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Paul Schaeflein

2/4/2005

As the volume of intranet content grows, administrators and users are

increasingly looking for ways to manage the volume of information. Just
as Netscape aggregated the then-growing internet content into a
manageable framework (called a portal), applicatio n vendors have
created many packages that allow their customers to aggregate their
intranet content into corporate portals.

This series of articles will discuss Microsoft's portal product ² SharePoint

Portal Server. I hope to provide some value to the readers of Intranet
Journal regarding the capabilities (and limitations) of SharePoint. Your
feedback is encouraged, and will help me to cover topics that you find
relevant.

  

 

Like most portal products, SharePoint allows visitors to create custom

views of the Web site. This customization can be very simple or very
complex, depending on the type and version of the product that is
installed. In addition, SharePoint has a powerful collaboration model that
is tightly integrated with the Office 2003 suite.

The current version of SharePoint is its third (despite its name). Like most
Microsoft software, (Windows in particular) version 3 is gaining rapid
adoption. A recent article in ð


 indicated that SharePoint Portal
Server is Microsoft's fastest growing product, with 30 million licenses.

Have questions about Microsoft SharePoint? Have a story idea for Paul's
series? Visit the Intranet Journal Discussion Forum.

º 

 

Microsoft's first portal application was called Digital Dashboard. This

product introduced the concept of Web parts ² boxes of information on a
page that represented a summary or overview of information. (Other
vendors referred to these items as "portlets.") By assembling multiple
parts on a page, each user could customize his view of the portal to
contain the information that pertained to them. In theory, every visitor of
the site could have different content at the same URL. However, the
technology behind the Digital Dashboard was not up to the task, and it
never made it out of the beta stage.

At the same time, Microsoft's Office group was working toward a

collaboration solution. The need for many people to contribute to a single
document or worksheet was growing. And, these people were not
necessarily working at the same location. The result was SharePoint Team
Services (STS), a Web-based solution that allowed shared access to
information and documents. STS also allowed end -users to make changes
to the site via a Web browser instead of requiring a development -oriented
application.

The merging of the collaboration and aggregation functions lead to

SharePoint Portal Server 2001. Portal Server has been upgraded to run on
the .Net framework and is now referred to as SharePoint Products and
Technologies. The "Product" is SharePoint Portal Server 2003 (SPS) and
the "Technologies" are Windows SharePoint Services (WSS). A significant
point about these two is that WSS is included with the Windows Server
2003 license. Any organization that is licensed for Windows Server 2003
can also host Websites that are based on WSS.

-

 

In general, SharePoint contains all of the features you would expect from
a portal or collaboration tool:

j Browser-based customization of page

j Browser-based content administration
j Aggregation capabilities
j Document Repository
j Message board
j Ad-hoc data storage
j å-mail notifications
j Announcements, event calendar and contact list.

A complete feature matrix that also indicates whether the feature is part
of WSS or SPS can be found in the whitepaper Ê


 

 Ê 

   
 


 
 
 

 on Microsoft's Web site
(http://www.microsoft.com/sharepoint/evaluationoverview.asp).

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In addition to being the default intranet portal, there are many additional
uses for SharePoint. Microsoft has included pre -defined templates for Web
sites to facilitate meetings, manage projects and create documents.
Combined with the "self-service" site creating feature, teams can create
and use a Web site with minimal assistance from the Information
Technology department.

The Document Workspace template will allow a group to work on a

document. The template combines a document repository with a task lis t
and a links list. While using Word 2003, a user can have the document
open and at the same time view the task or links list. Changes made to
the task list are immediately visible to site visitors. And the document
library allows versioning, so edits are not lost.

The Meeting Workspace template combines the agenda, attendee list and
Outlook's calendar function. When sending a meeting request in Outlook
2003, a user can create a workspace on the server. The URL of the
workspace is automatically included in the message and the attendees are
added to the site. The materials required for the meeting can be centrally
located, which is preferable for attendees who travel frequently.

The browser-based customization feature, combined with the ability to

create ad-hoc lists allows an advanced user to create a site for almost any
purpose. A user group could host its meeting schedule, complete
handouts. A youth sport organization can post its schedule and roster. An
individual can host a blog. The possibilities are e ndless.

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jPortal
jånterprise Search
jContent Management
jBusiness Forms
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´ Back To Top ]

We can divide MOSS 2007 architecture as logical, physical and administrative. Logical Architecture
provides framework for adding data. This includes server farms and websites. It also provides
provision for disabling features. Physical Architecture consists of servers that store the data.

This in turn helps in managing configuration and data related to a site. It also supports managing
user profile imports. Administrative Architecture helps to manage farm security configuration. This is
used to centrally manage server farm and shared services for the server farm.

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The Logical architecture of MOSS 2007 provides a frame work. The logical components of MOSS
2007 include server farms, Web applications, Site Collections, Web sites, and features.

At the top of the hierarchy are server farms. A server farm is a logical group of Web and application
servers that share the same configuration database. This database contains information about the
roles servers play in a server farm. For instance, a server can be a Web Front End (WFE) or a
database, and a search and indexing or mail server.

The next level in the hierarchy is Web applications. These provide Web server functionality. When
we create a Web application by using MOSS 2007, a corresponding Web site is created on IIS. This
Web site contains settings that apply to a group of Site Collections under that Web application.

After Web applications, Site Collections is the next hierarchy level. Site Collections determine the
settings and the context for grouping together a number of sites and sub sites.

In a Site Collection, sites have mutually exclusive content and user lists. However, the sites may
share content such as lists, site templates, and Web Parts. A Site Collection is analogous to a
traditional top-level virtual directory in IIS.

MOSS 2007 Site Collections offer administrators the flexibility to configure site quotas, backup
processes, and other settings.

The next level in the MOSS hierarchy is a site. A site is a grouping of data stored in lists, libraries, and
Web Parts. Sites provide features that are grouped under a single URL and a list of users who can
access the site. Only users who have access to a site can access it. The level of permission
determines what they can or cannot do on the site.

Sites perform different functions within MOSS 2007. Sites can be compared with sub-folders under
virtual directories in IIS.

At the end of the MOSS hierarchy are features. These are customized elements that provide specific
functionality and data as a part of a larger solution. A feature can contain data, metadata, and
functionality.

Features are used within sites and Site Collections. Depending on the scope, a feature can be
enabled or disabled at all or some levels of the MOSS 2007 hierarchy from the site level to the server
farm level.

 
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The Logical features of Moss 2007 are in sync with physical servers that store the data.

In order to configure a server farm, it is as important to know how logical components are mapped
with physical components in MOSS 2007 Architecture.

The Physical architecture of MOSS 2007 consists of a 3-tier model, which consists of web servers at
the front, application servers in the middle and a database server at the back.

-
 
It manages requests for MOSS 2007 application.

It consists of several virtual directories. These provide application features namely: Managing pages,
Templates, Themes and WebParts (reregistered Components).

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It provides application services that include managing user profile searching, indexing, Excel Services,
Audience compilation, User profiles, database, My Sites, Business Data Catalogue (BDC) and
synchronization. We can configure different application servers for different services.

This is a collection of application servers that provide shared services out to any portals or sites that
need them. These services include:

 

Stores and manages data that is generated by applications and users.

This data might be configuration data, site data, Meta data, and index data.

All the members of a server farm must use the same database server.

This is because the Database server stores and manages configuration database.

This configuration DB is responsible for controlling the settings for the whole server farm.

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Administrative Architecture supports three levels of configuration settings that are stored in
configuration database in SQL 2005.

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Tier 1 stores and manages data that is generated by applications and users. This data might be
configuration data, site data, Meta data, and index data. All the members of a server farm must use
the same database server. This is because the Data base server stores and manages configuration
Database. This configuration Data base is responsible for controlling the settings for whole server
farm.

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This tier includes all administrative features and functionalities for managing shared services across a
server farm. In this tier, business unit IT administrators perform administrative tasks at the service
level. Some examples of these tasks are configuring search, indexing, or usage reporting.

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This tier includes a wide variety of site-specific management tasks such as Web part management,
access management, and content management. A tier 3 administrator is responsible for creating a
new list on a site, configuring access permissions for users, and modifying site hierarchy.
 
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´ Back To Top ]

The administration of a server farm or a stand-alone server requires adding, editing, and deleting
settings in the configuration database. We can edit this data by using the administrative tools
provided in MOSS 2007. 

These are the administrative tools that are available.

1. SharePoint Central Administration

2. Shared Services Administration

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The SharePoint Central Administration site is the central hub for administering WSS 3.0 and MOSS
2007. This site uses the .NET Framework to access the configuration database for adding, editing, or
changing configuration settings.

A shortcut to this site is automatically generated when we run the setup wizard for WSS 3.0 or MOSS
2007. We can access this shortcut from the Start menu. We will also access this site by using the URL
of the administrative Web site from a computer having network access to a Web server.

The administrative settings on the site are categorized as operations and application management.
We can modify these settings from the following two Web pages:

v  
 On this page, we can configure the general settings applicable to a WSS 3.0 server
or a server farm. Some examples of these settings are security, backup, restore, and SMTP.

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 On this page, we can configure settings related to specific Web

applications and components installed on the server or server farm. For example, we can configure
settings for Site Collection quotas, search service, and workflow. In addition, we can configure
settings for specific Site Collections on the Site Collection settings page.

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We can use the Shared Services Administration site to configure and manage shared services such as
My Sites, profiles, search and indexing functions. This site is automatically created on the Share Point
Central Administration Web site when we configure MOSS 2007.

To access the Shared Services Administration site, on the SharePoint Central Administration Web
site, we have to do the following. Go to the Application Management page and click the Create or
configure this farm's shared services link.

The › ›
 tool is a command-line utility that provides functionality similar to the Shared
Services Administration site. This tool is also used for customizing and managing Share Point. It also
provides some additional commands that are not available on the Shared Services Administration
site. This utility creates batch files for automating administrative tasks and, therefore, takes less time
for repetitive tasks than User Interface (UI) based methods.

For example, to create batch files using the stsadm.exe utility, we need to set the default alert
frequency to one minute by using the set property operation. To perform this task, we will use the
following command:

Stsadm -o setproperty -propertyname job-immediate-alerts -URL http://aspportal.com l -

propertyvalue "every 1 minute between 0 and 59"

However, using the stsadm.exe tool does not offer much flexibility in configuring settings. For
example, if we deploy Web Parts using stsadm.exe, we cannot control where all the Web Parts are
deployed.