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9/8/2010

SharePoint Mega Day in Lisbon Portugal Sep 29

I can see the energy and excitement coming out of Portugal. Not just Mega day, but this video really got me excited. See you Sep 29! More details in Portuguese below.

SharePointPtDay Mega Evento 29 de Setembro !!!!!

Caros SharePointianos,

A Comunidade Portuguesa de SharePoint tem tido um crescimento considerável desde a sua criação em Fevereiro deste ano e tem sido realmente gratificante para todos. A constante troca de conceitos em volta desta tecnologia , durante as regulares reuniões a cada 2º Sábado e não só, promove em cada membro, competências profissionais que rapidamente alavancam novas oportunidades e enriquecimento pessoal.

Assim no dia 29 de Setembro de 2010, irá ter lugar o 1º Mega Evento da Comunidade vamos ter um SharePointPtDay com Joel Oleson da Quest Software e Mark Miller EndUserSharePoint !!!!.

Neste tipo de evento , é CRUCIAL a vossa presença, para que possamos repetir eventos como este e enriquecer com o apport de SharePoint Gurus que passam pelas nossas reuniões!

A entrada é gratuita mas o registo é obrigatório !

Vamos ter alguns brindes e prémios para sortear !

Para mais detalhes consultem o site http://www.sharepointptday.org e registem-se !

Posted at 7:59 PM by Joel Oleson | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

9/7/2010

The Experts Conference Europe - SharePoint Sessions Announced!

I’m excited to announce the details of the TEC Europe SharePoint Conference… If you haven’t registered yet, there is still room & time! SUNDAY - OCTOBER 3 2010

5:30 PM -7:00 PM	WELCOME RECEPTION (INTERCONTINENTAL)
7:00 PM	SPEAKER DINNER (SHAREPOINT SPEAKERS ONLY - TO FOLLOW RECEPTION)
DAY 1 - MONDAY - OCTOBER 4 2010

8:00 - 9:45 AM	KEYNOTE: BEN CURRY - SharePoint Server 2010 Best Practices…So Far
9:45-10:00 AM	BREAK - SOLUTION LAB
10:00-11:15 AM	SHAREPOINT ROOM 1 RICK TAYLOR - Claims Authentication in SharePoint 2010	SHAREPOINT ROOM 2 PAUL SWIDER AND ERIC HARLAN - Building Solutions with the new SharePoint 2010 Service Apps
11:15 AM -12:30 PM	AGNES MOLNAR - SharePoint 2010 Enterprise Search and FAST Search Deploying and Configuration	MARK MILLER - Enhancing the SharePoint Interface with jQuery Solutions
12:30-13:30 PM	LUNCH
1:30-14:45 PM	ZLATAN DZINIC - Records Management Best Practices in SharePoint 2010	SPENCE HARBAR - Implementing Multilingual Solutions with SharePoint 2010
14:45-16:00 PM	RICK TAYLOR - Using the OSI Model for Securing your SharePoint 2010 Infrastructure	MUHANAD (MO) OMAR - Building Composite Applications with SharePoint Designer 2010
16:00-16:30 PM	BREAK - SOLUTION LAB
16:30-17:45 PM	JOEL OLESON - Best Practices for Upgrading to SharePoint 2010	DANIEL WESSELS - Rich Client Integration with office 2010 and SharePoint 2010
18:00-19:30 PM	RECEPTION
DAY 2 - TUESDAY - OCTOBER 5 2010
8:15-9:30 AM	PAUL SWIDER - Building Social Applications on SharePoint 2010
9:30-9:45 AM	BREAK - SOLUTION LAB
9:45-11:00 AM	SPENCE HARBAR - Rational Guide to Implementing User Profile
11:00 AM -12:15	MARK MILLER - Best Practices for Building a Community in SharePoint 2010
12:15-13:15 PM	LUNCH
13:15-14:30 PM	DANIEL WESSELS - SharePoint 2010 Enterprise Mashups
14:30-15:45 PM	DAN HOLME - Information Architecture and Managed Metadata Service
15:45-16:15 PM	BREAK - SOLUTION LAB
16:15-17:30 PM	ASK THE EXPERTS
17:45-19:00 PM	RECEPTION
DAY 3 - WEDNESDAY - OCTOBER 6 2010
8:15-9:30 AM	AGNES MOLNAR - SharePoint 2010 Document Management
9:30-9:45 AM	BREAK - SOLUTION LAB
9:45-11:00 AM	ZLATAN DZINIC - Best Practices for Compliance, Rights Management, and Sharepoint 2010
11:00 AM -12:15 PM	DAN HOLME - PowerShell Quick Start for SharePoint 2010
12:15-13:30 PM	LUNCH - Prize award drawings!

Join us! Register Now!

Secret Discount code: Register for TEC before September 17 code is: ATTECVIP 850 Euros (Enter my last name in the referral entry space)

Ask questions on the Facebook Group

Join the conversation on twitter #TEC2010

(We also have additional deep discounts available for SharePoint User Groups – please contact michelle.gamlin @quest.com for further information if you are a user group leader or member.)

Posted at 10:38 PM by Joel Oleson | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

9/1/2010

Effective SharePoint 2010 Upgrade Q&A

Webcast: Get to SharePoint 2010 – Strategies for Effective Upgrades and Migrations

Question and Answer Log:

I like to capture the questions from a good webcast. Got a bunch of good ones today…
If you missed the presentation you can get a recording and the slides here.

Paul Asked: Are there major downsides to using SQL 2005 with SharePoint 2010?

The downsides are the features in SQL 2008 that SharePoint 2010 takes advantage of. Starting with Mirroring, Remote Blob Storage, Backup Compression, Transparent Database Encryption, PowerPivot (see more below), Optimized Engine for performance, SQL Governor, etc...

Dutch McGehee Asked: Can I get a copy of the powerpoint slides?

Sure. http://www.quest.com/events/ListDetails.aspx?ContentID=12156

Question: What is the best non-destructive (to existing MOSS environment)
way to do upgrade if I'm upgrading to a new environment, but using the existing
production SQL?

Non Destructive? Need to drill into that. I’m guessing setting the current 2007 databases to read only as you migrate the databases with database attach to a new environment would be most non destructive.

Question: When will your book be available?

It’s available now in Rough Cuts on Safari. The other physical publish date is up to the publisher.

Travis Asked: Does PowerPivot require SQL 2008 R2? or will it work on 2008 and
2005 SQL?

It requires SQL 2008 R2.

“PowerPivot is essentially a way of making an analysis services cube using excel as the design tool. When you use the PowerPivot for Excel add-in, then there no backend dependency, but if you want to save a PowerPivot to SharePoint 2010, there has to be a special installation of SQL Server 2008 R2 analysis services associated with the SharePoint farm.” Andrew Fryer in PowerPivot is Analysis Services sort of.

Question: Missed beginning...Is SQL 2008 required for SP 2010?

No, you can run SQL 2005 x64 with SP3 CU5 and later.

Jose Asked: can you use this method from 32bit to 64 bit?

Yes, you can use database attach to move from 32bit to 64bit SharePoint Servers, or you can upgrade the SQL environment first with In-Place Upgrade.

Steve Asked: Does Add Solutions include InfoPath forms in forms
services that have code-behind?

Some InfoPath forms will need to be redeployed especially in cases where these are server solutions with database attach. In place upgrade would keep your solutions in place. Some code behind may need to be tested and redeployed. In all these cases I highly recommend testing. Workflow is one area where I’ve found visual studio solutions do need to be updated.

Question: does the visual upgrade upgrades all sites in site collection or can it be done by each site?

It can be done granularly or the entire site collection. You can also hide the preview option or upgrade it all at once.

Kyle Asked: Any experience or recommendations in using the AAM URL Redirection as part of the upgrade process

I recommend against using it if you don’t need it. It is complex and adds an unnecessary complexity in most upgrades. Some may think they need it if the upgrade will be over weeks and read only isn’t good enough.

Michael Asked: When should MySites/Profiles be migrated - before other site types? after?

You’ll want to make sure that your profiles and my site host is in place first. I recommend getting the services in place, especially dependent services… before you start migrating content.

Question: Does Quest Migration Manager support migration of SP 2007/MOSS environment from on-premise to BPOS-D (SharePoint Online 2010)?

It’s in development. Also note that SharePoint Online 2010 isn’t yet available for the general public.

Jeremy Asked: Does Migration manager work with WSS 3.0

Yes. WSS 2.0, WSS 3.0 to SharePoint Foundation

or WSS 2.0, WSS 3.0 MOSS 2007 to SharePoint 2010

Question: In the Fab 40 page, you had mentioned http://bit.ly/dhQUjd . Is
this a valid site? I just checked and it showed error.

The link works for me. It should redirect to: http://www.sharepointjoel.com/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=374 which has links to the blog post from the technical documentation team and links to Khalil’s upgraded SharePoint 2010 Fab 40.

Don Bruce Asked: Throughout the presentation you have mentioned a lot of things
done through PowerShell. We have typically thought of PowerShell as a
Developer-lite tool. How important is it that a SharePoint Administrator have
PowerShell skills?

Great question. For SharePoint Administrators there are a lot of commandlets that act similar to STSADM and are very similar in their construction, but they give you the power of a scripting language. I recommend reading my post on Powershell and SharePoint.

Practical Windows PowerShell for SharePoint 2010 - SharePoint Joel

Upgrading to SharePoint 2010 with Powershell

Sudip Shrestha Asked: I have a custom top navigation bar based on a xml datasource in a 2007 farm.. Does 2010 support 2007 type of navigation bar? How will 2010 handle this custom navigation bar?

I can’t answer specifically. I do recommend testing. I think you’ll find most things do upgrade quiet nicely. Backward compatibility is quite good. You will notice that binary upgrade will leave your nav bars, and visual upgrade will replace them. You’ll need to add them back in after visual upgrade or add them to your masterpage.

Grace Sigal Asked: Very slow... i can't see the demo

http://www.quest.com/events/ListDetails.aspx?ContentID=7836

Tim Chilva Asked: Does the "migration Manager handle placing "Content Type" into the "Master" META database, when a SP '07 site is migrated?

This is a great feature request.

Pat Breitenbeck Asked: does quest have a doc that tells what Migration Manager
can do that PowerShell or Stsadm commands cannot do?

Mark Mascolino Asked: We have a large number of site collections in a single web
application. We expect that the upgrade timelline to require having two farms
2007 & 2010 in parallel for a few months. How can we use the db attach upgrade
approach to a new farm while maintaining a single hostname in both farms?
(sites.company.com) e.g. we need redirector from 2007 upgrade process

If you can do it a web application at a time over a weekend or use readonly mode for the source you should be ok. If not you should look at the AAM Redirection or third party like Migration manager for post migration sync. Alex has some good info on it.

Question: Will Migration Manager convert the links within content to the destination?

SharePoint Designer or STSADM –o import/export or powershell import/export will try to do link fixup, but only in lists, not within documents.

Gerald Asked: can multiple 2007 publishing web applications be re-structured
under a single new 2010 web application

Yes with Migration manager you can consolidate sites during the migration. With normal upgrade you’d need to either use import/export while on 2007 or while on 2010, not during the upgrade.

Archana Mordekar Asked: What needs to be done to move a SharePoint application
(site Structure, features, backend code) from one box to another? The
configuration on both boxes is the same - the app needs to be brought up on
another box

Backup/restore, and redeploy the solutions/features.

Question: If I'm running Quest WebParts for Sharepoint on a Sharepoint 2007 environment, will I have to upgrade to Quest WebParts for Sharepoint 2010, or the 2007 version of the Webparts work on 2010?

You can install the 2010 Quest webparts on a new farm with database attach. With in-place you can upgrade the webparts after the upgrade. I think you’ll find this consistent with most customizations. They need to be in place on the source before the migration, or they need to be upgraded after, in the case of in-place upgrade.

Question To: Joel, what is your blog URL address?

http://www.sharepointjoel.com

Posted at 1:02 PM by Joel Oleson | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

How Microsoft Is Doing Records Management

SHAREPOINT 2010 WEBINAR

How Microsoft Is Using SharePoint & Colligo for ECM & Records Management

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

8:00 AM Pacific / 11:00 AM Eastern

4:00 PM London / 5:00 PM Paris

Join Microsoft guest speaker Nishan DeSilva on September 21st for the webinar: “How Microsoft Is Using SharePoint 2010 & Colligo for ECM & Records Management.” Nishan DeSilva is the Director of Information Management & Corporate Records Compliance at Microsoft. He will provide an inside look at how Microsoft’s Legal and Corporate Affairs Department (LCA) is leveraging SharePoint 2010 and Colligo Contributor to address compliance while empowering users to get their work done.
In this webinar, you’ll learn:

Microsoft’s strategy in LCA for information & records management
How to effectively move unstructured content & email into SharePoint
How to apply consistent classification & compliant retention policies
How Colligo Contributor facilitates email management in SharePoint
How to improve the user experience to drive adoption & compliance

Nishan DeSilva will provide insights into Microsoft’s strategy for SharePoint 2010 and how SharePoint along with Colligo Contributor enables organizations to take ownership of their information assets. Barry Jinks, Founder and CEO of Colligo, will discuss how client solutions add value to SharePoint 2010 and provide important functionality for seamlessly integrating Microsoft Outlook and SharePoint.
For new strategies to improve ECM and records management in your organization with SharePoint 2010, register for this webinar below!

--> Register for this Free Webcast!

Posted at 7:52 AM by Joel Oleson | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

8/26/2010

Free Webcast: Get to SharePoint 2010 – Strategies for Effective Upgrades and Migrations

Wednesday, September 1 at 11:00 a.m. ET / 8:00 a.m. PT

Did you know there are really at least 3 options for visual upgrade? Did you know there are some good scenarios for In-Place upgrade? Why is hybrid upgrade recommended for many deployments? This information and more on including guidance on why some may choose third party tools for upgrade and a demo from Ghazwan Kahari on the brand new 2010 Migration Manager tool.

During this live webcast, Joel will explore the different steps you can take to get to SharePoint 2010, and share tips, tricks and best practices to save you time and money.

Register now

Posted at 7:57 AM by Joel Oleson | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

8/25/2010

SharePoint 2010 and SQL Hotfix Dependencies

I did a webcast about a week ago about upgrading to SharePoint 2010. In it someone wrote on the chatboard that I had my SQL CU’s dependencies wrong. Rechecking my slides and the dependencies page for SharePoint 2010 with the July update. I’m finding it is a bit difficult to navigate for customers where the SQL person is not the same as the SharePoint person.

The individual on the webcast was was on the right track that I should clarify this wild area of what do you really need to be running for SQL. The source for the info is on TechNet in the article on Hardware and Software Requirements for SharePoint 2010.

I recently found that not only that preupgradecheck does not check the version of SQL, in many cases neither does it check the version of SQL in the prerequiste installer in the cases of some of the in-place upgrades. In some cases a new install will catch it during the provisioning of the farm. Due to lack of rollback you’re now scrambling to patch your SQL…

Option 1: 64bit SQL 2008 R2 or later

SQL Server 2008 R2

Option 2: SQL 2008 SP1 + Updates

SQL 2008 Sp1 with CU2 or CU5 or later

Cumulative Update Package 5 for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1

Note: You may get a warning if installed on Windows Server 2008 R2 (disregard)

DO NOT USE: CU3 or CU4

Option 3: SQL 2005 SP3 + Updates

SQL 2005 SP3 CU2, CU5 or later is recommended

Cumulative update package 5 for SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 3

Cumulative update package 6 for SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 3

Also note: Microsoft SQL Server hotfixes and cumulative updates are created for specific SQL Server service packs. You must apply a SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 3 hotfix or cumulative update to an installation of SQL Server Service Pack. By default, any hotfix that is provided in a SQL Server service pack is included in the next SQL Server service pack.

For more information about choosing a version of SQL Server, see SQL Server 2008 R2 and SharePoint 2010 Products: Better Together (white paper) (SharePoint Server 2010).

Why are people confused? Note this contradiction on the software and hardware requirements page. First they are NOT recommending CU3 then they include a link to it. Hope this is corrected soon. I’ll give the TechNet folks a heads up. Here’s a quote from the page on 8/26/10.

“ Cc262485.note(en-us,office.14).gif Note:

We do not recommend that you use CU3 or CU4, but instead CU2, CU5, or a later CU than CU5. For more information, see Cumulative update package 5 for SQL Server 2008 (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=196928). Download the SQL_Server_2008_RTM_CU5_SNAC file.

The 64-bit edition of Microsoft SQL Server 2005 with Service Pack 3 (SP3). From the Cumulative update package 3 for SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 3 (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=165748) page, click the View and request hotfix downloads link and follow the instructions. On the Hotfix Request page, download the SQL_Server_2005_SP3_Cumulative_Update_3 file.”

Posted at 3:03 PM by Joel Oleson | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

8/24/2010

Aptillon SharePoint Consulting Genius

Today in SharePoint News… Something huge happened.

In the past you’d be impressed with a couple of MVPs/Experts putting their minds together and coming up with a product or a couple joining forces to write a book or get together to do some training or what have you.

The brain power in this group Todd Baginski, Darrin Bishop, Dan Holme, Gary Lapointe, David Mann, Matt McDermott, and Maurice Prather is extreme. What they all have in common is they are really nice guys, who are not afraid of hard work. All are and have been consultants in the SharePoint world for many years. They all are very senior consultants working in SharePoint a total of over 50 years combined.

The design is they are the principal consultants and now they are open for business. They’ve already got consultants and the work has already begun. With Dan in Hawaii, Maurice in the West, Darrin and Gary in the Midwest, and Matt down south, then David Man on the East coast of the US, they’ve really done a great job of getting coverage across the US and all times zones!

I want to wish them the best of luck. They’ve all been MVP and I know a couple are MCM and many would qualify at that level if they went through the hoops. With Dan’s connections with Penton and expertise in PR, and Todd’s connections with Microsoft, heck all of their connections with Microsoft… Gary’s focus, determination and spirit and Matt’s connections with the big dogs, don’t forget David’s east coast enterprise customer connections they’ll do very well.

I’d be proud to work with any of them.

8/19/2010

Really, A SharePoint Training Cruise?

When Peter Abreu was asking me whether I’d be interested in presenting on a SharePoint Cruise I said…. Of Course!!!

What we didn’t know was if people would want to receive their training on a cruise. I think it’s a very clever idea. I think others would want to provide training in this way as well.

So now we need the proof. Here’s a survey to gather interest. I personally would love to get training in this way as well. If MCM was on a 2-3 week cruise, I can’t imagine it being delivered in a better atmosphere. Food is close. Company is accessible, and sleep is not far away either.

Let us know what you think…

SharePoint Tech Cruise Survey

Posted at 3:56 PM by Joel Oleson | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

8/18/2010

Updated Guidance on SharePoint 2010 Upgrade and the FAB 40 application templates

I’ve been telling people that Microsoft would be providing some guidance, and some of that guidance has come. Samantha Robertson a technical writer on the SharePoint team who is the author for much of the upgrade content on 2007 and 2010 on TechNet often without credit has posted some guidance.

Her post is titled “SharePoint 2010 Products: Upgrade and the Fabulous 40 Application Templates”

It’s broken down into a couple of categories. The information on…

Upgrade Guidance

1. What to do with the .stp files – STP is no longer an supported extension for template files. The new format is the .wsp which is the same as it was for the solutions. Now we have client solutions, and even saving a site as a template in SharePoint will generate a .wsp file. Samantha includes the steps for recreating your upgraded site as a 2010 wsp site template.

2. What to do with the .wsp (solutions) – The server solutions in an in place upgrade if they are there should upgrade as is. Some have issues, Samantha has explained these and points to the SharePoint setup forum (Absence Request and Vacation Schedule Management, Call Center, Help Desk, IT Team Workspace, Knowledge Base, and Physical Asset Tracking and Management)

Removing the Template Dependency

While it sounds like .stp files are the harder ones to deal with in reading her post, the opposite is true. The .wsp files are the ones that contain custom site definitions. Sure these can be recompiled and redeployed, but if you don’t care to create new sites based on those templates you can simply remove the template file, the stp and move on.

In a previous post “Remove/Deactivate a missing feature for a cleaner upgrade” I address how to detract a feature if you are no longer using them, such as may be the case where a sample site was created using the template, but no longer needs it.

To Remove a Template

This will enumerate the custom templates in a farm

stsadm.exe -o enumtemplates

To remove a template you’ll need the template title, I encourage quotes.

stsadm.exe -o deletetemplate -title “template title”

If you have multiple languages installed you may need to specifiy the language id such as 1033 for English.

stsadm.exe -o deletetemplate -title <template title> -lcid <language>

She also links to a great resource put together by Khalil who has recompiled the Fabulous 40 2007 app templates into updated solutions for 2010. While not yet complete he’s still working. This is a key resource for people trying to maintain sites for people that are looking to do a database attach. If you’re building clean 2010 farms, this is truly a blessing. Thanks Khalil.

3. Fab 40 Templates [upgraded by Khalil] for MOSS 2010

While I was hoping to see more guidance from Microsoft at least we’ve got something to work with. Thanks Samantha and Khalil!

Posted at 8:28 PM by Joel Oleson | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

SharePoint 2010 Upgrade Decision Tree

I love it when the community comes together. You can see the twitter discussion with Todd Klindt, Rick Taylor and Benjamin Athawes (on his blog) that resulted in a few different decision trees to help us better discuss the recommendations of In Place Upgrade vs. Database attach and really one of my favorites, the hybrid. In this recommendation decision tree, you’ll I rarely recommend in place without combining with database attach to mitigate the risks of full disk and other issues not captured by preupgrade check or in the prerequiste assessments such as SQL related patching issues. The only case is in the smallest of deployments where people are using the basic install which I don’t recommend anyway.

Love to get your feedback on this. I threw in the Third party migration & tools as a bonus. Some people wonder how it fits in.

You can grab the PDF: SharePoint 2010 Upgrade Decision Tree

If you want to discuss the Visio then you can find me on twitter @joeloleson