Announcing Our New Introductory SharePoint 2010 Course for Server Administrators

In response to numerous requests over the last several months, SharePoint Solutions is pleased to announce a new addition to our catalogue of SharePoint 2010 courses: Introduction to SharePoint 2010 for Server Administrators, a 3-day hands-on instructor-led course designed to give IT Professionals a jump-start and quickly bring them up to speed on installing and managing their SharePoint 2010 environment.

Introduction to SharePoint 2010 for Server Administrators is aimed at IT Professionals who are responsible for installing, configuring, designing, and administering a SharePoint 2010 environment. It is designed for a technical audience consisting of administrators, developers, web masters, and others who wish to gain basic technical knowledge about SharePoint 2010.

No prior knowledge of any version of SharePoint is assumed.The course is structured in a manner that assumes the student is an IT Professional, and comes to class with basic technical skills. Experience with SharePoint 2010 or SharePoint 2007 is neither required nor expected of the student. Obviously, some students who attend will already have experience with SharePoint. The instructors will make the appropriate connections for these students in the lecture, without confusing the students who are new to SharePoint.

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Understand what features are available in each of the three SharePoint 2010 editions (SharePoint Foundation 2010, SharePoint Server 2010 Standard Edition, and SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise Edition), to help them determine which edition is most appropriate for their organization
• Understand the concepts and terminologies that are unique to SharePoint 2010
• Understand how end users work in SharePoint on a daily basis
• Learn to administer sites, site collections, and server farms
• Install and configure SharePoint 2010
• Administer site security
• Configure Kerberos security between SharePoint and external applications
• Plan and implement backup and restore procedures
• Configure and administer the Enterprise Search Service
• Configure and administer the User Profile Service
• Configure and administer the Managed Metadata Service

The course includes a simulated installation/configuration of the SharePoint 2010 Server software in a virtual Windows Server 2008 environment. Each student will have his or her own unique virtual server on which to work.

The discussion will include what versions of SQL Server can be used with SharePoint, the various topologies that can be used to scale up your environment, and planning considerations from a hardware perspective, all with an emphasis on recommended best practices.

The cost of the three-day course is $1895. Classes are enrolling now for Q1 of 2012.

InfoPath Training

Need InfoPath training? We've got just what you're looking for!

SharePoint Solutions offers quality hands-on classroom-based InfoPath training.

Learn the ins and outs of creating digital forms that your users won’t mind using.

Four days is all it takes to master digital form creation in InfoPath 2010, and to learn the basics of routing those forms through common business processes using SharePoint 2010 workflow, through our new course, InfoPath 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010 No-Code Workflow Deep Dive (Intermediate).

In this instructor-led 4-day “deep dive” course, you’ll learn:

• To understand forms as a primary driver of business processes
• To design digital forms that work – asking the right questions the right way
• To understand the varied audiences for your forms and the data they need
• A framework for determining what questions your form needs
• Form layout and design best practices
• What controls are available for InfoPath forms and how they work
• How to create data connections to receive data from external sources

and much, much more.

In addition, you’ll learn to use SharePoint Designer 2010 to create powerful SharePoint workflows to automate the routing of those InfoPath forms through common business processes. You’ll discover:

• The different types of workflows you can create and when to use them
• Item events which trigger workflow
• Steps, actions and conditions: the building blocks of workflow design
• Else-if conditional branching and (MS) Boolean logic
• How to test and debug your workflows

and so much more.

Familiarity with the basics of SharePoint 2010 is required, but no previous experience with InfoPath 2010 or SharePoint Designer 2010 is necessary.

Packed with information and hands-on experience!
Classes are filling up fast, so prompt registration is highly recommended.

Check scheduled dates and locations of upcoming classes.

Method to grant account access to User Profile Service Application

In order to work with SharPoint's User Profile Service Application beyond a read-only capacity, a user account must be granted appropriate access. Otherwise, you'll encounter errors such as ActivityFeedPermissionDeniedException when attempting to perform operations such as ActivityEvent.CreateActivityEvent.

The following method will grant access to User Profile Service Application for a specified account name of the format DOMAIN\User.

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private static void GrantPermissionsToUserProfileService(string accountName) { var upServiceproxy = SPFarm.Local.Services.Where(s => s.GetType().Name.Contains("UserProfileService")).FirstOrDefault(); if (upServiceproxy != null) { var upServiceApp = upServiceproxy.Applications.OfType<SPIisWebServiceApplication>().FirstOrDefault(); if (upServiceApp != null) { var mgr = SPClaimProviderManager.Local; var security = upServiceApp.GetAccessControl(); var claim = mgr.ConvertIdentifierToClaim(accountName, SPIdentifierTypes.WindowsSamAccountName); security.AddAccessRule(new SPAclAccessRule<SPIisWebServiceApplicationRights>(claim, SPIisWebServiceApplicationRights.FullControl)); upServiceApp.SetAccessControl(security); var adminSecurity = upServiceApp.GetAdministrationAccessControl(); var adminClaim = mgr.ConvertIdentifierToClaim(accountName, SPIdentifierTypes.WindowsSamAccountName); adminSecurity.AddAccessRule(new SPAclAccessRule<SPCentralAdministrationRights>(adminClaim, SPCentralAdministrationRights.FullControl)); upServiceApp.SetAdministrationAccessControl(adminSecurity); upServiceApp.Uncache(); upServiceproxy.Uncache(); } } }

In the scenario where your application's execution context is a SPJobDefinition, your code will be running under the account identity of the SharePoint 2010 Timer service. In this previous article, I showed you how to write a method to determine the account identity of the timer service. Combining the two methods should allow you to create a custom SharePoint PowerShell cmdlet which will grant access before running your custom timer job to perform such functions as updating SharePoint user profiles.

Method to determine account identity of 'SharePoint 2010 Timer' (SPTimerV4) Windows Service

As a developer of solutions for the SharePoint 2010 platform, you may on occasion find the need to determine the account identity of the SharePoint 2010 Timer Windows Service (SPTimerV4). The following method will return the service's account name for you.

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private static string GetSPTimerJobAccountName() { string retval = null; ServiceController[] controllers = ServiceController.GetServices(); var cont = controllers.Where(c => c.ServiceName == "SPTimerV4"); ServiceController svc = cont.FirstOrDefault(); if (svc != null) { System.Management.SelectQuery query = new System.Management.SelectQuery(string.Format("select name, startname from Win32_Service where name = '{0}'", svc.ServiceName)); using (System.Management.ManagementObjectSearcher searcher = new System.Management.ManagementObjectSearcher(query)) { foreach (System.Management.ManagementObject service in searcher.Get()) { retval = service["startname"] as string; } } } return retval; }

Recorded Webinar: Site Provisioning and Governance Assistant for SharePoint 2010

Yesterday's Site Provisioning and Governance Assistant for SharePoint 2010 webinar was very well attended. Based on the webinar's turnout and the multitude of questions we received from participants, there is certainly a lot of interest in the features SPGA 2010 has to offer for SharePoint site creation and governance. Who can blame you for wanting to stop wasting so much valuable time creating, managing and governing SharePoint sites? It just makes sense that so many people are looking for a solution like SPGA 2010 to automate these processes.

Many of our clients asked us to post a recorded copy of the webinar for download. Here is a link to the recorded webinar, along with supporting materials. I've also included a link to the SPGA 2010 product page for more information.

Recorded SPGA 2010 Webinar (WMV)

Accompanying slides to SPGA 2010 Webinar (PDF)

SPGA 2010 Case Study: Howell Petroleum (PDF)

SPGA 2010 Case Study: Burns, Hoolihan and Winchester, LLC. (PDF)

Site Provisioning and Governance Assistant for SharePoint 2010 Product Page

If you have any questions, contact me here.

Announcing InfoPath 2010 and SharePoint Designer 2010 No-Code Workflow Training for SharePoint 2010

The business process automation capabilities of SharePoint 2010 (all editions) are fast becoming some of its most popular features. Streamlined business processes reduce labor and supply costs dramatically and improve both efficiency and office morale. It is rare to find one element that can make such a huge impact on a workplace environment.

In response to the overwhelming demand for instruction on InfoPath 2010 and no-code SharePoint 2010 Workflow creation using SharePoint Designer 2010, SharePoint Solutions is pleased to announce our two new courses:

• InfoPath 2010 and SharePoint Foundation 2010 No-Code Workflow Basics (2 days) and
• InfoPath 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010 No-Code Workflow Deep Dive (4 days).
  

Both of these intermediate-level courses require a good working knowledge of SharePoint 2010 and familiarity with the Microsoft Office Suite of programs, particularly the “ribbon” interface.

The 2-day “InfoPath 2010 and SharePoint Foundation 2010 No-Code Workflow Basics” can take any savvy SharePoint 2010 user and have you building user-friendly digital forms and powerful, sophisticated SharePoint 2010 workflows in just two days, using InfoPath 2010, the Workflow Designer in SharePoint Designer 2010, and any edition of SharePoint 2010 – even the free edition! Designed to have you up-and-running quickly, this instructor-led, hands-on jump-start cracks the secrets of designing InfoPath forms your users will really use, and SharePoint Designer workflows that accomplish a myriad of business tasks – automatically. Packed with information and hands-on experience!

The 4-day “InfoPath 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010 No-Code Workflow Deep Dive” takes SharePoint 2010 users through the basics of forms creation and workflow design and on to the next level of workflow capability. Starting with everything that is in the 2-day course, the Deep Dive takes you further – leveraging the powerful advanced workflow features only available in SharePoint Server 2010 Standard Edition and Enterprise Edition. You’ll learn about creating Site Workflows, Reusable Workflows, using Forms Services so your users can fill out forms in a browser, using web services to pre-fill form fields, working with digital signatures, visual workflow design using Visio 2010, and much, much more. You’ll even have an opportunity to examine YOUR real-life business process issues and craft workflow solutions.

Don’t know which class would be the best for you?
Check out this helpful side-by-side comparison.

Classes are now enrolling for fall and winter of 2011 in our Nashville and Chicago locations.

SharePoint is like a very complex swing set kit, but without the assembly instructions and picture

I just finished teaching our Exploring SharePoint 2010 and Upgrading from SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint 2010 classes this week in Nashville.  I’ve been teaching these classes around the U.S. on a monthly basis for the last year and a half.  It’s Friday afternoon and my students have headed home and I am reflecting on how much information we covered and how much they learned.  I think it was a great week for them.

It just occurred to me that SharePoint has some amazing similarities to “kits”.  Have you ever purchased a “do it yourself” kit of any kind?  There are kits for a lot of different household and hobby types of things that people have a hankering for and want to assemble themselves rather than purchasing a finished product.

A great example is a children’s swing set kit.  For instance:

These parts in this kit:

Can be assembled into this swing set:

Of course, you have to go to a lumber yard to get the wood components required to complete the kit.

Perhaps most important of all, but not shown that prominently in the pictures, is the printed instructions that come with the kit.  These are usually really important to have unless you happen to be one of those “handy” type of people that can just look at the parts and figure out how all of them fit together properly. Unfortunately, that is not me - at least when it comes to swing sets.  I need the assembly instructions.

So, after being 100% devoted to SharePoint for the last eight years, it is very clear to me that there is a strong analogy that can be made here.  SharePoint is like a very complex swing set kit, except that it doesn’t come with the assembly instructions or the picture of what it is supposed to look like when you are finished.  Therein lies the rub that so many people in so many companies have learned the hard way over the past eight years.

Really, there just can’t be a picture of the finished product included with the out-of-the-box SharePoint or detailed assembly instructions even though SharePoint is a lot “kit-like”.  Why?: because SharePoint is designed to be a general purpose set of tools that can be used to build an almost infinite variety of browser-based business applications.  This characteristic is what a lot of people are referring to when they talk about “SharePoint as a platform”.

Unfortunately, the fact that SharePoint is really a platform and therefore can’t ship with a picture and assembly instructions, doesn’t eliminate the need for a picture and assembly instructions!

When an organization starts with SharePoint, it is really important to spend some time on the front-end envisioning what the finished product needs to look like (i.e. coming up with the “picture”).  To do that, it is really important for the people who are responsible for developing the vision to first understand the capabilities of all of the various SharePoint tools that are available to them.  The only way to get that understanding is through reading, research, trial and error, and formal training.

My opinion is that there is really no substitute for high-quality classroom training.  Books, conferences and SharePoint Saturday’s can only take you so far.  At a high-quality hands-on SharePoint training class, you can trial and error to your heart’s content using a pre-configured lab machine and you can ask an expert instructor as many questions as you want to.  It really is the most efficient and high-value way to get a good start on a SharePoint project.

GUIDs in SharePoint Database Names and DPM 2010 - Left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing

One complaint about SharePoint 2010 that I have heard consistently for the last year from students in my Upgrading SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint 2010 class is that the "Configure Your Farm" wizard automatically adds GUIDs to the name of a number of the new Service Application databases:

SharePoint 2010 database names with GUIDs appended

  

This problem has been written about and discussed on many other blogs, and so I am not going to go into a full explanation here of why it happens.  Suffice it to say that it is a concern of varying degree for many SharePoint Server farm administrators and SQL Server DBAs.

My experience is that for organizations that used a shared SQL Server for their SharePoint databases, because of this issue, using the Configure Your Farm wizard can be a non-starter because of the inability to specify the database names in conformance with the organization's database naming standards.  In many of these organizations, the SharePoint Server administrators feel "cheated" by Microsoft because they can't take advantage of the time savings of the Configure Your Farm wizard.

For other organizations that have a dedicated SQL Server for their SharePoint databases, the issue may just be an annoyance and they will decide to take advantage of the Configure Your Farm wizard anyway and just live with the weird looking database names.  

So, to a certain extent, this issue can frequently boil down to personal preference, except when it starts to impact the ability to easily backup and restore the SharePoint databases.

Those GUIDs can really be a royal pain for a DBA when it comes to creating and maintaining backup and restore scripts.  And, as I found out this week, it can really be a royal pain when using Microsoft's own System Center Data Protection Manager 2010 backup and restore product. (This is where the "Left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing" phrase comes from in the title of this post).

Apparently, the System Center Data Protection Manager 2010 product team did not communicate with the SharePoint Server 2010 product team all that well and vice versa, because here is the error message you get when you have DPM 2010 back up several of the wizard-created SharePoint Server 2010 databases:

Data Protection Manager (DPM) 2010 error message when SharePoint database names are too long

Those darn GUIDs make the names of several of the Service Applications databases too long for DPM 2010 to handle!  And, according to this post on Microsoft's SharePoint forums there is no solution besides renaming the databases and re-configuring SharePoint.  The prospects of having to rename the databases IS A BIG DEAL in my mind.  I have yet to see a really safe and sure fire procedure published anywhere that I would be all that comfortable following in a production environment.

Here is the thread from the Microsoft forums:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/dpmsharepointbackup/thread/35ad43bd-3185-458d-aa15-c4654f968de6/

I will have to say that I love SharePoint Server 2010.  I also love Data Protection Manager 2010.  But, right now I am not loving them as a couple :(.