Tag: SharePoint

I think this is way cool

What I really love about SharePoint is that it is so extensible. You can not only add SharePoint web parts but you can also include stuff like embedded YouTube videos, Google Calendar and other standard HMTL. In that vein, have a look at what I’ve been able to do with the following page:

 

Supportweb embedded SBS videos

 

When you click on a link (only two at the moment) a window should display over the current SharePoint page and one of my YouTube videos will start playing inside a box. To return to the SharePoint page simply click the Close button or just click outside the video box.

 

What I like about this solution is that it is simple to deploy and allows streaming video (or any other web content to be displayed) over the top of an existing Sharepoint page. That way I don’t have to host the videos on my Sharepoint site and I don’t have to use my bandwidth to display them, I let ‘someone’ else do all the heavy lifting. I think that is way cool.

 

I’ll be working to incorporate all the videos I have done up here shortly and completely link it  from the main page. In the meantime drop me a note and let me know what you think, I’d love to get your feedback.

 

Subscribers to my Windows Sharepoint Operations Guide will get full details of how they can implement this in their own Sharepoint sites very soon. Don’t you wish you were a subscriber?

SharePoint search – revisited

In a recent post I was wondering about the reason for Microsoft saying there were limitations in SharePoint search if you installed SharePoint v3 after upgrading your SharePoint v2 instances to full SQL.

 

After referring the issue to our local SBS-MVP (Wayne Small), who referred it onto the SBS Dev team and after they tested it, it appears that, as I suspected, there really isn’t an issue.

 

“We ran through this scenario here in our test lab and had no issues with search. It worked fine. We will update the white paper once our writers complete the SBS2008 doc work.”

 

I am very grateful to Wayne for forwarding my request and to the SBS Dev team for responding so quickly as I feel it will clear up a lot of confusion in the whitepaper:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc671966.aspx – Installing Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 on a Server Running Windows Small Business Server 2003.

 

So, in summary, Sharepoint v2 and v3 search does work on the same box even if you have upgraded your instance to full SQL.

New video posted

I have just uploaded a new video that details the process of relocating SharePoint databases in SBS 2008 using the inbuilt wizards.

SharePoint search

So I’ve been doing some more work on my Windows SharePoint Services Operations Guide (WSSOPS – plug, plug, plug…) and have come up against something that doesn’t seem right.

 

Now, according to :

 

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc671966.aspx – Installing Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 on a Server Running Windows Small Business Server 2003

 

there is section called Limitations. Under there it says:

 

“If you moved the Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 databases from WMSDE to the Microsoft SQL Server™ 2000 database software or to Microsoft SQL Server 2005, Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Search does not function after you install Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.”

 

Now I’ve been testing the migration from Sharepoint Services 2.0 with the database instances upgraded to SQL 2000 Server across to SBS 2003 (and SBS 2008) and this seems to work without issue (as long as you disable Full-Text Indexing first). So now what happens if I install Sharepoint 3.0 on the original SBS 2003 server that contains Sharepoint 2.0 that has had its databases upgraded to from WMSDE to SQL Server 2000?

 

I completed the “standard” side-by-side installation as recommended by Microsoft. I then ran a search in Sharepoint v 2.0 (a.k.a Companyweb) and as you see it still works.

 

image_2_vb9XaQ

 

So now I do a search in Sharepoint v 3.0 also installed on the same SBS 2003 box and guess what?

 

image_4_Ffbk0g

 

That search also works! So, it appears to me that the statement

 

“Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Search does not function after you install Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.”

 

isn’t correct because both search services (Sharepoint 2.0 and 3.0) appear to function on my test SBS 2003 server even after installing Sharepoint 3.0.

 

In an attempt to understand where this “limitation” has come from I have asked my local resident SBS-MVP (Wayne Small of sbsfaq.com) if he can (or find someone who can) explain what I seem to be missing here. If anyone else out there knows why this “limitation” has been highlighted in the Microsoft documentation I’d appreciate you letting me know as I really can’t see it as being a limitation, but then I am probably missing something obvious (as I have done many times before). I would be disappointed if people read this and decided not to install Sharepoint 3.0 on SBS 2003 because they had upgraded their instances and were afraid Sharepoint search wouldn’t function as I have read a few comments on the web to this extent.

 

Help me understand – I need to know!

KB948109 SQL Server 2005 SP2 Security Upgrade Fails To Install

Man, being trying to install this on a server for while now and it keeps failing. The log reads:

 

SQL Server not responsive prior to running Repl post script procedure

 

So it turns out that if an SQL 2005 instance doesn’t use Windows Authentication for SQL login then the patch will fail to apply. How can you find out which instance is causing the problem? Use the management tools (or download the free Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio Express) and then try attaching to each instance individually using the Windows Authentication. Find one that doesn’t, then there’s your culprit.

SharePoint database options for SBS 2008

So, you’re thinking that since you went out and purchased SBS 2008 Premium, which includes SQL Server 2008 on a second server, you’d like to use that to hold the content databases for Sharepoint v3. Remembering, this is all RC0,1 stuff, here’s my take.

 

After SBS 2008 is installed, SharePoint v3 will be configured to use SQL 2005 Embedded Edition on the first SBS 2008 server (no other option from what I see). Now, before you start adding data to SharePoint you can go into the SharePoint Central Administration and specify a new default database server. Next, you are going to have to migrate the existing Companyweb databases (from SQL 2005 Embedded) to the second server with SQL 2008. Alternatively, you are going to have to create new content databases for Companyweb. Why? I’ll assume you still want the SBS 2008 wizards to work and they work on http://companyweb. Thus, it is probably easier to simply shift or recreate the Companyweb databases than try and create a completely new application and make that Companyweb. Is only my guess.

 

But hang on, let’s have a think about this. You probably decided to go with SQL 2008 rather than SQL 2005 Embedded Edition for performance reasons but my guess is that any gains would be lost as you have to send and receive data between servers. Remember the Sharepoint Web site is on the first SBS 2008 box while the content database is on the second SBS 2008 box.

 

Ok, since Sharepoint is a free application you could install it on the second SBS 2008 (which has SQL 2008). That way you get the “performance” improvement of SQL 2008 and no loss of “performance” because of cross network traffic. Ah, yes but now Sharepoint won’t work with any of the inbuilt SBS 2008 wizards because it is a new instance. I’m sure you could rectify that but my guess it would be “unsupported”

 

So I question what “performance” improvement is expected from SQL 2008? I have not found anyone who can tell me whether SQL 2005 Standard is better than SQL 2005 Embedded or SQL 2008. Therefore, I’d say you are probably better staying with the standard Sharepoint v3 install on SBS 2008 using SQL 2005 Embedded Edition. So unless you are planning another use for SQL 2008 why do you need SBS 2008 Premium? There are legitimate reasons for SBS 2008 Premium but if you are just getting it for Sharepoint maybe there isn’t.

Thanks Wayne

I recently gave our resident SBS Guru and MVP, Wayne Small, a look at my Windows Sharepoint Operations Guide so he could give me some feedback based on his own extensive experience with Sharepoint and publishing technical material. I am pleased to say that he has written a nice review in one of his recent blog posts.

 

In it he says:

 

“It gives great overview in how to perform many of the tasks that you will need to do in a SharePoint installation, along with real world experience where it varies from the official Microsoft line.  I’d suggest you check it out if you are doing work with SharePoint as it will save you time and money.”

 

I’d just like to say thanks to Wayne for taking the time to firstly have a look at what I have created and secondly to give my work such a positive wrap, I really appreciate it.

Snap, Patch, Pop

I was reading Andys Techie Blog about some recent dramas he had when applying Sharepoint patches. Now, I’m no stranger to those problems and a few months back I had a similar issue where a patch creamed all my Sharepoint sites. Since then I’ve taken what I reckon are some pretty simply steps to reduce potential downtime.

 

The first step is simply to virtualize all my servers. Originally, I used Microsoft Virtual PC but I have since migrated all these virtual machines to Hyper V on Windows 2008 64 bit edition. So prior to applying recent patches I simply used the Hyper V manager to take a snapshot of the machine (i.e. image backup). I then applied the patches, made sure everything was working and if so deleted the snap shot backup. In the event of problems, I could easily restore the previous snapshot in a matter of minutes.

 

I also maintain a “clean” virtual Sharepoint server for disaster recovery. All I need to do it fire up the “clean’” server, join it to my domain and restore my stsadm –o backup file and I’m basically up and running again. Because the “clean” machine is virtual I can leave it suspended until I need it.

 

Another great thing about virtualization is that you can tune many of the attributes of the virtual machine. Let’s take memory for starters. If I determine a machine needs 1,012MB of RAM then I can allocated exactly that amount. I know RAM is cheap but I’d rather allocate it so I get the best utilization out of the memory in the host machine. Next, let’s look at hard disks. All virtual hard disks are stored in a compressed format so even though my host machine has 300GB of disk space I can run virtual machines that use over 300GB of disk space. Need to add more hard disk space? Simply allocate another hard disk to the virtual pc and you’re away. No need to open a case, connect wires, etc, just attach and use. Finally, I can have any number of networks on my host machine. I can easily assign any machine to a different network connection without the need for plugging cables at a patch panel. This comes in extremely handy if you want to isolate a machine from the network to work on. Simply change the connected adapter and viola, isolated.

 

Now, I’ve been using virtual machines for a long while but with products like Hyper V and VMServer I think we will start to see virtual machine hits mainstream. If you aren’t using virtual machines then I think you REALLY need to look at them. If you are planning an upgrade of your own infrastructure then you REALLY need to consider Hyper V as an option, simply because it just provides so much flexibility and ease of use.

 

I can see the day when most clients will simply access a remote facility to get access to their data. In most cases, their machine and good deal of other customers, will all be running on a single piece of hardware but thanks to the wonders of virtualization, will appears to be multiple machines. I would also seriously consider selling clients a Hyper V solution to run their next server upgrade in their own offices. Sure, I know its not a perfect solution, but these days in IT what is? In my experience virtualization make infrastructure management much simpler.

 

My message? Go forth and virtualize.