Notes after first Upgrade from SP2010 to 2013 preview

Ohh... as and when a new SharePoint version releases - techies like us will be asked to think and act on upgrade. Now its from SP2010 to SP2013 - I m just done with the first candidate upgrade from SP2010 to Sp2013. As most of us guessed, Database attach is the only method supported by SharePoint team right now. As we all aware this is a costly option where we will upgrade the data and sites on a separate farm from the source. 

Before the upgrade, it is recommended to gather info from the source farm (SP2010) - settings like AAM, Auth Providers and Auth Modes, Quota Templates, Managed Paths, Se;f Service Site Mgmt, email settings, custom components (WSPs etc) Certificates. environment info like - sites list, DB details and number of users. It is also recomended to do a clean up to eliminate poential upgrade errors, major clean up activities are to check and repair all DB consistency errors and turning off Web Analytics service application.

To proceed with database attach upgrade, a new farm should be available and the usual SP2013 setup steps should be employed to setup that. Let me refresh the steps in high level

1. Install software - DB server (SQL Server 2008 R2 or SQL Server 2012), Web / App Server - SP2013 prerequisites and SP2013 product
2. Run config wizard in   Web / App Servers
3. Do not use config wizard to configure setup BCS, MMS, PPS, Search, Secure Store, UPS. We willl do it as part of upgrade

Once the environment is setup properly, copy the following DBs to new environment

• Site Content DBs
• BCS DB
• MMS DB
• PPS DB
• Secure Store DB
• Search DB
• UPS DBs (profile, social, sync)

Note: You may set the DBs read only if you wish to restrict changes in source DBs

Next step is to upgrade service applications using the existing DBs and creating service app proxies using Powershell cmdlets like
New-SPProfileServiceApplication (Adds a User Profile Service application to a farm.)
New-SPProfileServiceApplicationProxy (Creates a User Profile Service application proxy on the local farm.)

Note: Please refer MSDN for full set of cmdlets @ technet

Now we can create and configure web applications, deploy customizations like wsps, site defs, CSS, web parts, web services, features, assemblies and web.config changes, form templates et al. No ned to create site collections since it will be created automatically when we upgrade content DB.

Make sure you are running Test-SpContentDatabase cmdlet before proceed with the next ste which is the Content DB upgrade. This step will verify the new environment has all of the components we need before we actually upgrade the DB.

Use Mount-ContentDatabase cmdlet to upgrade the DB. Note that this wont upgrade UI for the sites contained ion the DB.

Once the DBs are upgraded, site coll admins can upgrade their sites. I recomemnd the following steps for this

1. Run site collection health  checks  to identify and address potential issues in their site collections.
2. Optionally create an upgrade evaluation site collection. This will allow us to preview the new UI and address issues before actual upgrade.
3. Finally the Actual upgrade

You are all set to use the first upgraded SP2013 site!!!!

Right SharePoint 2013 APIs for your needs – A ready reckoner

SharePoint products team amazes me every time they introduce a product version release. There are several options available when it comes to access SharePoint 2013 using APIs. Per my understanding the following will be the factors that decide which option to use

• Type of customization like web parts, Silverlight App, SharePoint App Page, timer job and more. All these customization are different in most aspects and choosing right API option would eventually decide its eventual success
• Enterprise governance rules will be the key differentiator in deciding the API option.
• Development skill level is the other factor. Expertize in a the technologies like .NET Framework, Silverlight, PowerShell, JavaScript, ASP.NET, REST/OData will ensure the best development practices are applied in design / development of custom components
• Devices we are targeting like farm server, client computer, mobile devices etc. The customization targeting different device should use appropriate API option.

Let me share a high level mapping based on the current info ...

API Option	Custom Component
Server Object Model	PowerShell script for farm / web app maintenance, tracking etc
	Timer job to perform scheduled actions on web app
	Web Parts to be displayed in sites
Silverlight client object model	Web Parts to be displayed in sites
	SharePoint  App
	Silverlight Application that integrate with SharePoint site data
	ASP.Net web application that integrate SharePoint site data
REST/Odata Endpoints	ASP.Net web application that integrate SharePoint site data
	SharePoint  App
	HTML/Javascript application that consume SharePoint site data
	App for office
	LAMP web application that integrate SharePoint site data
	iOS/Android app for mobile devices that access SharePoint site data
Javascript APIs	Web Parts to be displayed in sites
	ASP.Net web application that integrate SharePoint site data
	SharePoint  App
	App for office
	HTML/Javascript application that consume SharePoint site data
.Net Client Object Model	.Net application that consume SharePoint site data
Mobile Silverlight API	Silverlight app for windows phone
	XNA app for Windows Phone

more to follow... 

How SharePoint 2013 preview different from SP2010

This is the first in my series of blogs that compares new SP2013 preview with SP2010

1. Web Analytics in SP2010 is discontinued and Analytical Processing for SharePoint 2013 is part of Search Service. Microsoft claims Scalability and performance improvements in its new avatar. Analytics processing component in SP2013 runs analytics jobs to analyze content in the search index and user actions. Looks like the analytics feature is more integrated with search features than an independent entity the way it is in SP2010. The other disappointing thing is the SP2010 analytics info like browser traffic, top users of a site, referring URL, quota usage analytics wont be available.
2. Visual Upgrade is NOT available; replaced with much more comprehensive upgrade process called deferred site collection upgrade. Visual upgrade was limited to old master pages, css and html files but the new deferred site collection process the additional areas including SPFeature. There is no direct migration path from MOSS 2007 to SP2013. The Moss2007 site must move to SP2010 before upgrading to SP2013. Another thing the upgrade to SP2013 is irreversible. Due to All these constraints - Im doubtful about the success of this change.
3. As part of simplifying the site template selection process, the following changes have been introduced
• Document Workspace  site template has been replaced by the Team Site site template
• All 5 Meeting Workspace site templates are not available. This looks like a strategic move to promote other Microsoft products like Lync (to conduct online meeting), OneNote (to capture Meeting notes), Team Site / MySites (to share meeting minutes etc). Microsoft annouces the existing site will  work till a major version release.
• Personalization Site, Group Work Site, Visio Process Repository site templates have been removed because of less usage in SP2010. Microsoft annouces the existing site will  work till a major version release.
4. Because of a design limitation - workbooks with external data connections that use Windows Auth cannot be refreshed in browser; you will be asked to open in excel client.
5. Due to less usage , to reduce security issues and to simplify number of ways to connect SharePoint - The imaging web service for creating and managing picture libraries would be removed from next major release.

More to follow...

sharepoint 2013 - databases behind the scenes

We all know - how the SQL server databases are related to SharePoint products and technologies. On releasing the SharePoint 2013 preview – let me try to create a ready reckoner for SharePoint databases

DB Category	DB Name	DB Name Syntax	Description
System DBs (Core DB)	Configuration	SharePoint_Config	Stores details about other SharePoint DBs, IIS web sites, web apps, trusted solutions, site templates and web app/farm settings. Only one DB supported per farm
	Central Admin Content	SharePoint_AdminContent_<GUID>	Centtral admin site's content database. Only one DB supported per farm.
	Content	WSS_Content_<GUID>	Stores all site content (list data, docs, web part properties, audit logs, user names, rights etc.) Can contain more than one site collection data. MS recomends the size to limit 200GB to ensure perfoemance. But can support upto 1TB if it’s a low IO system like Record Center. Scale out to multiple DBs for a web app.
User Profile DBs	Profile	<UPSA>_ProfileDB_<GUID>	Stores and manages users and their social information
	Synchronization	<UPSA>_SyncDB_<GUID>	Stores user profile configuration and staging data for use when profile data is syncd with directory services.
	Social Tagging	<UPSA>_SocialDB_<GUID>	Stores social tags and notes created by users along with their URLs.
Search Service DBs	Search Admin	<SSA>_DB_<GUID>	Stores search application configuration and ACL for crawl component.
	Analytics Reporting	<SSA>_Analytics ReportingStoreDB_<GUID>	Stores the results for usage analysis reports and extracts info from link DB.
	Crawl	<SSA>_CrawlStoreDB_<GUID>	Stores the state of crawled data and crawl history MS suggests add additional crawl DB per 10 mil items
	Link	<SSA>_LinkStoreDB_<GUID>	Stores the info ie extracted by content processing component and click through info. Growth: 1GB per 1mil docs ; 1GB per 1mil queries
Other Service App DBs	App License Management	AppMng_Service_DB_<GUID>	Stores the ap licenses and permissions that are downloaded from the Global Marketplace
	Secure Store Service	Secure_Store_Service_DB_<GUID>	Stores and maps credentials such as accounts and password
	Usage	WSS_Logging	Stores health monitoring and usage data temporaitly. It also used for reporting and diagnostics. One usage DB per farm
	Word Conversion	WordConversion_<GUID>	Stores information about pending and completed document conversion
	Subscription Settings Service	SubscriptionSettings_<GUID>	Stores features and settings information for hosted customers.
sp 2013 (STD/ENT) Service App DBs	Word Automation Services	WordAutomationServices_<GUID>	Stores information about pending and completed document conversion
	Business data Connectivity	BDC_Service_DB_<GUID>	Stores external content types and relate objects
	Managed Metadata Service	<MMS>_<GUID>	Stores managed metadata and syndicated content types
	Machine Translation Services	TranslationService_<GUID>	Stores info about pending and completed batch document translations
sp 2013 ENT Service App DBs	Project Server	<Project web App Content DB>	Store project and portfolio management data, time related data etc
	PowerPivot Service App	<PPSA>_<GUID>	Stores data refresh schedules and PowerPivot usage. This requires SQLServer 2012 analytical services (BI / ENT edition)
	Taxonomy	<MMS>_<GUID>	Taxonomy related info
	Performance Point Services	<PerfPointSA>_<GUID>	Stores temporary objects and persisted user comments and settings
	State Service	<SS>_<GUID>	Stores temporary state info for inforpath forms services

Hope this helps J

Is SharePoint moving towards an App culture?

We are in a world of apps - yes you guessed it right Im talking about the stuff like Android apps , Iphone apps etc. After reading SharePoint 13 preview in Technet - I think SharePoint is also moving towards the App culture.. 


Architects/Developers like me have been building  server-side farm solutions that extend core SharePoint capabilities right from SharePoint 2003 (Im not sure wht was there prior to SPS2003). New SharePoint offers a new flexible development model that creates apps for SharePoint that take advantage of standard web technologies like JavaScript, OAuth, and OData. 


I believe the new app for SharePoint development model will extend the ability to build apps that take advantage of SharePoint capabilities and that run in the cloud instead of on our SharePoint farm. This flexible development model, along with the integration of standard web technologies, makes SharePoint development work more like other kinds of web development that we are already be doing. This change in philosophy would help the enterprises and users to discover, purchase and install sharepoint solutions quick and easy. The group benefited most out of this approach change is the solution providers who can simplify market and sell their solutions thru an app store - not necessarily Microsoft app store.
SharePoint Apps going to use the SharePoint client side techniques or REST to access SP entities and data. App for sharepoint cannot contain custom code that runs on Server and cannot call server object model APIs. In a nutshell App are for end users not for Admins.


The related major change we are seeing in SP13 preview is - deprecation of Sand-boxed solution (introduced in SP2010 - it was helping the site collection admins to manage solution of their own without touching farm servers)..

Whats there in new SharePoint

I was pretty excited to see latest version release of office suite 2013 along with new version of SharePoint.

Its catch word says SharePoint Server 15 enhances the workload experiences by enabling new compelling scenarios that engage and work with the user.

Had a quick look at Technet site and came to knew that the platform stays the same but few new things introduced....

Let me share few thing real  quick

1. There are few  platform level improvements and new capabilities

• Shredded Storage
• SQL Improvements
• Cache Service
• Request Management
• Themes
• Sharing

2. Content Management

• Site-level retention policies was a pain point when we did Records Management for one of the Pharma major in SharePoint 2010 . Now the compliance levels extended to sites
• The new  policies include - Retention policy for sites and Team Mailbox associated with site
• This feature could help us the common business functions like Project closure and site level expiration policy
• The discovery and legal hold feature were primitive in SP2010 – Microsoft claims there is exponential improvement in this area. Can’t wait to know it …

3. Looks like there are handful of changes in Service applications  

• (I’m yet to explore more details) there are New service applications available and improvements on existing ones
• Office Web Apps is no longer a service application
• Web Analytics is moved to part of search

I will detail more about customization, architecture in the upcoming posts