SharePoint Tips and Tricks - RealSharePoint.com

4/24/2009

FLASH: Microsoft Reveals that Common STSADM Command Can Corrupt Content DB's

Microsoft just released a knowledge base article that will likely send shivers down the backs of SharePoint administrators around the globe. According to Microsoft, the STSADM command MergeContentDB may fail when attempted on a site collection bigger than 10GB. Not exactly comforting news. But the really scary part is that running the command for collections over 10GB can cause both the source and the destination databases to become corrupted. (Ughh.)

Here's what Microsoft had to say:

"Under certain circumstances, the STSADM MergeContentDB command may fail in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. These circumstances include combinations of significant site collection size, user traffic, and SQL Server load. When the STSADM MergeContentDB command fails, both the source and destination databases can be corrupted."

It's not fun to hear that an STSADM command regularly used by admins can corrupt Content DB's. But it does speak to the importance of having a powerful SharePoint backup and recovery solution, so you can restore your data swiftly and with full fidelity should corruption occur. And in case you're looking for such a solution, I happen to have the inside scoop on the most powerful and cost-effective solution in the industry.

Posted at 4:10 PM by Tucker Hall | Category: Backup and Recovery; SharePoint Tips and Tricks; SharePoint News | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

3/26/2009

Suite 2.0 - Old Thinking vs. New Realities

Storage Decision recently published an article on application-specific backup tools that has caused me to do some thinking. The more I thought about the article and its framing, the more I realized it represents an old, outdated way of thinking. Here’s what I mean…

Let’s face it, SharePoint is a disruptive technology…and it’s not alone. Gazing into the technology horizon, it’s easy to discern that the world is moving ever-onward toward continually disruptive technologies. New terms like “Enterprise 2.0”, “Web 2.0” and “Cloud Computing” seem to enter the community lexicon almost daily. It’s a wonderful thing, and speaks to our continuing innovation. But it also speaks to a fundamental change in the way we must think about our technology solutions.

These emerging technologies have two things in common: First, the technologies themselves are empowering end-users to generate and share original content at an unprecedented scale. This is an unabashedly good thing. The second common feature of these technologies results from the first, but is not so wonderful: Across the board, these technologies require complex backend architectures, server arrays, and systems configurations to operate. This means that – though the end-user is empowered – administrators face a whole new world of complexity with regard to backend management. Consequently, the quaint terms, nice little boxes, and silo-styled thinking that the IT world has used to classify technologies are no longer accurate. A great example of this is common use of the terms “Point Solution” and “Suite”. The way today’s less inspired media uses these terms reveals how little they actually understand the changing reality of technology generally, and the evolution of platform solutions in particular.

In contrast to the Storage Decision article, I would argue that any “backup-only” solution – regardless of the number of disparate platforms it protects - is actually the new “point solution”. A solution that only delivers backup, even if it does so across a handful of platforms, cannot be classified as a suite. Rather, it is a point solution for backup, and that’s all.

This is primarily because the multiple platforms these “backup-only suite solutions” claim to protect have become so unique and complex, the multi-platform solution is incapable of delivering adequate functionality for any particular one of them. The smart “backup-only” vendors have realized this, and have started adding archiving and other functions to their backup-point solutions. But without true expertise in the particular platform and its complexities, it’s rarely – if ever - a best-of-breed solution.

The new “suite” approach is to take a complex platform, truly understand its usage and its infrastructure requirements, and build a product to fully address its needs in all their nuance and complexity. This approach leads to the creation of a full menu of best-of-breed, platform-specific products. This is the “suite” of the 21st century. Suite 2.0.

Marginally addressing a single concern (e.g. backup) across a handful of platforms is the new “point” solution. Point 2.0.

Comprehensively handling the infrastructure management requirements of a platform in all of its complexity – that’s a new suite.

The smart companies have realized this. To see this you only have to look as far as IBM and their very recent restructuring of the Tivoli sales organization. IBM, like most companies stuck in the old way of thinking, used to have storage experts that targeted the storage administrators responsible for doing backup, and tried to sell backup-only solutions to them. But IBM realized that with the dawn of platforms like SharePoint, the decision-making landscape was changing. When IBM’s salespeople talked to prospects about

SharePoint, the storage admin was no longer involved in the backup management decision. It was now the Windows application people and the SharePoint team running the show. And it was these same folks who were also making decisions about platform architecture, archiving, configuration, security management, system look and feel, etc. So IBM restructured their sales team to reflect the new reality. No longer would IBM’s backup experts target storage admins – but rather they would have platform management experts target the application admins. Today, IBM leverages enterprise sales reps that know the platform, and they sell “suites” of solutions that meet multiple needs across a single platform. No longer are they trying to sell a single backup platform for multiple systems, but instead have appreciated the unique, integrated needs of the platform as a whole, and approach the platform admins saying, “Oh, you’re using that system. Well, look at all the things we can do for it.”

This is a telling story when considering SharePoint backups. To simply say that SharePoint data protection involves only database backups fundamentally misunderstands the concerns of today’s SharePoint administrator. Saying database backups are sufficient to adequately protect the platform shows a clear lack of understanding of SharePoint, how it is used, and how it is deployed. A single SharePoint content database can have hundreds of sites, each with very different use and very different requirements and service level agreements. Some can be highly business-critical and some less so. If the business-criticality of Site A demands hourly backups, and Site B demands weekly backups, is it realistically adequate to leverage a solution that can’t discern between sites? No one is going to backup the entire database every hour! Several of the so-called “suite” solutions referenced in the Storage Decision article advertise that they can do item-level restores from a database backup, but how many of them can do item-level backup? The answer is they can’t, so how protected is the platform?

And what about all the customizations, webparts, and features that are integral components of those sites, but that aren’t part of the database and sit on the web or app servers? It only takes one disaster for companies to realize how critical these componansts are. How many of these so-called “suite Solutions” can backup anything outside the content database? The answer? None.

"Suite" isn’t exactly the right term for these solutions, is it?

And that’s just the backup side. Today’s "Suite 2.0" delivers all of the infrastructure management solutions an SP admin needs to protect, optimize, and manage his or her deployment. That’s a Suite 2.0 solution, not a point solution.

AvePoint’s DocAve is comprised of 20 different modules, each independently deployable yet fully integrated into a unified platform. Together, they handle everything from backup and restore, high availability, centralized configuration and security management, content management and restructuring, data synchronization and replication, archiving, auditing, eDiscovery, monitoring, reporting and analytics, and migration from legacy data sources. This is no point solution. I’d argue that DocAve is the true suite here, and that people who are used to the old terminologies—where one specific function (like backup), marginally performed across multiple platforms was considered a suite—are going to have to comprehend the type of suites today's administrators demand. Suite 2.0. It’s a new world, with a new perspective. The old ways of thinking and discussing platform solutions no longer hold. It’s about time the media started realizing it.

Posted at 6:20 PM by Tony Lanni | Category: Events and Happenings; SharePoint News; Backup and Recovery; Administration; DocAve Tips and Tricks; SharePoint Tips and Tricks | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

3/18/2009

Managing User Permissions in SharePoint

A few days ago I attended a talk on SharePoint best practices, given by Joel Oleson at the Chicago MTC. Joel definitely knows his SharePoint! (He was the first SharePoint admin when Microsoft first released the product internally for development & testing.)

One of the topics of the discussion was "best practices for SharePoint scalability", an important concept considering the adoption rate of a new SharePoint deployment at most companies. Joel mentioned that the most scalable objects in SharePoint are site collections. You can have in excess of 150,000 site collections, while the recommended limit for top-level sites is only 125! The downside to having hundreds of thousands of site collections is that users are managed at a site collection level. So what happens when you need to add a user to a bunch of your site collections at once? Without a third-party management tool for SharePoint, you'd have to log-in to each site collection and add the user manually. Joel recommended the use of third party tools (such as DocAve) to overcome the limitations of the native SharePoint administrative interface. Using DocAve's central admin interface, you can add or remove a user or group of users from multiple site collections at the same time, saving lots of time! Check out this TechNet article to learn more about planning for SharePoint scalability. And be sure to keep tabs on Joel's blog, where insights and info can always be found.

Posted at 6:29 PM by AVEPOINT\Michael.Shine | Category: Administration; Deployment Architecture; SharePoint Tips and Tricks; Events and Happenings | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (1)

3/13/2009

Microsoft's Michael Gannotti Podcasts About DocAve

If you're a fan of SharePoint you've probably heard of Michael Gannotti, one of the most highly regarded experts in the SharePoint community. As a Senior Technology Specialist at Microsoft, he keeps a pretty close eye on trends in the SharePoint multi-verse. Michael's blog is one of the most popular on the web, and his podcast, Mikey's Tech Talk is a great weekly resource for the latest in SharePoint tips and trends.

Recently, Michael podcasted about AvePoint and DocAve. He had recently seen a demo of the product, and had some pretty intersting things to say. It's a great episode, so be sure to check it out here.

Posted at 3:29 PM by Tucker Hall | Category: DocAve Tips and Tricks; Migration; SharePoint News; Events and Happenings; SharePoint Tips and Tricks | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

3/4/2009

New White Paper: Optimizing SharePoint Data Access using Intelligent Replication

For those of you managing SharePoint deployments that serve a geographically-distributed pool of knowledge workers, AvePoint just published an informative white paper that discusses how to make sure geo-dispersed end users can collaborate at optimal levels.

The paper first defines the objectives any successful data-access optimization strategy must meet.

Then it analayzes the various deployment architectures an organization can implemenent, highlighting the common pitfalls and barriers associated with each. (Stuff like limited or intermittent network connectivity, event conflicts, and so on.) Finally, it reviews "best practice" approaches for delivering continuous SharePoint data access. It's a great read for anyone trying to develop a system by which their geographically distributed end-users can collaborate unfettered.

If this is you, be sure to read AvePoint's newest white paper: Optimizing Data Access with Intelligent SharePoint Replication.

Posted at 5:29 PM by Tucker Hall | Category: SharePoint Tips and Tricks; Deployment Architecture | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

2/20/2009

Hey New England! Learn How to Maximize Your SharePoint Investment!

Are you looking to squeeze every penny of value from your SharePoint deployment?

Are you going to be anywhere near Waltham, MA this coming Tuesday, February 24th?

Then we have the event for you...

Vitale Caturano - New England's largest technology consulting firm - is presenting another of its premiere "Focus Series" events. This one-day, info-packed session will review how to maximize your SharePoint investment in today's marketplace, with a keynote delivered by Mauro Cardarelli, author of Essential SharePoint 2007 and Director of Portals & Collaboration at Vitale Caturano.

At this event, you can:

• Learn from industry-leader AvePoint how to maximize your SharePoint ROI

• Validate the health of your SharePoint environment with a "SharePoint health checklist"

• Learn how to leverage Silverlight to take your SharePoint sites to the “next level”

• See how Microsoft Virtual Earth and your SharePoint data can show your corporate data in a whole new way

• Join Hi Software to discuss how to ensure the information you put into your SharePoint environment is secure and compliant

• Join FAST Search to discuss the next generation of enterprise search and how it can help you recover, discover, and uncover corporate assets

• Hear a SharePoint customer tell how her organization has made SharePoint business critical… and how they manage user expectations

• Bring questions to our panel of SharePoint experts and get the answers you need

• Mingle and connect with other local SharePoint users

Here's the day's agenda...

Wednesday - January 28th, 2009

8:30am Registration

9:00am Keynote

10:00am Break Out sessions

11:00am Break Out sessions

12:00pm - 1:00pm Lunch& Networking

1:00 - 2:00pm Customer Success Story

2:00 - 3:00pm Break Out sessions

3:00 - 4:00pm Panel Discussion with SharePoint experts

So if you're plannig on being in the area, be sure to join us for this dynamic event. For more info and to sign up, visit www.vitale.com/sharepoint.

Posted at 1:35 PM by Tucker Hall | Category: Events and Happenings; SharePoint News; SharePoint Tips and Tricks | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

2/19/2009

How Granularity can Further Optimize Data Replication

So I have a distributed farm topology, spread out across various different locations around the globe. I’m replicating content across the pipe, so that each farm receives a copy of the most updated content, and local users can simply access their local farms to retrieve this content. All is fine and dandy, but how can I further optimize this process? Even if replication processes are executed incrementally, do I still want to propagate over everything? What if only access permissions were changed? For example, our employee manuals are not frequently update on our HR site, yet they are replicated to the respective local farms. However, with multiple changes in HR personnel, the securities and access permissions are updated more frequently than the largely static content.

This is where granularity plays a big part when designing an optimal replication plan. You would want to take into consideration the frequency of change of the content, the access permissions, and the associated configurations. What if you only wanted to replicated over updated content types? With an appropriate replication solution that allows you to granularly AND independently select what needs to be replicated over, you will have full control. Not only will this further minimize your bandwidth consumption, but you will be streamlining your replication process to only propagate the assets that need to be moved over.

Posted at 9:26 PM by Andrew Yeung | Category: Administration; Deployment Architecture; SharePoint Tips and Tricks | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

2/18/2009

Got Bandwidth? Controlling the Network Pipe While Optimizing Data Access

I presented a session on SharePoint replication at the SharePoint Technology Conference in Burlingame, CA a few weeks back. Why replication, you ask? After all, SharePoint works fine as a centralized deployment – or so you thought. Just like any “high touch interaction” platform, reliable access is necessary to enhance the overall experience of end users as they collaborate amongst each other. After all, SharePoint is not like any other application. It’s not as heavyweight as SAP or Oracle and is meant to empower all knowledge workers – not just superusers. And because SharePoint is an online platform, end users expect response times to be similar to other common online sites, such as google, Amazon.com, or even facebook. The problem, however, is that most usage of SharePoint is content heavy, and hence reliability is heavily dependent on the network pipe. Whenever your platform is dependent on your network, you must pay attention to: latency, contention, and congestion.

A lady who attended my session had the perfect, and most common scenario. Her SharePoint farm is based out of the continental U.S. (I don’t completely recall where – I think it was New Mexico). While most of her users are local, she has a research team out in Afghanistan that needs to access SharePoint and collaborate with the rest of the group. Not surprising, she’s got some really frustrated users out there in Afghanistan because of the poor reliability when trying to access SharePoint. To make matters worse, there is no local administrator or IT staff that will be able to better manage a localized platform out there. One option that she’s considering is to physically go out there to set up and manage a SharePoint environment, but for obvious reasons, that’s not real high on her checklist.

A more effective, and simpler solution would be to replicate content over to a small SharePoint deployment out there. By replicating content over, these remote sites will have the reliable access that they need when they access their own local farm. However, the question still remains – how can you more optimally manage the bandwidth you are consuming while replicating the content over? The answer is to leverage replication technology at the byte level, and to properly throttle the network bandwidth when needed. With byte level differencing, only content updates at the byte level are replicated over, so the minimum amount of bandwidth is used. With network throttling, depending on congestion on the network, administrators can determine how much bandwidth to set aside during certain hours of the day for replication. With these options, and many others, a properly managed replication solution will allow even the most distributed SharePoint audience to access information more effectively.

Posted at 9:33 PM by Andrew Yeung | Category: Administration; Deployment Architecture; SharePoint Tips and Tricks | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

2/9/2009

Organizing in SharePoint: Do You Folder or View?

As SharePoint adoption spreads through your organization (unless you're coming to SharePoint from another legacy document management system like Lotus Notes) you'll probably find that your SharePoint document libraries and task lists look a lot like the folder system your users used to keep on their desktop. Every project gets its own folder, every document type has it's own subfolder, and so on.

I should know, I still manage some old projects that way...

"I know where everything is!" is a wonderful way to justify the complex layout. But ask someone to step in for you on a vacation or a new project and you'd be lucky not to recieve a few calls while you're boarding a plane or enjoying the weather on the beach. Inevitably, if I leave my elaborate older structure in the hands of another, I come back to find things miscategorized or just lumped in one directory. Also, try and duplicate that layout on a new project and you'd find it hard to set it up the same way twice.

SharePoint library and list views is a powerful way to organize your content from the start, and to reorganize content once it's already loaded. With one table of metadata I can sort across projects, content types, audiences, or any other field tag. I've also found views a great way to interact with team members on projects, assigning projects using audience targeting (the most basic targeting being a filter where the "Assign To" column equals "[Me]"). Not to mention, it's very easy to create views and tagged lists as templates without including content for duplicating structure from project to project.

It's easy to get people in your company who are used file system structure to become SharePoint view users. The DocAve File System Migrator enables an option in the document library's "upload" drop-down menu that will allow your end-users to not just collapse a directory tree directly to the root of the Shared Documents library. It also has the added advantage of automatically tagging the data with the original directory location for easy creation of views.

If your users have already started cluttering SharePoint with folders, you can use the DocAve Content Manager to copy the contents of all subfolders to their parent to encourage organization. The simple SharePoint based method is to create views that use the "show all items without folders" (flat view) option under the "Folders" section (though this switch is easy to forget if you're creating a blank view). I also find the "group by" function a happy medium between a folder-system structure and a single list.

But beware! As wonderful as views can be, SharePoint never gives you a solution without presenting a problem. AS fate wouldhave it, you can't filter or sort a list by a column that allows multiple entries. This means you can't easily group or sort on a field that includes multiple assignees, sort by a "choice" field with multiple selections, etc. But I have founf that with enough views and extra filters, this problem is easily remedied.

Posted at 4:50 PM by John Hodges | Category: SharePoint Tips and Tricks; Migration; Administration | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

2/4/2009

Staying SharePoint-Focused in Sunny La Jolla, CA

It’s the final day of the Best Practices SharePoint Conference in La Jolla, CA. As expected, the early morning sessions were less crowded, or even sparse. Many attendees are walking around in their casual attire, hoping to make a last minute trip to the beach or the golf course before heading home. I’ll have to hand it to MindSharp – they organized one helluva event. Great sessions, great sponsors, great food, and very eager attendees hungry for classes to better their SharePoint-related skillsets. And mind you, this was all held at a location where the view of the Pacific Ocean, the sprawling golf course, and of course, the perfect weather could’ve easily distracted all of us from paying attention to the speakers. The only complaint I had was that I had to stay at the other end of town and it took forever to make it there.

The event kicked off early Monday morning with a standing room only keynote headlined by the man himself – Joel Oleson. Even though Joel is part of Quest Software, he’s still playing the SharePoint evangelist role. When he speaks, we all listen. In fact, his followup session appropriately titled “Avoiding Failed SharePoint Deployments and Chaos” was one of the most popular ones of the show. You can find his looong slide deck on slideshare. I especially liked his one slide that outlined the 10 Steps to SharePoint Success (talk about alliteration). It was definitely the perfect recipe for ensuring a successful deployment. If I may shamelessly replicate it here, the 10 steps Joel mentioned are:

Confront reality
Create a governance plan
Get an executive sponsor
Create a dream team
Build services, not stuff
Define clear policies and standards
Invest in scalable information architecture
Don't forget change/risk management
Adoption is what counts
Keep it simple stupid

Yes, there were tons of other content – developer-oriented, admin-oriented, even information worker or end user-oriented. But alas, amidst all the great presentations, great food, great conversations, and exhibitors, I think those 10 prescriptive steps provided attendees with a great foundation they could walk away with. This was a great SharePoint event to start 2009, and just like everyone else, I can’t wait for the next one.

Posted at 2:41 PM by Andrew Yeung | Category: Administration; Deployment Architecture; SharePoint News; SharePoint Tips and Tricks | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

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