Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Alternate access mapping and Server name mapping


Alternate Access Mapping (AAM) and Server Name Mapping are two features SharePoint provides to alter the URLs returned in search results - a common practice used by many companies for their internal and external users. Both features are available in both the out of the box search in SharePoint 2010 and in the new FAST Search Server for SharePoint 2010.
This post is intended for people with working knowledge about the two features who want to know when to use which. If you need to brush up on your basic understanding about the two features, here are a couple good sources for your convenience:


 
•         Alternate access mapping:  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc261814.aspx
•         Server name mapping: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc164184.aspx
Although Server Name Mapping and Alternate Access Mapping achieve seemingly similar results, they work independently, addressing different problems, and should not be used together. I’ve listed the similarity and differences below:
Server Name Mapping
•         Is designed for file share and http content.
•         Allows you to map any server name to anything you like as long as the name you mapped to actually points to the same set of pages.  For example, you might have a Web site with a real access URL http://foo that you want show as http://microsoft.com ; or an internal file share server \\foo and you want to use \\microsoft instead. By setting up Server Name Mapping, your crawler will use http://foo or \\foo for indexing, but your users will only see http://microsoft.com, or \\Microsoft .
•         Requires a full crawl for the mapping, once set up, to be applied.
•         Search results will always use the new name for all users.
•         Settings overwrite the AAM setting for the same results, if you use them together - which you shouldn’t.
•         Is defined by the search admin for each SSA (search service application)
Alternate Access Mapping
•         Is designed for SharePoint content.
•         Allows you to modify results URLs based on the access URLs for a site.  So, for the same result page,  a user accessing from an internal URL will see results with URLs matching the internal site, and a user  accessing from an external URL may get the same result set but with URLs matching the external site. For example, for the same set of SharePoint content, internal users use http://server to access the site, all the URLs they get in search results are prefixed with http://server/... ; external users use http://www.microsoft.com, all the search results they see are prefixed with http://www.microsoft.com.
•         Does not require a crawl for the settings to take effect.
•         Generates results URLs based on how the site is accessed.
•         Is set per farm, so if you have more than 1 search service application in your farm, all of them will use the AAM setting.
The combination of Search Server Mapping and Alternate Access Mapping offers a lot of flexibility in managing URL mappings in search results. I hope this post helps to clarify how these features work and compare. If you have any questions or observations, please don’t hesitate to post your comments here.

Customizations Possible (Dev) in a SharePoint 2010 Environment



WebParts

That use only DLLs

That use .ascx files (deployed in ControlTemplates folder)
Web.config
GAC
12 hive (only when webparts are deployed as .ascx files)
Workflows

SPD Workflows
Will automatically get migrated, because it is there in the content db
Fur between SP 2010 Farms, if you need to migrate, you need to use tools – Workflow Migrators
VS Workflows
Can be just solutions – can be just redeployed
GAC
Custom Master Pages




Content DB is fine unless, the application default.master or v4.master is modified (which is in layouts folder)

Application Pages (Custom Layout Pages)
Layouts folder
Straight copy
Features
Features folder (Manifest.xml and Elements.xml)
Solutions
Can comprise multiple features
Can be found in Solution Management of the Central Administration
Third party add-ons
Re-install (depends on what kind of add-on that is)
Custom Security Trimmers
GAC – assembly

Few other things:
Event Receivers
Could be deployed as Features / Solutions
Custom Site Definitions
Under SiteTemplates
Custom List Definitions
Not any folder, but GAC again
Custom Content Type Definitions
GAC
Custom Images
Images folder
Custom Icons and File Types
Central Admin, Search – File Types
DocIcon.xml under Template/Xml folder
Custom Fields (Custom Columns)
FldTypes.xml in the Template /XML Folder
InfoPath Form Templates
Locally stored in each development (.xsn files) – this is not a good practice, it might be directly present in the Content DB
External Data Connections
Worry about the connection string
ODBC Connections – you will have to re-create them in the SP Server
Data Connection Files stored inside Libraries (pointing to a wrong location after upgrade)
Content DB


Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Readings to prepare for the SharePoint 2010 IT Pro exams

Social Computing with SharePoint 2010

 The Microsoft Office site contains some very interesting how-to information and video’s on SharePoint 2010. Here are some links to more information about social computing with SharePoint 2010:

Absolute SharePoint Links

Following are important shortcut links to any Sharepoint sites………..

Site settings Page /_layouts/settings.aspx
Web Parts Maintenance Page /default.aspx/?contents=1
Master page /_Layouts/ChangeSiteMasterPage.aspx
Title, description and icon /_layouts/prjsetng.aspx
Navigation /_layouts/AreaNavigationSettings.aspx
Page layouts and site templates /_Layouts/AreaTemplateSettings.aspx
Welcome page /_Layouts/AreaWelcomePage.aspx
Tree view /_layouts/navoptions.aspx
Site Themes /_layouts/themeweb.aspx
Reset to site definition /_layouts/reghost.aspx
Searchable columns /_Layouts/NoCrawlSettings.aspx



Galleries
Site Content types /_layouts/mngctype.aspx
Site Columns /_layouts/mngfield.aspx
Site Templates /_catalogs/wt/Forms/Common.aspx
List Templates /_catalogs/lt/Forms/AllItems.aspx
Web Parts /_catalogs/wp/Forms/AllItems.aspx
Workflows /_layouts/wrkmng.aspx

Others
Create Site /_layouts/newsbweb.aspx
New Site Content Type /_layouts/ctypenew.aspx
Site Usage Report /_layouts/usageDetails.aspx
Recycle Bin /_layouts/RecycleBin.aspx
Site Collection Recycle Bin /_layouts/AdminRecycleBin.aspx

SharePoint 2013 service application architecture and individual service applications

  1. Compare SharePoint 2013 and SharePoint 2010 service application architectures
    Video | Presentation
  2. SharePoint 2013 changes and features in Access services
    Video | Presentation
  3. SharePoint 2013 changes and features in the apps management service application
    Video | Presentation
  4. SharePoint 2013 changes and features in Business Connectivity Services
    Video | Presentation
  5. SharePoint 2013 changes and features in Excel services
    Video | Presentation
  6. SharePoint 2013 changes and features in the User Profile service application
    Video | Presentation
  7. Walkthrough SharePoint 2013 features in the new machine translation service
    Video | Presentation
  8. SharePoint 2013 changes and features in PerformancePoint services
    Video | Presentation
  9. SharePoint 2013 changes and features in Visio services
    Video | Presentation
  10. Walkthrough SharePoint 2013 features in the work management service application
    Video | Presentation
  11. SharePoint 2013 changes and features in Word automation service
    Video | Presentation 
Ref:  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/fp123606.aspx

SharePoint Instant List Filter

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Automated SharePoint server monitoring - Your job just got easier


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This thing makes your job pretty easy, right? Plus-
§  Intuitive dashboard UI provides 'at-a-glance' view of SharePoint health
§  Configurable email alerts notify you when there's a problem
§  Alert details link to Knowledge Base of troubleshooting advice
§  Historical repository enables advanced capacity planning
§  No agents required on monitored farm servers

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Track SharePoint Growth and Capacity, Prevent System Outages



SharePoint space trends tracks the growth of your sites and document libraries, so you can get a jump on managing your SharePoint storage and optimizing how resources are used. Think of it as magic software that lets you see the future of SharePoint.
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SharePoint space trends lets you-
·  Identify and analyze storage growth trends
·  Perform capacity planning
·  Prevent system outages due to storage problems
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Another SharePoint tool worth checking out .
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