Blog URL rectified

When I started this blog I simply used the native blogging in SharePoint v3. As I felt that was a bit bland I then used a Codeplex template to make it look a bit slicker. One of the big benefits was that the URL of blog posts became more ‘standard’. Thus instead of:

http://supportweb.ciaops.net.au/blog/Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=816

it became:

http://supportweb.ciaops.net.au/blog/archive/2010/05/28/sql-server-express-2008-r2-database-size-increase.aspx

which as you can see has the date and topic of the post. Problem is that behind the covers the URL was still the top more complex one.

Now if you subscribed to the blog via Feedburner you could read the post but when you clicked on the post in your reader you received a login prompt. Typically, you’d go no further.

To my own detriment I have known about this issue for a while but never gotten around to getting it fixed. I was having a conversation with Hilton Travis about the issue recently and he quite rightly pointed out that even though the RSS feed does display in the reader correctly it only displays the first part of the blog post. Thus, if it is a long blog post and you want to read it and click on the item to get more you are confronted with a login and password. As Hilton quite rightly pointed out, this fact is limiting my readership and frustrating existing subscribers. D’oh, what an idiot I am! Good example of a failure of customer service there. Shame, shame, shame.

So long story short, I believe the issue should now be resolved so that if you click on a link from Feedburner that has a cryptic URL would should be taken to the correct post, without any password prompts and the URL should now read the updated friendly one.

If it doesn’t PLEASE let me know and I will fix this. Apologies to all who have suffered through my lack of attention on this matter and I hope your reading experience with this blog is now much better.

Backup workshop roundup

Over the weekend we ran a Backup and Disaster Recovery workshop for SMB resellers. It was pleasing to see the event so well attended, with people even travelling from inter state to be present. I’d like to think that we did something a little different at this workshop by inviting a number of vendors to demonstrate the ability of their products to not only backup a standard SBS 2008 server but also to do a bare metal restore to different hardware without them actually touching the hardware (a volunteer was used to perform all the work). The consensus on day was that BackupAssist provided the best result in our tests but all vendors performed superbly and we thank them all for their efforts.

Another first for us was that the event was conducted over two days, stretching from our previous single day. Even then we could have probably gone another day but most attendees agreed that three days would be just too much. Apart from the content around backup and disaster recovery we also had a number of other technology presentations including those from:

Jeff Alexander on Microsoft Data Protection Manager,

Peter Vane from ITWest on selling Backup and Disaster Recovery to customers,

Kieran Cook from Trend Micro and

yours truly on SharePoint and Cloud Computing.

We where also luck enough to have both Susan Bradley and Kevin Royalty present remotely. Many attendees commented on how much they liked the mixed of presenters and topics over the two days so we take this opportunity to thank all those who did take the time to present over the workshop.

So what did people think? Well here’s a number of feedback comments from attendees:

“The SMBiT workshops are excellent. They offer real value for money with solid technical and business content. Almost as valuable is the time spent networking with other IT professionals. Well worth it.”

“For the busy IT consultant, these workshops offer a great way to learn a lot in a short space of time. Like TechEd but without the massive cost!”

“After the first day I can whole heartedly recommend attending the events that are run by the NSW group, the content is at the perfect level for the attendees in both technical and informational levels.”

“The SMBiT Workshop days are some of the best value for money seminars I have been to. They are real hands on rather than theory, powerpoint & overview. A lot of the additional value is undocumented such as networking with colleagues & other technical hints that come up during presentations.”

“Absolutely fantastic. You’d be crazy not to attend at least once! We picked up so many ideas from the two days, I’m looking forward to working out how to fit them into our business!”

Thank you Sydney SMBiT Professionals group for organising most stimulating and informative workshops. They were well run and had the level of information I was looking for. Each of the workshops were true to their names and the practical nature of them, was what I wanted to see and not the marketing hype of the vendors.
Well done and I am looking forward to more similar professional sessions. Great value for money and a good investment of my time.

You’ll also find some further feedback from Susan Bradley and Peter Vane that is very much appreciated.

A big thanks for the day must also go to Hilton Travis from QuarkIT who travelled down from Queensland to webcast and record the event (as well as provide his unique point of view on most topics) as well as Ryan Spillane and David Wales from Correct Solutions for the hardware and the pre work that went into getting it ready for the workshop. A heartfelt thanks.

We are now towards the next workshop on the 20th and 21st of August that will be around business development and cloud services. Make sure you reserve the days because after this one I’m pretty sure places are going to fill really fast!

SharePoint 2010 on SBS 2008 – Yes but why?

Susan Bradley posed a good question in a recent blog post as to why you would even consider putting SharePoint 2010 on SBS 2008. Even though it can be done as I have demonstrated recently, it isn’t a pretty process and may end up breaking a number of SBS integration components. So why would the average IT Professional even attempt it?

As Andy Parkes notes in the comments to Susan’s post the implementation of Office Web Apps is one reason. Office Web Apps requires SharePoint 2010 to operate so indeed if you wanted to run Office in a browser you’d need to have SharePoint 2010 installed.

I think the other main reason is to run Search Server Express. Previous I’d been battling away to get this operational on SBS 2008 without much luck but now I have also successfully installed in onto SBS 2008. Search Server Express provides enterprise level indexing of not only SharePoint sites but also file shares, public folders and web sites all through a familiar browser interface. I never really understood why Microsoft didn’t provide details on how to install it on SBS 2008 as I think it was a natural fit for SBS 2008.

Now given that it is POSSIBLE to install both SharePoint 2010 and Search Server Express on SBS 2008 the question still remains – for the average reseller – is it worthwhile? I’d have to say no. I believe it is a far better option to have a second server in the network (say a Windows Foundation Server) onto which goes both SharePoint 2010 and Search Server Express. It makes the setup easier, cleaner and provides better separation. The other question you have to ask is that if you did install SharePoint 2010 on SBS 2008 what happens when a service pack becomes available? Will it break that is there? Will there need to be a separate ‘SBS 2008’ service pack to accommodate this? Hmmmm….I think having on a second server in a ‘standard’ installation is much more robust.

The other issue I’ll raise about SharePoint 2010 on SBS 2008 is the fact that SharePoint 2010 typically runs on SQL Express 2008 (although installing to other SQL versions is supported). Given that most IT Professionals would prefer to install SharePoint 2010 on the SQL Express 2008 since it is free, they will face the inbuilt limitation of a 4GB database. So, if your existing Companyweb installation is greater than 4GB then you are probably going to have to install a full version of SQL before you install SharePoint 2010.

Again, as Susan says, I reckon you need to carefully consider that although you CAN install SharePoint 2010 on SBS 2008 whether you SHOULD in fact do it considering all the issues that it may unearth. However, if you REALLY want to at least you can, however I would still wait and see if any official guidance from Microsoft is forthcoming. I’ll certainly be putting more together about my process when I have attempted to resolve the integration issues.

SharePoint 2010 on SBS 2008 – Yes we can

Been neglecting the blog lately but I do have a good reason, honestly. I have been working hard behind the scenes trying to work out how to get SharePoint 2010 onto SBS 2008. I have documented my previous attempts with the beta and most recently with the RTM.

Not willing to accept that it couldn’t be done I went back to the drawing board and can now proudly announce that I have finally managed to get it working as the screen shot below shows.

Now I have to tell you that the process isn’t very clean or simple and honestly I really don’t why anyone would want to go through the pain but at least you can if you so desire.

I am still working on tidying some related issues around the process so I can provide a full set of documentation around how you can upgrade/migrate WSS v3.0 Companyweb on SBS 2008 to SharePoint Foundation 2010 Companyweb. This means retaining as much of the initial WSS v3.0 functionality as possible. So give me a little while to get all that down and document the process.

Stay tuned for the magic behind how it can be done if you REALLY want to!

Australian SharePoint Conference

A while back I said that I’d got a gig speaking at the upcoming Australian SharePoint Conference, well now I have some more details.

Title:

Running SharePoint on Small Business Server: Pros and Cons – 100 Level

Description:

The least known component of Small Business Server 2008 is SharePoint and yet it offers the greatest opportunity for your business. This session will explain to you in simple terms exactly what SharePoint technology is and how it can be utilized to improve your business and that of your customer when using Small Business Server. You’ll learn how SharePoint works, how you can use it and how to sell it to customers bundled with SBS. You’ll also learn how to take SharePoint beyond the default install to configure an installation that truly provides business benefits to you customers by removing their pain points. You’ll learn also how software like SharePoint designer, Search Server Express and third party add-ons work with SharePoint to provide true business value on Small Business Server.

Day:

June 17 (Day 2)

Time:

1:30pm – 2:30pm

Location:

Ballroom B

So if you are interested in SharePoint come along to this fabulous event and hear from some of the most experienced people using and implementing SharePoint.

General Conference info:

Only six weeks to go! Don’t miss out on Australia’s biggest SharePoint event of the year!

Something for everyone – one of the few IT events that specifically reaches out to multiple audiences

· 20 sessions of end user/power user/business content including some great case studies including Telstra, Volvo and a number of Industry verticals such as finance, insurance, legal and engineering.

· 20 sessions of pure technical content for IT Pro, Administrators, Developers and Analysts

· Content is relevant to those using WSS, MOSS 2007, and new 2010 products

FREE Hosted SharePoint Server 2010 Site for EVERY delegate – thanks to Emantra – Hosted Solutions Australia you get to try out everything you learn AT the event and for 3 months after – try 2010 first hand!

Hear from the best – International, Local, Microsoft, Industry Experts and Customers – see the Speaker list and get to collaborate with hundreds of your fellow SharePoint enthusiasts – ask all your SharePoint questions!

Additional Training – Pre and Post event Get to the Point Training Workshops for intensive half day courses – an excellent chance to up skill in both 2007 and 2010 content.

Exhibitor area – Support our sponsors and see all the great products and talk to the experts – 5 gold, 9 silver and 7 bronze sponsors

June 16 and 17 Hilton, Sydney

$650 ex GST (group discounts available)

www.sharepointconference.com.au

WSSOPS May update available

I have just posted up the Windows SharePoint Operations Guide (WSSOPS) subscriber update for May. Inside you’ll find updated information about uninstalling and reinstalling SharePoint on SBS 2008 as well as a new chapter on SharePoint Foundation 2010 security.

Also, don’t forget the CIAOPS email support group at:

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ciaops/

which I am looking to build as a forum for information about SharePoint, productivity and cloud computing (as well as anything else related to the products and services of the CIAOPS). You’ll need a Yahoo Id which you can obtain from the above web site. Then you’ll be able to email through questions, answers and comments for everyone else on the list to see and provide feedback on.

So what’s coming in the June update for WSSOPS? Still early days but it is certainly going to have information about installing Office Web Apps, more information around SharePoint Foundation 2010 and most likely a detailed walk through of getting Search Server Express 2008 running on SBS 2008. Remember, this is only available to subscribers and for more information about that visit www.wssops.com.

Stay tuned.

WSSOPS turns two

I’m very proud to say that my Windows SharePoint Operations Guide (WSSOPS) has now turned two. It has certainly come a long way since that initial very rough release to the few foundation subscribers who were good enough to sign up back then. I certainly hope that their faith in what I have created has been justified.

There is also all the other subscribers who have come along over the years (and some who have now moved on). I thank you all for your support and hope that you have received value from what I have produced over the years. I continue to work hard every month to improve that value that you receive for your subscription.

I’d also like to thank Karl Palachuk from SMB Books who has provided me the opportunity of selling my Guide through his site. Due to his continued support, patronage and promotion I’m sure the Guide would not be as popular as it is now, especially outside Australia.

So where to now for the Guide? Well, from its initial focus on Windows SharePoint (WSS) and Search Server Express (SSX) the Guide has expanded to include information on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) and Windows Foundation Server 2010. Soon the Guide will include information about Microsoft Office Web Apps and BPOS SharePoint. As always I welcome any suggestions as to what people would like to see included.

As subscribers are aware, the Guide is more than just a tome of pages about SharePoint, it includes a DVD full of white papers, links, videos and other marketing material. It includes a free internet hosted demonstration SharePoint as well as a discount on support rates from the CIAOPS. As well, all subscribers gain free access to all of the CIAOPS webinars for their period of their subscription as well as any prior webcasts which have all been recorded. For a full list of benefits see www.wssops.com. I hope to keep improving these benefits in the future and welcome an suggestions people may have.

In creating the Guide I have also tried to continue to produce a number of free resources for people who are interested in learning more about SharePoint. You can find free document downloads at http://www.slideshare.net/directorcia and free video tutorials at http://www.youtube.com/user/directorciaops. Recently, I also created a CIAOPS yahoo email list that allows anyone (once registered) to ask any questions or contribute on issues dealt with by the CIAOPS. More information about this group can be found in this blog post. I will be posting more information there this month and can hopefully encourage some really positive information around SharePoint, productivity and cloud computing (and anything else of interest).

So to the many, many people who have been supported of the Guide over the years I say thanks. I will continue to work hard to increase the information and the value that the Guide contains for subscribers going forward. I always welcome any comments or feedback so please let me know what’s on your mind via director@ciaops.com.

Finally, where’s the best place to keep up with Guide and what’s happening with Windows SharePoint? This blog of course!

Only for SharePoint 2010

In a recent blog post I mentioned how SharePoint Designer 2010 was now available for free download from Microsoft. What I have discovered after downloading and installing it is in fact that it only works with SharePoint 2010 sites. This means that if you want to work with previous versions of SharePoint (version 2 & 3) then you are going to have SharePoint Designer 2007 installed as well.

Luckily SharePoint 2007 is also a free download from Microsoft that you can find here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=baa3ad86-bfc1-4bd4-9812-d9e710d44f42

Clearly there must be some major changes behind the scenes if the new version of SharePoint Designer doesn’t support older version of SharePoint. However, when you look at the changes to the SharePoint 2010 interface (e.g. ribbon interface) you can understand why this is so.