As I learn, taking notes of some noticeable enhancements in SharePoint 2010 ( in my point of view)

Backup and Restore

• SharePoint Server 2010 uses two different tools (Central admin and PowerShell) to configure backup and recovery. What happened to STSADM? It is still there, for only backward compatibility.  New backup plans should be incorporated with Windows PowerShell in place of Stsadm.
• Windows PowerShell provides administrators a way to perform backup and recovery with additional options such as file compression or working with SQL snapshots
• SharePoint Server 2010 provides several new features that provide a granular level of backup for various components of site content (site, subsite, and list level)

Database

• In SharePoint Server 2010, you can restore site collections, sites, and lists from unattached content databases. You can simply do a SQL Server restore of the content database to any computer running SQL Server, then tell SharePoint to connect to it. This eliminates the need to build a second farm for granular recovery
• It has the ability to recognize read-only SQL databases. Whenever SharePoint Server is connected to a SQL database that has been placed in read-only mode, SharePoint Server will security trim all site collections in the database so that they are read-only to all users, removing all add and edit functionality from the sites, even for administrators
• It supports SQL mirroring natively. This allows a farm administrator to configure the SQL environment to mirror a SharePoint content database. Whenever a new database is created, the SharePoint administrator will be prompted to enter the failover server.

Managed Accounts

• It reduces the load of managing various service accounts. SharePoint will take control all the service accounts we use inside the SharePoint (like changing the password automatically as per the policy or send a reminder when it is about to expire)

More to come…..

 

My first look at noticeable enhancements in SharePoint 2010.

1. Developer Dashboard.

• Determining what part of the system is causing a delay or consuming resources was difficult in previous versions. With dashboard, it records and displays performance statistics related to the code that executed to produce the page (with elapsed time as well as the load placed on the system by queries and tracking of exceptions )
• It can be turned on by the following command.
  • stsadm -o setproperty -pn developer-dashboard -pv OnDemand
• It is like ASP.Net tracing, so it should be turned on only in test servers , no on production server ( for performance reason).

2. Silverlight Web Part

• To provide rich interactive experience, sharepoint now provides native support to Silverlight files (XAP)

3. Chart Web Part (Only with sever edition, not on foundation)

• Different chart creation webparts are available, like ASP.NET Charts.

4. SharePoint List

• Lookup Field to display fields from another list with the site.
• Lookup field relational enforcement.
• automatic creation of indexes on lists when necessary

5. LINQ support

• LINQ is a new data access paradigm and can improve performance by allowing the back
  end data source to decide the best way to solve the query.

More in the next.

 

I have nearly 20% free space in my development VM

SharePoint 2010 is complaining about drives running out of space and also listed as critical error.

I don’t know why this nagging error is displayed at home page of the central admin. But I figured out to clear out the error temporarily. 

Go to central admin –> monitoring

click review rule definition

Select the check box and click the edit button from the ribbon.

 

uncheck the enabled option.

Go to the health reports and clear out the error.

Select the checkbox and delete it from ribbon.

 

My system Configuration: Intel Xeon Processor 64 bit with Windows 2008 R2.

When I try to install SQL server 2008, the following error message was displayed.

Then I realized that, only SQL Server 2008 SP1 can be installed on Windows 2008 R2.

Download SQL Server 2008 SP1, and follow the method mentioned in this article to slipstream SQL Server 2008 SP1

Note: If you want to use the SQL server 2008 with SharePoint 2010, you also need CU2 for Sp1 which can be found here (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/970315)

Select “Run Program” and rest of the screen shots are self explanatory.

select installations and then select SQL server Standalone edition.

 

Enter Product Key and Accept License Agreement.

Then install setup support files…

 

Fix any issues..

Select the required components from the next screen.

Select the location for SQL server files

Select an account name for each service. you can also use the button at the bottom of the screen to assign one account for all the services. It is easy some time to use local system account.

Select the authentication method and assign at least one administrator to the server.

On the FILESTREAM tab of the Database Engine Configuration page, select the
options for Enable FILESTREAM for Transact-SQL access and Enable FILESTREAM
for file I/O streaming access. FILESTREAM can also be enabled later, if you don’t know whether this option is required or not.

 

On the Analysis Services Configuration page, specify an administrator as an
Analysis Services administrator by clicking the Add Current User button at the bottom
of the page

 

Select the Install the native mode default configuration on reporting services configuration section. The report server will be usable after the configuration.

Now you are ready to install and make sure the slipstream is defined properly as shown below.

If everything goes well, you should see success screen as shown below.

Pre-register today and get notified when SharePoint 2010 Beta becomes available in November. ​ Follow the link to pre-register http://sharepoint2010.microsoft.com/try-it/Pages/Trial.aspx

 

Also Microsoft just released documents (Visio files) about SharePoint 2010 System requirements and upgrade process (from SharePoint 2007).

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Upgrade Planning

It includes

• Upgrade requirements
• Hardware, operating system, and database Upgrade process
• Specific steps to follow before, during, and after the upgrade

 

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Upgrade Approaches

It helps you understand the in-place, database attach, and hybrid approaches to upgrading from Office SharePoint Server 2007 to SharePoint Server 2010

 

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 — Services Upgrade

It covers the unique issues of upgrading services by using either the in-place or database attach approach are discussed.

 

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 — Test Your Upgrade Process

It explains the methodology for testing the upgrade process before upgrading from Office SharePoint Server 2007 to SharePoint Server 2010.

 

It is highly recommended to prepare for migration of your applications to the next SharePoint version 2010, if any one of the following is applicable.

• performance of the server farm is not meeting customers’ expectations,
• the user base is growing rapidly,
• the application pools are recycling more and more often
• a scheduled equipment upgrade is approaching.

The basic requirement for 2010 is listed below..

• SharePoint Server 2010 will be 64-bit only.
• SharePoint Server 2010 will require 64-bit Windows Server 2008
• SharePoint Server 2010 will require 64-bit SQL Server 2008 / 2005.
• SharePoint 2010 will support only Internet Explorer 7, Internet Explorer 8 and FireFox 3.x IE6 is not supported.

Things to know/remember about 64 bit environment.

• Not all 64-bit processors are supported. For example, Intel’s Itanium series of 64-bit processors uses a proprietary design that is not compatible with Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies. So research before ordering new hardware.
• A 64-bit system architecture that is running a 64-bit edition of Windows Server can support up to 1,024 GB of both physical and addressable memory.
• 64-bit environment does not require worker processes to cycle as often, so it can support more user base/server. So basically you can reduce number of servers in the farm to support more users compared to 32 bit environment.
• In 64 bit environment(hardware/server/DB all 64 bit), it is possible for SQL Server to get very large working data sets entirely into RAM, thereby improving performance and scalability.

Best places to get more information about the new version and migration process:

1. Advantages of 64-bit hardware and software (Office SharePoint Server 2007)
2. Determine hardware and software requirements (Office SharePoint Server) 
3. Migration strategy to a 64-bit environment (Office SharePoint Server 2007)
4. 10 best practices for building SharePoint solutions