SharePoint 2013 training for IT pros

This Monday I have been talking with a friend-customer of mine about the SharePoint Certification exam 70-331 (Core Solutions of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013) and he asked me how to get prepared for this?

So, I just told him to read this book “Exam Ref 70-331: Core Solutions of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013″ as I did (http://it-ebooks.info/book/2518/), but after that, I really thought that it is not enough, because you must to have other certifications first and bla, bla, bla, but this is not the point I want to pass here.

First of all, you definitely should start from the beginning :-), so, I made some research on the internet and I just found this amazing Microsoft web site and I would like to share it with all of you guys:

Link: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/fp123606

I have summarized it here with each lesson and its link:

Module 1: SharePoint 2013 IT pro introduction and overview

Get an overview of key changes and new concepts in SharePoint Server 2013 and SharePoint Foundation 2013.

1. Overview of SharePoint 2013 features and scenarios for IT pros Video | Presentation

Module 2: SharePoint 2013 system requirements

Learn about the hardware and software requirements for SharePoint 2013 and supported browser levels and setup considerations.

1. SharePoint 2013 system requirements
2. Video | Presentation

Module 3: SharePoint 2013 architectural changes

Learn about key architectural changes in the SharePoint 2013 platform. We’ll highlight the most relevant changes from an overall architectural perspective.

1. Creating routing and throttling rules in SharePoint 2013 Video | Presentation
2. Overview of SharePoint 2013 analytics features and implementation Video | Presentation

Module 4: SharePoint 2013 server farms and site architecture planning

Plan for server farms and sites in SharePoint 2013. Learn about planning for the distributed cache, changes in alternate access mappings and self-service site creation, new features in themes, and new ways to share sites, lists, and libraries.

1. SharePoint 2013 distributed cache service Video | Presentation
2. SharePoint 2013 alternate access mapping and self-service site creation Video | Presentation
3. Change, test, and implement site collection themes in SharePoint 2013 Video | Presentation
4. Overview of SharePoint 2013 sharing including requesting and viewing permissions Video | Presentation

Module 5: Office Web Apps 2013 architecture and deployment

Learn about the new architecture and deployment model for Office Web Apps including architectural changes, deployment options, and operation aspects.

1. Overview of Office Web Apps 2013 Video | Presentation
2. Deploying Office Web Apps 2013 Video | Presentation
3. Managing Office Web Apps 2013 Video | Presentation

Module 6: SharePoint 2013 service application architecture and individual service applications

Get an overview of about changes in individual service applications in SharePoint 2013, including new service applications, general considerations, and changes in service application architecture.

1. Compare SharePoint 2013 and SharePoint 2010 service application architectures Video | Presentation
2. SharePoint 2013 changes and features in Access services Video | Presentation
3. SharePoint 2013 changes and features in the apps management service application Video | Presentation
4. SharePoint 2013 changes and features in Business Connectivity Services Video | Presentation
5. SharePoint 2013 changes and features in Excel services Video | Presentation
6. SharePoint 2013 changes and features in the User Profile service application Video | Presentation
7. Walkthrough SharePoint 2013 features in the new machine translation service Video | Presentation
8. SharePoint 2013 changes and features in PerformancePoint services Video | Presentation
9. SharePoint 2013 changes and features in Visio services Video | Presentation
10. Walkthrough SharePoint 2013 features in the work management service application Video | Presentation
11. SharePoint 2013 changes and features in Word automation service Video | Presentation

Module 7: SharePoint 2013 enterprise search overview

Learn about the redesigned Enterprise Search in SharePoint 2013 including architectural changes to physical and logical topologies, details about configuration options for crawling, content, and query.

1. SharePoint 2013 search architecture and topology changes and features Video | Presentation
2. SharePoint 2013 search crawl and content configuration changes and features Video | Presentation
3. SharePoint 2013 search query configuration changes and features Video | Presentation
4. SharePoint 2013 search results interface choices changes and features Video | Presentation

Module 8: SharePoint 2013 social features

Social is one of the largest investments in SharePoint 2013. New features and capabilities provide a better and more comprehensive story for social computing in SharePoint 2013. Get a walkthrough of social features in SharePoint 2013.

1. Overview of SharePoint 2013 social features Video | Presentation
2. SharePoint 2013 community sites and forums Video | Presentation
3. SharePoint 2013 My Site architecture and administration Video | Presentation
4. SharePoint 2013 My Site feeds walkthrough Video | Presentation
5. SharePoint 2013 My Site follow walkthrough Video | Presentation
6. SharePoint 2013 My Site personal libraries walkthrough Video | Presentation
7. SharePoint 2013 My Site My Tasks walkthrough Video | Presentation

Module 9: SharePoint 2013 enterprise content management and web content management considerations

Get an overview of key changes and improvements in enterprise content management (ECM) and web content management (WCM) in SharePoint 2013. Learn about new capabilities from eDiscover improvements to major new capabilities for WCM-driven sites.

1. SharePoint 2013 Enterprise Content Management walkthrough Video | Presentation
2. SharePoint 2013 Web Content Management walkthrough Video | Presentation
3. SharePoint 2013 managed metadata walkthrough Video | Presentation

Module 10: SharePoint 2013 customization options and management

Learn about the new customization capabilities in SharePoint 2013 and what that means from IT pro perspective. Learn about required infrastructural changes for new customization capabilities and setting up team development environments.

1. SharePoint 2013 app model and customization options Video | Presentation
2. SharePoint 2013 app infrastructure configuration and isolation Video | Presentation
3. Overview of the SharePoint 2013 renewed developer dashboard Video | Presentation
4. Setting up team development infrastructure for SharePoint 2013 development Video | Presentation
5. Using SharePoint 2013 Designer to create workflows in SharePoint 2013 Video | Presentation

Module 11: SharePoint 2013 authentication and authorization overview

Get an overview of changes in claims-based authentication in SharePoint 2013. Learn about new support for OAuth and how it’s used in SharePoint 2013. Also see how OAuth is used in Server to Server (S2S) authentication scenarios.

1. Claims-based authentication in SharePoint 2013 Video | Presentation
2. oAuth authentication in SharePoint 2013 Video | Presentation

Module 12: Overview of SharePoint 2013 business continuity management

Learn about the approaches and techniques to use when devising a meaningful and cost-effective business continuity management (BCM) strategy for SharePoint 2013.

1. Design considerations for business continuity management in SharePoint 2013 Video | Presentation
2. SharePoint 2013 business continuity management features Video | Presentation

Module 13: Upgrading to SharePoint 2013

Learn about the different facets of upgrade preparation and understand the key skills and techniques you’ll need to successfully upgrade to SharePoint 2013.

1. SharePoint 2013 upgrade methods and best practices walkthrough Video | Presentation
2. SharePoint 2013 upgrade planning tasks and preparation walkthrough Video | Presentation
3. SharePoint 2013 upgrade test tasks and options walkthrough Video | Presentation
4. SharePoint 2013 upgrade implementation tasks and options walkthrough Video | Presentation
5. SharePoint 2013 upgrade validation tasks walkthrough Video | Presentation

Module 14: What’s new in Project 2013 for IT pros

Get details about new enhancements for Project Server 2013 for IT pros, including both on-premises and online offerings. Learn about changes in the architecture, deployment and upgrade options, and administration and operations.

1. Project 2013 overview for IT pros Video
2. Project Online overview Video
3. Project 2013 scalability and performance improvements Video
4. Project 2013 flexibility overview and improvements Video
5. Summary of what’s new in Project 2013 for IT pros Video

I really hope that it can be good for you guys, have a good study!!

Backup and Restore of one Site Collection using columns in Managed Metadata

Wherever you restore one site collection from one Farm to another that uses site columns linked with some termstore some errors can be showed like this:

Managed metadata columns consult the MMS service whenever we interact with data stored in these columns. If MMS is not there things can break and show unexpected behavior.

The easiest option to make things work is to restore the MMS from source farm to target farm.

You can use :

1. Export-SPMetadataWebServicePartitionData (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff607847.aspx) to export the MMS from source farm;

2. After that, the second steps is import  the same MMS exported in the step 1 using Import-SPMetadataWebServicePartitionData (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff607667.aspx ).

By using this technique the term store is available on the target as the same in the source. The sspId used internally by the Term Store and referred by Managed Metadata columns in list is retained.

Below the scripts to apply:

#Step 1 – Export MMS

If ((Get-PSSnapIn -Name Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) -eq $null )
{ Add-PSSnapIn -Name Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell }

#this sets the exporting MMS ID
$mmsApp = $mmsApplication = Get-SPServiceApplication | ? {$_.TypeName -eq “Managed Metadata Service”}

$mmsproxy = Get-SPServiceApplicationProxy | ?{$_.TypeName -eq “Managed Metadata Service Connection”}

Export-SPMetadataWebServicePartitionData $mmsApp.Id -ServiceProxy $mmsproxy -Path \\ebsgerh04\Backup\exportfile.bak

#Step 2 – #Import MMS

If ((Get-PSSnapIn -Name Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) -eq $null )
{ Add-PSSnapIn -Name Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell }

#this sets the exporting MMS ID
$mmsApplication = Get-SPServiceApplication | ? {$_.TypeName -eq “Managed Metadata Service”}
$mmsProxy = Get-SPServiceApplicationProxy | ? {$_.TypeName -eq “Managed Metadata Service Connection”}
Import-SPMetadataWebServicePartitionData $mmsApplication.Id -ServiceProxy $mmsProxy -Path “\\Sharepoint_Server\Backup\exportfile.bak” -OverwriteExisting

New-SPLogFile – Troubleshooting SharePoint Easily

If you are troubleshooting some SharePoint Environment, a good tip is start a new SharePoint Log to facilitate the error captures.

To start a new SharePoint Log follow these steps:

1) Open the SharePoint 2013 Management Shell as Administrator;

2) Type the command ant press Enter:

New-SPLogFile

3) Navigate to the drive/folder of the SharePoint log files. To check where the log files are, Open the “Central Administration”, click on “Monitoring” menu, click on “Configure diagnostic logging” menu:

4) Scroll down until “Trace log” and select the “Path” and click “Ok”:

5) Open Windows Explorer and navigate until the “Path” that you got previously. In Windows Explorer window, click on the “Date modified” column to set up descending order;

6) Open the last log file and good troubleshooting :-)

New-SPLogFile – Troubleshooting SharePoint Easily

If you are troubleshooting some SharePoint Environment, a good tip is start a new SharePoint Log to facilitate the error captures.

To start a new SharePoint Log follow these steps:

1) Open the SharePoint 2013 Management Shell as Administrator;

2) Type the command ant press Enter:

New-SPLogFile

3) Navigate to the drive/folder of the SharePoint log files. To check where the log files are, Open the “Central Administration”, click on “Monitoring” menu, click on “Configure diagnostic logging” menu:

4) Scroll down until “Trace log” and select the “Path” and click “Ok”:

5) Open Windows Explorer and navigate until the “Path” that you got previously. In Windows Explorer window, click on the “Date modified” column to set up descending order;

6) Open the last log file and good troubleshooting :-)

SharePoint Search – Crawl Troubleshooting – The item could not be accessed on the remote server because its address has an invalid syntax. ( SearchID =)

This week I faced a weird error message on my “Search Service Application“, where the crawl was not performed.

Every time the crawl would try to index data, the error message below was shown and the crawl log showed 0 (zero) success and 1(one) error Top Level…:

“http://globalintranet.mabotega.local.

The item could not be accessed on the remote server because its address has an invalid syntax. ( SearchID = F1312B59-3AE6-4121-91BD-74B774BE0D07 )”

So, I need to find out a way to check if our crawl system was functioning and the answer was the Fiddler2 (http://fiddler2.com/).

On this post, I will try to describe how to troubleshoot the SharePoint Search crawl process with the Fiddler tool to help you to check if the crawl is gathering data from the web application (web sites) set up in some content source.

In my environment I am not using Proxy on Search Configuration as shown on the screenshot below, but after set up it with Fiddler as Proxy and removed it from Search Configuration, my Search returned to crawl content for my web sites…. Too much weird!!!! Probably some dirt on my config database, I guess…. This is my only explanation….

Ok, lets finish the talk to follow the technical steps below:

SharePoint Search – Crawl Troubleshooting

Using this incredible tool called Fiddler, we are going to configure SharePoint Search to crawl through Fiddler as a Proxy so we can watch the traffic on it and check if the system is gathering data from our web sites. Using this technique you will be able to watch if the behavior of the crawl system is acting correctly or unexpectedly.

Necessary Steps:

1. Download and install Fiddler on the server running the crawl (http://fiddler2.com/). For this, follow the Next, Next, Finish process;
2. Determine which account is running the crawl. Usually it will be the Default content access account listed in Search Administration:

3. If you have Crawl Rules set up for specific content sources you may have alternate credentials specified, so check your rules and be sure you are using the correct account for testing. In my case, I don´t have it, but be sure;

4. Start the Fiddler, holding down the [Ctrl][Shift] keys and right click Fiddler to choose “Run as different user”. Log in as the Crawl Account or the account for your rule that will be checked. (If this option is not available, you may have to log out and log back in as the crawl account. Either way you need to run Fiddler as the crawl account):

In my scenario, my default access account is RBTCRAWL:

5. Once Fiddler is running choose Tools | Fiddler Options… and click the Connections tab. Note the Fiddler listens on port: setting. 8888 is the default. Ensure that it does not duplicate a port already in use by SharePoint or IIS. Close the dialog after making any necessary adjustments to the port. In my scenario, I don´t have any web site running on the 8888 port, so I leave the default;

6. Open a browser and go to http://localhost:8888 (or whatever your port number is for Fiddler) and you should see something like the following indicating that you are set up correctly.

7. To configure SharePoint to use Fiddler as Proxy, please, return to Search Administration and choose the link for Proxy Server from the System Status section. In my scenario I am not using Proxy:

8. Configure SharePoint to use Fiddler by choosing Use the proxy server specified and adding the address and port.

9. Click OK to save your settings.
10. Start the crawl for the content source that you are having issues with by choosing Content Sources. Select the content source and choose Start Full Crawl.

11. Once the crawl starts you should begin to see activity in Fiddler. In the example below I am crawling some web applications. The crawler always looks for a robots.txt file first to read the web site map (even if it was not set up). In my case I don’t have one, so Fiddler displays the 404 results for it (1). Crawling a SharePoint site you will notice that the crawler uses the “SiteData service” (2) to gather information about the site from SharePoint. Following that you will see some results for each request performed by the crawl system:

12. Once you are done testing be sure to reset the Proxy settings in the Search Application to return to the previously configuration:

13. Armed with the results of the Fiddler trace you can see the conversation that SharePoint is having with the content source that you are troubleshooting.
14. Troubleshooting SharePoint Search can be a big challenge and I really hope that this post can help you to get information if your Search are crawling or not.