Clinic 10279: What's New in Microsoft SharePoint 2010 for IT Professionals
Intro - It describes improvements to the ui, and central admin, features that help you monitor your SP ste such as largelist resource throttling, Unattched Content DB Recovery, and the SP best practices analyzer.
Microsoft SharePoint 2010 is designed to give organizations a rich online experience for collaboration, document management, and information sharing. As an IT professional, it is important to recognize the new features of SharePoint 2010, how these features are managed, and what they can do for your organization. This course describes many of the new features found in SharePoint 2010 and how they can be configured and used.
Lesson Introduction
SharePoint 2010 brings with it a number of changes from the previous versions. In order to understand SharePoint 2010, it is important to learn some of the fundamentals of the platform, such as requirements for installing SharePoint 2010 and what versions of Microsoft SQL Server are supported with SharePoint 2010. This will help you plan out your SharePoint 2010 environments or see if your current SharePoint 2007 environment will support an upgrade. In addition, understanding the benefits of SharePoint as a platform will help you understand how the program can be used to benefit the organization and get the maximum return on investment.
Lesson Objectives
After completing this lesson, you will be able to:
- Explain the value proposition of SharePoint 2010.
- Describe the features and benefits of SharePoint 2010.
- Describe features of the new Central Administration console.
- Describe how Shared Application Architecture can be used for flexible deployments
SharePoint 2010 is here, and it brings with it a great deal of value to organizations that utilize it. It is important for administrators to understand the value proposition that SharePoint 2010 delivers because they will likely be responsible for the settings that allow the many features of SharePoint to be utilized. The information below will help you understand the value that SharePoint can bring to an organization.
The following table describes the six major components of SharePoint 2010.
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IT professionals can increase productivity and share information faster than ever before with the new capabilities of SharePoint 2010, including the new fluent user interface (UI) or Ribbon interface. New Web parts, real-time editing previews, lists, and document libraries have all been improved to allow information to be shared in new ways. |
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SharePoint 2010 provides a broad range of capabilities that benefit organizations and users alike. The new social networking additions are a few of the ways SharePoint 2010 can help connect an organization. People profiles, status updates, and social bookmarks are all great ways to create a tighter network of users within an organization. |
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SharePoint 2010 provides a broad range of ways to manage content within a site. A new managed metadata service provides a new way for organizations to track content and helps users discover information. |
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SharePoint search has been expanded and improved to make it even easier for users to find the people and information they need quickly and easily. Search can be customized and managed to meet the needs of any organization. Search results are more accurate and informative than ever before. Thumbnails and document previews make finding the right information effortless. |
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SharePoint 2010 makes it easier than ever to gain insights into how users and customers are utilizing the information contained in a SharePoint site. Users are able to find the relevant information they are seeking in unstructured information such as blogs, wikis, presentations, and documents and structured information such as reports, spreadsheets, and analytical systems alike. By leveraging this information, users can make better informed business decisions. |
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No matter what the business needs, SharePoint 2010 can help organizations easily publish information from various sources into one location. Access Services, Excel Services, and Business Connectivity Services are just some of the services that can be utilized in SharePoint 2010, creating a one-stop shop for users to find information. | Sites: IT professionals can increase productivity and share information faster than ever before with the new capabilities of SharePoint 2010, including the new fluent user interface (UI) or Ribbon interface. New Web parts, real-time editing previews, lists, and document libraries have all been improved to allow information to be shared in new ways.
Communities: SharePoint 2010 provides a broad range of capabilities that benefit organizations and users alike. The new social networking additions are a few of the ways SharePoint 2010 can help connect an organization. People profiles, status updates, and social bookmarks are all great ways to create a tighter network of users within an organization.
Content: SharePoint 2010 provides a broad range of ways to manage content within a site. A new managed metadata service provides a new way for organizations to track content and helps users discover information.
Search: SharePoint search has been expanded and improved to make it even easier for users to find the people and information they need quickly and easily. Search can be customized and managed to meet the needs of any organization. Search results are more accurate and informative than ever before. Thumbnails and document previews make finding the right information effortless.
Insights: SharePoint 2010 makes it easier than ever to gain insights into how users and customers are utilizing the information contained in a SharePoint site. Users are able to find the relevant information they are seeking in unstructured information such as blogs, wikis, presentations, and documents and structured information such as reports, spreadsheets, and analytical systems alike. By leveraging this information, users can make better informed business decisions.
Composites: No matter what the business needs, SharePoint 2010 can help organizations easily publish information from various sources into one location. Access Services, Excel Services, and Business Connectivity Services are just some of the services that can be utilized in SharePoint 2010, creating a one-stop shop for users to find information.
The three pillars which form the foundation of SharePoint 2010 are as follows:
Connect and Empower People. SharePoint 2010 is a platform that can bring people in an organization together. It helps organizations become more productive as a result of giving users access to content with cross-browser and cross-device capabilities. Seamless integration with Microsoft Office helps improve productivity, and the addition of the Ribbon interface means users will be working in an environment they are already familiar with.
Cut Costs with a Unified Infrastructure. SharePoint 2010 offers many ways for organizations to cut costs by utilizing the advanced functionality and integrated capabilities available out of the box. Being able to accomplish more tasks with a single resource is possible with SharePoint 2010. With more options for deployments and the ability to easily scale, SharePoint can mean lower cost of ownership for organizations.
Rapidly Respond to Business Needs. Everyone, from users to administrators, has the ability to customize SharePoint 2010 to help address their needs quickly. Developers can create dynamic solutions to needs using Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 and the ability to create composite solutions using no-code services help organizations rapidly develop solutions to their business needs.
Features of SP 2010
Support for 64-bit hardware: SharePoint 2010 is the first version of SharePoint to be released exclusively in a 64-bit version. Because of this, the hardware and operating system on which SharePoint is installed also needs to be 64-bit. SharePoint 2010 can be installed on Windows Server 2008 service pack 2 (SP2) 64-bit or Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit. Likewise, the SQL server version that is used with SharePoint 2010 will also need to be 64-bit. SharePoint 2010 supports Microsoft SQL Server 2005 SP3 64-bit, Microsoft SQL Server 2008 SP1 64-bit, or SQL Server 2008 R2 64-bit. In addition, Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 will have to be installed on the SharePoint servers.
To aid in the installation process, a new wizard, known as the Prerequisite installer, is included with SharePoint 2010. The wizard will check the server for all necessary software prerequisites and download, install, and configure as necessary to ensure all required components are installed prior to beginning the SharePoint installation.
Multiple browser support: Effort has been put into making SharePoint 2010 more standards-based than previous versions. Because of this, all major browsers are supported. Level 1 browsers offer the best possible experience when working with SharePoint 2010. All functionality will work as expected. Level 2 browsers offer most of the functionality of SharePoint, with some exceptions. Level 1 browsers include Internet Explorer 7.x or higher (32-bit) and Firefox 3.x or higher (32-bit). Level 2 browsers include Internet Explorer 7.x or higher (64-bit), Firefox 3.x or higher on non-Windows platforms, and Safari 4.x or higher on non-Windows platforms. Integration with Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 is also available, as with previous versions of SharePoint. SharePoint 2010 also offers integration with Windows 7 desktop search.
Shared Application Architecture: The addition of Service Applications and the Shared Application Architecture gives administrators much more flexibility in deploying SharePoint than in previous versions. Instead of having all available services contained in a single Shared Services Provider (SSP) as in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, each service application is its own individual component. SharePoint administrators can choose to deploy as needed, which helps save on the overhead associated with each Web application, and provides administrators with more options for deploying than ever before. Moreover, some of the new service applications can be shared across multiple Web applications. Just a few of the available service applications include Managed Metadata Service Application, User Profiles, Search, Business Connectivity Services, and Office Web Applications.
Central Administration: Central Administration has been completely redesigned to make managing a SharePoint environment easier and more efficient. The various tasks available in Central Administration have been organized into several categories, with the most commonly used options for each category available directly from the Central Administration home page. Another significant improvement to the interface is the inclusion of the fluent UI, also known as the Ribbon interface, which was introduced with the Microsoft Office 2007 group of products. This allows more options to be available to administrators without adding additional text clutter to the screen and provides an intuitive way to interact with the SharePoint environment. The Ribbon interface has also been extended to the user experience as well, allowing users to work with SharePoint in the same way they are used to working with Microsoft Office applications.
User Experience: Along with a host of new capabilities, SharePoint 2010 also features a brand new user experience. Users and administrators alike will appreciate the enhanced editing functionality through the use of the fluent UI or Ribbon interface, in-line editing capabilities of SharePoint lists and other new features.
Monitoring and tracking: SharePoint 2010 give administrators many new options for monitoring and tracking data and performance in their environments. The Developer Dashboard offers developers and administrators an in-depth look at performance on the page level, and the SQL Server logging database collects useful information from many areas of the server farm. Finally, the SharePoint 2010 Best Practices Analyzer tool is helpful to administrators in keeping the farm running in accordance with best practices by periodically checking farm settings against a set of rules.
Data Management: Data management in SharePoint 2010 is supplemented greatly through the use of IFilters in order to allow third-party file types to be crawled and indexed by SharePoint Search. Management features include Large List Resource Throttling and Windows PowerShell. Large List Resource Throttling limits the number of items a list displays in a single view. This improves server performance. Windows PowerShell provides tight integration and farm management. SharePoint 2010 also includes the ability to browse SharePoint 2010 content with an unattached content database. These features and more make data management in SharePoint 2010 even more efficient for administrators than before.
Central Admin: 8 categories to memorize. Application Management, System Settings, Monitoring, Backup and restore, Security, Ungrade and Migraton, General Application Settings, and Configuration Wizards.
Shared Application Architecture: major change to SharePoint 2010 is the addition of service applications, including Search, Business Connectivity Services, Office Web Applications, People Services, and Managed Metadata Service.
These applications, collectively known as Shared Application Architecture, or SAA, are the replacement for Shared Services Provider, or SSP, which was used in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.
In Office SharePoint Server 2007, SSP was configured with a set of services that all web applications associated with the SSP could use. A major drawback of this architecture was that every Web application needed to be configured with all the available services even if a service was not being used. This unnecessarily increased the overheads carried by the Web applications. Further, any changes to the available services require a new SSP to be created.
In SharePoint 2010, the service applications are stand-alone components. Moreover, individual services can be associated with a Web application, allowing only the needed services to be provisioned. For example, an administrator can create two Web applications, associate Managed Metadata and People Services with one Web application, and configure both Web applications to use the Search service.
This reduces the overheads incurred by both applications and improves deployment flexibility.
Because the Service Application Architecture offers flexibility, administrators have more options for configuring the services. For example, the Search service has been rearchitected in SharePoint 2010 to allow greater flexibility and better redundancy. Search also includes a query architecture and crawling architecture, both of which can be easily scaled out based on the individual needs of an organization. The search index can even be broken into multiple partitions and stored on multiple servers for redundancy.
Another benefit of service applications is that the same service can be configured differently for different Web sites. In addition, some services can be published and shared across farms. This allows a centrally managed set of services to be consumed in various locations. These services can be managed directly within Central Administration, instead of in separate administration sites. Some services can also be managed using Windows PowerShell. This makes the management of services more efficient for IT pros.
SharePoint 2010 User Interface Experience: The SharePoint 2010 UI has been redesigned to make working and collaborating easier than ever before. It includes a lot of new features and functionality for users and administrators, such as the Ribbon interface, in-line editing, and easy document management. The new SharePoint 2010 preview mode makes the transition from SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint 2010 easy. The preview mode enables administrators to make sure sites behave the way they expect after an upgrade, without committing to the new visuals. Not only can this be useful to make the transition easier, but it can also help identify any potential issues with custom Web parts and pages.
(Jeremy 2010 ships with V3 master pages so it is easy to upgrade. As easily as you are familair with changing a theme + preview- you can change the UI from V3 MOSS to V4 SP2010 incrementely. A gradual step into upgrade process that could be shown on team sites and not affecting the other iWSP collection) SharePoint 2010 allows the visuals from SharePoint 2007 to be used after an upgrade. In order to preview the SharePoint 2010 userexperience, a SharePoint 2007 site must be upgraded to SharePoint2010 first before the preview mode becomes available. Visual Upgrad Preview helps users and administrators of each site to test out the new visuals to be sure everything works properly before applying the visuals. SharePoint 2010 sites will continue to use the SharePoint 2007 interface until an administrator applies the new user experience or the SharePoint 2010 user experience is turned on manually during the upgrade process.
SEE: Exploring Visual Upgrade Demo
What is Visual Upgrade: SharePoint 2010 introduces a concept known as Visual Upgrade Preview. By default, a SharePoint 2007 site that is upgraded to SharePoint 2010 will still keep the same look and feel as the SharePoint 2007 site. This is because the SharePoint 2007 master pages, page layouts, and cascading style sheets are still available after upgrading to SharePoint 2010 and are included in new SharePoint 2010 installs. After the server has been upgraded to SharePoint 2010, administrators can preview the new SharePoint 2010 visuals to make certain the site still functions as expected. When satisfied that everything on the site is behaving as expected, the administrator can apply the new SharePoint 2010 visuals on a per-site basis.
The visual upgrade process can make the transition to SharePoint 2010 easier for users because they can still use the site in a way that is familiar to them. This can help mitigate the impact on the users during the upgrade process and at the same time allow multiple people to check the content of the site to make sure no adjustments need to be made before committing to the new visuals. A SharePoint 2007 site upgraded to SharePoint 2010 can keep the 2007 visuals, run in 2010 preview mode, or use the 2010 visuals and user experience exclusively.
It is possible to bypass the visual upgrade process though the process varies depending on the upgrade method used. In an in-place upgrade, the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard will present an option for upgrading to the new 2010 UI or preserving the 2007 interface, which would allow each site to be upgraded individually. If an administrator chooses to upgrade existing 2007 sites to the 2010 user experience, additional options are also available. Any customized pages can be reset to the original site definition. Alternatively, customized pages can retain the same 2007 user experience while the site’s template and application pages are upgraded. Either way, new sites created after upgrading to SharePoint 2010 will be built using the new user experience. If the database attach method is used, an option is available to force the upgrade to use the new visuals right away, bypassing the preview mode.
Administrators can also utilize Windows PowerShell to help with the visual upgrade. If users of a site verify that their content is still available after previewing the new 2010 user experience, an administrator can run a PowerShell script to force all sites in the farm to upgrade to the 2010 user experience at once, instead of having to manually apply the new visuals to every site.
Fundamentals of SharePoint 2010: SharePoint 2010 is a rich platform for enterprise and user collaboration, data storage, and information retrieval. It is important to understand the requirements for installing SharePoint 2010, which needs 64-bit software and hardware. SharePoint 2010 also offers better browser support this time around, with Internet Explorer 7.x and higher (32-bit) and Firefox 3.x and higher (32-bit), which are both supported as Level 1 browsers.
SharePoint 2010 User Interface: SharePoint 2010 features a new UI. The Ribbon, in-line editing, and live preview make working with SharePoint 2010 easy for both administrators and users alike. The redesigned Central Administration allows SharePoint administrators quick and easy access to the tasks they need. When upgrading from SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint 2010, a new visual preview option allows users and administrators to preview their SharePoint sites, using the SharePoint 2010 user experience before committing to them. This helps everyone make sure their SharePoint sites are working as expected before applying the new user experience.
Managing Data in SharePoint 2010: SharePoint 2010 includes several features that help you to manage data efficiently. For example, SharePoint search is enhanced with the use of IFilters. SharePoint 2010 also includes a performance throttling feature, known as Large List Resource Throttling. In addition, Windows PowerShell is an integral component of the SharePoint 2010 environment. Another important new feature is the ability to recover content from an unattached SharePoint database.
Using IFilters: IFilters can be used with SharePoint to search third-party file types. Because many organizations rely on third-party document types or programs to store information, administrators may find themselves needing to utilize IFilters in order to make these documents searchable within SharePoint. In this lesson, you will see the difference between searching for content in a site without an IFilter installed on the server and with the IFilter installed. This will highlight how important these plug-ins can be to an organization. By understanding how IFilters work with SharePoint, you will be able to store many different types of files in SharePoint and have SharePoint recognize and index the documents' contents.
What Are IFilters?
An IFilter is a general search technology that has been around for several years. Basically, its function is to convert a proprietary file type into plain text that Windows Search can crawl and index. Many proprietary file types from third-party vendors cannot be fully indexed unless that company or third-party provider provides an IFilter for its file type. An example of this is trying to open a Microsoft Office Word document in Notepad. Although the file will open, the text of the document is replaced with strange symbols. This is because Notepad is not configured to read an Office Word document, much like Windows Search is not able to read certain file types without an IFilter.
IFilters, to SharePoint, are plug-ins that allow SharePoint search to crawl and index a particular file type. Generally, any file that SharePoint does not recognize can still be included in a search index, but its content will not be included. By installing an IFilter, SharePoint search can recognize and index the contents of a file type that has an IFilter installed. In other words, installing an IFilter for a particular file type on a SharePoint server allows the full text of that file type to be recognized, crawled, and indexed by SharePoint search.
IFilters are not specific components that plug in directly to SharePoint but rather are installed on a SharePoint server. This way, SharePoint search components can index the file contents as well as the file properties. Many companies provide IFilters that can be installed. If you need to index a third-party file type, you should check with the vendor to see if they provide an IFilter for their file type. If the vendor does not provide an IFilter, you can find other companies that may have written an IFilter for that particular file type. In addition, it is possible to write a custom IFilter if needed.
SharePoint 2010 comes with IFilters preconfigured to allow it to crawl through Microsoft Office file types from all versions of Microsoft Office (.doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .pptx, et cetera.) and several other file types out of the box. A common file type used in many organizations is the Portable Document Format (PDF) file type, which cannot be indexed fully by SharePoint 2010 out of the box. In order to be able to perform search queries on text within a PDF document, a PDF IFilter would need to be installed on the SharePoint server before the search crawlers can crawl through the text of the document.
After an IFilter has been installed on the SharePoint server, a couple of additional steps may need to be completed. First, the file type may need to be added to the included file types in the search settings if it has not already been added. Additionally, a full crawl of the server farm will need to be completed so that Search can index the content of the file types.
SEE: Using IFilters in Search Guide
Note the pdf wasn't indexed after uploading and crawled - internally. Add iFilter from manufactor. CMD: net stop osearch14 Start Full Crawl, back to Central Admin and to the site, and search works to bring back the indexed pdf. :)
In order to enable full-text crawls of a PDF document, a PDF IFilter needs to be installed on the server by a Server Administrator. SharePoint administrators do not need to install IFilters for Microsoft Office documents. (2003 2007, 2010 suites)
Manging Lists with Large List Resource Throttling: Many performance improvements have been introduced in SharePoint 2010 to help increase server up time and improve reliability. One of these features is Large List Resource Throttling. Configuring options for Large List Resource Throttling is an important performance management consideration you need to make when deploying SharePoint because rendering particularly large lists can heavily tax the server. You can also set up a time frame during which large list throttling does not occur. This will allow unrestricted access to the list, including large views. By understanding how list throttling works, you can make sure the servers are not bogged down while rendering many requests for large lists. This keeps performance up and users happy.
What Is Large List Resource Throttling? A new feature introduced in SharePoint 2010 is the concept of Large List Resource Throttling. Essentially, the list capacity for SharePoint 2010 is much larger than in previous versions. Lists in SharePoint 2010 can now accommodate up to 50 million items. However, rendering that many items at any given time can heavily tax the server, creating an unfavorable experience for other users of the site and causing long wait times while the list is rendered.
Basically, list throttling limits the number of items that can be returned at any given time for any given view. This greatly reduces the load on the server. List item throttling can be set by administrators in Central Administration on a per Web application basis.
When list throttling is enabled, any user opening a list with a view that contains more than the allowed number of items will be presented with a message informing them that the number of items returned has been limited to the amount specified by the administrator. In this case, the user can create new views of the list, which display the data in batches equal to or less than the limit set by the administrator.
SharePoint administrators and auditors can have different values set for their own list view limits. By default, administrators and auditors can see up to 20,000 items per view, unlike users, who can see views with up to only 5000 items.
In addition, administrators can set a time frame in which the large list throttling does not occur. This will allow site users full access to all the items in a list without the number of items returned being throttled back.
During this time, the server may take some performance hits. Therefore, it is advisable to set this window during off-peak hours.
SEE: Configure Large List Resorce Throttling.
How to Disable Large List Resource Throttling: In some cases, it may be necessary for the users of a site to have access to all the items in a list, even if that the views of that list contain more items than have been allotted for the Web application in Central Administration. Large List Resource Throttling options allow administrators to set a block of time each day during which large list throttling does not occur.
You can disable large list throttling in Central Administration in the Resource Throttling options for each Web application. From the Central Administration home page, you click the Application Management header and then click Manage Web Applications. You need to select the Web application from the list, click the General Settings drop-down button in the Ribbon, and select Resource Throttling. In the Resource Throttling window, you need to find the section called Daily Time Window for Large Queries. Here, you can select the check box to enable this option and set the duration of time during which list throttling should not occur. It is important to consider the performance impact this could potentially have on the servers. Therefore, you should set the time window accordingly.
Another option available for some users (generally developers) who have certain privileges is to use the object model override to access the items in the list. This can be accomplished using Windows PowerShell or Visual Studio. Users with proper rights can then access a larger subset of items at a time, even if resource throttling is enabled. However, even with the object model override, users will still be restricted to the limit set for administrators and auditors.
There are some things to keep in mind when using the list throttling capabilities of SharePoint 2010. First, the local server Administrators group is not affected by the list throttling settings. Any account that has been added to the local Administrators group, including the local server Administrator, has full, unrestricted access to the list. Second, the daily time window is not necessarily a hard cut-off time for access to the list. For example, if a user is accessing a large view of the list that is taking a long time to render, the list will finish loading even if the end of the daily time window has been reached. Then, the list will be throttled once again.
Using Windows PowerShell: PowerShell offers you a powerful way to manage your SharePoint environment. You can use Windows PowerShell cmdlets to set values and retrieve information.
Overview of Windows PowerShell: Windows PowerShell is a command-line tool that SharePoint administrators can utilize to gain further control over a SharePoint environment. PowerShell is not a replacement for the traditional command line but can be viewed as a supplement to it. Windows PowerShell is built on top of the .NET Framework and operates using cmdlets. These cmdlets are not run as individual executables as the traditional command shell, but instead are actually processed as .NET classes. Administrators can utilize Windows PowerShell cmdlets by themselves or combined with other cmdlets in order to easily perform many administrative tasks, some of which may have required complex batch file scripting in the past. Cmdlets are simple commands that can interact with just about any managed application. This also includes the operating system itself.
As you can see, using Windows PowerShell is not limited strictly to SharePoint, although SharePoint 2010 does make heavy use of its abilities. Included with SharePoint 2010 is the SharePoint 2010 Management Shell, which is a preconfigured Windows PowerShell environment with the SharePoint 2010 snap-in preconfigured. Windows PowerShell also heavily utilizes XML, making it very efficient in the way it interacts with the SharePoint environment. PowerShell interacts with SharePoint 2010 on the object model level.
Much of the power of Windows PowerShell lies in the fact that it can combine the immediacy of the command line with the power and flexibility of managed code and scripting. Most administrative SharePoint tasks that can be accomplished in the graphical user interface (GUI) can also be accomplished using the Management Shell, and often these tasks can be accomplished more efficiently than using the GUI.
Administrators who were familiar with the STSADM command-line tool for previous versions of SharePoint will appreciate the added benefits PowerShell provides. Nearly all STSADM commands have a PowerShell equivalent command, and in most cases the same actions that could be performed with STSADM can now be performed more quickly and efficiently. Some actions that would have previously taken a batch file to accomplish with STSADM can now be accomplished by using one line of PowerShell cmdlets.
Another major benefit of Windows PowerShell is that it is extensible because it is built on the .NET Framework. Custom cmdlets can be created and imported into a Windows PowerShell environment to interact with SharePoint or any other number of applications, including Windows.
SharePoint Cmdlets for Wndows PowerShell:
By using the SharePoint 2010 Management Shell, you have access to more than 500 cmdlets built specifically for managing SharePoint 2010. These cmdlets can help you retrieve information from your farm as well as set values in the farm. In many instances, information that has been retrieved from the farm can then be passed to another cmdlet to set a value or make a specific change based on the information gathered. Many complex tasks can be automated easily with the use of Windows PowerShell. Because of this, using Windows PowerShell is much less resource-intensive than using STSADM.exe when performing complex tasks.
Using cmdlets to interact with SharePoint 2010 is far more efficient than using other command-line tools such as cmd.exe or even STSADM.exe. Although these tools are still available for backward-compatibility, you can make use of PowerShell’s efficiency with system resources to maintain farm settings. Using STSADM.exe, for example, forces the server to spin up an instance of STSADM.exe, run its command, and spin it down, while Windows PowerShell is multisession capable. This means that the system only needs to spin up one instance of Windows PowerShell, which can execute multiple commands and finish completely before spinning down. This makes using PowerShell much less resource-intensive.
Windows PowerShell cmdlets always take the form of “verb-noun”. The verb tells PowerShell what action to take (the command), and the noun tells PowerShell what property the action will run against (the object). Cmdlets are actually instances of .NET classes, not individual executables. All SharePoint-specific cmdlets begin with “SP”. The verbs “get” and “set” are commonly used to retrieve information and set values, respectively. Many get cmdlets have a corresponding set cmdlet. Other verbs used include but are not limited to “new”, “start”, “stop”, and “update”.
Typing Get-command Get-SP* will list all cmdlets that begin with “SP”. Typing Get-help <cmdlet-name>will provide details and help for a specific cmdlet.
One of the most powerful aspects of using Windows PowerShell to administer SharePoint 2010 is the ability to combine cmdlets. This can be particularly useful when needing to make changes to a large number of sites at once. Using the ability to send the output of one cmdlet into another, a task that would ordinarily require a lengthy batch file to complete, can now be completed in just a few lines. Combining cmdlets uses the pipe character - | - to pass values from one cmdlet to another.
For example, an administrator can type Get-SPSite http://<url of site> | Get-SPWeb to make Windows PowerShell generate a list of all sub-sites or Webs, in a site collection. The first half of the cmdlet, the output of Get-SPSite, is passed through using the pipe character to the Get-SPWeb cmdlet, which then generates the output presented onscreen. This is just a quick example of how cmdlets can be combined. In fact, this same output can be accomplished without using the pipe character.
More complex tasks can be generated by combining cmdlets, such as setting a site administrator to multiple sites. For example, Get-SPSite http://<url of site> -Limit All | Set-SPSite –OwnerAlias <domain\user name> will get all sites at the URL specified (the Limit parameter specifies that all sites at the URL should be used), and pass that output to the Set-SPSite cmdlet, which sets the OwnerAlias parameter to the user specified.
Windows PowerShell fully supports wildcards (*) and filters. So, the above example could also be used to set the owner of sites at a specific managed path using Get-SpSite http://<url of site>/sites/*, which would include all sites along the managed path /sites/. These are just some examples of how combining cmdlets can be a powerful tool for SharePoint administrators. Replacement strings can also be used within a cmdlet.
With the efficiency and power in Windows PowerShell, SharePoint 2010 administrators can have even more control over their farms than ever before.
SEE: Backing Up Content with Windows PowerShell
PowerShell offers you powerful control over your SharePoint environment byinteracting with the SharePoint objectmodel. STSADM is actually still available for use in SharePoint 2010, but its use is being depreciated. Windows PowerShell is capable of performing the sametasks more efficiently. SharePoint 2010 includes the SharePoint 2010 Management Shell, Which is a Windows PowerShell environment preconfiguredwith the SharePoint 2010 snap-in loaded out of the box. PowerShell is much more efficient than STSADM.exe because it can run multiple commands in a single instance, whereasSTSADM.exe runs each command as a seperate instance. PowerShell offersan easy and powerful way for site administratos to configure backups of sites.
Backing Up and Recovering Data: Being able to recover data from a SharePoint database has often proved to be a difficult task for SharePoint administrators in the past. SharePoint 2010 includes several improvements to the recovery process. It supports the ability to use an unattached database or SQL database snapshot to recover data, which can be done directly in Central Administration.
What is Unattached Content Database Recovery: Many SharePoint administrators have been faced with the challenge of recovering information from a site collection that has been deleted. In Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, administrators could only recover information from a deleted site by using third party tools or other complicated methods involving a separate recovery farm where previous backup could be restored. The content then would have to be exported and later imported back into the production SharePoint farm. This often proved to be a time-consuming task.
SharePoint 2010 makes recovering information much easier by introducing the ability to browse content in an unattached content database. Within the SharePoint 2010 Central Administration interface, an administrator can directly browse the content of other SharePoint database that is not attached to the farm, such as a backup of production database. The administrator can then export SharePoint data from the database into the production farm without ever having to add a second database to the farm or leave the production environment.
Entire site collections, sub-sites or Web pages and lists can be exported from the unattached database and imported back into the production environment. However, individual list items cannot be exported using this method. By being able to browse an unattached content database directly in SharePoint, an administrator can recover information much faster than in the past, keeping productivity up and site users satisfied.
SEE: Using a SQL Backup to Recover Data
Using a SQL Snapshot to Recover Data: Along with being able to browse a database directly in SharePoint 2010’s Central Administration comes the ability to use SQL Snapshots for data recovery as well. It is important to note that SQL Snapshots are only available when using Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Enterprise and Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Enterprise. SQL snapshots are read-only views of a database as it existed the moment the snapshot was taken. The snapshot is static; meaning that once taken it can’t be changed.
SharePoint 2010 can browse these database snapshots in the same way it would browse an actual database. In Central Administration, a SharePoint administrator would click the Backup and Restore link, and then click on the Recover data from an unattached content database option. Instead of giving SharePoint the name of a database, the administrator would type in the name of the SQL Snapshot instead. Just like recovering from an actual database, entire site collections, sub-sites (or webs), and lists can be recovered by exporting the content and importing it into SharePoint 2010. This is another way that SharePoint 2010 improves recovery options for administrators.
A SharePoint 2010 database backup that has been added into SQL Management Studio is an example of an unattached SP 2010 content database. You can recover site collections, Webs or subsites, and entire lists using the unattached content database recovery method. However, individual list items cannot be recovered using this method. SQL smapshots and SQL databasescan both beused to recover datain SP2010. Oly SQL Server 2005 & 2008 Enterrise support snapshots. After content has been exported from an unattached content database in Central Adimistraton, it can be imported back into a site using Power Shell NOT Central Administration.
MODULE SUMMARY
Using IFilters: IFilters are plug-ins that work in conjunction with SharePoint 2010 to allow the full text of certain file types to be crawled by Search. Without an IFilter, file types such as PDF are not crawled by the SharePoint crawler. There are IFilters for many types of files, which are often available through vendors or third parties. IFilters can also be created by developers. Out of the box, SharePoint comes preconfigured to search all versions of Microsoft Office documents.
Managing Lists with LargeList ResourceThrottling: Because SharePoint 2010 can handle an extremely large number of items in a single list, the feature Large List Resource Throttling was introduced to mitigate the impact of loading such large lists on a server. By default, list views can show no more than 5,000 items at any given time. You can adjust this amount as well as specify how many items you should be able to see at once. Large List Resource Throttling can also be shut off for a specified amount of time to allow users full access to the list.
Using Windows PowerShell: Windows PowerShell offers you a powerful and efficient way to maintain your SharePoint environment. SharePoint 2010 comes with a Windows PowerShell console called the SharePoint 2010 Management Shell, with more than 500 cmdlets preloaded to interact with SharePoint at the object model level. Combining cmdlets gives you even more control over your environment because the values of one cmdlet can be passed to another in order to quickly loop through the farm to collect and set values. Windows PowerShell also makes backing up and restoring content in a site quick and easy.
Backing Up and Recovering Data: SharePoint 2010 offers a new way to recover data. Using an unattached content database such as a SQL backup or snapshot, you can browse SharePoint content directly in Central Administration to recover deleted lists, sites, and site collections. These items can be exported to a file and reimported into a site using Windows PowerShell, all without an external recovery farm or third-party software.
Monitoring Data in SharePoint 2010: SharePoint 2010 includes some powerful data monitoring components, such as the Developer Dashboard, SQL Server logging database, and SharePoint Best Practices Analyzer. The new Developer Dashboard can help developers and administrators monitor page load times and performance problems. The SQL Server logging database collects information about the SharePoint environment. The SharePoint Best Practices Analyzer can be used to scan the farm for potential issues.
Performance Tracking in SharePoint 2010: SharePoint 2010 includes performance tracking features such as the Developer Dashboard and SQL Server logging database. These tools make performance tracking much easier than it was in previous SharePoint versions. The Developer Dashboard can help track page load times, and the SQL Server logging database can help track farm-wide performance.
What is the Developer Dashboard?
The Developer Dashboard is a utility that loads below each page and can be used to monitor page load times and performance problems. When the dashboard is activated, it breaks the page load into individual components and displays the information in a way that helps developers and administrators determine the time the page took to load. This includes the amount of time it took to render each Web part, the time to render the Ribbon, the time for SQL queries to be performed, the page check out level, and any other critical events or alerts the page is generating.
The dashboard can be toggled on or off or set to an on-demand mode, with an STSADM command. The dashboard is off by default. When the dashboard is on, it renders on every single page, including Central Administration. When set to on-demand mode, the dashboard can be toggled as needed on each page by clicking the Developer Dashboard icon. When the icon is clicked, the page will reload and display the dashboard. Clicking the icon again will turn off the dashboard.
The following STSADM commands are used to toggle the dashboard.
- On: STSADM.exe -o setproperty –pn developer-dashboard -pv on
- Off: STSADM.exe -o setproperty –pn developer-dashboard -pv off
- On-demand: STSADM.exe -o setproperty –pn developer-dashboard -pv ondemand
You need to open the SharePoint 2010 Management Shell to type these commands. After the Developer Dashboard has been set, you can open a SharePoint page and scroll to the bottom to:
- View the Developer Dashboard, if the property is set to On.
- View the On-Demand icon in the upper-right corner of the screen, if the property is set to On-Demand.
It is also important to note that the Developer Dashboard is only available to users such as administrators, who have the Design permission level and higher. Developer Dashboard will not display to normal site users with the Contribute permission level or read-only access. Even if an administrator has enabled the Developer Dashboard, it will not be visible to site users without administrative access. You should avoid leaving the Developer Dashboard enabled all the time. It is advisable to use it only when you need to troubleshoot problems.
SEE: Using the Developer Dashboard (I like it, looks like a full blown trace on the bottom of the page)
What is theSQL Server Logging Database?
A new database has been added to SharePoint 2010, known as the SQL Server logging database. This specialized database collects and stores information from across the SharePoint farm. Information on usage and performance are written directly into the database, by default, as well as several other reports. The events that are logged and collected can be configured directly in Central Administration. The database works in conjunction with the Usage and Health Data service application. By default, this service application is provisioned during the initial farm setup, if the farm configuration wizard was used with the default options.
The following table describes some of the events logged by the SQL Server logging database.
Page Requests: SharePoint 2010 keeps track of the page requests and hits it receives. This information helps you determine how the site is being used, by whom, and when. Using this information, you can better tailor the content of the site to the people using it.
Feature Usage: SharePoint 2010 can now keep track of how often custom features are used in the site. This can help administrators and developers understand how their custom features are being utilized and whether they are in their usage quota.
Search Query Usage: SharePoint 2010 keeps track of what people are searching for on the site and whether or not they find it. This information is similar to the search query reporting tools in SharePoint 2007. It can help fine tune search settings for the site.
Timer Jobs: By checking on the status of the timer jobs in the farm, SharePoint 2010 can help identify any potential issues the server may be experiencing.
!!! Content Rating: One of the new social features of SharePoint 2010 is the rating capability. Users can rate pages based on content, which in turn can provide you with feedback on the content of the site. These ratings are compiled in the logging database.
Content import and export: SharePoint 2010 tracks the content that is imported into the farm and exported out of the farm with Windows PowerShell.
Other Information: The SQL Server logging database can also be enabled to collect health information about the farm. These settings are handled in the health data collection service application. Search crawl and query statistics are also collected here. In addition, the database collects Windows NT events and information from the Unified Logging Service (ULS) logs. These log files can be configured so that they can be written to specified locations and take up a specified amount of disk space.
Having so much information in a centralized location makes it easy for database administrators and SharePoint administrators to write SQL reports against this database to better understand how the farm is performing and being utilized. Microsoft has made the schema for this particular database public and fully supports customizing the database. Keep in mind that modifying any other SharePoint database is not supported in any way and may cause serious damage to the SharePoint environment.
Third-party applications can also utilize and write to the logging database, opening up a wide range of possibilities for reporting and usage collection. The SQL Server logging database also collects information about enterprise feature use and licensing, which can help you ensure that your SharePoint implementation is in compliance with the licenses purchased.
However, something to consider when configuring the information collected by this database is that the more the events that are collected, the more disk-intensive the logging becomes. It is best to only configure the information you actually want to report on instead of leaving everything checked all the time. If sporadic reports are to be run on a certain component, it can be turned on until the data collection is sufficient and turned off again.
SEE: Exploring the SQL Server Logging Configuration Database
The Developer Dashboard is NOT collected and logged by the SQL Server logging database. Only users with Design and or administror rights have access to the Developer Dashboard. Memorize: STSADM.exe -o setproperty –pn DeveloperDashboard -pv on-demand. This STSADM command sets the property value of "On-D emand" for the property name "developerdashboard". To set the Dev Dashboardto is On-Demand stae! TheSQL Server logging database is not locked down and is public, making it easy for SharePoint admins and DBA's to write reports tochck the usage of the farm. Where can be the properties of the SQL Server logging database be configured? -Central Admin-, not in SQL Server Management Studio.
Using the SharePoint Best Practices Analyzer
The Best Practices Analyzer is a new feature in SharePoint 2010 that can monitor the SharePoint farm and make suggestions or correct errors. This tool can help administrators make sure their farm is operating at peak performance. By offering assistance with any issues found, this tool is a valuable new addition to SharePoint 2010.
What is the SharePoint Best PracticesAnalyzer?
The SharePoint Best Practices Analyzer has been improved and updated for SharePoint 2010. This tool uses timer jobs and rules to monitor and analyze a SharePoint farm for any issues. Rules are set for the analyzer to follow, and as the scanner analyzes the farm it compares settings defined in the rules to settings on the server. These rules, set in Central Administration, can be modified to fit the needs of the organization. Custom rules can also be added. The rules can all run on a scheduled or on-demand basis. Rules that run on a set schedule create timer jobs that are executed on schedule. When a rule is run manually, a timer job is created and executed on the spot.
Depending on the rule settings, any problems encountered in the farm can be automatically or manually corrected. Alternatively, the Best Practices Analyzer will provide administrators with a link to more information on correcting the issue. If an issue is discovered, the Best Practices Analyzer will display a prominent message on the Central Administration home page and provide a link directly to a page that will help the administrator take corrective action.
In addition, it is possible to create custom rules for the Best Practices Analyzer to meet the needs of administrators and organizations. These rules can run on a schedule or on-demand, just like the out-of-the-box rules. Although this cannot be done through the Central Administration UI, developers are able to quickly build a custom rule using Visual Studio 2010. The new health rule can then be registered in a feature, which can then be deployed using a solution package to the SharePoint farm.
SEE: Scanning for Issueswith the SharePoint Best Practices Analyzer
The BP analyzer usesimerjobs to run on a schedule or on demand. The BPA can scan the farm for issues, fix selected issues and provide info back to admins on fizing issues. Thee are 58 rules OOTBfor BPA. The default rules of the BPA can be modified tomeet secificrequirements.
MODULE SUMMARY
Performance Tracking in SharePoint 2010: The Developer Dashboard is a useful tool for developers and administrators to track page load times in SharePoint 2010. It can help identify any performance issues that may be related to custom code or slow Web parts on a particular page. It is toggled on with an STSADM command. It can also be turned on or off on demand.
The SQL Server logging database is useful for checking performance and usage of the entire SharePoint farm. It is a specialized database that can be configured to collect a variety of information from SharePoint 2010. Its schema is public. So, reports can be written against it in order to see how various components of the farm are being utilized.
Using the SharePoint Best Practices Analyzer: The SharePoint 2010 Best Practices Analyzer is a tool that can be used by administrators to check on the status of their SharePoint environment. Out of the box, there are 58 rules that can be run on a schedule or on demand. These rules can compare settings in SharePoint 2010 and alert administrators if these settings do not match the rules.
Source: https://www.microsoftelearning.com/eLearning/courseDetail.aspx?courseId=161467&tab=overview
Source: http://learning.microsoft.com/Manager/default.aspx?lc=1033
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