Melbourne bootcamp complete

I am happy to say that the inaugural CIAOPS SharePoint bootcamp in Melbourne this week was well received by those that attended. Some feedback already in includes:

“I can thoroughly recommend Robert’s SharePoint Bootcamp sessions as highly informative and delivered with great candour. Robert has put together a package that provides an excellent introduction to the possibilities of SharePoint in the small-to-medium business sector.” – Jason Thomas

and

“Thanks for a great day today. It was very well run and organized. The SharePoint training is a great intro into getting SharePoint up and running, it reinforced my prior knowledge and filled in some gaps. The discussion on SharePoint’s business applications will provide a solid framework for presenting SharePoint solutions to clients. The learning materials provided are fantastic and will be a valued resource.” – Alex Moodie

This week the show rolls into Sydney on 2 days. There are still a few places if you are want to attend. To sign up visit http://www.ciaops.com/bootcamp.

After Sydney, I’ll be running my bootcamp in San Francisco on Tuesday the 14th of June as I return from SMB Nation Spring 2011 in Toronto. If you are interested in attending on this date visit http://www.ciaops.com/bootcampsf to register.

I’ve also had some interest shown in bootcamps in other locations and I’ll keep you posted on these locations as they become available.

Beyond these SharePoint bootcamps I’m now starting to consider what to offer next. I’ve had interest shown in training around advanced SharePoint, Office365 and social media. If you are interested in any of these or have some suggestions of your own that you’d like to see please feel free to let me know (director@ciaops.com).

I must also thank all those who attended the sessions in Melbourne and I really hope you got value from not only the money that you spent but also the times invested. I certainly hope you can see the potential SharePoint offers not only as a business solution but also a potential grow area for your business.

Locked SharePoint site

Suppose that you go to your SharePoint site and you no longer see the link to Upload documents to a document library. What the hell? You think. Next you open the ribbon bar, as shown above, and you see that a lot of the buttons are greyed out. All this prevents users from entering information into your site. How can you fix this?

Chances are the site has become ‘locked’. To unlock it, open SharePoint Central Administration and select Application Management from the menu on the left hand side.

Next select Configure quotas and locks from the Site Collection section.

As you will probably see in the Site Lock Information section, the site is set to Read-Only. Change this to Not locked and you site should once again be free for editing and uploading.

Why does it happen? It typically happens after a SharePoint backup failure. Processes like stsadm –o backup lock the site prior to a backup. If that backup fails to complete for some reason the site remains locked and thus read only for users.

CIAOPS Bootcamp USA bound

With some help from Tim Carney I am bringing my SharePoint bootcamp to the San Francisco Bay area on Tuesday the 14th of June. For AUD$399 you’ll receive a full days hands on SharePoint training and a 12 month subscription to my SharePoint Operations Guide. You can find all the details and how to register at:

http://www.ciaops.com/bootcampsf

I also have a discount code available for those that want to email me directly (director@ciaops.com) to obtain it.

If you can’t attend, don’t fret I hope that this will be the start of many SharePoint bootcamps run across the US. Keep your eye peel for more information on these soon.

SharePoint Foundation 2010 RTM available for download

SharePoint Foundation 2010 has left beta and is now available for download via the Microsoft web site at:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=49c79a8a-4612-4e7d-a0b4-3bb429b46595

I have downloaded in and installed it onto a Windows 2008 R2 server without issues. The new release automatically downloads and installed the additional components it requires which is a change from the beta release. So far that is about the biggest change I can see but more information after some more testing.

Now, the interesting question – will SharePoint Foundation 2010 RTM run on SBS 2008? Out of the box no, because it requires a number of additional components such as:

– Windows Identity Foundation

– Microsoft Sync Framework RunTime v1.0

– Powershell V2

– etc

None of these appear to get installed automatically so I’m trying to install them manually one by one and then installing SharePoint Foundation 2010 RTM. At this stage, I’m not 100% sure it can be installed and am in the process of checking but I get the feeling that it probably won’t work or that some of the prerequisites may break other components of SBS 2008.

I’d suggest that you at least hang off trying to install SharePoint Foundation 2010 RTM on SBS 2008 until I can run a few tests.

More updates soon.

Review – Professional SharePoint 2010 Administration

Professional SharePoint 2010 Administration by Todd Klindt
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An excellent book on SharePoint 2010 that cover a wide spectrum of topics. It would be suitable for most people who want to better understand what SharePoint 2010 can offer. The main focus is on the SharePoint Server 2010 product rather than SharePoint 2010 Foundation but that doesn’t mean that it still isn’t relevant for Foundation users.

It covers the whole gambit from installation to branding and customization. The book contains plenty of technical information as well a tutorial style walk throughs to help you better understand exactly what the capabilities of SharePoint 2010 are. I especially like how the SharePoint terminology and functions are described and explained in detail by the author.

In summary the book is a a valuable edition to any SharePoint administrator’s library.

I read this on my Kindle (also available via the CIAOPS Amazon Affiliate store) and found no major issues. Some of the screen shots were a bit small on the Kindle device but not totally illegible. If I wanted to see more details on the images I simply used my Kindle PC or iPad app.

View all my reviews
Purchase from the CIAOPS Amazon Affiliate store

CIAOPS SharePoint bootcamps almost filled

I am happy to say that my upcoming SharePoint bootcamps are almost fully booked in each location (Melbourne 19th of May, Sydney 25th & 26th of May). Being limited to a maximum of 20 attendees this does make seats a little more exclusive. I would therefore recommend that if you are considering attending that you visit the registration site at:

http://www.ciaops.com/bootcamp

and register to avoid disappointment.

Remember that all attendees get a 12 month subscription to my SharePoint Operations Guide (www.wssops.com) which gives you access to 2,000+ pages of documentation, hours of video tutorials, links, best practices and more. Apart from all meals and refreshments on the day attendees also receive a hard disk crammed with virtual machines images for training and testing, documentation and more.

As soon as you sign up you’ll get access to my SharePoint Operations Guide, so with a limited number of places left I’d suggest you register soon to avoid missing out.

Setting maximum upload size in SharePoint 2010

By default SharePoint has a limit of 50MB per uploaded file. This value can be changed via the SharePoint Central Administration console.

Select Start | All Programs | Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products | SharePoint 2010 Central Administration. Right mouse click on the program and select Run as Administrator from the menu that appears.

Accept the User Account Control dialog that appears by pressing the Yes button.

When the SharePoint Central Administration is display select Manage Web Applications from under the Application Management section in the top left.

Select the Web Application you wish to change by clicking on it once so it is highlighted. From the Ribbon menu select the pull down arrow below the General Settings button. From the menu that appears select the General Settings option.

Scroll down the window that is displayed until you locate the Maximum Upload Size section.

Adjust maximum file upload size to the desired amount. Scroll down to the bottom of the window and select OK to save the changes.

Exit the SharePoint Central Administration.

April release of CIAOPS SharePoint Guide

The April 2011 version of my SharePoint Operations Guide is now available for subscribers. In this month’s edition you’ll find out how to change the passphrase on a SharePoint farm which is really important if you are now using SBS 2011 Standard. Why? Because it is installed with a random passphrase and if you need to repair the installation of SharePoint Foundation 2010, and you don’t know the passphrase then you’ll have no option but to uninstall and reinstall SharePoint Foundation 2010. Yuk!

You’ll also find some information about Office365, especially in regards to SharePoint online.

I’m also please to welcome along a number of new subscribers who have received my Guide after signing up to my upcoming SharePoint bootcamp. When you sign up you’ll get a whole days hands on training PLUS a 12 month subscription to my Guide. Even better, if you sign up now the subscription won’t start till May, so you’ll get 13 months of the Guide.

Would you believe that next month marks 3 years of the Guide? Who’d thought, all those years ago that it would grow to what it has become today? Not me that’s for sure. So I take this opportunity to thank all my subscribers for their continued support.