How to Deal With SharePoint Database Transaction Logs
February 23, 2012
SharePoint data logs are the metadata behind metadata. SharePoint professionals handle enough metadata, so why would they prolong the process by working with transaction logs? The official Microsoft web site Tech Net provides many troubleshooting guides and information related to the top-selling collaborative content platform. They wrote a small piece called, “Back Up or Archive Logs in SharePoint Server 2010.”
They explain the usefulness of the logs:
“A system-wide strategy for data protection should include backing up or archiving the logs in which data related to Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 is recorded. This data can be useful for performance analysis, troubleshooting, monitoring compliance with service level agreements, and legal, regulatory, or business reasons. Therefore, protect this data as part of the routine maintenance by backing up or archiving the logs.”
What follows is a walkthrough on how to backup and secure the logs for future reference. It follows the standard Microsoft troubleshooting procedure where it gives you a list of steps to follow with brief explanations about why you are doing it. It’s easy to understand, but like with may Microsoft troubleshooting manuals it only provides the basic and does not go into much detail beyond that. When you archive the transaction logs you might consider using Surfray Ontolica enterprise search to comb and patrol the log content. It offers hierarchical refiners that allow users to drill down into their metadata to see how many expected results Ontolica allows users to take immediate action with their search results, meaning any business function to be started from the end search.
Whitney Grace, February 23, 2012
Spend a Saturday in the Big Easy Discussing SharePoint
February 22, 2012
Can you think of a better way to spend a Saturday then heading down to New Orleans and meeting a bunch of SharePoint enthusiasts to discuss SharePoint? SharePoint Saturday New Orleans is an annual event in it’s third year.
“SharePoint Saturday New Orleans is an educational, informative & lively day filled with sessions from respected SharePoint professionals & MVPs, covering a wide variety of topics focused on Microsoft SharePoint technologies. SharePoint Saturday New Orleans is FREE, open to the public and is your chance to immerse yourself in SharePoint in The Big Easy Baby!”
Since the event is free, you don’t have an excuse to miss it unless you can’t afford travel and hotel fees. Otherwise, you can spend the entire day meeting with developers, architects, farmers, and other SharePoint gurus talking about the latest trends. I am sure that topics will include SharePoint 2012, the Windows 8 Beta, cloud technology, SharePoint and tablet integration, and search enterprise platforms. I suggest that you mention SurfRay’s Ontolica Enterprise Search. Ontolica not only enhances, it also extends the basic SharePoint search platform. This means to deploy Ontolica there is not any programming needed. It is quick and simple, just the way SharePoint search should be.
Whitney Grace, February 22, 2012
SharePoint Users Break Security Breaches
February 21, 2012
A recent survey conducted by Cryptzone reported that nearly 45% of users copied sensitive information from SharePoint to a USBN drive or e-mailed it over an unsecure server. Steve Weissman from the AIIM ECM Expert Blog dissected the survey in, “The Ends, The Means, and the Security Risk Mitigation.”
Most of the time, SharePoint users removed the confidential information was so they could work on the material at home or they needed to send it to a third-party that did not have SharePoint access. Many did not consider this a security breach, because the documents copied weren’t that sensitive in nature.
Weissman draws some insightful conclusions:
“What does this tell us? The best I can come up with is that people feel the end justifies the means, that it’s okay for them to do it because, well, it’s them and not some unknown evil hacker. But organizations, compliance officers, and, yes, information professionals cannot afford to take this view because the aggregate opportunity for a significant data breach is just so large, and the failure to enforce existing security policies is a litigation nightmare waiting to happen.”
Weissman believes that users need to be trained to use SharePoint within proper security channels so information is not used for evil purposes. A wise commenter on the bottom argued that users would not remove content if businesses provided them with tools that did not force them to work twice as hard. Security protocols are a pain when the technology behind them does not work smoothly. One thing I can tell you is that SurfRay’s Ontolica Suite does make things run easier than other enterprise searches on the market. It can be deployed without programming and seamlessly integrates with SharePoint and allows easy configurability for metadata, filters, and sorting.
Whitney Grace, February 21, 2012
FAST Search for SharePoint Needs to Be Babied
February 20, 2012
FAST Search is the Microsoft endorsed search platform for SharePoint 2010, but if you work with any SharePoint product on a regular basis you know that they always need fine-tuning. Eli Robillard’s World of Blog posted, “Search: Are You Willing Manage It As an Application?” that explains how in order to get FAST Search to work correctly for SharePoint you need to configure it to your needs to make it worth using. The general idea behind the post is that applications for tablets and smartphones are constantly being worked on to get the kinks out of the system and to get a high level of performance on search you must treat it like an application.
As the post explains:
No search product is great when left with a default configuration. All are built to be improved, and along with the sexiness of the UX, this is where you will find the important differences in features. Capture that in your evaluations. FAST is better than many – it does some automatic tuning – but I would never bet a career or reputation on out-of-box FAST. No application or product does an acceptable job in the long run with a “set it and forget it” mentality. You would never treat your LoB applications this way. Nor does it work for Google.com, the Google appliances, FAST search, or SharePoint Enterprise Search.”
If your business has a low content level then SharePoint’s out-of-the-box search solution will be enough, but if you need a platform with more heft then you need to put the time in to make FAST enterprise search worthwhile. If neither FAST nor the basic SharePoint search meet your needs, then the Ontolica Suite from SurfRay may be the answer. Ontolica is a highly customizable enterprise search platform that “learns” the more you use it. It retains search information for individual users and offers search suggestions and key terms to make finding your content a breeze.
Whitney Grace, February XX, 2012
Free SharePoint Training Videos Teach the Basics
February 17, 2012
While the economy is a slow incline to stability and IT jobs are booming, free reference tools are still in high demand. The SharePoint Solutions Team Blog is aware of this need and the struggle of the beginning SharePoint professional. They now have “Our New Free SharePoint Training Video Series.” As the title proclaims, the Team is releasing a new video web series and it starts with the basics: “SharePoint 101-What Makes SharePoint Work,” focusing on key concepts and strategies for the collaborative content platform.
The offering is described:
“ ‘As a SharePoint-based company, a big part of our mission is to help other companies get the most value out of SharePoint,” notes instructor Kevin Pine. “We do that through classes, consulting, software add-ons, and these free training videos. Our new ‘SharePoint 101 – What Makes SharePoint Work’ series is another step in that mission. The series provides rich, practical content – helping those new to SharePoint understand some of its most important concepts. Through these videos, the viewer will also get the flavor of the SharePoint Solutions classroom experience, and a glimpse of the quality instruction that we provide.’ ”
The first video is called, “Using Metadata in Libraries.” It will give you the basics on folder structuring and organizing along with the correct metadata to tag the content. Video number two is “Using Site Columns and Content Types” and runs down what and how to apply these two SharePoint features. Once you get organization out of the way, you will need to consider how you want to improve SharePoint’s search. The Ontolica enterprise platform from SurfRay allows your to build custom searches, monitors users’ searches, gives search suggestions, applies Quick Filters, and many more strategic features that can be used to enhance the SharePoint experience.
Whitney Grace, February 17, 2012
DocAve and SharePoint Swim in Content Oceans
February 16, 2012
Worldwide content distribution is a grave concern for international companies, especially with their assets on the high seas. The Helix Energy Solutions Group is a leader in the oil and gas industry and they need to distribute content to their deep-sea drills and ships quickly and accurately. They have turned to SharePoint and DocAve to manage their content servers. The “Case Study: Helix Energy Solutions Replicates Data and Content to Geo-Distribute SharePoint Farms and Sea Vessels with DocAve” explains how the project was deployed, its desired goals, and how success was met.
Helix’s needs are explained as:
With personnel spread throughout offices across the globe and ships at sea, Helix required a software platform upon which employees could collaborate, communicate, and access up-to-date content from the organization. Helix chose Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and its employees quickly adopted the platform, utilizing it heavily for their day-to-day business operations. Helix uses SharePoint for collaboration, document storage, and designing its intranet website. The company also uses the platform on four of its ships, which regularly travel across the globe…
Helix needed 1.2 terabytes replicated across SharePoint server farms around the world and the offshore ships. With that much floating around the seven seas, a disaster recovery plan was also set in motion in case of natural disasters or epic power failures. Controlled satellite bandwidth was established for the replicated data so information would not be delayed at any of the servers. The most important aspect, documentation control, was also established for equipment manuals, safety protocols, etc.
With DocAve and SharePoint, Helix employees now have access to the company’s data when and wherever they need it. What the case study didn’t mention were Helix’s SharePoint search procedures? With data spread across the globe, it needs to be recalled quickly and efficiently. If they’re using SharePoint’s out-of-the-box enterprise search they will find some delays at port. I suggest they check out SurfRay’s Ontolica Search Preview, which allows users to view content without downloading it. This would help Helix employees distinguish between content pulled up by the same search terms by immediately allowing them to view the documents.
Whitney Grace, February 16, 2012
SharePoint Search Can Be Visual
February 15, 2012
Most search engines have an option allowing you to search through images, but did you know that SharePoint has the same capability. The Tech and Me blog by the Most Valuable Professional Mikael Svenson recently posted, “How To Do Visual Best for Built-In SharePoint Search,” which discusses how to take advantage of the visual web part in FAST search. It is called Visual Best Bets and allows a file with html content to be displayed in search results. An image or silverlight/flash content can be used to graphically enhance the related search term.
The article explains:
But why go the extra mile for a separate file, or opt in for FS4SP for this feature? The Best Bet web part support the showing of keywords and keyword definitions. Keyword definitions are formatted as html. And a definition with html formatting is in effect a Visual Best Bet.
After the brief description, the article explains how to activate the web part in Fast Search and configure it for your individual SharePoint needs. The visual display in FAST Search makes me wonder if they are copying SurfRay’s Ontolica Search Preview. The Ontolica Search Preview is search enterprise platform that allows users to see their content with an image preview directly from the search results. Great minds think alike? We don’t think so. SurfRay had the idea first.
Whitney Grace, February 15, 2012
For Maximum SharePoint Development and Customization Option Invest a Bit of Research Time
February 14, 2012
Can anyone count how many articles I have posted on SharePoint development and customization? I know it is a lot, and that sometimes they only add one teeny-tiny speck of new information, but that one small piece may be the difference between frustration and actually knowing the answer. Keeping that in mind I bring you the white paper, “Best SharePoint Practices for Development and Customization” by Mario Fulan and Ricardo Wilkins of Quest Software.
Their abstract gets straight to the point:
SharePoint enables developers to quickly deliver prototypes and solutions to users. However, just as quickly, users respond with enhancement requests and new requirements, often overwhelming the development team. This white paper explores the challenges that SharePoint developers face and details a set of best practices for responding to those challenges, so that you can make the most of your SharePoint investment.
SharePoint development is a challenge, but the good thing about it is the main product is already there. A SharePoint developer spends most of their time fixing end-user problems or customizing the SharePoint platform. To make the most of the developing experience, SharePoint gurus need to prioritize their projects by sifting between the small, daily tasks and the long-term. Never doubt users’ ability to learn by teaching them how to resolve the little problems, so that frees up more time; but also it allows a professional to continue to learn. Web parts are a developer’s best friend as is creating your own code if you can’t find what you need on the Internet. You can read about other ideas in the white paper and, honestly, these are some of the most original ideas I have read in a while.
Speaking as an IT professional, however, they forget to mention what to do about enterprise search. While that is one cog in the machine, search does enable users to find their content. SurfRay’s Ontolica Suite is a customizable search that doesn’t require programming. It gives extensive and detailed information about the searched for content, plus it can be tailored to each individual’s needs. We also hear that if offers cost-savings.
Whitney Grace, February 14, 2012
Common SharePoint Security Mistakes Are Easy to Make
February 13, 2012
My cup runneth over with top ten lists this week! After learning about easy SharePoint configuration mistakes and their solutions, I found out that InformationWeek ran a piece entitled, “10 SharePoint Security Mistakes You Probably Make.” We all make security mistakes (*cough*revealing too much on social networking web sites*cough*), but when it comes to SharePoint we think it is a pretty secure content platform. All you need to do is put up a firewall and the content is safe. Nope. A recent case against WikiLeaks involves hackers easily sneaking into SharePoint servers by downloading scripts and pointing them at the server.
The common blunders people make will make you roll your eyes: poor quality security training, not defining who is responsible for security, extremely broad access rights, not watching the users, the watchers, or the Internet service provider, and my personal favorite:
Failure to scan for viruses. Many organizations fail “to scan files that are uploaded to the content libraries,” said Volk. “This can lead to the dissemination of malware via SharePoint.” Likewise, he said, many businesses also fail to account for SharePoint databases in their disaster and recovery planning.
Smack yourself in the head if you don’t have a virus scanner or a disaster and recovery plan for your SharePoint server. I know several senior women (in their eighties) who are paranoid about their virus protection service expiring. If they can keep up with a Dell PC, an IT professional can do better. My other favorite is “sloppy search indexing.” Poor indexing results in some users seeing what they shouldn’t. The solution to this one is simple: employ SurfRay Ontolica Enterprise Search. It is deployed as web parts within the SharePoint security and permissions structure, so all you have to do is configure the indexing metadata to limit and filter what content can be viewed by different users and departments.
Whitney Grace, February 13, 2012
Don’t Panic! Relax, SharePoint Is Easy with the Right Knowledge
February 11, 2012
Let’s say you’re an IT professional, but you were just given your first SharePoint project. You have a general knowledge of the collaborative content platform, but not enough to tackle a project blindly. The most important thing is to not panic, take a deep breath, and check out CMSWire’s article, “Wrapping Your Head Around the SharePoint Beast.” The title rings true for many professionals who have never handled the content behemoth before. The article reads more like an advice column for handling personal problems than SharePoint, but then again you could apply the advice to your romantic relationship.
Moving on to the article’s meat, we are advised to learn SharePoint’s basic structure. Take a look at the code, visit the farm, and then migrate over to learning platform basics. You’ll be useless as a developer unless you know how the product works. Also don’t forget that the Internet provides a bevy of SharePoint communities willing and eager to provide support and talk shop.
Here’s what I take as the best advice:
Any developer who wants to stand above the fray will invest time and effort into learning the different options for SharePoint development and when to use each option. You don’t need to be an expert in every option, but you should at least know there’s a better way.
It’s true that there are many ways to arrive at the same solution and some of them are better than others. Learn what works best for different types of problems. Another thing that new SharePoint people won’t know is that the out-of-the-box search platform isn’t the best. SurfRay’s Ontolica Suite is an option if professionals are seeking a high-quality IVP search partner. It doesn’t require any programming. All you have to do is configure it in the administrator interface and it is automatically deployed to users with the options for custom searches, filters, search suggestions, and much more.
Whitney Grace, February 11, 2012
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