Yung Chou is a Windows 7 PC : Information Worker

Microsoft Office Groove 2007 Workspace Replication Upon Acceptance of Invitation

yungc — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 16:33:00 GMT

This blog explains how a Groove 2007 client behaves differently from a Groove 3.x client on the replication of a workspace. Upon a client's acceptance of a Groove workspace invitation, the current content of the workspace is replicated via a Groove cloud...(read more)

An Invitation to Upcoming Microsoft SharePoint and Groove Usability Studies

yungc — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 16:42:00 GMT

Announcement Do you use SharePoint and work with Groove ? Microsoft's User Research Group is conducting series of studies for SharePoint products and technologies at the Microsoft campus in Redmond, WA, and is looking for participants in the Puget Sound...(read more)

Launch Events, and Webcasts, and TechEd 2008, Oh My

yungc — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 17:31:00 GMT

Here are some of my upcoming engagements. Hope to meet you in person and in the air.

Windows Server 2008 Launch Events

04/29, Long Island, NY

05/13, Reston, VA

05/23, Baltimore, MD

06/03, Edison, NJ

We will mainly cover 3 of the 4 big investments Microsoft made in Widows Server 2008, namely solid foundation, Web, virtualization, and security. Other than Web technology briefly touched, we have planned 3 1-hour sessions to give you a good understanding of the new features and capabilities now you will have when running Windows Server 2008. As always, you will also receive all the goodies which I know are not what you are attending the event for. J

TechNet Webcast: 24 Hours of Windows Server 2008 (Part 19 of 24): AD RMS and AD FS (Level 200)

In my view, the 24 Hours series is a quick and cost-effective way to get yourselves trained on Windows Server 2008.

My 2 sessions to be delivered in TechEd 2008 for IT Pro at Orlando, FL

The Groove session is a continuation of my commitment to help customers understand what Groove is about. I will not discuss too much on the basics which has already been covered in my TechNet article (you can download it here), instead I would like to focus on the integration and talk about scenarios of employing Groove as an integral component of your entire collaboration solution.

Prototyping a collaboration solution is a challenge I am facing everyday when demonstrating business values added by various capabilities introduced by Microsoft technologies. With Hyper-V, the virtualization solution included in Windows Server 2008, there are new ways of building and managing a sandbox, and I thought it will be interesting and beneficial for IT Pros to share some of the best practices and exchange ideas.

Answers to Some of Frequently Asked Questions on Groove

yungc — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 04:58:00 GMT

I have recently met many with the same questions on Groove and thought here to share my answers. If you woudl like to know more technical information about Groove, recommend starting with my TechNet article, J

Get into the Groove: Solutions for Secure and Dynamic Collaboration

to get a technical overview, followed by reviewing the content at

Groove Advisor and Groove Tech Center

Groove Advisor is closely monitored by Microsoft Groove product group and many seasoned Groove veterans. It is a great resource to find out more on Groove.

When deploying Groove Server on site, does one need to deploy both Groove Server Manager and Groove Server Realy?

For a Groove Server Relay to be associated with a Groove Server Manager (which is the root CA of a Groove Domain) and serve Groove accoutns issued by this Groove Server Manager, one will need to, from the Realy, request a certificate from the Groove Server Manager as required by Groove PKI. Operationally this can be done from Groove Server Manager console when setting up a Relay Set, or Groove Server Realy configuration applet. Either way, one will need to have an admin access to an intended Groove Server Relay. Not to mention, it is my undersatnding for an on-site Groove server deployment, Microsoft Product Support and Services supports only when both Groove Server Manager and Groove Server Relay are deployed.

Does a Groove Server keep all workspaces for all clients?

Not at all. All Groove workspace content are replicated and stored at the client side. For instance, if three are 10 members in a workspace, there are total 10 copies of the content and each member has a copy of the workspace encrypted and stored locally. Groove can and will automatically sync workspace content for a member when a client-to-client or a client-to-relay connection is established. Groove Server Realy holds message queues for assigned users to temporarily store Groove messages (deltas, IM, etc.) when applicable, i.e. a client-to-client connection is not establishable, while a client-to-relay conneciton is. And these temporarily stored messages are permanently deleted once consumed by an intended recipient when connecting to the Relay. Groove Server Manager, on the other hand, provides a web interface for administering a Groove domain and stores only account configuration data in an associated SQL backend.

How can a Groove user back up all files in all workspaces?

While highlighting a workspace in Groove Launchbar, right-click and Save As, and Archive. This will save the content of a workspace by default at Groove Workspace Archives in a user’s Domument folder.To know more about Groove’s backup options, please review this whitepaper.

Should a Groove Server Relay be accessible from Internet? Which ports does it use?

Yes. Groove Realy Server is to provide a rendezvous point such that a sender and an intended recipient can exchange messages (here all Groove data are considered as messages) without the need to be on line at the same time, or within the same (IT) organizational boundary.

A Groove client can establish a connection with a Groove Server Relay (which never initiates a connection to client) via the following ports, in order of preference,

· 2492, if open, with SSTP (Simple Symmertric Transmission Protocol) (See 917165)

· 443, if open with connection to proxy is allowed, with SSTP (Notice Groove uses SSTPon 443 and not SSL as described by 917165)

· 80 with HTTP

So, at least opening port 80 is necessary.Notice port 80 is also iused by a client to contact Groove Server Manager, when applicable.For more information, review Groove Security Architecture and Planning and Architecture for Office Groove Server 2007.

Putting A Groove Relay with no interface to Internet means that the Realy will relay traffic in only Intranet, in such case IPsec and domain/server isolation can take care of the network/connection security while AD and NTFS can manage access control, SharePoint in this scenario is the right and best solution for all intranet only collaboration.