Lately a lot of people ask me about how best to set up a SharePoint 2010 sandbox environment. I encountered this few months ago while working with SharePoint 2010 beta and again with the public release in May. Since this topic has been pretty well documented over the internet, I will just summarize my personal experience in this blog and provide a list of resources (see my delicious bookmarks). This should save you some detours and hair-pulling moments.
Hardware
First and foremost, you will need a 64-bit machine. SharePoint 2010 mandates 64-bit hardware. Either a desktop or laptop will work. As I deliver presentations and attend speaking events frequently, I decided to get a Lenovo W510 (8GB RAM, 256GB Solid State Disk) laptop. The SSD is a little pricey but the performance gain is well worth it. The bootup time is blazing fast, and the noise factor is much lower. Make sure you load up on RAM and disk storage when purchasing the system. It is best to run the VM from a separate spindle from the host OS. If your budget allows, get two SSDs or at least a secondary high-speed disk drive. You will be grateful of the increased productivity and thank me later.
Virtualization
Once the hardware requirements are satisfied, you have to decide on the operating system configurations. SharePoint 2010 requires Windows 2008, but most systems come preinstalled with Windows 7. Your options include dual boot and virtualization. For maximal flexibility and convenience, I went with the virtualization route. The major virtualization options are Microsoft Hyper-V, VM Ware, and Sun VirtualBox. I have been using and liking the freebie VirtualBox since SharePoint 2010 beta came out few months ago. However, Hyper-V and VM Ware are probably more flexible. This comes down what you have available at your fingertips.
Architecture Topology
If portability is more important than scalability, a stand-alone installation will probably suffice as a sandbox solution. Otherwise, consider running a complete installation in case you need to ever delegate different application roles to numerous other servers/VMs.
Resources
http://delicious.com/kennethlo/sharepoint2010+sandbox
Above is my delicious bookmark collection that points to additional details on this topic. I followed Andrew Connell’s hardware recommendations. If you are using VirtualBox, Eric Harlan’s How to Install SharePoint 2010 Guide will be especially handy. Thank you, Andrew and Eric!
The wait is finally over! After 3+ years since the release of SharePoint 2007, the much-anticipated SharePoint 2010 was successfully launched on May 12. There are many new remarkable features that many end users and developers have been asking for. The social media features, in my opinion, are particularly impressive.
According to Christian Finn, Director of Collaborative Product Management, Microsoft aims to make SharePoint 2010 to be “as much about people as it is about documents.”. The following new improvements are especially important toward that goal:
- Profile Page (former MySite in SharePoint 2007): clearly displayed on this page are 6 tabs, you might find they perform similar functions as some of the social media features you are already familiar with.
- Activity Feed: it’s much like the Facebook feed and displays real-time activities within the networking environment.
- “Ask Me About”: it allows you to interact with people by asking or answering questions from the right people.
- “Tags and Notes”: you can find it on the Profile Page. Much like tagging and making notes everywhere else, this feature will give you a clear view of what’s-hot-and-what’s-not within your network.
The days when developers scramble to build social media applications will soon be over. This squarely makes SharePoint a viable platform for social media. Keep up the good work, Redmond!
Helpful Links:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff631153.aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff608137.aspx
I had the great pleasure of presenting at the Capital Area.NET SharePoint Interest Group (SSIG) Meeting on June 9 and SharePoint Users Group of Washington DC (SUGDC) the day after. The featured presentation was named “Sustaining & Optimizing Enterprise SharePoint 2007 Systems”.
The presentation was designed for beginner/intermediate level architects and system administrators. We dived in the needs to sustain and optimize enterprise SharePoint 2007, architecture & topology, hardware and software configurations, monitoring. We wrapped up the evening with a live demo of SharePoint Diagnostics (SPDiag).
Once again, I would like to thank the organizers, sponsors and volunteers for hosting me, and the audience for the animated discussion. It was a blast presenting to you; I look forward to seeing you again very soon! By the way, SUGDC is now held at the new HireStrategy office in Reston Town Center. They have some awesome orange Eames chairs!
The presentation is now available on the Downloads section. I would love to hear from you if you have any questions or comments.
First week of each month is filled with users group meetings. In addition to the CapArea meeting on Wednesday night, I will be presenting at the SharePoint Users Group of Washington DC (SUGDC) meeting on June 10 at 7pm. The presentation is titled “Sustaining & Optimizing Enterprise SharePoint 2007 Systems”. A brief session description follows:
For every organization that has committed to upgrading SharePoint 2010, there are many more organizations that still need to sustain their existing enterprise SharePoint 2007 systems. In order to keep the existing systems healthy, you will need to learn about the arts of tuning SharePoint. In this session, we will go over hardware and software architectural designs you encounter in your daily operations, optimization and tuning techniques, as well as industry best practices. This session will also include a 20-minute demo of Microsoft SharePoint tools, such as Microsoft SharePoint Administration Toolkit v3 and SharePoint Diagnostics (SPDiag).
The presentation deck will be uploaded to the Downloads section of my blog. Cheers!
Wednesday is just around the corner! I will be presenting at the Capital Area.NET SharePoint Special Interest Group (SSIG) meeting on June 9 at 7pm. The presentation is titled “Sustaining & Optimizing Enterprise SharePoint 2007 Systems”. A brief session description follows:
For every organization that has committed to upgrading SharePoint 2010, there are many more organizations that still need to sustain their existing enterprise SharePoint 2007 systems. In order to keep the existing systems healthy, you will need to learn about the arts of tuning SharePoint. In this session, we will go over hardware and software architectural designs you encounter in your daily operations, optimization and tuning techniques, as well as industry best practices. This session will also include a 20-minute demo of Microsoft SharePoint tools, such as Microsoft SharePoint Administration Toolkit v3 and SharePoint Diagnostics (SPDiag).
Please visit the official Capital Area.NET SSIG website for more details. Twitter fans can follow @CapAreaDotNet. Ciao!
Make sure to show up on time! You don’t want to miss the surprise keynote…=) Registration begins at 7:30 AM.
Here are some tips for you to make the most out of SPSDC:
Learn
- Plan for the session you want to attend
- Ask ANY SharePoint questions you have
- Take good notes of tips & tricks on how you can apply what you’ve learned back to your environment
Engage
- Bring business cards & NETWORK with speakers, attendees, & sponsors – we expect between 800 -1300 people attending
- Take advantage of Twitter – it’s a great way to connect with folks onsite and offsite
- Use the hashtag #SPSDC #JOIN2010 when tweeting
- If you are looking for employment opportunities, bring your resume as A LOT of sponsors are recruiting
Share
- If you can, bring your laptop and sign up to be a Live Blogger so folks joining SPSDC remotely can be a part of the event
- Donate to Red Cross to contribute to relief funds
- Take lotsa photos + videos and upload it to Flickr, YouTube or Vimeo if possible. Tag your photos/videos with SPSDC
Flickr Site
I will be uploading event pictures to my Flickr site throughout the day. Please stay tuned and see y’all tomorrow!
http://klopmp.com/spsdc_flickr
I am very pleased to be presenting at the SharePoint User Group of Washington DC (SUGDC) meeting on June 10. The presentation is titled “Sustaining & Optimizing Enterprise SharePoint 2007 Systems”. A brief session description follows:
For every organization that has committed to upgrading SharePoint 2010, there are many more organizations that still need to sustain their existing enterprise SharePoint 2007 systems. In order to keep the existing systems healthy, you will need to learn about the arts of tuning SharePoint. In this session, we will go over hardware and software architectural designs you encounter in your daily operations, optimization and tuning techniques, as well as industry best practices. This session will also include a 20-minute demo of Microsoft SharePoint tools, such as Microsoft SharePoint Administration Toolkit v3 and SharePoint Diagnostics (SPDiag).
For more details, visit the official SUGDC website.
I’d like to invite you to SharePoint Saturday DC on May 15. SharePoint Saturday DC is a FREE, community driven, 1-day event that provides education around SharePoint at all levels.
You wouldn’t want to miss this event as there will be around 89 speakers and 84 sessions that will be delivered. Touted as the biggest SharePoint event in Washington, DC right after SharePoint 2010 is launched, 800 people are expected to attend. Get to network with SharePoint experts and get a chance to win raffle prizes such as Apple iPad, Netbook, Zune HD, SharePoint books, training passes, Access to online content from Microsoft’s SharePoint Conference 2009, and many more!
So what are you waiting for? Register now http://bit.ly/spsdc3
Marcy Kellar took this jump shot of Geoff Varosky as Dan Usher and I watched on from safety.
It was a snowy Saturday, but that did not deter 100+ devoted attendees from showing up at SPSDC! Dan Usher, Dux Raymond Sy, Gino Degregori, the corporate sponsors and volunteers, as always, did an amazing job putting this event together. And thanks again to all my peer speakers for making this event so much fun! Check out the “jump shot” that Marcy Kellar took of Geoff Varosky as Dan Usher and I watched on from safety! I can hardly wait until the next SPSDC in this spring.
As promised during my session, I have uploaded my slide deck:
Secret Ingredients of Successful SharePoint Project Management
It is also available on slideshare.net
In addition, the delicious bookmarks were updated to help attendees locate the resources we discussed in class:
Helpful Resources on SharePoint Project Management
Shoot me an email if you have any questions regarding the session or other SharePoint project management topics. Cheers!
The final session scheudle for the upcoming SharePoint Saturday DC has been released. Pick among four tracks: End User, Developer, Administrator, Special Interest. My session, starting at 4:40pm, is titled Secret Ingredients of Successful SharePoint Project Management. Looks like the turnout will be huge. I look forward to seeing you all there!
By the way, Salvation Army notified us today that there is a big need for brand new children’s clothing (any age) in the Washington DC area. If you can donate these that would be great! They’ll still accept other new or used clothing donations as well.
Don’t forget to bring your donations this Saturday. Let’s show the true meaning of sharing during this holiday season.
