Home - Ian's SharePoint Blog

Apr 21

Ian Morrish on 4/21/2013 2:43 AM

I have just updated my configuration at home using all existing hardware but using new software features.

I doubt I will ever upgrade the hardware now that Azure can provide IaaS for me (yea, I know Amazon has been doing this for years) but it was time for me to get smarter in using some of the new capabilities Microsoft has provided in software.

My VM Host has been upgraded to 2012 with Hyper-V but I have also added a PowerShell Web Gateway so that I no longer have to RDP onto SharePoint servers just to run a PowerShell script.

Note: this is only for servers that can run WinRM3, so SharePoint 2010 servers are out of bounds for this update as it requires PowerShell 3 which is not compatible with SP 2010 until SP2 for SharePoint 2010 is out.

There are a few hoops to jump through if all machines are not on the same domain but it is defiantly worth it. See http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831611.aspx for more details.

I also got tired of RDP'ing from my laptop onto the Hyper-V host just to manage my virtual machines so I enabled the Remote Management Tools for Windows 8 Hyper-V. This is not a download, it is already available on your Windows 8 machine, even if you don't, or can't, enable Hyper-V role on Windows 8.

Again there are a few hoops to jump through if your Windows 8 client is not on the same domain as the Hyper-V host, or if either is on a Workgroup but it means I can switch the Hyper-V host to Core mode.

And finally, so that I can access my SharePoint 2013 server with Office Web Apps (WAC) from the internet via my single IP address, I installed an IIS + Application Request Routing v3 and I must say this was much simpler than having to install a TMG or UAG server.

I suspect I could have installed ARR on the Hyper-V host rather than a guest MV but I figured that it would be easier to relocate my whole environment if there was no dependency on the host.

So the home network looks like this:

0 Comment(s)

Mar 08

SharePoint 2013 Usage Analytics will disappoint

Ian Morrish on 3/8/2013 4:49 PM

It seems that with every version of SharePoint the usage analytics features have received no attention. In 2013 it looks like we have gone backwards. For public facing sites in 2013 we have now have the ability to enable anonymous user tracking but the only reporting is unique visits and hits.

I know a lot of re-engineering has been done on the usage analysis to include it in the Search service to drive referrals but the level of reporting capability has been reduced. Compare the 2013 usage reports in figure 1 below to all the "Top" reports we had in 2010 (figure 2).

Figure 1: SharePoint 2013 Usage Details

The daily count for Unique Users shows the number of unique users per day. The monthly count for Unique Users shows the sum of unique users per day within the month (SUM(UU/Day)).
It is not a count of unique users for the month. How stupid it that!

We have lost Top Users, Pages, browser versions and referral details that were available in 2010.

Figure 2: SharePoint 2010 Usage Details

The search reporting information is still on par with 2010 although many of the stats look inflated due to the Content by Search web part and term store driven pages.

Most Popular Items in a site

Most Popular Items Shows ranking per usage event for all items in a library or list, for example the most viewed items in the library or list. The ranking can be sorted by Recent or Ever.

This seems even more useless than the usage details. You have to visit each library to see a count of recent and ever views.

You can then only view the chart of unique visitors and views for an individual page or document.

I may be missing something here but it looks like the only viable option (for on-premises users) is to do your own IIS log file processing.

Microsoft missed a great opportunity when they purchased DeepMetrix LiveStats (competitor to Web Trends) for the Bing Advertising (AdCenter) team and then dumped it as a hosted offering and the on-premises version was buried 6 foot under. The functionality of this product could have been included with SharePoint and we would have been very happy.

No doubt some cleaver cookie will figure out how to hook up SSRS to the new Search Analytics Reporting Store database and blog about it before I do...

1 Comment(s)

Feb 15

138 Weeks Until SharePoint 2010 End of Standard Support

Ian Morrish on 2/15/2013 12:04 AM

Tuesday, 13 October 2015 is the last day of standard support for SharePoint 2010 (another 5 years of self-help with no MS bug fixes and only security updates ant their discretion)

Don't panic, it is not as bad as it sounds

From and including: Friday, 15 February 2013
To and including: Tuesday, 13 October 2015

It is 971 days from the start date to the end date, end date included

Or 2 years, 7 months, 29 days including the end date

Alternative time units

971 days can be converted to one of these units:

83,894,400 seconds
1,398,240 minutes
23,304 hours
138 weeks (rounded down)

The good news is that SharePoint 2013 actually extends the life of your SharePoint 2010 investment through to 2018 via the deferred upgrade option. This lets you upgrade your server infrastructure without having to change the UI or 2010 based solutions (for the most part). It is not really an upgrade, more like install new servers and the attach the content databases from 2010. More on this later, but for now, rest easy and enjoy 2013 (the year) even if you are sticking with SharePoint 201 for the foreseeable future.

1 Comment(s)

1 - 10

RSS Feed

Alert Me

Image Viewer

I've been working with SharePoint since Team Services v1 and Portal Server 2001. After 10 years working for Microsoft NZ I joined Information Leadership, a leading SharePoint implementer of IM, KM and records management solutions.

RSS Feed

Ian's SharePoint Blog // <![CDATA[ _spBodyOnLoadFunctionNames.push("setupPageDescriptionCallout"); // ]]>

Image Viewer

Ian's SharePoint Blog