New Best Practices for SharePoint 2013 Farm Design – Streamlined Topology

Microsoft some time back released “Streamlined Topology for SharePoint 2013”, new way to build & configure SharePoint 2013 farm. It’s really nice to see official documentation on new approach which I had first heard at SPC12 during SPC119 “Designing Your SharePoint Server 2013 Enterprise Deployment” Session. In that session Luca Bandinelli delivered prescriptive guidance to build SharePoint 2013 On-Premises farm similar to SharePoint Online based on Microsoft’s lessons learned and best practices while maintaining and building their own SharePoint online data centers.

As far as Physical Topology, We have three tiered approach since MOSS 2007 days. In MOSS 2007, we had Web Tier, Application Tier (Central Admin, Shared Service Providers – Search, Excel, Profile Import), and Database Tier. In SharePoint 2010, there wasn’t much changed and we had almost same 3-tier topology (except Application Tier dedicated for Service Applications instead of SSP) but dedicated servers can be added in application tiers for high preformat service applications like Search or PerformancePoint etc.

With SharePoint 2013, we had lot more service applications and many of these service applications can be grouped in similar groups either based on their CPU and RAM needs or either based on their latency, throughput, or workloads/resource utilization to optimize system resources and maximize performance for users. Even though we can get away with traditional 3-tier topology approach in SharePoint 2013, there are some new services may require additional tier and dedicated attention on Application tier. All the windows & WCF services can be divided into – very low, low, and high tolerant latency and this may require us dividing up application tier in multiple tiers for each type of latency tolerant service applications.

As shown in the diagram below, Microsoft provides us alternative farm design topology by redefining traditional web and application tier into multiple tiers.

Traditional webtier is redefined as Caching and Request Processing tier which would group similar web front end servers forend user request processing along with new service applications like Request Management and Distributed Cache which would require very low latency but very high throughout. Request Management is disabled by default and Distributed Cache is enabled by default. Since Request Manager is CPU intensive and Distributed Cache is memory intensive, both of these services can share same server without any major performance hit.

• Traditional Application tier is divided into two optimized tiers – Front End Servers and Batch Processing Servers.
  • Front-End Servers would group similar service applications which would serve user requests with low latency, low resource utilization, and optimized for faster performance and response time. Services like Central Administration, Managed Metadata, User Profile, App Management, Search Query Role, and Business Data Connectivity are ideal for Front End Servers.
  • Batch Processing Servers would group similar service applications which would typically require long running back ground processes, high latency, and high resource utilization, and optimized for higher workload by maximizing system resources. Services like User Profile Sync, Work Management, Search Crawl and Index Role, Workflow, Machine Translation etc. are ideal for Batch Processing Servers. For large scale farms, Batch processing tier can be divided further into specialized load servers for services like Search, PerformancePoint, or Excel Services which can cause high spikes in performance during peak time.
  • Database tier stays same in both traditional and streamlined model. These servers can be either clustered, mirrored, or configured with Always On.

 

Ok, So, What’s your take on this new Model..

Having said that, my take on this new approach is what I used to say while designing SharePoint 2010 topologies. Even though you would ideally love to plan for 4-5 tier topology, it may not be possible in real world due to possible hardware funding issues. You are looking at nearly 10 high performing virtual machines or physical hardware, which may be daunting to get through budget approval  process.

Depending on your situation, number of users, and size of farm, you may get away with running traditional three tiered approach as long as they have enough hardware resources like RAM and CPU allocated. With the traditional 3-tier approach, you can run Distributed Cache and Request Management on Web Servers, Central Admin and all the Service applications in Application tier as initial farm design and plan to scale out or add more dedicated servers for specific workloads like Search as needed.

Resources

• Streamlined topologies for SharePoint Server 2013
• Services on server install worksheet for streamlined SharePoint Server 2013 topologies
• Traditional topologies for SharePoint 2013
• Services on server install worksheet for traditional SharePoint Server 2013 topologies
• Plan service deployment in SharePoint 2013
• Nik Patel’s SharePoint World

Embedding Flash Videos in SharePoint

This video explains how to embed flash video (like the one you’re viewing now) in a SharePoint Content (like SharePoint Blog post).
Sorry about the low quality of the sound, had some troubles with microphone.
Visit more tricks at http://webborg.blogspot.com

SharePoint in Plain English

A short, fun, animated approach, showing you what SharePoint is all about.

Ref : Microsoft Office SharePoint 

 

 

Outlook Calender Connection to SharePoint did not work after server move

An issue came up lately where a clients site collection was moved from one server to another. The client had set up some SharePoint to Outlook connections to some calendar lists on their original server. These connections no longer functioned in Outlook after this move. Read more on this functionality here

Here is the steps to resolve the calendar issue.

Errors
Errors seen in the Outlook when attempt to sync
“Task ‘SharePoint’ reported error”
“Outlook cannot connect to the SharePoint List”
“The server may not be reachable from your location.”

Notes of Analyse
• A calendar connection is established from the SharePoint side and not from Outlook.
• The server location has changed because of the forced move to Project Hosts.
• I investigated the possibility of changing the connection detail within Outlook. It appears not to be possible.
• Therefore to resolve this we must remove the calendar in Outlook and then re-establish the connection.
• *Any Items which had been added to the calendar on the Outlook side since it stopped synchronising, are in danger of being lost unless these appointments added to the SharePoint calendar before we re-establish the connection.

Resolution Steps
1. Complete the * task above first.
2. In Outlook choose File then choose click Account Settings

3. Choose the SharePoint Lists tab and then choose the list name like below (Calendars are classified as lists in SharePoint).
4. Finally Choose Remove

5. Reference your calendars in Outlook and note that the calendar has been removed.
6. Now simply return to the calendar list in SharePoint and choose Connect to Outlook

7. You may receive a similar message as below.

 

That should now resolve the issue.

Ref : Bright Work Support

Anchor tags not working in firefox

Here is the simple issue fixed when working with HTML. This is kind of a browser compatibility issue.

In my SharePoint page we have created a CEWP and placed some HTML code along with anchor tag bookmarks features.

But Book marks is working fine in I-Explorer and not working in Firefox.

This got fixed by removing the “#” from the name of the Div tag name of the Bookmark.

Avoid Multiple Logins in SharePoint

When using SharePoint, you may be asked to provide your user name and password multiple times.

If you are on the domain, use Internet Explorer or Firefox, and run Microsoft Windows. You can configure your browser to use your current Windows user name and password, thereby eliminating the problem of multiple logins.

To configure Internet Explorer

1. Open Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE).
2. Log on to your SharePoint site.
3. In IE, select the Tools menu, then select Internet Options.
4. Select the Security tab.
5. Select Local intranet, then click the Sites button.
6. Click the Advanced button.
7. The Web address of your SharePoint site should appear in the Add this website to the zone field. Click the Add button, then the Close button.
8. Click OK to close the remaining dialog boxes.

To configure Firefox

1. Open Firefox.
2. In the address bar, type about:config and press Enter.
3. When prompted with a warning, select I’ll be careful, I promise!
4. Scroll to the preference named yoursiteurlpreference.
5. Right-click on this preference and select Modify.
6. In the Enter string value dialog box type https://YoursiteURL/ and clickOK.

SharePoint Content Deployment Successful, but Throwing Event IDs 6398 & 4958

Recently, I launched a public-facing site with a client that utilizes content deployment.  Every 15 minutes, changes from their ‘Content Authoring’ (internal) environment are published out to their read-only Production environment.  For well over a month, things have been working very well, with no errors.  Suddenly the other day, I noticed two events being thrown every time the content deployment job was run:

Event ID 6398 from the Timer job detail was:

Log Name:      Application
Source:        Windows SharePoint Services 3
Date:          10/15/2009 11:45:15 PM
Event ID:      6398
Task Category: Timer
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      SERVER

Description:
The Execute method of job definition Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.Administration.ContentDeploymentJobDefinition (ID 809108c8-7685-46b1-9580-7fa68113a364) threw an exception. More information is included below.

ContentDeploymentJobReport with ID ‘{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}’ was not found.
Parameter name: jobReportId

Event ID 4958 from Content Deployment had the following detail:

Log Name:      Application
Source:        Office SharePoint Server
Date:          10/15/2009 11:45:15 PM
Event ID:      4958
Task Category: Content Deployment
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      SERVER

Description:
Publishing: Content deployment job failed. Error: ‘System.ArgumentOutOfRangeException: ContentDeploymentJobReport with ID ‘{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}’ was not found.
Parameter name: jobReportId
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.Administration.ContentDeploymentJobReport.GetInstance(Guid jobReportId)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.Administration.ContentDeploymentJob.get_LastReport()
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.Administration.ContentDeploymentJob.get_SQMDeploymentJobFlags()
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.Administration.ContentDeploymentJob.CollectSQMData()
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.Administration.ContentDeploymentJob.Run(Boolean runAsynchronously)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.Administration.ContentDeploymentJobDefinition.Execute(Guid targetInstanceId)’

Now what I found really strange was that even though these errors were being thrown, the content deployment job was running successfully.  The history showed all objects were being exported/imported properly, ‘Successful’ was listed for the status, and the content managers were seeing their changes.  So it was looking like these events were false.

I did some digging through the SharePoint logs after I turned on verbose logging for content deployment, and nothing other than what was already being reported in the Event Viewer could be found.  So I took things one step further – I went over to the SharePoint_Config database, and performed a lookup of the Content Deployment Job Definition GUID from event ID 6398 against the TimerRunningJobs table:

SELECT * from TimerRunningJobs
where jobid = ’809108c8-7685-46b1-9580-7fa68113a364′

And what I found was very interesting:

As you can see, the error is related to the Content Deployment Timer Job for Quick Deploy… but in this particular implementation, we are not using Quick Deploy.

So… I disabled the Quick Deploy jobs in Central Administration for my Content Deployment Path, and voila – the events stopped coming up!

Ref : Jack of all that is Microsoft, Master of None

SharePoint Keyboard Shortcuts

One of those things I often see people surprised by, or forgetting about is the usefulness of keyboard shortcuts when working with applications. It can save you time by removing the need to navigate menu’s, and scroll the mouse all around the page. Often the only way you can cause certain behavior is by using key combination’s on your keyboard. So it’s always good to know what keyboard shortcuts exist and how they can be used with the application you are using.

SharePoint has lots of GREAT key combination’s you can use to save you time and energy and Microsoft has done a great job of listing them all.

Keyboard Shortcuts for WSS

Keyboard Shortcuts for MOSS

Be sure to review the Rich Text Editor and Rich Text Editor of the Content Editor Web Part as many people don’t realize the difference between hitting Enter and Shift + Enter.

It’s also a good idea to remember your browser has it’s own shortcuts that you can use for navigating pages, content, magnification, printing, and more.

Here are some simple examples:

1. You can enlarge the text on any Web page by pressing Ctrl and the plus or minus keys (for bigger or smaller fonts).
2. You can also enlarge the entire Web page by pressing the Ctrl key as you turn the wheel on top of your mouse.
3. You can tap the Space bar to scroll down on a Web page one screen full. Add the Shift key to scroll back up.
4. If you hit the Ctrl and Home key on your keyboard you will immediately be taken to the top of the web page, document, or email.
5. Hitting the Ctrl and End key on your keyboard at the same time will take you immediately to the bottom or end of a web page, document, or email.

Ref : SharePoint Knowledge Base

Edit, Move, or Delete a Quick Launch Link (SharePoint 2010)

SharePoint 2010 allows you to add custom links such as documents, sites, calendar events, and internet urls to the Quick Launch.

• Login to your SharePoint site as the administrative account
• Select Site Actions > Site Settings

• Select Quick Launch under the Look and Feel column

• Click the Edit button next to the link that you want to update 

Edit the link

• Make your changes to the link
• Click OK

Move the Link

• Choose the new heading you want the link to appear under
• Click OK

Delete the Link

• Click Delete
• Click OK

Ref : Hosting

Moving sites and subsites in SharePoint 2007 Portals

Moving sites and subsites within SharePoint 2007

There is a really cool way that you can move a sharepoint site up or down in your hierarchy.

Let’s say you created a sharepoint site your root level (ie http://intranet/website) and six months later you decide it really should be contained under your IT subsite (http://intranet/it/website). You can use the program STSADM to move a site from one location to another.

Steps to move a WSS subsite.

1. Create the new target URL (I created a blank site @ http://intranet/it/website)
2. Fire up the command line
3. CD \”Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\BIN”
4. Export the old URL using the following Command:

stsadm -o export -url http://intranet/website -filename c:\test\backup.cmp

5. Import the file back into Sharepoint using the following command:

stsadm -o import -url http://intranet/it/website -filename c:\test\backup.cmp

That’s it! You have moved your website. You need to check user permissions especially if you are moving to a new subsite!

OTHER COOL STUFF: There is an option to -includeusersecurity while you do the export. You can also choose whether or not to pull all the revision history over with the doc libs or not…

For a full view of options for Export / Import, run the following commands to see all your options:

stsadm -o export

stsadm -o import

Ref : Rob Ashcroft’s