Bill Baer /bɛːr/

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

If you are new to SharePoint 2010 or are upgrading from 2007, there are a variety of courses and formats to help you gain the skills and knowledge you need to ensure a successful deployment, upgrade, or migration. Exams Exam 70-667 TS: Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Configuring This exam is intended to validate the configuration skills needed to administer a SharePoint 2010 installation. Exam 70-668 TS: Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Administrator This exam validates the skills needed to administer SharePoint 2010.

How much is too much? We’ve recently published new content on TechNet that details the Url path length restrictions for SharePoint Server 2010 - this article discusses the specific URL path length and character restrictions in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, Internet Explorer 7, and Internet Explorer 8. Read more…

Overlooked often in SharePoint 2010 is the new Gradual Site Delete capability which was designed to mitigate unplanned site collection outages that occurred as the result of lock escalation in Windows SharePoint Server 3.0 and Office SharePoint Server 2007 when a large site collection was requested for deletion. Before we describe Gradual Site Delete, we should understand the problem space from previous versions of the product. In Windows SharePoint Services 3.

SharePoint Foundation 2010 - KB2028568 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2028568 Search Server 2010 – KB983319 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/983319 SharePoint Server 2010 – KB983497 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/983497 SharePoint Server 2010 – KB2182938 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2182938 (Chinese, Korean, Japanese Localized) SharePoint Server 2010 – KB2281364 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2281364 SharePoint Server 2010 – KB2124512 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2124512

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

I just wrapped up a great webcast this morning with Avanade and NetApp discussing the virtualization of SharePoint and was excited to see the audience today is largely planning a virtualization layer for SharePoint 2010, many to support server consolidation in legacy datacenters with limited resources understanding that SharePoint’s adoption and improvements in vertical and horizontal scale will result in larger more scenario concentrated deployments, others looking to reduce OpEx and CapEx, and still others looking at virtualization to afford the ability to support resource throttling - providing resources in times of high demand and scaling resources back in times of low demand making the most efficient use of their hosts.

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.

New multi-tenancy features are an exciting concept in SharePoint 2010, particularly when considering the implications on hosting SharePoint for a variety of tenants, each requiring some method of partitioning, administration, and a method of reporting and control whether within the boundaries of an Enterprise or as a hosting provider. In this post we’ll look at one of the layers of multi-tenancy in SharePoint 2010. Site Subscriptions SharePoint 2010 provides support for a concept known as site subscriptions.

Last week I covered Managed Accounts in SharePoint Server 2010, this week we’ll cover HTTP Request Monitoring and Throttling - I’ve been following a lot of conversions surrounding Resource Throttling in SharePoint Server 2010, of which most have focused on the core scenario involving managing large lists; however, there have been a few discussions on HTTP Request Monitoring and Throttling and how that ties in an organizations security architecture or how it can be used to augment it, particularly how it relates to Distributed-Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks.

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 provides a number of compelling improvements designed especially for the system administrator, of these, commonly overlooked, are Managed Accounts. A Managed Account is effectively an Active Directory user account whose credentials are managed by and contained within SharePoint. In addition to storing the credentials of the object, Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 can also leverage Active Directory Domain Policies to automatically reset passwords while meeting the requirements established by policy.

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…

Question: Will the Microsoft IT Site Delete Capture available at www.codeplex.com/governance work with SharePoint 2010? Answer: Yes. Question: In Microsoft SharePoint Foundation and Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 there is a Timer Job Definition called Gradual Site Delete, will the Microsoft IT Site Delete Capture work when this Timer Job Definition is enabled and what is this Timer Job Definition? Answer: Yes, the Microsoft IT Site Delete Capture will work with the Gradual Site Delete Timer Job Definition.

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 had a couple of questions on configuring the Web and Application server roles on Windows Server 2008 to support Microsoft SharePoint Server and Foundation 2010. This post will describe the minimal prerequisite configuration to support Microsoft SharePoint Server and Foundation 2010 on Windows Server 2008. NOTE PrerequisiteInstaller.exe can be used to programmatically configure Web and application servers and install the required prerequisite software. See also http://blogs.technet.com/wbaer/archive/2009/11/18/installation-notes-for-microsoft-sharepoint-server-and-microsoft-sharepoint-foundation-2010-beta.aspx. Required Roles Application Server Web Server Role Services

About the Developer Dashboard The Developer Dashboard is an instrumentation framework new to Microsoft SharePoint Foundation and Server 2010 that can help diagnose particularly, classes of bugs that are easy to introduce through custom code, but often difficult to isolate by providing information about the request execution time, the number and callstack of each SPRequest allocation, the number, callstack, and query text of WCF calls and more. The Developer Dashboard appears in a frame on the bottom of each page and can exist in one of three (3) possible modes – On, Off, OnDemand.

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.

The SharePoint Products TechCenter on TechNet has been updated to include documentation and resources specific to Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010. The SharePoint Products TechCenter beta resources include categorized documentation and guidance on planning, deploying, and operating Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 and product evaluation guides in addition both to resource centers and technical references specifically designed to provide both general product and feature overviews, guidance on managing privacy, permissions, read-only sites and more.