Backup-Restore by using SharePoint Designer 2007

Steps to create the Backup of a SharePoint site using SharePoint Designer 2007 is provided below:

1.   Open site you want to Migrate in SharePoint Designer 2007

§  Copy the URL of the site.

§  Open SharePoint Designer 2007.

§  Go to File > Open Site.

§  Paste the URL of your site in Site Name.

§  Click Open. Designer will attempt to open the Web.

2.   Go to Site > Administration > Backup Web Site.

3.   Check “Include Sub Sites in Archive” if needed.

4.   Type a name for the backup file and save it to your desktop or somewhere that is easy to locate.

5.   Click “OK” – backup will begin.

6.   A message will appear when backup is complete.

Migrating Site to a New Site

1.   Create New Site under parent

·         Open SharePoint Designer 2007, and open the root parent site where you want to create your subsite.

·         Go to File > Open Site.

·         Type in the URL of the SharePoint web in the folder field.

·         Click OK; the designer will try to open your web.

2.   In the Folder List column, right-click on the top folder, e.g. "http://mosstest/sites/WSSsitename"

3.   Select New > Subsite...

4.   In the Web Site Templates window that appears, select the 'Empty Web Site' template.

5.   On the right-side of the Web Site Templates window you will see a box titled 'Specify the location of the new Web site'. In this box you should see a URL like http://mosstest/sites/WSSsitename/subsite

6.   Change subsite to the name you want your new site to use

7.   This will build a new empty site, and should open a new Designer session showing the empty site.

8.   Restore WSS site using the Restore site steps.

Restore the SharePoint site

Warning: Using the Restore feature in Designer can overwrite existing content or data in a site if not used properly. You should always restore the .cmp file to an empty site

·         With your web open, go to Site > Administration > Restore Web Site....

·         Navigate to the backup file you created in Step 1

·         Click Open.

·         Designer will ask you to press OK to restore the template to your site. Click OK. The Site will proceed to restore.

If you have any queries/questions regarding the above mentioned information then please let me know. Thank you.

Upgrade to Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products from MOSS 2007 and WSS 3.0

When we plan for an upgrade from MOSS 2007 or WSS 3.0 to SharePoint 2010 Products, we have different upgrade approaches as building blocks that can be used for optimal upgrade approach.

In-place upgrade: Use this approach to install the new version of SharePoint 2010 products on the same hardware that is used for the previous version. Upgrade the content and settings in the server farm as part of a single process.

Databases attach upgrade: Use this approach to upgrade the content for the environment on a separate farm. It doesn't upgrade any of the services or farm settings. Content databases can be upgraded in any order and can upgrade several databases at the same time. Using this approach, its possible to attach a Shared Service Provider database during DB attach upgrade, this will upgrade the profile information in the database. Using this approach, it’s not possible to upgrade the search database.

Hybrid approaches: A hybrid approach lets us to take advantage of in-place upgrade's ability to upgrade content and settings, while we take advantage of the speed of a database attach upgrade. The advantages of this method is

·         Farm wide settings can be preserved and upgraded

·         Customizations are available in the environment after upgrade, although manual steps may be required to upgrade or rework

We can upgrade multiple content databases at the same time, which results in faster upgrade times overall than an in-place upgrade. For more information on Upgrade Process please refer to http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262483(office.14).aspx 

Role of Excel Services in SharePoint 2010

Excel Services is part of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010

Excel Services is built on ASP.NET and SharePoint Foundation technologies

Excel Services enables you to load, calculate, and display Microsoft Excel workbooks on Microsoft SharePoint Server

Core Components are:-

·         Excel Web Access

·         Excel Web Services

·         User-defined functions (UDFs)

·         ECMAScript (JavaScript, JScript)

·         Representational State Transfer (REST) service

·         Excel Calculation Services

An important aspect of Excel Services is that solution developers can use its power programmatically from their applications.

There are five types of development that you can do by using Excel Services:

·         Develop solutions by using Excel Web Services

·         Extend the Microsoft Excel function library in Excel Services by using user-defined functions (UDFs)

·         Customize the Excel Web Access Web Part

·         Develop solutions by using ECMAScript (JavaScript, JScript)

·         Use the REST API to perform operations against Excel workbooks

It supports sharing, securing, managing, and using Excel 2010 workbooks in a browser by providing the following:

Global settings for managing workbooks,

·         settings for security

·         load balancing

·         session management

·         memory utilization

·         workbook caches,

·         external data connections

·         Trusted file locations

An extensive list of trusted data providers for connecting to your data, plus the ability to add your own trusted data provider.

·         Trusted data connection libraries, which allow you to define which data connection libraries in your farm are trusted by Excel Services

·         The ability to add your own user-defined function assemblies.

SHAREPOINT LIBRARIES 2010

Library:

·         Container for creating, organizing, managing different document types (Word documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms etc).

·         To store files, Meta information about the files.

·         Used among different team members.

·         By default a Shared Library is created when a site is created.

·         Additionally any number of different types of libraries can be created.

Specialized library types in SP 2010

To store specific content  types.

·         Asset Library:

To create a rich media library.

To create, browse, share, organize and manage images, audio and video files.

·         Data Connection Library:

To create, browse, share, organize and manage files that contain information about connecting to external data connections.

Document Library:

To create, browse, share, organize, and manage documents or other files.

For creating folders, versioning of documents and check-in/check-out of files.

Form Library:

To store and manage Microsoft Office InfoPath forms/ XML files for use with Microsoft Office InfoPath(business forms like a status report, purchase orders, etc).

Picture Library:

To upload, share pictures with others.

Includes a built-in image viewer.

Report Library:

To create web pages, reports to track business metrics, goals, KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and business intelligence information.

Slide Library:

To create a library for storing and sharing Microsoft PowerPoint slides.

Wiki Page Library:

To create, store customizable pages of content that are linked together and can be edited by several people

Warm up your SharePoint Web Applications on Windows 2008 R2 using the IIS 7.5 Application Warm-Up module

I have just recently built a new SharePoint 2007 farm on a complete Windows 2008 R2 server platform and part of my standard build procedure is to implement a warm up routine, usually in the form of a script that is scheduled every morning to launch my SharePoint Web Applications.  Most of you will most likely know what I am referring to here, the slowness that end users experience when loading a SharePoint site for the first time in the morning!?

By default IIS will recycle its worker processes during the night, in my case IIS 7.5 tells me this happens at 1:04 AM.  You can locate this information in IIS Manager / Application Pools / Highlight your application pool in question and select Recycling under Actions / Edit Application Pool.

So what is recycling all about?  Here is a brief primer;

Recycling is all about stopping any current w3wp.exe processes that are running for a particular Web Application Pool and starting a new one.  The purpose of this maintenance routine is to clear the cache and start afresh! This routine obviously causes SharePoint to be quite slow when accessed for the first time after the recycling process.  This is because when accessing a SharePoint Site/Page for the first time, that information needs to be re-compiled and loaded into memory again.

So what can we do about this first time slowness that occurs every morning?  Wake SharePoint up!

There are arrays of scripts that have been developed by 3rd party developers that can be scheduled to run straight after the recycle occurs.  These scripts are usually required to be modified for your Web applications in question.

With the introduction of IIS 7.5 and Windows 2008 R2 however, there is an actual module developed by the IIS team that will integrate directly with IIS allowing you to seamlessly enable your application pools to load your web applications after a recycle occurs.  You can download the extension here; http://www.iis.net/expand/ApplicationWarmUp At the time of this writing, the Application Warm-Up module is still in beta, but I have been using it on our production servers for over a month without any hiccups.

So let’s begin our step by step guide.  Download and launch the executable from the above site.

Click Install and then click Finish.  As you can see, the installation process is quite simple.

Launch IIS Manager and click on one of your SharePoint Sites.  In the middle pane, you will notice a new item listed under IIS titled, Application Warm-Up.

Double Click on Application Warm-Up.

Under Actions located on the far right pane, select Settings

Ensure that both options available are selected and ticked.

We also now need to add a request which is usually the main page of your SharePoint Site.  This is achieved under Actions, Select Add Request and enters the URL of your SharePoint Site.

The last area that you will need to venture into is also located under Actions / Edit User Context.  Here you will need to specify your Authentication settings, otherwise the module will not work and you will receive the below warning message in your Windows Application Even Log.

Log Name:      Application
Source:        IIS Application Warmup Module
Date:          8/03/2010 7:31:43 AM
Event ID:      1003
Task Category: None
Level:         Warning
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      SERVERNAME

Description:
The description for Event ID 1003 from source IIS Application Warmup Module cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.

If the event originated on another computer, the display information had to be saved with the event.

The following information was included with the event:

/default.aspx
MACHINE/WEBROOT/APPHOST/SharePoint Central Administration v3/
Unauthorized

Here I have specified “Set Username and Type only” for the mode and “Windows” for the Type.  Lastly, specify an account that has access to load the SharePoint Web Application

That’s all that is to it.  All you need to do now is replicate this for each SharePoint Web application on each of your SharePoint Web Front Ends.

This neat little module has a number of advantages over scheduled scripts as it seamlessly warms up your SharePoint Web applications regardless of when the Application Pool is recycled including when you re-start your servers or re-start IIS.  Please note, this little module also works with all ASP.Net applications!

Before I let you go, if you are after a neat utility for IIS7, Spencer Harbar has developed an Application Pool Recycle Utility which also incorporates a Warm Up tool  You can download it here; http://www.harbar.net/articles/apm.aspx

Resources

IIS.Net – Application Warm up http://www.iis.net/expand/ApplicationWarmUp

IIS.Net – Using the IIS Application Warm-Up Module http://learn.iis.net/page.aspx/688/using-the-iis-application-warm-up-module/