Please refer to my previous three posts on Upgrade Planning for SharePoint 2010 – These previous posts outline some important scenarios for your upgrade planning process. SharePoint 2010 Upgrade Planning Part 1, SharePoint 2010 Upgrade Planning Part 2, SharePoint 2010 Upgrade Planning Part 3. In this post I’ll outline the supported scenarios for your SharePoint 2010 upgrade from SharePoint 2007 and how to determine a best approach for your upgrade. I have been working with a few clients who are currently on SharePoint 2007 and are looking to upgrade to SharePoint 2010. So I will try and provide some real world data as part of this post. If you’ve been following my post series I outlined the steps and the approach to move your SharePoint 32bit farm to 64bit since SharePoint 2010 is only available and supported in 64 bit Windows Server ...[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]

Here is a detailed outline of what I discussed and presented at my TechEd session on Wednesday 16th September in Auckland – New Zealand titled Planning for SharePoint 2010 - Upgrade Planning and Guidance OFC306. Thanks to all of you who came along to the session. This is a first in a series of posts and White Papers that I will publish as part of an ongoing series on planning to upgrade to SharePoint Server 2010. Needless to say that I will only cover planning aspects and will NOT be talking about any new features or functionality of SharePoint 2010. Please visit the SharePoint team blog for details of SharePoint 2010. System Requirements for SharePoint 2010 This has been common knowledge for a while and the SharePoint product team announced that SharePoint 2010 will only be available in x64 (64bit) versions. Therefore the first step ...[Read More]

I got the following question from a mate of mine recently. I’ve edited the message to only contain the bits that I am blogging about.. “Basically I want to know what the implications are for search if we're on the non-enterprise licence for SharePoint. One of our IT guys has expressed concerns over whether we can have a fully effective search (including people finder type capability) without being on the enterprise licence.” If you use the word “SharePoint” and “Search” then the above can be interpreted in many ways. In this case what my friend was looking for was mainly what does the Enterprise version of SharePoint Search (MOSS 2007) provide over and above the Standard version of SharePoint Search (MOSS 2007). What is not entirely common knowledge is that Microsoft rebranded the SharePoint Search offering as “Microsoft Search Ser ...[Read More]

Well the product has been on the market for a few years.. and I see so many people struggle with getting some of the basics of SharePoint right. If you are looking at starting SharePoint development or have been developing sites on SharePoint here is one cool sample site you should look at. Microsoft has made available a great sample site built to showcase the WCM capabilities of SharePoint. Head over to http://www.mssharepointdeveloper.com/ and get hold of the Adventureworks demo site and the sample MSDN guided modules and demos. The new SharePoint On The Web modules cover the following topics: Getting Started with SharePoint Development on the Web Site Structure and Branding Custom Field Types and Mode FBA Authentication Web Interoperability SharePoint Search Content Deployment Minimal Publishing Site Definition ...[Read More]

As one of the official organisers of the New Zealand Community SharePoint conference it is my job to ensure that all conference related activities and events are posted online. If you are a speaker or a delegate you would have already received an email with some instructions. In case you haven’t go this email or want an easy online reference my blog will provide general information and sub events. For event updates please check my blog or follow the NZ SharePoint twitter channel.   General Information for Delegates and Speakers The conference is being held at the Duxton Hotel in Wellington at 170 Wakefield Street. Parking is available at James Smith Car Park next to the Hotel. Registration desk will be open from 5.30pm till 7.30pm on Wednesday 1st July at the Duxton. The registration desk will again open at 7.00am to 8.30am on Thu ...[Read More]

Well it’s been a while since I’d been able to blog. With my full time job and also organising the first ever New Zealand SharePoint Conference it has been quite busy. If you still haven’t registered and you have an interest on learning and networking with some of the best in the SharePoint world then this is your opportunity! (Plug over) Well now Service Pack 2! Yes that was released some time ago. And if you are still wondering what to do or worst still haven’t even updated your servers to Service Pack 1 then it’s time to do so. If you haven’t read my previous post about updating your servers I recommend that you read this post titled “SharePoint Service pack 2 is coming are you ready?” Microsoft recommend that Service pack 1 plus post SP1 updates as a minimum. My post highlights how you should go about applying the updates and getti ...[Read More]