Compliance - RealSharePoint.com

2/17/2009

Upcoming TechNet Webinar on Best Practices in SharePoint Administration

Ever wondered how much is it costing your organization in supporting your SharePoint environment? Or perhaps you are looking for ways to simplifying your deployment, to be able to achieve success with the constraints you are bound by. Check out this upcoming webinar on TechNet on “Best Practices in SharePoint Administration – Lower Admin Costs by Doing More with Less”. The key is really about doing more with less. In today’s economy, we all need to be wary of how we control, deploy, and protect our investments, so that we can realize the return that we are expecting. The same applies to SharePoint – successful implementation requires proper design, effective governance, continuous availability, and vigorous protection.

There are various cost drivers when deploying or management SharePoint. These could be IT productivity costs, infrastructure costs, or costs for safeguarding your environment. Without the appropriate support, your organization runs the risk of treating SharePoint just like another document repository, and that’s really not doing it justice. The last thing you want on SharePoint is an unmanaged environment with stale content, and unsatisfied users.

So, check it out. The webinar will be held live on Wednesday, February 25, 2009, at 10am PT. To register, simply click on this registration link.

Posted at 3:46 PM by Andrew Yeung | Category: Administration; Archiving; Backup and Recovery; Compliance; Events and Happenings | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (1)

1/22/2009

AvePoint Releases DocAve v5.1.1

Holding true to its reputation for delivering pioneering solution enhancements before the competition has even caught up with its last round, AvePoint has released DocAve v5.1.1 - which includes some pretty amazing upgrades to the DocAve v5 platform released last fall. Here's a quick rundown of the cool new gadgets and features you'll find in this latest release...

Real-time Extranet Replication

DocAve Replicator provides for both live and scheduled extranet synchronization. By enabling one-way and two-way replication over HTTP/HTTPS internet protocols, DocAve Replicator unburdens administrators from having to open additional ports in their firewall, or ensure that all replication agents are within the same network.

Administration Security Trimming, Dead-Account Detection/Deletion, One-Step Permissions Transfer

DocAve SharePoint Administrator now empowers SharePoint administrators to delegate security management to site collection administrators – providing them trimmed views of, and control over, only content and users for which they have been given appropriate permissions. Additionally, SharePoint Administrator now includes an automated dead-account recognition, transfer, and deletion utility. This powerful tool compares discrete SharePoint accounts with those present in Active Directory, and provides administrators with flexible options to handle asynchronous account events, including account deletion and permissions transfer to new accounts.

End-User Archiving and Comprehensive Archive Reporting

DocAve Extension Archiver now lets administrators empower their end-users with the ability to archive content directly within the SharePoint interface. Via the Site Actions menu within SharePoint, end-users can archive content for which they have permissions, enabling business-apprpriate archiving levels and optimal platform performance. Additionally, DocAve’s administrative report now provides comprehensive archiving information, including archived site size, number of items archived, and SQl storage re-patriation statistics.

Total EMC Centera Integration

Now EMC Centera users can leverage the solution’s potent du-duplication capabilities fully when managing DocAve archive and backup data. DocAve Backup and Recovery and Extension Archiver empower EMC Centera users to enable integrated de-duping of their DocAve archive and backup stores, to ensure optimal storage resource utilization.

XML-Based Mapping Profile Integration for Migrations

DocAve Migrator Suite lets administrators import and export XML mapping profiles to further streamline migration jobs requiring extensive mapping. Now administrators can edit profiles in any XML editor, upload the file into DocAve, and both manage and track the authored files via the DocAve interface.

To learn more about the DocAve v5.1.1 release and to download a fully-enabled trial version of the platform, check out the AvePoint website.

Posted at 11:26 AM by Tucker Hall | Category: Archiving; Backup and Recovery; Compliance; Deployment Architecture; Events and Happenings; SharePoint News; Migration; Administration; DocAve Tips and Tricks | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

9/9/2008

DocAve v5 Released!

The latest version of the DocAve Software Platform by AvePoint has been released to the public! This new and improved version has been re-worked from the ground up to make it the most robust and powerful suite of products available for SharePoint infrastructure management. The GUI has undergone tremendous changes from its predecessor, and users will now have the flexibility to protect SharePoint "in style" with the new navigation enhancements.

Along with the GUI, DocAve 5 offers new products such as Deployment Manager, the Automation Center for Data Protection (including the Criticality Matrix), migration from Lotus Notes, Real-time Replication, and several other enhancements to the original DocAve suite.

Check out your demo today!

Posted at 9:44 AM by John Hodges | Category: SharePoint News; Archiving; Backup and Recovery; Administration; Compliance; Events and Happenings; Migration; Deployment Architecture | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

7/29/2008

Moving Documents in SharePoint, and Metadata Corruption

I speak to a lot of SharePoint administrators who get very frustrated at SharePoint’s handling of metadata when they use the “Send To” option on documents or when they use “Open with Windows Explorer” from the Actions menu. To help sort out what these two native content management tools do to metadata, I decided to spend some quality time with my test server and map it all out. Here’s the result, my guide to SharePoint’s built-in content management tools.

Send To: This tool is available from the drop down menu on a document. It can be used to create an independent copy of the document in an alternate location in SharePoint. After selecting Send To from the drop down, a second screen comes up where you specify the location (with a test button) and decide whether or not to link it to the original with prompts and alerts. An important note here is that you CANNOT simply copy and paste a URL into the destination field. Copying and pasting the URL will give you a URL that looks something like:

…sites/sales/Shared%20Documents/Forms/AllItems.aspx?RootFolder=%2fsites%2fsales%2fShared%20Documents%2ffolder1CTID=&View=%7b67FE2A02%2d4AD9%2d4D3C%2d9817%2dB5FA2C4B338C%7d

If you paste this link in and click the test button, it will appear to work, but when you execute the send to it will fail. The URL needs to be in the format …sites/sales/shared documents/folder1

So what happens to the metadata when you run this tool? If the destination is within the same document library, the modified by and modified time on both the source and the destination file will be changed to the person who performed the send to at the time when it was run. The created by and created time will remain unchanged. An important note is even if the job fails and there is no destination document, the source document will have its modified info changed. This can be somewhat confusing because nothing was actually modified, and this seems to irk many administrators. Also, even if versioning is turned on, a new version of the document is not created and just the metadata of the latest version is changed.

If the destination is a different document library, even within the same site, the destination file will have its metadata altered—it will become created by whoever performed the send to at the time they ran it. Also, if a column does not exist in the destination, the metadata values for this column will not be carried over. The source file’s metadata will behave the same as if the copy were within the same document library as described above.

Open with Windows Explorer: This option is available from the actions menu in a document library. It can be used to either move or copy documents or folders to other locations in SharePoint. By default, this tool will move the documents or folders, but if you right click or use copy and paste you can copy instead of moving.

This tools handling of metadata is somewhat better than the send to tool. If you use move, and are moving within the same document library, no metadata will be altered. But that’s where the improvements end. If you move to another document library, either within the same site or to another site, the metadata will be altered— the creator will be whoever did the move, the created time will be when the move was done, and any metadata from any columns that do not exist at the destination will be gone. This is particularly a concern because move will delete the original and will not place a copy in the recycle bin. So that means the original metadata will be permanently lost, and is big worry for anyone with compliance concerns.

Using copy in Windows Explorer has similar behavior to send to, except that the source modified time is not altered— OK, so maybe that’s one more slight improvement over send to. So what this means is that if the copy is within the same document library, the destination will have its modified by and modified time changed; and if the move is to another document library, the destination will have its metadata altered and be created by the person doing the copying at the time they do the copy with metadata from columns that do not exist at the destination lost.

Summary: So as you can see, both tools are somewhat sloppy at handling metadata. While Windows Explorer offers some advantages at preserving metadata, it comes with the risk of permanently losing information. If you are truly concerned about preserving metadata when moving content, I’d suggest looking at the DocAve Content Manager tool. This third-party tool from AvePoint is part of the DocAve suite. It will preserve all metadata including configurations and securities when copying and restructuring content. And it doesn’t just focus on document libraries, but works at any level, from list items to site collections. The tool even allows sophisticated moves like copying entire sites from one farm to another, with the ability to promote or demote the site during the move. So if you have a site under one site collection and want to make it into its own site collection, either within the same web application, within the same farm, or to a new web app or new farm, this is definitely the tool for you.

Posted at 3:08 PM by Tony Lanni | Category: Administration; Compliance; SharePoint Tips and Tricks | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

7/14/2008

WSS/MOSS07 Auditing

Windows SharePoint Services & Office SharePoint Services 2007 Audit Feature

Windows SharePoint Services and Office SharePoint Server 2007 offer some basic auditing mechanisms; Office SharePoint Server 2007 supplies an administrative user interface that allows auditing configured at a site collection by site collection basis.

One limitation of Windows SharePoint Services is that it does not provide an out-of-the-box functionality to see entries that are written to the audit log. Instead, a developer must write code to enable the Windows SharePoint Services audit logging facility. A developer must also supply code and a user interface to read entries from the audit log and display this data to the site’s users.

In addition, Windows SharePoint Services and Office SharePoint Server 2007 do not offer a simple solution for generating audits at the item-level. Microsoft does have a custom solution that demonstrates how to display a report on the audit log entries that are associated with a single item in a list or a single document in a document library. The Item Auditing feature is designed with its activation scope set at the site collection level only.

A series of steps must be followed in order to implement this custom solution. Implementing the solution requires the download of the MOSSSampleItemLevelAuditing.exe file. The process also involves following a set of instructions to get a Visual Studio 2005 project set up.

The Item-Level Auditing solution consists of the following requirements:

A Windows SharePoint Services feature named Item Auditing
Two application pages named AuditLogViewer.aspx and ItemAudit.aspx
A custom handler named AuditLogWorkbook.ashx
An assembly named ItemAuditing.dll

Once these items are in place you will be able to enable the auditing feature at the site collection. You will also be able to display the information from the audit log to site user administrators with the creation of the custom application page AuditLogViewer.aspx.

Keep in mind that unlike site pages (such as default.aspx), a custom application page is deployed once per server farm and cannot be customized on a site-by-site basis.

Posted at 1:39 PM by Mario Carvajal | Category: Compliance; Administration | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

What's real about SharePoint governance?

I just started familiarizing myself with this blogging interface, which, as most of you realize immediately, is built on SharePoint. Yes, the tool's definitely got the feature set it needs, but let's be honest, it's really not as straightforward as we would like. I'm able to post a few initial blog entries on my first attempts, but boy did it take me a while to figure out what needed I needed to do. Even as I requested some SharePoint assistance from our helpdesk folks, it seems like this is definitely gonna be one platform that's gonna give us our share of trials and tribulations.

If you've had any similar love-hate experiences with SharePoint, trust me, you are not alone. It's no secret that SharePoint's complex architecture and flexible, de-centralized approach can lead to sprawling across your organization. I've seen customers with no ownership or accountability and no well thought out deployment strategy. There are others that have not probably planned for growth and capacity. And then there are those that just have figured out the practical solutions that all these built-in functions in SharePoint can provide.

Let's face it, a successful SharePoint deployment strategy requires governance, and governance requires forethought and planning. Without it, your SharePoint footprint won't be able to sustain further growth than it already has, and your organization might very well end up with just another online fileshare, or worst yet, an empty portal. SharePoint's got much to give, but before you taketh, you better make sure you got what it takes to realize that return on investment. Otherwise, I just might see you at the doctor's office looking for some badly needed SharePoint therapy.

Posted at 9:12 AM by Andrew Yeung | Category: Administration; Deployment Architecture; Compliance | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

6/30/2008

Best of TechEd 2008 Winners Announced!

The folks at Windows IT Pro and SQL Server Magazine recently announced the winners of the Best of Tech Awards. Here are the winners from the SharePoint-related categories...

Best SharePoint Product
The winner in this category is the AvePoint DocAve Software Platform. SharePoint use is exploding, and the DocAve Software Platform provides an integrated environment for SharePoint management, disaster recovery, and real-time backup. A free discovery tool helps you find SharePoint installations in your enterprise , and a consistent user interface make managing all of these features a snap.

Messaging
The winner is Azaleos OneServer Virtual Edition, with features ranging from its polished interface to its wealth of management and analysis options. If you’re looking to virtualize your Exchange environment, Azaleos OneServer Virtual Edition is a good place to start.

Productivity and Collaboration
Giving users access to company information on the road is essential, and Colligo Contributor Pro allows users to access and edit SharePoint content both online and offline. A handy Colligo add-in for Outlook also makes publishing SharePoint content as easy as dragging and dropping an email from one screen location to another. For all these reasons—and more—Colligo Contributor Pro is the winner in the Productivity and Collaboration category.

Posted at 5:44 PM by Tucker Hall | Category: Events and Happenings; Administration; Archiving; Backup and Recovery; Compliance; Deployment Architecture; Migration; SharePoint News | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

6/5/2008

Welcome to RealSharePoint!

Thanks for joining us! Our goal at RealSharePoint is to build a dynamic online forum where SharePoint users and Admins of all stripes can discuss, learn, collaborate, and exhange knowledge about the coolest platform on the planet.

SharePoint has become the fastest growing product in Microsoft history, and we (more about who "we" are in a minute) knew it was time to create an online home for the brightest minds to discuss SP's evolution, exhange technical expertise, and deliver straight-forward, reliable assistance to the greater SharePoint community.

Now, who are we? Full Disclaimer: We are a handful of staff at AvePoint, an infrastructure management software provider for SharePoint Products and Technolologies. As many of you are probably aware, we have been in the SharePoint game for quite a while. Our flagship software product - DocAve - delivers Backup & Recovery, HA, Administration, Replication, and Migration solutions for SP. (One final plug, we just won "Best of Tech Ed" at Tech 2008! Whoohoo! Ok that's it, I'm done plugging the company.)

In the interest of full disclosure, we think it's important we let it be known who's behind this forum. But in all honesty, promoting our product (or our company) is not what we created this for. RealSharePoint is our way to further connect with the amazing and dynamic SP community. To be a part of the conversation. With RealSharePoint.com we hope to create a place where ideas can be exchanged. Where bugs can be debugged. Where hurdles can be hurdled. (or does one "dehurdle" a hurdle? Anyhoo, I digress.) To put it simply: We really adore SharePoint, and we want to learn from and share with others who feel the same.

Over the next several weeks, we will be building out this site with additional blogs (dedicated to specific SharePoint concerns and quanderies), lots of discussion forums, webinars, industry whitepapers, videos, and SharePoint/techie event highlights. So welcome! Keep checking into RealSharePoint.com, and help our new community flourish!

Posted at 10:47 PM by Tucker Hall | Category: SharePoint News; Events and Happenings; Administration; Archiving; Backup and Recovery; Compliance; Deployment Architecture; Migration | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)