November 2014 CU for SharePoint 2013 & SharePoint 2010

Hi all, 

just a quick note on the SP related CUs...

Joerg Sinemus just published the info about the SP2013 November CU and his colleague
Stefan Goßner posted the same for the SP2010 November CU.

The funny thing about the cumulative updates is, that sometimes they are not 100% cumulative. :) Thanks to Stefan who kindly summarised the expected CU / patching process in the past things are be a bit clearer when CU and similar system patching/upgrades are being planned. :)

One can also review the latest and greatest patches on the Office Updates site. 

Happy c-updating! :)

B

SharePoint 2013 SP1 and Windows Server 2012 R2

Wooohooo!

I tend to avoid posts like this one... I tend to focus on business problems :) But the industry has been awaiting the SharePoint 2013 Service Pack 1 to be released!

Why? No one wants to install Win Server 2008 R2 and then upgrade again to Windows Server 2012. With release of SP 2013 SP1 we can now focus on

SharePoint 2013 SP1 post:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/office_sustained_engineering/archive/2014/02/25/announcing-the-release-of-service-pack-1-for-office-2013-and-sharepoint-2013.aspx

Microsoft's SharePoint 2013 / Win Server 2012 R2 Compatibility post:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2891274

Happy SharePointing!

 

SharePoint 2013 development environments created quickly with Virtual Machine image on Azure

Source: Microsoft's SharePoint Developer Team

Have you ever been in a situation where you need to create a SharePoint 2013 development environment quickly? Are you still working on SharePoint Solutions or are you building apps for SharePoint and you need a machine with SharePoint 2013 and Visual Studio 2013 on it? Do you just want to try out SharePoint 2013 development?

If you answered ‘yes’ to one or all of the questions mentioned above, and you have an MSDN subscription, there are some good news for you.

Microsoft's SharePoint Development Team have released an Azure developer image that comes with SharePoint 2013 and Visual Studio 2013 Ultimate RC pre-installed. The image also contains scripts to provision and configure SharePoint 2013 with or without an Active directory running on a different machine.

Be aware that, if you don’t have an Azure subscription, you can activate your Azure benefit that comes with your MSDN subscription. As part of your subscription, you have free Windows Azure credits - up to US$150 per month! You can use them to build SharePoint development & test environments on demand with virtual machines and more. See Windows Azure Benefit for MSDN Subscribers for more information. In addition we have optimized Windows Azure billing—meaning you only pay for the virtual machines as long as you are working on them. When you are finished working, just shut down the virtual machine and you will no longer be billed for it.

Let’s have a brief look at the image and how to provision it. There are two ways to provision a virtual machine of that image. You can either use the portal or use PowerShell.

Use the Windows Azure management portal:

To create a new virtual machine from the Azure Management Portal, go to https://manage.windowsazure.com and follow the steps below:

1. Sign in to the Windows Azure Portal
2. Choose the plus sign (+) at the bottom of the Portal page
3. Choose Compute>Virtual Machine>From Gallery
4. Scroll down the image list and choose Visual Studio 2013 Ultimate RC and choose the arrow on the lower right corner

Figure 1. Virtual Machine image selection dialog box

The virtual machine creation wizard guides you through the process. We recommend an X-Large VM Size for SharePoint development.

The virtual machine provisioning takes about 5-10 minutes. Once the machine has been provisioned you can use remote desktop to connect to the machine. The next step is to provision SharePoint 2013.

As mentioned the image is pre-loaded with software and scripts. The configuration scripts and software can be accessed by choosing the “Configure Developer Desktop” shortcut icon on your desktop. The scripts folder contains two scripts relevant for SharePoint 2013 provisioning and configuration and allow you to provision SharePoint as Stand Alone or SharePoint with Active Directory (the script assumes that the Active Directory is hosted on another Virtual Machine).
Both scripts will configure a basic SharePoint environment, meaning they create a Central Administration site and a Web Application with a Root Site collection. The Figure 2 shows the provisioned virtual machine with SharePoint Central Administration and sign in screen to use Visual Studio for the first time.

Figure 2. Visual Studio sign in

Please see Visual Studio Ultimate 2013 RC Gallery image for MSDN subscribers for a detailed walkthrough of how to provision and configure a virtual machine for SharePoint development as well as documentation for the included PowerShell scripts.

Use Windows PowerShell:

As mentioned in the beginning we also released scripts that allow you to provision a SharePoint 2013 development environment using PowerShell. In addition, the scripts also allow you to provision a Windows Server 2012 virtual machine with an Active Directory and join SharePoint to that domain. This opens up the full scale of SharePoint development. Full documentation for the scripts can be found here: http://visualstudio2013galleryimage.azurewebsites.net/#_Toc359582720. All the scripts can be downloaded from here: http://download.microsoft.com/download/C/4/B/C4BB2A5D-1296-4DB8-A448-ABEB13B5974D/ConfigureDeveloperDesktopSampleScripts.zip
Once your development environment is set up you can even access your on-premises source control from Visual Studio on the virtual machine by using an Azure Point to Site connection. Be aware that when setting up an Azure point to site connection, you must first provision the virtual machine into a virtual network. For more information about Azure Point to site connections see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/dn133792.aspx.

SharePoint 2010 - Tips for Dealing with Performance Issues

 

Margriet Bruggeman has done an amazing job by kicking off a wiki page where various posts to performance issed are being listed by techNet users.

Here are some of the links:

• Get to know your application, it's usage, and it's response times by studying the IIS logs. One of the ways to do this is to use the free SharePoint Flavored Weblog Reader (SFWR) tool:http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/The-SharePoint-Flavored-5b03f323
  
• Monitor performance counters that are relevant for SharePoint. The gallery posthttp://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/PowerShell-script-for-59cf3f70 shows an overview of a set of relevant performance counters that have been established after careful research, and a small PowerShell script for reading them. Also see http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff758658.aspx for a different perspective.
  
• Even if your environment is already up and running, do capacity planning. This way you can check if you're crossing any important limits that might threaten performance. Check outhttp://sharepointdragons.com/2011/12/05/sharepoint-capacity-planning/ andhttp://sharepointdragons.com/2012/02/03/more-capacity-planning-links/ . Also check out http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Maxer-for-SharePoint-2010-8cd0f26f , Maxer for SharePoint 2010 is a tool that checks for capacity boundaries in existing SharePoint farms. Do remember that content database limits include remote BLOBs (if you use them) and that auditing has a great impact on capacity planning:http://www.sharepointedutech.com/2011/07/11/sharepoint-contentdb-guidance-too-many-shades-of-gray-along-with-a-little-brown/
  
• Use the SharePoint Diagnostic Data Provider/Logging database to get more insight into your environment. Check outhttp://sharepointdragons.com/2011/11/16/leveraging-the-logging-database-to-see-performance-counters/ andhttp://sharepointdragons.com/2011/12/05/using-the-entity-framework-to-see-the-contents-of-the-sharepoint-logging-database/ for more info. Also seehttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff758658.aspx
  
• Get the SharePoint Administration Toolkit. It contains a load testing kit that can be employed to determine if an environment is able to handle the current load. It also contains SharePoint Diagnostic Studio 2010, a tool used by Microsoft personnel for troubleshooting. It's able to capture lots of information about performance counters, ULS log files, and so on. Seehttp://sharepointdragons.com/2011/11/28/the-sharepoint-administration-toolkit-for-sharepoint-2010/ for more information. If you find you're having trouble that the ULS log files are empty, check out the following Wiki page:http://sharepointdragons.com/2012/04/11/solving-problems-with-uls-log-file-generation/
  
• Study the set up of the database environment, which is crucial for the success of your SharePoint environment. The SharePoint 2010 Administrator's Companion contains an excellent chapter about this:http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-SharePoint-2010-Administrators-Companion/dp/0735627207/ref=sr_1_2?
  s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1330935904&sr=1-2
  
• Get PAL, a tool for troubleshooting performance troubles. See http://sharepointdragons.com/2011/12/30/when-you-have-performance-troubles-you-need-a-pal/ for more info. Seehttp://www.loisandclark.eu/Pages/warmup.aspx for more info.
  
• Do performance and stress testing, even if you're already in trouble. It helps a lot to be able to simulate when a comparable environment gets into trouble. Seehttp://sharepointdragons.com/2012/02/10/sharepoint-performance-and-stress-testing/ ,http://sharepointdragons.com/2012/02/28/sharepoint-2010-testing/ ,http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/7828.sharepoint-2010-useful-information-about-testing.aspx , andhttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff758659.aspx
  
• Use tools to test traffic on-the-fly:
  F12 Developer Toolbar (Internet Explorer 7 and later), Fiddler ( http://www.fiddler2.com/fiddler2/ ), YSlow ( https://addons.mozilla.org/de/firefox/addon/yslow/ ), FireBug ( https://addons.mozilla.org/de/firefox/addon/firebug/ ), and WireShark (http://www.wireshark.org/ )
  
• Use the DebugDiag tool (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26798 ) to help troubleshoot issues.
  
• Use 3rd party analysis tools: http://webtrends.com/products/integrations/sharepoint/ ,http://www.intlock.com/intlocksite/productsandservices/cardiolog/cardiolog.asp ,http://www.intlock.com/intlocksite/productsandservices/cardiolog-sharepoint-marketing-suite/default.asp (that includes Cardiolog),http://www.idera.com/Free-Tools/SharePoint-perf-monitor/ , orhttp://www.idera.com/Free-Tools/SharePoint-admin-toolset/
  
• More often than not, performance problems are caused by custom software. Demand that each piece of custom software gets shipped with a configurable diagnostics system that can be used to determine any pain points in there.
  
• Study other performance and capacity test results and recommendations: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=12768 andhttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff608068(office.14).aspx
  
• The first authenticated user may experience a very poor response time. Consider warming up SharePoint. Seehttp://www.loisandclark.eu/Pages/warmup.aspx for more info.
  
• Study warnings and errors in the ULS log files using tools such as ULS Viewer and SPLIT. See http://www.jeremytaylor.net/2012/07/14/sharepoint-uls-log-viewer-tool-comparison-and-verdict/ for more info.
  
• If you're allowed to: enable ASP.NET profiling.
  
• If you're allowed to: enable the SharePoint developer dashboard.
  
• Use SQL DMVs to analyze the state of your SQL database server, also taking into consideration the performance of other applications unrelated to SharePoint, but hosted on the same database server.
  
• If you're allowed to: enable SQL Profiler to check SQL Server database problems on the fly.
  
• Shrink the SharePoint content database transaction log files if they become too big or when it's size increases abnormally:http://sharepointdragons.com/2012/02/08/managing-sharepoint-2010-log-files/
  
• Enable BLOB cache. See http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc261797.aspx , http://www.ittreats.com/microsoft/aspnet/configure-blob-cache-for-sharepoint-2010-web-applications.html
  
• Enable Profile cache. See http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc261797.aspx
  
• Enable object cache. See http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc261797.aspx
  
• Enable output cache.
  
• Enable IIS compression. See http://weblogs.asp.net/owscott/archive/2009/02/22/iis-7-compression-good-bad-how-much.aspx
  
• Configure list throttling. See http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/gg491393.aspx
  
• Use list indexes: http://blog.dynatrace.com/2009/01/28/sharepoint-list-performance-how-list-column-indices-really-work-under-the-hood/
  
• Limit the maximum upload file size.
  
• If you're working with extremely large files, consider using Remote Blob Storage (RBS):http://www.loisandclark.eu/Pages/blob.aspx and http://www.sharepointedutech.com/2011/07/11/sharepoint-contentdb-guidance-too-many-shades-of-gray-along-with-a-little-brown/
  
• Use the SharePoint Dispose Checker Tool (SPDispose) to find memory leaks in custom software:http://archive.msdn.microsoft.com/SPDisposeCheck
  
• Use MSOCAF check code before submitting it to Microsoft for BPOS/Office365. You can find it here:https://caf.sharepoint.microsoftonline.com/
  
• Use System Center Operations Manager for monitoring SharePoint or a 3rd party tool like Quest Foglight for ASP. Foglight can capture trends like page load times as well as consolidate performance counters.
  
• Follow best practices when using the Content Query Web Part (CQWP): http://techblog.ranjanbanerji.com/post/2007/07/16/Content-Query-Web-Part-(CQWP)-SharePoint-2007-Performance.aspx
  
• Get the Process Monitor tool for monitoring real-time file system, registry, and process/thread activity:http://sharepointdragons.com/2012/04/09/process-monitor/
  
• Use a 3rd party performance optimizer tool for SharePoint (that uses compression, caching, and action prioritizing) such as Aptimizer:http://www.riverbed.com/us/products/stingray/stingray_aptimizer.php
  
• If page load is very slow, check if the ACL count is the problem, even when it's well within the official limits:http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepoint2010setup/thread/aa37c03c-11b1-421c-baf7-47f27349e3e9
• If the SharePoint 2010 Solution is Sandboxed, you can leverage Visual Studio 2010 Stand alone Profiler for Sampling and Profiling SharePoint Sandbox Code http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/jj158953.aspx
• If you are already using a hardware load balancer, like F5 BIG-IP, you can take advantage of built-in web acceleration capabilities to increase SharePoint performance.http://www.f5.com/pdf/application-ready-network-guides/microsoft-sharepoint-2010-arsg.pdf