Via the team @knowledgecue and @ckukltd you can get hold of this step by step guide. This is a collaborative effort with Steve Smith of Combined Knowledge (UK). Steve runs a unique training class aimed for Infrastructure administrators who want to know about SharePoint in depth and this is one of the many module from that class. Remote Blob Storage (RBS) is a capability of SQL server 2008 and 2008R2 that can be used to offload content stored in databases to the file system. The guide covers the following three scenarios. Setup and configure FILESTREAM and RBS for a new content database. Configure RBS for an existing content database and site collection. Disable RBS from a content database. Download the guide from the Knowledge Cue team site - Configuring Remote Blob Storage for SharePoint ...[Read More]

If you’ve followed some of my previous posts and presentations on SharePoint upgrade or are about to plan an Upgrade the following Video (link below) would be of interest. The video is from the Microsoft IT team who conducted the internal Microsoft SharePoint upgrade. Some of the key points for any successful upgrade are discussed in the video: detect issues early by learning about the deployment communications with site owners/administrators no data loss minimal downtime Initial Best Practices and Lessons Learned from Microsoft IT SharePoint 2010 Upgrade (Video) Managing a Parallel Upgrade to SharePoint 2010 (Video) Upgrade Planning and Best Practices - TechNet Upgrade Resource Centre – TechNet Remember the more you know about the deployment the better the upgrade experience is. I’ve done many upgrades and it’s unique in e ...[Read More]

Since the release of SharePoint Server 2010 (RTM) in April 2010 the following Cumulative Updates have been released. Current SharePoint Server updates - latest to oldest highlighted. December 2010 – SharePoint Server KB 2459257 - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2459257/ December 2010 – SharePoint Foundation KB - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2459125/en-us October 2010 – SharePoint Server KB 2394320 - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2394320/ August 2010 – SharePoint Server KB 2352342 - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2352342 (Note that with this release there are additional updates for Project Server and FAST Search Server). June 2010 – SharePoint Server KB 983497 - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/983497 (Multiple) For most deployments which are operational these updates should (is recommended to) be applied on a regular ...[Read More]

If you are installing and or configuring SharePoint 2010 and want to make sure that the people Search capability in SP2010 is enabled make sure to check the following settings. Have provisioned the User Profile Service application and started the User Profile Synchronisation service and done a full sync – Follow the article “Rational Guide to User Profile Service” from Spencer Harbar @harbars Have provisioned the Enterprise Search service application and verified that normal crawls are working (i.e: SharePoint sites and file system) Provision a “Enterprise Search” center with tabs in a SharePoint web application and verify that Search results are displaying Have added the line “sps3://mysites.knowledgecue.com” in the Start Addresses field > i.e: The sps3:// is the protocol handler reference for profile indexing. In this case I ...[Read More]

In some cases where SharePoint deployments that have been carried out by resorting to the “Wizard” you’ll most likely end up with service and content databases that are GUID based. Also no matter what method you use the PerformancePoint service application when initially provisioned will contain a GUID as there is no option to specify the databasename paramter via PowerShell. However you can get rid of these GUIDs and set the database names to be human readable. The correct ay to do this is by first talking with your DBA’s or if you have full access to your SQL deployment you’d be able to run the following SQL script(s) to rename the database correctly. So the high level process as follows. In this example I am going to highlight the provisioning of the PerformancePoint service application and how to rename the DB and then reset the s ...[Read More]

There is much talk about PRA (Public Records Act) Compliance and it usually comes up in so many conversations that I’ve been having. Lot of the times I get the following question “So is SharePoint 2010 PRA Compliant?” Now for my readers who are NOT from New Zealand go over to NZ Archives site on what PRA compliance guidelines have been set out for NZ [ http://archives.govt.nz/advice/digital-continuity-action-plan ]. In a previous post many moons ago I did an overview on “SharePoint DoD 5015.2 and what it means to New Zealand public agencies who are looking at PRA compliance” . Which was just an overview. You’d also notice that some of my previous links to Archives.govt.nz has changed which I’ve updated as well. (Hmm change.. PRA.. ) This current post is most relevant to anyone who is working in the NZ public sector who are using or pla ...[Read More]

Please read first two posts in this series. Planning for SharePoint 2010 Part 1, Planning for SharePoint 2010 Part 2. In the last two posts I showed you how to move your data tier to your new 64bit Farm. That is you moved all your databases and tested that you now have a 64bit based database server to host all the content databases. Let’s look at how we can move the application server and the web front end server tiers. In this case you can choose to move both Tiers Tier B and C at the same time or individually. In either case the approach is the same. In order to move your Application Server(s) and the Web Front End Server(s) you’ll need to first install the SharePoint binaries on the servers on Farm B. With information you gathered in your audit you’ll need to do a fresh install of SharePoint on the SPAPP1 server. Note that yo ...[Read More]

Please read Part 1 of this post series before you continue. In this post I will highlight how to move your (32 bit) SQL Server tier to 64 bit. In the case of moving your data tier there are few prerequisites that you should consider. In this case we have the assumption that your new 64bit SQL server deployment has followed best practice guidelines for SQL server. From a SharePoint point of view you should consider the following to enable effective management of your existing content databases or any new databases you are creating. SQL Server 2008 or 2005 (64bit) are both supported when moving to SP2010. Details about preparing your database server can be found here (TechNet). This may be a good time to also plan what your SQL maintenance regime would look like for your new data tier. Start with Database maintenance guidance for Sha ...[Read More]