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URL: http://blogs.technet.com/b/tothesharepoint/
Updated: 4 days 5 hours ago

White paper update: Configuring Kerberos Authentication for Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products

Wed, 09/01/2010 - 16:29

In July we published a white paper on how to configure Kerberos authentication end-to-end in several SQL Server and SharePoint 2010 business intelligence environments. The overview of this white paper is in the TechNet article, here.

I write to inform you of the following updates to the same white paper.

  • Additional information regarding Kerberos Constrained Delegation and Protocol Transitioning.
  • Additional information regarding Kerberos Token Size.
  • Additional instructions to grant SQLRS service account access to content databases.
  • Comments regarding claims authentication and C2WTS

To download the white paper, click here OR paste http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=196600 into your browser address bar.

Cheers,

-Norm

Categories: SharePoint

New governance content – white papers and check out the model!

Wed, 09/01/2010 - 14:08

Hi! Governance is a critical topic for SharePoint Server 2010, and I know you’ve all been waiting for us to get content out there about it. We have some progress to share from our work this summer.

What’s new in governance content:

  • Governance model – describes the three areas of governance for SharePoint Server 2010 and highlights some questions to ask while determining your governance approach.

 

More white papers and articles are in progress. Check the Resource Center for the latest information.

- Samantha Robertson

Categories: SharePoint

Announcing the updates resource center for SharePoint 2010 Products

Tue, 08/24/2010 - 05:40

We've created an updates resource center Web site that features articles about software updates for a SharePoint Foundation 2010 or a SharePoint Server 2010 environment.

In addition to posting the lastest information about cumulative updates and service packs, the updates resource center links to up-to-date articles about the nature of software updates and our recommended approaches for mitigating downtime when you install an update on farm servers.

All these approaches are based on the software update deployment cycle, which is shown in the following illustration.

Visit the Updates for SharePoint 2010 Products site to learn more about the software update deployment cycle and explore other relevant topics. 

Categories: SharePoint

SharePoint 2010 Products: Upgrade and the Fabulous 40 Application Templates

Wed, 08/18/2010 - 08:23

Many of you have used the "Fabulous 40 templates" that were created for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. Some of these templates were created as site admin templates (.stp files) and some as server admin templates (.wsp files). Microsoft is not releasing new versions of these templates for SharePoint 2010 Products. Also, .stp  files are deprecated and can't be used to create new sites when you upgrade to SharePoint Server 2010 or SharePoint Foundation 2010.

So, what do you do when you want to upgrade?

Sites based on these templates should upgrade, but you'll want to try out your upgrade in a test environment before you upgrade your production environment so that you can catch any potential issues. Definitely use the pre-upgrade checker to identify any issues (some people have seen problems with custom workflows or CAML-based views in the templates). However, after upgrade, you won't be able to use STP files to create new templates.

Type of template Can I upgrade sites based on this template? Will I be able to use the template after upgrade? Site admin (.stp file or site template) Yes No Server admin (.wsp file or solution package) Yes* Yes*

*There are issues with a few of the .wsp files after upgrade. In particular, after upgrading, some customers are unable to create new sites based on the following templates: Absence Request and Vacation Schedule Management, Call Center, Help Desk, IT Team Workspace, Knowledge Base, and Physical Asset Tracking and Management. If you have trouble using any of these templates, you can post an issue in the SharePoint 2010 – Setup, Upgrade, Administration and Operation TechNet Forum at http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepoint2010setup/threads, or contact Microsoft Product Support.

So, what do you do if you're using an .stp file and you want to continue using it after upgrade? You can convert the .stp file to a .wsp file manually. To do this, in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 or Office SharePoint Server 2007, create a site based on the template, and then upgrade the site to 2010. Then, follow this procedure:

  1. On the Site Actions menu in the site, click Site Settings.
  2. On the Site Settings page, under Site Actions, click Save site as Template.
  3. On the Save as Template page, enter a file name and Template name and then click OK.
  4. The site template is saved as a WSP file to the Solutions Gallery for that site collection and you can create new sites based on that solution.

If you can't or don't want to do that, you can look to the partner community for upgraded templates. Khalil over on TechSolutions has already converted some of these templates to 2010 for you. Take a look at http://techsolutions.net/Blog/tabid/65/EntryId/17/Fab-40-Templates-for-MOSS-2010.aspx.

Categories: SharePoint

Three integrated business intelligence solutions

Fri, 08/06/2010 - 05:10

The following is a summary of recently published business intelligence solutions and the corresponding solution download link. The solutions include Microsoft Office, SharePoint 2010, and SQL Server 2008.

Self-Service Analytics: Sales Solution

This business intelligence (BI) solution scenario describes the steps that employees of the fictional company Contoso take as they analyze sales and promotions data and share that analysis with others in the company. The document that is available from the link below provides step-by-step guidance, and the accompanying sample data lets you follow along with the document. To download, click here.

BI Reporting: Reports and Subscriptions Scenario

This business intelligence (BI) scenario describes the steps some employees of the fictional company, Contoso, take as they use Report Builder 3.0, SharePoint Server 2010, and Microsoft Excel 2010 to provide data analysis, rich report design, and flexible delivery of content. To download, click here.

Corporate Dashboards: Sales Solution

This solution scenario walks you through the process of creating and then using a basic dashboard to track organizational performance. The dashboard includes various report views that empower users to quickly and easily gain insights through Microsoft business intelligence. To download, click here.

An at-a-glance visual of all three solutions

I created the following at-a-glance visual (see below to download) for an event in Colorado that highlights the end result of three business intelligence solutions. The visual has some general guidelines customers have asked for about when you would consider using each of the business intelligence technologies.  Let me know what you think.  

Categories: SharePoint

Introducing SharePoint Workspace 2010

Mon, 08/02/2010 - 13:24

Do you wish you had an easy answer for SharePoint users who ask, "How can I update my SharePoint documents while I’m away or offline?" or "How can I access my SharePoint content quickly and easily without a browser?"

Installing SharePoint Workspace on client computers may be just that answer. SharePoint Workspace is part of the Office Professional Plus 2010 suite, and it’s designed specifically to support remote and offline SharePoint users who need to work offline or have minimal access to SharePoint servers.

With SharePoint Workspace, an end user can easily connect to a designated SharePoint site, get a local copy of selected SharePoint libraries and lists, and add or modify library or list content within a private "SharePoint workspace". Content in a SharePoint workspace automatically synchronizes with the associated SharePoint site when users are on their network, or it can be manually synchronized on demand. No browser access needed and no need for VPNs or special IT setup.

If Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) is running in your organization, you can use Group Policy to manage and customize a SharePoint Workspace deployment according to your IT practices, just as with other Office applications. Alternatively, you can use the Office Customization Tool. The most important policy you’ll want to consider for SharePoint Workspace deployment is one that blocks the use of peer workspaces. SharePoint Workspace typically lets users create collaborative "Groove workspaces" and Shared Folders where they can share information with trusted invited peers. Groove workspaces are separate from SharePoint workspaces and do not support connections to SharePoint sites. But if your org prohibits or discourages this type of activity, be sure to include the Prohibit Groove workspaces policy in your Office ProPlus 2010 deployment.

Other important policies to consider are one that requires Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protection for SharePoint Workspace client connections to SharePoint Server 2010, and one that prevents Windows Search 4.0 from crawling SharePoint Workspace content.

For information about how to plan and deploy SharePoint Workspace, see http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee649106.aspx.

Once employees start using SharePoint workspaces for contributing SharePoint content, they’ll barely notice that they’re using another app. Soon they’ll be creating multiple workspaces for accessing multiple SharePoint sites. And because working with SharePoint content in SharePoint a workspace not only solves the offline problem but is typically easier and faster than accessing it through a browser (think, image rendering or saving changes on a distant server), your calls from remote users trying to get at their SharePoint content should be a thing of the past.

For information about how SharePoint Workspace helps end users, see http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-workspace-help/CH010289332.aspx.

-- Mena Paton, SharePoint Workspace writer

Categories: SharePoint

SharePoint 2010 Products, SQL Server, Storage and Databases (oh my)

Fri, 07/30/2010 - 03:22

The SharePoint 2010 Products are, at core, Web applications built on SQL Server databases. To best administer an environment and keep it performing well, administrators should understand the following:

  • How to choose the best version of SQL Server for their environment
  • How to best configure and monitor SQL Server for SharePoint 2010 Products
  • Which databases they are running, and their characteristics
  • Whether it’s appropriate to use remote BLOB storage to meet their business needs.

We have assembled key database, storage, and SQL Server content in one easy location—the SQL Server and SharePoint Server 2010 Databases resource center.

The resource center provides links to great core resources that you should be familiar with:

The resource center is also a one-stop shop for SQL Server DBAs who manage SharePoint environments, with links to information about integrating SharePoint with Reporting Services, and PowerPivot for SharePoint.

Please let us know if the resource center is helpful, and if you there is any additional content you’d like to see about managing SharePoint databases.

Categories: SharePoint

White paper: Configuring Kerberos authentication for SharePoint 2010 and SQL Server 2008 R2 products

Thu, 07/22/2010 - 13:29

Hello, this is Norm, IT Pro writer for business intelligence in Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products. Kerberos is often used in business intelligence solutions to establish secure access to external data sources such as Microsoft SQL Server. Last week, a new white paper was published that gives instructions to configure Kerberos authentication in a multi-server environment for several SharePoint Server and SQL Server business intelligence scenarios.

This document helps you understand the concepts of identity in Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products, describes how Kerberos authentication plays a very important role in authentication and delegation scenarios, and describes the situations where Kerberos authentication should be used or may be required in solution designs.  

The document also shows how to configure Kerberos authentication end-to-end within your environment, including scenarios that use various service applications in Microsoft SharePoint Server. Additional tools and resources are described to help you test and validate Kerberos configuration. The "Step-by-Step Configuration" sections of this document cover the following scenarios for SharePoint Server 2010.

·         Scenario 1: Core Configuration

·         Scenario 2: Kerberos Authentication for SQL OLTP

·         Scenario 3: Identity Delegation for SQL Analysis Services

·         Scenario 4: Identity Delegation for SQL Reporting Services

·         Scenario 5: Identity Delegation for Excel Services

·         Scenario 6: Identity Delegation for Power Pivot for SharePoint

·         Scenario 7: Identity Delegation for Visio Services

·         Scenario 8: Identity Delegation for Performance Point Services

·         Scenario 9: Identity Delegation for Business Connectivity Services

To download the white paper, click here OR paste http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=196600 into your browser address bar.

Enjoy!

Categories: SharePoint

Excel Services and Excel Web Apps common/different features

Wed, 07/21/2010 - 08:20

Excel Services extends the Excel desktop experience to the web and is built upon a server-hosted version of the Excel calculation engine. Advantages include enabling users to interact with Excel workbooks directly in their web browser, without having to have the Excel client installed on a client computer. This increases the overall reach and use-case scenarios of Excel-based data and applications.

 

Microsoft Office Web Apps includes an online companion to Office Excel that enables users to access and edit documents, regardless of their location. The Office Excel web app is also available to users through Windows Live and to business customers with Microsoft Office 2010 volume licensing and document management solutions based on Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products.

 

The following table provided by Microsoft SharePoint Insights lets you see shared and exclusive features for Excel Services and the Office Excell web app.

 

Capability

Excel Web App part of Office Web Apps

Excel Services in SharePoint 2010

View

x

x

Edit

x

Collaboration

x

Create New

x

Create Excel-Driven Dashboards

x

Display New Visualization

x

x

External Data

x

x

- Anonymous

x

x

- Secure Store

x

- PowerPivot

x

Web Services API

x

REST API

x

JavaScript OM

x

User-Defined Function

x

x

 

See the following TechNet articles for more information:

·        Excel Services overview (SharePoint Server 2010)

·        Deploy Office Web Apps (Installed on SharePoint 2010 Products)

Categories: SharePoint

Announcing the release of the Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Administration Toolkit version 1.0

Tue, 07/20/2010 - 10:00

Hello, my name is Kirk Stark, a technical writer on the SharePoint ITPro content team.  I'm announcing the release of the Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Administration Toolkit version 1.0. This version includes the following features:

Note: The User Profile Replication Engine and the Content Management Interoperability Services are not supported in SharePoint Foundation 2010.

If the source or target server is running Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, that source or target server must be updated with the June 2010 Cumulative Update (or a later cumulative update). For additional information about the June 2010 Cumulative Update, see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/983310/.

 For additional information, see

SharePoint 2010 Administration Toolkit (SharePoint Server 2010)
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=125907

SharePoint 2010 Administration Toolkit (SharePoint Foundation 2010)
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=125908

 

 

Categories: SharePoint

Upgrade to SharePoint 2010 Products from other versions or products

Mon, 07/19/2010 - 09:42

Not every upgrade is a straightforward upgrade from one version of a product to the next. In order to help, we've got new TechNet library articles about how to perform an upgrade when you need to:

  • Skip a version:
    • Upgrade from SharePoint Portal Server 2003 to SharePoint Server 2010
    • Upgrade from Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 to SharePoint Foundation 2010
  • Get more features:
    • Upgrade from SharePoint Foundation 2010 to SharePoint Server 2010
    • Upgrade from SharePoint Server 2010 Standard to SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise
  • Upgrade from a trial version

A frequently-asked question on the TechNet Forums is whether you can upgrade from Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 to SharePoint Server 2010. Yes, you can, and you can use a database attach approach to do so. This process is so straightforward, we didn’t need a whole article for it. Just follow the process for a database attach upgrade and attach your Windows SharePoint Services content databases to your SharePoint Server 2010 farm.

Another quick cross-product upgrade is from Office Forms Server 2007 to SharePoint Server 2010. Again, just do a database attach upgrade, being sure to transfer your form templates over. Everything you need to know is in the database attach upgrade content, and the article Plan to upgrade form templates during an upgrade to SharePoint Server 2010.

Resources:

As always, let us know if you have any comments or questions!

Samantha Robertson, Senior Writer, SharePoint Products (I’m all about the upgrade)

Categories: SharePoint

Learning about Business Connectivity Services

Fri, 07/09/2010 - 09:14

Hello, I’m Rob Silver, a technical writer on the SharePoint IT pro content team. This release, I focused on Business Connectivity Services, a set of features that help you bring external data into SharePoint and Office 2010. In this blog entry, I’ll give you a brief description of Business Connectivity Services and then describe the content we’ve created to you to help you understand this feature area and incorporate it into your SharePoint and Microsoft Office 2010 solutions.

Business Connectivity Services, which is included in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 and SharePoint Foundation 2010, is a set of services and features that provides a way to connect your SharePoint solutions to sources of external data, such as Web services, SQL Server databases, SAP applications, and custom solutions. Business Connectivity Services is also included in Microsoft Office 2010 suites, and when you use Business Connectivity Services in SharePoint Server 2010, you can implement solutions that let users interact with external data directly from such Microsoft Office 2010 programs as Outlook 2010 and SharePoint Workspace 2010. For example, if your enterprise maintains an external database of its customers, you can design a solution that lets your sales and support personnel view the customer information from within Outlook 2010 and even create new customer entries in the external database using the familiar Outlook interface.

Business Connectivity Services builds on the Business Data Catalog feature that was included in Office SharePoint Server 2007. However it adds a rich set of new features that helps you bring your external data into the familiar SharePoint user experience, allowing information workers in your organization to collaborate on the data as easily as they would collaborate on documents and list items. Here is a summary of the key features of Business Connectivity Services:

  • More connectivity options: In addition to databases and Web services, you can connect to WCF services and .NET assembly connectors.
  • Design and customization tools: You can use SharePoint Designer 2010 or Visual Studio 2010 to design Business Connectivity Services solutions.
  • Support for a full set of operations: In SharePoint Designer 2010 or Visual Studio 2010, you can implement a full set of operations on the external data (such as Read, Write, Update, and Delete) that will be available from within your solution.
  • Richer security: Full support for Claims-enabled services as well as the Secure Store Service to map user credentials to external sources of data.
  • Office client integration: You can implement solutions that let users interact with external data directly from Microsoft Office 2010 programs such as Outlook 2010 and SharePoint Workspace 2010. Data can be taken offline and, when the connection is restored, the data can be synchronized with the external system.
  • External data Web parts: SharePoint Server 2010 and SharePoint Foundation 2010 include a set of Web parts that help you rapidly build solutions that help users work with external data.

Business Connectivity Services touches on many audiences in the enterprise and we have designed our content sets to address the needs of these various audiences:

  •  IT pros are responsible for evaluating and planning Business Connectivity Services, deploying it, and operating the various services and features that come into play in a solution based on Business Connectivity Services. You will find Business Connectivity Services content for IT pros on TechNet. For example, here is planning content for SharePoint Server 2010 and planning content for SharePoint Foundation. Here is operations content  for SharePoint Server 2010 and operations content for SharePoint Foundation. For an overview of Business Connectivity Services, download the Business Connectivity Services model poster. And for a great roll-up view of most of the Business Connectivity Services content (from an IT pro’s perspective) visit the Business Connectivity Services Resource Center.
  •  Developers design and create external content types, create Web services to expose external data, and do other development tasks to build solutions based on Business Connectivity Services. There is a rich set of content for developers available on MSDN. Start at Microsoft Business Connectivity Services. Also, be sure to visit the SharePoint 2010 Developer Center for up-to-date information on Business Connectivity Services and on all the SharePoint development capabilities. Also, the Business Connectivity Services team maintains its own Business Connectivity Services blog. You’ll find the frequent posts on that blog relevant and useful for developers and IT pros.
  • Information workers create Business Connectivity Services solutions using tools such as SharePoint Designer 2010, and they use SharePoint sites and Office applications such as Outlook 2010 to participate in solutions based on Business Connectivity Services. The Office Web site has content for information workers who want to take advantage of Business Connectivity Services. For example, if you are designing solutions based on Business Connectivity Services, check out the SharePoint Designer 2010 content.

Lastly, as a technical writer, I want to make sure that we write content that is relevant to our IT Pro audience’s needs. If there is particular Business Connectivity Services content that you would like to see published, or if you have any feedback on the content that is already published, please leave a comment to this blog entry providing your feedback or content requests.

 

Thanks,
Rob Silver
Technical writer
SharePoint IT Pro content team

Categories: SharePoint

How to create planning solutions and scenarios using Office 2010, SharePoint Server 2010, and SQL Server 2008 R2

Wed, 07/07/2010 - 07:53

For a detailed look at understanding planning solutions using Office 2010, SharePoint Server 2010 and SQL 2008 R2, check out this white paper, "Planning, Budgeting & Forecasting for the Office of Finance: Understanding Planning Solutions and Scenarios with Microsoft Office 2010, Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 and Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2".  Many companies still rely heavily on spreadsheets to create and collect data specific to their daily function, but with no central data repository to plug into. This white paper provides direction and samples for developing a business intelligence solution with planning, budgeting and forecasting capabilities for Finance, HR, and other departments within an organization. 

The solution is architected to enable planning functions that include write-back capabilities to SQL Server Analysis Services cubes, SharePoint lists and relational database. It also demonstrates how the Microsoft platform can be used in developing financial calculations and business rules to link forms and reports data through Microsoft Office Excel 2010.

This paper also includes samples and instructions on:

  • A centralized data model usingSQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services.
  • Form and report authoring using Microsoft Office Excel 2010 and PivotTables.
  • Data entry and What-If analysis using Excel 2010 PivotTables.
  • Dimensional data modeling using PowerPivot for Excel 2010.
  • Online document storage and collaboration with security and workflow for forms and reports using SharePoint Server 2010.

 

Categories: SharePoint

Metadata-based content routing and storage in SharePoint Server 2010

Tue, 07/06/2010 - 15:42

For many organizations, content not being saved and stored to the right place is a serious problem. SharePoint Server 2010 now offers new features to help administrators make sure content items (documents, pictures, workbooks, and so on) that are submitted, saved, or migrated to their SharePoint environment can be routed to and stored based on an item's metadata.  By tagging content with metadata and by using Content Organizer settings and rules, you can effectively identify, route, and store almost any content item in your SharePoint environment. Combined with managed metadata and metadata-based navigation and filtering, metadata-based routing and storage provides an incredibly powerful way to design and implement a robust content architecture for your organization that can scale to the tens of millions of documents.

For more information, see the following articles on TechNet:

Categories: SharePoint

SharePoint 2010 Products and Hyper-V R2

Thu, 07/01/2010 - 17:40

I'm excited to announce the availability of expanded and new resources for customers who want to create virtual farms. Since Hyper-V was first released, we witnessed a dramtic growth in the number of organizations and individuals who are using or plan to use Hyper-V as a flexible, stable, and high performing platform for SharePoint 2010 Products. Adopters are using virtual farms for development, testing, staging, and production environments.

To meet your needs, we added to and expanded our virtualization documentation on TechNet. This encompasses planning, deployment, and operations content. To find out more about SharePoint 2010 Products and Hyper-V, visit the virtualization resource center at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/ff602849.aspx. Also, add this resource center to your Favorites list to stay abreast of new documentation.

Dan Wesley, IT Pro writer

Categories: SharePoint

Create a Corporate Sales dashboard with PerformancePoint Services in SharePoint Server 2010

Wed, 06/30/2010 - 06:45

SharePoint Server 2010 offers new and expanded ways of creating business intelligence dashboards using PerformancePoint Services.  Download this complete scenario to get detailed guidance on how to create a sample Corporate Sales dashboard that uses the business intelligence capabilities in SQL Server 2008 R2, Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, and Microsoft Office 2010. The scenario takes you step-by-step through the creation of a dashboard to include a variety of reports. 

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=da2e7bfc-c005-42e4-8b39-e1809bd65e0b&displaylang=en 

Categories: SharePoint

PerformancePoint Services troubleshooting

Wed, 06/23/2010 - 12:57

I am Norm Warren, an IT Pro writer for business intelligence tools in SharePoint 2010 Products. I want to share common troubleshooting tips for PerformancePoint Services. TechNet articles and trusted blog posts are valuable sources of information on these subjects, for example:

In addition to reading applicable articles, I use to the following tools to troubleshoot, particularly when I review data connection errors:

  • SharePoint ULS Log Viewer. The Unified Logging Service (ULS) writes SharePoint events to trace logs, which are stored in the file system at …\14\LOGS. ULSViewer allows users to open a ULS log file and display its contents in a user friendly format.
  • SQL Server Profiler is a graphical user interface to SQL Trace for monitoring an instance of the Database Engine or Analysis Services. you can learn more about the tool here and here.
  • I start out using the Windows Event Viewer, and specifically look at the security log when I am troubleshooting authentication issues. See also Event Logs on TechNet.
An example of a possible PerformancePoint Services error

Here is a common error that occurs when you try to connect to a data source by using the Unattended Service Account for authentication. In this case, I opened PerformancePoint Dashboard Designer on my front-end web server, typed the correct database server name, and made a selection from the Database drop-down list. That’s when I got the following error.

I opened the ULSViewer, which is on my application server because the PerformancePoint service is running there. I could then view more details about the Unattended Services Account issue.

I then reviewed the PerformancePoint Services setup and configure article, which reads:

To initialize the Secure Store Service application, refer to the following sections of Configure the Secure Store Service (SharePoint Server 2010).

I checked that the Unattended Service Account was configured correctly.  While in the Secure Store Service management page, I selected Refresh Key and entered the pass phrase to regenerate the key.  I then tested my data connection and was able to view my Analysis Services OLAP cubes. Success!

Categories: SharePoint

Search administration reports in SharePoint Server 2010

Mon, 06/21/2010 - 10:30

SharePoint Server 2010 offers a new health monitoring feature: search administration reports. These provide crawl and query data to help you find and diagnose possible performance issues with your search system. There are three types of search administration reports:

  • Basic search administration reports, which show high-level monitoring data aggregated from all components for the selected search service application. These include the following reports:
    • Crawl Rate per Content Source
    • Crawl Rate per Type
    • Overall Query Latency
    • SharePoint Back-end Query Latency
  • Advanced search administration reports, which show more in-depth monitoring data aggregated from all components for the selected search service application. These include the following reports:
    • Crawl Processing per Activity
    • Crawl Processing per Component
    • Crawl Queue
  • Verbose search administration report, which uses per-query data to derive query latency percentiles. You need to enable verbose query monitoring for search in order to obtain this report. This category contains one report: Query Latency Trend.

For more information about these reports and their data points, see the TechNet article Use search administration reports. In addition, Dan Blood provides an excellent blog post that shows how to use the query reports (Overall Query Latency, SharePoint Back-end Query Latency, and Query Latency Trend) to analyze end user query latencies.

 To view the search administration reports:

  1. Log on as a member of the Farm Administrators group.

  2. In Central Administration, on the Home page, click Monitoring.

  3. On the Monitoring page, in the Reporting section, click View administrative reports.

  4. On the Administrative Report Library page, click the name of the report folder.

  5. On the report folder page, click the name of the report to view the report.

  6. To view different results, change the filter settings and click Apply Settings.

If you are not able to view the reports, ensure that you have a Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, Microsoft Search Server 2010, or Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint environment that contains crawled data and a Search Center. Also verify that the State Service has been enabled through the Farm Configuration Wizard.

Categories: SharePoint

Security and authentication resource centers for SharePoint 2010 Products

Mon, 06/14/2010 - 14:34

SharePoint 2010 Products are logically divided into three distributed tiers: the front-end Web server tier, the application server tier, and the back-end database tier. Administrators and IT pros are empowered to control and manage access to the resources that reside within each of these tiers. Access to network resources can be centrally managed using the tools and methods described in the planning, deployment, and operations articles listed in the following security and authentication resource centers for SharePoint Server 2010 and SharePoint Foundation 2010.

An important new authentication feature of SharePoint 2010 Products is the ability to choose between claims-based authentication and classic-mode authentication when you create a Web application. Classic-mode authentication refers to the Integrated Windows authentication model supported in Office SharePoint Server 2007. Claims-based authentication is built on the Microsoft Windows Identity Foundation (WIF). WIF is a set of .NET Framework classes designed to enable the creation of claims-aware applications. A claims-aware application created with WIF can process WS-Federation authentication requests. WS-Federation is an authentication protocol that builds on two other standard protocols: WS-Trust and WS-Security. WS-Federation supports the token-based authentication architecture that enables a Web application to require a security token for authenticated access to resources.

For more information, see the following resource centers:

Security and Authentication for SharePoint Server 2010: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/ff601872.aspx
Security and Authentication for SharePoint Foundation 2010: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/ff601873.aspx

We also welcome any questions or feedback.

-- Douglas Goodwin, Writer, Office Servers UA

Categories: SharePoint

See you in New Orleans!

Thu, 06/03/2010 - 09:13

Come see us at TechEd! A bunch of writers and editors will be working the SharePoint booth and attending SharePoint sessions over the course of the week. Stop in if you have any questions or feedback on the SharePoint documentation, if you’d like to say hi, or if you’re interested in writing articles for us.

Categories: SharePoint