Microsoft SharePoint Administration Toolkit

The 4th release of the Microsoft SharePoint Administration Toolkit is now available for download and includes improvements in the SharePoint Diagnostics Tool (SPDiag), a new Permissions Reporting Tool, a new bulk Quota processing tool, in addition to the Security Configuration Wizard Manifests.  The Microsoft SharePoint Administration Toolkit is an excellent suite of utilites aimed at the system administrator to assist in both isolating issues, understanding the overall environment they support, and making common administrative tasks more efficient and reliable.

To learn more about improvements about this release see http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2009/08/27/announcing-the-fourth-release-of-the-microsoft-sharepoint-administration-toolkit.aspx.

To download the Microsoft SharePoint Administration Toolkit for x64 environments see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=142035.

To download the Microsoft SharePoint Administration Toolkit for x86 environments see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=141504.

Want to Upload Files to SharePoint from a Smartphone?

Sharing knowledge, learning and building consensus to solve problems is the foundation of Collaboration. Arguably the most popular structured method for collaboration today is Microsoft® Office SharePoint®. Incorporate that with the rapid progress of SmartPhone capabilities over fast 3G networks and you open up Collaboration potential to a projected 449 million Global SmartPhone Users by 2011. Over the next few years, many mobile workers currently toting laptops will likely trade their bulky notebooks for a corporate-issue smartphone that slips into their pocket.

Given the Worldwide growth of SharePoint and SmartPhone users it only makes sense to provide mobile workers with the capability to upload that important document directly from their SmartPhones . The team at H3 Solutions have developed an Innovative approach to upload documents into SharePoint utilizing their mobile application framework - Mobile Entrée®. If you’re unfamiliar with Mobile Entree then read my article, “What is this Mobile Entree thing?”.

Let's go through the process of exposing a document library to a mobile community utilizing the Mobile Entree Framework and the Basic Plugin. Naturally the first thing you’ll want to do is setup a Document Library. Once the Document Library has been created we’ll need to make it available to the mobile community. Mobile Entree includes a configuration screen within SharePoint that is located from the Site Actions menu.

1. Click Mobile Entree Configuration from the Site Actions menu.
2. On the Mobile Entree Configuration Page page, click SharePoint Mobile Entree from the Global Config Section.
3. In the SharePoint Mobile Entrée Properties section select the Document Libraries and Views to be available to mobile users from the Document Library Config.
4. Click Apply Changes

Now your Document Library will be available to a mobile community. If you have specific access requirements then be sure to set up the rights within the Document Library in SharePoint. Only the User or Group of Users specified will be able to view the Document Library(s) from their SmartPhone; Just like

Let's upload a file to SharePoint from our SmartPhone. Using a web browser from your mobile device navigate to the SharePoint site by entering the same URL as you would from your desktop. As indicated in the image (below), the mobile user would select the appropriate Shared Documents folder within the list of Document Libraries. In our example you can see that the Shared Document library is empty.

1. Select ‘Upload’ from the menu.
2. Click the ‘Browse’ button (Depending on the screen resolution of your mobile device, you may need to scroll down in order to see the button)
3. From the File Explorer window choose a file to upload (I have chosen ‘Book1.xls’ for this example).

Once you choose a file for upload Mobile Entree will return you to the Document Library screen where you have decided to upload the file. Utilizing Mobile Entree your mobile community will now be able to upload content from their mobile device. What’s more is they will be interacting with the SAME SharePoint site and the SAME URL as they would from a desktop

References

1. RBC Capital Markets Corporation, "Wireless Indsutry," Sizing the Global Smartphone Market (accessed August 10, 2009).
2. Currently only Windows Mobile, Blackberry & Palm Pre devices support the capability to upload files to SharePoint utilizing Mobile Entree

Windows 2008 R2 goodness - adding sharepoint folders to a library

Just a heads up to what you can expect when you upgrade to Windows Server 2008 R2 (aside from all the technical things like virtualization improvements):

Win2008R2 is also known as “Windows 7 Server”, since the UI is windows 7 (unlike windows 2008 which was vista).

This means we can create “libraries” – which are virtual folders which replace the vista “search folder” with much more options.

An example is shown below – I created a virtual folder called “sharepoint files” and added the 12 hive and the office servers folders as well as the “logs” folder – and now I have an easy way to get to all three of them in windows explorer:

SharePoint 2007 – Move Content and Configuration Databases

If you’ve ever wanted to relocate your WSS 3.0 or MOSS 2007 content databases or configuration database from one SQL server to another, you’ve probably found very little documentation and very little written on this topic.  Below is my attempt to provide some guidance for these tasks.  The steps are fairly simple, but please remember to try all operations of this magnitude on a development or test environment before trying this on your production SharePoint environment.

Move SharePoint Content Databases

Several common reasons for needing to move a content database from one SQL server to another are:

• Scalability (spreading the load of your SQL server across multiple SQL servers)
• Disaster Recovery (your SQL server had a catastrophic disaster and you need to recover from that event)
• Database Reorganization (you simply need to change the server that hosts your content database or rename the database)

Instructions for moving a content database from one SQL server to another

1. Detach the content database from the source SQL server and copy the .mdf and .ldf to the target SQL server. (Note: while you are moving the database files your users will see “Cannot connect to content database” when visiting their site)
2. Attach the .mdf and .ldf files on the target SQL server as a new database (Note: this is your opportunity to rename the database if you desire)
3. Run the following stsadm commands from the command line on your SharePoint server to complete the move:  (Note: the deletecontentdb does not actually delete the database from SQL server, it simply disconnects the database from SharePoint)

stsadm –o deletecontentdb –url http://yoursiteurl –databasename your_content_db –databaseserver source_SQL_server
stsadm –o addcontentdb –url http://yoursiteurl –databasename your_content_db –databaseserver target_SQL_server

Move SharePoint Configuration Database

Several common reasons for needing to move your configuration database from one SQL server to another are:

• Disaster Recovery (your SQL server had a catastrophic disaster and you need to recover from that event)
• Database Reorganization (you simply need to change the server that hosts your content database or rename the database)

Instructions for moving a configuration database from one SQL server to another

1. Backup configuration database from the source SQL server
2. Restore the backup onto the target SQL server (Note: this is your opportunity to rename the config database if desired)
3. Run the following stsadm commands from the command line on your SharePoint server to complete the move:  (Note: the deleteconfigdb does not actually delete the database from SQL server, it simply disconnects the database from SharePoint)

stsadm -o deleteconfigdb
stsadm –o setconfigdb -connect –databaseserver target_SQL_server -databasename databasename -farmuser your_farm_sql_account -farmpassword your_farm_sql_password

The complete syntax for the stsadm -o deleteconfigdb is listed below: (Note: there are NO options)

stsadm.exe -o deleteconfigdb

The complete syntax for the stsadm -o setconfigdb is listed below:

stsadm.exe -o setconfigdb

           [-connect]

           -databaseserver <database server>

           [-databaseuser <database user>]

           [-databasepassword <database user password>]

           [-databasename <database name>]

           [-hh]

           [-exclusivelyusentlm]

           [-farmuser]

           [-farmpassword]

           [-adcreation]

           [-addomain <Active Directory domain>]

           [-adou <Active Directory OU>]

SharePoint (WSS 3.0, MOSS 2007) and Project Server 2007 Service Pack 2 Installation Order

I would like to share my experience with those who are trying to install SP2 on SharePoint server. I defined 3 environments below: WSS 3.0, MOSS 2007 and MOSS 2007/PS 2007. Please try the following sequences in your testing environment before applying to your production environment as yours may be unique. Let me know if you have any comments.

Download links:
1. Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 with SP2 (x86)
2. Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 with SP2 (x64)
3. Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP2 (x86 & x64)
4. Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 with SP2 (x86)
5. Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 with SP2 (x64)
6. Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 with SP2 (x86)
7. Infrastructure Update for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (x64)
8. Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Office Servers (x64)
9. Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Office Servers (x86)
10. Infrastructure Update for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (x86)
11. The 2007 Microsoft Office Servers Service Pack 2 (x86 & x64)

A. WSS 3.0

· New Deployment

1. Download and install Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 with SP2 and you are good to go.
2. Done.

· WSS 3.0 RTM, with SP1 or Infrastructure Update
1. Download and install Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP2 on every SharePoint server in your farm.
2. Done.

B. MOSS 2007

· New Deployment
1. Download and install Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 with SP1 on every SharePoint server in your farm.
2. Download and install Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP2 and The 2007 Microsoft Office Servers Service Pack 2 in order on every SharePoint server in your farm.
3. Done.

· MOSS 2007 RTM
1. Download and install Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP2 and The 2007 Microsoft Office Servers Service Pack 2 in order on every SharePoint server in your farm.
2. Done.

· MOSS 2007 with SP1
1. Download and install Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP2 and The 2007 Microsoft Office Servers Service Pack 2 in order in your farm.
2. Done.

· MOSS 2007 with Infrastructure Update
1. Download and install Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP2 and The 2007 Microsoft Office Servers Service Pack 2 in order in your farm.
2. Done.

· MOSS 2007 with SP1 and Infrastructure Update
1. Download and install Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP2 and The 2007 Microsoft Office Servers Service Pack 2 in order in your farm.
2. Done.

C. MOSS 2007 and PS 2007

· New Deployment
1. Download and install Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 with SP1 on every SharePoint server in your farm.
2. Download and install Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Office Servers on every SharePoint server in your farm.
3. Download and install Project Server 2007 with SP1 on SharePoint servers that will host Project Application Service.

· MOSS 2007 RTM
1. Download and install Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP2 and The 2007 Microsoft Office Servers Service Pack 2 in order on every SharePoint server in your farm.
2. Download and install Project Server 2007 with SP1 on SharePoint servers that will host Project Application Service.
3. Download and install The 2007 Microsoft Office Servers Service Pack 2 on every SharePoint server in your farm.
4. Done.

· MOSS 2007 with SP1
1. Download and install Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Office Servers on every SharePoint server in your farm.
2. Download and install Project Server 2007 with SP1 on SharePoint servers that will host Project Application Service.
3. Download and install Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Office Servers on servers that Project Server 2007 with SP1 is installed.
4. Download and install Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP2 and The 2007 Microsoft Office Servers Service Pack 2 in order on every SharePoint server in your farm.
5. Done.

Or

1. Download and install Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP2 and The 2007 Microsoft Office Servers Service Pack 2 in order on every SharePoint server in your farm.
2. Download and install Project Server 2007 with SP1 on SharePoint servers that will host Project Application Service.
3. Download and install The 2007 Microsoft Office Servers Service Pack 2 on every SharePoint server in your farm.
4. Done.

· MOSS 2007 with Infrastructure Update
*You should have applied SP1 before Infrastructure Update because it is the recommended approach.
1. Download and install Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP2 and The 2007 Microsoft Office Servers Service Pack 2 in order on every SharePoint server in your farm.
2. Download and install Project Server 2007 with SP1 on SharePoint servers that will host Project Application Service.
3. Download and install The 2007 Microsoft Office Servers Service Pack 2 on every SharePoint server in your farm.
4. Done.

· MOSS 2007 with SP1 and Infrastructure Update
1. Download and install Project Server 2007 with SP1 on SharePoint servers that will host Project Application Service.
2. Download and install Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Office Servers on servers that Project Server 2007 with SP1 is installed.
3. Download and install Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP2 and The 2007 Microsoft Office Servers Service Pack 2 in order on every SharePoint server in your farm.
4. Done.

After applying any updates, run the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard or "psconfig –cmd upgrade –inplace b2b -wait” in command line. This needs to be done on every server in the farm with SharePoint installed and the version of content databases should be 12.0.0.6421 after successfully applying SP2.

During the installation of the 2007 Microsoft Office servers Service Pack 2, a product expiration date is activated incorrectly. This means that your SharePoint will expire 180 days after Service Pack 2 is deployed, as if it were a trial installation. The activation of the expiration date will not affect the regular function of these products until the expiration date passes, 180 days after Service Pack 2 is deployed. If the product expires, it will not affect data, configuration, or application code. However, it will make the Office Server product inaccessible for end-users. (More information can be found here: KB Article 971620). Microsoft already released updates to resolve this issue and below are download lins:

Update for 2007 Microsoft Office Servers (KB971620), 32-Bit Edition
Download the Download the Update for 2007 Microsoft Office Servers (KB971620), 32-Bit Edition package now.

Update for 2007 Microsoft Office Servers (KB971620), 64-Bit Edition
Download the Download the Update for 2007 Microsoft Office Servers (KB971620), 64-Bit Edition package now.