If you have Search Server Express 2008

You are recommended by Microsoft to install KB951297, which also part of the general SharePoint infrastructure upgrade.

If you are, as I am, running Windows SharePoint V3 and Microsoft Search Server Express 2008 then Microsoft recommends:

“you should install the Infrastructure Update for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (KB951695) first and the Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Office Servers (KB951297) second.”

which is luckily the way that I did it after discovering that there was a separate update for Search Server Express 2008.

Be warned that the update for Search Server Express 2008 is part of the general Infrastructure update for Microsoft Office Servers, so the download is over 200MB (since it contains updates for ALL Office Server products). Also take heed of this from Microsoft:

It is strongly recommended that you install Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Service Pack 1 and Office Servers Service Pack 1 before installing the Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Office Servers (KB951297) and the Infrastructure Update for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (KB951695).

Otherwise the update went smoothly and I haven’t seen any issues after a reboot. Fingers crossed.

SharePoint recommended update

Microsoft has released an infrastructure update for Windows SharePoint 3.0 (KB951695) and says:

It is strongly recommended that you install this update

I have applied this to our internal stand alone Sharepoint server, rebooted and everything seems to be OK. So, unless something major pops up shortly, it is probably a very good idea if you schedule to install the update. Obviously, make sure that you have a good backup and can restore Sharepoint if need be because I have had trouble with previous updates “breaking” my Sharepoint installations. So far, so good however.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to share with you some feedback I received from one of my Windows Sharepoint Server Operations Guide international subscribers:

“We found that using the Windows SharePoint Operations guide has simplified our deployment process for SharePoint WSS 3.0 and has drastically reduced the learning curve for our technical staff. The crew at Saturn alliance understand the product and the needs of small and medium size business. In addition they are always there to help out whenever we have questions” – Andre Vittorio

Thanks Andre, always good to hear that the Guide has helped. I believe the biggest benefit of the Guide is simply the time it saves you getting up to speed with the more technical aspects of Sharepoint. You could spend a plenty of time learning and testing this stuff yourself however, that is why I believe the Guide represents great value, since it has already been done for you.

Also, don’t forget the fact that Guide content is updated monthly, ensuring it remains current.

If you want more information about the Guide check out the web site:

http://wssops.saturnalliance.com.au

or just contact me. I’m happy to answer any questions you may have about the Guide.

MOSS vs WSS

It is always hard to find in plain English the difference between Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server (MOSS) and Windows Sharepoint Server. Here’s something which I think does the job really well.

http://www.office-talk.com/pages/compare.html

So from the list you can easily see that MOSS has more features but you obviously have to pay for these but if they are help your business then the investment is well worthwhile.

I was wrong – again

In a previous post I posed the possibility that there was missing step in the migration of Companyweb from SBS 2003 to SBS 2008. After repeating the process again it appears that it does work as laid out in the recommended migration process.

Interestingly, when I repeated the process using an untouched version of SBS 2003 Companyweb I actually received a timeout during the Application creation stage. After running the process again it worked as expect. Perhaps when I did my initial migration there was also some sort of timeout that I wasn’t aware of and the site creation failed to complete properly. Maybe, it had something to do with the fact that I used a demo SBS 2003 Companyweb I have. Maybe, there were some security issues I over looked on the SBS 2003 Companyweb that caused the failure of the site creation. Maybe, maybe, maybe.

Yes, maybe but looks like I stuffed up (again) and the recommended migration process works as expected. Now I just have to work out what I did wrong.

Document library discovery

When you come to Sharepoint from a files and folders background you tend to simply replicate the same structure within Sharepoint document libraries. In many cases this is probably not your best option.

Case in point. My external Sharepoint site Supportweb has a Document Library called Documents. In here you’ll find all sorts of documents I’ve created and uploaded. Many are available for free but there is also a whole swag that are only available to subscribers. Initially, when I started uploading to the document library I created a whole lot of sub-folders and placed the relevant documents in these folders. For example, I had folders for Exchange, SBS and so on.

Now the problem was when I wanted to find a document that was about Exchange server on SBS. Was it in the Exchange Folder or the SBS folder? Also, people more versed in Sharepoint than me suggest that the best idea with document libraries is to dump everything into a single location (no sub-folders) and then use Sharepoint’s in built filtering capability to find what you are looking for.

Now this made a lot of sense to me so I was considering relocating all my documents from their sub-folders to the top level folder. This wasn’t going to be an easy task and may have involved re-assigning the rights to each document again. BUT I found a better way!

I simply created a new Sharepoint view called Complete that displayed all the files, even those from sub-folders in a single page! I then made that view the default view so it is what you see when you first enter the document library now. The original All documents view is still there (simply change the view name in the top right of the Documents library and change the view to All documents to see how it used to be).

How easy was that? Geeze, I love Sharepoint. No re-keying, moving files and so on. Simply create a new view of your data. I added an additional column to the entries so that the documents can easily be sorted by using Sharepoint (just click on the column heading to bring up the filtering options for that column). Even updating the records was a piece of cake. I simply changed the view to Datasheet view (like Excel) changed the records for that column and returned to the Standard view. Geeze, I love Sharepoint!

So image a Sharepoint document library like a phone book, full of data. If you create a view of this phone book (say just family and friends) everything except the records matching your criteria are not displayed. The records are still there in the phone book but you don’t need to see them. Now image you create another view for all your business contacts. You can easily swap between views to display exactly what you need without the need to see irrelevant data. Bottom line is that phone book data is always there. Whenever you update or change something, the record in the phone book also gets changed. One set of data but many ways to view the data. You can even have different views for different people, but the underlying data remains the same.

So if you are thinking about creating folders underneath a document library don’t bother, just dump all the data into the one location and use filtering to find what you want. If you already have a document library that is full of sub-folders, create a new that allows you to view all the files together without sub-folders. Again, same data, different view.

Geeze I love Sharepoint!

Companyweb to SBS 2008 Migration

For documentation of how to migrate Companyweb on SBS 2008 please see the following link.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc527602.aspx

This is constantly being updated from the documentation team so that should always be your first referral for information now and in the future.

Don’t forget our Windows Sharepoint Operations Guide (http://wssops.saturnalliance.com.au) for information about installing, migrating and maintaining Sharepoint on SBS 2003.

I think there’s a step missing

I’ve been working through the suggested Microsoft Companyweb migration from SBS 2003 to SBS 2008 and I think that a step has been overlooked.

In the document:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc527482.aspx – Steps Performed on the Destination Server

towards the bottom there’s a section called “Create a new Windows SharePoint Services Web application named OldCompanyWeb”. At the bottom of this section it says:

15. The Operation in Progress page is displayed. This operation takes approximately 30 minutes. The new Windows SharePoint Services Web application is created, and the Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 CompanyWeb database is upgraded to Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.

16. The Application Created page is displayed. It notes that you need to reset IIS to finish creating the new Web site. You will do this in a later procedure. Close Central Administration for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.

Problem as I see is that you need to create a Site Collection by returning to the Application Management tab and selecting the option Create Site Collection (or click on the link in displayed in page above). If you don’t do this then companywebold is not created as a site and you’ll never see if you try and type into the browser.

All that I see is missing that you need to Create a Site collection, call it companywebold, select a Team site template and you’re done.

However, the documentation goes into checking the Site Level Administrator (which won’t work unless you have created a top level site) and then does an iisreset and says:

You now have a working Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Web site that is named OldCompanyWeb and that contains the structure and documents of your old Windows SBS 2003 CompanyWeb Web site.

From what I see, that won’t be the case unless you insert the additional step to create a top-level site.

What a pity

Here’s another great community based Sharepoint project but unfortunately it only runs on Microsoft Sharepoint Office Server (MOSS). Damm.

Podcasting kit for Sharepoint

That aside it is a great example I think of how using Sharepoint as a basis for you information storage is a good move. I expect in the future to see more and more releases like this that are built on the Sharepoint framework. Sharepoint is simply a tool. It allows the easy capture, sharing and location of disparate data. Best of all it is easily customized without the need to write one line of code, yet it can be extended to what you see above as well.

All in all a very flexible product.