Mar06

Search Server 2010 Beta

With all the new Office applications currently available in beta don’t overlook the next version of Search Server Express. You can download Search Server 2010 beta from:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=dfd0cfac-f52c-4c02-a972-0e4f1c4e7977&displaylang=en

You will need a 64 bit operating system, but unlike SharePoint Foundation 2010 it says that Search Server Express 2010 will run on Windows 2003 and 2008.

Here’s what the new version looks like after you install it.

Doesn’t look like much does it? But I have spoken many times about the power of search WITHIN a business, so don’s be fooled by the appearance. If you click on Advanced you’ll see:

which really doesn’t look much different from Search Server 2008 below:

I’m currently working out what the differences are and will post any information that I find here soon.

Again, don’t be fooled by the apparent simplicity of Search Server, it is something most businesses really need and best of all it is a free download!

Published: Mar-06-10 | 0 Comments | Link to this post

Feb10

SharePoint supported systems

I pulled the following table from a post in the SharePoint Team blog.

Looking at the table I note the following:

- SharePoint 2010 is apparently not supported on Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation, Windows Server 2008 Foundation, Windows Web Server 2008 R2 and Windows Web Server 2008!

I’ve always touted Foundation or Web Server as a great option for a stand alone version of Windows SharePoint in a small business network. That way you can have something that is isolated and more easily upgraded. That concept now appears to be blown out of the window. It means that if you want a stand alone version of SharePoint 2010 Foundation on a network you need to install a full Windows Standard 2008 server or better.

I wonder why that is? Will Windows SharePoint Foundation actually not run on these servers or is it just not licensed to run on these servers? I can certainly test it with Windows Server 2008 Web Edition but given that Windows Foundation Server 2008 is an OEM product it is going to make it difficult.

Whatever the reason according to this you can’t use the low end version of Windows Server to run SharePoint 2010 Foundation in a network. That is a real bummer to say the least.

- SharePoint 2010 is supported on Window Small Business Server 2008. I have tried an upgrade from SharePoint v3 to SharePoint 2010 on Small Business Server 2008 and am yet to have any luck. It maybe supported on the platform (which is just Windows Server Standard 2008 anyway) but will it actually install? Seemingly another good question.

- What about Windows Home Server? I reckon I can guess the answer to this one, again unsupported. Interesting that it doesn’t rate a mention even though the next version of Windows Home Server will be 64 bit and based on Windows Server 2008 Standard (from my understanding).

Based on my previous experience with SharePoint on Windows Home Server, I’ll almost bet that SharePoint 2010 will install but as Microsoft says, it will be unsupported.

I have to admit I am pretty disappointed that SharePoint 2010 Foundation will not be supported on Windows Server Foundation 2008 flavour because my checking found that SharePoint v3 was supported on Windows Server Foundation 2003. What’s changed here so dramatically that SharePoint 2010 Foundation can’t run on Foundation 2008 server? Microsoft have already knobbled SharePoint 2010 Foundation by changing the database from SQL Embedded Edition to SQL Express Edition (which means a 4GB database limit). This is yet another hurdle they are forcing the product to overcome.

This illustrates how much value the current free version of Windows SharePoint v3 is. By default, it doesn’t have a database size limit and will run on Foundation 2003 server. However, what’s going to happen if you eventually can upgrade the Windows SharePoint v3 that is currently on SBS 2008 to Windows SharePoint 2010 Foundation that has a database >4GB? Oh fun and games.

Published: Feb-10-10 | 0 Comments | Link to this post

Feb02

Just checking

After finally working out how to install SQL Server 2008 onto Windows Server 2008 R2 I thought I’d try and take the SQL Server 2008 disk from SBS 2008 Premium and see if I could install that version of SQL Server onto a Windows Server 2008 R2. Of course this is not at all supported by the licensing but I just wanted to see whether it was possible.

Well, the short answer is that it isn’t, as you can see from the above screen shot. During the installation the SQL Server setup detects that the SBS 2008 SQL Server version should only be installed on Windows Server 2008 not Windows Server 2008 R2.

Just in case you ever wanted to know.

Published: Feb-02-10 | 0 Comments | Link to this post

Feb01

Installing SQL Server 2008 on Windows Server 2008 R2

I was recently installing SharePoint v3 on a Windows Server 2008 R2 machine using SQL Server 2008 for database storage when I came up with a problem.

Now that’s interesting, I thought, SQL Server 2008 has issues running on Windows Server 2008 R2. The latest version of SQL has problems on the latest version of Windows Server. Go figure. No major issue, I mistakenly thought, I’ll just follow what it says to do on the Compatibility Assistant and I should be right. Famous last words.

Turns out that even when you install SQL Server Service Pack 1 directly after installing SQL Server 2008 you can’t get access to the SQL instance on the machine. I did some Googling and came up with the following article which provided the resolution:

http://wadingthrough.wordpress.com/2009/09/14/problem-installing-sql-server-2008-on-windows-2008-r2/

So what I’ll do here is go into the resolution in a little more depth for people.

Before installing SQL Server 2008 RTM on Windows Server 2008 R2 you need to install SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1 as this will install updated SQL Setup Files which “know” about Windows Server 2008 R2. So download the service pack and double click on the download to start the install.

Follow the installation through and allow the Setup Support files to install after which the Service Pack installation will exit and you will be returned to the desktop. Now commence the SQL Server 2008 RTM install.

You will receive the same compatibility warning you always receive.

Simply click on Run program to proceed. You can now install SQL Server 2008 RTM as you normally would from the menu.

During the install you may again be prompted about compatibility issues but just continue through until the installation of SQL Server 2008 is complete.

Once the installation of SQL Server 2008 is complete you need to install the SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1 to update all the SQL files (you only did the setup files before).

With SQL Server 2008 RTM and SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1 now installed, your installation on Windows Server 2008 R2 should be good to go.

Published: Feb-01-10 | 0 Comments | Link to this post

Jan29

Getting started with Twitter guide

I get a lot of questions about getting started on Twitter so I have created a document that covers the basics. You’ll find it in my Slideshare collection or via:

http://su.pr/1nD2j7

The document is free to view or download and covers things like setting up a Twitter account, following others, updating and messaging other Twitter users.

When I did a search for a document like this on Google I couldn’t find one, although I’m sure they are out there. There are plenty of Powerpoints saying how great Twitter is and how you should be using it but none that actually take you step by step through the process. So rather than having to keep explaining things, it was much easier in the long run to create a document which covers all this.

I am also working on similar documents for Facebook and Blogger which I hope to have available soon. If you want a copy of these (or this one on Twitter) either visit my Slideshare page or simply contact me (director@ciaops.com) and I’ll happily send it to you. If you have some suggestions for document you would like to see and just can’t seem to find on the Internet let me know as I am always on the lookout for material to document.

Also, if you read the document please feel free to give any comments, correction or feedback, I can assure you they all help.

Published: Jan-29-10 | 0 Comments | Link to this post

Jan27

Shared OneNote notebooks

For those who have not as yet experienced the joy of OneNote I’d suggest you give it a try. You can download a 60 day free trial from:

http://us20.trymicrosoftoffice.com/default.aspx?culture=en-US

Basically, OneNote is a digital notebook that allows you to save just about any form of digital information. You can use it to save text, images, web sites, files and more.

You can even print to OneNote from any application and send information directly from Internet Explorer and Outlook. Best of all, any information in OneNote is not only backed up but it is also indexed, which means you can search through all your notes quickly and easily.

Now this isn’t a blog post on the benefits of OneNote it is about how you can connect OneNote to SharePoint to provide shared notebook access. This enables a single notebook to be shared between multiple people. If you have a SharePoint site that is hosted on the Internet you can share this information between people just about anywhere.

So how do you go about doing that? First you’ll need to have a SharePoint site with a document library people can get access to. I normally like to create a separate OneNote document library to keep all the OneNote files together but there is no need to do that. You’ll also need to have OneNote installed on every machine that you wish to access the notebooks with.

Once you have all that in place and have launch OneNote complete the following to create a new notebook.

Select File | New | Notebook from the menu.

Give the new notebook a name and select a OneNote template.

To allow a shared notebook select the Multiple people will share the notebook option and then On a server.

In the path field enter the URL of your SharePoint document library.

If SharePoint is hosted on the Internet you will need to logon to the site.

The new notebook should appear. Now all any other user needs to do to connect and share the notebook is launch OneNote on their local machine and open the notebook from the URL you used to create the notebook.

Next time you open OneNote you will see some text at the top of the notebook indicating that you need to login to get the latest updates to the file. Simply click on this link and enter your login details. Any changes will then be automatically sync’ed.

If you don’t have a hosted SharePoint site you can still achieve the same result using Office Live. Information about how to configure that can be found in a free document I created a while back which can be found at - http://www.slideshare.net/directorcia/onenote-and-office-live.

The good thing about sync’ing OneNote is that not only do you retain a local copy but there is always an offsite backup. So you can keep using OneNote on the road and when you connect back to the Internet all changes in all notebooks are synchronized. It makes it a very easy process for any team collaboration.

So there you are. If you haven’t looked at OneNote I’d recommend you do and if you can link it to SharePoint to provided shared notebook access I’m confident that it’ll prove a winner with most teams.

Published: Jan-27-10 | 0 Comments | Link to this post

Jan24

New version of Evernote available

One of the best applications I have found is Evernote. Basically you can think of it as an electronic notebook. In many ways it is similar one of my other favourite applications (OneNote) but has a number of differences that still make it something I use regularly.

One of the main areas that I thought Evernote lagged OneNote was the in the way that it presented information. I like OneNote’s ability to easily create and organize information via sections and tabs. The new version of Evernote is certainly a step closer to being as easy to visualize as OneNote, although it still has a ways to go.

Probably the biggest plus Evernote has for me is the ability to access and add to your information via a browser. You can of course use an application that you load onto just about any platform, but it is this ability to access Evernote information via a web page that put it above OneNote in functionality I believe. I always found it handy if I was ever on a customer’s machine to take a screen shot of the error. With Evernote I could save that information directly via a browser and have it sync’ed with my desktop machine upon my return.

There is still a place for OneNote and Evernote in my took kit but the latest Evernote version 3.5 is certainly getting closer to including all the bits I like in OneNote. Even better, Evernote is free to use and you can’t beat that for value.

Published: Jan-24-10 | 0 Comments | Link to this post

Jan18

A change of browser

A while ago I swapped form using Microsoft’s Internet Explorer to Firefox. The main reason was the number of handy add ons that Firefox has available. One of these is NoScript which blocks Javascript and Flash but can be easily configured to allow pre-determined safe sites. Most browser threats these days come via scripts, so the more protection the better.

For the past week I decided that I would use Google Chrome as my default browser and I must say that I’m impressed. It is fast, stable and supports many (not all) of the little add ons that I use. I use a site on a daily basis that is very heavily Java based and I gotta say that here it really flys, even compared to Firefox. So I’m now using Chrome everyday without hesitation.

Interestingly, I came across this news report “Calls to ditch Internet Explorer after China hacks” that details how the recent major cyber attacks against Google were perpetrated via Internet Explorer and Adobe Acrobat. Internet Explorer has had a really bad name in relation to security and even with the release of version 8 it doesn’t seem to be getting any better. Again, you do need to take these reports with a pinch of salt being they come from mainstream media (read techno-illiterate and sensationalism seeking) and are about a competitor to Google (i.e. Microsoft). However, the most interesting thing is that I haven’t seen much response from Microsoft about the attacks (Did they also get attacked? If they didn’t why didn’t they? Or did they and they are just not admitting it?).

After using both Firefox and Chrome I can honestly see no need to return to Internet Explorer, it just feels old. Perhaps there is a need to really strip Internet Explorer back and make a really simple and secure version which is really what most people need. The problem in this business is once you fall behind it normally takes a monumental improvement in a product to catch up as it has to be so much better than what is already out there to even warrant attention. Personally, I can’t see Microsoft doing this. They have reached middle age and a technical leap of that size just doesn’t seem possible to them any more.

If the browser is the default application through which which most people access the web how many of these are unpatched and insecure? Even if you are up to date all these unpatched systems still represent a threat because when you are connected to the web you are also connecting to them. The joys of an interconnected world!

So what is your browser of choice? Whatever it is make sure it is up to date (as well as your version of Adobe Acrobat).

Published: Jan-18-10 | 0 Comments | Link to this post

Jan06

Another nail

One the major selling points of something like Microsoft Exchange Server is that it not only allows you to send and receive emails, but it also has a calendar that in a network environment you can share with others. This allows people to see when others are busy, schedule meetings and so on. Very handy. The problem now is that this type of functionality is locked inside a business’s network and also it typically doesn’t work with people using other calendaring platforms like Google Calendar.

A potential solution to this issue that I have discovered is Tungle. In summary here’s what it offers:

Schedule - Send invitations proposing multiple times and let Tungle find the time that works for everyone. Tungle handles everything from time zones, to double booking, to updating your calendar.

Publish - Customize your personal scheduling page. Show only the times you want to be available. Invite others to schedule meetings with you. Meetings get booked on your terms and others don’t have to sign up.

Share - Share calendars across companies, systems and time zones. You control who you share with and what you share – free/busy or full details

Tungle works from Outlook, Google Calendar, iCal/Entourage and Lotus Notes. I have created an account and published my calendar at http://tungle.me/ciaops. If you visit the you’ll see all the available times I have. If you wanted to have a meeting with me then you could simply select a time and make a request via the web page. All the details, once approved, get sync’ed to everyone’s calendar.

I’ve already used Tungle to schedule couple of meetings and I have to say that so far it was worked really well as most requests I get are ‘I’d like to meet when are you free’. So rather than bouncing requests back and forth via email email I can simply get the person to select a time in Tungle and it’ll end up in my calendar. All very nice and easy.

Once you have something like Tungle, then why would you need Exchange calendaring? I could simply use Outlook and sync my calendar with other members of my team no matter what calendar they use. I can let external parties view my availability directly from the web or their iPhone. I don’t you can do that as easily from Exchange.

Now I must admit I can’t see how these guys are going to make money (hello premium services I’ll bet) but this ‘proof of concept’ is certainly a great step. Of course there will always be concerns over privacy but these can be worked around (like only publishing a ‘business calendar’), however if the business value grossly outweighs this then it is less of a concern.

If you need a tool to allow people to schedule appointments with you and reduce the amount of time wasted finding a convenient free slot for everyone concerned then I’d suggest you take a look at Tungle. If you are interested to see how Tungle could be another nail in the coffin of the traditional Microsoft Exchange calendaring, I’d also recommend you take a look.

Published: Jan-06-10 | 0 Comments | Link to this post

Nov30

SharePoint Foundation 2010 beta data location

I’ve been poking around to find out where SharePoint Foundation 2010 beta actually puts the content databases when you do a default installation. It certainly wasn’t where I expected it to be.

As you can see from the above screen shot it ends up in c:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\web server extensions\14\data\mssql10.sharepoint\mssql\data.

Now there is nothing really wrong with the location per se but it sure is a mouthful. Personally, I don’t like long data paths as it generally adds complications. Now I know that the content database location can be moved and I certainly hope that SharePoint Foundation 2010 beta includes a wizard to do this because I’d actually like to move ALL the SharePoint data (content databases, search index, configuration files, etc) into a single directory somewhere just off the root of my drive.

The reality is that I’m not really expecting to find a wizard to move all this data so I suppose I’ve just gotta get used to it. I’m I the only one that thinks doing this has made things more complicated?

Published: Nov-30-09 | 0 Comments | Link to this post

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