Today I will focus on the setup of Active Directory Domain Services setup and the configuration of a new Domain Controller.

1. Log into your Windows Server and start the Server manager.

That’s it! In the next post, I’ll discuss how to install SQL 2012 Business Intelligence with Reporting Services, Power View, and PowerPivot for SharePoint.

Happy CloudSharing!

Chris Riley and CloudShare will be attending and/or presenting at the following 4 events this summer and you’re invited! Don’t like Chris? Attend just to make fun of him…we do it all the time. We’ll be offering special promos to conference attendees – more details on that later.

CloudShare’s summer calendar:

June 2, 2012 – SharePoint Saturday  Silicon Valley. Register Now.

July 7, 2012 – SharePoint Saturday Toronto. Register Now.

July 8-12, 2012 – Microsoft World Partner Conference Toronto. Register Now.

July 22-25, 2012 – SP TechCon Boston. Register Now.

Why are you still reading this? Go and register already!

• As always, you first need to access your CloudShare account and start one of your available environments.

• Once your environment is ready, open VS 11 Beta. Create a new project by clicking on File –> New Project.

• In the “Add New Project” window, go to the SharePoint section under Visual C# project category. Click on the “2010″ project templates and select “SharePoint 2010 Project.” Provide a name for the project and the solution and click OK.
• In the “SharePoint Customization Wizard” window, specify your local SharePoint 2010 site for testing purposes. Leave deployment type as “Deploy as a sandboxed solution” and click “Finish.”

• Once the project creation process has completed you will see the complete solution structure in VS 11 Beta Solution Explorer.
• Select the name of the project and right click “Add –> Add New Item.” In the “Add New Item”window, select “Site Column”  item template, add a name and click the “Add” button.

• Now a SharePoint Project Item (SPI) for the site column has been added to the VS 11 Beta Solution. The SPI contains the XML definition of a basic site column (TEXT type). We can modify and configure this definition by changing some of the attributes defined in the site column schema. For instance, we can change the site column type, name, or description. Once you have finished site column modifications, save your changes.

• Next we will add a Content Type element to our solution. Select the name of the project in VS 11 Beta, right click “Add–> Add New Item.” In the “Add New Item” window, select the “Content Type” item template, add a name, and press the “Add” button.

• The next window in the SharePoint Customization wizard allows you to choose parent content type to be used as a foundation for our custom content type. SharePoint content types use an inheritance system which means each content type inherits its basic definition from a parent – site columns, workflows, etc. Just select the “item” content type as parent one and press the “Finish” button in the wizard.

• In this case, the content type SPI added to the solution contains a single XML file with its definition. The new improvements here are related to the new Content Type designer that allows you to visually configure your content type. For example, the columns tab in the designer permits you to add existing or custom site columns (contained in current solution) to the content type definition.

• You can always return to the XML view of your content type and check how VS11 Beta is doing the configuration work behind the scenes.

• In the content type designer view we can add the custom site column that was created before and fix it as needed. We can also configure existing site columns inherited from the parent content type.

• After saving the changes you’ve made to content type, you can switch back to XML view and see how VS 11 Beta has added your changes to the content type definition. In this case, references to the site columns have been updated in the definition.

• Now through the visual designer we can configure other content type attributes such as name, description, or visibility.

• As always, once everything is ready, build the complete solution and prepare to publish your solution to the cloud. Right click and select “Publish.”
• In the “Publish” window, specify the URL of the SharePoint OnPremise or SharePoint Online site.
• Once the solution is published, go to the Solutions gallery in your SharePoint site, activate the solution and double check your work:
• First, ensure the custom site column is displayed in the Site column gallery of your site

• Second, check that the content type has been added to the content type gallery in your site.

And that’s how to create and deploy custom site columns and content types using the new list designer included in VS 11 Beta. Happy CloudSharing!

If you are a developer or an IT manager, it’s important that you understand taxonomy and its role in ECM.  Why?  Because it is very likely you have been or will be asked to implement ECM. Without knowing the what’s, why’s, and how’s, you will get nowhere.  It’s shocking to me how many organizations demand that ECM be implemented by their SharePoint Developers, Architects, and IT Managers, without considering that ECM is not actually an IT concept.

What:  Taxonomy is a component of Enterprise Content Management ( ECM ).  ECM is the methodology ( NOT TECHNOLOGY ) for capturing, storing, securing, and actualizing content.  Taxonomy is the logical organization of content in an ECM system, such as SharePoint.  This should not be confused with information architecture, which is the physical + logical storage of content.  Taxonomy is an extremely strict, preset, static, and mandatory part of contributing any content to the system.  There are different types of taxonomy, the most common being Regional, Functional, and Time Based.

Why:  In my opinion EVERY organization needs taxonomy.  If you are a public company or in a regulated space there are legal reasons for taxonomy.  If not, taxonomy should be used to keep your knowledge workers more effective when they locate and communicate organizational content.  If you’re involved in litigation, eDiscovery will allow you to prove to a judge that you have a valid system in place for content storage and retrieval.  A judge will never accept, “We couldn’t find all of the content because our search didn’t work.”

How:  Using SharePoint, taxonomy is implemented using the Managed Meta-Data Service ( MMS ).  Do not mistake MMS for taxonomy itself. Taxonomy is the practice; MMS is the technology used to execute that practice in SharePoint 2010.  MMS is also used for the more flexible Folksonomy ( read an argument between Chris McNulty and myself here on the differences between Taxonomy and Folksonomy ).  At minimum, companies will deploy taxonomies for functionality.  Those are created per department or function.  It takes 3 to 6 weeks to complete each taxonomy.  Here are some rules to follow when building your taxonomy.

• FIRST If your organization is not willing to put in the effort, don’t do it
• Add flexibility with synonyms, do not allow ad hoc terminology, OR use Taxonomy & Folksonomy
• Build taxonomies in committees consisting of users  (it must be in their language)
• Do not use the terms “Other” or  ”Miscellaneous”
• Do not use any transient terms ( once a term is set, it should never change )
• Terminology should never be classified in more than 4 levels
• Design in CSV and always use the CSV file as the master for each taxonomy ( when SharePoint 15 ( 2013 ) comes out you will be happy you did this )
• File shares are a good place to start, but are not the final solution
• Use a pre-built taxonomy as guide, not as an end-result (  here are some examples )
• Before implementing in SharePoint, have your users implement their taxonomy on content in share drives
• Allow the selection of only ONE term per taxonomy column
• Don’t call it “Taxonomy” call it something familiar such as, “Classification”
• Make the taxonomy column mandatory
• Don’t allow use of SharePoint Workspaces or Explorer view because this allows users to bypass taxonomy
• Do not allow users to change terms
• Don’t be afraid of multiple MMS columns if they are useful
• Each taxonomy should be it’s own term-store in MMS
• Set columns to show entire path of taxonomy in lists and libraries

Together, CloudShare and SharePoint play the role of a real decision support system (DSS). SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise Edition (EE) has a very attractive set of BI features and tools. CloudShare simplifies the process of setting up a business decision platform available through CloudShare Web Access.

The complete BI stack in SharePoint 2010 has elements like the integration of SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) and SharePoint, PerformancePoint scorecards available through PerformancePoint Services (PPS), quick access to Excel data through Excel Services, and other jewels like Access Services, Visio Services or the .NET Chart controls and Silverlight integration in SharePoint. CloudShare’s Information Worker VM Template allows you to try all of these capabilities so that you can quickly set up a DSS for your organization and provide simple access.

A review of the BI stack in SharePoint 2010 Insights:

• SSRS Integration with SharePoint 2010 – create rich and powerful reports using Report Builder of BI Management VIsual Studio. Consume legacy data (relational or dimensional), publish, and visualize your reports on SharePoint sites. Microsoft has simplified the integration process between SSRS (available from SQL Server 2005 – SQL Server 2012) and SharePoint, highly improving reports.
• The Report Builder is an excellent tool for the creation of reports based on various data sources (SQL Server, ORacle, SharePoint lists, etc.)

• Create a table, matrix, chart, or free style report using list type. For each report, you can create data groupings, define parameters, etc.

• Business Intelligence Center site collection template allows you to define a centralized location for the creation and publication of BI artifacts such as performance point scorecards, excel service sheets, etc.

• PerformancePoint Services available in SharePoint Serve 2010 EE allows you to create flexible and dynamic BI elements including scorecards, dashboards, and analytical charts. You can create KPIs for your organization, place on a scorecard, and publish to a dashboard.
• Here are the steps for creating these elements using the Dashboard Designer:
• Ensure you have properly configured PPS using either SharePoint 2010 Central Admin or PowerShell cmdlets.
• Run the Dashboard Designer from your SharePoint site and define a first data source.
• Decide which PPS artifact you’d like to create.
• Create a dashboard for the location of any created artifacts (OPTIONAL)
• Finally, publish PPS elements to your SharePoint site

• Excel Services facilitate the publication of Excel sheets or workbooks to SharePoint, accessible through an Internet browser. You can create Pivot Tables, charts, and more in Excel 2010 and publish to Excel services.

• Visio Services permit the publication of Visio diagrams to a SharePoint site. Diagrams can be static or dynamic depending on the data source.

• Access Services define a mechanism for the creation and publication of Access Web databases to SharePoint sites.  You cannot use Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) to add business logic to the application. You have to use the new XML Data macro instead. Also, you should be aware of the process when publishing your application to SharePoint:
• Tables are converted to SharePoint lists
• Data macros are converted to JavaScript functions
• Access reports are converted to SSRS reports
• Data forms are converted to ASP.Net forms

• Other Cool BI Stuff:

• .NET Chart control native integration in SharePoint 2010 so you can use the existing Chart Web Part or create custom Web Parts.

• Silverlight native integration in SharePoint 2010 means you can use the Silverlight toolkit available with Codeplex to create rich data visualizations
• XSLT magic applied to custom list views
• BI Search through FAST capabilities, permitting the search od BI data inside BI elements.
• PowerPivot and PowerView (available with SQL Server 2010 integration) for data analysis and self-service BI.

For you regular readers, you’re probably thinking, “Wait, today’s not a release day.  You’re off schedule!” You’re right.  We are.  We shifted releases by a week, but now we’re back to our regular two week release cycle.  So if you mark your calendars like I do with, “Super CloudShare Release Day!” go ahead and shift it one week forward. We’ve done this because some big things are cooking behind the scenes.  Big features are on the way.  In the meantime, we’re focusing on templates.

The first new template is an un-configured SharePoint 2010 Enterprise environment.  The majority of our templates follow a standard amount of configuration.  We do this with a combination of a standard AutoSPInstaller script ( available in the tools library ) and some manual configuration.  Our goal with these templates is to hit 90% of the common SharePoint Development and testing use cases and leave 10% up to your expertise.  SharePoint is a platform with thousands of pulleys and leavers. We do our best, but we know we might miss something which can result in “Template Rage.”

One of the SharePoint best practices is to NOT use the built-in configuration wizard and script your own deployment with tools like PowerShell, AutoSPInstaller, or ShareSquared’s SharePoint Composer and Maestro ( all available in the solution showcase “Tools” section ).  This best practice is in order to avoid not having GUID in your database names, setting up services with the proper application pools, etc., etc.

We know many of your are not just developing web parts or information architecture.  Many of you are also testing platform deployments and configurations.  For example, configuring a SharePoint 2010 farm relative to your MOSS deployment.  We’ve created a new Machine Template with SharePoint 2010 Enterprise installed, but without configuration, in order to give you more control.  This will allow you to use your own scripts or a manual configuration to build out your farm exactly how YOU want it.

Next up is an SQL 2012 Standard template.  We are in the process of adding a version of ALL the SharePoint templates with SQL 2012.  But for now we give you an SQL 2012 Standard stand-alone template.

Do you have a template request!?  Cool, tell us here.

We are excited about the slew of new templates that will be released soon.  Happy CloudSharing!

4/16/2012
- New Sharing UI

4/2/2012
- Tool Library
- New Templates

3/18/12
- Revert Individual Machines
- Revert Suspended Environments

3/4/12
- New Website
- iPhone Support

2/19/12
- Walling of trial users
- Secure FTP

2/5/12
- Added port range 8000-8010 to Web Access

1/22/12
- Enabled support for more external agents over Web Access

1/7/12
- Support for Safari on Mac and iPad iOS

12/25/11
- Compressed content over web access – improved performance

12/11/11
- More granularity during environment resume

11/27/11
- Port 8080 open for Web Access
- SharePoint alternate access maps configured automatically

11/13/11
- Ability to Copy Environments

So, how do we test all of our code in two weeks? We cheat – we do it in four weeks! Remember, for each staggered release, we have two weeks of development and two weeks of testing. So we do some of our testing during the two weeks of development.

Actually, we do most of our testing during the two weeks of development. Moreover, testing is so critical to our development process that about half of the time developing the code is actually spent on writing automated tests for the code that we are writing!

By the time the product reaches the final two weeks of testing, it’s already been extensively tested. And since all of the previously written tests are running, we’re not just testing the code we wrote in the allotted two weeks, but also all previously written code.

Unfortunately, testing during the development phase cannot be as extensive as  testing during the testing phase. Testing during the development phase, usually called “unit testing”, tests the components of the system separately from one another, but does not test all of the components integrated together. Which is why there is final testing – to find bugs that are a result of integration between the various units.

So let’s discuss the two types of testing:

• Development testing – the testing we do during development
• Final testing – the testing we do during the testing phase

Development Testing

Developers don’t just write code, they have to test it. There are traditionally two ways of testing code:

• Running the application and manually testing what you wrote
• Writing code that tests the code you just wrote

Back in the old days, most development was done the first way – by manually testing the application. It’s the easiest way, the fastest way, and when the application isn’t too large, it’s good enough. And when all we had was 640K of memory, the application really couldn’t be large.

But applications have grown larger (and larger, and larger). To really test new programs, you can’t just run them on your computer in seconds. Nope. Their startup time is measured in minutes. All developers rely on a fast code/compile/run/find bugs/debug cycle. If that cycle is measured in minutes, their productivity is dampened in a major way.

It gets even more complicated – most new applications are not self-contained. They need a web-server to run, a database to connect to, and lots of other external components. In our case, we need a whole VM infrastructure (VMWare) to run. This means that the developer station cannot contain all of these components. And running them all together makes testing v..e…r…y….. s……l…….o………w…………

Not agile at all.

So, what to do? Unit testing. In unit testing we takes chunks of our code (a “unit”) and we test it by writing more code that runs the unit and checks that it’s doing what it needs to do. For example – if we have code that tests for the validity of a phone number, we write a test that pits it against various valid and invalid phone numbers, and check that it returns the correct result. Another example is code that registers a user. We write a test that runs the code and supplies it with various users to register (e.g. a valid user, an invalid user, an existing user…) and check that the result is OK – the correct data is to be found in the database. A third example would be testing the code that creates an environment.

Mocking

The second and third example are important. Let’s start by looking at the second example. In it, the code that is being tested is accessing the database. But, didn’t I say above that accessing external components is precisely what we are trying to avoid with unit testing?

Well, yes and no. We’re trying to avoid running all of the code with all of the external components. But if an external component is fast enough and small enough, we’re good with it. So, database, yes. But VMWare, no way! VMWare is too big to run on a developer machine, and while it is very fast, it is not fast enough for our unit tests.

So how do we run the third example, the test that checks that creating an environment works? We mock.

No, not that kind of mocking! The process of “mocking” is the process of creating code that fakes an external component. You can think of it as code that simulates whatever external component we need.

We don’t want to use VMWare in our tests so we create code (and lots of it) that simulates exactly how VMWare works. No, it won’t run a VM, but it will create, modify and delete the files that VMWare uses (using a mock filesystem running in RAM). It will “create snapshots” and “run” a virtual machine. And if a virtual machine is not registered, then it will refuse to “run” it. Just like VMWare does. Even more – since we’re writing the code, we can write all sorts of checks and assertions that even VMWare doesn’t have, and check our code more thoroughly than when testing using the real VMWare.

And VMWare is not the only external component we mock. We use storage managers like NetApp extensively, so we mock that. We have an external component that handles our routing needs, so we mock that too. In the end, we can run and test all our code without any external components.

It gets better – remember the three components of the CloudShare Universe? The Frontend, the Backend, and the VMWare infrastructure? We have already seen that testing the backend means mocking the VMWare infrastructure. But what about the Frontend? To test it, we also need to run the Backend code. But for the Frontend, the Backend feels like an external component.

So, the Frontend mocks the Backend! The Frontend team have created an elaborate simulation of the Backend, which behaves like the Backend, only much much faster. It can even simulate cases where the Backend fails, just to test what the behavior of the GUI is in these cases.

Aaarrggghh!

My editor told me not to write posts that are too long, and I haven’t yet covered Final Testing. Aaaarrggghh! Oh, well, see you next time, when we’ll be discussing Final Testing.

If you’re an IT manager or a developer and someone comes to you and says, “We need eDiscovery in SharePoint,” run for the hills!  This is something that cannot be done alone.  eDiscovery requires specific input from lawyers and records managers.

Who should care about eDiscovery?

Every company needs to have some conversation about eDiscovery because, let’s face it, litigation happens.  You have no choice on the matter if you are a public company or in a regulated industry.

Even if you are not public or regulated, you should consider eDiscovery for the very simple reason that IF litigation happens, it will cost you exponentially more to deal with a lawsuit than to implement an eDiscovery policy. Luckily, the discovery process is easy with SharePoint 2010.

eDiscovery in SharePoint is basically Search+.  Search + records management and hold tools.  A “hold” is what happens when you run eDiscovery on a particular topic.  When you “hold” content associated with that topic, you are locking down all related documents.  ”Hold in-place” will hold a document in the library it was found so users will see it, but will be unable to edit.  ”Hold and move” (recommended) is when a document is moved from it’s original location to a holding location.

Remember!  SharePoint is a platform not a magical problem solver.  You MUST first have an eDiscovery policy.  For example, your policy can state that the eDiscovery process is to first issue a memo, do the hold, and then notify when the hold has expired…or something along those lines.

You MUST consult with your lawyer on how to manage a “hold”.  For some companies it is deemed unacceptable to have a document permanently locked.  The policy must also include WHO can run eDiscovery.  In most companies, a records manager or a lawyer are the only people with the rights to run eDiscovery.  But, there is a caveat.  eDiscovery requires site collection administrator access at minimum and this can’t be given to just anyone. There is a work around to this, but it’s a bit of a trick.  There is a hidden list that manages who has access to eDiscovery features, and you can add individuals, such as a records manager, to that list without giving them administrator access.

Despite the ambiguity and these loopholes, eDiscovery is useful. Lawyers now in the face of litigation are using the eDiscovery strategy to validate the system of record, in this case SharePoint, and by proving the system, processes, policy, and content that come from that system.

What does all of this mean?  SharePoint has great features for eDiscovery, but it’s just a tool to help with one part of the process.  You must plan.  As with all things SharePoint, projects do not fail because of technology but instead they fail because of people and lack of planning.  This is the same with eDiscovery.  A plan is the most important step.  An eDiscovery policy should be a part of the information architecture and security plan in all SharePoint deployment companies, small or large.

Raphael’s post:

While I discussed general migration challenges in my previous blog, this blog addresses the fact that every new release (even just a service / support package) of SAP BusinessObjects needs intensive testing (by the way I’m not talking about versions in Ramp-Up but the regular available versions like currently BO 4.0 SP2). SAP seems to work based on the banana principle:

The product ripe with the consumer.

I could now elaborate on how bad this is and how much better other vendors do  (do they really?). But I won’t. I would like to share an opportunity of how you can better cope with the circumstance that you have to test, test and once again test whatever you do with SAP BusinessObjects before you “go live”.

When SAP provided its HANA developer environment to partners and customers I came first to know cloudshare. In the meanwhile I’m quite enthusiastic about cloudshare! It was never easier (and cheaper) for me to create development and test environments having the choice out of a multitude of machine templates and afterwards full admin rights on all machines. But the best thing about cloudshare is that you can easily share a virtual server environment with others for free (at least for a first period of two weeks).

This inspired me to create what finally was named the “ITX BO 4.x Migration Assessment Environment”. This is a virtual server environment in the cloud. It allows for quick and easy to use «hands-on» tests of current and upcoming releases of SAP BusinessObjects BI products. You can import parts (or everything) of an existing BO content from your XI 3.1 system into the XI 3.1 system in the cloud (using BIAR-Files). Afterwards you can decide whether you want to test a migration to BO BI 4.0 SP2 or BO BI 4.0 FP3 (or you can use it of course completely out of the context of a migration). You can get your own copy of the environment for free during two weeks. Afterwards you need a cloudshare.com subscription to further use it.

The environment also includes an installation of the products 360View+ and 360Eyes from GB and Smith (www.gbandsmith.com). I highly recommend these two products in order to streamline your migration. There will be another blog where I will detail on this.

The 5 Available Machines

The Migration Assessment Environment consists of five machines:

• BO XI 3.1 SP3 (Server + Client Tools)
• BO BI 4.0 SP2 (Server + Client Tools)
• BO BI 4.0 SP2 (Client Tools, Crystal Reports 2011, Crystal Reports for Enterprise, Dashboards etc.)
• BO BI 4.0 FP3 (Server + Client Tools + 360View+   + 360Eyes)
• BO BI 4.0 FP3 (Client Tools, Crystal Reports 2011, Crystal Reports for Enterprise, Dashboards)

Request your Free Copy

You’ll receive an invitation email directly from cloudshare.com including a link.

Register on Cloudshare.com

Afterwards you need to open a free account on cloudshare.com:

After your successful registration please log in to Cloudshare ProPlus. Your environment is already starting up… Click on «View environment» to see more details…

Wait until all machines are up and running. In the meanwhile read the description and get familiar with machine names etc.

Let’s «own» the environment. Click on the corresponding button! On the right side you have now much more options available. The cloudshare.com license is now valid for a longer time than only the original two days.

Testing BO BI 4.0 FP3

Let’s start with using the client tools and BI Launchpad of BI 4.0 FP3. Select «Fullscreen RDP» from the drop down menu of «CLOUDCLNT012»:

Find shortcuts to the available client tools on the desktop or in the start menu.

Some Hints for BO BI 4.0 SP02

• As always, you first need to access your CloudShare account and start one of your available environments.

• Once you have your environment ready, just open VS11 Beta. Create a new project by clicking on File —> New Project.

• In the New Project window, go to the SharePoint section under the Visual C# project category. Click on the 2010 project templates and select SharePoint Project. Provide a name for the project and the solution and click OK.

• In the SharePoint Customization Wizard window, specify your local SharePoint 2010 site for testing purposes, leave the deployment type as Deploy as a sandboxed solution, and click Finish.

• Once the project creation process ends, you will see the complete solution structure in VS11 Beta Solution Explorer
• Select the name of the project, right-click, and select Add —> Add New Item. In the Add New Item window, select the List Template, add a name to it, and click the Add button.

• The next window allows you to specify the basic configuration of your list:
• List Name
• Source List – existing template vs existing list
• Name your list and select, Customize the list based on option for creating the list definition.
• Click Finish in order to add the SPI to the project.

• As you can see in the solution explorer, the List SPI contains the following:
• A list instance based on the list schema you are going to build
• A manifest file to deploy the list schema
• The list schema itself

• VS 11 Beta offers a new list designer allowing you to visually design your list schema without having to fight the underlying XML structure. New options include:
• Modify existing list columns defined in the base schema
• Add new list columns (from site or from your project)
• Check existing content types
• Bind new content types

• If you click the Content Type button, you’ll see your current options in the list schema and you can add new content types defined in your project.

• The Views tab in the list designer allows you to configure the default view for your list and add new views. You can choose your fields and row limits.

• Finally, the list tab is intended for changing list configuration parameters, such as list schema name, description, or quick launch behavior.

• You can review the XML code (CAML code) being generated by the designer at any time.

• Once everything is ready, build the complete solution and prepare to publish your SharePoint solution to the cloud. Right click with your mouse and select Publish.
• In the Publish window, specify the URL of the SharePoint OnPremise or SharePoint Online site and press Publish.
• Once you have published, go to the Solutions gallery in your SharePoint site, activate the solution and test to ensure a list instance has been created and is ready to use.

• Now you know how to create and deploy a list definition and list instance using the new designer in VS 11 Beta.

Happy CloudSharing!