Let the SharePoint webinars begin

As promised, the first of what hopefully will be many webinars provided by the CIAOPS, will commence next Thursday the 12th of November. Here are the details:

091112 – An Introduction to SharePoint
Topics covered:
– What is SharePoint.
– Why use SharePoint.
– Versions of SharePoint.
– Basic operation of a SharePoint site.

Presenter: Robert Crane
Date: Thursday 12^th of November 2009
Time : 10.00am (Sydney, Australia time)
Duration: 30 minutes
Cost: Free
Level: 1 (Basic)
Prerequisites: None

Details
This webinar will help you to understand what SharePoint is and how it can be used in a business environment. It will provide you with a basic understanding of SharePoint technologies and the versions that are currently available.

Registration: To register send an email to director@ciaops.com.

I am aiming to present a webinar like this every two weeks or so. Some of them will be free to attend and others will require a small payment (AUD$39 ex GST typically). The aim is to provide a series of webinars that takes attendees through the range of skills they need to not only understand SharePoint but also to be able to successfully install and maintain the product.

So, if you are interested at all in learning more about SharePoint then I urge you to register for the upcoming webinar. If you have any questions or want further information about this or other webinars I have planned please do not hesitate to contact me (director@ciaops.com).

SharePoint Operations Guide on Facebook

I have to admit that I’m still grappling with the multitude of social networking sites that you can avail yourself of, but probably one of the top few is Facebook. I already have a Facebook page, and feel free to friend me, but I wanted to create something to help keep people up to date with the Windows SharePoint Operations Guide and SharePoint in general. After doing a bit of research the best option seems to be to create a Facebook page because it gets indexed by Google. So that’s exactly what I’ve now done and you’ll find it here :

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Windows-SharePoint-Operations-Guide/167213188332

It doesn’t have a huge amount of information there yet and I am still trying to learn the best ways to deliver my message through this but if you are on Facebook then I’d appreciate you becoming a fan. Not only that, I’d appreciate any feedback on what to do and how to do it because as I said, I’m no expert with Facebook.

I’ll be interested to see how this Facebook page compares to the other Windows SharePoint Operations Guide group I created over on Linkedin, which can be found here:

http://www.linkedin.com/e/vgh/1922207/

They both do similar and different functions but I get the impression that the Facebook page may be available to a wider audience.

It will be interesting to see which medium works best. So if you are a member of Facebook or Linkedin then I’d urge you to sign up to the Windows SharePoint Operations Guide and help me work out which is the best method of getting SharePoint information out to people.

SharePoint 2010

I’ve been watching some of the presentations over at the SharePoint conference site and I’ve learned that Windows SharePoint Services is going to now be called SharePoint 2010 Foundation. Even though there is nothing particularly wrong with that, I think it is going to create more confusion around the different versions of SharePoint for most people. Unfortunately, it is just something we’ll have to deal with.

What I have also heard (but can’t yet confirm) is that SharePoint 2010 Foundation (i.e. the new version of Windows SharePoint Services) will now install with SQL Express Edition rather than the SQL Embedded Edition. What’s the issue here? The issue is that SQL Express has a limit on any database of 4GB, while SQL Embedded doesn’t. So that means, on new installations of SharePoint 2010 Foundation your content is going to be limited to 4GB unless you use another version of SQL Server.

This is big step backwards if this is the case since many existing SharePoint v3 installations I see are already crossing the 4GB database boundary. Apparently, if you do an in place upgrade to SharePoint 2010 Foundation it will continue to use SQL Embedded Edition (without the database limit) but any new installation will be limited to a database size of 4GB. It seems that Microsoft wants to drive people to the higher end version of SharePoint by configuring the new version this way. As the amount of data continue to grow this really doesn’t make a lot of sense if it is the case, especially when SQL Embedded Edition, like SQL Express, is free. Such a decision may impact people’s choice to utilize SharePoint 2010 Foundation, given it is placing a limitation on the product that was evident 2 versions ago (i.e. in Windows SharePoint v2)

Again, I have only read about this limitation and can’t confirm it fully until I actually get my hands on the beta (which is due out this month). I will be very interested to see what SharePoint 2010 Foundation incorporates and whether it will operate on SBS 2008. Stay tuned here for updates.

Free consulting time with SharePoint Guide

For the month of November, if you subscribe to my Windows SharePoint Operations Guide (www.wssops.com) you’ll receive 60 minutes of free remote support time to use in any way you want. You could use it for in house training or client demonstrations, it doesn’t matter it’s up to you how you choose to use it.

As well as the 60 minutes of free support you’ll also receive all the normal benefits of subscribing to the Windows SharePoint Operations Guide:

– Over 1,500 pages of technical information on Windows SharePoint.

– A DVD with over 4GB of documents, white papers, videos, and files on Windows SharePoint

– A free hosted SharePoint web site

– Monthly updates

– Monthly email newsletter

– and more

As I have recently announced, the Windows SharePoint Operations Guide will be expanding to include areas much as Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) and Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS). It will also start shortly including information about the soon to be released SharePoint 2010, so if you need information about SharePoint than look no further than the Windows SharePoint Operations Guide.

For more information about the Windows SharePoint Operations Guide visit the web site www.wssops.com or send me an email (director@ciaops.com).

Search Server Express on SBS 2008

Let me save you a lot of pain. From everything that I have found to this point, Search Server Express CANNOT be installed on SBS 2008. I have tried to get it working many, many different ways and have never had any success. I have asked Microsoft support how to get it working and they couldn’t help. I had some highly regarded contacts in the SBS community attempt to get answers from Microsoft as well but to no avail.

How can this be? Search Server Express is built on SharePoint technology and would make a fantastic addition to an SBS 2008 server yet it won’t install and worse, when you attempt to uninstall it after a failed installation, it blows up the existing SharePoint installation. How can this be? Search Server Express works fine in a stand alone installation but yet on SBS 2008 it all goes pear shaped.

So rather than go through the misery yourself here’s what happens.

1. You install Search Server Express on SBS 2008 and everything look sweet until the SharePoint Products and Technology Configuration Wizard runs. At about step 6 you get the following nasty error.

2. Realizing the error of you ways you go into Control Panel and remove Search Server Express.

3. Search Server Express uninstalls successfully but now when you attempt to access http://companyweb you see something like:

4. Now you start to sweat. You try maybe resetting IIS and attempt to access http://companyweb again and now you see:

Indicating no web sites there at all.

5. As the panic rises you try and access the SharePoint Central Administration site which only results in the following message:

Which means that uninstalling Search Server Express has effectively uninstalled SharePoint from your SBS 2008 system!

6. This now means you have to get SharePoint back and working.

Now it becomes a question of can you restore SharePoint? How was SharePoint being backed up? What method are you going to use to restore SharePoint to where it was before you attempted installing Search Server Express? I can tell you that you are in for some fun and games if you aren’t prepared for it.

So why doesn’t Search Server Express work on SBS 2008? I don’t know. Why doesn’t Microsoft provide some guidance on install Search Server Express on SBS 2008? I don’t now either. All I know is don’t try to install Search Server Express on SBS 2008 because you’ll end up in a world of pain.

I’m still working on a solution and when I find it I’ll let you know.

SharePoint 2010 beta in November

As expected, Microsoft have announced that the release of SharePoint (and Office) 2010 public betas in November. There is nothing unexpected in the announcement but it is interesting to note:

“By taming the overflow of information across systems and technologies, SharePoint enables organizations to thrive,” (Steve) Ballmer said.

which I have always believed is an excellent reason to implement SharePoint. It is a fantastic tool for not only capturing business information but also making it searchable because as we know if we can’t find what we want quickly then all the information in the world is pretty worthless. How many businesses out there are struggling to manage their information? How many of these could be using SharePoint in some form? Now how many actually are? This is probably the reason for SharePoint being:

‘one of the fastest-growing products in Microsoft’s history, with over $1.3 billion in revenue, representing over a 20 percent growth over the past year. According to IDC, Microsoft attained a significant share of the collaborative content workspace market in 2008, and had the highest growth rate among top vendors with its Microsoft Office SharePoint Server.’

I certainly believe that the SharePoint 2010 will continue this growth, especially given SharePoint’s ability to be deployed via the cloud through solutions like Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS). I see it as a major opportunity to provide solutions to businesses not only in my local region but all around the world.

Some of the features of SharePoint 2010 highlighted include:

• A new ribbon user interface that makes end users more productive and customization of SharePoint sites easy

• Deep Office integration through social tagging, backstage integration and document life-cycle management

• Built-in support for rich media such as video, audio and Silverlight, making it easy to build dynamic Web sites

• Enterprise features in SharePoint Online such as Excel Services and InfoPath Forms Services, which make it simple to use, share, secure and manage interactive forms across an organization

• The addition of two new SharePoint SKUs for Internet-facing sites, including an on-premises and hosted offer

So it all sounds great but I’ll wait and see what the beta is like before I make any final judgement because there are number of things I’d like to see whether they have rectified and what new ‘features’ they have included. As soon as I have the beta up and running I’ll post my observations here. So stay tuned, not long to wait now.

Download SharePoint presentation videos

After a few requests, I have posted the videos I sued in my presentation at SMB Nation for anyone to download if they desire. Please note, these videos have no audio and were designed to replace my need for the Internet during the actual presentation. They are all a few MB isn size and can be downloaded from:

http://su.pr/22MPlk

The videos are all prefixed gs202. If you simply want to view the videos then you can also do so on my YouTube channel at – http://www.youtube.com/user/directorciaops.

I will be publishing a white paper covering the topics that I discussed during that presentation for all to download but that won’t be until early November.

Touch down in Vegas

I have just arrived in Las Vegas in preparation for SMB Nation 2009. So what am I doing here? For starters I’m here to attend what is probably the preeminent (vendor agnostic) SMB reseller focused even in the world. What else am I doing here? Well on Saturday morning I’ll be giving a session on SharePoint called:

GS202 : SharePoint – You’ve got it now what?

The least known component of SBS 2008 is SharePoint and yet it offers the greatest opportunity. 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 customers. You’ll also learn how to take SharePoint beyond the default install to configure an installation that truly provides business benefits to you customers. You’ll learn how software like Microsoft Office, SharePoint Designer, Search Server Express and third party add-ons work with SharePoint and more importantly how you can extend your skills quickly and easily to sell these solutions.

Also on Saturday I’ll be doing a podcast live from SMB Nation with Karl Palachuk. Details are:

Saturday Oct. 3rd:
2:25 PM to 2:55 PM (local Las Vegas time)
SharePoint Podcast with Karl Palachuk / Robert Crane
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/749350137

Hopefully this podcast will also be recorded so people can listen to it later on.

Also importantly, I’ll be trying to network with all my peers to learn as much as I can and hopefully forge some new relationships.

Looking back on what I gained from last year’s SMB Nation I can honestly say that there was plenty of content that really helped my business in the last 12 months and I’m looking to get even more out of it this year. I certainly hope that if you are at this year’s SMB Nation you’ll come to my presentation or stop me in the halls for a chat or maybe even organise a get together over a coffee later on. If you want to meet then I’m more than willing to oblige.

If you can’t make the event then I hope that you’ll at least keep up to date with my thoughts on SMB Nation as I post them to this blog and listen to my SMB Nation podcast. Once the presentation is complete I’ll be working hard to get all the relevant documents up for those who are interested to download.

SMB Nation 2009 – Bring it on!