Bill Baer /bɛːr/

@williambaer At the center of collaboration is the site and modern Team Site in Office 365 are core to discovering and showcasing the most relevant and important information to you and your business. While SharePoint Online in Office 365 is an attractive alternative to on-premises business solutions with SharePoint. You might want to or need to deploy specific solutions in the cloud while still maintaining your on-premises investments or gradually move to cloud using a staged, workload-driven approach.

This month we continued to invest in simplifying the Office 365 and SharePoint 2013 hybrid experience with the new hybrid scenario picker available in the Office 365 Administration Center. Overview The hybrid scenario picker is designed to help customers get up and running quickly with in-market and future hybrid scenarios by providing quick access to hybrid scenarios such as OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Sites in addition to programmatically configuring hybrid prerequisites to include Server-to-Server (S2s) and OAuth connections.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Updated 8/12/2014 – Removed & as an illegal character. & character is now supported with OneDrive for Business sync client and Web UX. Updated 8/22/2014 – Updated to include prohibited types per http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/office365-sharepoint-online-small-business-help/types-of-files-that-cannot-be-added-to-a-list-or-library-HA101907868.aspx. Updated 8/23/2014 – Updated to include optional UI-based scanning (FileCheckerUI.exe). Updated 8/31/2014 – Updated FileChecker.exe (integrated desktop and command line application). Updated 12/10/2014 – Updated to remove prohibited characters {, }, [, ], ~, and .. Updated FileChecker.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.