Posts Tagged ‘ Architecture ’

Plan Your Server Farm with Capacity Management Resource Center for SharePoint 2010

The release of SharePoint 2010 Products marks a substantial change in the way Microsoft approaches capacITy and performance documentation. We have listened to feedback and learned from customer experiences wITh SharePoint Server 2007 and our own testing to establish a comprehensive set of inITial guidance for capacITy and performance management for SharePoint 2010.

We have published a CapacITy Management Resource Center (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/ff601870.aspx ) that will help you find the content you need. You can start wITh the CapacITy Management Sizing Overview (http://technet.microsoft.com/library/cc261700(Office.14).aspx ) to help you get started wITh capacITy management concepts and the 5 steps to properly size, design, deploy, monITor, and maintain your environment. Other content available now includes SharePoint Server 2010 boundaries and limITs (http://technet.microsoft.com/library/cc262787(Office.14).aspx ), Storage and SQL Server capacITy planning (http://technet.microsoft.com/library/cc298801(office.14).aspx ), technical case studies of production SharePoint Server 2010 environments, and recommendations for specific features and services. More content will be added in the coming weeks and months, so make sure to check back often for new whITe papers and articles.

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SharePoint 2010 Capacity Management: Where to Start?

CapacITy management is an ongoing process, because no implementation remains static in terms of content and usage. You need to plan for growth and change, so that your SharePoint-based environment can continue to deliver an effective business solution.

But the question is, Where to start? So to help you I have collected all the required links which provide information about the general concepts behind capacITy management, as well as links to addITional documentation and resources.

A sITe containing all available SharePoint Server 2010 capacITy management documentation is available at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262971(Office.14).aspx

Once you have a good understanding of the concepts, you can read about the limITs and boundaries of SharePoint Server 2010 at <a href="http://office/14/teams/perf/server/cpwg/Shared%20Documents/WhITe%20Paper%20Drafts/SharePoint%20Server%202010%20LimITs%20and%20Boundaries” mce_href=”http://office/14/teams/perf/server/cpwg/Shared%20Documents/WhITe%20Paper%20Drafts/SharePoint%20Server%202010%20LimITs%20and%20Boundaries”>SharePoint Server 2010 LimITs and Boundaries

When you are ready to identify a starting point topology for your SharePoint-based environment, you can look through the library of available technical case studies to find the one that most closely matches your requirements Performance and capacITy technical case studies

CapacITy management whITe papers are available for many specific SharePoint services and features. Currently there are limITed number of such whITe papers available, but more will be added as they become available. To download these whITe papers, visIT http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff608068(office.14).aspx

Read the documents for information about database sizing and performance at Storage and SQL Server capacITy planning and configuration

Read the documents for information about remote BLOB storage (RBS) at Plan for remote BLOB storage (RBS)

Read the documents for information about health monIToring and troubleshooting using the health monIToring tools built into the Central Administration interface at Health monIToring & Solving problems and troubleshooting

The documents address general performance tuning guidelines and a variety of specific performance and capacITy subjects. The list of available documents will grow as new content is developed Use search administration reports (SharePoint Server 2010)

For more information about virtualizing SharePoint-based servers, see Virtualization planning

Happy CapacITy Planning !!!

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Planning & Architecture for SharePoint Server 2010: Part 3

The Last part of the series will focus on Video demos & training for SharePoint Server 2010. The following table contains links to all Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 video demos that are intended for IT professionals:

Demos

Getting Started

TITle

Description

Date

Getting Started wITh Microsoft SharePoint 2010

Nine modules help you learn what Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 can do, how IT works, how to create a sITe, and more.

April 2010

Jeff Teper Keynote at SharePoint Conference 2009

Microsoft Corporate Vice President for SharePoint Jeff Teper presents his keynote at SharePoint Conference 2009 in Las Vegas, NV.

April 2010

What’s new for SharePoint 2010 IT Pros

Watch this SharePoint Conference 2009 video to see what’s new for IT Professionals in SharePoint Server 2010. Presented by Simon Skaria and Umesh Unnikrishnan.

April 2010

SharePoint 2010 Overview and What’s new

Watch this SharePoint 2009 conference video to see Arpan Shah’s overview of SharePoint 2010 and show you what’s new.

April 2010

Deployment

TITle

Description

Date

Installing SharePoint Server 2010

This video illustrates how to install and configure Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 and how to create your first SITe Collection.

April 2010

Operations

TITle

Description

Date

Ribbon highlights in SharePoint 2010 (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=185967)

Make sure end-users have the resources they need to be successful wITh new user interface changes.

April 2010

Create external content types using SharePoint Designer 2010

Learn how to use external content types to create external lists which show the connected data.

April 2010

An end-to-end Process using InfoPath 2010 forms, Visio 2010, and SharePoint Designer 2010 for workflows

Learn how to use InfoPath Forms Services in SharePoint Server 2010, Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2010, and Microsoft Visio 2010 to create workflows.

April 2010

Create reusable workflows using SharePoint Designer 2010 and attach to content types

Learn how to create a reusable workflow, attach IT to a content type, and then use that content type in a library.

April 2010

Create a sITe workflow and modify ITs form using InfoPath Forms 2010

This video demonstrates how to create a sITe ITself and how to use InfoPath 2010 to modify the user interface form that the workflow creates.

April 2010

Inline videos

Inline videos are short videos that are included in operational topics. The videos help to avoid mistakes when attempting to complete potentially confusing operations.

TITle of related article

Description

Date

Deploy a workflow as a WSP file (SharePoint Server 2010)

This video shows how to use the user interface to complete the following tasks:

· Download a workflow template as a .WSP file

· Upload the WSP file to a sITe collection and activate IT on the sITe collection

· Activate the workflow on two different sITes

April 2010

Hope you enjoyed the series and are ready to jump into the ArchITecture Planning exercise, all the very best !!!

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Planning & Architecture for SharePoint Server 2010: Part 2

Part 2 of this series will focus on Planning Worksheets for SharePoint Server 2010. Below are the links to worksheets that you can use to record information that you gather and decisions that you make as you plan your deployment of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010.

Planning worksheets by tasks:

For this task

Use this worksheet

To do this

Plan sITes and sITe collections (SharePoint Server 2010)

SITe planning data worksheet (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=167837)

Plan top level sITe collections and sITes, and record decisions about sITe themes and navigation.

Plan sITe navigation (SharePoint Server 2010)

SITe planning data worksheet (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=167837)

Plan top level sITe collections and sITes, and record decisions about sITe themes and navigation.

Plan for using themes (SharePoint Server 2010)

SITe planning data worksheet (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=167837)

Plan top level sITe collections and sITes, and record decisions about sITe themes and navigation.

Plan content deployment (SharePoint Server 2010)

Content deployment data worksheet (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=167835)

Plan the export and import servers in the farms in your content deployment topology, and to plan the content deployment paths and jobs.

Plan managed metadata (SharePoint Server 2010)

Term sets planning worksheet(http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=163486)

Determine basic taxonomy, including term, usage, owner, and group.

Plan managed metadata (SharePoint Server 2010)

Detailed term set planning worksheet(http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=163487)

Determine taxonomy including detailed identifying characteristics such as measurements.

Plan managed metadata (SharePoint Server 2010)

Managed metadata services planning worksheet(http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=164578)

Plan to share metadata information using managed metadata services and connections.

Document management planning (SharePoint Server 2010)

Document management participants worksheet (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=165871)

Identify document management planning stakeholders and record document management practices.

Document management planning (SharePoint Server 2010)

Analyze document usage worksheet (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=165873)

Record information gathered when analyzing document usage.

Document management planning (SharePoint Server 2010)

Policy worksheet (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=165883)

Plan information management policies for content types.

Records management planning (SharePoint Server 2010)

In-place records planning worksheet(http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=185011)

Identify record types and content types to be stored in normal document libraries.

Plan for backup and recovery (SharePoint Server 2010)

Backup and recovery planning workbook (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=184385)

Help you plan strategies for backup and recovery for SharePoint Server 2010 environment.

Document management planning (SharePoint Server 2010)

Document management planning (SharePoint Server 2010)

Plan a content type.

Plan and prepare for upgrade (SharePoint Server 2010)

Upgrade worksheet (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=179928)

Record information about your environment while you prepare for upgrade.

Planning worksheets by tITle:

Use this worksheet

For this task

To do this

Analyze document usage worksheet (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=165873)

Document management planning (SharePoint Server 2010)

Record information gathered when analyzing document usage.

Backup and recovery planning workbook (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=184385)

Plan for backup and recovery (SharePoint Server 2010)

Help you plan strategies for backup and recovery for SharePoint Server 2010 environment.

Content deployment data worksheet (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=167835)

Plan content deployment (SharePoint Server 2010)

Plan the export and import servers in the farms in your content deployment topology, and to plan the content deployment paths and jobs.

Content type worksheet (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=165878)

Document management planning (SharePoint Server 2010)

Plan a content type.

Detailed term set planning worksheet(http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=163487&clcid=0×409)

Plan managed metadata (SharePoint Server 2010)

Determine taxonomy including detailed identifying characteristics such as measurements.

Document libraries worksheet (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=165874)

Document management planning (SharePoint Server 2010)

Plan libraries based on sITes and on document types.

Document management participants worksheet (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=165871)

Document management planning (SharePoint Server 2010)

Identify document management planning stakeholders and record document management practices.

In-place records planning worksheet(http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=185011&clcid=0×409)

Records management planning (SharePoint Server 2010)

Identify record types and content types to be stored in normal document libraries.

Managed metadata services planning worksheet(http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=164578)

Plan managed metadata (SharePoint Server 2010)

Plan to share metadata information using managed metadata services and connections.

Policy worksheet (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=165883)

Document management planning (SharePoint Server 2010)

Plan information management policies for content types.

SITe planning data worksheet (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=167837)

Plan sITes and sITe collections (SharePoint Server 2010)

Plan sITe navigation (SharePoint Server 2010)

Plan for using themes (SharePoint Server 2010)

Plan top level sITe collections and sITes, and record decisions about sITe themes and navigation.

Term sets planning worksheet(http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=163486)

Plan managed metadata (SharePoint Server 2010)

Determine basic taxonomy, including term, usage, owner, and group.

Upgrade worksheet (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=179928)

Plan and prepare for upgrade (SharePoint Server 2010)

Record information about your environment while you prepare for upgrade.

Part 3 will focus on Video demos & trainings for SharePoint Server 2010, till then have a great time !!!

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SharePoint 2010: Importing Taxonomy Using the Managed Metadata Import File

Taxonomy managed in another tool outside of the SharePoint environment may be imported into SharePoint 2010 (newssITe). Although Terms and Term Sets can be created manually using the functionalITy provided by the Term Store Management Tool, a significantly simpler approach to taxonomy creation is through importation.

Read full story…

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Planning & Architecture for SharePoint Server 2010: Part 1

So your ready for SharePoint Server 2010? To help you in proper planning & archITecture design I have put together the information to develop conceptual, logical, and physical designs for configuring SharePoint Server 2010 features, servers, and topologies. This post also provides recommendations for system designs based on customer scenarios and includes information to help IT pros design a highly reliable, consistently available, and scalable system.

Part 1 of this post will cover the downloadable resources in the form of Technical Diagrams, Planning worksheets, video demos & trainings to get you started. So lets dive in to the first topic:

Technical Diagrams:

Many of these resources are visual representations of recommended solutions. They include poster-sized documents available in formats including Microsoft Office Visio 2007 or Microsoft Visio 2010 files (.vsd), PDF files, and XPS files. You might need extra software to view these files.

SharePoint 2010 Product Deployment:

Presents such deployment-related information as the different deployment stages and environments, plus a flowchart that illustrates the steps for installing and configuring SharePoint 2010 Products.

Visio (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=183024)

PDF (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=183025)

XPS (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=183026)

Services in SharePoint 2010 Products:

Describes and illustrates the services archITecture, including and common ways to deploy services in your overall solution design.

Visio (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=167090)

PDF (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=167092)

XPS (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=167091)

Cross-farm Services in SharePoint 2010 Products:

Illustrates how to deploy services across farms to provide centralized administration of services.

Visio (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=167093)

PDF (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=167095)

XPS (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=167094)

Topologies for SharePoint Server 2010:

Describes common ways to build and scale farm topologies, including planning which servers to start services on.

Visio (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=167087)

PDF (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=167089)

XPS (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=167088)

Extranet Topologies for SharePoint 2010 Products

Illustrates the specific extranet topologies that have been tested wITh SharePoint 2010 Products. Provides a comparison of ISA Server, Forefront TMG, Forefront UAG when used as a firewall or gateway product wITh SharePoint 2010 Products.

Visio (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=187987)

PDF (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=187988)

XPS (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=187986)

Hosting Environments in SharePoint 2010 Products:

Summarizes the support for hosting environments and illustrates common hosting archITectures.

Visio (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=167084)

PDF (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=167086)

XPS (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=167085)

Search Technologies for SharePoint 2010 Products:

Compares and contrasts the search technologies that work wITh SharePoint Products 2010:

  • SharePoint Foundation 2010
  • Search Server 2010 Express
  • Search Server 2010
  • SharePoint Server 2010
  • FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint

Visio (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=167731)

PDF (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=167733)

XPS (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=167732)

Search Environment Planning for SharePoint Server 2010:

Walks through primary archITecture design decisions for search environments.

Visio (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=167734)

PDF (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=167736)

XPS (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=167735)

Search ArchITectures for SharePoint Server 2010:

Details the physical and logical archITecture components that make up a search system and illustrates common search archITectures.

Visio (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=167737)

PDF (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=167739)

XPS (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=167738)

Design Search ArchITectures for SharePoint Server 2010:

Walks through the inITial design steps to determine a basic design for a SharePoint Server 2010 search archITecture.

Visio (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=167740)

PDF (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=167742)

XPS (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=167741)

Business ConnectivITy Services Model:

Microsoft Business ConnectivITy Services are a set of services and features in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 and Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 that support integrating data from external systems into solutions based on Microsoft SharePoint Server and Microsoft SharePoint Foundation. This model poster describes the archITecture of Microsoft Business ConnectivITy Services in SharePoint Server 2010 and provides information about how to create solutions that are based on the service.

Visio (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=165565)

PDF (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=136956)

XPS (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=165571)

Content Deployment in SharePoint Server 2010:

Describes the content deployment feature in SharePoint Server 2010. IT includes information about the following:

  • Overview of content deployment
  • Description of content deployment paths and jobs
  • When to use content deployment
  • Alternatives to content deployment
  • Illustrates common content deployment farm topologies
  • Illustrates and explains the overall content deployment Process

Visio (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=179391&clcid=0×409)

PDF (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=179523&clcid=0×409)

XPS (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=179524&clcid=0×409)

SharePoint Server 2010 Upgrade Planning:

Covers planning for an upgrade from Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 to SharePoint Server 2010. IT includes information about the following:

  • Upgrade requirements: Hardware, operating system, and database
  • Upgrade process: specific steps to follow before, during, and after the upgrade

Visio (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=167098)

PDF (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=167099)

XPS (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=167100)

SharePoint Server 2010 Upgrade Approaches:

Helps you understand the in-place, database attach, and hybrid approaches to upgrading from Office SharePoint Server 2007 to SharePoint Server 2010.

  • See the farm topologies before, during, and after upgrade
  • Compare the advantages of each type of upgrade approach

Visio (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=167101)

PDF (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=167102)

XPS (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=167103)

SharePoint Server 2010 – Test Your Upgrade Process:

Explains the methodology for testing the upgrade Process before upgrading from Office SharePoint Server 2007 to SharePoint Server 2010.

  • Understand the goals for testing your upgrade process: customizations, hardware, timing, planning
  • See specific steps to follow for testing your upgrade Process

Visio (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=167104)

PDF (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=167105)

XPS (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=167106)

SharePoint Server 2010 – Services Upgrade:

Covers upgrading services from Office SharePoint Server 2007 to SharePoint Server 2010.

  • Considerations for specific services: Personalization, Search, InfoPath Forms, Excel, Business Data Catalog, Single Sign-on
  • In-place upgrade wITh services
  • Database attach upgrade wITh services

Visio (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=167107)

PDF (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=167108)

XPS (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=167109)

SharePoint Server 2010 – Upgrade Parent and Child Farms:

Covers the Process for and considerations to keep in mind when you upgrade farms that share services (parent and child farms).

Visio (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=190984)

PDF (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=190985)

XPS (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=190986)

Getting Started wITh Business Intelligence in SharePoint Server 2010:

Covers an overview of business intelligence in SharePoint Server and provides you wITh the following information.

  • An overview of each business intelligence service and when you might use the service.
  • ArchITecture for application of the business intelligence services and how they work together in a topology.
  • A list of possible data sources for each business intelligence service.

Visio (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=167082)

PDF (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=167170)

XPS (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=167171)

Databases that support SharePoint 2010 Products:

Describes the Microsoft SQL Server databases on which SharePoint Server 2010 runs.

Visio (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=187970)

PDF (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=187969)

XPS (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=187971)

 

Part 2 coming soon.

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Path to User Profile Synchronization success in SharePoint 2010 Beta

Before we get into the deep details, I want to share a high-level checklist to setup User Profile syncing on Windows Server 2008.  Once the WCF hotfix for Windows Server 2008 R2 is available, this guidance will work on R2.  This checklist is for beta only – we plan to improve how this works by RTM. 

- Check that your system meets minimum requirements: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262485(office.14).aspx
- Start with a clean OS install
- Check that the WCF hotfix is installed http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkID=160770
- Check that you have done a “Complete” install of SharePoint Server 2010
- Check that the setup/farm admin account has “Replicating directory changes” in your test domain
- Use the farm configuration wizard to setup all the service applications and successfully create a site collection
- Check that statistics (i.e. Number of User Profiles, etc.) appear on the User Profile Service Application page
- Start the User Profile Synchronization Service and status changes to “Started” – this can take some time and this will configure and start the Forefront Identity services for you (do not try to manually set the logon credentials and start the service)
- Setup an Active Directory Connection
- Start a full Profile import 

Now onto the full details to setup the User Profile synching…

When using SharePoint 2010 Beta, if you need to synchronize bulk users and groups with AD or LDAP, you’d likely be using the user profile synchronization functionality in SharePoint. This functionality is the backbone to turning the profile store into a ‘person’ store with interesting information from AD/LDAP or BDC sources, including hierarchy and group information that can be used to drive functionality such as audiences or hierarchy driven business processes.

We’ve done an overhaul of this feature in 2010, which is also leading to some growing pains for us through the Beta. We’ve a set of steps that you can follow to successfully bring users and groups into the profile store, and despite the fun and temptation of playing, we highly recommend you follow these steps.

For brevity, I am going to list the steps for AD only. In place of reading these steps as you go along, please give this a full read and then follow the steps. Note that quite a few of these steps are because of known issues in the Beta and we are working towards fixing them for RTM.

Prepping for Provisioning the User Profile Synchronization Service

1. After provisioning the User Profile Service Application, ensure that the service is running by going to the Manage Services on Server page in central admin, and if the User Profile service does not show as started, click start on User Profile Service. Do not try to start the User Profile “Synchronization” Service at this time (it’s listed right underneath the User Profile Service).

2. Permissions (for the account you are logged in as, when provisioning or configuring the user profile synchronization service)

a. In order to run the User Profile Synchronization service, you must be a farm admin. Running the user profile synchronization service requires a farm topology decision (where to run it and when), which is a farm admin operation across the SharePoint services platform.

b. Ensure that the farm admin running the farm timer job (typically the account you specified during install unless explicitly changed after install) is a local admin on the box where you are going to run the sync service.

c. This account should also be added to the user profile administrators with full control privileges.

d. While rare, please ensure that this account is not excluded by policy from being able to logon-locally on the machine where sync will be provisioned and run.

Provisioning the User Profile Synchronization Service

3. Now, start the User Profile Synchronization Service, by going to the Manage Services on Server page in central admin and clicking start on the User Profile “Synchronization” service. When you hit start, service will ask you to associate a User Profile Service Application with it, select the User Profile Service Application you created earlier and hit OK.

4. Wait a few minutes to allow for provisioning, verify that the User Profile Synchronization Service shows Started on the Manage Services on Server page, and then check the following items on the  machine where the sync service is running

a. Run services.msc and check if the windows services “Forefront Identity Manager Synchronization Service” and “Forefront Identity Manager Service” are running. Do not start them here manually.

b. Check the folder %Programfiles%\Microsoft Office Servers \14.0\Synchronization Service\MaData to see if there are two subfolders \ILMMA and \MOSS-XYZ (where XYZ is the name of your user profile service application). These folders will be empty at this time.

5. Issue an IISReset on the machine where user profile sync service was provisioned.

Prepping for Connection Creation

6. Before you proceed with creating connections to bring data in, it’s good to pause and spec out what containers you’d be selecting for your connection, where the users are, where the groups are etc. It’s important to get the connections right, before kicking-off sync. We highly recommend that you spec one connection per forest and do not create multiple connections to the same forest.

7. In order to be able to sync with AD, you need to have an account that can be used to call AD and identify what has changed since a given time (in other words, an account that is capable of reading the AD change log). This right is called “Replicate Directory Changes” in AD lingo. This right does not allow for writing or modification of AD objects. You’d need this account name and password when you create a connection. This account can be the same or different than the farm or UPA admin account. Please do not proceed without having an account with these rights, even if you don’t plan to do incremental synchronization. This AD right is required for both full and incremental sync.

Creating a Connection

8. To create a connection with your AD source, you must logon locally on the central admin box. User the Configure Synchronization Connections link in the user profile service central admin page for connection creation.

9. Majority of the items on the connection creation page are intuitive. Specify the fully qualified domain name for the forest, and specify the DC. Ensure that both the forest and the DC are directly reachable from the machine where you provisioned the user profile sync service.

10. You’d likely leave the Authentication provider type to “Windows Auth”.

11. Right below the authentication provider fields, you’d see the account name and password fields for the AD account you procured in step 7.

12. Select Populate Containers and carefully chose the right containers for your connection. For example, find out which containers have the users, if you don’t want to bring in anything else. We have some trouble with this control in IE8, so press F12, and select IE7 in the dev tools window that pops up.

13. If you had additional connections to create, create them all now.

Configure Users or Users and Groups

14. Based on the numbers of users and groups in your system, it can take much longer to sync users and groups, then syncing users only. So to get you started, we’ve provided for a Users-only option under Configure Synchronization Settings link. Select Users-only for the first full run.

Additional Settings

15. We don’t cover the details in this blog, but you can setup additional property mappings and filters at this time, if absolutely needed. If you can live without filtering out data or mapping specific custom properties, it might be best to proceed without them.

Running Sync

16. At this point, you can go to Start Profile Synchronization, select Start Full Synchronization and click ok. Depending upon the number of objects, the first full sync can take many hours to complete. We expect the performance to improve with RTM but after the first full sync, the incremental syncs should be much faster.

What to Expect Next

17. We have bunch of kinks to work out in the status that you see on the right side of the user profile service admin page. For example, if you see the number in the status going down, that means the sync run has just moved from one stage of synchronization to another and are now showing the number for that stage. We are also working on a tool to let you stop a bad run, but in the meantime, it’s not recommended that you stop a sync run brute force. This can get you in a tough state that requires special database-level steps to recover from.

18. If you are running sync for the first time, and you already have the User profile service live, for example users can use their MySites and Profiles, they might see changing organization charts as users come in and managers get attached. This should all clear up once the sync run is complete.

19. Along with the user number shown in the status, you can also search for a known profile or accounts that start with a known domain name in Manage User Profiles page. Note that you are going to not see any users listed here, but they are there, you just have to search for them.

Running Incremental Sync

20. Once the full sync step is complete, you can flip the “Users only” setting to “Users and Groups” and run an incremental sync (or schedule an incremental job).

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Make Your SharePoint Deployment a Success

How many times have you had an unsuccessful SharePoint deployment?  Being on consultant you would be surprised how many times I’ve heard a similar story to: "We have SharePoint, we installed it and because of [insert reason for failure here], it didn’t go well.  Will you come in and help us implament it correctly this time."

Well, recently Joel Oleson wrote an article for SharePoint Magazine entitled "Avoid Newbie Mistakes: 10 Steps to Successful SharePoint Deployments"

The 10 Steps Joel gives are:

  1. Confront Reality
  2. Create a Governance Plan
  3. Get an Exec Sponsor
  4. Create the Dream Team
  5. Build Services not Stuff
  6. Define Clear Policies and Standards
  7. Invest in a Scalable Information Architecture
  8. Don’t forget Change Management
  9. Adoptoin is What Counts
  10. Keep it Simple

For all the details and Joel’s expanded explanation of all these points and how they assist with your SharePoint deployment.  Head over to SharePoint Magazine and check out his article.

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Using Local Accounts in a Development Environment with SharePoint 2010

If you haven’t already, you will soon get your hands on SharePoint 2010 and you will start to set up your development environments. If you are like me, you want to create a “Server Farm” but use local accounts for all your application pools and services. The reason is that you don’t want to add a lot of test accounts in your domain. But in SharePoint 2010 you can’t do this (unless you choose the standalone installation). SharePoint will show an error telling you that you have to use domain accounts in a server farm environment.
local.account

This is absolutely correct if you are setting up a production environment, but we are setting up a development environment and we want to use local accounts.

To overcome this, you can do the following: during the initial configuration you will use a domain account.
first.screen
After the installation is complete open up regedit. And browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\14.0\WSS and change the value of ServerRole from APPLICATION to SINGLESERVER.
registry
Once you have done this, run stsadm –o updatefarmcredentials to update the CentralAdmin account to a local account.
stsadm
From now on, SharePoint won’t warn you that you are using local accounts in a server farm environment. Configure all your application pool accounts and service accounts. To add new ManagedAccounts, select the security “tab” and then “Configure Managed Accounts”
manageAccounts
Then select “Register Managed Account”. Now you can add local accounts that you want to use for Application Pools and services.
Register.managed.account
To modify an application pool account, click the Central Administrations tab and “Configure Service Accounts”.
app.pool.account
Now you can select the application pool and one of your managed accounts.
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When you are done setting up all your accounts, make sure to set the ServerRole back to APPLICATION.

NOTE: This is potentially an unsupported way of accomplishing local accounts in a server farm installation - if you don’t feel comfortable doing this, take a look at this post from Neil 'The Doc' Hodgkinson.

 

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Microsoft SVP Chris Capossela Presents the 3 Pillars for Office 2010

In the wake of our coverage of last month's SharePoint Conference sessions, this is the sixth in a series of posts documenting the keynotes and sessions I attended at the Microsoft "Airlift" event for Office 2010.  This four-day event took place in Seattle during the first week of June, was open to participants in Microsoft's Technical Adoption Program (TAP), and in essence took the form of a mini-SharePoint Conference.

Day two of the Airlift began with a keynote from Chris Capossela, SVP, Information Worker Product Management Group.  Revealing the three pillars for 2010 as being user experience, IT choice (i.e., cost savings, on premise, online service), and business platform (i.e., SharePoint), Chris explained that these three pillars will be the focus of marketing initiatives and whitepapers explicating the buying proposition for 2010.

SharePoint-specific investments described included: built-in resource governors  (especially important for SharePoint Online); deeper operational insight into users, processes, etc.; improved Central Admin User Experience; LINQ and REST support; new client APIs; more events; SharePoint Workspace for workflows; Web Services; and read/write LOB access.

The SharePoint-centric demo was performed on Firefox, with Chris explaining that Firefox is treated as a "tier one" browser in SharePoint 2010.  The demo included the Ribbon and the in-line Web Edit, complete with an Office-style preview and, my previously noted single favorite feature of SharePoint 2010, the undo button.  Once the edits made during the live demo were complete, the edited-in-Firefox finished page was also shown in Safari and IE.

Also shown was the embedded-in-IE Silverlight player for video playback.  Windows 7 users will be able to enjoy the included support for HD video.

Elements of the enhanced integration of Office with SharePoint were also demonstrated, with PowerPoint Services now embedded for viewing and editing of presentations in SharePoint.  Design themes can now be saved from PowerPoint to SharePoint site (as a theme) and, once saved to the site, are available for one-click application to your SharePoint site.

Search enhancements were shown, with custom filters appearing as available in the search results pane, with options to refine further (by file type, author, etc.).  As well, people related to the search results are surfaced.  While demonstrating search, Chris also showed the phonetic spelling functionality, especially handy when searching for someone whose name you don't know how to spell.

Chris wrapped up the keynote by discussing some of the SharePoint 2010“>social improvements, and brief demos of SharePoint 2010“>SharePoint Mobile, and SharePoint Workspace.  Note: All hyperlinks in the previous sentence link to detailed reports on the Airlift sessions dedicated to those particular topics.

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