Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Managed and Crawl Properties

2013
Automatically created managed properties in SharePoint Server 2013
 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj613136(v=office.15).aspx

2010
Good Post on Management Properties for User Profile
http://www.sharepointsteve.com/2010/10/making-custom-user-profile-properties-searchable-in-sharepoint-2010/

Understanding Crawled Properties, Managed Properties and Full-text Index
http://searchunleashed.wordpress.com/2011/08/24/understanding-crawled-properties-managed-properties-and-full-text-index-part-1/
Powershell
http://consultingblogs.emc.com/mattlally/archive/2011/12/20/create-sharepoint-2010-search-crawl-and-managed-properties-using-powershell.aspx

Older
 Anne Stenberg
Great Series of 7 posts on Crawled Properties http://blogs.technet.com/b/anneste/archive/2008/11/20/mystery-solved-crawled-properties-in-sharepoint-part-1.aspx
 http://blogs.technet.com/b/anneste/archive/2008/11/25/mystery-solved-crawled-properties-in-sharepoint-part-2.aspx
http://blogs.technet.com/b/anneste/archive/2008/11/25/mystery-solved-crawled-properties-in-sharepoint-part-3.aspx
 http://blogs.technet.com/b/anneste/archive/2008/11/25/mystery-solved-crawled-properties-in-sharepoint-part-4.aspx
http://blogs.technet.com/b/anneste/archive/2008/11/25/crawled-properties-in-sharepoint-part-part-5-mystery-solved.aspx
http://blogs.technet.com/b/anneste/archive/2008/11/25/mystery-solved-crawled-properties-in-sharepoint-part-5.aspx
 http://blogs.technet.com/b/anneste/archive/2008/11/25/mystery-solved-crawled-properties-in-sharepoint-part-7.aspx

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

How to fix broken images after mySite URL change in SharePoint 2010?

Reposted from Google Cache – original site failed load

Posted on January 27, 2012 By Norman Bauer

10 Comments

Here is a small PowerShell script to fix the pictureurl for all userprofiles after changing the mySite Url:

$mySiteWebapplicationUrl = "https://mysite.normanbauer.com/"
#current Url of your mySite website

$mySiteOldUrlValue = "http://mysitetest:80/"
#former Url where your pictures do not reside any more

$mySiteNewUrlValue = "https://mysite.normanbauer.com:443/"
#current Url where your images can be found now

$mySite = Get-SPSite $mySiteWebapplicationUrl
$SPServiceContext = Get-SPServiceContext $mySite
$userProfileManager = New-Object Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.UserProfileManager($SPServiceContext)
$userProfiles = $userProfileManager.GetEnumerator()

foreach ($userProfile in $userProfiles)
{
#if pictureurl is not empty replace the old url part with the new one
if ($userProfile["PictureURL"] -ne '')
{
$oldPictureUrl = $userProfile["PictureURL"].toString()
$newPictureUrl = $oldPictureUrl -Replace $mySiteOldUrlValue, $mySiteNewUrlValue
write-host "oldPictureUrl = " $oldPictureUrl " --> newPictureUrl = " $newPictureUrl
$userProfile["PictureURL"].Value = $newPictureUrl
$userProfile.Commit()
}
}

Monday, October 15, 2012

Manage SharePoint using Microsoft Management Console

So you love the mmc, here is a neat trick to add Central Administration SharePoint to your MMC.  First note the URL you need to add to the MMC.  In this case adding the url for central administration, just copy the URL for later use.

image

Start your MMC by typing mmc in Search programs and files textbox

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Select File > Add\Remove Snap-in

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Select Link to Web Address > Add

image

Type your URL or paste if copied earlier > Next

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Give it a friendly name > Finish

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Select OK after adding all the snap-ins

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Select your new link and congrats Smile

image

Friday, October 12, 2012

SharePoint 2013 First Look

LATEST UPDATES
Good Article on New Features
http://www.sharepointpromag.com/article/sharepoint-2013/sharepoint-2013-improved-features-cheat-sheet-145004

 

Office Reaches RTM!  and downloaded from Technet!
image
http://blogs.office.com/b/office-news/archive/2012/10/11/office-reaches-rtm.aspx
http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/blog/Pages/BlogPost.aspx?pID=1035

Changes from 2010 to 2013 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff607742(v=office.15).aspx

SkyDrive Pro
Download
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=39050
Good Overview
http://blogs.technet.com/b/uspartner_ts2team/archive/2013/01/08/explaining-skydrive-pro-cloud-storage-for-the-business-user.aspx
http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/blog/Pages/BlogPost.aspx?pID=1033
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/search.aspx?q=sharepoint+preview+2013

Well the time is here.
  In preparation I installed Windows Server 2012 and created both Windows 2008R2 SP1 VM and Windows Server 2012 VM full install and core install
Core Install
image
image
UPDATE – Here is server core 2012 – Hardest part is to get the remote management tools to communicate.  I tried several options using the following links.
http://blogs.technet.com/b/wincat/archive/2012/05/02/what-needs-to-be-configured-to-do-remote-disk-management-of-a-server-core-installation-in-windows-server-2012-via-powershell.aspx
http://4sysops.com/archives/server-core-enhancements-in-windows-server-2012/

NOTE: Do you want to get rid of that annoying server manager in Windows Server 2012? Server Manager > Manage > Server Manager Properties and check the box

Using a fresh Win2012 Server I tried to mount the file as a virtual DVD with no luck.  The file downloaded as an IMG file not ISO.  First issue was an easy fix, just rename with an ISO extension.

A reboot is required during this process. I also noted that a reboot after is also required or you get an error when trying to install SharePoint 2013. I found the fastest way is using PowerShell just type shutdown /r /t 0

Capture
The splash screen appeared and just clicked to install the perquisites. 

The file transfer above seemed to take forever as well as the SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard seen below.

Capture

If you get an error message installing the standalone version  … Note that I have received an error with both win 2008R2 or Win 2012.
image
… you need to run the following manual psconfig with the appropriate switch.  Appears that this is an oversight from Microsoft and more about this issue in the reference section from Tomblog  After that runs successful, then start your configuration wizard (found in Start Menu 2008R2 or App in 2012

image
image

Using the GUI created a web application and site collection.
Time to Play with my first SharePoint 2013 Team Site – Good Luck
image
STSADM – not dead yet
image

New Features on My ToDo List

  • Themes – New Theme Engine – Preview -  no longer need PPT
  • Web Content Management  – Dreamweaver support – iframe
  • Browser – Support IE 9/8 Firefox Chrome Safari (limited) – NO IE 7/6
  • Mobile – Classic/Contemporary views – Push Notifications
  • IPAD support
  • Social – Micro-blogging #hashtags @mentions like
  • Search - New content search web part add functions to old content web part – FQL syntax
Reset Admin Password fix (also reset passwords in services) Use Managed Accounts!
http://nassharepoint.wordpress.com/2009/01/13/sharepoint-site-error-service-unavailable-http-error-503-the-service-is-unavailable/

References
http://www.ericharlan.com/Moss_SharePoint_2007_Blog/how-to-install-sharepoint-2013-a220.html
Issues
http://tomblog.insomniacminds.com/2012/07/17/sharepoint-2013-standalone-installation-issue/

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Default Workflows

Workflow Resource Center
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/ff819861.aspx

More on the Default Workflows

Collect Signatures Workflow - Step by Step - http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-server-help/all-about-collect-signatures-workflows-HA102639357.aspx?CTT=1
Step by Step (2007) - http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-server-help/use-a-collect-signatures-workflow-HA010154428.aspx

Approval workflow – step by step - http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-designer-help/understand-approval-workflows-in-sharepoint-2010-HA101857172.aspx?CTT=1
Step by Step (2007) -  http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-server-help/use-an-approval-workflow-HA010154425.aspx

Three State Workflow – step by step - http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-server-help/use-a-three-state-workflow-HA101793530.aspx?CTT=1
Step by Step (2007) -  http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-server-help/use-a-three-state-workflow-HA010154431.aspx?CTT=1

Disposition Approval workflow – http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-designer-help/understand-approval-workflows-in-sharepoint-2010-HA101857172.aspx?CTT=1 Step by Step Step by Step (2007) - http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-server-help/use-a-disposition-approval-workflow-HA010154429.aspx?CTT=1

Workflow History Cleanup
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee662522.aspx

Workflow Management
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee662529

Personalize this Page

 Please go to Central Admin site -> Manage Web Application -> select the web application -> User Permissions on the ribbon -> enable “Add/Remove Personal Web Parts” and “Update Personal Web Parts” in Personal Permissions section.

Since personalization is a concept on web parts according to Key Concepts in Personalization, “Personalize this page” option is only available on web part page, we don’t have this option on wiki page of a team site even if we enable this permission for users in Central Admin site.  You should check user permissions for your site. For users to be able to use "Personalize this Page" they must have the following base permissions:
  1. Add/Remove Personal Web Parts
  2. Update Personal Web Parts
  3. Add and Customize Pages
Ref http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepoint2010customization/thread/988588fd-548f-4f3a-a0ac-c7bb72b5dd53



Thursday, August 30, 2012

Demo Issues Saving Files to Library

Having issues saving files to your library from you test 2008/R2 server.  I have a single test server with everything loaded.  AD, DNS, SQL, SharePoint etc….  I was getting several errors when trying to save documents to my library.  Here are my steps to get the demos to work.

First check to make sure that WebDAV is running.  Add the Desktop Experience Feature in Server Manager.

image

Make sure WebClient is up and running in Config/Services in Server Manager

image

Second turn off the IE ESC or IE Enhanced Security Configuration in Server Summary or Overview of Server Manager

image

Finally

Found you need to stop System Event Notification Service.

image

http://www.sharepointroundtable.com/blogs/vmaximiuk/archive/2008/11/14/quote-cannot-connect-to-the-server-at-this-time-quote.aspx

More settings in IE that can cause issues (thx Jin see below for reference)

this is the documentation i used to resolve this issue. while this will resolve all the authentication problems it does introduce a few security issues (see below). also Firefox does not ask to authenticate because it caches the documents from SharePoint locally, which will not allow updating documents on the server. from what i have tried nothing in application management will fix this issue. this must be done on all computers connecting to SharePoint. my suggestion is to setup a group policy, which i have done. so far so good.

Jin

Problem:

You are prompted to enter your user name and your password when you open a Microsoft Office document in IE.

This is my documentation that I implement and this will take care of the authentication issues. however, with it comes security issues that you should relay to your users. also with Firefox the reasons you do not get the authentication issues is because Firefox does not use active x and it caches everything to the local computer. essentially you will not be able to

Attention:

  • Only perform the solution on your own computer.
  • Only perform this action on a password-protected computer.
  • Never perform this action on a publicly accessible computer, i.e. at a library or internet cafe.

Solution:

Make the Portal a Trusted Site in Internet Explorer

Another solution is to go into Internet Explorer and designate the portal as a "Trusted Site". Once a secure website is designated a "Trusted Site", you are never required to log on again, not even when you initially enter the site. For this reason, we ask that you take great care when implementing this solution.

To make the portal a Trusted Site:

1. Open Internet Explorer

2. Log on to the portal home page

3. On the Internet Explorer tool bar, select the "Tools" menu, then select "Internet Options".

4. Select the "Security" and than "Trusted Sites" tab

5. Select the "Sites" button

6. Add the portal address in the "Add this website to the zone" box. Click "Add" and "Close".

  • If the portal web address is not in the input field, then copy and paste it from the browser address at the top of your browser window.
  • Do not check "Require server verification (https) for all sites in this zone"

7. Click on the "Custom Level" button.

8. Scroll down to the middle and enable "Display mixed content"

9. Scroll down to the bottom

  • Under "User Authentication/Logon", select "Automatic logon with Current Username and Password" and click "OK"

10. Click "OK" twice to close all dialog boxes

11. The next time you log on, be sure to select "Remember my password"

References for more settings in IE that can cause issues

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/sharepointadmin/thread/45feb132-c304-4521-8b79-42236a829aab

Update http://www.mysharepointadventures.com/2012/02/sharepoint-keeps-prompting-for-credentials/

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

SharePoint PAL

More from SharePoint Galaxy

http://thecloudengineer.blogspot.com/2012/05/pal.html

So are you using PAL to analyze your SharePoint Servers?

Capture

If so you need the correct SharePoint Counters.  So after looking at the threshold files I have made a list for both SharePoint and FAST.

So when creating your Data Collection Set here are the counters should you add the following for SharePoint.

Quick System Overview

IIS

ASP.NET

System Overview

DotNet

FS4SP Counters

After analysis of the PAL threshold files I have a list below for FAST for SharePoint threshold file you should also add

Capture

FAST

SQLServer

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Popup Box during Logon using Host Headers

Annoying Popup Box during Logon

Check the following
Add Web Application using host header

image
Add A record in DNS for FQDN used in host header

image
Add the following Registry Hack (ref: http://dinesql.blogspot.com/2011/01/cannot-login-to-sharepoint-2010-site.html)
image
Using Regedt32 navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\MSV1_0 on SharePoint Server
Add a new Multi-String registry key named BackConnectionHostNames
Add the FQDN host names with values

Monday, August 20, 2012

Huge Blog List

21apps:

4TheLuvofSharePoint: Ivan Sanders | @iasanders

A Matter of Degree: Sadalit Van Buren | @sadalit

Adam Cogan:

Adam Preston: Adam Preston | @_apreston

Adis Jugo:

Adventures of a ServerGrrl: CA Callahan | @cacallahan

Agnes Molnar:

Alex Burton:

Alexander Bautz:

Alex's SharePoint Blog: Alex Clark | @sharepointalex

Ali Mazaheri: Ali Mazaheri | @AliMazaheri

Alpesh Nakar:

Anders Rask:

Andrew Connell:

Apps for Office and SharePoint Blog:

Aptillon Blog: David Mann

Arpan Shah:

Becky Bertram:

Ben McMann:

Ben Robb:

Benjamin Niaulin:

Bill Baer:

Bjørn Furuknap:

Blogging About SharePoint: Michael Blumenthal | @michaelbl

Bob Mixon:

Bradley Geldenhuys: Bradley Geldenhuys

Brian Lalancette:

Cameron Dwyer: Cameron Dwyer | @CameronDwyer

Cathy Dew:

Chakkaradeep Chandran:

Chris Givens:

Chris Johnson:

Clever Workarounds: Paul Culmsee

Consejo:

Corey Roth:

CUBE4:

Dan Usher: Dan Usher | @usher

Dave Coleman:

David Lozzi:

Doug Hemminger:

Eli Robillard: Eli Robillard's World of Blog | @erobillard

Elumenotion: Doug Ware | @DougWare

Eric Alexander:

Eric Shupps:

Erica Toelle:

Fear and Loathing: Bill Simser | @bsimser

Gary LaPointe:

Get-SPScripts:

Giles Hamson:

Heather Waterman: Heather Waterman | @hwaterman

Ian Ankers: Ian Ankers

Ian Morrish:

Jan Tielens:

Jasper Oosterveld:

Jeff Jones:

Jeremy Thake:

Joel Oleson:

John Ferringer:

John Stover:

Jussi Roine: Jussi Roine | @jussiroine

Kathy Hughes: Kathy Hughes

Kris Wagner:

Kyle Schaeffer:

Laura Rogers:

Leonardo Souza:

Magenic: Magenic

Marc Anderson:

Marrell Sanders:

MatchPoint:

Maurice Prather:

Michael Greth: Michael Greth

Michal Pisarek:

Mike Hacker:

Mindsharp:

N8Design: Stefan Bauer

Nik Patel:

Nikander & Margriet Bruggeman:

Nothing But Branding: Mike Miller | @EUSP

Nothing But SharePoint:

Office365Steven (aka SharePointSteven): Steven Fowler

Our SharePoint Experience: Dustin Miller, Heather Solomon

Path to SharePoint: Christophe

Paul Schaeflein:

Paul Swider: Paul Swider | @pswider

Perficient Blogs: Various Contributors

Richard Harbridge:

Riolinx: Raphael Londner

Robert Bogue:

Russ Houberg:

Sahil Malik:

SharePoint Blues:

SharePoint Content Management & Analytics: Andrew Gilleran

SharePoint Cowbell: Ricardo Wilkins | @ricardo303

SharePoint Dev Blog:

SharePoint Server 2010 - Newly Published Content:

SharePoint StackExchange:

SharePoint Team Blog:

SharePoint4Arabs: Ayman El-Hattab

Soulsailor Consulting: Ant Clay | @SoulSailor

Spencer Harbar:

Srikanth Reddy: Srikanth Reddy | @reddy_srikanth

Steve Peschka:

Tech Training Notes: Mike Smith

Teylyn: Ingeborg Hawighorst | @IngeborgNZ

The Microsoft SharePoint Blog - UK:

The Practical SharePoint Information Architect: Ruven Gotz | @ruveng

The SharePoint Monkey: @avisuj

The White Pages: John White | @diverdown1964

Thuan Soldier: Thuan Soldier

To The SharePoint:

Todd Klindt:

Toni Frankola:

Updates for Microsoft Office and Related Products:

Waldek Mastykarz:

Wictor Wilén:

Friday, July 20, 2012

SharePoint 2013 and Office 2013 Preview

Offical Office 2013 Preview Site
http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/en

Legal View of Improvements to SharePoint 2013
http://www.law.com/jsp/lawtechnologynews/PubArticleLTN.jsp?id=1202563210396&slreturn=20120620114315

Great Recap of Office 2013 Changes
http://www.enterpriseblog.co.uk/2012/07/a-big-week-for-microsoft/

What DLL’s Changed
http://blogs.architectingconnectedsystems.com/blogs/cjg/archive/2012/07/19/SharePoint-2013-_2D00_-A-deep-look-into-what-changed-in-the-SharePoint-Dlls.aspx?utm_source=NothingButSharePoint&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=NothingButSharePoint&utm_campaign=NothingButSharePoint

SharePoint 2013 is the official name of the next release of SharePoint.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/hh973398.aspx

Free Ebook List
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30384
What is missing
http//technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff607742(v=office.15)

Training Videos
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/sharepoint/fp123606
http://blogs.technet.com/b/keithmayer/archive/2012/07/17/sharepoint-2013-early-training-amp-resources-for-it-pros-now-available.aspx

Dev Training Videos
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/office/apps/fp123626

Office product previews are now available for download.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262485(office.15).aspx

Server Products and Technologies in Pre-Release

Office Products in Pre-Release

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

So It’s Time To Move Your SharePoint Farm

You have been testing and now ready to go live. Maybe you have a single or two tier solution and now you need to move to a traditional three tier solution. I know there are several options and many ways to migrate but simply stated you have two major options. New farm or use the existing farm. Here are some high level ideas to help you out. This will be a large project so testing will be key.

If you create a new farm you will then need to migrate your databases over. There are several third party tools or you can use powershell to assist. The advantage in building a new farm is that you start with a brand new farm and can recreate the farm in the knowledge from your testing environment. However testing is key to make sure the old farm and the new farm are the same.

If you are going to use your existing farm, the advantage is that this farm is exactly the same you are just adding / moving / removing servers as needed. This article is a good start and gives good overview from Microsoft on Multiple servers for a three-tier farm (SharePoint Server 2010)http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee805948.aspx

Here is another good article that give a step by step with screenshots http://sharepointsolutions.com/sharepoint-help/blog/2011/02/how-to-scale-out-a-sharepoint-2010-farm-from-two-tier-to-three-tier-by-adding-a-dedicated-application-server/

Your project gets more complex if you need to turn on the services on the new servers and move as needed then turn the services off the old servers. Here is a good start from Microsoft. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff851878.aspx

If you are adding a new SQl server and you are moving the databases you will need some more info here. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc512725.aspx

From the rest of the web
Some free tools found while searching
http://featureadmin.codeplex.com reference http://sharepointnomad.wordpress.com/2010/05/22/262/
Move All Databases
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc512725.aspx
Move Content Databases
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262792.aspx
 How To- Move Content from old 2010 farm to new 2010 farm in-use without triggering Alerts (and without stopping SMTP)
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/sharepoint2010setup/thread/fbe979b3-a7d4-4963-9cac-ac74e246f6f4
Moving a site from one Farm to Another Farm sharepoint 2010
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en/sharepoint2010general/thread/5418151e-ad60-40de-93be-9fbb359e371e
How to move a SharePoint standalone 2010 farm from a server to another?
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepoint2010setup/thread/37aae074-99cc-4253-a387-a1245ff68910

OLD - Issues faced when moving SharePoint to a new domain
Moving SharePoint to a new active directory domain
http://justgeeks.blogspot.com/2007/09/moving-sharepoint-to-new-active.html
move SharePoint to a new domain
http://sharepointapplied.com/2009/02/04/move-sharepoint-to-a-new-domain/
Reference
http://sharepoint.stackexchange.com/questions/26769/move-sharepoint-to-new-domain

Exchange and SharePoint Email Setup

2013 SharePoint Email Settings

Found good link on Exchange/SharePoint setup
 http://blogs.technet.com/b/harmeetw/archive/2012/12/29/sharepoint-2013-configure-incoming-emails-with-exchange-server-2013.aspx

2010 SharePoint Email Settings


If in Central Admin your mail settings might not have the right buttons.  Strange that OOTB SharePoint does not allow you to put in email credentials that might be required on exchange email solutions so you need to communicate to your email team that you need to Allow Anonymous Relay on a Receive Connector.  Here's more ...

Exchange Receive Connector Configuration
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb232021.aspx

Issues with Contact Lists
http://sharepoint.stackexchange.com/questions/39266/how-to-email-contact-list-members
Migrate Contact Lists - However here are the steps to manually migrate those contacts to SharePoint.   http://sharepoint.stackexchange.com/questions/37912/importing-all-contacts-from-outlook-public-folder-into-sharepoint-list

SharePoint Contact List and Outlook Sync
http://www.sharepointgeoff.com/how-to-synchronize-a-sharepoint-contact-list-with-microsoft-outlook-2010/
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-foundation-help/synchronize-sharepoint-2010-content-with-outlook-2010-HA101881295.aspx

So you need to setup a library to receive email …
http://www.petri.co.il/configure-email-sharepoint-2010-part-1.htm

More from SharePoint Galaxy

Public Folder
http://sharepointgalaxy.blogspot.com/2011/08/exchange-public-folders-and-sharepoint.html
Lync
http://sharepointgalaxy.blogspot.com/2012/01/sharepoint-lync-exchange.html

April 2012 CU - Recall

A regression has been discovered in the April 2012 CU that may result in inaccessible list items, lists, webs and/or site collections within SharePoint. Microsoft is in the process of recalling the CU from the hotfix server, additional information will be provided as it becomes available.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/steve_chen/archive/2012/04/25/3494397.aspx

Thursday, May 17, 2012

SharePoint Logging

Using SSRS you can audit SharePoint
http://aaclage.blogspot.com/2011/11/create-reports-with-sharepoint-2010-and.html

If you need to create the database just continue.

SharePoint 2010 logs are very helpful, but in a large enterprise there has to be a better way.  After a little digging I have found something that has great potential.  First I ran across an article in MSDN. 
Using CA enable the following timer jobs using monitoring > review job definitions and enable the Diagnostic Data Providers that you wish to capture.
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Make sure your diagnostic and trace logs are set to appropriate Event and Trace Level. 
Verify your settings and make sure that Event Log Flood Protection is enabled.
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Now the data is being captured in a centralized database for you to use as you wish. 
Lets use Microsoft SQL Server Management studio to verify that data is being collected.  So after you wait for your timer job to fire open SQL Management Studio while the right credentials.  I use the following trick, holding down the SHIFT key and then right click the icon, select run as different user.
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Connect and Right click the WSS_Logging Database and run the Disk Usage by Top Tables Report
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Look for ULSTraceLog_PartitionXX . 
Where XX is the partition number and use that to run a quick query against that table.
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Now that we have verified your database working you can use any tool such as BCS to connect to the data.
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Here are my references and more reading.  Having fun with SharePoint.

References
Debugging and Logging Capabilities in SharePoint 2010 (MSDN)
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg512103.aspx

Using Business Connectivity Services to Display SharePoint 2010 ULS Logs
http://www.shillier.com/archive/2010/08/05/Using-Business-Connectivity-Services-to-Display-SharePoint-2010-ULS-Logs.aspx

Performance Counters
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff383289.aspx

Configure diagnostic and Trace Logging (SharePoint Server 2010)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee748656.aspx

ULS Viewer
http://archive.msdn.microsoft.com/ULSViewer

How often should the auditing log be cleared to not affect performance?http://sharepoint.stackexchange.com/questions/17151/how-often-should-the-auditing-log-be-cleared-to-not-affect-performance