Tag: SharePoint

Well here we are

So the old .TEXT blog server is now kaput. We have a redirection from the old blog site (www.ciaops.net.au/blogs/ciaops) to here. We ahve merged our business blog and technical blog together as well as copying over the “more interesting” posts. So everything should no be good to go here in SharePoint.
 
Admittedly, SharePoint is a little slower to load but there is fare more functionality and control for us. Also, it consolidates our technology needs which also make a great deal of sense, not to mention making backup and restore much easier.
 
Onwards and upwards as they say.

Completed 70-631 – Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, Configuring

Well we are happy to announce that we have just passed this exam from Microsoft. Yeah, this means that we are now a Microsoft Certified SharePoint Professional (we believe that’s what it’s called anyway).

A while back we were never really keen on the whole Microsoft Certified Professional thing but since completing the Small Business Specialist certification we must admit that we have come around a little. In this day and age you really to have as many points of differentiation as you can between you and your competitors. Although we don’t necessarily believe that having Microsoft certifications makes you any better or any worse at least it show that you have jumped a few hurdles and passed some exams. That in some way does show that you are willing to go that little bit extra to improve your business knowledge.

So what do you need to know if you want to pass the exam? Well we would suggest that you spend a little time learning the basics of Windows load balancing. Why? We suppose that it is because in many instances SharePoint will be installed on multiple servers and in this case there is going to be a need for resource sharing and optimization. So spend a little time learning the basics about Windows Load Balancing. Also, ensure that you know how to configure SharePoint via the Central Administration site. Would also suggest that you spend a little time understanding the role of IIS in SharePoint, i.e. application pools, web sites, SSL and what not. You don’t need to know low level nitty gritty stuff but you need to have a good general understanding as well as the role these play with SharePoint. Also, if you are from the normal one server world of SBS then you’ll have to broaden your horizon and learn how SharePoint functions with multiple servers ( front ends, content servers and so on). Again, not difficult but Sharepoint DOES operation on more than a single server.

Microsoft has some good online learning courses at www.microsoftelearning.com. We would recommend :

Collection 5403: Implementing Microsoft Windows Sharepoint Services 3.0

Which includes 6 sub courses that will cover everything you need to pass exam 70-631. As for reading material we would recommend :

Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server 2007 Administrator’s Companion

Which is a little more focused on MOSS than Windows Sharepoint but is still a pretty good book. We’ll have a full review here soon.

In summary, if you have set up a few Sharepoint 3.0 sites, done so research into Sharepoint and if you then brush up on Network Load Balancing and IIS you should be able to pass the exam, just like us !

SharePoint success

Ah ha. Turns out that after your install Dot Net 3.0 on your SBS2003 server ( prior to installing SharePoint 3.0 ) you need to reboot even if it doesn’t ask you to. For some reason our initial install didn’t ask for a reboot and we proceeded on with the SharePoint 3.0 installation.

So there you go. Step 1 – install Dot Net 3.0. Step 2 Reboot, Step 3 install SharePoint 3.0 and then carry on with the configuration.

We are happy to say that it is all up and running now and we are happily working with SharePoint 3.0 on SBS2003R2.

It’s a hard sell

Why is SharePoint such a hard sell? We generally tend to find that convincing customers to use SharePoint is hard work. They just don’t seem to get the real productivity saving that they could make with the product. I suppose that you don’t really appreciate SharePoint if you don’t use it. These days we’d be lost without SharePoint in our business, it helps fill the gaps in so many areas. A good example now is the roll that it is playing after we shut down Microsoft CRM 3.0. We can say that we have almost replaced all the functionality that we were using with CRM 3.0 with SharePoint. It also provides greater flexibility and interoperabity to boot.

Now that we started using SharePoint 3.0 we think the product is going to be big. Again, it is still a hard sell for many small businesses but hopefully Microsoft will product some good marketing materials. The great things about SharePoint is that it can be hosted by people like Webcentral. This means that you can sign up customers without the need for messy infrastructure on a month by month basis.

Microsoft has some greating e-learning training resources on Sharepoint 3.0 ( click here ) which you’ll find are currently free. They provide a good overview and introduction to the features of Sharepoint 3.0. We are really excited about things like wikis and inbuildt RSS feeds. We are currently looking at potentially migrating our online knowledge base ( www.ciaops.net.au ) into a hosted Sharepoint 3.0 because the felxibility is marvellous with Sharepoint 3.0 alomost seeming to be designed for this sort of application. Microsoft is also planning to release a swag of Sharepoint 3.0 application templates that include things like knowledge bases and room hire ( click here for more info ). We’ve already seen a few of these previewed and think that having these templates should make it even easier to convince customers to at least give Sharepoint a try.

We like to think that we are a little ahead of the curve here. If so we expect that in the next 6 to 12 months the biggest thing to come from the latest release of software will be Sharepoint 3.0. Our advice, get into it now!

Hot and heavy

When we get servers into the shop to run up we normally have to install a number of additional components inside the beasts. This usually means that we rip off the cover and get everything installed and then power the sucker up to make sure that it all works. We also then generally leave the machine running so it can “burn in”, basically see if anything “burns out” and needs replacing before the customer takes delivery.

Recently, we left the side cover off the machine overnight and came back in the morning to discover a number of warnings being displayed in the server monitoring software. Turns out that the disks were running pretty damm hot. Why? Well, servers these days are specially crafted to ensure that they receive adequate air flow WITH the covers ON. Removing the cover completely destroyed the carefully crafted airflow designed to keep everything cool.

Once we returned the cover to the machine and switched it back on it was only a few minutes before everything was back operating at the correct temperature. So there you go, don’t run servers for extended periods of time with the covers removed or you risk overheating the internal components.

We can’t wait for these

Already have SharePoint 3.0 and love it. Next thing is a swag of SharePoint templates that are being released by Microsoft. You’ll find more information about what’s on offer here:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsserver/sharepoint/wssapps/v3templates.mspx

We have already see a few of these in operation and can’t wait. We are really keen to get our hands on the knowledge base template since we are currently building a new CIAOPS knowledge base in SharePoint 3.0. As soon as the templates are ready we are planning to release the site. At stage we are planning to offer it on subscriptions basis ( around the $ 40 per annum mark ). It will contact knowledge base articles on all the products we use and focus especially on SBS 2003. We are also planning to provide an amount of marketing material around SBS including things like logos, links to relevant web sites and what not. Hopefully, it will become a one stop shop for the SBS consultant who wants marketing as well as technical information to assist in their business.

If you have any ideas or suggestions we’d love to hear them as we go about designing our vision.

SharePoint best practices analyser

Microsoft have released a SharePoint 2007 best practices analyser. They say :

Overview

The Microsoft Best Practices Analyser for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and the 2007 Microsoft Office System Best Practices Analyser programmatically collects settings and values from data repositories such as MS SQL, registry, metabase and performance monitor. Once collected, a set of comprehensive ‘best practice’ rules are applied to the topology.

Administrators running this tool will get a detailed report listing the recommendations that can be made to the environment to achieve greater performance, scalability and uptime

 
Click here to download it from Microsoft