I got a ton of questions during the expo sessions. These set of questions were based on the keynote on 10 Steps to successful deployment. The recordings are available to those registered.
1) Can you provide a link to a planning template? 2) Is there a framework or guide for governance? I am looking for templates?
Do we separate SharePoint Web Apps compensate for different requirements from different areas?
- The web applications will allow you to have different policies for different web applications. It’s great for separating the requirements of an Intranet portal from your my sites or collaboration sites.
i have a questions, how i do to learn a bit more a bout sharepoint??? for example, basic knowledge
Should site collections encompass functions or departments?
- All of the above. Site collections can be used for an individual, a team, project, group, department, or an entire enterprise repository. It really depends on the requirements. Remember quota, list, and database scale and pay attention to the capacity boundaries. Information architecture should seriously consider the software boundaries.
Currently we plan on using SharePoint only for Team Collaboration. We have a separate Corporate Intranet site. What things should we be aware of when designing the Team site collections (IT, Corporate, Large Program etc) to make sure we don't have to redesign them if we bring Intranet in SharePoint in the future.
- You need to make some difficult decisions around what object is a site collection. Redesign involves splitting up databases more than involves consolidating. The site collection is the most scalable object, keep that in mind. More is better than less for collaboration.
I am new to sharepoint and want to learn from basic. I have experience in asp.net C# of 5 years. Could you suggest me some tutorial or online training?
Quick question about where data is stored. Using WSS 3.0. Is it stored locally on the server or can it be stored on a network share/drive?
- By default it’s in the content database. There are ISV solutions that support external blob storage (an API was created in Sp1).
How do you go about security planning? I've heard from MS support that you can only have 200 SharePoint groups in a site collection. I see that a limitation.
Not sure where you got 200, there is a 2000 recommendation on the capacity boundaries document on TechNet.
What is the best way to sync a SharePoint production environment down to a development or test environment?
- Database attach method by making copies of your content databases. There are 3rd party options with people like syntergy or repliweb. Content deployment features can move out content from authoring, but not really the right solution for bringing back from prod to dev or test. Server Images can simplify this process as well. Using solutions make this much easier.
Is there an easy possibility to manage Active Directory Users and Groups from within Sharepoint?
- Not out of the box. Look at ILM 2 from Microsoft
- “With ILM “2”, end users can easily perform self-service tasks such as group and distribution list management with self-help tools integrated into a SharePoint-based console as well as directly in Microsoft Office Outlook.
- ILM “2” provides IT professionals with the tools they need to manage identities through a SharePoint-based policy and workflow management console.”
What tips do you have for smaller businesses who are deploying sharepoint and encouraging adoption?
What advice do you have for multi-lingual global rollouts of SP?
- Deploy multiple language packs.
- Read this whitepaper on multi lingual deployment
- Figure out if the requirement is for the UI or for the content. Also determine if the cost will outweigh the work. I would actually discourage many who did go the route of variations to avoid it, and live with a common UI and have multi lingual content or simply different site collections with multiple language packs.
If just breaking into Sharepoint, what would be a good area to start in....Content Management....developer.....Administrator.....power user"
- Pick your favorite. There is lots of room. Surprising numbers of jobs for experienced administrators and experienced developers. Power users will definitely be more likely to keep their jobs or get pay increases.
"What functionality that I will loose if I migrate a site to a different site collection.
- If you use import export, you will lose your alerts and your workflows from within the site collection, but as well you’ll have to figure out navigation, security
- Benefits can be much greater… you get quota, web part galleries, master page galleries, usage reporting, storage manager, etc…
Should I have provision site collections for groups that have potential of growing large. Thanks.
- Yes, you may consider even putting those site collections in dedicated databases if they are going to get REALLY Large.
We have WSS 3.0 and are considering MOSS. Do you recommend a separte new installation of MOSS with a migration strategy for WSS or a straight upgrade of WSS to MOSS? Thanks
- I recommend a strategy to upgrade your existing WSS 3.0 to MOSS. It will enhance your existing environment.
I have some teams that want to develop custom web parts, I am not a developer so I would have no way of saying this is good or bad code, all I could do is make sure it works today in qa and prod. Do you think I should have this kind of dev work hold off till I can get the execs to buy in with a develpoer that understands SharePoint?
- You should be sure to run tools like FXCOP and SpDisposeCheck. I’d recommend training for anyone doing SharePoint development. I’m glad to hear you have a separate dev and QA environment.
"Hi Joel,
We considered using separate web apps for TeamSites vs Portals but we found that business units were reluctant to manage multiple web presence sites for their team and there was also a concern about duplicating content which is relevent to both the team itself and also for customers/visitors/users of that Business Unit's services. How could this be addressed ?"
- I recommend separate web apps for quota templates, policies, and keeping like objects together for policy and storage reasons providing more flexibility. Having them all in one web app will cost more for management and overhead and reduce flexibility. Use links to consolidate documents.
Could you please have Joel post the Sharepoint Training resources that he referenced during the Q&A sessions. (Critical Path, SharePoint Solutions, etc) Thanks
I mentioned
How do my developers learn about Feature Stapling?
When not to use SP Designer?
- When you aren’t building design (masterpages), webparts, or workflows. Or if you aren’t trained to do those things. Designer is a powerful tool and can be dangerous in the wrong hands.
"What is the best migration strategy? Are there any templates available where business can use during data organization period?
Migration from HTML to SharePoint 2007, SharePoint 2003 to SharePoint 2007?
Look at Migration Manager from Quest, but you’ll also find there are many solutions for doing migration. With many HTML sites, it’s better to redesign with a master page and move the content into document or page libraries.
Taxonomy question: We're grappling with the importance of taxonomy. Content types, if my understanding is correct, can help support taxononmy in a deployment... This is pretty easy win in a single site collection portal but how do you grapple with this in collaboration areas with many site collections as content types cannot be enforced out of the box across multiple site collections? Or, do you not worry so much about taxonomy in collaboration areas?
- It’s true that in collaboration, the content types and properties aren’t as important. You can incorporate the right columns in a site template or in a feature. There is a codeplex solution for pushing out content types across site collections called spconfigurator at http://codeplex.com/spconfigurator. Taxonomies are definitely much more critical in structured document management or portals.
How can i ensure that the workflow functionality continue to work if the content db splitted into different servers while deployment
- Workflow won’t break. SharePoint is designed to work with many servers on both the Front end and Backend. The workflows are in the content database and ran with timer jobs.
How should we approach enterprise search to formulate appropriate policies
- Determine requirements and consider indexing and global aspects. Governance is a very important aspect of planning for your enterprise search strategy.
Half way down the road on a SP single server deployment, we went with a Departmental Sites route, and navigation to documents, forms etc is getting out of control. Do you think it is doable to redesign the entire structure? I'm finding the out of the box CQWP is almost unusable when doing cross site queries and improving navigation is tricky without getting lots of "weeds" complaining!
- Yes, I think not only will CQWP be a challenge, but also URL lengths, including lack of quotas and ownership. There is a reorg wizard which you should look at, but also consider putting structured data in separate web applications from unstructured web applications where you should plan to host many site collections.
In an organization that has decided to do application hosting internally within SharePoint and has clear roles (admin vs developer, etc) how do you see the best organizational structure? Should developer and admin teams be separated with different management or brought together under a unified reporting relationship?
If you use AD groups how do you manage Security in SP itself?
Add security groups to the SharePoint permissions levels then manage the groups through AD Users and Computers or interface as implemented
what will make migration to 2010 difficult ?
Really massive databases.
"Are there any huge ""DON'T DOs"" when deploying Project Server with MOSS?
- I say be really careful. Is the environment MOSS or Project Server? If it’s project server, you can benefit from reporting, and the document repository and workflow in MOSS. But the other way around, I find it tough to justify.
I have heard that the farm administrator accounts must be the same as well as the app pool accounts must be the same. Is this true?"
- No, it’s not true. They can be the same or different, but both require the proper permissions, obviously.
How do the Quest Software products assist with SharePoint governance?
- Quest Site Administrator for SharePoint 1) Set Creation Policies on webs 2) Turn on Auditing across large numbers of site collections 3) Permissions (Security) and light document compliance reporting
- Various Quest Migration tools – for consolidation to improve manageability (Notes, File Shares, Public Folders, erooms, etc…)
- Quest Recovery Manager for SharePoint – helps you reduce the time to restore files, lists, sites, and site collections
- Quest Webparts for SharePoint – reduce the amount of time it takes to build applications and reduce and potentially eliminate the amount of custom code required to build composite applications including systems integration (2-way)
"The best pratice for the content database size to 100GB
What is your thought?"
- I think it’s a good target.
We use WSS3.0 for an extranet solution for project management as we onboard clients into our own ASP platform. As such, we have to maintain separation between sites/users/data to protect sensitive information. We are trying to use forms based authentication for external users to avoid their introduction (and licensing) in our AD environment. Since each site needs separate groups for separation of sites/users/data, how do you recommend scaling users/groups? Our external users will probably be less than 10 per site.
- The forms based authentication can scale to million+ users. The user management on the backend is what you likely need to invest in. How you expire accounts, manage passwords, etc… ADAM Lightweight Directory Services might be another way to get something with forms with a bit more management. Look at the extranet toolkit.
thank you very much
What's Joel email?
Thanks a lot, great presentation