Friday, April 23, 2021

SharePoint Patching Best Practices

If you only have 2 minutes, read the summary below. It documents the best practices discussed in this article in short statements. If you have more time, you should also read the rest of this article which gives more background information on the different topics.

Summary

General recommendations

  • Evaluate and install all SharePoint security updates as soon as possible and install them shortly after they have been released
  • Evaluate all SharePoint updates in a test environment which resembles the production environment before installing them in production
  • Take backups before installing SharePoint updates
  • For virtual servers you can take snapshots of all machines in the farm (important: only "cold" snapshots are supported – see below for more details) before installing new updates
  • If you are using the command line tool PSCONFIG.EXE instead the SharePoint Configuration Wizard be sure to specify all required parameters
  • After installing an additional language pack install the latest monthly update (for SharePoint Server 2016 and 2019 only the language dependent fix) again to ensure that the newly installed language components are upgraded to the same patch level as the rest of the farm
  • Keep Workflow Manager patching in sync with SharePoint patching
  • Last but not least: consider migrating your on-premises SharePoint farm to SharePoint in Microsoft 365 – here the complete patching effort and various other administrative tasks are handled by Microsoft for you.

SharePoint 2007

  • This version of SharePoint is out of support and no updates (including security updates) are released for this version anymore. Continuing to run SharePoint 2007 in production workloads puts your data at risk. Microsoft recommends upgrading to a supported version immediately.

SharePoint 2010 or 2013

  • Plan to upgrade to SharePoint Server 2016 or 2019. The newer versions of SharePoint Server improve the patching experience significantly:
    • Simplified packaging model (only 2 different packages to install compared to 30+ in earlier versions)
    • Shorter patching time (due to the simplified consolidated packaging model)
    • Zero-downtime patching (no maintenance window required)
    • Patching using Side-by-side functionality
  • Reduce patching time to a fraction using Russ Maxwell's PowerShell script
  • Apply the full server packages (also known as Uber packages) rather than individual fixes
  • Be aware that SharePoint Server 2010 and 2013 are in extended support and mainly security updates are released for these SharePoint versions. To get all the latest product improvements including non-security updates, upgrade to SharePoint Server 2016 or even better SharePoint Server 2019.
  • Patch levels older than April 2018 CU are no longer supported

SharePoint Server 2016 and 2019

SharePoint Patching Best Practices

Patching SharePoint can be challenging for SharePoint administrators for several reasons including the following:

  • Historically SharePoint consisted of a large number of components which could be patched independently
  • SharePoint patching requires two independent steps (installing the binaries and upgrading the databases)
  • SharePoint patch level needs to be in sync between different servers in the same SharePoint farm
  • SharePoint patching time is hard to predict and sometimes can take several hours
  • Microsoft recommends installing security updates as soon as possible to protect your environment from security vulnerabilities that others may try to exploit
  • There may be concerns that installing a SharePoint update could impact existing functionality
  • SharePoint updates cannot be uninstalled – so if something goes wrong there is no easy way to roll it back
  • Unlike other products like Windows or Office, it can be complex to automate the deployment of SharePoint updates across a farm

This article discusses several best practices and considerations for SharePoint administrators to simplify this process.

Best Practices around Security Updates

How quickly should security updates be installed?

Security updates should be installed as soon as possible after they are released – preferably within a couple of days. The longer your SharePoint environments operate without the latest security updates, the more risk you have that they could be compromised via an unpatched security vulnerability.

Do packages marked as security update only contain security related fixes?

No. SharePoint updates are cumulative, so each security update includes all fixes that have been released for both security and non-security related issues up to that point for the patched component.

Is it ok to install only the security updates and not the non-security updates released monthly?

Although it is supported to install only those packages which include the security updates it is recommended to keep SharePoint Server fully updated by installing the latest SharePoint updates regardless of whether they're security or non-security updates. However, it is less urgent to install non-security updates quickly after they're released unless you are impacted by one of the issues fixed in that update.

With SharePoint server 2016 and 2019 only two SharePoint update packages (one package which includes fixes for all language independent components like executables and one package which includes fixes for all language dependent components like resource files) are required to patch a SharePoint server.

If a language dependent patch isn't available for a given month, update to the latest previously available language dependent patch. For example, if applying the July 2019 Public Update for SharePoint Server 2016, install the language independent update for July 2019 and the language dependent patch from April 2019. If you do not install the language dependent patch, you may encounter missing or incorrect functionality.

Be aware that at least once a year it is mandatory to install also the non-security updates based on the Updated Product Servicing Policy for SharePoint Server 2016 and 2019

General Recommendations

Best Practices to reduce the risk of regressions

Microsoft performs rigorous validation of each fix, both internally and with a select set of partners and customers before it is released to ensure it has the highest quality. This has helped to significantly reduce the number of regressions reaching our customers in the last couple of years.

Due to the large number of components and various ways to configure them, it is impossible to test all possible configuration combinations. So it's unlikely, but possible, for a code change to introduce unwanted behavior with a specific configuration for some of our customers. Third party software and other customizations can also introduce additional variables that may be difficult to validate in our internal testing.

We recommend that customers use a test environment to validate new fixes with common use cases and business critical functionality before installing updates in their production environments. Test environments should simulate their production environments as much as possible to ensure meaningful validation.

As an additional safeguard we advise to take a backup (system state and file system backups of the SharePoint server and SQL / farm backup of the databases) before installing any updates as it is not possible to uninstall SharePoint updates after they have been installed.

If the SharePoint farm is installed on virtual machines, taking a consistent snapshot of all servers (SharePoint, SQL, etc.) could be used as an alternative. However, it would require downtime as so call "hot snapshots" are unsupported with SharePoint. The snapshots must be taken when all virtual machines are shut down to guarantee a consistent state between the SharePoint servers and the SharePoint databases.

Best practices around SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard and PSCONFIG.EXE

SharePoint patching consists of two steps: applying the binaries on each server and running the SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard on each machine in the farm to finalize the installation by upgrading the SharePoint databases and other administrative tasks. Be aware that the configuration wizard performs various tasks on the SharePoint server machines itself, including the registration of new/updated services and features and copying SharePoint binary files around to the required location. It is important that this step is performed after applying the patches otherwise SharePoint might not function correctly. If this step has to be delayed (e.g. the maintenance window is not big enough) at least the following PowerShell command has to be run on each server machine to ensure that the correct binary files are being used: Install-SPApplicationContent

Best practices for patching with language packs

SharePoint consists of language independent components (e.g. executables) and language dependent components (e.g. resource files which carry UI elements for the different languages). During patching both components have to be updated to ensure that the binaries can reference the correct resource elements. Language packs include only the language dependent components of SharePoint.

If a new language pack is installed on a SharePoint farm the patch level of the language dependent components for the new language will most likely not be the same as the patch level of the language independent components and the patch level of the other language dependent components already installed on the server. To ensure that the components installed with the language pack are upgraded to the same patch level as the rest of the farm it is required to apply the most current installed monthly patch again. For SharePoint Server 2016 and 2019 only the most current language dependent update must be applied again.

Best practice for patching Workflow Manager client on the SharePoint server machines

SharePoint updates sometimes include updates for the workflow activities for SharePoint 2013 workflows. It is important to ensure that the most current Workflow Manager updates are installed as well when new SharePoint updates are installed. This ensures that WFM is compatible with workflow activities updates included in the SharePoint update.

Also be aware that Workflow Client and Server components must be in sync. WFM client updates must be installed before WFM server is updated.

The SharePoint Configuration Wizard will update the SharePoint Workflow Activity definitions in WFM. In case this fails (e.g. because the WFM server cannot be reached because it is patched simultaneously with the SharePoint machines) the workflow definitions need to be updated manually after patching is completed using the following PowerShell command: Copy-SPActivitiesToWorkflowService

More details: Update Workflow in SharePoint Server

Best practice for patching with 3rd party components

3rd party components and other customizations cannot be considered when Microsoft tests new updates. It is important that the compatibility of 3rd party components with the latest updates is evaluated before new patches are installed in a production environment. A SharePoint administrator should contact the 3rd party vendor to get information about compatibility. In addition, the steps listed above in the Best Practices to reduce the risk of regressions section earlier in this chapter should be followed.

Best Practices for legacy versions of SharePoint

SharePoint 2007

This version of SharePoint is out of support and no updates (including security updates) are released for this version anymore. Continuing to use SharePoint 2007 in production workloads puts your data at risk.

Our advice is to remove such systems from your network and upgrade to a fully supported version of SharePoint.

SharePoint 2010 or 2013

Be aware that SharePoint Server 2010 and 2013 are in extended support and mainly security updates are released for these SharePoint versions. To get all the latest product improvements including non-security updates, upgrade to SharePoint Server 2016 or even better SharePoint Server 2019.

Also be aware that patch levels older than April 2018 CU are no longer supported.

SharePoint 2010 and 2013 have a significantly different packaging model than SharePoint Server 2016 and 2019. SharePoint 2010 and 2013 have 30+ different patchable components which all can potentially be on a different patch level in a single farm. Keeping track of the patch level of all components and ensuring that the latest updates are installed can be challenging if the full server packages (also known as Uber packages) are not applied. This is especially important for security updates where it would be dangerous if a security update for a component is missing. In contrast SharePoint Server 2016 and 2019 have only two patchable components. To ensure that all patchable components are always on the latest patch level we recommend applying full server packages (also known as Uber packages) rather than individual fixes:

Unlike SharePoint Server 2016 and 2019, patching of a SharePoint 2010 or 2013 farm cannot be done without downtime. This requires accurate planning of the required maintenance window to ensure that the patch downtime has minimum impact on users. Using the correct farm topology and the right strategy it is possible to reduce the downtime during patching of a SharePoint 2010 or 2013 farm to a minimum – but as mentioned before it is not possible to eliminate it completely.

If no further precautions are taken installing the monthly fixes on a SharePoint server can take several hours as certain Windows services are started and stopped repeatedly. The installation time for updates can be reduced to a fraction of the normal installation time (e.g.) using the PowerShell script created by Russ Maxwell which ensures that the services are only restarted once.

Important: SharePoint 2010 will reach end of support on October 13, 2020. No further support (including both security updates and non-security updates) will be provided after this date.

Our advice is to plan the migration of your SharePoint 2010 environment to one of the fully supported versions of SharePoint (SharePoint Server 2016 or 2019) or – if possible – to SharePoint in Microsoft 365 before SharePoint 2010 reaches end of support.

If your production environment is currently running on SharePoint 2013 we also recommend to evaluate SharePoint Server 2016 and 2019 as these versions include several features which improve the patching experience significantly.

Best Practices for SharePoint Server 2016 and 2019

SharePoint Server 2016 and 2019 have several improvements which enhance the patching experience significantly:

These use a simplified packaging model (only 2 different packages compared to 30+ in earlier versions) which reduces the size of the installation packages for our patches and also the installation time significantly.

Using the correct farm topology, it is possible to apply SharePoint updates for these versions without any downtime which removes the need for a maintenance window.

A side effect of zero-downtime patching is the fact that different servers in the farm are on different patch levels during the patching process. Due to these different patch levels, SharePoint servers would potentially serve different versions of the same JavaScript files to the end user. To prevent this SharePoint Server 2016 and 2019 include side-by-side functionality which – if enabled – guarantees that all servers in the farm send the same JavaScript files to the end users during patching.

Closing Note

SharePoint patching can be a challenging task. As security updates are important and applying them quickly is critical, patching of SharePoint farms is a frequent task for SharePoint administrators.

Newer versions of SharePoint have been improved to reduce the complexity of patching and to guarantee availability during the patch timeframe. SharePoint administrators should still carefully plan their patching strategy to minimize the potential risks of patch deployment.

Migrating to SharePoint in Microsoft 365 can remove this burden from customers. Microsoft ensures that Microsoft 365 contains our most advanced security capabilities and fixes to protect customer data.

References


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Wednesday, July 15, 2020

SharePoint Online VS. On-Premises & 2019 Version Review

Inline image

SharePoint Online VS. On-Premises & 2019 Version Review

The major difference between SharePoint Online and On-premises is that to run the on-premises version you'll need an IT team to maintain the server, to install updates and patches. This means more people and hardware. With the online version your internal resources are reduced. There's no new hardware to buy and maintain, which means your IT staff can focus on more impactful tasks.

The cloud version of SharePoint Server is Office 365. Microsoft has enabled SharePoint Online in Office 365 since 2010 and when Microsoft releases new features in any version of SharePoint, those features are already tested and used in Office 365 for months.

SharePoint Online (Office 365)

Some of the most important features of Office 365 are:

Microsoft applies security patches and installs platform updates.

SharePoint farms are hosted in Microsoft's cloud infrastructure.

Office 365 has committed to 99.9% availability in their service level agreement (SLA) – anything less than that and you may receive a service credit.

The cloud version receives more new features and it is geographically redundant.

SharePoint Server On-Premises

Here are some notable features of on-premises SharePoint servers:

SharePoint farms will be hosted by your company.

Your internal IT staff will be responsible for updates, patches, change control, etc.

Your organization will manage the Active Directory Domain Services on-premises.

You need to buy Client Access Licenses (CALs) for each person/device accessing the SharePoint server.

There are obvious differences between online and on-premise, but if your organization needs an on-premise solution, then SharePoint server can be "the" solution. However, if you think about switching from on premise to Cloud version of SharePoint to take advantage of more up time, more new features and spend less time maintaining your SharePoint environment, then you should go with Office 365.

Migrations to SharePoint solutions are essential to maintain business efficiency and continuity. However, some executives are still reluctant when it comes to migrate to a new environment because they believe the migration will be too costly and complex, but this is not always an accurate statement.

When it comes to users and the differences between SharePoint Online and On-Premises, focusing on what your organization's goals are is a good starting point. You may also want to think about who is going to manage SharePoint, and how would you make a successful transition from On-Premises to a hybrid model or to a Cloud environment.

Businesses realize now more than ever that to be more successful they need to have certain capabilities: coordination, full collaboration, social capabilities etc. With Office 365, Microsoft simplifies day-to-day business administration and management.

New In SharePoint Server 2019

Modern sites & pages

The modern experience is designed to be flexible, mobile, compelling and easier to use.
With SharePoint Server 2019 you can create and publish modern pages quickly and easily. These pages are responsive and will look great on any device.

Modern libraries

Helping people share and collaborate on content has always been a priority to SharePoint specifically. Therefore, modern libraries combine the power of SharePoint with OneDrive usability – these libraries have an updated UI that offers a unique experience. It is more intuitive to create new folders and upload files in your browser with SharePoint 2019.

Modern lists

SharePoint Server 2019 introduces a modern list experience that simplifies how people create, modify and engage with content having a set of capabilities that work across all devices and browsers.

SharePoint Mobile

As we all know, for any company, the intranet is extremely important. It provides collaborative space that offer teams the resources they need to work productively. It also hosts relevant applications that support and automate relevant business processes.

SharePoint Server 2019 makes your intranet more accessible, innovative and intelligent increasing the efficiency of its users.

Improved Communication

SharePoint Server 2019 launched a new generation of intelligent intranet, so now you can communicate with fellow colleagues using dynamic, mobile-friendly sites and pages.

Large file support, special characters in file names & URL path length

It's clear that the world of professional collaboration has changed, so text-based files are shifting to modern media, videos, audio files, and more. SharePoint Server 2019 now provides default support for uploading files up to 15GB.

In addition, SharePoint Server 2019 has increased the maximum length of any URL path from 260 Unicode characters to 400.

SharePoint Server 2019 now delivers support for several other types and naming conventions. This will allow users to create, store, sync files containing # and % characters whether those characters are used within file or folder names.

Eventually, this is just part of what's new in SharePoint Server 2019. For a complete list of new features and capabilities refer to the new SharePoint Server 2019 Reviewer's Guide and for technical documentation you may check: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/SharePoint/sharepoint-server.


Source :- Click Here






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Wednesday, April 29, 2020

Order Your Output by Easily Sorting Objects in PowerShell

Summary: Much of the time, there is no guarantee to the order in which Windows PowerShell returns objects. This blog explains how to fix that issue.


Use Sort-Object to organize output

Lets take example of Get-Process cmdlet to check how sorting works in powershell, by default it sort on the ProcessName property.

Image of command output

One could make a good argument that the processes should sort on the process ID (PID) or on the amount of CPU time consumed, or on the amount of memory utilized. In fact, it is entirely possible that for each property supplied by the Process object, someone has a good argument for sorting on that particular property. Luckily, custom sorting is easy to accomplish in Windows PowerShell. To sort returned objects in Windows PowerShell, pipe the output from one cmdlet to the Sort-Object cmdlet. This technique is shown here where the Sort-Object cmdlet sorts the Process objects that are returned by the Get-Process cmdlet.

Get-Process | Sort-Object id

The command to sort the Process objects on the ID property and the output associated with that command are shown in the image that follows.

Image of command output

Reversing the sort order

By default, the Sort-Object cmdlet performs an ascending sort—the numbers range from small to large. To perform a descending sort requires utilizing the Descending switch.

Note:  There is no Ascending switch for the Sort-Object cmdlet because that is the default behavior.

To arrange the output from the Get-Process cmdlet such that the Process objects appear from largest process ID to the smallest (the smallest PID is always 0—the Idle process), choose the ID property to sort on, and use the Descending switch as shown here:

Get-Process | Sort-Object id –Descending

The command to perform a descending sort of processes based on the process ID, and the output associated with that command are shown in the image that follows.

Image of command output

When you use the Sort-Object cmdlet to sort output, keep in mind that the first position argument is the property or properties upon which to sort. Because Property is the default means that using the name Property in the command is optional. Therefore, the following commands are equivalent:

Get-Process | Sort-Object id –Descending

Get-Process | Sort-Object -property id –Descending

In addition to using the default first position for the Property argument, the Sort-Object cmdlet is aliased by sort. By using gps as an alias for the Get-Process cmdlet, sort as an alias for Sort-Object, and a partial parameter of des for Descending, the syntax of the command is very short. This short version of the command is shown here.

gps | sort id –des

Sorting multiple properties at once

The Property parameter of the Sort-Object cmdlet accepts an array (more than one) of properties upon which to sort. This means that I can sort on the process name, and then sort on the working set of memory that is utilized by each process (for example). When supplying multiple property names, the first property sorts, then the second property sorts.

The resulting output may not always meet expectations, and therefore, may require a bit of experimentation. For example, the command that follows sorts the process names in a descending order. When that sort completes, the command does an additional sort on the WorkingSet (ws is the alias) property. However, this second sort is only useful when there happen to be multiple processes with the same name (such as the svchost process). The command that is shown here is an example of sorting on multiple properties.

Get-Process | Sort-Object -Property name, ws –Descending

The figure that is shown here illustrates the output from the command to sort Process objects based on name and ws properties.

Image of command output

When the name and ws properties reverse order in the command, the resulting output is not very useful because the only sorting of the name property happens when multiple processes have an identical working set of memory. The command that is shown here reverses the order of the WorkingSet and the process name properties.

Get-Process | Sort-Object -Property ws, name –Descending

The output that is shown here shows that there is very little grouping of process names. In this example, adding the name property does not add much value to the command.

Image of command output

Sorting and returning unique items

At times, I might want to see how many different processes are running on a system. To do this, I can filter duplicate process names by using the Unique switch. To count the number of unique processes that are running on a system, I pipe the results from the Sort-Object cmdlet to the Measure-Object cmdlet. This command is shown here.

Get-Process | Sort-Object -Property name -Descending -Unique | measure-object

To obtain a baseline that enables me to determine the number of duplicate processes, I drop the Unique switch. This command is shown here.

Get-Process | Sort-Object -Property name -Descending | measure-object

Performing a case sensitive sort

One last thing to discuss when sorting items is the CaseSensitive switch. When used, the CaseSensitive switch sorts lowercase letters first, then uppercase. The following commands illustrate this.

$a = "Alpha","alpha","bravo","Bravo","Charlie","charlie","delta","Delta"

$a | Sort-Object –CaseSensitive

When the two previous commands run, the output places the lowercase version of the word prior to the uppercase version. This output appears in the figure that follows.

Image of command output


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Thursday, June 27, 2019

New Features VS Deprecated Features In SharePoint 2016

Introduction

SharePoint 2016 Preview is now available for developer testing and I had hands on with it to understand the new features shipped with the latest version of Share Point. Though the new version is not a huge improvement over its successful predecessor, Share Point 2013, it does bring along with it some cool new features and is definitely a step towards moving into cloud.

Let's take a look at what are the new features introduced and what have been deprecated with SharePoint 2016.

New features in Share Point 2016

Mini Roles

There had been a lot of hype going over this new feature and it comes right on to you when you are installing Share Point 2016. Once you have done the installation and when you run the configuration wizard you get a window asking you to specify the Mini Role as shown below :



Figure 1: Mini

This is a cool feature that optimizes the functioning of the servers in a Share Point farm based on the role they have been assigned.

So when you are configuring the server, depending on the intended functionality you may chose the appropriate role as the following:
Role Functionality
Special LoadReserved for services to be isolated from other services, I.e. 3rd party, PerformancePoint, etc.
Web Front EndServices end user requests, optimized for low latency.
Single Server FarmProvisions all services on the server for a single server deployment. This role is provided for evaluation and development purposes.
Search Reserved for Search services.
Application Services the backend jobs or the requests triggered by backend jobs, optimized for high throughput.
Distributed Cache Services distributed cache for the farm. Optionally, the server assigned to this role can load balance end user requests among the web front ends.
Sensitive Information Types and Data Loss Prevention

This is a feature that excites most of the Enterprise companies who were reluctant to adopt Share Point stating security as one of the reason. Microsoft has now built DLP into Share Point 2016 Enterprise search. They have introduced 51 Sensitive Information Types like SSN,Credit Card No etc. that can used to write pattern rules to find out documents that exposed sensitive information.

This can be achieved by setting up the eDiscovery site and configuring a filter using the Sensitive Type.



Figure 2: eDiscovery

Above search will pick up sensitive documents/data that expose SSN .The entire Sensitive information types can be picked up from here

Enhanced Software boundaries

Share Point 2016 comes with huge improvements in software boundaries.
Share Point 2016Share Point 2013
Content DB SizeSize has been increased to TB'sRecommended : 200GB
Site Collections per Content DB 100,000 Site collections Recommended : 2000
Max File Upload Size Increased to 10 GB Default is 250 MB but can be increased to 2 GB
Search Indexing Increased to 500 million items per Service Application Up to 100 million items can be indexed in a single Service Application
Image and Video Preview

In SharePoint Server 2016, you can see a preview of the images and videos posted to a document library by hovering the mouse over the image or video, or by clicking on them.



Figure 3: Document

UI Changes and App Launcher

With Share Point 2016 the UI of the home page got a slight change. The suite bar which had a blue back ground has now been changed to have a black one. Similar to Office 365, an App launcher has been introduced to quickly launch the apps.



Figure 4: Site

Expanded Support for special characters

In previous versions Microsoft had blocked file names that included the &, ~, {, and } characters, file names with leading dots, file names that had a GUID, and file names which were longer than 128 characters. These restrictions are removed in SharePoint Server 2016. However characters such as % and # are still restricted and cannot be used in file names.

Enhanced Document Library UI

We have an enhanced set of new controls for the library as shown below:



Figure 5: Library

Moreover the document upload process is now much more robust with an improved UI that shows the progress of the upload.



Figure 6: UI

New Keyboard shortcuts have been provided for the following tasks:
  • Alt + N - New
  • Alt + E - Edit
  • Alt + U - Upload
  • Alt + M - Manage
  • Alt + S - Share
  • Alt + Y - Synchronization
Improved Threshold limit by providing Auto Indexing

SharePoint 2010 and 2013 had a threshhold limit of 5000 due to which when we try to query / view items more than that throttling error occurred. This was a restriction purposefully imposed to mitigate the lock escalation issues within SQL Server.


Figure 7: Thresh



Figure 8: Error

Though the threshold limit could be increased above 5000 it created performance issue. The work around was to manually create index on columns. However in SharePoint 2016 a new Timer job has been introduced to Auto Index the columns namely "Large List column index management".

In Share Point list 'Advanced Settings' there is a new setting which has to be enabled to achieve this:



Figure 9: Advance

Microsoft Project Server 2016 (PWA) integrated to SharePoint 2016

Earlier Project Server required a separate installation as well as license to be used with SharePoint. However, now it comes as a Service Application in SharePoint 2016. I have written an article on how to provision Project web App within SharePoint 2016 here



Figure 10: Home

Fast Site Collection Creation

Fast Site Collection Creation is a new functionality introduced in SharePoint Server 2016 which improves the Site Collection creation performance by reducing Feature activation overhead. 'Fast Site Collection Creation'implements the creation of site collection by making use of Copy-SPSite at the Content Database level . This is achieved using the new Enable-SPWebTemplateForSiteMaster PowerShell script. The Site collection creation time had reduced from 40 sec to 2 sec which is an exponential reduction.

Compliance Policy Centre Site template for retention management



Figure 11: Complaince

The site upon creation will appear as below:



Figure 12: Appear

By way of this we can set retention policies and assign them to site collection. Multiple rules can be assigned as part of the policy.



Figure 13: Policies

New timer jobs have been added to monitor the policies set and delete the documents as said in the policy.

Zero downtime patching

Even with SharePoint 2013 whenever a new Service Pack or Cumulative Update had to be installed. Administrators had to plan for SharePoint down time. But with SharePoint 2016 patching can be done online by minimizing the down time, if any.

In-Place Hold Policy Centre site template

A new site template called In-Place Hold Policy center has been introduced in SharePoint 2016 . This helps to manage policies defined across site collections.



Figure 14: Template

Enhanced PowerShell scripts.

PowerShell had always been a SharePoint administrators Swiss army knife. A whooping number of 115 new PowerShell scripts have been added to support SharePoint.

SMTP Connection encryption for outgoing email

This is a new feature introduced in Share Point 2016. We can define custom ports and enable SSL.



Figure 15: Connection

Cloud Hybrid Search

By using cloud hybrid search SharePoint 2016, you can index all your crawled content, including on-premises content, to your search index in Office 365. When users query your search index in Office 365, they get search results from both on-premises and Office 365 content. This would come native to SharePoint but will also be pushed to Share Point 2013 as an update.

Hybrid OneDrive and Site Features

Hybrid OneDrive and Site Features in SharePoint 2016 is a new feature that would allow users to use OneDrive as their personal repository instead of the On-premises OneDrive or MySites. This feature basically allows users to continue using their On-premises SharePoint farm while providing users with an easy way to store, share, and collaborate in the cloud with OneDrive for Business in Office 365.



Figure 16: Hybrid

Durable Links

Durable links introduced in Share Point 2016 works such that a file can have its name changed, or even move locations and the link will still function correctly. This way, if you send someone a link to a document, and down the road change the document name or location, the link stays valid. This is something SharePoint as a Content Management System was waiting for a long time. The internal implementation will be discussed in an upcoming article.



Figure 17: Durable

Increased number of Timer jobs

A lot of new timer jobs have been introduced in the new release taking the total count to 226. As part of the newly introduced Retention Policy Site templates, Auto Indexing feature and other enhancements we have a lot of new timer jobs added to the Central Administration.



Figure 18: Number

SharePoint Logging API (SLAPI)

SLAPI will be built on existing analytics component and can be used to understand how users interact with SharePoint. Reports can be generated which would provide for growth trends and forecasting usage by SharePoint site template, etc.

Deprecated/Removed features from SharePoint Server 2016

SharePoint Foundation: The free to use edition of SharePoint will no longer be a part of the Share Point 2016 suite. SharePoint foundation was a minimal SharePoint product which lacked enterprise features.

Standalone Install Mode: SharePoint 2016 cannot be installed in standalone mode. You will have to choose one of the 6 Mini Roles available during the configuration phase. The Single Server Farm option where everything is installed on the same computer is supported for dev purposes.

InfoPath: New version of InfoPath will not be released. The previous version InfoPath 2013 will be available and supported.

SharePoint Designer: A new version of SharePoint Designer will not be released with SharePoint 2016. The older version SharePoint Designer 2013 is available and will be supported.

Forefront Identity Manager Client (FIM): When you configure the User Profile Sync in Share Point 2013 you could choose "Profile Synchronization" which used FIM, or Active Directory import. But now FIM has been deprecated and only Active directory import is available. There is also an option to connect to external Sync services like Microsoft Identity Manager (MIM).



Figure 19: MIM

Excel Services



Excel Services capabilities are not available in SharePoint 2016. Excel Services functionality is now part of Excel Online in Office Online Server Preview, and SharePoint users can use the services from there. The following Excel Services functionality has been deprecated:
  • Trusted data providers.
  • Trusted file locations.
  • Trusted data connection libraries.
  • Unattended service account.
  • Excel Services Windows PowerShell cmdlets.
  • Opening of Excel workbooks from SharePoint Central Administration site.
Tags & Notes
SharePoint 2013 had the Tags & Notes feature which is deprecated in SharePoint 2016.



Figure 20: Tags

Users can no longer create new tags and notes or access existing ones. However old tags and notes data can be exported using PowerShell.

STSADM
STSADM is deprecated in SharePoint 2016. PowerShell is the way to go. However, backward compatibility remains with STSADM.

Upgrade Considerations
  • There is no supported upgrade from Share Point 2010 directly to 2016. Existing sites and Content DB should be running under Share Point 2013.
  • The upgrade process remains the same as in Share Point 2010 – Share Point 2013. Content Databases can be detached from SharePoint 2013 and attached to SharePoint 2016.

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Thursday, May 9, 2019

Advantages and Limitations of using Office Online in SharePoint and OneDrive

One of the biggest draws of SharePoint Online and Office 365 is the ability to access the files anytime, anywhere. An added benefit, that in my opinion is somewhat of a revolution in collaboration world, is the ability to open and edit documents in Word, Excel and PowerPoint right in the browser. That means that you can work with those file types without having to have desktop version of MS Office installed on the computer. In this blog post I would like to explain advantages and limitations of using Office Online in SharePoint and OneDrive.

How to open and edit documents in the browser (using Office Online)

  1. To open the document in the browser, just click on any Word, Excel or PowerPoint file – by default, the file will open using Office Online (in the browser). Screenshot below shows an example of a Word document, opened in the browser, though same exact behavior applies to Excel and PowerPoint as well.officeonline1
  2. To Edit the document in the browser, just click on Edit Document dropdown and choose Edit in Browser (you can also open the document in native Word application if you so desire)officeonline2
  3. Word Online edting capabilities will now be exposed, and you can make changes to Word Document, just like in the installed version of the softwareofficeonline3
  4. Another way (shortcut) to quickly edit MS Office files is by right clicking on the file from within SharePoint and OneDrive and choosing Open > Open in Word Online from the menuofficeonline4

Advantages of opening and editing documents in the browser

  1. It is FREE. Office Online is included in all Office 365 Business/Enterprise plans, and you don't need to buy MS Office desktop license for it to work
  2. Simple sharing. It is easier to share Office Online documents as there is a Share button available in the upper right-hand cornerofficeonline5
  3. Quick Editing. Great option when you want to make quick changes to the document – files open up quicker than using the installed version of the software
  4. AutoSave. Office Online does not have a Save button – all changes are autosaved. So if you make a change and then close the browser – no worries – all changes are saved automatically.
  5. Does not require MS Office to be installed on PC to work. Since Office Online does not require Word, Excel or PowerPoint to be installed on the computer – this option is great when you need to access files in SharePoint and OneDrive from computer that does not happen to have this software installed (i.e. connecting remotely from hotel's computer)
  6. Supports PDF.  In addition to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Office Online can also open PDF documents right in the browser. Please note that it does not support Edit capability for PDF files. For that, you would need an Adobe Acrobat software.

Limitations of opening and editing documents in the browser

  1. Only works in SharePoint and OneDrive. In order to open and edit MS Office documents in the browser (using Office Online) the documents have to reside in either SharePoint or OneDrive. They cannot reside on a computer or file share (network drive). This is by design, not so much of a limitation, but you would be surprised how many users question this.
  2. Limited functionality. Word Online, Excel Online and PowerPoint Online are not fully-installed applications on your PC. They are stripped-down (lite) versions of the corresponding desktop applications and do not have the full functionality you have on your PC. As such, they are meant for "lite" editing, and are not meant as a replacement for the desktop software.
  3. Limited file support. Office Online only works with the following file formats: .docx, .xlsx, .pptx files and PDF. Note the "x" at the end of MS Office file extensions. That means only latest MS Office files are supported (see next limitation).officeonline7
  4. Requires conversion for older MS Office files. Related to the point above – if your Word, Excel, PowerPoint files have been saved using older versions of the software (i.e., Word 97 or Excel 2003), they need to be saved (converted) to the new file format (from .doc to .docx). If you try to edit older version of the file in the browser, you will get a conversion request message (once you click Convert, the file will be converted to the new file format on the fly (from .doc to .docx)officeonline6
  5. Does not support CSV files. In case you need to edit CSV (comma delimited or comma-separated values) file, you will need to use the desktop version of Excel. CSV files cannot be viewed or edited in Office online
  6. Does not support password-protected files. If your file has been encrypted (saved) with the password, Office Online will prompt you to open it using the desktop version of the applicationofficeonline8
  7. File Size Limitation. If you have large files (>10MB in size), you will be prompted to open the file in the native (desktop version) of the Office. For example, below is a message you get when you try to open an Excel workbook larger than 10MB in size. Here is a Microsoft article that talks about this limitation further.Excel Online Error Message
  8. Certain SmartArt shapes are not supported. If you are using SmartArt shapes to draw charts and diagrams in your Word, Excel or PowerPoint, please note that some shapes are not supported. If Office Online runs into the issue – it will prompt you to open the file in native (desktop) version of the applicationofficeonline9officeonline10
  9. Can't run macros in Office Online. You can still access the documents with macros using Office Online, but to run macros, you will need the desktop version of the applications
  10. More limitations exist. For complete list of features that are not supported in Office Online, reference this comparison chart, courtesy of Microsoft.

How to disable Office Online (ability to open and edit Word, Excel, PowerPoint in the browser)

The default behavior for opening Office files in SharePoint when you click on them is via Office Online (via browser) and not via the native, desktop application. You can change that behavior though, if you wish.

Option 1: Disable Office Online (Browser Mode) for a Document Library

  1. Go to the library where you want to change the browser behavior. Click on Gear Icon > Library Settingsofficeonline11
  2. Choose Advanced Settingsofficeonline12
  3. Under Opening Documents in the Browser, choose Open in the client application button. Click OKofficeonline13

Option 2: Disable Office Online (Browser Mode) globally

  1. Go the root of the site collection (the very top site)
  2. Go to Gear Icon > Site Settingsofficeonline14
  3. Under Site Collection Administration, choose Site collection featuresofficeonline15
  4. Scroll down to Open Documents in Client Applications by Default. Click on Activate. Please note that this will alter the behavior for the whole site collection (all document libraries) at once.officeonline16
  5. If you have multiple site collections in your environment, you will need to repeat above steps for all of them

Though I have provided above instructions for your reference, I strongly discourage you from implementing them. Office Online provides a great, modern and convenient way to work with the files and you should really embrace it and take advantage of it and not revert to the way you worked with the documents in 1990's.

In Summary (Fine Print)

Ability to open and edit Office documents in the browser (via Word Online, Excel Online and PowerPoint Online) provides an awesome value and an additional mode for collaboration to SharePoint and OneDrive users.

One important thing to note is that…

Office Online is not a replacement for desktop Office applications, like Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

Office Online is meant to be complimentary to desktop software, not a an alternative or a complete replacement. If you are trying to save on licenses, please don't do it. You will not be able to get by on browser versions of the software alone due to many limitations listed above. I worked with several clients who migrated to SharePoint Online and thought they could save few bucks by purchasing cheaper licenses that did not include Office desktop suite and let's just say I could be rich if I made bets with them at the beginning of the project.


REf:https://sharepointmaven.com/office-online-sharepoint-onedrive/



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