Good Monday to u. I am posting up several pages per day of my Windows Small Business Server 2003 Best Practices (SBS) book and today we getting further into the mobility chapter. Specifically - I introduce Remote Web Workplace aka RWW (tomorrow we will delve into some procedures on it).
cheers...harrybbb
Harry Brelsford, Author, Consultant and CEO at SMB Nation www.smbnation.com
Microsoft Small Business Specialist (SBSC), MBA, MCSE, MCT and other non-sense!
PS - did u know I hold a fall conference for SBSers in Seattle? :)
###
Remote Web Workplace
Not only does travel, which is “remote” by its very nature, allow you to learn firsthand the mobility solutions in SBS 2003, it affords the opportunity to meet SBSers worldwide who have different viewpoints to contribute. Across this book, such diverse insights have been interjected in a technical realm. Every day, SBSers worldwide are thinking of ways to work with SBS 2003 not imagined by the SBS development team in Redmond, Washington, or yours truly on Bainbridge Island. In this case, the insight is humorous, wherein some SBSer known only to the SBSers above, started pronouncing RWW as “arrr-wuuuwuuu,” an admittedly silly saying that seems to have found traction.
BEST PRACTICE: Rumor has it that, in Redmond, this area is called RUP (rhymes with pup, like puppy). If you call Microsoft Product Support Services (PSS), you could say RUP and arrr-wuuu-wuuu, but your coworkers who overhear the telephone call might look at you kinda funny.
BEST PRACTICE: Two initial thoughts on RWW are important to carry forward. First, when you access the external Web page that is exposed on the external interface of your SBS server machine, it is a Welcome Web site that greets you. This assume you opened Port
Visit www.smbnation.com for additional SMB and SBS book, newsletter and conference resources.
80 by selecting Business Web on the Web Services Configuration page in the EICW (not recommended). This is NOT RWW at this point. Rather, you select RWW from the Remote Web Workplace link from the Welcome Web site. Better yet, you can access RWW by addressing it via the FQDN/remote (discussed more later). Second, a point of confusion amongst SBS 2003 hands-on lab attendees in the Fall of 2003 was that RWW offers only the ability to take remote control of your desktop at work. That’s only part of RWW. This will be revealed herein, but it’s good to have this little chat first. Forward!
Monday, August 11, 2008
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Mobility, Remote Access in SBS 2003
Good day to you loyal readers! I am posting up a few pages a day from my book Windows Small Business Server 2003 Best PRactices (purple book) and today we start Chapter 8 on Mobility and Remote Access in SBS.
Enjoy....harrybbbb
Harry Brlesford | CEO at SMB Nation | www.smbnation.com
Microsoft Small Business Specialist (SBSC), MBA CNE MCT MCSE and much more :)
check out our big fall conference in seattle in early october!!!! SBS 2008 and EBS 2008 launch party...
###
Chapter 8 Mobility and Remote Connectivity
Something that is huge in SBS 2003 is the emphasis on mobile computing or mobility. Such emphasis is well founded. Why? Because it’s mobile computing that’s almost single-handedly leading us out of the early 21st century “tech wreck” that followed the late 1990s boom in the dot-com and Y2K eras. Read for yourself in the article titled “PC Shipments Rise 15 Percent, Driven By Notebook Sales” (W. David Gardner, CRN, http://crn.channelsupersearch.com/ news/tech/45278.asp) and “Study: Notebook Sales Surpass Desktops In Retail Market” (Edward F. Moltzen, CRN, http://crn.channelsupersearch.com/news/ tech/43012.asp). I think you’ll agree that the evidence is proof positive that the era of the mobile worker has arrived. And the SBS development team is spot-on for recognizing the application of this trend in the small business space and making mobility a huge part of SBS 2003. This chapter reflects that mobility paradigm as it’s implemented in SBS 2003. A special emphasis is placed on Remote Web Workplace (RWW), which will start the chapter and move into exploring Outlook Web Access, Outlook Mobile Access, remote use of full Outlook, and VPN connectivity. Along the way, I’ll weave in the Springer Spaniels Limited (SPRINGERS) methodology and toss a few best practices your way.
Mobility and SBS 2003 Sizzle
Starting in early July 2003, you, I, and everyone else were allowed to start playing with SBS 2003 (in its release candidate form). I built a few machines with SBS 2003 (including virtual machines running VMWare that I discuss in Appendix D) and started giving public speeches and demonstrations to clients. Something that sparked my audiences was the sizzle surrounding mobility. My prize client, a real estate company, approved the upgrade to SBS 2003 on the
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
spot after seeing only a few screenshots of Remote Web Workplace. The company owner, having just opened a new office in Phoenix, Arizona, (the main office is in Bellevue, Washington), was impressed by the simplicity of RWW. Similar reactions have been observed when people first see the mobility components of SBS 2003. See let’s move on and take a look.
What You Already Know About RemoteConnectivity
Go easy on yourself, mate! You’re completed just over 50 percent of this book and you probably are stronger in SBS 2003 than you’re willing to admit. So take a bow and kindly accept my virtual honor bow directed your way. You’ve already been configuring the remote components in SBS 2003 as per the following list.
• Windows Configuration during SBS 2003 setup. Peek back to Figures 3-18 and 3-19 and recall the early part of the Microsoft Windows Small Business Server Setup wizard. It was here that critical networking components facilitating mobility in SBS 2003 were laid down. An example is the implementation of the Remote and Routing Access Service (RRAS) . Figure 3-20 in the setup chapter displays more mobility stuff that is occurring, including the installation of remote client connectivity components which will be used later.
BEST PRACTICE: By the way, now is as good of time to have a little chat about Texas terminology as any. While I refer throughout the book to the EICW, the folks at Microsoft in Redmond prefer to use the ten dollar acronym version and call it the CEICW for Configure E-mail and Internet Connection Wizard. That’s just too much for me to pronounce, but we’re talking about the same thing. To each her own!
• Remote Access Wizard. Revisit Figures 4-19 and 4-20 to see the short but sweet Remote Access Wizard in action. It was here you configured the server-side VPN settings. VPN connectivity is discussed a tad later in this chapter.
BEST PRACTICE: Remember that you can rerun the EICW and the Remote Access Wizard again and again. You’re not locked into a “mistake” if, after reading this chapter and working with the mobility and remote access capabilities of SBS 2003, you decide you might try something different in the real world. One example of a change you might make is to re-rerun the Remote Access Wizard to allow direct dial-in access, because you have since added a modem to the SBS server machine (said modem wasn’t present when you created the SBS server machine). This dial-in setting was revealed back on Figure 4-19.
• Add User Wizard/Set Up Computer Wizard. You should certainly know these wizards by now and readily recall that you had a few mobility and interaction points. First, some users you have created may have been set up with the way cool Mobile User Template (although in the SPRINGERS methodology, you set up simple users and power us
ers - read the BEST PRACTICE below).
Note when the user will add a user member of the RWW group (which includes all templates by default), you receive a welcome message that describes RWW. You also have the election to deploy the Connection Manager VPN package to clients during the client computer setup (Connection Manager is discussed in a different section later in the chapter).
• Remote Assistance. You may have already explored a tad and discovered client-side capabilities such as Windows XP Professional’s Remote Assistance capability. This is the “cry for help” button that users can push to ping you and have you take over their desktop in a “PCAnywhere-like manner” to solve their problem. I discuss PCAnywhere later in the chapter.
Mind if a little advanced Remote Assistance (Windows XP Pro) discussion is interjected here? Remote Assistance uses Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). Windows Messenger sets up the remote assistance session using the server-based session invite logic. Because of this, there is an issue with NAT addresses. So Remote Assistance includes additional logic to deal with the NAT scenario.
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
This logic simply tries to complete the TCP connection from both clients. This way, if one of the clients is behind a NAT, the connection can still be created and remote assistance occurs. If both clients are behind a NAT, the connection will not be established. You can read more on this issue with three TechNet KBase articles: Q301527, Q301528, Q301529.
BEST PRACTICE: Fear not if you’ve set up users via the simple User Template back in Chapter 4 and you want these users to take advantage of the cool mobility features at a later date. There is a way to elevate the privileges for these users. See the discussion in Chapter 11 about the Change User Permissions Wizard (you’ll use this as part of the SPRINGERS methodology).
Enjoy....harrybbbb
Harry Brlesford | CEO at SMB Nation | www.smbnation.com
Microsoft Small Business Specialist (SBSC), MBA CNE MCT MCSE and much more :)
check out our big fall conference in seattle in early october!!!! SBS 2008 and EBS 2008 launch party...
###
Chapter 8 Mobility and Remote Connectivity
Something that is huge in SBS 2003 is the emphasis on mobile computing or mobility. Such emphasis is well founded. Why? Because it’s mobile computing that’s almost single-handedly leading us out of the early 21st century “tech wreck” that followed the late 1990s boom in the dot-com and Y2K eras. Read for yourself in the article titled “PC Shipments Rise 15 Percent, Driven By Notebook Sales” (W. David Gardner, CRN, http://crn.channelsupersearch.com/ news/tech/45278.asp) and “Study: Notebook Sales Surpass Desktops In Retail Market” (Edward F. Moltzen, CRN, http://crn.channelsupersearch.com/news/ tech/43012.asp). I think you’ll agree that the evidence is proof positive that the era of the mobile worker has arrived. And the SBS development team is spot-on for recognizing the application of this trend in the small business space and making mobility a huge part of SBS 2003. This chapter reflects that mobility paradigm as it’s implemented in SBS 2003. A special emphasis is placed on Remote Web Workplace (RWW), which will start the chapter and move into exploring Outlook Web Access, Outlook Mobile Access, remote use of full Outlook, and VPN connectivity. Along the way, I’ll weave in the Springer Spaniels Limited (SPRINGERS) methodology and toss a few best practices your way.
Mobility and SBS 2003 Sizzle
Starting in early July 2003, you, I, and everyone else were allowed to start playing with SBS 2003 (in its release candidate form). I built a few machines with SBS 2003 (including virtual machines running VMWare that I discuss in Appendix D) and started giving public speeches and demonstrations to clients. Something that sparked my audiences was the sizzle surrounding mobility. My prize client, a real estate company, approved the upgrade to SBS 2003 on the
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
spot after seeing only a few screenshots of Remote Web Workplace. The company owner, having just opened a new office in Phoenix, Arizona, (the main office is in Bellevue, Washington), was impressed by the simplicity of RWW. Similar reactions have been observed when people first see the mobility components of SBS 2003. See let’s move on and take a look.
What You Already Know About RemoteConnectivity
Go easy on yourself, mate! You’re completed just over 50 percent of this book and you probably are stronger in SBS 2003 than you’re willing to admit. So take a bow and kindly accept my virtual honor bow directed your way. You’ve already been configuring the remote components in SBS 2003 as per the following list.
• Windows Configuration during SBS 2003 setup. Peek back to Figures 3-18 and 3-19 and recall the early part of the Microsoft Windows Small Business Server Setup wizard. It was here that critical networking components facilitating mobility in SBS 2003 were laid down. An example is the implementation of the Remote and Routing Access Service (RRAS) . Figure 3-20 in the setup chapter displays more mobility stuff that is occurring, including the installation of remote client connectivity components which will be used later.
BEST PRACTICE: By the way, now is as good of time to have a little chat about Texas terminology as any. While I refer throughout the book to the EICW, the folks at Microsoft in Redmond prefer to use the ten dollar acronym version and call it the CEICW for Configure E-mail and Internet Connection Wizard. That’s just too much for me to pronounce, but we’re talking about the same thing. To each her own!
• Remote Access Wizard. Revisit Figures 4-19 and 4-20 to see the short but sweet Remote Access Wizard in action. It was here you configured the server-side VPN settings. VPN connectivity is discussed a tad later in this chapter.
BEST PRACTICE: Remember that you can rerun the EICW and the Remote Access Wizard again and again. You’re not locked into a “mistake” if, after reading this chapter and working with the mobility and remote access capabilities of SBS 2003, you decide you might try something different in the real world. One example of a change you might make is to re-rerun the Remote Access Wizard to allow direct dial-in access, because you have since added a modem to the SBS server machine (said modem wasn’t present when you created the SBS server machine). This dial-in setting was revealed back on Figure 4-19.
• Add User Wizard/Set Up Computer Wizard. You should certainly know these wizards by now and readily recall that you had a few mobility and interaction points. First, some users you have created may have been set up with the way cool Mobile User Template (although in the SPRINGERS methodology, you set up simple users and power us
ers - read the BEST PRACTICE below).
Note when the user will add a user member of the RWW group (which includes all templates by default), you receive a welcome message that describes RWW. You also have the election to deploy the Connection Manager VPN package to clients during the client computer setup (Connection Manager is discussed in a different section later in the chapter).
• Remote Assistance. You may have already explored a tad and discovered client-side capabilities such as Windows XP Professional’s Remote Assistance capability. This is the “cry for help” button that users can push to ping you and have you take over their desktop in a “PCAnywhere-like manner” to solve their problem. I discuss PCAnywhere later in the chapter.
Mind if a little advanced Remote Assistance (Windows XP Pro) discussion is interjected here? Remote Assistance uses Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). Windows Messenger sets up the remote assistance session using the server-based session invite logic. Because of this, there is an issue with NAT addresses. So Remote Assistance includes additional logic to deal with the NAT scenario.
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
This logic simply tries to complete the TCP connection from both clients. This way, if one of the clients is behind a NAT, the connection can still be created and remote assistance occurs. If both clients are behind a NAT, the connection will not be established. You can read more on this issue with three TechNet KBase articles: Q301527, Q301528, Q301529.
BEST PRACTICE: Fear not if you’ve set up users via the simple User Template back in Chapter 4 and you want these users to take advantage of the cool mobility features at a later date. There is a way to elevate the privileges for these users. See the discussion in Chapter 11 about the Change User Permissions Wizard (you’ll use this as part of the SPRINGERS methodology).
Saturday, August 9, 2008
How to sell your SBS practice
Guess what has emerged as the most popular business topic in the fall conference line-up (SMB Nation in early October)?
Answer: How to seel you SBS consulting practice. I have made some calls and done some surveying and folks are confidential sharing with me that they are extremely interested in the how to sell a consultancy.
Makes sense to me. There is nothing wrong with an appropriate exit strategy where you maximize your value. This conference session will help you avoid getting DUPED and this speech alone will add huge value to your disposition strategy.
Thoughts? Lemme know in your comments.....
cheers...harrybbb
Harry Brelsford |SMB Nation| CEO |Microsoft Small Business Specialist (SBSC), MBA, MCSE, CNE, yadda
www.smbnation.com
Answer: How to seel you SBS consulting practice. I have made some calls and done some surveying and folks are confidential sharing with me that they are extremely interested in the how to sell a consultancy.
Makes sense to me. There is nothing wrong with an appropriate exit strategy where you maximize your value. This conference session will help you avoid getting DUPED and this speech alone will add huge value to your disposition strategy.
Thoughts? Lemme know in your comments.....
cheers...harrybbb
Harry Brelsford |SMB Nation| CEO |Microsoft Small Business Specialist (SBSC), MBA, MCSE, CNE, yadda
www.smbnation.com
Final Thoughts: WSS in SBS 2003
Hi gang - today we reach the end of Chapter 7 of Windows Small Business Server 2003 Best Practices - which focused on Windows SharePoint Services (WSS). I have a few random coolisms and then end by pointing you to 'day SharePoint man Bill English.
enjoy the read...harrybbbb
Harry Brelsford | CEO at SMB Nation | www.smbnation.com
Microsoft Small Business Specialist (SBSC) MBA, MCSE,MCT, CNE and other stuff!
###
Additional WSS Cool Stuff
Enough SPRINGERS step-by-step for a now. I want you to, in your free time, click around WSS and explore the following cool features (I will drill deeply into these areas in my advanced SBS book, so consider this a sneak peek!). You will want to use some or all of these cool things in the real world of SBSing to truly add value.
Documents
Granted, you’ve already worked a lot with documents in this chapter, but I highly recommend you delve deeper into the documents area to learn more. By clicking on Documents and Lists, you can see the types of documents that are suggested for storage in WSS. You will appreciate the descriptive text.
BEST PRACTICE: The incoming fax archive and its functionality to
the fax service (more in Chapter 9) is unique to SBS 2003.
Pictures
This link defines itself but you might use this area as a photo archive.
Notes:
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
Resources
Here are some pointers to some additional SharePoint resources. This chapter, while capable for launching you into using WSS in SBS 2003, is only a start. You have much work ahead of you to master WSS!
Bill English books
Buy anything written by Bill English, a leading SharePoint consultant and author (he is also a SharePoint MVP). You can search on his name and the word “SharePoint” at Amazon to find his latest offerings. As of this writing, his current book, The Administrator’s Guide to SharePoint Portal Server 2001 (Addison-Wesley), is being updated.
By the way, a quick search on Amazon on the term “SharePoint” resulted in a shocking lack of books on this super cool application area (as of late 2003). I’m sure that’ll be remedied within a few weeks as more books hit the stands.
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
And how could you forget that I’ll provide more and more SharePoint secrets in the context of SBS 2003 in my forthcoming advanced SBS 2003 book. Keep monitoring www.smbnation.com for details.
SharePoint Web sites
Because I’m such a fan of Bill English books, you can’t be too surprised that I’d recommend his excellent SharePoint Web site: www.sharepointknowledge.com. Microsoft’s own site for SharePoint is excellent at www.microsoft.com/sharepoint. Searching on Google with the term “SharePoint” resulted in numerous hits including www.sharepointtips.com, www.sharepointcode.com, www.sharepointsample.com, and many other sites! Many of these sites are excellent resources (and the most current resources available).
SharePoint courses
During the depths of the technology recession in the early 21st century, some members of the SBS development team whispered in my ear that I should take the Microsoft Official Curriculum course for SharePoint. And given that it was August (read slow dog days of summer) and my billable hours were down, I went back to school to learn SharePoint. I was led to believe I’d be glad I did once SBS 2003 shipped. The advice was well-founded, because once SBS 2003 hit the streets, I felt I knew WSS reasonably well. You should heed the same advice and go take some courses on SharePoint. As of this writing, the SharePoint curriculum is being revised and you are encouraged to check the Microsoft training site at www.microsoft.com/traincert for the most current course listings. For the record, I took course 2095: Implementing Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2001, and I was very pleased (note this is the old SharePoint product).
Bill English delivers SharePoint courses and workshops. Check www.sharepointknowledge.com for his latest offerings. As of this writing, Bill is offering a summit (a four-day course typically in Orlando, Florida, or Anaheim, California, for $2,495) at www.sharepointsummit.com (Figure 7-29).
Notes:
Figure 7-29
Take in some sun in Orlando, Florida to attend the SharePoint Summit!
There is also a SharePoint Boot Camp offering in the US. Visit www.sharepointexperts.com for details.
Summary
This chapter had both a technical and business message focused on WSS. On the technical side, you worked with many primary elements of WSS including the document management and Intranet portal features. On the business side, you were exposed to some value-added thinking about how WSS can extend the SBS network and provide real solutions to real business problems, such as managing information inside a small business. WSS is one of the more important and popular features in SBS 2003, so you should use it to deliver your services as an SBSer to end users in the organization.
enjoy the read...harrybbbb
Harry Brelsford | CEO at SMB Nation | www.smbnation.com
Microsoft Small Business Specialist (SBSC) MBA, MCSE,MCT, CNE and other stuff!
###
Additional WSS Cool Stuff
Enough SPRINGERS step-by-step for a now. I want you to, in your free time, click around WSS and explore the following cool features (I will drill deeply into these areas in my advanced SBS book, so consider this a sneak peek!). You will want to use some or all of these cool things in the real world of SBSing to truly add value.
Documents
Granted, you’ve already worked a lot with documents in this chapter, but I highly recommend you delve deeper into the documents area to learn more. By clicking on Documents and Lists, you can see the types of documents that are suggested for storage in WSS. You will appreciate the descriptive text.
BEST PRACTICE: The incoming fax archive and its functionality to
the fax service (more in Chapter 9) is unique to SBS 2003.
Pictures
This link defines itself but you might use this area as a photo archive.
Notes:
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
Resources
Here are some pointers to some additional SharePoint resources. This chapter, while capable for launching you into using WSS in SBS 2003, is only a start. You have much work ahead of you to master WSS!
Bill English books
Buy anything written by Bill English, a leading SharePoint consultant and author (he is also a SharePoint MVP). You can search on his name and the word “SharePoint” at Amazon to find his latest offerings. As of this writing, his current book, The Administrator’s Guide to SharePoint Portal Server 2001 (Addison-Wesley), is being updated.
By the way, a quick search on Amazon on the term “SharePoint” resulted in a shocking lack of books on this super cool application area (as of late 2003). I’m sure that’ll be remedied within a few weeks as more books hit the stands.
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
And how could you forget that I’ll provide more and more SharePoint secrets in the context of SBS 2003 in my forthcoming advanced SBS 2003 book. Keep monitoring www.smbnation.com for details.
SharePoint Web sites
Because I’m such a fan of Bill English books, you can’t be too surprised that I’d recommend his excellent SharePoint Web site: www.sharepointknowledge.com. Microsoft’s own site for SharePoint is excellent at www.microsoft.com/sharepoint. Searching on Google with the term “SharePoint” resulted in numerous hits including www.sharepointtips.com, www.sharepointcode.com, www.sharepointsample.com, and many other sites! Many of these sites are excellent resources (and the most current resources available).
SharePoint courses
During the depths of the technology recession in the early 21st century, some members of the SBS development team whispered in my ear that I should take the Microsoft Official Curriculum course for SharePoint. And given that it was August (read slow dog days of summer) and my billable hours were down, I went back to school to learn SharePoint. I was led to believe I’d be glad I did once SBS 2003 shipped. The advice was well-founded, because once SBS 2003 hit the streets, I felt I knew WSS reasonably well. You should heed the same advice and go take some courses on SharePoint. As of this writing, the SharePoint curriculum is being revised and you are encouraged to check the Microsoft training site at www.microsoft.com/traincert for the most current course listings. For the record, I took course 2095: Implementing Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2001, and I was very pleased (note this is the old SharePoint product).
Bill English delivers SharePoint courses and workshops. Check www.sharepointknowledge.com for his latest offerings. As of this writing, Bill is offering a summit (a four-day course typically in Orlando, Florida, or Anaheim, California, for $2,495) at www.sharepointsummit.com (Figure 7-29).
Notes:
Figure 7-29
Take in some sun in Orlando, Florida to attend the SharePoint Summit!
There is also a SharePoint Boot Camp offering in the US. Visit www.sharepointexperts.com for details.
Summary
This chapter had both a technical and business message focused on WSS. On the technical side, you worked with many primary elements of WSS including the document management and Intranet portal features. On the business side, you were exposed to some value-added thinking about how WSS can extend the SBS network and provide real solutions to real business problems, such as managing information inside a small business. WSS is one of the more important and popular features in SBS 2003, so you should use it to deliver your services as an SBSer to end users in the organization.
Friday, August 8, 2008
SQL Server with WSS in SBS 2003
TGIF! Today is Friday and I am posting up a few pages from my Windows Small Business Server 2003 Best PRactices book for your public consumption! I plan to post up until SBS 2008 ships!
The topic today is integrsating SQL Server with Windows SharePoint Srevices (WSS) in SBS.
enjoy...harrybbbb
Harry Brelsford, CEO at SMB Nation, www.smbnation.com
Micosoft Small Business Specialist (SBSC), MBA and other stuff!
PS - we are holding an amazing Windows Small Business Server 2008 (SBS 2008) and Essential Business Server 2008 (EBS) party in Seattle over the weekend of Oct 4-6...help us LAUNCH!
###
SharePoint and SQL Server 2000
And you thought I’d wait until the final section of the book to delve into SBS 2003 premium edition matters (fooled ya). There is a little bit of horse and cart going on here. I can’t really wait until the SQL Server 2000 chapter to address WSS and SQL Server, so here goes.
The Big Advantage
There is a building consensus in the SBS community that WSS will sell a helluva lot of SBS 2003 premium edition. Why? Because SQL Server 2000 is contained with the SBS 2003 premium edition. And with SQL Server 2000, you can do more stuff with WSS. The big advantage of using SQL Server 2000 with WSS relates to the searching capabilities.
BEST PRATICE: In other words, and I stress, the searching capabilities ARE NOT available if WSS is deployed with WMSDE/MSDE (which is the configuration in SBS 2003 standard edition). WSS without the
Visit www.smbnation.com for additional SMB and SBS book, newsletter and conference resources.
searching capability could be considered a half-baked Alaska without the flame!
There is little debate that the SBS premium edition is the better fit for organizations serious about WSS. Think about it. How enthusiastically would WSS be embraced if users hit a limitation on searching the document corpus? It would be a show stopper!
BEST PRACTICE: So you’re now completely sold on the SBS 2003 premium edition. But what if you purchased the SBS standard edition first and are just now coming to appreciate the mystical powers of SQL Server 2000? How can you get from point A (standard edition) to point B (premium edition) without raiding the piggy bank and spending the lunch money? Simple. Use Microsoft’s step-up vehicle that basically charges you the delta difference between the standard and premium prices (as of this writing that would be $900 USD). Full how-to-buy details at the Microsoft SBS site: www.microsoft.com/sbs.
As a journalist, I’m honor bound to share a few limitations of WSS. There is limited file type search support out of the box (assuming you are using SQL Server 2000 that provides searching capabilities). Search will only be natively performed against the following file types.
• .doc
• .xls
• .ppt
• .txt
• .htm
In a moment, I point you to some iFilters to extend WSS’s document support. Another limitation is that you can’t search sub-site content from a top-level site. And only one language per database is supported. The language issue is
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
especially important to SBSer as the majority of SBS sales are overseas (where mulitiple languages are often spoken in a single country).
SQL Server 2000 Configuration
To use SQL Server 2000 with WSS, you’ll first need to install it using the installation guidance provided to you from the How to Install link (which launches a document titled “Completing Setup for Microsoft Windows Small Business Server Premium Technologies”) on the SBS 2000 premium edition fifth Disc splash screen. (Chapter 13 of this book is also an ally of yours installing this database application.) You’ll perform the actual installation by clicking the Install Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and Install SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 3a on said fifth Disc splash screen.
If you have the SBS 2003 premium edition, you’re welcome to install SQL Server 2000 at this time or wait until you’ve read this book and return to this page to implement WSS with SQL Server (remember to dog ear this page - get the SPRINGERS pun!?!?).
After SQL Server 2000 has been installed, you need to configure it for WSS. This is also documented, starting on page four, of the “Completing Setup for Microsoft Windows Small Business Server Premium Technologies” document. Specifically, you will complete the steps to:
• Upgrade the instance of MSDE used for Windows SharePoint Services (page 4). See Figure 7-25 for a key configuration page in this configuration process.
• Install SP3a to the SHAREPOINT instance of SQL Server (page 5). Be sure to catch the note at the bottom of page 5 for stopping the MSSQL$SHAREPOINT service when you upgrade the instance (you really have to do this). Don’t forget to restart this service (and the MSSQLSERVER service) after you complete this configuration step.
• Review the SQL Server Collation Settings discussion (page 9).
Notes:
Figure 7-25
Selecting the Full-Text Search option is critical to invoking the advanced search capabilities in WSS when combined with SQL Server 2000. Please don’t miss this step.
So how about a before-and-after view (like weight loss ads in general interest magazines). Before you installed SQL Server 2000, if you went to SharePoint Central Administration on the SPRINGERS1 server machine and tried to configure full-text searching, you received the message seen in Figure 7-26. But as you can see in Figure 7-27, after SQL Server 2000 was installed configured, SQL Server 2000 is now providing the default engine for WSS, Full search capabilities are now enabled. Right on!
Notes:
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
Figure 7-26
Before. Look at the message on the far right column.
Figure 7-27
After. It’s SQL Server 2000-based search time, baby! When you click OK here, you will get a progress screen as the change is made.
Advanced Searching Topics
So now that you’re using the search capabilities of SQL Server 2000 with WSS, you might be interested in more factoids.
• Mechanics. WSS allows SBS users to search all Web site content on a virtual server basis. In SBS 2003, the WSS virtual server is titled “CompanyWeb.” Subwebs inherit the search settings from parent sites.
• Home page search field. When you integrate SQL Server 2000 with WSS, a new search field appears on the Home page in the upper right. This search field is not present prior to integrating SQL Server 2000 with WSS.
• IFilters. Did you notice a few pages back that the document search capabilities were Microsoft-centric (e.g., a Word document with the .doc extension). What would you do if you needed to search a third-party document such as an Adobe Acrobat PDF file? You would go to www.sharepointknowledge.com (a resource I discuss in the next major section) and click the IFilters link on the left. You would then see the IFilters and Protocols page (Figure 7-28) where numerous IFilters for Abode, AutoCad, WordPerfect, and lots of other file formats are listed (even ZIP files).
Notes:
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
Figure 7-28
This is your “go to resource” for IFilters that allows different document types to be searched in WSS when SQL Server 2000 is installed and configured.
The Case for SharePoint Portal Server
Microsoft’s SharePoint site is a great resource to compare WSS versus its big brother product, SharePoint Portal Server (SPS). There is an excellent white paper that allows you to decide when to deploy either of the SharePoint offerings. Visit www.microsoft.com/sharepoint/evaluationoverview.asp and download and read SharePointEvaluate.doc.
BEST PRACTICE: Time for a tad of plain Texas talk. WSS is going to be the best fit for SBSers in 99 percent of the cases. Why? Because SPS is really more oriented toward the enterprise with multiple sites, etc. SPS costs a lot of money ($5,619 USD) which is several times the cost of SBS 2003.
There was a time, in the spring of 2003, where it looked like the
cool stuff (like searching and robust document management) was
Visit www.smbnation.com for additional SMB and SBS book, newsletter and conference resources.
only going to be available with SPS. But Microsoft changed its mind
and put much of the cool stuff, the stuff important to SBSers, down
into the WSS product. Amen!
Current Topic: SharePoint versus Content Management Server
During the Spring 2003 GTM hands-on labs, students asked what some of the differences were between SharePoint and Content Management Server. Aside from pointing out feature and user interface differences, I replied that the difference was philosophical. SharePoint (WSS, SPS) can be viewed as an internal tool (although as you’ll see in Chapter 8, it can be accessed externally with Remote Web Workplace) and Content Management Server is focused externally to rapidly post content to public sites.
In mid-October 2003, CRN published an article that discusses the Content Management Server team joining the SPS group. If you’d like to read it, visit http://crn.channelsupersearch.com/news/crn/45155.asp. Synergy between the two products is another key point in that article.
The topic today is integrsating SQL Server with Windows SharePoint Srevices (WSS) in SBS.
enjoy...harrybbbb
Harry Brelsford, CEO at SMB Nation, www.smbnation.com
Micosoft Small Business Specialist (SBSC), MBA and other stuff!
PS - we are holding an amazing Windows Small Business Server 2008 (SBS 2008) and Essential Business Server 2008 (EBS) party in Seattle over the weekend of Oct 4-6...help us LAUNCH!
###
SharePoint and SQL Server 2000
And you thought I’d wait until the final section of the book to delve into SBS 2003 premium edition matters (fooled ya). There is a little bit of horse and cart going on here. I can’t really wait until the SQL Server 2000 chapter to address WSS and SQL Server, so here goes.
The Big Advantage
There is a building consensus in the SBS community that WSS will sell a helluva lot of SBS 2003 premium edition. Why? Because SQL Server 2000 is contained with the SBS 2003 premium edition. And with SQL Server 2000, you can do more stuff with WSS. The big advantage of using SQL Server 2000 with WSS relates to the searching capabilities.
BEST PRATICE: In other words, and I stress, the searching capabilities ARE NOT available if WSS is deployed with WMSDE/MSDE (which is the configuration in SBS 2003 standard edition). WSS without the
Visit www.smbnation.com for additional SMB and SBS book, newsletter and conference resources.
searching capability could be considered a half-baked Alaska without the flame!
There is little debate that the SBS premium edition is the better fit for organizations serious about WSS. Think about it. How enthusiastically would WSS be embraced if users hit a limitation on searching the document corpus? It would be a show stopper!
BEST PRACTICE: So you’re now completely sold on the SBS 2003 premium edition. But what if you purchased the SBS standard edition first and are just now coming to appreciate the mystical powers of SQL Server 2000? How can you get from point A (standard edition) to point B (premium edition) without raiding the piggy bank and spending the lunch money? Simple. Use Microsoft’s step-up vehicle that basically charges you the delta difference between the standard and premium prices (as of this writing that would be $900 USD). Full how-to-buy details at the Microsoft SBS site: www.microsoft.com/sbs.
As a journalist, I’m honor bound to share a few limitations of WSS. There is limited file type search support out of the box (assuming you are using SQL Server 2000 that provides searching capabilities). Search will only be natively performed against the following file types.
• .doc
• .xls
• .ppt
• .txt
• .htm
In a moment, I point you to some iFilters to extend WSS’s document support. Another limitation is that you can’t search sub-site content from a top-level site. And only one language per database is supported. The language issue is
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
especially important to SBSer as the majority of SBS sales are overseas (where mulitiple languages are often spoken in a single country).
SQL Server 2000 Configuration
To use SQL Server 2000 with WSS, you’ll first need to install it using the installation guidance provided to you from the How to Install link (which launches a document titled “Completing Setup for Microsoft Windows Small Business Server Premium Technologies”) on the SBS 2000 premium edition fifth Disc splash screen. (Chapter 13 of this book is also an ally of yours installing this database application.) You’ll perform the actual installation by clicking the Install Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and Install SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 3a on said fifth Disc splash screen.
If you have the SBS 2003 premium edition, you’re welcome to install SQL Server 2000 at this time or wait until you’ve read this book and return to this page to implement WSS with SQL Server (remember to dog ear this page - get the SPRINGERS pun!?!?).
After SQL Server 2000 has been installed, you need to configure it for WSS. This is also documented, starting on page four, of the “Completing Setup for Microsoft Windows Small Business Server Premium Technologies” document. Specifically, you will complete the steps to:
• Upgrade the instance of MSDE used for Windows SharePoint Services (page 4). See Figure 7-25 for a key configuration page in this configuration process.
• Install SP3a to the SHAREPOINT instance of SQL Server (page 5). Be sure to catch the note at the bottom of page 5 for stopping the MSSQL$SHAREPOINT service when you upgrade the instance (you really have to do this). Don’t forget to restart this service (and the MSSQLSERVER service) after you complete this configuration step.
• Review the SQL Server Collation Settings discussion (page 9).
Notes:
Figure 7-25
Selecting the Full-Text Search option is critical to invoking the advanced search capabilities in WSS when combined with SQL Server 2000. Please don’t miss this step.
So how about a before-and-after view (like weight loss ads in general interest magazines). Before you installed SQL Server 2000, if you went to SharePoint Central Administration on the SPRINGERS1 server machine and tried to configure full-text searching, you received the message seen in Figure 7-26. But as you can see in Figure 7-27, after SQL Server 2000 was installed configured, SQL Server 2000 is now providing the default engine for WSS, Full search capabilities are now enabled. Right on!
Notes:
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
Figure 7-26
Before. Look at the message on the far right column.
Figure 7-27
After. It’s SQL Server 2000-based search time, baby! When you click OK here, you will get a progress screen as the change is made.
Advanced Searching Topics
So now that you’re using the search capabilities of SQL Server 2000 with WSS, you might be interested in more factoids.
• Mechanics. WSS allows SBS users to search all Web site content on a virtual server basis. In SBS 2003, the WSS virtual server is titled “CompanyWeb.” Subwebs inherit the search settings from parent sites.
• Home page search field. When you integrate SQL Server 2000 with WSS, a new search field appears on the Home page in the upper right. This search field is not present prior to integrating SQL Server 2000 with WSS.
• IFilters. Did you notice a few pages back that the document search capabilities were Microsoft-centric (e.g., a Word document with the .doc extension). What would you do if you needed to search a third-party document such as an Adobe Acrobat PDF file? You would go to www.sharepointknowledge.com (a resource I discuss in the next major section) and click the IFilters link on the left. You would then see the IFilters and Protocols page (Figure 7-28) where numerous IFilters for Abode, AutoCad, WordPerfect, and lots of other file formats are listed (even ZIP files).
Notes:
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
Figure 7-28
This is your “go to resource” for IFilters that allows different document types to be searched in WSS when SQL Server 2000 is installed and configured.
The Case for SharePoint Portal Server
Microsoft’s SharePoint site is a great resource to compare WSS versus its big brother product, SharePoint Portal Server (SPS). There is an excellent white paper that allows you to decide when to deploy either of the SharePoint offerings. Visit www.microsoft.com/sharepoint/evaluationoverview.asp and download and read SharePointEvaluate.doc.
BEST PRACTICE: Time for a tad of plain Texas talk. WSS is going to be the best fit for SBSers in 99 percent of the cases. Why? Because SPS is really more oriented toward the enterprise with multiple sites, etc. SPS costs a lot of money ($5,619 USD) which is several times the cost of SBS 2003.
There was a time, in the spring of 2003, where it looked like the
cool stuff (like searching and robust document management) was
Visit www.smbnation.com for additional SMB and SBS book, newsletter and conference resources.
only going to be available with SPS. But Microsoft changed its mind
and put much of the cool stuff, the stuff important to SBSers, down
into the WSS product. Amen!
Current Topic: SharePoint versus Content Management Server
During the Spring 2003 GTM hands-on labs, students asked what some of the differences were between SharePoint and Content Management Server. Aside from pointing out feature and user interface differences, I replied that the difference was philosophical. SharePoint (WSS, SPS) can be viewed as an internal tool (although as you’ll see in Chapter 8, it can be accessed externally with Remote Web Workplace) and Content Management Server is focused externally to rapidly post content to public sites.
In mid-October 2003, CRN published an article that discusses the Content Management Server team joining the SPS group. If you’d like to read it, visit http://crn.channelsupersearch.com/news/crn/45155.asp. Synergy between the two products is another key point in that article.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Office and SBS Integration Points with Windows SharePoint Services (WSS)
Happy hump day - we are almost nearing the end of Chapter 3 in Windows Small Business Server 2003 Best Practices wherein we are studying Windows SharePoint Services. As you know - I am posting up a few pages per day from my book for your pleasure.
enjoy....harrybbbb
Harry Brelsford | ceo at smb nation | www.smbnation.com
Microsoft Small Business Specialist (SBSC), MBA, MCSE, MCT and other stuff!
###
SBS 2003 Integration with WSS
Those “dev dudes” on the SBS 2003 development team slipped in a few points of integration between SBS 2003 and WSS that need to be highlighted.
• Remote E-mail Access (under Links). This allows you to view your Exchange-based e-mail via Outlook Web Access (Chapters 6 and 8 discuss this area more).
• Remote Server Management (under Links). This spawns a Terminal Services session to manage the SBS 2003 server machine (Chapters 4, 8, and 11 discuss this functionality more).
• Add User Wizard/Add Template wizard. Adding users and templates automatically get WSS roles
• Client and Server home page setting
• EICW: publishing intranet takes care of publishing the intranet virtual server in IIS
• Import Files Wizard from Import Files link from the Internal Web Site.
Office 2003 Integration with WSS
Something I plan to emphasis during the SMB Nation Summit worldwide tour in 2004 (www.smbnation.com) is the integration of Office 2003 with SBS 2003. Nowhere is this integration more apparent than how Office 2003 ties into WSS. In this section, I’ll discuss Shared Workspace, metadata promotion, and Meeting Workspaces and give examples of Access 2003 and FrontPage 2003 integration.
Note that I won’t dwell on another integration feature, Document Workspace sites, because that’s what we’ve basically been working with in this chapter. But for the record, Document Workspaces are clearly an Office 2003/WSS integration point.
Shared Workspace
You have already seen one such tie-in already. Revert back to Figure 7-11 and observe the Shared Workspace element on the right-side of the Word document.
This is one major way Office 2003 and WSS interact. A workspace is an area, hosted on a server (read SBS 2003), where colleagues can share documents, information, and hugs. The features of a shared workspace include document libraries, task lists, links lists, members list, and e-mail alerts. All shared workspace tasks can be performed in Office 2003 applications.
BEST PRACTICE: The Shared Workspace task pane opens automatically when you open an Office 2003 document that is stored in a WSS document library. In addition to displaying Web site data in the Members, Tasks, Documents and Links tabs, the Shared Workspace pane provides information about the active document on the Status and Document Information tabs:
The Status tab is pretty darn cool. It lists important information such as whether the document is up to date, in conflict with another member’s copy, and whether it is checked out. The Document Information tab tells you stuff like modified date, etc.
Metadata promotion
Another Office 2003 integration point with WSS is metadata promotion. To understand the context of this discussion, consider the following. In a traditional document management solution, each document has a profile. The document profile consists of descriptive fields with information about the document (i.e., what the document is about). These fields are called metadata.
BEST PRACTICE: You’ve likely worked with profiles and metadata at the document level for a long time and not necessarily even known it. How? Simply open any existing document from any Microsoft Office product (e.g., Word) and select File, Properties. The document property sheet that appears is a profile and the data in the fields (such as your name in the Author field) are metadata.
In a WSS document library, the columns of the document library (list columns) are the fields for the document profile. If you wish to add a field to the document profile for the library, you simply add a column to the WSS document library. The user-created columns of metadata fields automatically become populated
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
fields in the file properties of the document. It’s that easy! Whenever a user uploads a document to the library, she will be prompted to complete the metadata for the document. Note if you upload a document and make some off-line changes to the file properties of the document, said changes will be added as metadata in the document profile on the WSS document library.
BEST PRACTICE: I’m really starting to cross a boundary here and move into a discussion on InfoPath, an Office 2003 family member. InfoPath is an editor that looks kinda like Word and is a backend application that manages forms. These forms are akin to the file properties for a document except these forms use the data via XML to create much more meaningful metadata (a property sheet in Word just sits there).
For example, a company uses InfoPath and has a forms library with expense reports. The employee opens the new expense report form, enters data and saves it. This structured data is extracted by the accounting system.
More on this with specific procedures in my advanced SBS 2003 book.
Meeting Workspaces
A Meeting Workspace is a Web site for centralizing all the information and materials for one or more meetings. Prior to the meeting, attendees use the workspace to publish an agenda, attendee list, and relevant documents. During or after the meeting, the workspace can be used to publish meeting results and track tasks. A user is typically invited to the meeting via an e-mail request and they click a link to join. You will recall from the SBS 2000 Best Practices book in the Exchange Server chapter when I turned you on to Exchange Conferencing Server that this type of invitation with a link capability was present in that conferencing environment.
There are five types of Meeting Workspace templates in WSS:
• Blank Meeting Workspace. Requires customization to meet your requirements
Visit www.smbnation.com for additional SMB and SBS book, newsletter and conference resources.
• Basic Meeting Workspace. Includes all the basics elements to plan, organize, and track your meeting. Predefined lists (and associated Web Parts) include: Objectives, Attendees, and Agenda.
• Decision Meeting Workspace. Similar to the Basics Meeting Workspace but also focuses on the ability to review document and record decisions during the meeting. Additional lists beyond the “basics” include Document Library, Tasks, and Decisions.
• Social Meeting Workspace. Oriented toward planning parties and social events. The lists include Attendees, Directions, Image/Logo, Things to Bring, Discussions, and Picture Library.
• Multipage Meeting Workspace. This is the same as the Basic Meeting Workspace but allows multiple pages.
You can create a Meeting Workspace either in WSS or via Outlook 2003. From WSS, simply click Create (from the top link bar) and select Sites and Workgroups beneath Web Pages. Then complete the information for the workspace site you want and click Create (when writing this I created a monthly meeting site for SPRINGERS and I encourage you to do the same). Then select a template on the Template Selection page (I selected the Decision Meeting Workspace). Click OK. And that’s it, Your screen should look similar to Figure 7-22.
Notes:
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
Figure 7-22
Something not widely emphasized in other SBS 2003 learning avenues, like the hands-on labs, is the Meeting Workspace capability of WSS. Use it!
BEST PRACTICE: The online help in WSS has excellent support for
Meeting Workspaces and I encourage you to delve deeper here.
Access 2003 Integration
First off, it’s big assumption time. I’m assuming that you’ve run (not walked) and installed Office 2003 on your client computer to track with me (you heard me mention this in other chapters such as Chapter 6 in the Exchange and Outlook discussion). That said, let me explain how one of the killer applications, Access 2003, integrates with WSS.
There are five integration points between Access 2003 and WSS:
• Export to WSS. Here you simply specify a site during the Access 2003 export keystroke sequence and the fields are mapped automatically.
• Import from WSS. This is a wizard-driven import of Lists and Views of Lists from WSS.
Visit www.smbnation.com for additional SMB and SBS book, newsletter and conference resources.
• Read/Write live link to WSS. Think of this as revisiting Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) and Object Linking and Embedding (OLE).
• From WSS to Access 2003. WSS exports stuff to Access 2003. Access 2003 then creates a linked table and reports.
• Lookup field support. Full support for the database lookup function in WSS.
Excel 2003 integration
Something that’ll excite many readers is the simplicity with which you can send Excel 2003 data to a WSS list. You’ll do that right here, right now.
1. Log on as NormH at PRESIDENT with the password Purple3300.
2. Start Microsoft Excel 2003 from Start, All Programs, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Office Excel 2003.
3. In Excel 2003, create a simple spreadsheet with financial information.
As you’ll see in a moment, I created a quick-and-dirty DuPont ratio model (if you don’t know what that is, no worries - it’s an MBA thang!).
4. Select Data, List, Create List. The data is converted to a list.
5. Select Data, List, Publish List. As seen in Figure 7-23, on the Publish List to SharePoint Site - Step 1 of 2 pages, complete the Address field to point to the Breeder1 site you created earlier (http:/ /companyweb/breeder1) and then select the Link to the new SharePoint list checkbox. In the Name field, give a descriptive title such as SPRINGERS DuPont Ratio Model and under Description type something like It’s Norm’s MBA in action!
Notes:
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
Figure 7-23
You are creating the list to publish to WSS.
6. Click Next.
7. Confirm the column format on the next page (Step 2 of 2) and click Finish.
8. Click OK when the Windows SharePoint Services dialog box notifies you the list was successfully created.
9. Launch Internet Explorer from Start, Internet. The Springer Spaniels Limited Home page appears.
10. Click Breeding Workspace under Links. Click Lists in the left column. Select SPRINGERS DuPont Ratio model under Create List.
11. Observe the list in Figure 7-24. This is Excel 2003 data being presented in WSS and it’s active. Go ahead and horse around here. Change values, insert a row, add data, and see how it affects the list in WSS and Excel 2003. Yee-haw!
Figure 7-24
This is a great way to integrate Office 2003 and WSS in SBS 2003. This example could be the basis for you to go forth and create an EIS (discussed in this chapter) on the SBS network.
BEST PRACTICE: Another cool SBS 2003 WSS and Office 2003 integration point involves looking at a list in a data sheet and copying and pasting stuff from Excel. Here is what I mean. Create a data sheet in WSS and click the List in Datasheet option. Then open Excel 2003 and create a business spreadsheet populated with business data. Then right-click on your Start toolbar and select Tile Windows Vertically. At this point, the data list in WSS and the business spreadsheet in Exchange will be lined up. Then drag and drop the business data from Excel into the data list in WSS. This integration method, only possible with Office 2003 or higher, is another way to transfer data and is very efficient.
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
An individual I know who uses this approach likes it because it allows you to see the Excel-based business data line up correctly in the WSS data list. Seeing is believing.
FrontPage 2003 integration
This integration point is very simple: good looks! FrontPage 2003 can best be integrated with WSS is to make the pages look better. Kinda like the popular American television show Extreme Makeover meets WSS in SBS 2003! More conservative folk would say it allows you to create professional-looking, high-quality pages. Enough said.
BEST PRACTICE: To the extent practicable, PLEASE try to have all of your client machines upgrade to Office 2003. I propose that the integration of WSS with Office 2003 is the “killer application” or a sufficient reason to undergo this upgrade. Am I all wet on this proposition? Then voice your opinion to me at sbs@nethealthmon.com!
Note my advanced SBS 2003 book will have much more discussion on Office 2003 and even SBS-specific integration with WSS! Stay tuned.
enjoy....harrybbbb
Harry Brelsford | ceo at smb nation | www.smbnation.com
Microsoft Small Business Specialist (SBSC), MBA, MCSE, MCT and other stuff!
###
SBS 2003 Integration with WSS
Those “dev dudes” on the SBS 2003 development team slipped in a few points of integration between SBS 2003 and WSS that need to be highlighted.
• Remote E-mail Access (under Links). This allows you to view your Exchange-based e-mail via Outlook Web Access (Chapters 6 and 8 discuss this area more).
• Remote Server Management (under Links). This spawns a Terminal Services session to manage the SBS 2003 server machine (Chapters 4, 8, and 11 discuss this functionality more).
• Add User Wizard/Add Template wizard. Adding users and templates automatically get WSS roles
• Client and Server home page setting
• EICW: publishing intranet takes care of publishing the intranet virtual server in IIS
• Import Files Wizard from Import Files link from the Internal Web Site.
Office 2003 Integration with WSS
Something I plan to emphasis during the SMB Nation Summit worldwide tour in 2004 (www.smbnation.com) is the integration of Office 2003 with SBS 2003. Nowhere is this integration more apparent than how Office 2003 ties into WSS. In this section, I’ll discuss Shared Workspace, metadata promotion, and Meeting Workspaces and give examples of Access 2003 and FrontPage 2003 integration.
Note that I won’t dwell on another integration feature, Document Workspace sites, because that’s what we’ve basically been working with in this chapter. But for the record, Document Workspaces are clearly an Office 2003/WSS integration point.
Shared Workspace
You have already seen one such tie-in already. Revert back to Figure 7-11 and observe the Shared Workspace element on the right-side of the Word document.
This is one major way Office 2003 and WSS interact. A workspace is an area, hosted on a server (read SBS 2003), where colleagues can share documents, information, and hugs. The features of a shared workspace include document libraries, task lists, links lists, members list, and e-mail alerts. All shared workspace tasks can be performed in Office 2003 applications.
BEST PRACTICE: The Shared Workspace task pane opens automatically when you open an Office 2003 document that is stored in a WSS document library. In addition to displaying Web site data in the Members, Tasks, Documents and Links tabs, the Shared Workspace pane provides information about the active document on the Status and Document Information tabs:
The Status tab is pretty darn cool. It lists important information such as whether the document is up to date, in conflict with another member’s copy, and whether it is checked out. The Document Information tab tells you stuff like modified date, etc.
Metadata promotion
Another Office 2003 integration point with WSS is metadata promotion. To understand the context of this discussion, consider the following. In a traditional document management solution, each document has a profile. The document profile consists of descriptive fields with information about the document (i.e., what the document is about). These fields are called metadata.
BEST PRACTICE: You’ve likely worked with profiles and metadata at the document level for a long time and not necessarily even known it. How? Simply open any existing document from any Microsoft Office product (e.g., Word) and select File, Properties. The document property sheet that appears is a profile and the data in the fields (such as your name in the Author field) are metadata.
In a WSS document library, the columns of the document library (list columns) are the fields for the document profile. If you wish to add a field to the document profile for the library, you simply add a column to the WSS document library. The user-created columns of metadata fields automatically become populated
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
fields in the file properties of the document. It’s that easy! Whenever a user uploads a document to the library, she will be prompted to complete the metadata for the document. Note if you upload a document and make some off-line changes to the file properties of the document, said changes will be added as metadata in the document profile on the WSS document library.
BEST PRACTICE: I’m really starting to cross a boundary here and move into a discussion on InfoPath, an Office 2003 family member. InfoPath is an editor that looks kinda like Word and is a backend application that manages forms. These forms are akin to the file properties for a document except these forms use the data via XML to create much more meaningful metadata (a property sheet in Word just sits there).
For example, a company uses InfoPath and has a forms library with expense reports. The employee opens the new expense report form, enters data and saves it. This structured data is extracted by the accounting system.
More on this with specific procedures in my advanced SBS 2003 book.
Meeting Workspaces
A Meeting Workspace is a Web site for centralizing all the information and materials for one or more meetings. Prior to the meeting, attendees use the workspace to publish an agenda, attendee list, and relevant documents. During or after the meeting, the workspace can be used to publish meeting results and track tasks. A user is typically invited to the meeting via an e-mail request and they click a link to join. You will recall from the SBS 2000 Best Practices book in the Exchange Server chapter when I turned you on to Exchange Conferencing Server that this type of invitation with a link capability was present in that conferencing environment.
There are five types of Meeting Workspace templates in WSS:
• Blank Meeting Workspace. Requires customization to meet your requirements
Visit www.smbnation.com for additional SMB and SBS book, newsletter and conference resources.
• Basic Meeting Workspace. Includes all the basics elements to plan, organize, and track your meeting. Predefined lists (and associated Web Parts) include: Objectives, Attendees, and Agenda.
• Decision Meeting Workspace. Similar to the Basics Meeting Workspace but also focuses on the ability to review document and record decisions during the meeting. Additional lists beyond the “basics” include Document Library, Tasks, and Decisions.
• Social Meeting Workspace. Oriented toward planning parties and social events. The lists include Attendees, Directions, Image/Logo, Things to Bring, Discussions, and Picture Library.
• Multipage Meeting Workspace. This is the same as the Basic Meeting Workspace but allows multiple pages.
You can create a Meeting Workspace either in WSS or via Outlook 2003. From WSS, simply click Create (from the top link bar) and select Sites and Workgroups beneath Web Pages. Then complete the information for the workspace site you want and click Create (when writing this I created a monthly meeting site for SPRINGERS and I encourage you to do the same). Then select a template on the Template Selection page (I selected the Decision Meeting Workspace). Click OK. And that’s it, Your screen should look similar to Figure 7-22.
Notes:
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
Figure 7-22
Something not widely emphasized in other SBS 2003 learning avenues, like the hands-on labs, is the Meeting Workspace capability of WSS. Use it!
BEST PRACTICE: The online help in WSS has excellent support for
Meeting Workspaces and I encourage you to delve deeper here.
Access 2003 Integration
First off, it’s big assumption time. I’m assuming that you’ve run (not walked) and installed Office 2003 on your client computer to track with me (you heard me mention this in other chapters such as Chapter 6 in the Exchange and Outlook discussion). That said, let me explain how one of the killer applications, Access 2003, integrates with WSS.
There are five integration points between Access 2003 and WSS:
• Export to WSS. Here you simply specify a site during the Access 2003 export keystroke sequence and the fields are mapped automatically.
• Import from WSS. This is a wizard-driven import of Lists and Views of Lists from WSS.
Visit www.smbnation.com for additional SMB and SBS book, newsletter and conference resources.
• Read/Write live link to WSS. Think of this as revisiting Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) and Object Linking and Embedding (OLE).
• From WSS to Access 2003. WSS exports stuff to Access 2003. Access 2003 then creates a linked table and reports.
• Lookup field support. Full support for the database lookup function in WSS.
Excel 2003 integration
Something that’ll excite many readers is the simplicity with which you can send Excel 2003 data to a WSS list. You’ll do that right here, right now.
1. Log on as NormH at PRESIDENT with the password Purple3300.
2. Start Microsoft Excel 2003 from Start, All Programs, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Office Excel 2003.
3. In Excel 2003, create a simple spreadsheet with financial information.
As you’ll see in a moment, I created a quick-and-dirty DuPont ratio model (if you don’t know what that is, no worries - it’s an MBA thang!).
4. Select Data, List, Create List. The data is converted to a list.
5. Select Data, List, Publish List. As seen in Figure 7-23, on the Publish List to SharePoint Site - Step 1 of 2 pages, complete the Address field to point to the Breeder1 site you created earlier (http:/ /companyweb/breeder1) and then select the Link to the new SharePoint list checkbox. In the Name field, give a descriptive title such as SPRINGERS DuPont Ratio Model and under Description type something like It’s Norm’s MBA in action!
Notes:
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
Figure 7-23
You are creating the list to publish to WSS.
6. Click Next.
7. Confirm the column format on the next page (Step 2 of 2) and click Finish.
8. Click OK when the Windows SharePoint Services dialog box notifies you the list was successfully created.
9. Launch Internet Explorer from Start, Internet. The Springer Spaniels Limited Home page appears.
10. Click Breeding Workspace under Links. Click Lists in the left column. Select SPRINGERS DuPont Ratio model under Create List.
11. Observe the list in Figure 7-24. This is Excel 2003 data being presented in WSS and it’s active. Go ahead and horse around here. Change values, insert a row, add data, and see how it affects the list in WSS and Excel 2003. Yee-haw!
Figure 7-24
This is a great way to integrate Office 2003 and WSS in SBS 2003. This example could be the basis for you to go forth and create an EIS (discussed in this chapter) on the SBS network.
BEST PRACTICE: Another cool SBS 2003 WSS and Office 2003 integration point involves looking at a list in a data sheet and copying and pasting stuff from Excel. Here is what I mean. Create a data sheet in WSS and click the List in Datasheet option. Then open Excel 2003 and create a business spreadsheet populated with business data. Then right-click on your Start toolbar and select Tile Windows Vertically. At this point, the data list in WSS and the business spreadsheet in Exchange will be lined up. Then drag and drop the business data from Excel into the data list in WSS. This integration method, only possible with Office 2003 or higher, is another way to transfer data and is very efficient.
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
An individual I know who uses this approach likes it because it allows you to see the Excel-based business data line up correctly in the WSS data list. Seeing is believing.
FrontPage 2003 integration
This integration point is very simple: good looks! FrontPage 2003 can best be integrated with WSS is to make the pages look better. Kinda like the popular American television show Extreme Makeover meets WSS in SBS 2003! More conservative folk would say it allows you to create professional-looking, high-quality pages. Enough said.
BEST PRACTICE: To the extent practicable, PLEASE try to have all of your client machines upgrade to Office 2003. I propose that the integration of WSS with Office 2003 is the “killer application” or a sufficient reason to undergo this upgrade. Am I all wet on this proposition? Then voice your opinion to me at sbs@nethealthmon.com!
Note my advanced SBS 2003 book will have much more discussion on Office 2003 and even SBS-specific integration with WSS! Stay tuned.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Advanced WSS topics in SBS 2003
Hello folks -i am harry brelsford, author of Windows Small Buinsess Server 2003 Best Practices and I am posting up a few pages a day of the "purple book" until SBS 2008 ships. Today we look at some advanced topics in Windows SharePoint Services in the SBS 2003 product. Good stuff Maynard!
cheers...harrybbbb
Harry Brelsford, ceo of SMB Nation www.smbnation.com and your fellow Microsoft Small Business Specialist (SBSC), MBA, MCSE, MCT and other non-sense.
PS - we got a hellva SBS 2008 and Essential Business Server 2008 (EBS) launch party happin' in Seattle in early october. Check out my Web site for event details!
###
Advanced WSS Topics
I’m still planting WSS seeds for you to march forward with, and this section cultivates a garden of advanced SharePoint topics. These include meeting and greeting the options on the Modify Shared Page menu, learning how to use the management and statistics, server-side stuff and Office 2003 integration and using SQL Server with WSS.
Modify Shared Page
You’ve actually already peeked at this option in an earlier procedure, but this area warrants more discussion. Here I’ll explain each of the options.
• Add Web Parts. You’re quite familiar with this option because you added a Web Part earlier in the chapter.
• Design this Page. It’s human nature and certainly the nature of SBSers to fiddle around. The SBS development team has provided a great start with the default Home page, but experience has shown that SBSers ask the following question early and often: “How can I modify the Home page?” Obviously, adding Web Parts (above) is one way. The other is to fiddle with the design via the option. Go ahead and play with it under the SPRINGERS methodology, as you can’t do any real harm.
• Modify Shared Web Parts. This option is to modify existing Home page elements, including the announcements, site image, and link.
BEST PRACTICE: A popular modification right here amongst SBSers is to modify the site image. You can make the page better reflect the
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
company’s image by displaying the company logo instead of the Windows Small Business Server 2003 logo. See the default site image (Windows Small Business Server 2003) in the upper right corner of Figure 7-16.
• Shared View. This reveals the shared view that you are accustomed to at this point. A change made to the Home page is observed by everyone. This is the default view in SBS 2003.
• Personal View. There is some real power in WSS in creating personal views, where different users have a different WSS experience. Remember earlier when I spoke to the EIS creation process to report financial information. This is how you might do that, allowing executives to see sensitive financial information that isn’t appropriate for the rest of the staff.
Management and Statistics
Another thing to learn all about is the Management and Statistics area. From the home page, this is easily accessed from clicking Site Settings followed by Go to Site Administration under Administration. You will now see the Top-level Site Administration page. The Management and Statistics section has a link that allows you to view site usage data, which provide the metrics that let SBSers know how effective their efforts are in delivering a compelling business portal. This is analogous to some Web monitor tools (e.g., hit counters) that are used in the world of e-commerce.
WSS Backup and Restore
There was a very interesting and timely discussion on the Yahoo! SBS newsgroup in mid-December 2003 that discussed backup options for WSS in SBS 2003. This is a dialog between two leading SBSers (note the following public discussion is unedited):
SBSer #1 thoughtfully comments with the initial posting:
Generally, if we restore an individual SharePoint file,
we need to have a file-based backup image of your SharePoint documents. As I know, there are two ways to
Visit www.smbnation.com for additional SMB and SBS book, newsletter and conference resources.
perform file-based backup for your SharePoint database. For your convenience, I included the methods below:
Method 1. Use NTBackup.
===================== According to our test, we can map the folders under \\companyweb
as network drives now. Thus, we can use NTBackup to back up or restore the files in these folders (network drives) directly. To do so,
please follow the stepsbelow:
1. Map the \\Companyweb\Foldername
2. Run NTBackup and back up the network drive.
3. When you need to restore one file in this folder, simply run NTBackup to restore
Method 2. Use Stsadm.exe.
===================== If you have enabled the recovery of SharePoint files, you can recover a
file or list item by restoring the entire site from a backup to a subsite of http://companyweb, selecting the file or list item that you want to restore, extracting
it, and uploading it to its original location. To enable the recovery of individual SharePoint files, please use the following procedure:
1. Click Start, click Control Panel, click Scheduled Tasks, and then click Add Scheduled Task.
2. Click Next on the first page of the Scheduled Task Wizard.
3. Click Browse, go to %SystemDrive%\Program
Files\Common Files\MicrosoftShared\Web server extensions\60\Bin, and then double-click Stsadm.exe.
4. Select how often you want this task to run, and then click Next.
5. Select the time you want to run the schedule, and then click Next.
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
1. Enter administrator credentials, and then click Next.
2. Select the Open advanced properties when I click finish check box, and then click Finish.
3. On the Task tab in the dialog box that appears, in the Run box, type “%SystemDrive%\Program files\Common files\Microsoft shared\Web server extensions\60\Bin\Stsadm.exe” -o backup -url http:// Companyweb –filename target path -overwrite, where target path is where you save the backup of your internal Web site. Click OK. You must type the quotation marks.
If you have enabled this before, you can follow the steps below to restore the missing files:
1. Click Start, click Command Prompt, and then type “%SystemDrive%\Program files\Common files\Microsoft shared\Web server extensions\60\Bin\Stsadm.exe” -o createsiteinnewdb -url http://companyweb/sites/RestoredSite -ownerlogin DOMAIN\administrator -owneremail administrator@DOMAIN.local
-databasename STS_RESTORE, where DOMAIN is your server domain and administrator@DOMAIN.local is your administrator¡¯s e-mail address. Include the quotation marks as part of the path. Press ENTER.
2. Type “%SystemDrive%\Program files\Common files\Microsoft shared\Web server extensions\60\Bin\Stsadm.exe” -o restore -url http://Companyweb/Sites/Restoredsite -filename target path -overwrite, where target path is the location where you chose to save your SharePoint backup. Include the quotation marks as part of the path. Press ENTER.
3. Open Internet Explorer, and in the address bar, type
http://Companyweb/Sites/Restoredsite. The site that appears is the same as your company Web site.
1. In the restored site, navigate to the missing file.
2. Right-click the file, select Save Target As, and then select a location to which to save the file.
3. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for all missing files.
4. Open your company Web site, navigate to the location where the missing files should be, and then on the SharePoint toolbar, click Upload Document.
NOTE: The second method is provided in the SBS Server help. You can findthis by the following steps:
1. Open Server Management.
2. Click Standard Management->Backup.
3. Click Restore Sharepoint files in the right pane. However, if you have not performed either method above to enable file-based backup, I am afraid that we may have
to restore the entire database.
SBSer #2 thoughtfully replies:
Just realize that there are certain things to be aware of regarding method #1:
1)
it is not a method supported by the SBS Dev
Team
2)
you need to have a separate network place on
your server pointing to the each sharepoint document library, etc. you want to back up individual files from. Note that you cannot have a single network place
just pointing to companyweb 3) NTBackup will not restore files back into the Sharepoint database. You will have to restore to an alternate location, then manually upload the file back into Sharepoint.
SBSer #1 reverts back and ends the thread:
Have to laugh though... that’s a cut and paste from a Microsoft support person posting.... but I have heard that #1 is not the preferred method. Thus my comment about using #2.
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
BEST PRACTICE: Be sure to catch the comment about the Restore SharePoint Files link under Backup (Server Management, Standard Management). Right now, please click over and read the Small Business Server Help and Information page (that appears upon click) on this topic.
Server-Side: SharePoint Central Administration
Much of what we have discussed so far has been on the client computer-side. You’ve interacted with WSS from Internet Explorer from NormH’s PRESIDENT machine. But there is a server-side to WSS you should know about. In this section, you will observe the file types that are blocked from uploading and learn about the native antivirus protection. You will correctly use SharePoint Central Administration to do this (see my Best Practice in a moment about the best server-side tools to use).
1 Log on as Administrator to SPRINGERS1 with the password Husky9999!.
2 Click Start, Administrative Tools, SharePoint Central Administration.
3 On the Central Administration page, select Manage blocked file types under Security Configuration.
4 Observe the default file extensions that are blocked. You can add or delete file extensions to this list. These are file types that can not be uploaded into WSS. Click OK.
BEST PRACTICE: Compare the list of blocked file extensions here compared to SMTP sink blocked file types discussed in Chapter 6 (see the attachment blocking discussion) and shown back in Figure 4-14 when the E-mail and Internet Connection Wizard (EICW) was completed.
1 On the Central Administration page, select Configure antivirus settings under Security Configuration.
2 Click the Show me more information link and read about the requirements for virus protection in WSS. You can then click the About virus protection link to learn even more. Close the help window.
1 Select the following antivirus settings: Scan documents on upload, Scan documents on download, Attempt to clean infected documents.
2 Click OK.
3 Close the Central Administration page.
BEST PRACTICE: In Chapter 11, you will be strongly encouraged to download and install a trial version of Trend Micro’s PortalProtect for SharePoint, a WSS compliant application that will exploit the antivirus settings you just configured.
BEST PRACTICE: When I was teaching SharePoint technologies on the Spring 2003 GTM hands-on lab tour, a common challenge for students was to keep it all “straight” and remember where they were in WSS. You’ve already seen at least four ways to interact with WSS:
• Springer Spaniels Limited Home page when you launch Internet
Explorer on a client computer
• Server Management console on the SBS 2003 server machine (see Internal Web Site under Standard Management)
• SharePoint Central Administration on the server. USE THIS ONE for administrative management of WSS.
• Microsoft SharePoint Administrator. BEWARE: this is FrontPage Server Extensions management, not truly WSS. DO NOT USE THIS ONE. This is a distant sister technology to WSS.
There is actually a fourth way to interact with WSS: Web folders. To see this, go to a client machine (e.g., PRESIDENT) and launch My Network Places from the Start button. Observe the Web folders related to CompanyWeb (the default WSS virtual server in SBS 2003). At this point, you should see General Documents and Jones Family.
cheers...harrybbbb
Harry Brelsford, ceo of SMB Nation www.smbnation.com and your fellow Microsoft Small Business Specialist (SBSC), MBA, MCSE, MCT and other non-sense.
PS - we got a hellva SBS 2008 and Essential Business Server 2008 (EBS) launch party happin' in Seattle in early october. Check out my Web site for event details!
###
Advanced WSS Topics
I’m still planting WSS seeds for you to march forward with, and this section cultivates a garden of advanced SharePoint topics. These include meeting and greeting the options on the Modify Shared Page menu, learning how to use the management and statistics, server-side stuff and Office 2003 integration and using SQL Server with WSS.
Modify Shared Page
You’ve actually already peeked at this option in an earlier procedure, but this area warrants more discussion. Here I’ll explain each of the options.
• Add Web Parts. You’re quite familiar with this option because you added a Web Part earlier in the chapter.
• Design this Page. It’s human nature and certainly the nature of SBSers to fiddle around. The SBS development team has provided a great start with the default Home page, but experience has shown that SBSers ask the following question early and often: “How can I modify the Home page?” Obviously, adding Web Parts (above) is one way. The other is to fiddle with the design via the option. Go ahead and play with it under the SPRINGERS methodology, as you can’t do any real harm.
• Modify Shared Web Parts. This option is to modify existing Home page elements, including the announcements, site image, and link.
BEST PRACTICE: A popular modification right here amongst SBSers is to modify the site image. You can make the page better reflect the
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
company’s image by displaying the company logo instead of the Windows Small Business Server 2003 logo. See the default site image (Windows Small Business Server 2003) in the upper right corner of Figure 7-16.
• Shared View. This reveals the shared view that you are accustomed to at this point. A change made to the Home page is observed by everyone. This is the default view in SBS 2003.
• Personal View. There is some real power in WSS in creating personal views, where different users have a different WSS experience. Remember earlier when I spoke to the EIS creation process to report financial information. This is how you might do that, allowing executives to see sensitive financial information that isn’t appropriate for the rest of the staff.
Management and Statistics
Another thing to learn all about is the Management and Statistics area. From the home page, this is easily accessed from clicking Site Settings followed by Go to Site Administration under Administration. You will now see the Top-level Site Administration page. The Management and Statistics section has a link that allows you to view site usage data, which provide the metrics that let SBSers know how effective their efforts are in delivering a compelling business portal. This is analogous to some Web monitor tools (e.g., hit counters) that are used in the world of e-commerce.
WSS Backup and Restore
There was a very interesting and timely discussion on the Yahoo! SBS newsgroup in mid-December 2003 that discussed backup options for WSS in SBS 2003. This is a dialog between two leading SBSers (note the following public discussion is unedited):
SBSer #1 thoughtfully comments with the initial posting:
Generally, if we restore an individual SharePoint file,
we need to have a file-based backup image of your SharePoint documents. As I know, there are two ways to
Visit www.smbnation.com for additional SMB and SBS book, newsletter and conference resources.
perform file-based backup for your SharePoint database. For your convenience, I included the methods below:
Method 1. Use NTBackup.
===================== According to our test, we can map the folders under \\companyweb
please follow the stepsbelow:
1. Map the \\Companyweb\Foldername
2. Run NTBackup and back up the network drive.
3. When you need to restore one file in this folder, simply run NTBackup to restore
Method 2. Use Stsadm.exe.
===================== If you have enabled the recovery of SharePoint files, you can recover a
file or list item by restoring the entire site from a backup to a subsite of http://companyweb, selecting the file or list item that you want to restore, extracting
it, and uploading it to its original location. To enable the recovery of individual SharePoint files, please use the following procedure:
1. Click Start, click Control Panel, click Scheduled Tasks, and then click Add Scheduled Task.
2. Click Next on the first page of the Scheduled Task Wizard.
3. Click Browse, go to %SystemDrive%\Program
Files\Common Files\MicrosoftShared\Web server extensions\60\Bin, and then double-click Stsadm.exe.
4. Select how often you want this task to run, and then click Next.
5. Select the time you want to run the schedule, and then click Next.
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
1. Enter administrator credentials, and then click Next.
2. Select the Open advanced properties when I click finish check box, and then click Finish.
3. On the Task tab in the dialog box that appears, in the Run box, type “%SystemDrive%\Program files\Common files\Microsoft shared\Web server extensions\60\Bin\Stsadm.exe” -o backup -url http:// Companyweb –filename target path -overwrite, where target path is where you save the backup of your internal Web site. Click OK. You must type the quotation marks.
If you have enabled this before, you can follow the steps below to restore the missing files:
1. Click Start, click Command Prompt, and then type “%SystemDrive%\Program files\Common files\Microsoft shared\Web server extensions\60\Bin\Stsadm.exe” -o createsiteinnewdb -url http://companyweb/sites/RestoredSite -ownerlogin DOMAIN\administrator -owneremail administrator@DOMAIN.local
2. Type “%SystemDrive%\Program files\Common files\Microsoft shared\Web server extensions\60\Bin\Stsadm.exe” -o restore -url http://Companyweb/Sites/Restoredsite -filename target path -overwrite, where target path is the location where you chose to save your SharePoint backup. Include the quotation marks as part of the path. Press ENTER.
3. Open Internet Explorer, and in the address bar, type
http://Companyweb/Sites/Restoredsite. The site that appears is the same as your company Web site.
1. In the restored site, navigate to the missing file.
2. Right-click the file, select Save Target As, and then select a location to which to save the file.
3. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for all missing files.
4. Open your company Web site, navigate to the location where the missing files should be, and then on the SharePoint toolbar, click Upload Document.
NOTE: The second method is provided in the SBS Server help. You can findthis by the following steps:
1. Open Server Management.
2. Click Standard Management->Backup.
3. Click Restore Sharepoint files in the right pane. However, if you have not performed either method above to enable file-based backup, I am afraid that we may have
to restore the entire database.
SBSer #2 thoughtfully replies:
Just realize that there are certain things to be aware of regarding method #1:
1)
it is not a method supported by the SBS Dev
Team
2)
you need to have a separate network place on
your server pointing to the each sharepoint document library, etc. you want to back up individual files from. Note that you cannot have a single network place
just pointing to companyweb 3) NTBackup will not restore files back into the Sharepoint database. You will have to restore to an alternate location, then manually upload the file back into Sharepoint.
SBSer #1 reverts back and ends the thread:
Have to laugh though... that’s a cut and paste from a Microsoft support person posting.... but I have heard that #1 is not the preferred method. Thus my comment about using #2.
Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.
BEST PRACTICE: Be sure to catch the comment about the Restore SharePoint Files link under Backup (Server Management, Standard Management). Right now, please click over and read the Small Business Server Help and Information page (that appears upon click) on this topic.
Server-Side: SharePoint Central Administration
Much of what we have discussed so far has been on the client computer-side. You’ve interacted with WSS from Internet Explorer from NormH’s PRESIDENT machine. But there is a server-side to WSS you should know about. In this section, you will observe the file types that are blocked from uploading and learn about the native antivirus protection. You will correctly use SharePoint Central Administration to do this (see my Best Practice in a moment about the best server-side tools to use).
1 Log on as Administrator to SPRINGERS1 with the password Husky9999!.
2 Click Start, Administrative Tools, SharePoint Central Administration.
3 On the Central Administration page, select Manage blocked file types under Security Configuration.
4 Observe the default file extensions that are blocked. You can add or delete file extensions to this list. These are file types that can not be uploaded into WSS. Click OK.
BEST PRACTICE: Compare the list of blocked file extensions here compared to SMTP sink blocked file types discussed in Chapter 6 (see the attachment blocking discussion) and shown back in Figure 4-14 when the E-mail and Internet Connection Wizard (EICW) was completed.
1 On the Central Administration page, select Configure antivirus settings under Security Configuration.
2 Click the Show me more information link and read about the requirements for virus protection in WSS. You can then click the About virus protection link to learn even more. Close the help window.
1 Select the following antivirus settings: Scan documents on upload, Scan documents on download, Attempt to clean infected documents.
2 Click OK.
3 Close the Central Administration page.
BEST PRACTICE: In Chapter 11, you will be strongly encouraged to download and install a trial version of Trend Micro’s PortalProtect for SharePoint, a WSS compliant application that will exploit the antivirus settings you just configured.
BEST PRACTICE: When I was teaching SharePoint technologies on the Spring 2003 GTM hands-on lab tour, a common challenge for students was to keep it all “straight” and remember where they were in WSS. You’ve already seen at least four ways to interact with WSS:
• Springer Spaniels Limited Home page when you launch Internet
Explorer on a client computer
• Server Management console on the SBS 2003 server machine (see Internal Web Site under Standard Management)
• SharePoint Central Administration on the server. USE THIS ONE for administrative management of WSS.
• Microsoft SharePoint Administrator. BEWARE: this is FrontPage Server Extensions management, not truly WSS. DO NOT USE THIS ONE. This is a distant sister technology to WSS.
There is actually a fourth way to interact with WSS: Web folders. To see this, go to a client machine (e.g., PRESIDENT) and launch My Network Places from the Start button. Observe the Web folders related to CompanyWeb (the default WSS virtual server in SBS 2003). At this point, you should see General Documents and Jones Family.
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