Chris and Daves SharePoint and Tech Blog

While working today on a customers site installing SharePoint 2010 i discovered that i could not connect to create a database using the SharePoint configuration wizard, after digging into SQL with Chris we discovered that the hosting company where using an unpatched version of SQL 2008 which required many updates.

 So for the sake of my own sanity and yours i thought i would write this post and include a chart showing all the SQL 2008 versions also links to the patches that you will need. I hope it helps and i will endevour to keep it updated.

 I am pleased to announce that today we at Twynham went live with SharePoint 2010 this has been a long journey for the team at Twynham as we have been on the TAP programme for 2010 since December 2008, this means that we have gone through the Alpha, Beta and on to the release candidate and now the RTM, we have got a public demo site that we will release later this week early next week so further details to come. But just a taster image below.

We have now added more dates in September and October 2010 and also 3 dates in May 2011 more details to follow shortly

UPDATE:- This event is now full a second date has now been added for Monday 14th June

Now second event full trying to find a date for a third day!

On May the 14th i along with fellow network manager Alan Richards from West Hatch School will be presenting a session called Moving to SharePoint 2010- why, how, when and where? This event is free but places are limited so please check the details below and if you want to attend please get in touch ASAP. After this event myself and Mike Herrity are flying to Washington DC to present at SharePoint Saturday DC a busy time.

Free event for schools on Microsoft’s next generation Learning Platform

SharePoint 2010 is due to be launched on May 12^th as Microsoft’s next generation Learning Platform. Many schools across the UK are currently using SharePoint 2007 and this event will help schools with their strategic planning, including when and why to consider moving to SharePoint 2010, regardless of whether you are planning to change this year or in the future. It may be that you are not using SharePoint at all but would like to see what the new version can do.

In the UK we are lucky to have schools who have been involved in Microsoft’s global Technology Adoption Programme, and as result have had a chance to influence Microsoft’s developments, as well as implement early versions of SharePoint 2010.

This SharePoint 2010 event is intended for ICT leaders, School Leaders and Network Managers and will be led by schools that have been using SharePoint 2010 during the last year and have significant experience. Places are limited and the session is completely free including all food and refreshments.

Microsoft UK have sponsored the event through the provision of their conference facilities

Event Details:

Microsoft Campus, Reading, RG6 1WG

Date: Friday 14^th May 2010

Time: 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Key topics covered:

Why SharePoint 2010? 10 great features for teachers and students

Social in SharePoint 2010. Capturing students’ interest in social networking to help their learning.

Moving to SharePoint 2010- why, how, when and where?

SharePoint 2010 as a Leadership and Management tool.

Branding SharePoint 2010- how to make SharePoint look like your school, and work for your school!

Using SharePoint 2010 to hit government targets – online reporting to parents, managing absence, community cohesion and personalising learning.

To book places for this event for you and your colleagues please contact Mike Herrity, Assistant Headteacher at Twynham School by email at

mike.herrity@twynhamschool.com

   Previously I posted about where’s the save in the SharePoint 2010 Web Apps  well today SharePoint 2010 became available on MSDN for download so I am pleased to report that the missing save is almost back, in the Excel web app as you can see from the image below you now have a “Save As” button

But no save, as for OneNote and PowerPoint no save but you do now have an Undo and Redo buttons across all the web apps so a slight improvement for those people that love the save button.

 Who would have thought a week ago that I would be trapped until Tuesday 20^th April in Holland because of a volcano but that is what has happened, I have checked all the options Eurostar, ferry’s etc. but no good, my final plea for help is via Twitter but we will see if the power of the tweet pays off . I was very much looking forward to attending the SharePoint Evolution conference in London, the people that I feel the most sorry for regarding the event are Steve Smith and his team at Combined Knowledge who last year organised a superb event and I am sure that the conference this year will be bigger and better.

 But as it has turned out attendees and speakers are stuck all around the world and unable to get to London but the good news regarding the conference is that Steve has started putting alternative plans into action and also the session DVD will still be sent out post conference. Hopefully we will get a best practice conference in the UK in 2011.

UPDATE

The power of twitter is wonderful i now have a lift back to the UK and i will make it to SharePoint Evolution Thankyou all

  Well we finally got there today Microsoft announced the RTM of SharePoint 2010, Office 2010, Visio 2010 and Project 2010. Volume licence customers will be able to download from April 27^th initially in English, French, Spanish, German, Russian, and Dutch via the Volume Licensing Service Center. Customers without software assurance will be able to purchase the new products through Volume Licensing from Microsoft partners starting May 1. Read more on the SharePoint Team Blog

 In my previous post of this series I looked at the standard topologies for SharePoint 2010 through this post I will look at how we at Twynham are going to configure SharePoint 2010 for our environment. We will be deploying SharePoint 2010 and SQL 2008 in a HyperV cluster the configuration for our virtual servers will be SharePoint web front end servers each with 8 GB Ram and SQL with 9 GB the SQL server will also be configured in a failover cluster with one LUN of our SAN dedicated to SQL 2008. The image below illustrates how we are deploying our solution

The virtual application server will also be deployed with 8GB Ram. The last server in our configuration will be our streaming media server which will remain physical as we wish to reuse one of our Dell MD3000 boxes but when this goes end of life in a year time this will also be virtualized by adding more SATA storage to our SAN.

 There is still debate about Virtual Vs Physical but as we build our solution and go live i will post about how it performs.

  A strange title for a post but an apt one, I have been involved with SharePoint since 2001 and back in the early days it was very difficult to find any information about the product but now you are literally tripping over yourself with information and help on blogs worldwide (Including this one)

 But the thing I like most is the community atmosphere surrounding SharePoint in the USA you have SharePoint Saturdays and thanks to Mark Miller virtual Saturday events you have user groups everywhere even in Bournemouth thanks again to Ian Woodgate. Now I am no expert and I am sure someone will correct me but you do not seem to have the same social element to Windows Server, Exchange, ISA Server or any other big product from Microsoft. The SharePoint evolution conference is on in London in less than 2 weeks and so far a football tournament, A daily running event and of course the ubiquitous SharePint a very strange product is SharePoint which seems to bring people together but was that not the point of SharePoint? A collaboration platform!!

And long may it continue and I cannot wait for SharePint in London see you there and by the way mines a lager.

  A while back Daniel McPherson from Zevenseas visited Twynham to see what we were doing with SharePoint 2007 and during his visit he showed us a few products that Zevenseas had developed including team status a SharePoint version of Twitter.

 So I was very pleased last weekend when Daniel tweeted about the improved and SharePoint 2010 ready version that is available now from their website here full download and install instructions are available on the site. And did I say it was FREE.

  I am very pleased to be able to tell you that our speaker submission for SharePoint Saturday in Washington DC has been successful, so on May 15^th myself and Mike Herrity will be presenting a session on our work over the last 3 years of working together starting with our first project a revision gateway and on to our rollout of SharePoint 2010 in a highly available virtual environment. We will also revisit the past and look at how we first used SharePoint team services back in 2001 and give some topology examples of our journey up to the present day and our 2010 rollout.

 The session will also focus on how Twynham has gotten the most from the out of the box elements in SharePoint 2007 to our custom web part developments during our Parental Engagement strategy. We will finish with a demonstration of our SharePoint 2010 set up and work with Microsoft.