Connect.Collaborate.SharePoint
Aug
16

So fast that I didn't believe it. I had the Vista Enterprise ISO file on the W2K8 host and it took about 2 minutes from creating the virtual machine, mounting the ISO, answering the start-up questions and logging into Vista.

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Aug
14

Now that WSSDemo.com is running in a Hyper-v multi-server farm, SharePoint features such as the BDC and Data Form web part can't use Integrated security SQL access without configuring Kerberos. Many of my customers don't want to enable this (for whatever reason, fear of the unknown is my guess) just for the sake of SharePoint so I decided to try out SharePoint's SSO service to solve this problem on WSSDemo.com (and because I'm chicken and don't want to change the current web app authentication mode).

I have configured SSO in a single server VPC environment easily but trying to get it working in a multi-server environment proved to be a challenge.

My final steps (which I still need to repro to confirm) were:

  1. Start the Windows SSO service on the Central Admin server first and run it under a domain account (SSOService).
  2. Add the SSOService account to the MOS Farm Administrators
  3. Add the SSOService account to the local admin group on the MOSS Servers and give the account SQL Server rights (I just added it to the local admins group on the SQL server because this accounts needs to be able to create the SSO database).
  4. Logon to the Central Admin server using the SSOService account. This will light up all the settings links. If anything is wrong at this point you will either get a red error text saying the service can't be configured or when you click on the "Manage server settings" you get an Access Denied error.
  5. Configure the Server settings specifying the SSOService account as the SSO Admin account (the only way I could get it to work), then I could create the encryption key and application definitions.
  6. Now I'm trying to create a SQL data source in SharePoint Designer that uses SSO. Because my SharePoint designer is connecting to SharePoint over the Internet and only has HTTP access to the MOSS WFE, I can't complete the connection to bring back the list of databases (at least I think that is the problem) so I'm installing a Hyper-v virtual desktop OS with SPD installed that will be joined to the same domain as the MOSS farm.

If step 6 works, I will be able to continue this story. Stay tuned...

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Jul
29

I made it to Seattle eventually. Had to go via Vancouver in the end and only just managed to check in for my connecting flight to Seattle with 1 minute to spare. There is no direct baggage transfer so I couldn't use the transfer lounge. Had to clear Canadian customs, wait for bag, exit agriculture (very lax compared to NZ where everyone's luggage gets scanned), lug it to the Air Canada ticketing counter to get a boarding pass then go through USA customs (in Canada – that was kind of cool), drop bags off, go through security, get on plane, never going that way again unless I stay a day or two in Vancouver.

For the last 3 nights I have not been able to sleep, not even a wink. I felt like I was going to fall asleep during the presentation I was giving at TechReady first thing this morning though and it probably showed.

Anyway, here are the links to some public resources I talked about in my session for any MSFT's who were there and wanted them.

Rather than letting SharePoint create sub-optimal databases, you can have a DBA create them in advance
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262869.aspx

Plan for administrative and service accounts (yes, you need a minimum of 5 AD account to setup MOSS)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263445(TechNet.10).aspx

White paper: Planning and Monitoring SQL Server Storage for Office SharePoint Server: Performance Recommendations and Best Practices
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=105623&clcid=0x409

White paper: Database maintenance for Office SharePoint Server 2007
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=111531&clcid=0x409

Predeployment I/O Best Practices, SQL Server Best Practices Article
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/bestpractice/pdpliobp.mspx

Single content db with many site collections and sub-sites can get badly fragmented user data and documents table index's.
See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/943345/ to REORGANIZE or REBUILD them

New SharePoint Central Administration UI tool to schedule locking/moving of Site Collections between content databases
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=263cd480-f6eb-4fa3-9f2e-2d47618505f2

P.S. Hotel wireless sucks when there are 400 MSFT's trying to use it simultaneously. 1Kb transfer rate for me L

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Jul
25

One that I have been involved with for many years is still trucking along. I think I shared some numbers for this site back when wssdemo.com was running WSS 2.0.

This SPS 2003 Medium Server farm has 6 virtual server extended with WSS and a portal site that is only used for searching and the site directory. There are 16 content databases.

 

Total Number of In-Use Sites: 1408

Total Number of Unused Sites: 328

Percent Large (250MB+): 28%

Percent Medium (5-250MB): 35%

Percent Small (5MB-): 37%

Percent Frequently Visited (100+ visits per day): 15%

Percent Rarely Visited (< 1 visit per day): 24%

Percent Increasing in Popularity: 51%

Percent Decreasing in Popularity: 49%

Average Number of Visits per Site (in the past Month): 2777

Percent of Visits made to the Home Page: 15%

Percent with a Customized (Unghosted) Home Page: 2%

Percent that are Top-Level Sites: 59%

 

.doc

Total Documents: 243292

Average number in Version History: 1

Average Size: 511KB

Average number of Visits per Document: 7

Percent of all Documents: 31%

Percent of all Document Visits: 7%

 

.xls

Total Documents: 132471

Average number in Version History: 1

Average Size: 855KB

Average number of Visits per Document: 11

Percent of all Documents: 17%

Percent of all Document Visits: 6%

 

.pdf

Total Documents: 67929

Average number in Version History: 1

Average Size: 584KB

Average number of Visits per Document: 10

Percent of all Documents: 9%

Percent of all Document Visits: 3%

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Jul
24

I have done that twice now. If you don't know what I'm talking about then all the better.

Both times I have done this when adding an entry in a rush before heading to the airport. For my punishment, the Wellington airport closed today just after I checked in due to bad weather and it was the first of 3 flights to get me to Seattle for TechReady. Tomorrow I set out again but via a different route. Wlg/AKL/YVL/SEA (22 hours start to finish, praying for an upgrade so that I don't have to endure economy)

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Jul
19

Feel free to grab this web part (right-click, save-as) http://www.wssdemo.com/Downloads/SharePointSitesRSS.dwp
Add it to a web part page using the Import option (zero code deployment).

Thanks to http://sharepointrss.com/ for the DVWP generator+ a couple of tweaks to show all sites and cache the data for a day.

A sample page hosting the web part can be seen here http://www.wssdemo.com/Pages/RSSFeeds.aspx

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Jul
16

While I'm thinking about themes, I have updated my demo page for the Clarity theme with a few excellent tips on using this particular theme. Check it out here http://www.wssdemo.com/Pages/master%20clarity.aspx

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Jul
16

Tip: don't forget to tell the outsourcer that it is an Intranet site where you want to use all the collaboration features of SharePoint otherwise they might assume that you also want a master page based on the minimal master template which was intended for Web Content Management site only, removing all tables and using 100% CSS for layout. Wrong!

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Jul
14

I had set my W2K8 server that hosts the WSSDemo.com virtual farm (4 virtual servers) to automatically install Windows Updates including recommended updates. Looks like the WFE server didn't update before the host OS updated and the network adapter in the WFE virtual machine was no longer valid so it couldn't connect to Windows Update to get the latest Integration Services.

The solution is to add the Legacy Network Adapter to the VM so that you can get back to Windows Update.

For forward planners, the solution is to update all guests first and shut them down before updating the host as the save state files from the RC1 version are not compatible with RTM.

Anyway, this is why WSSDemo.com was down while I was asleep...

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Jul
13

SharePoint Designer is used to create page layouts but you must use the browser to create web pages based on a page layout. I found this rather frustrating with page layouts that include web part zones and trying to use Data View's in these pages.

A Data View could be created in a normal Web Part page, exported to a .webpart file and then imported onto the page layout page but every time you want to edit the data view you would have to go through this process. It is for this reason that I was never a big fan of Page Layouts on Intranet sites and just stuck with Content Editor Web parts (forgoing the versioning capability of a page based on a page layout).

Today I learnt something new about SharePoint Designer; it allows you to disconnect a page from its page layout so that you can edit the page.

This will copy all of the content from the page layout into the publishing page...

You can even reattach the page content to the page layout...

Although the warning dialog box says that all markup in the page will be deleted, content inside field controls and web parts still remains.

I just read the funniest thing on CMSWire with regards to rights management solutions.
"Microsoft SharePoint does have some digital rights capabilities built in to the platform but they certainly wouldn't be as robust as a third party solution."
What do you think?

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