E-mail is an integral part of any SharePoint installation as it is the backbone of communication with in a SharePoint farm and its users. Needless to say, it becomes imperative for any SharePoint administrator to know the basics of configuring the SharePoint environments to send and receive emails.

Dave Coleman (Microsoft MVP) has an excellent series of blog posts which provide step-by-step instructions to setup incoming and outgoing email. You can access it here.   

SharePoint Products and Technologies support large lists. However, you must carefully control how end-users view the lists to help prevent adverse effects on performance.

• For best performance, do not exceed 2,000 items in a list level (for example, the root of the list or a single folder).
• If you must create and browse large lists, use the following best practices:
• Index the list on one or more columns.
• Change the default view of the list to a customized filtered view that follows these recommendations
  • The view returns fewer than 5,000 items
  • The first column that you use to filter the view has an index and that it sufficiently reduces the total number of items returned.
  • The view displays only those columns that are absolutely required.
  • The view includes as few lookup columns as possible. Each lookup column in a list that is included in a view causes an additional join and additional calls to the database.
• Evaluate list size with regard to the number of columns in a list. Lists with lots of columns can perform slowly.

Be aware that the following settings and operations can significantly affect the performance of a site that has large lists.

• Complex explicit permissions (permissions on the list or library, folder, or item or document level) force authorization checking on each item.
• Changing authorization settings.
• Creating, updating, and deleting indexes.
• Importing and exporting content.
• Deleting a list.
• Deploying new content types or updating existing content types.
• If you have workflows that generate lots of task and history items, you might be creating large lists. For very active workflows, follow these practices:
• Keep the AutoCleanupDays timer job running to clean up tasks on completed workflows older than 60 days.
• When you create workflow associations, if you expect that a workflow will be heavily used or will create lots of task and history items, use non-default task and history lists.

Please be aware that if you have a site that uses large lists, it can slow down the performance of site collection backups performed with the Stsadm backup operations.

More info http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2009.08.insidesharepoint.aspx

The March 2013 Public Update (PU) for SharePoint Server 2013 and SharePoint Foundation 2013 have been released.

The Server packages for the Feb CU are contained in the March PU and is available for download here:

• SharePoint Server 2013 March 2013 Public Update – KB 2767999 
• SharePoint Foundation 2013 March Public Update – KB 2768000

This update package includes all the server component packages. Additionally, this cumulative update package updates only those components that are installed on the system. A change in the package configuration was introduced after SharePoint Server 2013 was released. You must install this public update before you install later SharePoint updates.

Important

When you install the update watch out for SharePoint farms where search components and high availability search topologies are enabled. For servers that include search components, you have to follow specific steps to ensure that you install the PU correctly. For a high availability search topology, you use Windows PowerShell cmdlets to patch a Search service application. The steps to follow are mentioned in the following Microsoft website:

How to install update packages on a SharePoint farm where search component and high availability search topologies are enabled

Update Center for SharePoint 2013 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/sharepoint/jj891062

UPDATE

One of the feature updates of the March 2013 Public Update for SharePoint 2013 is that it enables you to use multiple app domains in SharePoint 2013 environments with alternate access mapping or host-header web application configurations. Before the Public Update, you could only host ONE app domain and it had to be in the Default zone. You could not use the app domain on alternate access mappings or host-header web application configurations. The Public Update enables you to configure an app domain for each web application zone and use alternate access mapping and host-header web application configuration.

Although the Public Update automatically installs the necessary pieces, the feature is not enabled by default. To enable and use this feature, you have to use a reverse proxy to allow traffic for the app domains. The Public Update does not install or configure the reverse proxy. You must set up the reverse proxy.

See Enable apps in AAM or host-header environments for SharePoint 2013 for more information.

Important:

Due to a change in the package configuration introduced after SharePoint 2013 RTM the March Public update is a mandatory requirement in order to install subsequent SharePoint 2013 Updates.

This is build 15.0.4481.1000 of the update package.

This is an updated version of the Windows PowerShell Command Builder

Windows PowerShell Command Builder 2.0 constructs commands that can be used with SharePoint Foundation 2010, SharePoint Server 2010, SharePoint Foundation 2013, SharePoint Server 2013, SharePoint Online, and Office 365. Windows PowerShell Command Builder 2.0 provides many of the same capabilities as the previous Silverlight version such as offline access. In addition to providing support for SharePoint Server 2010, SharePoint Foundation 2010, and Office 365, this version also introduces support for SharePoint Server 2013, SharePoint Foundation 2013, and SharePoint Online.

Click to open the Windows PowerShell Command Builder 2.0 in a new browser window

Windows PowerShell Command Builder 2.0

For more information about PowerShell in SharePoint, see Windows PowerShell for SharePoint 2013 IT pros

Let’s say that you install PowerShell 3.0 by by installing the Windows Management Framework (WMF) 3.0 from

• Description of Windows Management Framework 3.0 for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2506143
• Description of Windows Management Framework 3.0 for Windows Server 2008 SP2 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2506146

However, after you install WMF 3.0 and PowerShell, you may receive one or both of the following error messages when you start SharePoint 2010 Management Shell:

1. The local farm is not accessible. Cmdlets with FeatureDependencyId are not registered.
2. A PlatformNotSupportedException occurred while trying to acquire the local farm: System.PlatformNotSupportedException: Microsoft 
   SharePoint is not supported with version 4.0.30319.586 of the Microsoft .Net Runtime.
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPConfigurationDatabase.get_Farm() at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPFarm.FindLocal(SPFarm& farm, Boolean& isJoined)

Cause

How do you get around it:

• Type "PowerShell -v 2" (without quotes). This loads PowerShell version 2, and you should be able to use it for SharePoint. Just type 'Exit' to get back to PowerShell v3
• Add '-version 2.0' parameter when executing PowerShell 3.0, and SharePoint integration should work.
• Change the Target field value for SharePoint 2010 Management Shell to the following:

C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\PowerShell.exe -Version 2.0 -NoExit " & ' C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\CONFIG\POWERSHELL\Registration\\SharePoint.ps1 ' "

See KB 2796733

Note: This is not an issue with Windows PowerShell. This is an issue with the SharePoint 2010 compatibility with PowerShell 3.0.

After installing the update KB2756920 on a Windows Server 2008 R2/Windows 7 RTM  computer running SharePoint Server 2010 with previously installed hotfixes for .NET 3.5 SP1. on the server, the following exception is thrown when any WCF service is hosted on IIS using HTTPS

Server Error in ‘/SecurtyTokenServiceApplication’ Application
Method not found: ‘System.String System.ServiceModel.Activation.iis7helper.extendedprotectiondotlessspnnotenabledthrowhelper(system.object)’

An exception occurred when trying to issue security token: The requested service, 'http://localhost:32843/SecurityTokenServiceApplication/securitytoken.svc/actas' could not be activated. See the server's diagnostic trace logs for more information..

Exception occurred while connecting to WCF endpoint: System.ServiceModel.ServiceActivationException: The requested service, 'http://localhost:32843/SecurityTokenServiceApplication/securitytoken.svc/actas'
could not be activated due to an exception during compilation. See the server's diagnostic trace logs for more information. Server stack trace:    
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.HttpChannelUtilities.ValidateRequestReplyResponse(HttpWebRequest request, HttpWebResponse response, HttpChannelFactory factory, WebException responseException, ChannelBinding channelBinding)

Extended Stack Trace

[MissingMethodException: Method not found: 'System.String System.ServiceModel.Activation.Iis7Helper.ExtendedProtectionDotlessSpnNotEnabledThrowHelper(System.Object)'.]
System.ServiceModel.WasHosting.WebConfigurationManagerWrapper.BuildExtendedProtectionPolicy(ExtendedProtectionTokenChecking tokenChecking, ExtendedProtectionFlags flags, List`1 spnList) +0
System.ServiceModel.WasHosting.WebConfigurationManagerWrapper.GetExtendedProtectionPolicy(ConfigurationElement element) +362
System.ServiceModel.WasHosting.MetabaseSettingsIis7V2.ProcessWindowsAuthentication(String siteName, String virtualPath, HostedServiceTransportSettings& transportSettings) +217
   System.ServiceModel.WasHosting.MetabaseSettingsIis7V2.CreateTransportSettings(String relativeVirtualPath) +137
   System.ServiceModel.Activation.MetabaseSettingsIis.GetTransportSettings(String virtualPath) +203
   System.ServiceModel.Activation.MetabaseSettingsIis.GetAuthenticationSchemes(String virtualPath) +16
   System.ServiceModel.Channels.HttpChannelListener.ApplyHostedContext(VirtualPathExtension virtualPathExtension, Boolean isMetadataListener) +62
   System.ServiceModel.Channels.HttpTransportBindingElement.BuildChannelListener(BindingContext context) +158
   System.ServiceModel.Channels.BindingContext.BuildInnerChannelListener() +98
   System.ServiceModel.Channels.MessageEncodingBindingElement.InternalBuildChannelListener(BindingContext context) +98
   System.ServiceModel.Channels.BinaryMessageEncodingBindingElement.BuildChannelListener(BindingContext context) +70
   System.ServiceModel.Channels.BindingContext.BuildInnerChannelListener() +98
   System.ServiceModel.Channels.Binding.BuildChannelListener(Uri listenUriBaseAddress, String listenUriRelativeAddress, ListenUriMode listenUriMode, BindingParameterCollection parameters) +172
   System.ServiceModel.Description.DispatcherBuilder.MaybeCreateListener(Boolean actuallyCreate, Type[] supportedChannels, Binding binding, BindingParameterCollection parameters, Uri listenUriBaseAddress, String listenUriRelativeAddress, ListenUriMode listenUriMode, ServiceThrottle throttle, IChannelListener& result, Boolean supportContextSession) +400
   System.ServiceModel.Description.DispatcherBuilder.BuildChannelListener(StuffPerListenUriInfo stuff, ServiceHostBase serviceHost, Uri listenUri, ListenUriMode listenUriMode, Boolean supportContextSession, IChannelListener& result) +1070
   System.ServiceModel.Description.DispatcherBuilder.InitializeServiceHost(ServiceDescription description, ServiceHostBase serviceHost) +2005
   System.ServiceModel.ServiceHostBase.InitializeRuntime() +60
   Microsoft.IdentityModel.Protocols.WSTrust.WSTrustServiceHost.InitializeRuntime() +408
   System.ServiceModel.ServiceHostBase.OnOpen(TimeSpan timeout) +63
   System.ServiceModel.Channels.CommunicationObject.Open(TimeSpan timeout) +560
   System.ServiceModel.HostingManager.ActivateService(String normalizedVirtualPath) +141
   System.ServiceModel.HostingManager.EnsureServiceAvailable(String normalizedVirtualPath) +683

[ServiceActivationException: The service '/SecurityTokenServiceApplication/securitytoken.svc' cannot be activated due to an exception during compilation.  The exception message is: Method not found: 'System.String System.ServiceModel.Activation.Iis7Helper.ExtendedProtectionDotlessSpnNotEnabledThrowHelper(System.Object)'..]
   System.ServiceModel.AsyncResult.End(IAsyncResult result) +460
   System.ServiceModel.Activation.HostedHttpRequestAsyncResult.End(IAsyncResult result) +471
   System.Web.AsyncEventExecutionStep.OnAsyncEventCompletion(IAsyncResult ar) +101

The issue is limited to Windows Server 2008 R2/ Windows 7 RTM machines only.

The issue occurs due to previously installed hotfixes and NOT the security update KB2756920 itself.

Recommendations

• It is recommend that you Install a newer hotfix for 3.5 SP1 like http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2637518 and then install the security update. If you have already installed the security update then simply install the above hotfix.
• Another workaround would be to upgrade the machines from Windows Server 2008 R2/Windows 7 RTM to SP1.

You do not have to uninstall the security update as one of the above options will suffice the need.

MS13-004: Description of the security update for the .NET Framework 3.5.1 on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2: January 8, 2013

UPDATE

The issue caused by the update KB2756920 - Security update for the .NET Framework 3.5.1 on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 RTM and its solution has been documented in KB2801728 - WCF services that are hosted on IIS on Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 may receive an exception error message after you install an update for the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 for WCF for reference.

The cause section of the KB has been updated with:

This problem occurs because the computer may have some hotfixes installed that contained only "System.ServiceModel.dll" and not "System.ServiceModel.WasHosting.dll". See the "More Information" section of the KB for a list of hotfixes that are known to contain only these files.

Also see http://social.technet.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/sharepointadminprevious/thread/903d0e22-6419-48c5-8669-a1191c841b76

1. If you are running MOSS 2007 on Windows Server 2003 the you have to download and install PowerShell from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968930. Windows Server 2008  natively supports PowerShell.
2. Set the  Execution Policy to 'RemoteSigned'. You can check it by running 'Get-ExecutionPolicy' cmdlet
   The default execution policy for PowerShell is “Restricted” (commands only, not scripts)     

# All scripts running locally are allowed

Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned

This means downloaded scripts must be signed by a trusted publisher before they can be run.

• Using the Set-ExecutionPolicy Cmdlet      
• How does the RemoteSigned execution policy work?

     3. You need to load the SharePoint assemblies with the following command

#    Load the SharePoint assemblies

[Void][System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.SharePoint")

A bunch of PowerShell scripts are available at http://www.powershell.nu/2009/09/08/moss-2007-script-collection

October 2012 Cumulative Update Package for WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 have been released

• KB2687535 - October 2012 CU for WSS 3.0
• KB2687533 - October 2012 CU for MOSS 2007

Note This is build 12.0.6668.5000 of the cumulative update package

October 2012 Cumulative Update Package for SharePoint Foundation 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010 have been released

• October 2012 CU for SharePoint Foundation 2010
• October 2012 CU for SharePoint Server 2010

Note This is build 14.0.6129.5000 of the cumulative update package.

Important: SharePoint Server 2010 SP1 is a pre-requisite to install this CU.

After installing the updated you should run the SharePoint Config Wizard in every server of the farm.

After you install this hotfix, you must restart the User Profile Synchronization service for profile synchronization to function correctly or follow these steps:

1. Go to the Central Administration page.
2. In the System Settings section, click Manage Services.
3. In the list of services that is displayed, find the User Profile Synchronization service, and then click Stop if the status of the service is Started. As soon as the status is Stopped, click Start, and provide the credentials to start the User Profile Synchronization service.
   For more information about how to start the service, go to the "Start the User Profile Synchronization service" section of
   How to configure profile synchronization in SharePoint Server 2010 

Note: If SharePoint Server 2010 update is installed then you do not need to install the SharePoint Foundation 2010 update as it is included in the Server 2010 update.

For more information, see

• Updates for SharePoint 2010 Products   
• Updates for SharePoint Products and Technologies (WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007)

The information provided in this article is available at Plan security hardening for SharePoint 2013 (TechNet) and SharePoint 2013 Ports, Proxies and Protocols - An Overview of Farm Communications

See this table for commonly used ports and protocols in farm communication.

Service Application Communication

By default, communication between Web servers and service applications within a farm takes place by using HTTP with a binding to TCP 32843. When you publish a service application, you can select either HTTP or HTTPS with the following bindings:

HTTP binding: TCP 32843
HTTPS binding: TCP 32844

Additionally, third parties that develop service applications can implement a third choice:

net.tcp binding: TCP 32845

You can change the protocol and port binding for each service application. On the Service Applications page in Central Administration, select the service application, and then click Publish.

The HTTP/HTTPS/net.tcp bindings can also be viewed and changed using the Get-SPServiceHostConfig and Set-SPServiceHostConfig PowerShell cmdlets. Communication between service applications and SQL Server takes place over the standard SQL Server ports or the ports that you configure for SQL Server communication. See Service Application Communication for more information.

Output of Get-SPServiceHostConfig

HttpPort : 32843
HttpsPort : 32844
NetTcpPort : 32845
SslCertificateStoreName : SharePoint
SslCertificateFindType : FindBySubjectDistinguishedName
SslCertificateFindValue : CN=SharePoint Services, OU=SharePoint, O=Contoso, C=IC

User Profile Service Hardening Requirements

The User Profile service application uses the Forefront Identity Management agent to synchronize profiles between SharePoint 2013 and Active Directory or a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) directory service. The Forefront Identity Management agent is installed on all servers in a SharePoint farm, but is only required on the server that is set up to synchronize with the directory store.

The Forefront Identity Management agent includes the following two services that must remain enabled on the server that is set up to crawl Active Directory or another directory store:

• Forefront Identity Manager service
• Forefront Identity Manager Synchronization service

Additionally, TCP 5725 must be open on the server that runs the Forefront Identity Management agent and is set up to crawl a directory store. In Active Directory environments, the following ports must remain open for communication between the SharePoint 2013 server that synchronizes with the directory store and the server that is running Active Directory:

• TCP & UDP 389 (LDAP service)

• TCP & UDP 88 (Kerberos)

• TCP & UDP 53 (DNS)

• UDP 464 (Kerberos Change Password)

For more information about hardening requirements for the Forefront Identity Management agent, including port requirements for other directory types, see Management Agent Communication Ports, Rights, and Permissions (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=186832).

References

• Plan security hardening for SharePoint 2013     http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262849.aspx

Learn about security hardening for SharePoint web server, application server, and database server roles (blocking the standard SQL Server ports), including specific hardening requirements for ports, protocols, and services.

• Security planning for SharePoint 2013 farms              http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh377941.aspx

The articles and resources on this page provide information about how to plan SharePoint 2013 security for server farms.

• Configure SQL Server security for SharePoint 2013 environments          http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff607733.aspx

When you install SQL Server, the default settings help to provide a safe database. In addition, you can use SQL Server tools and Windows Firewall to add additional security to SQL Server for SharePoint 2013 environments. Learn how to improve the security of SQL Server for SharePoint 2013 environments.

• TCP/IP Communications (Windows Server AppFabric Caching)            http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee790914(v=azure.10).aspx

Users receive the following error message when they try to navigate to Site Collection Features page:

Sorry, something went wrong
An error occurred during the compilation of the requested file, or one of its dependencies. Could not write to output file
'C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\Temporary ASP.NET Files\root\d9bc15df\5100559f\App_Web_managefeatures.aspx.9c9699a8.qtwjbdlb.dll' -- 'The directory name is invalid. '

The error message also appears on other locations as well on the site like while trying to navigate to Site Content Types page, adding a workflow among others.

The cause turned out to be DisableLoopBackCheck was not enabled on the WFEs.

Solution

• DisableLoopBackCheck (As per KB 926642)
• Using PowerShell

New-ItemProperty HKLM:\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa -Name "DisableLoopbackCheck" -value "1" -Property Type Dword

Also posted @ http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/20023.sharepoint-key-descriptions-and-terminologies.aspx

In this article, I plan to provide information about some of the basic components of SharePoint and the terms that we hear day-in and day-out. Please be advised that most of this information is scattered across multiple locations and I have only attempted to make this available here.

Web Application

A Web application is an IIS Web site that is created and used by SharePoint Products and Technologies. Each Web application is represented by a different Web site in IIS. Whenever a new Web application is created, a new content database will be created. By default (unless specified during creation) site collections created in the Web application will be placed in the Web application database.

SITE

Site = Web = SPWeb aka sub web

A site is a collection of lists, libraries, and pages. Whenever you create a new site, a template for the site must be chosen. The templates available out of the box will differ depending on the SharePoint version that is installed. Sites are sometimes referred to as 'webs' also.

• A site is a web is an SPWeb to developers, and a Sub web to old timers or subsite to those just trying to use something to distinguish it from a site collection.
• STSADM - Site is a Web; 'Stsadm -o enumwebs' would enumerate a list of sites for a site collection.
• In the Site Settings UI the site is most often referred to as a site, for example the ability to create sites and workspaces would be referring to sites within the site collection.
• In the Central Admin UI it would be referred to as a web.
• SPweb = to a developer they would iterate through a list of SPwebs for an SPsite.

Site Collection

Site Collection = SPSite = Portal = Sometimes referred to as a 'Top Level Site'

A site collection is a set of Web sites that have the same owner and share administration settings. Each site collection contains a top-level Web site and can contain one or more subsites. In short, a site collection is a 'container' that holds sites or webs.

• STSADM - Site 'Stsadm -o enumsites' would give you a list of site collections in a web application
• Central Admin Site - Limiting the number of sites in a database is limiting the number of site collections per database
• Developers - 'Site = SPSite' would be the equivalent. The SPsite would be the container and would have SPwebs on the inside.
• Smallest unit for controlling storage database
• Sites are backed up at the site collection level
• By default, security is managed at the site collection level
• Quotas can be configured for site collections
• Sites are confined to share content within their own site collection
• Level of ownership is defined at the site collection level 

Page

In the Office SharePoint Server, the actual "page" is a item a WSS list and the framework knows how to assemble these. This list has columns that are bound to three field controls (title, picture, article). Re-using SharePoint lists for data storage lets us build on existing and new WSS list features like content types, check-in/out, versioning, per item security, workflow and more. In edit mode, the field controls place constraints on the author for what content they can put in the "page".

Master Pages

Master pages in SharePoint work the same as they do in traditional ASP.NET applications. They allow designers to control almost all aspects of the overall layout of a SharePoint site. Master pages can be thought of as the glue that holds all of the SharePoint functionality together. In fact every SharePoint site will have a master page, whether it is custom or one of the out-of-the-box master pages. When a designer creates a custom master page, they are typically trying to make a SharePoint site look less like it does out of the box and more like a company’s specific brand.

Master pages are stored in the master page gallery of a SharePoint site. They can be added to the master page gallery either directly from either SharePoint Designer or the SharePoint Web interface, or they can be deployed via a Feature.

Master pages are applied to an Office SharePoint Server site via the Master Page settings menu located from the Site Settings of the SharePoint Web interface. One really nice thing about this menu is that it allows the administrator to apply a master page not only to the current site, but to all sub sites below it. Along with this manual method, master pages can also be applied to SharePoint sites via custom Features. Master pages can also be applied to Windows SharePoint Services sites. Like Office SharePoint Server sites, the master page is stored in the master page gallery. Unlike Office SharePoint Server, changing the master page can only be done through a custom solution.

• Customizing and Branding Web Content Management-Enabled SharePoint Sites - http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/aa830818.aspx

Themes

SharePoint themes are different from ASP.NET themes; they are used specifically to change the colors, fonts, and some of the images that are used in SharePoint sites. Unlike master pages though, they cannot be used to move SharePoint elements or change the layout of the page. They are created entirely with CSS and images and cannot use any custom ASP.NET code.

SharePoint themes are typically added by manually logging into the physical server and copying the various files (images, CSS, and XML) to several folders in the 12 directory. They are applied from the Site Settings menu in the SharePoint Web interface.

For more information on creating SharePoint themes, refer to the following articles:

• How to: Create New SharePoint Themes: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/aa867986.aspx
• How to: Apply a SharePoint Theme: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/cc621346.aspx

Site Master Page vs. System Master Page

By default the following rule applies:

• Site Master Pages: Used by all publishing pages - and only by publishing pages
• System Master Pages: Used by everything else including forms and view pages

You cannot change the default behavior - but you can use SharePoint Designer to change the master page assignment for individual pages if required.

If you open a page in SharePoint Designer you can see a Master Page File setting which can be modified:

• "~masterurl/default.master": the page will use the system master page
• "~masterurl/custom.master": the page will use the site master page

Master Pages vs. Themes

While both master pages and SharePoint themes can apply branding to a SharePoint site, they differ in a few key ways. The following table highlights these differences.

Site Templates

A site template is a file that dictates the overall look and feel of a site. It includes all of the design information about a site, such as:

• The lists within a site.
• Any Web Part Pages within a site.
• Any custom pages within a site.
• The theme or Master Pages applied to a site.
• Any customizations to the Quick Launch.
• Site content (list and document library contents — optional).

Site templates do not include the following items:

• Security settings, such as a list of users or groups with permissions to the site from which the template was created.
• Personalizations to Web Part Pages.
• Web discussions from the original site.
• Alerts from the original site.
• Web part assemblies that were added to the original site.
  
  
  Default site templates (MOSS 2007)  
  SharePoint Server 2010 site templates

Content Types

A content type is a reusable collection of settings you want to apply to a certain category of content. Content types enable you to manage the metadata and behaviors of a document or item type in a centralized, reusable way.

A content type is an object that defines several elements of a piece of content, including:

• Document Template that the content will be based on
• Columns that the content will have associated with it (metadata)
• Workflows that the content will use
• Information Management policies that apply to the content
• Conversion types for the content

Additionally, content type can include the following information:

• The metadata, or properties, you want to assign to this type. These are represented by columns added to the list or document library when you add the content type.
• Custom New, Edit, and Display forms to use with this content type.
• Workflows available for items of this content type. These can be defined to start automatically based on a selected event or condition, or through user selection.
• For document content types, the document template on which to base documents of this type.
• Any information necessary for custom solutions associated with this content type. You can store this information in the content type as one or more XML documents.

Page Layouts

Only available in Office SharePoint Server sites, page layouts provide yet another means for designers to style the content of a SharePoint site. While master pages provide a unified outer shell design for a SharePoint site, page layouts define the specific look and the editable data for various types of pages. They allow another level of granularity by allowing the same type of data to be shown in different ways, like an article page or a welcome page, while still utilizing the same master page. Page layouts are created in SharePoint Designer and are based on SharePoint content types and site columns. From an administrative standpoint they are added to Office SharePoint Server sites in a similar fashion to master pages. They are also stored in the Master Page Gallery and can, like master pages, can be added from SharePoint Designer, the SharePoint Web interface, or deployed via SharePoint Features.

Page layouts help dictate the overall look and feel of a Web page. A page layout relies on a content type to determine the kind of content that can be stored on pages that use the page layout. Content for the page is stored in fields on the page. When you view or edit a page, the content is displayed in field controls. When you create a page layout, you add field controls using a Windows SharePoint Services-compatible Web authoring tool, such as Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007.

The types of fields on a page are determined by the content type for the page. Each content type contains columns that correspond to the fields on the page. When you create a content type, you add column templates to the content type for each field. Column templates determine the default field control that is associated with the columns as well as the kind of content the field can contain, such as a single line of text, a hyperlink, or a picture.

Content types for page layouts are based on the Page content type and contain the columns for the fields that can be used on pages based on the page layout. The Page content type is a system content type template created by the Publishing Resources feature. The column templates from Page will be added to all Pages libraries created by the Publishing feature.

By default, the Page content type contains a number of columns that page layouts require. The following table describes a sample of these default columns.

Features and Solution Files (.wsp files)

Features and Solutions are an important concept for administrators to understand. They can make the management and maintenance of a farm much easier when used together. Features provide the ability to define a piece of functionality that can be turned on and off at a given scope, such as the site collection, site, or Web application. Solutions provide the ability to package and install a feature much like a Windows .msi file, and have one installation and deployment point for all servers in the farm. The deployments can be scheduled and whenever new servers are added to the farm, the existing solutions are automatically deployed to the new server. Developing functionality as Features and deploying them as Solutions is the recommend deployment strategy for SharePoint customizations.

For more information on the benefits of using solutions and features, refer to the following:

• Solutions Overview
• Solution package components 
• SharePoint Features 
• SharePoint Solutions 
• What are Content Types? 

MOSS 2007

[void][System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.SharePoint") | out-null
Write-host ".."
Write-host ".."
Write-host "Get a list of Content types"
$site = new-object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite("http://spweb/extend"); # specify url here
foreach ($web in $site.AllWebs) { 
  $ctypes = $web.ContentTypes
  foreach ($ctype in $ctypes) {
  $usages = [Microsoft.Sharepoint.SPContentTypeUsage]::GetUsages($ctype) 
    foreach ($usage in $usages) { 
    Write-Host $web.Name + "," + $ctype.Name + "," + $usage.Url 
    } 
  }
}

$site = Get-SPSite("http://SPWeb/Site"); # Specify url here
foreach ($web in $site.AllWebs) {    
    $ctypes = $web.ContentTypes
    foreach ($ctype in $ctypes) {
        $usages = [Microsoft.Sharepoint.SPContentTypeUsage]::GetUsages($ctype)    
        foreach ($usage in $usages) {       
        Write-Host $web.Name + "," + $ctype.Name + "," + $usage.Url    
        } 
    }
}

A follow-up from last week's post about the release of SP2 for Office and SharePoint 2010: The updates from the June Cumulative Update (KB 2855357) will not install on SP2. The August Cumulative Update will be the first to do so. However, the June Cumulative Update includes some changes that are not available in SP2. If you need those changes, and SP2 is already deployed, you will need to wait until the August Cumulative Update is released and install it to get the changes from June. If the updates from June are already deployed but SP2 is not, our recommendation is to wait until August is available and then install the updates from August and SP2 in any order.

Posted @ http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/20100.default-site-templates-in-sharepoint-server-2010.aspx

There is no direct approach/method to upgrade from WSS 2.0 to SharePoint 2013. The changes between versions are too great, and the hardware requirements differ so much between versions that a direct, in-place upgrade is not possible or supported. You can, however, perform a series of database attach upgrades to first upgrade your content to Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 to SharePoint Server 2010 and then to SharePoint Server 2013.

Supported Upgrade Sequence

To upgrade your content across these versions, follow these steps.

The supported and tested upgrade path is Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 to Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 to SharePoint Server 2010 and then SharePoint Server 2013.

1. First upgrade: Upgrade the content to WSS 3.0
   
   This upgrade method will ensure the required upgraders are run as intended. One of the most common applications of this upgrade method is an in-place upgrade of Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 to Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 followed by the installation of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 over the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 installation.
   
   
   • Download the prescan.exe tool and run it on the SharePoint site
   • Check that there are 0 errors and check that the bit flag value on the database for the web site in the table sites is updated.
   • Check for the SQL server having WSS 2.0 sites, stop the services and move the database files over to the new SQL server
   • Run the Products and technologies wizard on the WSS 3.0 environment
   • Create a new web app on port 80 (or a random port)
   • Once the web app is up, detach the content database from Central Admin, Application Management, Manage Content Databases page
   • Attach the restored WSS 2.0 db to the web app in WSS 3.0 and then run the following command to upgrade the database from WSS 2.0 to WSS 3.0

   Stsadm -o addcontentdb -url http://webappUrl -databasename <restoredfromWSSv2> –databaseserver <WSSv3_SQLSvr>

   • Wait for the operation to complete.
   • Once completed, browse to the web app and verify that the sites are browse able.
     
2. Second upgrade: Upgrade the content to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
   
   
   You can install MOSS 2007 over the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 installation.
   
3. Third upgrade: Upgrade the content to SharePoint Server 2010 Products
   
   
   • Use SQL Server to make a backup of the content databases on the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 or Office SharePoint Server 2007 farm, restore the backups to the SharePoint Foundation 2010 or SharePoint Server 2010 farm, and then take the old farm offline.
   • Attach the copies of the content databases to the SharePoint Foundation 2010 or SharePoint Server 2010 farm and upgrade them (optionally, you can upgrade them in parallel).
   • Verify that the content was upgraded and that the SharePoint Foundation 2010 or SharePoint Server 2010 farm is working correctly.
     
4. Fourth upgrade: Upgrade the content to SharePoint Server 2013 Products
   
   
   • Use SQL Server to make a backup of the content databases on the SharePoint Foundation 2010 or SharePoint Server 2010 farm, and then restore them to the SharePoint Foundation 2013 or SharePoint Server 2013 farm.
   • Attach the copies of the content databases to the SharePoint Foundation 2013 or SharePoint Server 2013 farm and upgrade them (optionally, you can upgrade them in parallel).
   • Verify that the content was upgraded and that the SharePoint Foundation 2013 or SharePoint Server 2013 farm is working correctly.
   • Upgrade the site collections.

More Information

• Don't be afraid of Prescan - Part 1
• Your Friend Prescan.exe - How to Get it & What it Does - Part 2
• Overview on pre upgrade scanner

What does Prescan do and what does it touch in the database?

PRESCAN.EXE will report on common issues that will result in a failed upgrade; therefore, running PRESCAN.EXE, addressing reported issues, and resolving those issues, and re-running PRESCAN.EXE to verify those fixes is a best practice when planning a Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007/Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 upgrade.

It parses and saves List definitions with the associated Lists. SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Service Pack 2 already incorporates this feature whenever a list is modified; however, this process should be completed for all Lists, so prescan calls the SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Service Pack 2 method to persist that data.

1. Tp_fields column in the lists table to persist the list schema. This is to facilitate v2->v3 list upgrade
2. Bitflags column in the sites table to indicate a site collection has been scanned.

Flips the bitflags field in the sites table in the content database to 262144 if it is ready to be upgraded.

• Understanding PRESCAN.EXE Errors
• You receive an error message when you run the pre-upgrade scan tool (Prescan.exe) to scan Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 sites before you upgrade to Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

• WSS 2.0 to 3.0 Upgrade Toolkit for Windows SharePoint Services Sites and Templates Guide
• Utility Spotlight - Upgrade Toolkit for SharePoint Sites and Templates
• Microsoft Press: Upgrading from Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2003
• White paper: Upgrading Large Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Intranet Portals to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

• Upgrade examples: Upgrading three common customizations

If you have extensively customized your Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 sites (by using Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003), you need to determine how you want to handle your customized sites when you upgrade. Your approach will vary based on the extent of the customizations, the complexity of your site, and your goals for upgrading.

• Upgrading from SharePoint Portal Server 2003 to SharePoint 2010 Part 1
• Upgrading from SharePoint Portal Server 2003 to SharePoint 2010 Part 2
• Upgrade from Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 to SharePoint Foundation 2010
• Upgrade from Office SharePoint Server 2007 or Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 to SharePoint Server 2013 or SharePoint Foundation 2013

October 2013 Cumulative Update Packages for SharePoint Foundation 2013 and SharePoint Server 2013 have been released

October 2013 CU for SharePoint Foundation 2013 - KB 2825674
October 2013 CU for SharePoint Server 2013 - KB 2825647

Note: This is build 15.0.4551.1001 of the cumulative update package.

Important: March 2013 PU for SharePoint Server 2013 is mandatory to install this update.

Updates Center for SharePoint 2013       
Common Question: What is the difference between a PU, a CU and a COD

Binary Large Objects

The main function of the BlobCache is to cache large objects from the database to the web front-ends and eliminate the need for database round trips thus improving performance. The objects are retrieved from the database once and stored in the local cache. Further requests are served from the cache and trimmed based on security. The configuration includes

• specify which extensions or objects which you wish to trap like image, sound, video files, code fragments etc.
• a local folder to drop the cached files on the WFEs
• an expiration (in seconds)
• whether to enable it or not. 

Example

<BlobCache location="C:\blobCache" path="\.(gif|jpg|png|css|js)$" maxSize="10" max-age="86400" enabled="false"/>

Now BlobCache also has a secondary function which is to send "better" Http Headers to clients so that they can also cache the files along the way.  Basically what it means is that it will send a "Cache-Control: public, max-age=86400" to the browser and by having it public, it means that anything along the way (proxies etc.) can cache it.  The 86400 is the default value for max-age and it means that the file will expire in 1 day.

Here's something which you can try for BlobCache issues (these are very basic troubleshooting steps)

• flushing it through the GUI (Site Settings - Site Collection Object Cache - Force flush on this server). Note that if you have multiple zones (i.e. you extend a web application) then each of them has its own BlobCache folder. It also means that the "Force flush" only works for the zone that you are pointing to in the URL. Also if you have multiple web front ends, each server holds its own copy of the the disk based cache.
• Deleting the files manually on disk, 'C:\BlobCache' (by default) folder.
• Perform an IISreset.

Detailed information about BlobCache is available here

What is SharePoint ?

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server is an integrated suite of server capabilities that can help improve organizational effectiveness by providing comprehensive content management and enterprise search, accelerating shared business processes, and facilitating information-sharing across boundaries business insight. Additionally, this collaboration and content management server provides IT professionals and developers with the platform and tools they need for server administration, application extensibility, and interoperability.

In simple terms, SharePoint is a content management and information sharing system brings together a variety of technologies into a single integrated platform and set of enterprise services. These technologies range from collaboration to portals to enterprise search to workflow and business process

Read also

• SharePoint Team Blog and the SharePoint Server TechCenter
• Features included in Office SharePoint Server 2007

Configure a SharePoint Server 2007 site to receive e-mail (Video)

• The complete guide for capacity planning and Software boundaries is available at SharePoint Server 2010 capacity management: Software boundaries and limits

More information on psconfig.exe: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263093.aspx

1.   psconfig -cmd configdb -create -server "SERVER\INSTANCE" -database "nameOFtheConfigDB" -admincontentdatabase "nameOFtheadmincontentDB" -user DOMAIN\FARMACCOUNT -password PASSWORD 2.  psconfig -cmd helpcollections -installall

// Secure resources in file system and registry entries
psconfig -cmd secureresources

// Install services on the server
3.  psconfig -cmd services -install

**  Setup Services  ** 

// Configure Windows SharePoint Services Help Search service: mandatory to successfully provision services on this server. More info: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc288507.aspx
4.  Stsadm -o spsearch -action start -farmserviceaccount DOMAIN\FARMACCOUNT -farmservicepassword PASSWORD -databaseserver "SERVER\INSTANCE" -databasename "nameOFtheSearchDB"

// Configure Office SharePoint Server search service. More information is available at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262920.aspx
5.   Stsadm –o Osearch -action start -role Index -farmcontactemail "EMAIL" -farmperformancelevel Reduced -farmserviceaccount DOMAIN\SEARCHSERVICE -farmservicepassword PASSWORD

// Actually enable services on the server
6.    psconfig -cmd services -provision

7.    psconfig -cmd installfeatures

// Create central administration website

8.    psconfig -cmd adminvs -provision -port PORT -windowsauthprovider onlyusentlm

9.    psconfig -cmd applicationcontent -install

Add servers to your farm

Once you finished to configure the first server, you can add additional servers to the farm. Procedure is the same whatever you installed MOSS or WSS

1. psconfig -cmd configdb -connect -server "SERVER\INSTANCE" -database "nameOFtheConfigDB" -admincontentdatabase "nameOFtheadmincontentDB" -user DOMAIN\FARMACCOUNT -password PASSWORD
2. psconfig -cmd helpcollections -installall
3. psconfig -cmd secureresources
4. psconfig -cmd services install
5. psconfig -cmd installfeatures
6. psconfig -cmd applicationcontent -install

Optional

CreateSSP

1. Create web applications for the Shared Services Provider
2. Create a new web app for the SSP admin site

Stsadm -o extendvs -url <URL for the web app> -ownerlogin domain\username -owneremail email@yourdomain.com -exclusivelyusentlm -apidname “AppPoolName″ -apidtype configurableID -apidlogin <domain\username> -apidpwd <app pool password>Create a new web app for the My site

Stsadm -o extendvs -url <URL for the web app> -ownerlogin domain\username -owneremail email@yourdomain.com -exclusivelyusentlm -apidname “AppPoolName″ -apidtype configurableID -apidlogin <domain\username> -apidpwd <app pool password>

More on Stsadm -o extendvs is available at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263040(office.12).aspx

    3.   Create the Shared Services Provider

Stsadm -o Createssp -title “Shared Service Provider” -url <created in 1a.> -mysiteurl <created in 1b.> -indexserver %COMPUTERNAME% -indexlocation “%Programfiles%\Microsoft Office Servers\12.0\Data\Applications” -ssplogin domain\username -ssppassword password

More on Stsadm -o Createssp : http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262773(office.12).aspx

The default max single file upload size is 50 MB by default for a web application. The maximum that the product itself can handle or support is 2 GB which is essentially a SQL limit. It's true that simply removing this, it doesn't mean that a user can upload a 2GB file.  The server time out settings, browser and network speed play a large part in what is truly supportable.   Downloading those same files over large distances can cause a timeout.