How DPM 2007 SP1 helps protecting SharePoint

Hi Geeks,

Its great We as SharePoint lovers have fantastic news on backup and restore. My company relies on SharePoint for most of the operations. As SharePoint techies we are looking for a better way to protect and recover their collaboration infrastructures. God listens to our prayers, now Microsoft also has listened to our voices and delivered a complete solution with System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) 2007.

It is not only protecting SharePoint also focused on the primary Microsoft server workloads, DPM 2007 was specifically built to protect and recover SharePoint platforms, Microsoft Exchange Server, SQL Server™, Microsoft Virtual Server, as well as Windows file services. In addition, DPM 2007 blends the best aspects of continuous data protection (CDP) with traditional tape backup. DPM 2007 continuously protects the core Microsoft server workloads to a DPM server, which then provides disk-based recovery and tape-based, long-term archival storage for a complete data protection and recovery solution.

After implementing DPM 2007 SP1 at my office I feel very comfortable and safe, it’s like I’m hiring some on who can take care my day to day activities.

Most interesting thing is DPM presents the data to be protected in the same context as users access it. In DPM 2007, platform owners can manage backups from the perspective of the application. SharePoint administrators simply select the farm to be protected; DPM understands what components need to be backed up.

Similarly, SQL Server administrators choose databases, Exchange administrator’s select storage groups, and managers of virtual environments choose virtual machines and file server owners choose file shares.

Because DPM was designed specifically for SharePoint, DPM understands the advanced and distributed architectures of SharePoint technologies that often cause other data protection tools to fail:

• When the topology changes – DPM adapts. Leveraging the technology within the SharePoint Volume Shadowcopy Service (VSS) writer, when Content Databases on any SQL Server are added/deleted to the SharePoint infrastructure, the DPM server is made aware of it and can adapt. The DPM administrator simply acknowledges the notification within the DPM administrative console and the new server will be protected on the next scheduled SharePoint backup.

• SharePoint is diverse – but DPM is consistent. There are several different kinds of data within a SharePoint infrastructure that must all be protected for the farm to be adequately protected – including SQL Server databases, metadata within the web servers and farm configuration server, as well as files that maintain the indexes for Enterprise Search. Data Protection Manager provides a comprehensive backup solution that encompasses all of those data types across multiple platforms, to help deliver a complete backup solution of the entire SharePoint infrastructure.

• SharePoint backup can be challenging – DPM makes it simple. Microsoft has heard from our customers that while SharePoint’s infrastructure is empowering to its users, many legacy backup products are unable to satisfy their backup goals. To ensure the success and satisfaction of Microsoft SharePoint customers, Microsoft has focused on delivering a reliable protection and recovery solution with DPM 2007 that truly understands the specific needs for SharePoint protection and meets them.

In addition, DPM 2007 also helps protect SharePoint 2003 and Windows SharePoint Services 2.0, which did not provide a native VSS writer capability. To meet those needs, DPM protects the underlying SQL Server databases and the metadata that completes the solution.

How does DPM 2007 protect SharePoint data

After the initial baseline copy of data, DPM routinely performs ―express full‖ backups which utilize the SharePoint VSS writer, and underlying component VSS writers, to identify which blocks have changed in the entire production farm and content databases – and only sends the updated blocks or fragments. This provides a complete and consistent image of the data files on the DPM server or appliance. DPM 2007 maintains up to 512 shadow copies containing only the granular changes between one SharePoint backup and the next.

· Restore the SharePoint Farm

The entire configuration from the farm and the content databases can be restored back to the original platform(s) – including the Configuration Database, Administration Content Database and the Content Databases that were backed up in the Point-In-Time selected.

· Restore a Content Database

DPM 2007 can restore a single content database back within the SharePoint farm.

· Copy to a network folder or tape for archival purposes

One can also simply take the files from SharePoint and restore them to a network folder for manual purposes or to their own tape for archival or delivery to an auditor.

DPM 2007 restores the selected data set into the Recovery Farm, and then properly manages moving that document from the Recovery Farm back in to the production farm – all from within a single DPM recovery wizard.

• · Restore a Site Collection
• · Restore a Site
• · Restore an individual document

Here I have some screen shots of my DPM environment.

Posted 06-20-2009 7:29 AM by Vinoj - Skyscraper | with no comments

Finally we have one place to download all SharePoint learning resources

Downloadable content for Office SharePoint Server 2007

Updated: 2009-04-30

Some of the content in the Office SharePoint Server technical library is available in downloadable and printable form as Microsoft Office Word documents .doc files. The content in these books is a copy of selected content in the Office SharePoint Server technical library [ http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=84739 ] http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=84739 as of the date listed for each book. For the most current content, see the technical library on the Web.

In this article:

• Getting Started
• Planning
• Deployment
• Operations
• Security
• Solutions

Getting started

Planning

Deployment

Operations

Security

Solutions

Tags: moss sharepoint 

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Posted 06-18-2009 1:36 AM by Vinoj - Skyscraper | with no comments

How to install SharePoint (MOSS 2007) Step by Step Guide

Hi all

This is just a  try to make this SharePoint installation easy for the new comer’s, there ware days in late 2002 ware I was searching for  such documents to install SharePoint ware I didn’t find any in the web.

Hope this is usefull.....

Posted 06-13-2009 12:38 AM by Vinoj - Skyscraper | with no comments

Introduction to SharePoint Site Veriation

Introduction

This article provides a detailed overview of the multilingual options and features available in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. It starts with the concepts and moves on with an illustration of how to actually create a complete multilingual site.

Background

One of the limitations in SharePoint Portal Server 2003 was limited support of language configuration for multilingual websites. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 removes this limitation to a large extent by fully supporting multilingual websites. This is achieved by using language packs and site variations. This feature of MOSS enables administrators and site owners to create sites in multiple languages without requiring multiple installations of Office SharePoint Server 2007.

Outline

I have divided this article logically into two different sections. The first section discusses different concepts that one must know to be able to create and configure multilingual options in MOSS. The second part actually details the steps needed to create a professional MOSS multilingual website. The major discussion points of this article are:

• Default Language
• Language IDs
• Language Packs
• Site Variations
• Step by Step Procedure of configuring multilingual websites

What You Need to Know

Default Language

Office SharePoint Server itself comes in different languages. By this I mean that the media (installation) can be in different languages like English, Arabic, French etc. This allows the deployment of MOSS in that particular language and this is called the default language- the one in which Central Administration will be displayed. So before deploying MOSS, it is better to analyze the different end-user requirements to determine in which language the Central Administration site should be; and to install the same localized version of MOSS.

You can later on apply language packs. Applying language packs doesn't change the language of Central Admin itself.

Language Identifiers

Language IDs are unique Identifiers that represent a particular language. Some of the language identifiers are shown below:

Before installing a language pack, first visit the folder c:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\template\

You will find a folder with the language ID of the default language. For example: if you are using the English version of MOSS, you will find a directory with the name 1033.

Language Packs

As discussed previously in this article, when you install MOSS in a specific language, this language becomes the default language for the creation of site collections and sites. So far so good! Now, what if you need to create a particular site or sites in a different language? What if the sites should be created in more than one language and the selected site language depends on user preferences?

Language Packs is the answer. Language packs are language specific site templates that allow creation of sites in multiple languages. After installing the language packs, the site creation page will add an option of specifying which language to create the site in.

Site Variations

In most multilingual scenarios, there is one primary language (the language in which most of the content authors are fluent) and one or more secondary language (the languages to be used by end users). Usually, content is created in the primary language but other localized sites also need to have the same content in their own languages. It will, of course, be impossible to create each and every piece of content, the sub-sites and pages manually in each language.

Site Variation is a concept that allows automatic mirroring of content from source sites (in one language-the primary language) to the destination sites (in secondary languages). While configuring the site variations, you specify the source language and the target language. The number of these languages is limited by the number of language packs installed. There are however some limitations with this feature which most of the people are not aware of when they start working with variations:

• Site Variations only copy the content. There is no automatic translation from one language to another. However, this can be done using workflows and custom development.
• Site Variations only work for publishing content and pages. This is important to know as it will not copy the document libraries, news and other web parts that are not part of the site template. Even sites, other than the publishing template will not be mirrored.
• The content only appears in the target site when it gets approved in the source site.

Steps to Configure Multiple Languages in MOSS

Step 1: Install the language files on all WFE Operating Systems

This step is necessary to install the language specific files for the operating system like the Keyboard files and fonts etc. For this, go to the Regional and Language Options in the Control Panel , in the Languages tab, add the necessary supplemental language support which installs the necessary files needed

For example, If you need to provide sites in Arabic, you need to select 'Install files for Complex Script and Right to Left Languages'

Step 2: Install Office SharePoint Server 2007

Install MOSS in the desired language and run the SharePoint Products and Technologies configuration wizard.

Step 3: Install Language Packs

Now you need to install the language pack of the desired language. Please note that language packs come in separate packages i.e. one language pack setup per installation, so if you need more than one language, multiple language packs need to be installed. Make sure the language pack is of the same language you need and you are installing the 'MOSS language pack' and not one of the 'WSS language packs'

Step 4: Rerun the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard

This should be done with the default options selected.

As soon as you successfully install a language pack in a particular language, a folder with the respective language ID is created in c:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\template\

For example: If you are currently running the English version of MOSS and you install the Arabic language pack, you will now find two folders in this hierarchy, one is 1033 (for English- the default language) and the other is 1025 (the Arabic language).

Step 5: Create the site with the new language

You should notice that the site creation wizard now includes another option to select the language to create the site in.

Step 6: Enable Site Variations

• Go to Site Settings->Site Collection Administration
• Click 'Variations'
• Select '/' to create variations for the top level site
• Leave all other options to default settings and Click 'OK'

Step 7: Configure Variation Labels

• Go to Site Settings->Site Collection Administration
• Click 'Variation Labels'
• On the' Variation Labels' screen, click 'New Label' and create an English label

• On the' Variation Labels' screen, click 'New Label' and create an Arabic label

Step 8: Create Hierarchies

• On the' Variation Labels' screen, click 'Create Hierarchies'
• The wizard automatically creates hierarchies for sites and sub sites and pairs them as well.

Step 9: View the Variation Log

• Go to Site Settings->Site Collection Administration
• Click 'Variation Logs'
• Look at the Variation Log Entries and find the pairing of sites

Step 10: Change the Browser Language and view the site in different languages

Now as the variation hierarchy is created, you can view the site in different languages (English and Arabic) in our case. For this, use the URLs you saw in the Variation Log .

One more thing to note is that if you use the default URL of the site, you will be redirected to the variation that corresponds to the default language of the browser. Try changing the browser language to Arabic and check. This shows that you can redirect different users to the same site in different languages based on user preferences.

Step 11: Edit the Page in source language and observe the results

You are now ready to go with multilingual sites created in MOSS. Try to add some content to the content editor web part by using the Edit Page option. After the change, don't forget to Publish.

After a few minutes, if you see the varied site in Arabic, you should find the same content copied there.

Conclusion

Office SharePoint Server 2007 is intended for enterprise users and provides a collaboration and content management platform. This platform has to provide support for multiple languages to be able to serve users from around the globe having unique cultures and languages. Site Variations and language packs go a long way in enabling multiple languages for a SharePoint Publishing website.

Posted 06-06-2009 2:22 PM by Vinoj - Skyscraper | with no comments

SharePoint (Web) hosting using Silverlight Contents

Dear Geeks,

I Was doing some trial and error using SharePoint and Silverlight for some project management tracking(Those finding I will write later), Once I installed the Silverlight content there is nothing displaying on the screen. On my client browser I installed Silverlight plug-in (I was expecting the content to be appeared) no luck. Then I started digging into it, I found Microsoft has released a KB article for this for IIS 6, I found this very useful.

1^st Steps

Open the IIS Microsoft Management Console (MMC), right-click the local computer name, and then click Properties.

Click MIME Types.

Click New.

In the Extension box, type the file name extension that you want (for example, .pdb).

In the MIME Type box, type application/octet-stream.

Apply the new settings. Note that you must restart the World Wide Web Publishing Service or wait for the worker process to recycle for the changes to take effect. In this example, IIS now serves files with the .pdb extension.

2^nd Step

Open the IIS Microsoft Management Console (MMC), right-click the local computer name, and then click Properties.

Click MIME Types.

Click New.

In the Extension box, type an asterisk (*).

In the MIME Type box, type application/octet-stream.

Apply the new settings. Note that you must restart the World Wide Web Publishing Service or wait for the worker process to recycle for the changes to take effect.

For your reference see the KB pasted below

After applying the Mime content type everything started displaying fine.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/326965 IIS 6

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc725608.aspx IIS 7

here is the screen shot

Posted 06-06-2009 5:03 AM by Vinoj - Skyscraper | with no comments

SharePoint on SharePoint

Now Microsoft SharePoint is Built on SharePoint, Its great work by the SharePoint Product Manager and the Team.
Congrats Good work.

Here's the URL: http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/Pages/Default.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2009/05/20/sharepoint-on-sharepoint-launch-of-new-sharepoint-website.aspx

Posted 06-06-2009 4:52 AM by Vinoj - Skyscraper | with no comments

PDF icon with SharePoint

SharePoint doesn't not come with a default PDF icon.

I have explained here how to install pdf Icon.

• right click to download image
• save icon to (C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\template\images) and rename the file to icpdf.gif
• open the file docicon.xml you should find
• it here : C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\template\xml\docicon.xml
• Simply add this mapping key
• 
• save the file docicon.xml then restart IIS do not force.

wow now you can see the pdf icon represents pdf docs in your portal.

Posted 06-06-2009 4:51 AM by Vinoj - Skyscraper | with no comments

Important Information on SharePoint Service Pack 2

We take product quality seriously and make every effort to avoid and resolve issues that adversely impact our customers. Unfortunately, we have recently discovered a bug with Service Pack 2 (SP2) that affects all customers that have deployed it for SharePoint Server 2007.

During the installation of SP2, a product expiration date is improperly activated. This means SharePoint will expire as though it was a trial installation 180 days after SP2 is deployed. The activation of the expiration date will not affect the normal function of SharePoint up until the expiration date passes. Furthermore, product expiration 180 days after SP2 installation will not affect customer's data, configuration or application code but will render SharePoint inaccessible for end-users.

We are working to release a hotfix to automatically fix this issue. A manual work-around is currently available and involves customers re-entering their Product ID number (PID) on the Convert License Type page in Central Administration. For more information and detailed steps please read this KB article. (The KB link is not currently active, it will be available within the next 48hrs)

We want to assure our customers that this issue does not impact data integrity or their SharePoint deployment in any other way.

For your convenience, below are some answers to questions that you may have and we will update this blog post with a link to the hotfix as soon as it's available.

We apologize for any inconvenience this issue may cause you.


Q&A

Which products are affected by this?
Applying Service Pack 2 to any of the following products will result in this issue: Office SharePoint Server 2007, Project Server 2007, Form Server 2007, Search Server 2008 and Search Server 2008 Express.
Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is not affected by this issue.

What can I do to fix it?
To work around this issue customers will need to re-enter their Product ID numbers (PID) on the Convert License Type page in Central Administration. Please see this KB article for detailed steps. (The KB link is not currently active, it will be available within the next 48hrs)

Customers can also wait for the hotfix (available for free from http://support.microsoft.com) to resolve this issue.

Product ID numbers (PIDs) can be retrieved by logging into the Volume Licensing Service Center.

Note: For Search Server 2008 Express the only way to resolve this issue is to apply the hotfix.

What is Microsoft doing to fix it?
Microsoft is working on a hotfix and public update for the product. We will update this blog post with details and a link to the hotfix as soon as it is available.

Do I need to update all of the servers in my farm?
No. The Product ID number only needs to be entered once.

What if I haven't installed SP2 yet but want to? What should I do?
You can continue to plan for and install Service Pack 2 for SharePoint Server 2007 with the additional step of re-entering your Product ID number after the installation is complete by following the instructions in this KB article. (The KB link is not currently active, it will be available within the next 48hrs)

Does this issue impact anything else?
The issue only activates the product expiration date. The activation of the expiration date does not affect the normal function of SharePoint up until the expiration date passes, at which point SharePoint will be inaccessible for end-users. This issue does not affect customer's data, configuration or application code.

I can't find/don't know my original PID, where can I find it?
Product ID numbers (PIDs) can be retrieved by logging into the Volume Licensing Service Center.

Posted 06-06-2009 4:48 AM by Vinoj - Skyscraper | with no comments