I recently posted up a SharePoint how to video covering creating and managing email notifications. As promised, I have now created a companion document covering the material that you can access via my SlideShare (along with plenty of other documents I have created). The direct link to the document is:
http://www.slideshare.net/directorcia/getting-started-with-sharepoint-alerts-3796685
and you can view it online as well as download it.
As always let me know what you think.
For many IT Professionals who deal with SharePoint as part of other systems (especially Small Business Server) I would have to recommend strongly that you always configure a command line stsadm backup. You’ll find the details here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc288541.aspx
The stsadm –o backup command creates a single data file of your site that can easily be restored. Without this you are going to have to try and recover databases and web applications and it all gets very messy, especially with versions prior to version 3. An stsadm –o backup allows you to blow away a defective SharePoint site, install a new clean site and then use stsadm –o restore to get the data back.
This can be really handy if you also have to do a restore to different hardware or different network topology. To get the backup functioning in a different location typically takes some additional steps around security but that process is much easier than trying to recover SQL databases (especially MSDE) on a different server.
I’d also recommend that you also do an stsadm –o export (Windows SharePoint v3 or better only) since it allows you to more easily extract pieces of your backup as well as merge the data with existing sites. The stsadm –o backup command is a complete backup, all or nothing, and will overwrite any existing site if it is restored. The export command is how Microsoft recommends you part of the migration of companyweb in SBS 2003 to SBS 2008. More information about the export command can be found at:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc288940.aspx
The easiest way to automate these command line backup sis to create a batch file with the command and use the Windows Scheduler to trigger it at the appropriate time. Personally, I do it in the middle of the night and send the data files up to storage on the Internet.
Without an stsadm command line backup you may struggle to restore a SharePoint site in teh case of a disaster. Be proactive and implement an stsadm backup and then use the data file to test a full disaster recovery, just to be sure you know how to do it. Better now than in a crisis!
I’ve just posted up a new ‘how-to’ SharePoint video. This one covers how to enable notifications via emails from a SharePoint site when changes occur.
This feature can be very handy to keep track of what is happening in just about any part of SharePoint.
I have also just about completed a complimentary document to go with this new video so you can also that to learn how to enable on of the most handy features of SharePoint (it will go up on my Slideshare site where my other documents are soon). Don’t forget that I’ve also got a range of other ‘how-to’ videos on my YouTube channel that covers SharePoint and other topics.
As always send me your feedback and comments, all welcome.
I’m always on the look out for better ways of helping people with things like SharePoint, productivity and cloud services as well as boosting my business of course. These days I have the usual social media stuff, like this blog, Twitter, Facebook and so on. I also do what I can to monitor and contribute to sites on the Internet where people need assistance but that is difficult to manage given the sheer number of sites. I have also found over the years that most techie types still tend to like email lists.
So what I’ve done is gone and set up a CIAOPS Yahoo list that people can subscribe to and email messages with questions about anything they’d like assistance with or that they may think is of interest. Hopefully I can encourage a few other experienced hands to come on board and cover some of the areas that I’m no so good on. However, I see it mainly as a vehicle to help people with SharePoint and especially my Windows SharePoint Operations Guide.
Now I’m sure there are probably better options out there and I would love to hear about them, but hopefully this is something that will suit a certain audience, so I’d like to try it and see what happens.
If you are at all interested in signing up for the CIAOPS Yahoo list you can do so by the following means:
Email subscription to ciaops-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
or visiting
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ciaops/
You’ll need to create a Yahoo ID first to contribute in this group which you can do here. Once that is done I’ll approve you and you can start sending emails to group.
Hopefully, this will be a way to build a bit of a community around some the stuff the CIAOPS does as well as helping others.
Been doing some recovery work on a SharePoint v2 site on SBS 2003 ( i.e. on Companyweb ). SharePoint v2 had lost the configuration database information so when you try and run the SharePoint Central Administration you are greeted with a window asking you for a database server and SQL server database.
I did know what these were but wasn’t sure of the format. Being unable to find these on Google I worked it out from my own test SBS 2003 system. Thus:
Database server = \
typically = server\sharepoint
SQL Server database name = STS_Config
remember this is what the settings are for the default install of SharePoint v2 on SBS 2003.
Hopefully this entry will get crawled so others can find the information quicker than I did.
Now why can’t they market Windows 7 phones like this? Here’s a swag of video’s on the Motorola Driod but I reckon this one is the best:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7y-mN0c_Kk&feature=player_embedded
You’ll find the rest here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/DROIDshortcuts#p/u
Reality? No. Funny? Yes.
I am involved with an association of IT Professionals here in Sydney called SMBITPro – Sydney, of which I am currently the President. We meet on a regular monthly basis (the second Tuesday of the month) from 6pm. During our meetings we normally have a few technical presentations from vendors as well a contributions from members. At the end of each meeting everyone in attendance get to do some networking over pizza. All in all it is a good way to keep abreast of what’s happening in the SMB market as well network with other IT Professionals.
Also in past 12 months we have commenced full day SMBITPro workshops. So far we have had ones on virtualization, migration and security. The next one, focusing on backup and disaster recovery, will actually run over two days (Friday 21st and Saturday 22nd of May) and will focus on vendors demonstrating the ability of their products to not only backup an SBS 2008 server but also restore it to completely different hardware. To further demonstrate the simplicity of their products each vendor will not be allowed to touch the hardware at any stage, during back or restore. Instead they must ‘instruct’ a volunteer from the audience through the entire process. We reckon this is as close to real world as you can get in a workshop.
Although the workshop’s major focus is backup and disaster recovery there will also be a number of other sessions on business and technology. Depending on the scheduling, I plan to give at least one session on SharePoint. One topic will be around helping IT Professionals understand the basics of SharePoint, as from my experience most people supporting SBS networks really have no idea about where to start troubleshooting when something goes wrong with SharePoint. This sessions will show them exactly where they should be looking. I’ll post up more details about this session and some others I have planned as the agenda gets firmed up (we are still waiting on a few vendors to confirm their attendance).
Perhaps more important that the technical discussions is the ability to network with fellow IT Professionals, before, during and after the event. Even if you can’t attend one of the two days I’d encourage you to come along to the pre and post dinners and network with attendees. Over the last three events we have generally found that many people actually discover they get just as much from these networking opportunities as they do the technical presentations.
So, where do you find out more information about the Backup++ event? Visit http://event.smbitpro.com.au for all the details including prices and registration. The front page of the site is actually an RSS feed so you can subscribe there to get all the updates as we get closer to the event. We already over one third full and expect more registrations as the event approaches so if you are considering attending please do as I’d love to see you there. If you can’t stay tuned to the web page for the next workshop event hosted by SMBITPro – Sydney.
When people start using SharePoint for the very first time the most frequently asked question is ‘How do I upload documents?’. Having already created a YouTube covering that topic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZYRbbPp4Es
I’ve now also created a document which I have posted up on my SlideShare for free viewing and downloading.
As always feel free to send me your feedback (director@ciaops.com) and watch out for more documents coming soon.
