Inner SharePoint

I was working on SharePoint 2013 project for operations management. We had to create an operations portal to manage projects. After analyzing the requirements , limitation and threshold,  we decided to create a site collection per project. The main reasons was :

• A content database size exceed 200Gb to avoid performance issues and to be able to use default backup/restore operations.
• Ability to use different database servers for differents projects
• Ability to move a project space from one content database to another

One of the issues that we have encountred is content type management. We had to create the same content types in each site collection and for every change in one site collection, we had to replicate it on the others.

We had two choices to solve this issue :

• Custom development
• Use a default SharePoint feature

Solving the issue with custom development could take us time that we haven't. We had to search SharePoint features to see if the is something that could help us.

After some research, we found that the SharePoint Managed Metadata service could be helpful for us. We will use the content type publishing feature of the Managed Metadata service.

To configure the service we have to follow the steps below :

1. Create a site collection (Hub) that will host the content types that will be published.
2. Configure the Managed Metadata Service to connect to the recently created site hub.
3. Configure the Managed Metadata Service proxy to consume content types from the created hub
4. Create content types in the Hub site and allow publishing
5. Verify that the published content types are available in the other site collections

1. Create a site collection (Hub) that will host the content types that will be published.

• Create a new site collection
• Go to site collection feature
• Activate the feature

2. Configure the Managed Metadata Service to connect to the recently created site hub

• Go to central administration -> Application management -> Manage service applications
• Select the "Managed Metadata service" and click "Properties" in the ribbon
• At the bottom of the page , put the adress of your newly created site collection in the "Content Type hub" field
• Click "Ok" to validate. The hub adress could only be updated using powershell

3. Configure the Managed Metadata Service proxy to consume content types from the created hub

• Go to central administration -> Application management -> Manage service applications
• Select the "Managed Metadata service " proxy and click "Properties" in the ribbon
• Only check the 3rd and 4th checkboxes
• Click "Ok"

4. Create content types in the Hub site and allow publishing

• Go to hub site collection
• Create a new content type
• Add your custom columns
• Click on "Manage publishing for this content type"
• Select "Publish" and then "Ok"

5. Verify that the published content types are available in the other site collections

• You have to wait a little bit until the synchronization job is executed
• Go to a site collection different from the "Hub site collection"
• Go to "Site settings"
• Under "Site collection administration" click on "Content type publishing"
• We will get the content types that have been published from the "Hub site collection"
   
  
  
   
  
  
  
  
  
   
  
  
   

 

I have been working on a SharePoint 2013 project and one of my tasks was to document the server farm.
Documenting the farm manually takes too much time and i wasn't able to buy a third party tool to do that work.
I decided to create an application to automate the documentation process.
I called the tool "SPDocumentor" and i've published it on codeplex.
https://spdocumentor.codeplex.com/releases/view/112882
In the current release, i'm just generating documentation of the farm and web applications. I'll be working on it to document the : "Jobs, Site collections, backups ..."
The tool uses the SharePoint object model to access farm information and the "DocumentFormat.OpenXml.dll" to generate the target word document.


 

One of the common issues when creating a new site from a site Template is that the lookup columns values are blanks. The full scenario is as below :

• Create a SharePoint site
• Add lists with lookup columns
• Insert some data in the lists
• Save the site as Template with its content
• Create a new site from the Template

When you access the list which contains the lookup column, you will notice that the lookup values are empty. The lookup values still exist but they are not rendered. We have to fix the list schema by updating some properties of the lookup column. Two properties have to be updated :

• The Web Id
• The List Id

There are two ways to fix the list schema :

• Using C#
• Using Powershell

We will see how to fix the error using Powershell. The script below will let you fix the column.

$web = Get-SPWeb "Your web url"
$list = $web.Lists["Your list name"]
$column = $list.Fields["Your column name"]
$lookupList = $web.Lists["Your source list name"]
#Updating the column properties
$column.SchemaXml = $column.SchemaXml.Replace($column.LookupWebId.ToString(), $web.ID.ToString())
$column.SchemaXml = $column.SchemaXml.Replace($column.LookupList.ToString(), $lookupList.ID.ToString())
$column.Update()
write-host "Column properties have been updated"
$Web.Dispose()

  

More details about the lookup columns on MSDN.



 

Microsoft has created a website for the SDPS (SharePoint Deployment Planning Services) program. Using this program, a customer can use his software assurance benefits to cover deployment and upgrade  planning services costs.
The web site contains many important resources that help Microsoft partners to improve their demo and PoC.
Here some key resources that I found on the website

• SharePoint 2013 Planning 
• SharePoint 2013 Social PoC 
• SharePoint 2013 WCM PoC 
• Office 365 FastTrack Pilot 

The August  CU Updates for SharePoint 2013 has been released. Below are links for August CU.

KB 2751999 - SharePoint Foundation 2013

KB 2726992 - SharePoint Server 2013

KB 2775426 - SharePoint Server 2013 with Project Server

KB 2799821 - Office Web Apps Server 2013

Make sure to run the SharePoint configuration wizard after installing the update.

One of the common error that you may encounter when you try deploy a SharePoint solution is :

Error 36 Error occurred in deployment step 'Activate Features': Cannot complete this action.
Please try again.

After analyzing the SharePoint log files I found out the error bellow :

GetUserListSchema(): Failed to get the list schema XML for feature

The error above has been caused by the manipulation bellow :

In this project I had only one feature that contained the list definition and the list instance and then I have created a new feature scoped site and move the list definition to it. I kept the list instance in the scoped web feature.

In order to fix the problem, you have to edit the element.xml of the list instance and add the featureid attribute. The feature id attribute should be the id of the list definition's feature.

Here is a sample element.xml file.


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
  <ListInstance Title="ListInstanceName"
                OnQuickLaunch="TRUE"
                TemplateType="10000"
                FeatureId="644d32f3-30d8-441f-a24c-84cd3931cdf0"
                Url="Lists/ListInstanceName"
                Description="My ListInstanceName">
  </ListInstance>
</Elements>

I was setting up a new SharePoint Server 2013 Environment for development purposes. The installation type was "Standalone". At step 8 of the wizard, an error occurred :

Exception: System.ArgumentException: The SDDL string contains an invalid sid or a sid that cannot be translated.
Parameter name: sddlForm

After googling a little bit I found out that the possible cause was that the wizard wasn't able to share a folder under "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Servers\15.0\Data\Office Server".

To fix the problem you have to share the following folder :"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Servers\15.0\Data\Office Server\Analytics_{GUID}"

 

Microsoft have released a Visio stencil that contains more than 300 icons to help you create a nice visual representations of your architectures.



You can download the stencil from : New Office Visio Stencil

 

In the last 5 days, my mission was to analyze a set of SharePoint solutions that was developed during 6 months and to write a document that lists things that should be fixed or enhanced. Usually, my analysis tasks is based on FxCop,SPDisposeCheck and Source code analysis. This time i've googled a littled bit in order to see if there is a tool that could help me automating my task. After 2 minutes of search, i found a tool in Microsoft Visual Studio Gallery called : SPCAF (SharePoint Code Analysis Framework).It is still in BETA version.

SPCAF cannot only analyze assemblies like other tools as FxCop or SPDisposeCheck. It can also analyze all the XML code in SharePoint packages like Features, ContentTypes, ListTemplates and all the other files like controls (.ascx), pages (.aspx) and master pages (.master) etc.

The tool can be run in 5 different modes :

• Integrated with visual studio 2012/2010
• Client application
• Integrated into a Team Build
• Command line
• MSBuild Task

Installing and Securing SQL Server 2012

Installing SQL Server 2012

•           Connect to the domain controller machine
•           Open the “Active Directory Users and Computers” management console
•           Create a new organization unit called “SQLAccounts

A particularly useful type of directory object contained within domains is the organizational unit. Organizational units are Active Directory containers into which you can place users, groups, computers, and other organizational units. An organizational unit cannot contain objects from other domains. (see technet)

•  Now create the users within the newly created Organization Unit “SQLACcounts”. Right client on the "OU" and the click “Add” the “User”

•          Connect to the SQL Server machine
•           Insert the SQL Server 2012 image file or DVD in the right drive.
•           Start the installation wizard
•           Click on “Installation” and then on “New SQL Server standalone installation”

• The “Setup Support Rules” screen appears.  Click “OK”

•           In the next screen, uncheck the “Include SQL Server product updates” and click “Next”
•           The “Install Setup Files” screen appears. Click “Install”
•           The “Setup Support Rules” screen appears.  The setup support rules identify problems that may occur when you install SQL Server Setup Support Files. Failures must be fixed before setup can continue. When no failure detected click “Next”

•          In the “Setup Role” screen , select “SQL Server feature installation” and click “Next”      Check all features in the “Feature Selection” wizard step.

•         Click “Next” to go to the next screen. In the “Installation Rules” screen, the wizard will execute rules to determine if the installation process will be blocked.  Make sure everything is green.
• 
  
•         In the “Instance Configuration Screen”, Click on “Named Instance” radio button. In the SQL  Instance name textbox, type the name you want. In this tutorial I’ve used “SQL01”. Give also an instance ID in the textbox “Instance ID”. I’ve used the same as instance name “SQL01”.

•        Click “Next” to go to the “Server Configuration” screen.
•       In the Configuration Screen and under the “Service Accounts” tab, set the right account for the right service as bellow. Click “Next”.

•        The “Database Engine Configuration” screen appears. Set authentication mode to Windows authentication mode.  Add the “svcSQLAcc01” and “Administrator” accounts as administrator accounts.  Click “Next”. (KB2028697) 

•   In the Analysis Services Configuration screen, add the “svcSQLAcc01” and “Administrator” accounts as analysis service administrator accounts. Select the “Multidimensional Mode” instead of “Tabular mode”. Click “Next”
•  The “Reporting services configuration” screen appears. Under “Reporting services Native Mode” check the “install and configure”. Under “Reporting Services SharePoint integrated mode” check the “Install Only”. Click “Next”
• In the “Distributed Replay Controller” screen, add “svcSQLAcc01” and “Administrator” accounts as users that have permissions to DRC.
• Click “Next” to open the “Distributed Replay Client” screen. In the controller name type the name of the current machine “SQL-VM-SV01”

Similar to SQL Server Profiler, you can use Distributed Replay to replay a captured trace against an upgraded test environment. Unlike SQL Server Profiler, Distributed Replay is not limited to replaying the workload from a single computer.Distributed Replay offers a more scalable solution than SQL Server Profiler. With Distributed Replay, you can replay a workload from multiple computers and better simulate a mission-critical workload.The Microsoft SQL Server Distributed Replay feature can use multiple computers to replay trace data and simulate a mission-critical workload. Use Distributed Replay for application compatibility testing, performance testing, or capacity planning. (see msdn)

Securing SQL Server

• Prepare for upgrade

• Upgrade Database

• Upgrade Sites

PLAN FOR UPGRADE

• Define the Upgrade strategy to minimize downtime during upgrade (See msdn)
• Study special upgrade cases (See msdn)
• Create a plan for current customizations (See msdn)
• Plan for site collection upgrade (See msdn)
• Plan for performance during upgrade (See msdn)
• Create a communication plan (See msdn)
• Clean current Server Farm (See msdn)

PREPARE 2013 FARM (See msdn)

UPGRADE DATABASES

• Check list for database upgrade (See msdn)
• Copy databases to the new Farm (See msdn)

• Upgrade services applications to SharePoint 2013 (See msdn)
• Upgrade Content database (See msdn)
• Verify upgrade for databases (See msdn)
• Migrate from classic-mode authentication to claim-based authentication (See msdn)

• Run site collection health checks (See msdn)
• Upgrade a site collection (See msdn)
• Review upgraded site collections (See msdn)
• Manage site collection upgrades (See msdn)

Installing the Farm Domain Controller (AD DS)

• Creating the farm virtual machines
• Installing the Farm Domain Controller (AD DS)
• Installing and Securing SQL Server 2012
• Installing SharePoint Server 2013
• Creating the first SharePoint Site
• Installing Visual studio 2012 and Office development tools

Before starting the AD-DS role installation, you have to set a static IP address for the network card. Open the “Network and sharing center” , click on you current “Active Connections” and then set an IP address.  In the DNS field put 127.0.0.1

In previous versions of Windows Server we used to use the DCPROMO command in order to install a new “AD-DS and DNS”. In Windows Server 2012 this has been made easier using the “Roles and Features” setup screen.

In the Active Directory directory service, a forest is a set of naming contexts (NCs) consisting of one schema NC, one config NC, and one or more domain NCs. Because a set of NCs can be arranged into a tree structure, a forest is also a set of one or several trees of NCs. (see msdn)

The global catalog is a distributed data repository that contains a searchable, partial representation of every object in every domain in a multidomain Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) forest (see technet)