive help administrators ensure corporate data is not leaked onto unmanaged devices such as non-domain joined or non-compliant devices by limiting access to the content to the browser, preventing files from being taken offline or synchronized with OneDrive. On September 1st, 2017 we’ve continued to evolve our conditional access investments to address the ever-changing security landscape and business needs by introducing new levels of granularity with conditional access that allow administrators to scope device-based policies at the site collection level.

Governments around the world are strengthening laws and regulations to protect citizens’ data, preserve national security, and protect business interests. Last week at Microsoft Ignite we announced new Multi-Geo Capabilities in Office 365 to help ensure you remain compliant with services to include SharePoint, OneDrive, and Exchange. The new Multi-Geo Capabilities in Microsoft 365 with SharePoint and OneDrive provide global organizations a solution to maximizing the value of Office 365, including SharePoint and OneDrive, while meeting data residency and compliance requirements.

Last week at Microsoft Ignite we shared our investments, our vision, and strategy for addressing today’s most challenging business and technology trends that are ever broadening the threat landscape. From meeting complex corporate and governmental regulatory compliance, to addressing a more mobile and connected workforce, SharePoint and OneDrive and uniquely positioned to address your business needs. Stay ahead of data residency requirements with Multi-Geo capabilities in Microsoft 365 Governments around the world are strengthening laws and regulations to protect citizens’ data, preserve national security, and protect business interests.

When we launched SharePoint Server 2016, we shared the vision for SharePoint Server 2016 as a foundational release, born in the cloud, and built for continuous innovation. Today we’re pleased to announce our continued investments on this journey and commitment, the availability of Feature Pack 2. Through the September 2017 Public Update for SharePoint Server 2016 we’re delivering several new features based on customer feedback and developer needs, highlighting these investments, the SharePoint Framework.

Join myself, Neil Hodgkinson, Spence Harbar, Bob Fox, and other industry experts for a Microsoft Ignite pre-day training on implementing hybrid scenarios with SharePoint and Office 365. Cloud computing has become a popular way to reduce capital and operational expenditures, renew IT innovation, and gain the advantage of more rapid software delivery to meet the needs of business. However, compliance, data sovereignty, sensitivity concerns, or a significant investment in customization may limit your organization’s ability to take advantage of this.

Today at the SharePoint Virtual Summit, we unveiled the latest innovations for SharePoint and OneDrive, including powerful integrations across Office 365, Windows and Azure - and while we continue to drive forward with a cloud-first, mobile-first vision - we’re excited to also announce new innovation for our customers on-premises. When we launched SharePoint Server 2016 in May of 2016, we shared a vision of a server that was cloud-born and future-proof.

Today at the SharePoint Virtual Summit, we unveiled the latest innovations for SharePoint and OneDrive, including powerful integrations across Office 365, Windows and Azure. Innovation in the cloud drives tremendous business value, and it delivers new capabilities to the IT professionals who work tirelessly to support, configure, administer, and secure their organizations’ content and services. We’ve built Office 365 with global scale, exceptional reliability, and support for compliance across every industry and geography.

Last month we announced support for # and % across SharePoint and OneDrive (https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/wbaer/2017/04/06/new-support-for-and-in-sharepoint-online-and-onedrive-for-business/) and now in addition to adding support for # and % we’re also increasing MAXPATH or otherwise SharePoint and OneDrive’s Url path length restrictions from 256 Unicode code units to 400. This new limit section applies to the total length of the URL path to a folder or a file in SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business but not to the length of any parameters.

Know before you go… If you’re considering migrating file shares or other file-centric containers to OneDrive for Business or SharePoint Online it’s useful to understand if the source files are supported for storage or synchronization. This code sample at https://github.com/wbaer/FileChecker helps to identify illegal characters, length restrictions, and more in one or more file names that can potentially prevent proper synchronization with Microsoft SharePoint and OneDrive for Business or fail to render through the Microsoft SharePoint or OneDrive for Business Web UX.

As William Shakespeare wrote in Romeo and Juliet “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Files are as unique as the people who create them and we’re constantly working in SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business to support a broad array of types and naming conventions. In the upcoming weeks, we’ll be shipping support for # and % as supported characters in file and folder names across document libraries in SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business.

16 years ago today we announced Release to Manufacturing of SharePoint Portal Server 2001. SharePoint Portal Server is a flexible solution that can search and index the most important enterprise content sources across an organization and make the information available to anyone in the company via a familiar user interface. The new server combines enterprise-level search functionality developed by Microsoft research, with integrated document management tools and flexible, easily customizable enterprise portal capabilities.

The collaboration landscape has changed, people expect to work across both boundaries and devices, to bring content with them versus bringing themselves to content. Location, location, location is the best choice when buying or selling a home, but introduces new challenges when it comes to securing that content. Ubiquitous connectivity and the proliferation of devices means responding to new security challenges. SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business are uniquely positioned to help you address these challenges… Over the past several weeks we’ve introduced a variety of policies, to include location-based policies, that provide contextual controls at the user, location, device, and app levels and we’re excited to share you can now explore new device-based policies in First Release.

Cross-posted from my post on the Microsoft Technical Community at https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/SharePoint-Blog/Hybrid-Scenarios-with-SharePoint-and-Office-365-Updates-and/ba-p/47571#M204. Ubiquitous connectivity, the proliferation of devices – the rise of the cloud. The cloud has become mainstream and services such as Office 365 are an attractive alternative to on-premises business solutions with SharePoint. However, for a variety of reasons, you might want to or need to deploy specific solutions in the cloud while still maintaining your on-premises investments. For some organizations, you may wish to gradually move to cloud using a staged, workload-driven approach.

The days of the corporate boundary beginning at the firewall are over, today’s corporate boundary is the end user. Connectivity is ubiquitous and with an endless number of devices available, people have an increasing number of options for staying connected at anytime, anywhere. The freedom to work fluidly, independent of location has become an expectation as has the freedom to access email and documents from anywhere on any device—and that experience is expected to be seamless.

The English philosopher Alan Watts once said “The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance”. Recent discussions are that of the changing role of SharePoint IT…as the cloud becomes mainstream, this conversation will inevitably thrive as a broader topic that transcends SharePoint. And while change may be to exist, opportunity continues to rise – the cloud has given way to capabilities previous impossible behind the firewall, from predictive analytics to machine learning, to infinite storage, and on-demand access to content and conversations.

SharePoint Server 2016 Beta 2, released on November 18th, 2015, introduces several new hybrid capabilities that drive end-user familiarity and provide further abstraction of Office 365 when coexisting with SharePoint on-premises to include a new hybrid extensible App Launcher and profile redirection. Extensible App Launcher The App Launcher is a familiar feature in Office and it’s now been extended to SharePoint Server 2016. The App Launcher provides a common location to discover new apps and navigate SharePoint on-premises and Office 365.

Prerequisites SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview Office Online Server Preview Overview Durable Links provide a resource Id based link for Web Application Open Platform Interface Protocol (WOPI) documents served by SharePoint and Office Online Server. The resource Id assigned to individual documents is stored in the content database related to the source document. When using Durable Links when a user selects a link to a specific document, SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview looks up the file by the resource Id and opens it in Office Online Server Preview.

Overview The Distributed Cache service provides in-memory caching services to several features in SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview. Some of the features that use the Distributed Cache service include: Newsfeeds Authentication OneNote client access Security Trimming Page load performance These features use the Distributed Cache for quick data retrieval. The Distributed Cache service stores data in memory and does not have a dependency on databases in SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview.

A new System Center Operations Manager Management Pack is now available for SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview. The Microsoft SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview Management Pack is designed to be used for monitoring SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview events, collecting SharePoint component-specific performance counters in one central location, and for raising alerts for operator intervention as necessary. By detecting, sending alerts, and automatically correlating critical events, this management pack helps indicate, correct, and prevent possible service outages or configuration problems, allowing you to proactively manage SharePoint servers and identify issues before they become critical.

The following table documents all Web Templates available in SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview. For a downloadable version see also http://1drv.ms/1Lf6Cin. Name Title Description Compatibility Level ACCSRV#0 Access Services Site Microsoft Access Server 14 ACCSRV#0 Access Services Site Microsoft Access Server 15 ACCSRV#1 Assets Web Database 14 ACCSRV#3 Charitable Contributions Web Database 14 ACCSRV#4 Contacts Web Database 14 ACCSRV#5 Projects Web Database 14 ACCSRV#6 Issues Web Database 14 ACCSVC#0 Access Services Site Internal

Improvements in performance and scale in SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview search now allow search to scale up to 500 million items, an increase of 250 million items SharePoint Server 2013 [http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262787.aspx#Search] based on 10 million items per index partition. In SharePoint Server 2013 and SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview each index partition contains a subset of the whole search index. If the number of indexed items is high in relation to how much memory the server has, affects the query response time negatively.

SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview is now available in the Windows Azure Platform Gallery. The image is based on the current Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter release and includes a complete installation of SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview. Getting Started To get started with SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview on Windows Azure navigate to the Windows Azure Portal (https://manage.windowsazure.com/) and sign-in with your credentials. Select + New. Select Compute, click Virtual Machine and then click From Gallery

Overview In SharePoint Server 2013 the List View Threshold specified the maximum number of list or library items that a database operation, such as a query, can process at the same time outside the daily time window set by the administrator during which queries are unrestricted. In SharePoint 2013 the List View Threshold is set to 5,000 or 20,000 for users and auditors respectively. Typically a users’ initial experience with List View Threshold is when it has been exceeded, the resultant error: The number of items in this list exceeds the list view threshold, which is 5000 items” as documented at https://support.

Fast Site Collection Creation is a new capability in SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview that improves Site Collection creation performance by reducing Feature activation overhead. Similar to the approach associated with MinRole Site Collections that support Fast Site Collection Creation are Feature-optimized. Fast Site Collection Creation is a mechanism designed to improve provision performance of Site Collections through instrumenting a copy operation using SPSite.Copy at the Content Database level. The primary vehicle in addressing this scenario is the enablement of a Site Master or master copy of the Site Collection for an enabled Template that provides the source Site Collection when a request is made for creating a new Site Collection.

One of the key improvements to eDiscovery in SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview is the introduction on Sensitive Information Types to eDiscovery. In SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview Data Loss Prevention is now built into Enterprise Search. It allows you to search for sensitive content in your existing eDiscovery Center, keeping content in place and enabling you to search in real time. SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview provides a wide range of sensitive information types from different industry segments and geographies, such as credit card numbers, Social Security numbers (SSNs), bank account numbers, and other types, many of which you may already be using to search for sensitive content in email.

At Microsoft Ignite in Chicago, IL we disclosed the initial infrastructure investments we’re making in SharePoint Server 2016. This article describes initial investments made in installation and deployment of SharePoint Server 2016. NOTE Features and capabilities are subject to change. System Requirements Scenario Deployment type and scale Processor RAM Hard disk Database server running a single SQL instance Development or evaluation installation with the minimum recommended services 64-bit, 4 cores

Microsoft Ignite will open the window to our vision, strategy, and future for SharePoint and provide a first look at most recent developments with SharePoint Server 2016. From the business value for organizations looking to modernize their workplace and infrastructure to the technical value it will deliver to IT Professionals and Developers as well as new hybrid investments for those customers looking to enrich their existing investments with cloud innovation. With Microsoft Ignite just around the corner, it’s time to look back and provide a little historical SharePoint information.

Top 3 sessions to learn more about SharePoint Server 2016 at Microsoft Ignite. BRK2188 What’s new for IT Professionals in SharePoint 2016 http://ignite.microsoft.com/session/sessionmoreinfo/?topicid=c9ae257c-3695-e411-b87f-00155d5066d7 In this session you’ll learn about the core platform investments we’re making in SharePoint 2016 from deployment and implementation, patching and upgrade, improvements, in addition to both new and changes to existing services in SharePoint. We’ll demonstrate new installation techniques, monitoring, and more. If you’re responsible for deploying, managing, or planning SharePoint implementations this session is for you.

The English philosopher Alan Watts once said “The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance”. A recent #CollabTalk topic was that of the changing role of SharePoint IT…as the cloud becomes mainstream, this conversation will inevitably thrive as a broader topic that transcends SharePoint. And while change may be to exist, opportunity continues to rise – the cloud has given way to capabilities previous impossible behind the firewall, from predictive analytics to machine learning, to infinite storage, and on-demand access to content and conversations.

The question of read-only domain controllers (RODC) and SharePoint comes up frequently in conversation and on forums, whether not supported, and what potential issues can be expected if implemented with SharePoint. This article will help address some of these questions. FAQ Q: Can I use a read-only domain controller (RODC) with SharePoint 2013? A: Yes; however, there are limitations and constraints with certain operations (see below). An implementation of RODC with SharePoint should assume a writable replication partner.

Overview Document Property Promotion and Demotion is a Feature in versions of SharePoint designed to synchronize specific metadata across documents and its parent List columns and/or fields. Property promotion refers to the process of extracting values from properties of a document and writing those values to corresponding columns on the list or document library where the document is stored. Property demotion is the same process in reverse. Values are read from list columns and written to document properties.

So you downloaded the ULS Viewer and fired up on your SharePoint 2010 environment only to see something like this? -— System.TypeInitializationException: The type initializer for ‘UlsGump.AboutForm’ threw an exception. —> System.TypeLoadException: Could not load type ‘System.Reflection.CustomAttributeExtensions’ from assembly ‘mscorlib, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089’. at UlsGump.AboutForm..cctor() — End of inner exception stack trace — at UlsGump.MainForm.MainForm_Load(Object sender, EventArgs e) at System.Windows.Forms.Form.OnLoad(EventArgs e) at System.Windows.Forms.Control.CreateControl(Boolean fIgnoreVisible) at System.Windows.Forms.Control.CreateControl() at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmShowWindow(Message& m) at System.

Overview NOTE (8/26/2014) With any solution that externalizes the unstructured content with SharePoint you need to understand the limitations and optimal use of those solutions as documented at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff628583(v=office.15).aspx to include related latency and performance requirements. With any application organizations face consistent key challenges such as high efficiency and business value, complex configuration, and low total cost of ownership. Extending applications to the cloud in hybrid scenarios addresses many of these challenges, whether distributing SharePoint content across on-premises and Office 365 while leveraging search as a service (hybrid search) or externalizing data, extending it to the cloud with Remote Blob Storage or related technologies.

I’m excited to announce we’ve published a new and improved version of the ULS Viewer. About the Unified Logging Service The Unified Logging Service (ULS) is the primary logging mechanism in SharePoint to make it easier to develop applications, expose in-depth information for debugging, and vehicle to isolate problems or threshold issues when they are encountered. ULS writes events to the Trace Log and stores them in the file system.

Overview Service Pack 1 introduced new functionality that allows IT administrators to selectively redirect their users OneDrive for Business libraries to Office 365. In addition to OneDrive for Business redirection, Service Pack 1 also allows for the redirection of users Sites pages to SharePoint Online. When redirecting the Sites pages, when a user selects Sites on the navigation bar in SharePoint Server 2013 they are redirected to SharePoint Online. Since there is no affinity between content followed across SharePoint Server 2013 and SharePoint Online, users are presented only with local (SharePoint Online) content followed.

In previous articles I discussed redirecting OneDrive for Business to Office 365 in SharePoint Server 2013 Service Pack 1. In addition to new functionality that allows IT administrators to redirect OneDrive for Business and Sites pages to Office 365, Service Pack 1 also allows IT administrators to activate Yammer as the default social experience for SharePoint Server 2013. When activated, the Newsfeed link in the navigation bar is replaced with a Yammer link that directs users to the organizations’ Yammer network.

The French philosopher, Henry Bergson, once said “to exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.” While the Nobel Prize winner wasn’t talking about the software and services world, the thought is extremely applicable to technology- from development to administration to use. The adoption of, and change to, cloud computing is maturing at a rapid rate…but the move needs to be thoughtful.

Machine Translation Services is a powerful Shared Service Application in SharePoint Server 2013 that provides automation synchronous and asynchronous translation of documents, folders, and sites. The code samples in this post provide simple examples of synchronous document translation using the Client Side Object Model in managed (C#) applications and Windows PowerShell in addition to accessing Machine Translation Services via REST. CSOM The Client Side Object Model (CSOM) provides a rich alternative to earlier Web Services in providing an object-oriented system for interoperating with SharePoint data from a remote (client) machine.

Service Pack 1 update is now available. Refer to the information below to acquire the updated Service Pack for your product: NOTE For a list of previously published KB’s refer to the recall information in the original post below. Product KB SharePoint Foundation http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2880551 SharePoint Server http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2880552 Project Server http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2880553 SharePoint Server Language Pack http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2880554 SharePoint Foundation Language Pack http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2880555 Office Web Apps Server http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2880558 Customers with Service Pack 1 Deployed

The SharePoint Server 2013 Trial image is now available in the Windows Azure China Platform Gallery. The image is based on the current Windows Server 2012 Datacenter release and includes a complete installation of SharePoint Server 2013 Enterprise Trial patched with the March Public Update. NOTE Additional configuration is required to use the SharePoint Server 2013 Trial image include 1) a database server running SQL Server 2008 R2 or SQL Server 2012 2) a server running AD DS.

Over the past several weeks since we’ve released Service Pack 1 for SharePoint Server 2013 I’ve configured several PoC and demo environments with OneDrive for Business redirection to Office 365 with an outbound hybrid search topology. Over the course of configuring these environments I found it to be easier to programmatically configure the more complex aspect (outbound infrastructure) and hopefully will be able to share the solution soon… The solution I put together is a Windows Form (makes it easy to redistribute and iterate upon), simplifies the configuration and scripting of outbound infrastructure (example below).

Recently we introduced a number of new coexistence scenarios in Service Pack 1 including redirection of OneDrive for Business and Yammer. Redirection of OneDrive for Business enables IT to provision cloud storage for users OneDrive for Business document libraries; however, in a hybrid scenario the content in that storage should be discoverable both on-premises and online. The most common configuration to support OneDrive for Business redirection is an outbound search topology where users can return results from both on-premises and online within the on-premises search portal.

At the 2014 SharePoint Conference we announced the new OneDrive for Business SKU in addition to changes in Service Pack 1 functionality that enable IT administrators to selectively redirect their users to OneDrive for Business in Office 365 from SharePoint Server 2013. Planning The initial prerequisite steps to implementing OneDrive for Business redirection to Office 365 in Service Pack 1 is choosing the most effective identity management/federation options to suit your business needs.

3/21/2014 is the first full day of Spring, and the first full day of SQL Server 2014 RTM. Undoubtedly the question will be asked when will SharePoint Server 2013 support SQL Server 2014. While it remains early, SharePoint Server 2013 will support SQL Server 2014 with the April Cumulative Update. Resources SQL Server 2014 Home [http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/products/sql-server/] What’s new in SQL Server 2014 [http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb500435(v=sql.120).aspx] Comments: March 2020 CU for SharePoint 2013 product family is available for download – Stefan Goßner - Mar 2, 2020

An updated SharePoint Server 2013 Trial image is available in the Windows Azure Platform Gallery. The image is based on the current Windows Server 2012 Datacenter release and includes a complete installation of SharePoint Server 2013 Enterprise Trial patched with the March Public and December Cumulative Updates. NOTE Additional configuration is required to use the SharePoint Server 2013 Trial image include 1) a database server running SQL Server 2008 R2 or SQL Server 2012 2) a server running AD DS.

There are a number of articles that describe how to rename and move the Search Service Application databases in SharePoint Server 2013; however, limited guidance on renaming the Search Service Application databases on the same server. The process itself differs little from the former, but worth documenting. Step 1 Suspend the Search Service On the Start menu, click All Programs. Click Microsoft SharePoint 2013 Products. Click SharePoint 2013 Management Shell. In the SharePoint 2013 Management Shell, enter the following Windows PowerShell statement to suspend the search service: $SearchService = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceApplication Suspend-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceApplication -Identity $SearchService

Summary Currently, Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013 is not supported for installation on computers running the Windows Server 2012 R2 operating system. Installing SharePoint Server 2013 on a computer that is running Windows Server 2012 R2 could lead to unexpected behavior, therefore, Microsoft does not support SharePoint Server 2013 in Windows Server 2012 R2. SharePoint Server 2013 with Service Pack 1 and SharePoint Foundation 2013 with Service Pack 1 will offer support for Windows Server 2012 R2.

With SharePoint Conference 2014 registration now open, it seems appropriate to look back and provide just a little historical SPC information. There have been 5 previous SharePoint Conferences. 2006 The inaugural SharePoint Conference, SharePoint Conference 2006 was held in Bellevue, Washington on May 15th, 2006 at the Meydenbauer Convention Center with the keynote delivered by Bill Gates. The theme…“Connecting People, Process, and Information”. 2008 The second SharePoint Conference was held in Seattle, Washington at the Washington State Trade and Convention Center on March 4th, 2008 with the keynote delivered by Kurt Delbene and Bill Gates.

An updated SharePoint Server 2013 Trial image is available in the Windows Azure Platform Gallery. The image is based on the current Windows Server 2012 Datacenter release and includes a complete installation of SharePoint Server 2013 Enterprise Trial patched with the March Public and August Cumulative Updates. NOTE Additional configuration is required to use the SharePoint Server 2013 Trial image include 1) a database server running SQL Server 2008 R2 or SQL Server 2012 2) a server running AD DS.

Shredded Storage is a new storage model implementation in SharePoint Server 2013 used to provide smoother I/O patterns, improve data transfer performance, and reduce storage utilization when using historical versions with SharePoint. This whitepaper provides a background of SharePoint products storage evolution and the implementation specifics and benefits of Shredded Storage in SharePoint 2013. Download: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=39719

An updated SharePoint Server 2013 Trial image is available in the Windows Azure Platform Gallery. The image is based on the current Windows Server 2012 Datacenter release and includes a complete installation of SharePoint Server 2013 Enterprise Trial patched with the March Public and April Cumulative Updates. NOTE Additional configuration is required to use the SharePoint Server 2013 Trial image include 1) a database server running SQL Server 2008 R2 or SQL Server 2012 2) a server running AD DS.

AlwaysOn Availability Groups can provide a high-availability and disaster recovery solution for SQL Server Remote Blob Store (RBS) BLOB objects (blobs). AlwaysOn Availability Groups protects any RBS metadata and schemas stored in an availability database by replicating them to the secondary replicas. AlwaysOn Availability Groups Overview The AlwaysOn Availability Groups feature is a high-availability and disaster-recovery solution that provides an enterprise-level alternative to database mirroring. Introduced in SQL Server 2012, AlwaysOn Availability Groups maximizes the availability of a set of user databases for an enterprise.

The March 2013 Public Update for SharePoint Server 2013 was released on March 12, 2013 and in addition to resolving several issues, features new and added capabilities such as the ability to configure multiple app domains in when using AAM or Host Header configurations. For a complete list of fixes included in this update see also Description of the SharePoint Server 2013 update: March 12, 2013. NOTE Ensure adequate disk space is available to extract the SharePoint Server 2013 March 2013 Public Update content.

Introduction What is an Extranet? A common definition for the term Extranet is a network that enables controlled access to external users or an extension of an organization’s intranet extended to external users to include customers, partners, suppliers, etc. in isolation from other internet or intranet users. Extranet topologies with SharePoint Products have become an increasingly popular solution to enable collaboration with partners, customers, and external users; however, can be complex to implement and maintain over time.

SharePoint 2013 implements new System Status Notifications designed to provide site users information about lifecycle events to include availability of upgrade, maintenance, and read-only states. System Status Notifications present important information about a SharePoint deployment and its availability, whether during upgrades, routine maintenance, or conversion to read-only. Users are kept “in the know” as they receive a prominent banner on their sites that provides insight into the activity being performed—helping reduce calls to the help desk and subsequent burden on IT.

In order to remain competitive in today’s business climate you need to be able to respond to change and challenges quickly. Sometimes that means adjusting your SharePoint infrastructure on a moment’s notice to maintain a competitive advantage. Infrastructure as a Service solves these challenges through a ready-to-use, pay as you go solution which means you can deploy in hours as opposed to days, whether you’re looking to deploy a simple SharePoint-based Internet site or to quickly provision a development environment.

A number of questions have been asked surrounding Shredded Storage in SharePoint 2013. To better understand the benefit of Shredded Storage and what is provides from a relational database BLOB data storage perspective it’s helpful to understand the evolution of SharePoint’s storage model. Past and Present SharePoint Portal Server 2001 SharePoint Portal Server 2001 represented the first commercially available version of SharePoint and utilized a unique, new storage model based on the Web Storage System originally implemented in Exchange Server 2000.

Introduction SharePoint Server 2013 introduces new User License Enforcement capabilities that enable the definition, assignment, and mapping of licenses to users associated with specific Active Directory security groups. For example an administrator can map Enterprise features to individual users who appear in the ‘Enterprise CAL’ Active Directory security group or limit usage of Duet capabilities to users in the ‘Duet CAL’ Active Directory security group. By default in SharePoint Server 2013 User License Enforcement is disabled when SharePoint Server 2013 is deployed and must first be enabled to begin assigning, using, and implementing user licensing capabilities.

Introduction SharePoint Server 2013 introduces several new service applications; among them is the new Machine Translation Service. The new Machine Translation Service enables you to reach more people with new cloud-based translation services capable of translating not only sites, but also their content. These services have a comprehensive set of APIs, REST, and CSOM support, so content can be pre-translated when needed, or translated on the fly by users—asynchronously, synchronously, or streaming.

Introduction PowerPoint Automation Services is a new service application in SharePoint Server 2013 that provides automatic server-side conversion of PowerPoint Presentations from one format to another, for example, a PowerPoint Presentation in Open XML File Formar .pptx format can be converted into Portable Document Format (.pdf) for archival purposes, distribution to clients who do not have Microsoft PowerPoint installed, or to protect the presentation from editing. PowerPoint Automation Services supports conversion of Open XML File Format (.

Introduction Shredded storage is a new data platform improvement in SharePoint 2013 related to the management of large binary objects (I.e. BLOBS such as Microsoft PowerPoint Presentations, Microsoft Word Documents, etc.). Shredded Storage is both improves I/O and reduces compute utilization when making incremental changes to document or storing documents in SharePoint 2013. Shredded Storage builds upon the Cobalt (I.e. File Synchronization via SOAP of HTTP) protocol introduced in SharePoint 2010.

If you missed the announcement at SPC219, SharePoint Server 2013 RTM Trial is now available. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/hh973397.aspx

Introduction Minimal Download Strategy in SharePoint 2013 improves rendering performance when browsing content where large parts of the page do not change providing a more fluid navigation experience. For example when navigating between a site’s home page and Shared Documents page only the content that has changed between the source and destination page (controls and placeholders in the content area) are downloaded and the Url subsequently updated where the chrome is persisted.

A new updated version of the Windows PowerShell Command Builder is now available. The Windows PowerShell Command Builder for Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Microsoft SharePoint 2013, SharePoint Online, and Microsoft Office 365 is an HTML 5 application that is designed to help IT professionals and power users learn how to use Windows PowerShell for administrative tasks. The Windows PowerShell Command Builder enables IT professionals and power users to visually assemble commands related to SharePoint 2010, SharePoint 2013, SharePoint Online, and Office 365 in the browser and take those commands to their respective products.

SharePoint 2013 includes Windows Management Framework 3.0 the as one of the new prerequisites to installation and configuration. Included in the Windows Management Framework 3.0 is Windows PowerShell 3.0. Windows PowerShell 3.0 extends upon the usability of Windows PowerShell 2.0 while maintaining backward compatibility with Windows PowerShell 2.0. Windows PowerShell 3.0 includes a number of new capabilities that can help administrators of a SharePoint farm including new session management, Web access, and scheduling capabilities.

Web and Application Servers Minimum Windows Server 2008 R2 with Service Pack 1 (Standard, Enterprise, or Datacenter) Requires KB 2554876, KB 2708075, KB 2759112 Optional Windows Server 2012 (Standard or Datacenter) Prerequisites Web and Application Servers Web Server (IIS) Role Application Server Role Microsoft .NET Framework Version 4.5 SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 Native Client Microsoft WCF Data Services 5.0 Microsoft Information Protection and Control Client (MSIPC) Microsoft Sync Framework Runtime v1.

Join me Monday, November 12, 2012 @ 11:00 A.M. in Mandalay Bay GIJK as I discuss what’s new for IT Professionals in SharePoint Server 2013. In this fast-paced session we’ll discuss some of the most compelling and important new capabilities and features in SharePoint Server 2013, demonstrate those capabilities and features, and provide references to additional resources where you can learn more about them in depth. If you haven’t done so visit http://www.

Step 1 Prepare the Operating Environment Preparation of your development environment is determined by the apps you will develop and the systems you have access to. If you want to distribute apps for SharePoint through an app catalog, such as apps for SharePoint will full control permissions, a local installation of SharePoint 2013 is required; otherwise an Office 365 Development Site can be used. NOTE Apps for SharePoint will full control permissions are not supported on an Office 365 site.

In order to remain competitive in today’s business climate you need to be able to respond to change and challenges quickly. Sometimes that means adjusting your SharePoint infrastructure on a moment’s notice to maintain a competitive advantage. Procuring and managing hardware can be costly and time consuming – and sometimes it may only be needed temporarily. Infrastructure as a Service solves these challenges through a ready-to-use, pay as you go solution which means you can deploy in hours as opposed to days.

Learn more about SharePoint Server 2013 features and capabilties through immersive training at http://technet.microsoft.com/sharepoint/fp123606. Download and install SharePoint Server 2013 at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/evalcenter/hh973397.aspx?wt.mc_id=TEC_121_1_4. Get help, guidance, and interact with the community at http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepointitpropreview/threads. Stay up to date on SharePoint Server 2013 at http://technet.microsoft.com/sharepoint.

Introduction Changing software can be difficult, SharePoint Server 2013 simplifies the upgrade process, empowers the user, and improves resiliency and manageability through new features and capabilities designed to balance the needs of users with those of IT. What’s new in upgrade… Deferred Site Collection Upgrade Site Collection Health Checks Evaluation Site Collections Deprecated Upgrade Approaches Separation of Schema and Site Collection Upgrade Upgrade in SharePoint 2013 separates the aspects of site collection and schema upgrade improving performance and resiliency related to the upgrade process.

The User Profile Service Application stores information about users in a centralized location used by SharePoint’s social computing features to support natural collaboration. The User Profile Service Application is also required when provisioning My Site personal sites, enabling certain social computing features such as newsfeeds, and the creation and distribution of user profiles across server farms or sites. To learn more about the User Profile Service Application see also http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee662538.aspx.

At SPC 11 in Anaheim, CA we announced the new Windows PowerShell Command Builder which enables users to visual construct Windows PowerShell cmdlets through structured Verb – Noun combinations on a simple design surface. To learn more about the Windows PowerShell Command Builder read the Windows PowerShell Command Builder Getting Started Guide. To begin using the Windows PowerShell Command Builder see SharePoint Server 2010 - Windows PowerShell TechNet.

If you attended my SharePoint Conference Session on SharePoint 2010 on SQL Server Denali you’re probably ready to get started with some of the features and capabilities we discussed and demonstrated today, particularly AlwaysOn Availability Groups which provide a robust, ready to use solution supporting both local redundancy and remote disaster recovery. NOTE SharePoint 2010 is not currently supported on SQL Server Code Name “Denali”. There are several prerequisites to using AlwaysOn which are documented further at http://msdn.

Interesting in learning more about claims-based authentication in SharePoint Server 2010? We’ve just published a comprehensive whitepaper that describes claims-based identity, its relationship with SharePoint Server 2010, implementation specifics, and more. Download the whitepaper at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh487289.aspx.

I’ve recently noticed a number of posts on social.msdn.com related to configuring SharePoint 2010 with Windows Firewall with Advanced Security. The following post provides the basic steps necessary to get started with provisioning a SharePoint 2010 server farm in environments where the Windows Firewall is enabled. To access an instance of the SQL Server through a firewall, you must configure the firewall on the computer that is running SQL Server to allow access.

Are you an IT Professional looking to learn more about how SharePoint Online can help supplement your on-premise SharePoint 2010 Products deployment? We’ve recently released a comprehensive set of learning materials that illustrate the benefits of SharePoint Online and how you can leverage its capabilities to bring additional value to your on-premise deployment. Video Learning Series Introduction Scenarios Users Support Conclusion Narrated Presentation Exploring SharePoint Online for IT Professionals Whitepaper

Do I need to uninstall the Site Recycle Bin from CodePlex if I plan to use the Site Recycle Bin in Service Pack 1? It depends on what you’re looking for. The Site Recycle Bin available through CodePlex will capture deleted Site Collections and Sites to disk, Site Recycle Bin in Service Pack 1 copies the Site Collections and Sites to an auxiliary SQL table until they are permanently deleted at which point are managed by Gradual Site Deletion.

Service Pack 1 introduces a new method of moving Site Collections between Content Databases where RBS is used known as ‘shallow copy’. Overview What is ‘shallow copy’? ‘Shallow copy’ refers to moving structured content without moving the underlying unstructured content. With SharePoint 2010 Products ‘shallow copy’ moves the structured Site Collection data across Content Databases without moving the unstructured data which is comprised of user created content such as PowerPoint Presentations, Word Documents, etc.

Microsoft IT has released several new resources related to the governance of Microsoft’s SharePoint service. Implementing SharePoint 2010 Site Governance and Lifecycle Management (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb687797.aspx#EOC) Webcast: How Microsoft IT Handles SharePoint 2010 Governance and Life Cycle Management (Level 200) (https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032487219&CountryCode=US)

Today we are announcing some important and exciting changes to our software boundaries and limits for SharePoint 2010 Products, in summary SharePoint 2010 Products will now support content databases up to 4TB. However, prior to considering multi-terabyte databases you should thoroughly review the following whitepapers: Managing multi-terabyte databases with SharePoint 2010 (http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=26700)) Abstract Managing large content databases with SharePoint 2010 requires careful planning and consideration to include capacity management, performance, and data protection.

Considering virtualizing SharePoint 2010? We’ve created a one-stop shop for guidance and more at http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/en-us/product/Related-Technologies/Pages/virtualize-sharepoint.aspx.

Updated June 29, 2011 SharePoint Server 2010 Cumulative Updates and Service Packs File Version Description Downloads and Documentation 14.0.5114.5003 June 2010 Cumulative Update KB983497 KB2124512 KB2182938 KB2204024 KB2281364 14.0.5123.5000 August 2010 Cumulative Update KB2352342 KB2352355 14.0.5128.5000 October 2010 Cumulative Update KB2394320 14.0.5130.5002 December 2010 Cumulative Update KB2459257 14.0.5136.5002 February 2011 Cumulative Update KB2475878 14.0.5138.5001 April 2011 Cumulative Update KB2512800 14.0.6029.1000 Service Pack 1 KB2460045 14.0.6106.5000 June 2011 Cumulative Update KB2356599

Site Recycle Bin Service Pack 1 introduces long awaited Site Recycle Bin functionality that enables self-service recovery of site collections and sites. In the past IT Professionals were tasked with restoring entire databases to recover deleted site collections and sites and would generally require expensive restore environments to support the task. Now in Service Pack 1 administrators can quickly and easily recover site collections and sites accidentally deleted by their owners in a process similar to that of the Recycle Bin we have for Lists, Libraries, and Documents.

In SharePoint 2010 we removed StorMan.aspx (Storage Space Allocation) (see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/982587/EN-US) which in previous versions of SharePoint enabled granular management and insight into storage. For example, the page would show you the top 100 documents or document libraries in terms of size. With that information end users could the page to clean up content from their site(s) by deleting the large content that they no longer needed. In Service Pack 1 we are bringing back an improved StorMan.

Service Pack 1 for SharePoint 2010 Products is now available for download. SharePoint Server 2010 Service Pack 1 for Server Language Pack 2010 SharePoint Foundation 2010 Service Pack 1 for SharePoint Foundation 2010 Language Pack To learn more about what’s new in Service Pack read the Service Pack 1 for SharePoint Foundation 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010 whitepaper at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=221773.

One of the most challenging aspects of maintaining a SharePoint deployment is understanding why certain events have transpired in the environment, often IT Professionals and Developers only have access to when an event occurred and are tasked with parsing Performance Counters, Event and Diagnostic logs, or executing Transact-SQL statements against the Usage database to put the what and why to the when. These tasks are typically accomplished through an array of tools such as Excel, Log Parser, SQL Server Management Studio…read more on the SharePoint Team Blog.

FILESTREAM is a new feature in SQL Server 2008 that enables the storage of unstructured data on a NTFS file system. FILESTREAM (local or remote) is supported in SharePoint 2010 as one mechanism of reducing capital expenditures through enabling the storage of large binary unstructured data on content addressable or commodity storage. Unstructured Data Unstructured data refers to information…read more on the SharePoint Team Blog.

System Center Virtual Machine Manager Self-Service Portal 2.0 is a pre-built, role-based, self-service portal for both datacenter managers and business unit IT consumers to simplify the provisioning of infrastructures for their applications and services. The System Center Virtual Machine Manager Self-Service Portal 2.0 provides automated workflows designed to help on-board business unit IT departments and enables partners to expose their unique hardware capabilities through familiar Microsoft scripting technologies. System Center Virtual Machine Manager Self-Service Portal 2.

FILESTREAM is a new feature in SQL Server 2008 that enables the storage of unstructured data on a NTFS file system. FILESTREAM (local or remote) is supported in SharePoint 2010 as one mechanism of reducing capital expenditures through enabling the storage of large binary unstructured data on content addressable or commodity storage. Unstructured Data Unstructured data refers to information that does not adhere to a defined model or does not fit well into relational tables in SharePoint unstructured data can refer to Microsoft Office document file formats, video, audio, and related file types.

As more organizations seek to reduce operating and capital expenditures, solve the challenges of datacenter density, and provide elasticity to their SharePoint deployments – virtualization becomes the focal point of discussion. SharePoint 2010 provides more flexibility in support of virtualization and similar to other server technologies requires proper planning to ensure those goals are met. SharePoint 2010 Virtualization Support and Licensing [All elements of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 are fully supported when deployed in a Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V technology environment.

The traditional and most accurate definition of multi-tenancy remains as a single instance of software that services multiple organizations or clients virtually partitioning its data and configuration allowing those clients to work within a customized application instance. SharePoint Server 2010 delivers new features and capabilities that contribute to supporting true multitenant architectures that are useful not only to hosting providers, but the Enterprise equally. Multi-tenancy, when carefully planned and applied within the Enterprise, is one of many solutions that contribute to reduced cost, complexity, and overall management.

Understanding search is the primary means in the Enterprise for surfacing and locating information…as a result, it has become a mission critical component of SharePoint deployments. The rise in adoption of SharePoint 2010 in organizations has led to more customers seeking to leverage the benefits of the new search architectures, whether Enterprise Search in SharePoint 2010 or FAST Search Server 2010, as part of their topologies. In either scenario, customers are faced with a decision on how to accomplish upgrade and accommodate their end users.

Predicting resource requirements for a new business application, especially one that is customer-facing is a tricky task. It’s hard to know if you have the new Facebook or your hands. You make your best estimates, then spend money on new hardware and hope your estimates were right. Only actual usage tells whether your server infrastructure is running efficiently. What makes this process more painful is the knowledge that your existing environment probably has the capacity to deliver this application if only the servers were used in a more efficient manner.

Content Getting Started Planning Upgrade Security Governance Deployment Social Business Intelligence Web Content Management Search Other Technologies Composites Performance and Capacity Planning Additional Resources Getting Started Getting Started with Enterprise Search in SharePoint 2010 Products http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff631149.aspx Planning Evaluation Guide for SharePoint Server 2010 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262881.aspx SharePoint Server 2010 Usage Best Practices http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=5c562f71-3aa9-46fd-abac-7d381813f2b8 Sharepoint Server 2010 Adoption Best Practices http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=94ee6518-75f7-47be-b4c1-0d6ec1248486 SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise Search Evaluation Guide http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff631150.aspx Best Practices for using Fine-Grained Permissions

Learning on the go… New TechNet Radio series (SharePoint 2010 for the IT Professional). We’re pleased to announce a new mobile learning experience, SharePoint 2010 for the IT Professional) on TechNet Radio. Each week we’ll be bringing you a new session that dives into a variety of topics, from deployment to management, interviewing industry professionals, MVP’s and MCM’s. To kick it off we’ll spend 20 minutes interviewing SharePoint MCM and Ranger Bryan Porter about business continuity management in SharePoint.

Make the most of the Developer Dashboard Monitoring Latency and SQL Server Round Trips Among the information provided through the Developer Dashboard is information about page latency and database queries surfaced under Execution Timeout in the user interface in the Web Server section. Using the information provided in this field you can determine whether or not a recently introduced feature or particular page is exceeding acceptable performance thresholds in your environment.

BranchCache If you manage a centralized, regional, or distributed infrastructure with a distributed or clustered user base, a combination of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 may be the best pairing to mitigate the impact of bandwidth and latency penalties that are commonly incurred under such distributions. Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 introduce a new feature (BranchCache) that can reduce wide area network (WAN) utilization and enhance Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies responsiveness when users access content in a central office from branch office locations.

August cumulative updates for SharePoint 2010 have been released. Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;2352346 Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;2352342 Project Server 2010 http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;2352345 Be the first to know when new updates are released http://services.social.microsoft.com/feeds/feed/OfficeAndRelatedProductsUpdates.

Voluntary Product Accessibility Templates are designed to help federal agencies address the requirements of Section 508 Standards. Voluntary Product Accessibility Templates are standardized forms to show how a software product meets key regulations of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Microsoft PerformancePoint Services - Dashboard Designer Microsoft Project Server 2010 Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Indexing Connector for Documentum SharePoint 2010 Administrator Toolkit V1

We’ve recently released the first administration toolkit for SharePoint Foundation and SharePoint Server 2010. The toolkit includes a new User Profile Replication Engine, a new Security Configuration Manifest, a new Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS) Connector, and the Load Testing Kit (LTK). User Profile Replication Engine The User Profile Replication Engine was first introduced as a standalone application in later adminisration toolkits for Office SharePoint Server 2007 to replicate profiles between Shared Services Providers (SSP).

We’ve recently published a new whitepaper that describes the core concepts of identity in SharePoint 2010 and Kerberos’ role in authentication and delegation. The whitepaper is divided into nine (9) core scenarios: Scenario 1: Core Configuration Scenario 2: Kerberos Authentication for SQL OLTP Scenario 3: Identity Delegation for SQL Analysis Services Scenario 4: Identity Delegation for SQL Reporting Services Scenario 5: Identity Delegation for Excel Services Scenario 6: Identity Delegation for Power Pivot for SharePoint

If you’ve recently installed KB938444 and have run into post-installation issues, we’ve posted new guidance and potential solutions here http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sharepoint/archive/2010/06/22/installing-kb938444.aspx.

SharePoint 2010 provides the administrator a number of improvements to facilitate rapid problem identification and resolution. Among these is the implementation of Correlation Ids. Correlation Ids are GUIDs assigned to events which transpire during the lifecycle of a resource request. As problems occur, the Correlation Id is commonly surfaced within the context of an error when presented to the person initiating the request or through the Developer Dashboard. User Interface (error.

SharePoint Portal Server 2003 and Office SharePoint Server 2007 provided a Site Directory that was commonly used to “catalog” the collection of sites within a server farm environment, most commonly, organizations used categories to isolate like or related site collections and the built-in provisioning callback to ensure site collections were listed in the Site Directory on creation. In SharePoint Server 2010 the Site Directory has been deprecated, meaning that on new installations of SharePoint Server 2010 you cannot create and have a functional Site Directory; however, the Web Template and configuration options associated with the Site Directory have been retained, though strictly for backwards compatibility support.

We’ve published a new post on the SharePoint Team Blog that details the process, procedures, and options for upgrading from Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 and SharePoint Portal Server 2003 to Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 or Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 - read more here…

Upgrading is common function with Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies, whether it be product specific such as Service Packs and Cumulative Updates or platform specific such as new versions of products or the core operating system. Prior to upgrading to any version of a product or patching and updating that product you should understand both the process and options and available to you. This post provides recommended upgrade resources related to Microsoft SharePoint Foundation and Server 2010 and the technologies on which depends separated by both Documentation and Tools resources because I hate looking for this stuff myself.

One of the questions I’ve received on a few occasions to date is how to run the Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products Preparation Tool on a machine that does not have a connection to the Internet. There are two possible methods to working around this scenario: Manually download on another machine and then install the prerequisite software and configure the Server Roles, Role Services, and Features accordingly. See the following posts that describe the prerequisite software and accompanying download locations in addition to configuring the required Server Roles, Role Services, and Features for Microsoft SharePoint Foundation and Server 2010.

I’ve been following the SharePoint 2010 Forums and have noticed several common installation issues. These issues and possible steps to resolve those issues are included here. ISSUE #1: when running the SharePoint 2010 Products Configuration Wizard you may experience the error: Failed to create the configuration database. An exception of type System.Security.Cryptography.CryptographicException was thrown. Additional exception information: The data is invalid. To resolve the issue you can perform the following steps:

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 introduces both new databases and databases whose distribution and purpose differs over previous versions of Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies. This post details the changes in the Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 database layer. This section provides information about Shared Service Applications that have a database dependency and is not an exhaustive list of all Shared Service Applications available in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010. At the time of publication this is not 100% complete.

If you will be installing the SharePoint Server Public Beta on Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 or Microsoft Windows 7 you will need to download and install an update from http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/Downloads/DownloadDetails.aspx?DownloadID=23806 to resolve an issue that occurs in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 when provisioning Service Applications or when accessing pages that make service calls. These operations will result in an error “System.Configuration.ConfigurationErrorsException: Unrecognized attribute ‘allowInsecureTransport’. Note that attribute names are case-sensitive.

I’ve been receiving this question frequently this week so I’m sure others are asking as well: Question Can I upgrade prerelease versions of Microsoft SharePoint Server or Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 to the release version when it becomes available? Answer No, the prerelease (beta) versions of Microsoft SharePoint Server and Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 are for evaluation purposes only and upgrade to the release version of these products when they become available is not supported.

Today we announced general availability of the public beta versions of Microsoft SharePoint Server and Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010. This post describes the prerequisite software requirements and provides links to additional hardware and software requirement resources for Microsoft SharePoint Server and Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010. Contents Web and Application Server Preparation Database Server Preparation Additional Notes Web and Application Server Preparation Microsoft SharePoint Server and Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 provide the Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products Preparation Tool (PrerequisiteInstaller.

I was recently asked to look at an issue in which SharePoint would intermittently drop its connection to SQL. Taking the typical course of action, I started looking at the Application Event Logs, Trace (ULS) logs, etc. I noticed in the Application Event Logs event Id 3760 and 5586 occurred every hour on the hour. The initial event Id 3760 indicated authentication issues, the Domain Controllers did not see issue that corresponded to the events reported by SharePoint; Scalable Networking Pack Features, MaxConcurrentAPI, etc.

I was recently asked a question regarding moving sites between Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Web applications and whether or not there are any prerequisites associated with such a move. While moving sites can be an arduous and on occasion, a complicated task, moving between variations in platform only adds to the complexities associated with site-level moves. Many of the Features available to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 sites are not available to Windows SharePoint Services 3.

After several months of work, we’re pleased to announce publication of a new whitepaper: Upgrading SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Customizations to SharePoint Server 2007. To view the whitepaper visit: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb954662.aspx or http://blogs.msdn.com/joelo/archive/2007/11/06/upgrade-customization-articles-posted.aspx for additional details.

I was reviewing the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server TechNet article Determine upgrade approach and realized an article I have been working internally over the past few weeks has been published and introduced to the three existing upgrade approaches of in-place, gradual, and database migration. The upgrade approach itself is described/labeled as a hybrid upgrade approach which combines both the gradual and database migration approaches permitting administrators to preview a subset of site collections prior to upgrading the remainder of the environment (for those who have attended my TechReady, etc.

I’ve updated my post Understanding PRESCAN.EXE Errors to include new errors and solutions. Read more here: http://blogs.technet.com/wbaer/archive/2006/12/22/prescan-errors-what-they-mean.aspx. Excerpt: ““An outbound zone URL is configured for something other than the default zone on virtual server http://fabrikam/, and no default zone outbound URL is defined. This is not supported, and must be corrected before upgrading.””

In Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 host header-based Site Collections can coexist with path-based site collections within a Web Application or optionally reside on multiple Web Applications. Gradual, in-place, and database migration upgrade approaches can be applied to Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 server farms in scalable hosting mode. This differs from Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 where a server farm was configured to run in scalable hosting mode preventing the introduction of path-based Site Collections to the server farm.

MSDN Windows SharePoint Services Run the pre-upgrade scan tool (Windows SharePoint Services) http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/WSS/en/library/035a3024-bd27-4d63-9499-0f15ac00c6e61033.mspx Issues that are reported by the pre-upgrade scan tool http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/035a3024-bd27-4d63-9499-0f15ac00c6e61033.mspx#section1 Install and run the pre-upgrade scan tool http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/035a3024-bd27-4d63-9499-0f15ac00c6e61033.mspx#section2 Error message when you try to upgrade Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 to Windows SharePoint Services 3.0: “Upgrade has encountered one or more lists that were not updated by Prescan.exe and must exit” http://support.microsoft.com/kb/923904 Office SharePoint Server Run the pre-upgrade scan tool (Office SharePoint Server)

I’ve made several updates and revisions to my previous post “Understanding PRESCAN.EXE Errors”, I hope this information will be useful in diagnosing and remediating errors generated by PRESCAN.EXE.

*UPDATED 5/22/2007 I put together this post as a follow-up to my initial PRESCAN topic “Understanding PRESCAN.EXE in MOSS 2007”; hopefully, this will provide insight into the most common PRESCAN errors administrators may encounter and remediation steps where available. These solutions may not fit every environment due to the natural differences in topologies, hosting models, versioning, and infrastructure. Error: There is no Web named “//”. The Content Database contains one or more orphaned Webs.

A recent change has been communicated for all current Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 B2 (Beta 2) customers. The change will require customers who wish to upgrade their B2 environments to first apply B2 Technical Refresh prior to upgrading to RTM, Windows SharePoint Services will not support B2 to RTM direct upgrades. Previously announced upgrade paths will remain unchanged at this time: B2 Technical Refresh remains planned as a release patch, upgrading to RTM will require the modification of a Registry key, uninstalling B2 Technical Refresh, and then installing RTM.

Prior to upgrading to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007/Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 one of the prerequisites some of you may have already noticed is running PRESCAN.EXE from the installation directory. This post will hopefully provide some insight into PRESCAN.EXE as well as best practices on when it should be run. PRESCAN.EXE has two primary purposes: It parses and saves List definitions with the associated Lists. SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Service Pack 2 already incorporates this feature whenever a list is modified; however, this process should be completed for all Lists, so prescan calls the SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Service Pack 2 method to persist that data.

Typically there is no real impact in the event a user profile is removed from the SharePoint profiles database; the profile will be restored during a full or incremental import. Though the statement is true for the most part when only considering Windows SharePoint Services sites, the behavior varies considerable when including My Site sites in the scenario. Since Windows SharePoint Services content is stored as a table in the sites database, the content can be easily recovered and archived; however, though My Site/Personal site content is similar in this respect many of the end-user facing customization exists as a shared service within SharePoint Portal Server.