Free ebook: Introducing Windows Server 2012 R2 Preview Release

Another free ebook offering from Microsoft Press. Introducing Windows Server 2012 R2 Preview Release (ISBN 9780735682931), by Mitch Tulloch with the Windows Server Team, introduces new features and capabilities, with scenario-based advice on how the platform can meet the needs of your business. Get the high-level overview you need to begin preparing your deployment now. This book is based on the Preview release and will be updated to cover Windows Server 2012 R2 RTM.

Download the PDF version of this title here (108 pages, 5 MB). UPDATE: The EPUB format is here and the MOBI format is here.

 

Watch for the lengthier RTM edition of this ebook later this year!

If you prefer a hard copy of the book, you can order it here from our official distributor, O’Reilly Media, for $9.99.

Migration Issue - Content Database is in compatibility range and upgrade is recommended?

Applies: SharePoint 2010, Project Server 2010

So you have migrated Project Server and Content DB from one environment to another. You attached the content DB (containing the PWA Site Collection) and then attach the four restored PS databases to the PWA instance. You might think that this would be sufficient and that all the restored databases would be successfully upgraded ok by the DB attach operations.

You might then subsequently run the SharePoint configuration wizard, to resolve any issues. Looking at the ‘Upgrade Status Check’ in Central Admin shows all is ok.

Not the case for one of the sites!! When the user started to use the system, strange things started to happen. Project Workspaces where not being created when publishing a project. Same issue occurred if you manually created a site using one of your site templates.

On close examination it turn out that the Project Server (PS) databases upgraded just fine but the content DBs did not. This was evident from ‘Database Review Status’ page within Central Admin.

To resolve this issue we needed to upgrade the affected content databases using the Power Shell command (Run as Administrator).

Upgrade-SPContentDatabase -Identity YourDatabaseName

Depending on your data/content/customisation, you may encounter some errors which you will need to review and resolve. The issues may relate to missing features that need to be enabled etc.

Finally, the ‘Database Review Status’ page within CA will indicate that all the databases are ok and do not require any update.

Hope this helps.

SP2010–Getting to grips with PowerShell commands

Here are some nice Tips from Niklas Goude for PowerShell commands for SharePoint.

In SharePoint 2010 you can manage sites through Windows PowerShell. You can create new sites in a site collection using the New-SPWeb cmdlet

New-SPWeb http://SP/TeamSite -Template “STS#0” –Name “Team Site” `
-Description “Description of Site” –AddToTopNav –UseParentTopNav

You can retrieve an existing site using the Get-SPWeb cmdlet:

Get-SPWeb http://SP/TeamSite

You can configure a site through the Set-SPWeb cmdlet:

Get-SPWeb http://SP/TeamSite | Set-SPWeb -Description “New Description”

And finally, you can remove a site using the Remove-SPWeb cmdlet:

Remove-SPWeb http://SP/TeamSite -Confirm:$false

Setting the –Confirm switch parameter to $false omits the confirmation returned from PowerShell.

EPM/SharePoint Central Administration; Where are the Regional Settings?

Applies: EPM2007; EPM2010; SP2007; SP2010

If you have been working with SharePoint Central Administration you will have come across an issue with the date format when troubleshooting e.g. reviewing search logs. It appears in US date format. And, no means of setting it to any other regional settings via Central Admin within Site Actions > Site settings.

However, you can access this page by the following URL format: http://servername:8888/_layouts/regionalsetng.aspx

That means if you add the “_layouts/regionalsetng.aspx” after your CA URL, you can reach the Regional Settings page.  Then, simply change desired regional settings. See example in screen shots below.

Fig (1) – SharePoint 2010 Central Administration > Site Settings

Fig (2) – Regional Settings

Hope this helps!

EPM Training Courses - How do they map to my organizational objectives?

I often get asked about EPM training courses and their relevance to business strategic objectives for their EPM deployment.
Here is some info from Project Solution encapsulating the EPM learning structure and how the various role-based training courses align with the organization’s objectives and requirements of EPM solution.

This will help your business realise the full potential value and benefit of an Enterprise Project Management solution.

(click picture to enlarge)

End-user Training Courses;

1. MSP101: Microsoft Project Planning [2d]
2. EPM200: Microsoft EPM for Project Managers [2d]
3. EPM201: Microsoft EPM for Project Managers Boot Camp [3d]
4. EPM202: Managing PRINCE2® Projects in EPM2007 [2d] New!
5. EPM300: Microsoft EPM for Programme Managers [1d]
6. EPM301: Microsoft EPM Programme Management Boot Camp [3d]
7. EPM400: Microsoft EPM for Project Portfolio & Enterprise RMs [1d]
8. EPM501: Microsoft PWA for Executives [½d]
9. EPM502: Microsoft PWA for Resource Managers [½d]

Administrator Training Courses;

1. EPM700-Microsoft EPM Application Administration [2d]
2. EPM701-Microsoft EPM Infrastructure Administration Fundamentals [1d]

The training courses are provided off-site, on-site or on-line. For further information (course overviews and content details) contact: info@projectsolution.co.uk

Author: PJ Mistry

EPM Scheduled Jobs

When deploying EPM2007, the timings of the following scheduled jobs need to be considered;

1. SQL DB Backups
2. OLAP Cube Build
3. Resource Capacity
4. Message Queue Cleanups
5. Email Alerts and Reminders
6. AD Synch for ERP and Groups

• Other SharePoint Timer Jobs and any other

EPM Database Maintenance Tasks

After you deploy EPM2007 in your production environment, I would highly recommend you have a SQL maintenance plan in place which includes;

• Backup
• Check DB integrity
• Rebuild Index (-> update statistics)
• History cleanup
• Maintenance cleanup

Those who are not hard core SQL DBA’s, contact me and I will email you some simple scripts that will help improve your system performance.

Rules for Deploying Shared Service Provider

Before deploying an SSP, you will need a thorough understanding about the rules for deploying them. This topic discusses the rules for deploying SSPs.

The rules are as follows:

1. You can associate each Web application with one SSP only. To associated specific web application to a particular SSP, Change Associations is used. All WSS site collections and sites under the associated Web application inherit the use of the SSP. It is required that you associate all Web applications to SSPs. When you create the first SSP in your farm, the SSP is marked as the default SSP for the farm. All Web applications that do not have an explicit SSP assigned use the default SSP.
2. The application pool identity accounts of Web applications that will need to use a shared service from an SSP must be granted access to the SSP. The details can be specified in the SSP properties page as shown below.
   When you create a Web application, the application pool identity of the Web application is automatically associated with the default SSP.
3. All shared services exist as a tightly bound cluster of services. This means that if you create a SSP, it will contain all services. These services include user profiles, Excel services, BDC, search, and usage reporting. All shared services are turned on at the SSP level. For example, you cannot turn off the Search service and expect all other shared services to work correctly.
4. Every SSP you create must have an associated administration site. The administration site is used for managing application level settings and configurations for the SSP.

SQL Server and database collation

The SQL Server database collation must be configured for case-insensitive, accent-sensitive, Kana-sensitive, and width-sensitive. This configuration is used to ensure file-name uniqueness consistent with the Windows operating system. For more information about collations, see "Selecting a SQL Collation" or "Collation Settings in Setup" in SQL Server Books Online.

• Latin1_General_CI_AS_KS_WS