SharePoint Joel's SharePoint Land

Ten Things DBAs will LOVE in SharePoint 2010 #TEE09

Joel Oleson — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:43:24 GMT

I did a session yesterday on SharePoint in the SQL track at Teched Europe in Berlin. I included Todd Klindt, who also speaks a lot on SQL and SharePoint so we could really reach both the SQL and SharePoint Audience. We had a packed room with nearly 50/50 SQL and SharePoint Crowds. We had over a third with 1TB plus environments and a few SharePoint newbies. In the session I really wanted to give a sneak peak of the SharePoint 2010 databases at the same time address the gap between SharePoint Admins and SQL dbas.

1. Built in Support for Secondary database for SQL Mirroring (WooHoo! – Demo’d by Zlatan Dzinic in my session.)

2 More Scalable Database Schema in Config and Content Database – content database schema is better designed for scale (see #4)

3 Support for File Groups for Content Databases (Much better structure for scale!) – All the blobs are no longer in one massive table.

3. SSP split out into separate application databases (with a bunch of new ones) – I’ve already hear that MS IT is using Resource Governor with some of the new databases such as with the the logging database.

4. New Logging Database with soon to be published schema with read and write access

5. Health checks based on timer jobs which can self heal the database index fragmentation

6. Large list throttling controls (To alleviate bottlenecks and SQL blocking)

7. Configuration Based backup, alleviating config database consistency issues allowing for a cleaner restore

8. Unattached Content database restore – allows the recovery of files once the databases are online in SQL reducing the amount of Recovery Farms and making it much quicker to restore

9. Better support for Snapshots (as well as recovery from snapshot with Unattached content database restore)

10. Awesome integration with SQL with External Lists, Power Pivot, BI, SQL Reporting Services, and way more!!!

SharePoint 2010 Training

Joel Oleson — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:37:24 GMT

Now that SPC is over it seems there is a flurry of blogs, books, and training that is all lining up to help us get smarter about SharePoint 2010.

Microsoft’s SharePoint 2010 Ignite for Developers/Admins for Partners (Final locations appear completely booked.)

Microsoft SharePoint Team Blog : SharePoint 2010 Partner Training for SharePoint 2007 Partners! (Apparently the link is currently down with 404, the Amsterdam training was this week, the Berlin training is in the next couple of weeks, with Bangalore to follow. There are plans for a virtual ignite…)

SharePoint 2010 Training (SharePoint Ignite) for SharePoint 2007 partners. Check out details and reqs at http://bit.ly/ayRJD

Europe

U2U

Introducing SharePoint 2010 Training at U2U - Jan Tielens' Bloggings

Combined Knowledge (Europe, Aus, and NZ)

@CombinedKnoweldge Combined Knowledge and Mindsharp are set to be one of the first to offer Sharepoint 2010 training http://tinyurl.com/o39d93

SharePoint 2010 Training Flyer

North America

Mindsharp

RT @Mindsharp: RESERVE YOUR SEAT TODAY! (Beta) SharePoint® 2010: http://bit.ly/uTtLP

Critical Path

Critical Path Training - SharePoint Training - SharePoint 2010 Administrators Survival Camp (Dec 7 as webcast Dec 14 in Tampa with Todd & Shane)

Critical Path Training - SharePoint Training - Developing Solutions with SharePoint 2010

@criticalpath Critical Path announces new SharePoint 2010 training for developers http://bit.ly/spt2010 and admins http://bit.ly/ssc2010!

SharePoint911.com is offering $99 per module online SharePoint 2010 admin training.

SharePoint Solutions

SharePoint Solutions Team Blog: SharePoint 2010 Training is Coming!

SharePoint Experts SharePoint Bootcamp

Check out their 3 hour tours on SharePoint 2010 Installation and Configuration (Nov 12)

More…

I saw Milan Gross of Synergy at #SPC09 who manages training across APAC (Singapore, HI, and AUS) I’m sure he’s working on some 2010 plans. Denise was there from Learning Tree and as well I saw New Horizons say something about Exchange and SharePoint 2010 Training. @NewHorizonsIRL MS Partners only, up to 70% off SharePoint & Exchange 2010, SCCM, Hyper-v & SBS 2008 training see partner site or contact us for details

A good start on SharePoint 2010 Books:

SharePoint 2010 Books

Mike Walsh's WSS and more - List of 2010 Books now reaches 20

Yes, I’m still working on one. Good chats with Michael Noel, Rick Taylor and Ben Curry on their books at SPC. Seems like everyone is writing furiously.

Future SharePoint 2010 Certification Opportunities for IT Professionals: Coming in June 2010

Certification Path for IT professionals

70-667 TS: Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Configuring
Microsoft Official Curriculum: Will cover configuration of SharePoint 2010 including deployment, upgrade, management, and operation on a server farm.
70-668 PRO: SharePoint 2010, Administrator
Microsoft Official Curriculum: Will cover advanced SharePoint 2010 topics including capacity planning, topology designing, and performance tuning

What about MCM 2010? There are some comments on from the master blog SharePoint MCM post from James:

Thanks for your interest in the MCM. You bring up a good question regarding the return on investment of the certification for SharePoint 2007 in terms of where we are in the product lifecycle.

In addition to the posts referenced in the comment above regarding Paul's questions, I'd recommend reading Per's recent "Let's Talk Upgrades" post (http://blogs.technet.com/themasterblog/archive/2009/03/30/Let_2700_s-talk-upgrades_2100_.aspx) as he provides some good insight into this question.

With regards to the release of SharePoint 2010, the SharePoint 2010 MCM certification will be a 1-week upgrade course (with exams) for SharePoint 2007 MCMs at a much lower cost than a full 3-week rotation.

In terms of return on investment for being certified on the current version, one perspective is that it would be beneficial to be certified both on SharePoint 2007 as well as SharePoint 2010 as it relates to the many upgrade opportunities that will exist. There are many existing SharePoint 2007 deployments that will need to be upgraded to SharePoint 2010 over the next few years and having deep expertise (and certifications) in both versions of the product will be beneficial to those planning and executing these upgrades.

I hope this helps to provide some clarity regarding our strategy and thoughts for the MCM for SharePoint 2007 and SharePoint 2010.

Thanks,

James

SharePoint Deployment Planning Services – Consulting companies…. get Certified!

SDPS certified and registered to receive payment for engagements. Customers who have deployed SharePoint 2007 can use packaged services vouchers to pay for SharePoint 2010 upgrade planning services.”
Note: This program will be available at SharePoint 2010 Beta

No News on the Microsoft Learning SharePoint Landing Pages - No current announcements on courseware… This is the place to watch for Microsoft Official Curriculum.

Here are some learning “snacks”

SharePoint 2010 Learning Snacks - Developing Solutions with Microsoft SharePoint 2010 http://www.microsoft.com/learning/_silverlight/learningsnacks/SP10/snack01/Default.html

SharePoint 2010 Learning Snacks - Experiencing the Microsoft SharePoint 2010 User Interface http://www.microsoft.com/learning/_silverlight/learningsnacks/SP10/snack02/Default.html

SharePoint 2010 Learning Snacks - Managing and Troubleshooting with Microsoft SharePoint 2010
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/_silverlight/learningsnacks/SP10/snack03/Default.html

Dutch Partner SharePoint 2010 Readiness Resources

Upcoming NOT to MISS SharePoint Webcasts

Joel Oleson — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:12:08 GMT

The Secrets to Successfully Migrating Exchange Public Folders to SharePoint

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009,
8:00 AM PST / 11:00 AM EST / 4:00 PM London / 5:00 PM Paris

Register

Exchange Public Folders are being replaced by SharePoint in many organizations, because it is a better choice for document sharing and collaboration applications. Once you’ve made the decision to migrate to SharePoint, how do you ensure a successful project from both the content migration and end-user adoption points of view?

Attend this practical "How To" webinar to learn the secrets of designing and implementing a complete end-to-end solution for migrating from public folders to SharePoint. Join Adam Woodruff, SharePoint Solutions Architect at Quest Software and Barry Jinks, Founder and CEO of Colligo Networks as they provide the strategy, tools, and secrets to a successful migration.

In this webinar, you’ll learn how to:

• Plan, and structure a public folder migration project
• Migrate existing content from Exchange to SharePoint
• Provide MS Outlook users with online and offline access to SharePoint
• Drive end-user adoption of the final solution

If you are responsible for SharePoint or Exchange in your organization, you won't want to miss this webinar! Join us to learn the secrets to a successful public folder migration!

10 Ways SharePoint 2010 will Impact your Lotus Notes Migration

Date: 12/01/2009

Time: 11:00 am PT

Register

Moderator: Peter Varhol, Principal, Technology Strategy Research
Presenters: Joel Oleson, Sr. Architect and SharePoint Evangelist and Steve Walch, Sr. Product Manager, Quest Software

Webcast Overview: Microsoft SharePoint 2010 won’t arrive till next year, but now is the time to get ready for your migration from Lotus Notes. SharePoint 2010 has many improvements that will be of particular interest to organizations transitioning from Notes. Attend a webcast with Quest SharePoint Evangelist Joel Oleson and Lotus Notes expert Steve Walch and learn about the new platform’s capabilities, improvements that reduce the cost of redeveloping complex Notes applications, migration issues, and more.

Techniques of Managing Large SharePoint-SQL Deployments with Joel Oleson

Thurs, Dec 3 at 11 a.m. EST/8 a.m. PST

Register

With SharePoint implementations growing at break-neck speed, it’s critical to ensure scalability and performance, especially with SharePoint 2010 coming soon.

Join Joel Oleson, Quest senior architect and SharePoint expert, to learn best practices for maximizing scalability and performance with SharePoint and SQL Server, as well as techniques for monitoring scalability in existing implementations. He will also show you how to use SQL Server to design storage architecture subsystems for large-scale SharePoint Server deployments.

Recent Archives

Link to the archive of “New World of SharePoint Administration” that I presented including PDF of slides.

Did you miss the SharePoint 2010 Live Virtual Expo?

Is Gradual Upgrade in SharePoint 2010 Really Dead? How is Upgrade Better?

Joel Oleson — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:06:12 GMT

In the Upgrade to SharePoint 2007 there were 3 popular methods. In Place, Gradual, and Database Attach. In place was a scenario that many of us took as a no starter and many of us even went so far as to say NEVER do it. Now the message is there are two methods for upgrade. In place and Database attach. Despite the fact that gradual upgrade as we knew it is dead, what we got from gradual upgrade we still have. What do I mean?

There is NO supported method to run both the 2007 and 2010 bits side by side. That’s true. So definitely not side by side installations. There is also no Central Admin UI for upgrade groups of sites with gradual method. So why would I say, it really has just taken a new form. Essentially the new gradual upgrade is visual upgrade. The mistake that was being made was people were not comfortable with the upgrade process so they would lay down the new bits on the box and then not upgrade the sites immediately, they would determine which web applications they would first start with and run some concurrency with an old and new web application and do a few sites at a time.

With the major two step punch of Binary upgrade completely out of band with Visual Upgrade, being not mutually exclusive, also meaning that we can run the binary upgrade and then run visual upgrade on two different time lines. We now still have a very similar path.

Essentially you’ll do the binary upgrade using one or the other method above. Once complete you’ll run the visual upgrade a few site collections at a time.

So hence the process really hasn’t changed much if you were doing gradual before.

How is SharePoint 2010 Upgrade Better? At least three things around control have gotten better:

You use to have to have both products installed to have the option to upgrade a few sites at a time. Now you can do it by simply upgrading the binaries due to the site structure and features of SharePoint 2007 being included/shipped with SharePoint 2010.
The redirector stuff was a mess. Users were always confused “Which URL, which one gets updated.” “Is it read only or are the sites being synchronized.” Attempt to trying to maintain 2 different web applications was messy. Some of us figured out how to lock read only, but a few really struggled with upgrade. With the visual upgrade you don’t need to maintain 2 different web apps, they use the same one.
Do No Harm – the binary upgrade which is essentially what most IT folks think of as the real upgrade, is designed to take a No harm no Foul mantra. If the binary upgrade breaks anything that is in the known world of the SharePoint binaries that’s a bug. If it’s outside of the products own features, solutions, and site definitions, then the PreUpgradeCheck should identify those issues.

I’ll be putting out a few articles on upgrade so watch for more in this series…