Baltimore SPUG - Worst Practices and Blunders

#BaltSharePoint #ShareWurst

SharePoint Worst PracticesBlunders We’ve Made Along the Way…

Scott HoagDan Usher


who am I?

Infrastructure Consultant with Applied Information Sciences8 years of experience with the SharePoint platform from MCMS 2002 through 2013 todayA lowly developer…They let me build things…


who’s that other guy?

Lead Associate at Booz Allen Hamilton8 years of experience with SharePoint going back to adventures with STS 2001 and SPS 2003 to the presentFollows the SharePoint Credo - ADIDASAll Day I Dream About SharePointEnjoys discussions about Claims AuthZ, SmartCard AuthN, Drumming Rudiments & the Big Bang TheoryFascinated by Radio Lab

DanUsher

usher


about you


rules of the road

Phones silenced, phasers set to stun

Ask questions


what this talk is about…

Avoiding ending your day like this…


technical challengesAuthentication and AuthorizationExternal Accessibility and ExtranetsSystem Scalability and CachingSearchUsability / Client IntegrationUser Interface Design and BrandingApplication Lifecycle ManagementMigration ChallengesNew Capabilities IntroducedTraining3rd Party Products and Integrated SystemsVariations and Multi-Lingual


business challenges

System AdoptionDesign of SystemAccessibility of SystemLack of FeaturesLack of Federation

Business Process ManagementResource Availability and TrainingMulti-Generational Culture DifferencesHosting Solutions – To the Cloud?Mobile, Disconnected and Distributed WorkforcesIT Shops disconnected from Business Users


social challenges

What is ‘Social’?Disabling or not planning for OOTB functionality of MySites, Audiences, etc.Information SilosLack of / Too much GovernanceNo planning for structured metadataNot leveraging folksonomy, ratings, etc.Lack of Directory Structure Impacts

Active Directory information (Manager, Reports, etc)Findability of sites, communities and documents


external influences


typical coding practices


more development disasters

Features, Web Part Packs, Solution PackagesScoping of SolutionsSolution Behavior (bin / GAC / Sandbox)Install, Deploy, Retract, Remove

Knowing the differences between a site definition, a web template, and a master page… Branding mattersLack of Documentation

Requirements, Design, Implementation

Disposing of Objects Properly


enterprise infrastructure processes

IT Governance & Service Level AgreementCapacity PlanningSystem MaintenanceDisaster RecoveryContinuity of Operations

RTO / RPO / RLO

Sourc

e:

Sean M

cDonough @

spm

cdonough

http://j.mp/H6WM1y

http://twitter.com/spmcdonough/

http://twitter.com/spmcdonough/


operations and maintenance

Scheduled and Emergency/Unscheduled Maintenance TimeDeploying code without testing in a staging environmentLack of regression pathDisaster RecoveryBusiness Continuity of Operations


misconceptions and gotchas

Disaster Recovery “Oops”Recovering across DomainsConsolidating and Migrating

Build NumbersWorkflow History

GovernanceSocial



site collection issues


creating orphans

IIS reset solves all qualmsor so we’d like to think…

During backup of a site collectionThe backup is now invalid

During a restore of a site collectionThe restore will have portions of the site collection and associated webs restored (maybe)


permissions management

Removing the SharePoint group that you gave Full Control…Removing yourself from the SharePoint group that has Full Control…


publish and approvepublish

I updated myMaster PagePage LayoutStyle Sheetor a number of other assets

And no one can see my changes!


the recycle bin

The common misconceptionsThe (cold) truth

“Regardless of whether or not an item is sent to the users' Recycle Bin or to the Site Collection Recycle Bin, items are deleted automatically after the number of days that the server administrator specified in Central Administration.”

Manage the Recycle Bin of a site (Office.com)

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-server-help/manage-the-recycle-bin-of-a-site-HA010380088.aspx?CTT=1


testing workflows as a deity

Declarative Workflows set to start when an item is created or changed will not execute when logged in as the System Account.Pro Tip: Email-enabled lists will not auto start workflows either, unless…

stsadm –o setproperty –pn declarativeworkflowautostartonemailenabled –pv true

will fix this

declarativeworkflowautostartonemailenabled (Property Reference)


deleting the wrong item

I see a hidden Forms folder when using Explorer View. I think I should delete some things in it!


tune your analytics

By default, you get 25 months(!!) of analytics dataMicrosoft’s guidance for capacity planning in regards to web analytics isn’t pretty.

Dataset Characteristics Value

SharePoint components 30k

Unique users 117k

Unique queries 68k

Unique assets 500k

Reporting DB data size? 200GB per day

Capacity requirements for the Web Analytics Shared Service in SharePoint Server 2010

73TB per year511TB for 7 years

http://technet.microsoft.com/library/gg440601(office.14).aspx


permissive file handling

Users are being prompted to download PDFsEnable permissive file handling for all files in Web Application in Central AdministrationSet specific mime types for a Web Application

> $webApp = Get-SPWebApplication("http://intranet.contoso.com")> $webApp.AllowedInlineDownloadMimeTypes.Add("application/pdf")> $webApp.Update()


server blunders


running in circles

You’re browsing your site from the server. Or you’re trying to get search to work. Or you’re trying to get a web service to work. Or you just want anything to work….HTTP 401.1 - Unauthorized: Logon Failed and you’ve got a FQDN on your siteKB896861 offers several options

DisableLoopbackCheck or BackConnectionHostNames

DisableLoopbackCheck & SharePoint: What every admin and developer should know

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896861

http://harbar.net/archive/2009/07/02/disableloopbackcheck-amp-sharepoint-what-every-admin-and-developer-should-know.aspx

http://harbar.net/archive/2009/07/02/disableloopbackcheck-amp-sharepoint-what-every-admin-and-developer-should-know.aspx


pausing IIS

Bring up your SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard on the second screenChecking IIS to see your web applications temporarily paused


lost passphrases

Passphrase is no longer known

Managed accounts and auto-password resetsDocument your farm

TechNetCodePlex

> $passphrase = ConvertTo-SecureString -asPlainText -Force> Set-SPPassPhrase -PassPhrase $passphrase -Confirm

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff645391.aspx

http://spdocgen.codeplex.com/


certificate revocation list

Slow (up to 60 seconds) execution of stsadm and Application Pool recycles

Enable outbound internet access to crl.microsoft.comHOSTS file redirectSet the State registry key for all users who will run a shell or application pool

Edit the machine.config for each server in your farm

<psuedocode>if (!server.HasInternetConnectivity()) {

server.DisableCRLCheck();}

</psuedocode>

Certificate Revocation List Check and SharePoint 2010 without an Internet Connection

SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WinTrust\Trust Providers\Software Publishing

http://joelblogs.co.uk/2011/09/20/certificate-revocation-list-check-and-sharepoint-2010-without-an-internet-connection/


installing SharePoint


not enough service accounts

We only have a Farm accountManaging passwords is hard


primary service accountsAccount Purpose Requirements

SQL Server Runs SQL Server • Domain user account• No rights in SharePoint

Setup Account Installs the bits and performs initial configuration

• Domain user account• Member of Local Admins on each

server in the farm• securityadmin and dbcreator on

SQL instance

Farm Account Used for configuring and managing the farm and runs primary services (e.g. SPTimerV4)

• Domain account• Additional rights are automatically

granted as part of installation (both server and SQL)


other service accountsAccount Purpose Requirements

MySites Application Pool

Worker process identity for MySites • Domain user account• Managed account

Content Application Pool

Worker process identity for Content web applications

• Domain user account• Managed account

Services Application Pool

Worker process identity for Service Application Pools

• Domain account• Managed account

Search Service Process

Process identity for SharePoint Foundation (Help) search service and SharePoint Search service

• Domain account• Managed account

Search Service Default Content Access

Used to crawl content specified in content sources

• Domain account

User Profile Import Account

Account used to import (and optionally export) user data from an identity store

• Domain account• Replicate Directory Changes in AD


still more service accountsAccount Purpose Requirements

Object Cache Super User

Processes items in the object cache of a web application

• Domain user account• Managed account• Full Control User Policy on target

web application(s)

Object Cache Super Reader

Processes items in the object cache of a web application

• Domain user account• Managed account• Full Read User Policy on target web

application(s)


running the farm configuration wizard

Don’t do it.Really, don’t do it. Your GUIDs will thank you!


sandboxed solutions…“The sandboxed code execution request was refused because the Sandboxed Code Host Service was too busy to handle the request”

Your ports are blocked internally (TCP 32846)The UserCode Solutions service isn’t runningGPO Policy

RPC Endpoint Mapper Client AuthenticationRestrictions for Unauthenticated RPC clients

Registry Key Exists

Value set incorrectlyHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\RPC

HKEY_USERS\AccountSID\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WinTrust\Trust Providers\SoftwarePublishing


configuring SharePoint


managing managed paths

Don’t create managed paths for URIs that already exist!Both sites exist, but only 1 is accessible

There are limits…


trim your (audit) logs

MOSS 2007 audit trimming does not occur automatically

stsadm -o trimauditlog –date 20120502 –databasename SP2010_Content_TRISPUG


trim your (audit) logs

SharePoint 2010 works a little better


don’t forget the support mechanisms…


service management


service management takeaways

Determining realistic service level agreementsProviding adequate staffing to meet your end user needsKeeping the end user in mind


questions


contact

Scott [email protected]: @ciphertxt

Dan [email protected]: @usher

mailto:[email protected]

https://twitter.com/ciphertxt

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.twitter.com/usher

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Baltimore SPUG - Worst Practices and Blunders