Replicating Directory Changes for SharePoint 2013 User Profile service account

Steps to grant this service account the permission to replicate the changes from SharePoint 2013 to Active Directory so follow these steps :

1. Open Active Directory Users and Computers
2. Right Click on Domain Name and select properties
3. Go to security Tab and click Add button and add the service account
4. From permission section check "Replicating Directory Changes" and click OK
   
   

Excluded Folders from scanning in SharePoint 2013

These are the excluded folders from scanning by antivirus.

• 15/Logs 
• Microsoft Office Servers/15.0/Bin
• Microsoft Office Servers/15.0/Data
• Microsoft Office Servers/15.0/Logs
• Microsoft Office Servers/15.0/Synchronization Service
• Windows/System32/LogFiles
• Windows/SysWOW64/LogFiles
• [For each service accounts]
  users/sp_service_accounts/AppData/Local/Temp

Ref :http://support.microsoft.com/kb/952167

People Picker in SharePoint 2013

We can manage how to query users in People picker using stsadm as the following (You can run these commands in SharePoint Management Shell ) :

1. To enable Cross Domain (One way )
   stsadm -o setproprety -pn peoplepicker-searchadforests -pv "foreset:domain.com,domain\abc,password;domain:domain2.com,domain2\abc,password" -url http://domain.com
2. Only show certain users or groups
   stsadm -o setsiteuseraccountdirectorypath -path "OU=Users,DC=Domain,DC=Com" -url http://domain.com
3. Only show Users in Site collection
   stsadm -o setproperty -pn peoplepicker-onlysearchwithinsitecollection -pv yes -url http://domain
4. Only show enabled accounts (using filter)
   stsadm -o setproperty -pn peoplepicker-searchadcustomfilter -pv "(*(objectCategory=person)(objectClass=user)(!userAccountControl:1.2.840.113556.1.4.803:=2))" -url http://domain
5. Only show Non AD accounts
   stsadm -o setproperty -pn peoplepicker-nowindowsaccountsfornonwindowsauthenticationmode -pv yes -url http://domain

• for more details 
• http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg602075.aspx
• http://blogs.msdn.com/b/spses/archive/2012/07/18/all-you-want-to-know-about-people-picker-in-sharepoint-functionality-configuration-troubleshooting-part-2.aspx

Office Web Apps with SharePoint 2013

Prerequisites to install Office Web Apps on a separate Server

1. Joint to Domain
2. Application Server and web Server Roles
3. .Net Framework 3.5 , 4.5 Features

Install Office Web Apps 

1. Run the setup 
2. Create a Farm by using power shell
3. New-OfficeWebAppsFarm -InternalURL http://ServerName -AllowHttp -EditingEnabledNote (You can configure -ExternalURL to access the site from load balance or from outside)
4. Open http://ServerName/hosting/discovery and if you get a result then every thing is Ok
   Note (to add a second server to Office Web Apps farm run the following after you install Office Web Apps New-OfficeWebAppsMachine -MachineTojoin "First Server FQDN Server Name" )
   
   

Integrate SharePoint 2013 with Office Web Apps

1. Open SharePoint Management Shell
2. Run the following :
3. New-SPWOPIBinding -ServerName officeWebAppsServerName.domain.local -AllowHttp
   Set-SPWOPIZone -Zone "internal-http" (because by default it's Https)
   $c = Get-SPSecurityTokeyServiceConfgi
   $c.AllowOAuthOverHttp = $true
   $c.Update()
4. Test it from SharePoint site.

Steps to configure a Corporate Catalog

Steps to configure a corporate Catalog to host apps in SharePoint 2013 as following :

1. Configure DNS to accept *.domain.com
1. Open DNS
2. Go to Forward Lookup Zones and right click and choose New zone...
3. Click next and choose Primary zone and click Next
4. keep the default settings and click next
5. enter the zone name as for example "domain.local" and click next
6. click next  and then finish
7. Right click on "domain.local" and choose New Alias (CNAME...)
8. enter the alias name as "*" and enter the FQDN as for example "apps.domain.local" and then ok
9. you can test the above steps by ping for example a111.domain.local
2. Go to Central administration and click on manage services on server
1. start App Management Service
2. start Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Subscription Settings Service
3. Go to Centeral adminisrration and click on manage service applications
2. Create a New App Management Service Application
3. run the following powershell commands (Can't create this service from UI)
4. $a = New-SPSubscriptionSettingsServiceApplication -applicationPool $pool -Name "Subscription settings" -DatabaseName SubScriptionSettings
5. New-SPSubscriptionSettingsServiceApplicationProxy -ServiceApplication $a
4. Go to Central administration and click on Apps link

1. click on Configure App URLs
2. enter the app domain "domain.local' and prefix as "apps"
3. click on Manage App Catalog and Create a new app catalog site and click OK
4. create a site collection
   
   
5. Go to Central administration and click on Apps link
1. from here you can manage settings , permission and purshase apps from internet

Tips for SharePoint 2013

1. Creating a Web application with classic mode has deprecated but still you can create it using power shell.
2. SharePoint Designer Settings are configured from Central administration for web application scope and from site settings of Site collection for Site Collection scope.
3. Custom List does not has Incoming email option.
4. You can create a Custom Service Application Proxy Group for multiple web applications only by using power shell :
   New-SPServiceApplicationProxyGroup "Custom_Proxy_Name"
5. To use SharePoint 2013 Workflow you need to install Windows Azure Workflow add-on and then run the following command in SharePoint server to Create a Service application
   Register-SPWorkflowService
6. Guide for How to Configure Kerosene in SharePoint 2013
   http://blog.blksthl.com/2012/09/26/the-first-kerberos-guide-for-sharepoint-2013-technicians/
7. Create a trust between Farms in SharePoint 2013 using SPTrustedSecurityTokeyIssuer
   http://blogs.technet.com/b/speschka/archive/2012/07/23/setting-up-an-oauth-trust-between-farms-in-sharepoint-2013.aspx
8. If you restore a Farm backup content and settings make sure User Profile sync job is not running because this will cause to failing the restoring.
9. If you backup a site collection from UI then you can't edit the site during the backup process but you can via powershell -UseSqlSnapshot (need Enterprise SQL Server ) or -NoSiteLock to force it not to lock the site during backup process.
10. You can use Machine translation with Managed Meta data.
11. No need to install language packs to enable Managed Meta data to support multiple languages.
12. Prerequisites log folder c:\Users\sp_farm\Appdata\local\temp\prerequisiteinstaller*.log
13. You can't change Content Type hub URL after you added from UI and you can only change it from power shell
    
14. Set-SPMetadataServiceApplication -Identity "<ServiceApplication>" -HubURI "<HubURI>"
15. Make sure to allow connection in Web part security from Central administration when you want to connect between web parts.
    
    
16. Guide for Rights Management in SharePoint 2013
    http://blogs.office.com/b/sharepoint/archive/2012/11/09/what-s-new-with-information-rights-management-in-sharepoint-and-sharepoint-online.aspx
    http://sp-vinod.blogspot.com/2013/08/configuring-information-rights.html
17. If you create a page based on friendly URL then you delete the term from Managed Metadata you need also to delete the page from the library to totally delete that link.
18. /_layouts/15/osssearchresults.aspx only search inside the SharePoint site collection so if you have crawled file shared then you need to create Search Center to get results from there.
19. Query Logging is Disable By Default.
20. Get-SPLogEvent to read SharePoint Logs
21. To merge multiple logs file from different server use
    Merge-SPLogFile -Path c:\mylogs
22. To show logs in UI
    Get-SPLogFile -File c:\mylogs -StartTime 1:30 | Select * | Out-GridView or Export-svc
23. SharePoint Active Directory in User Profile Service Just Import Profiles.
24. Health Analyzer related to Usage Service Application.
25. You can Set Global Search URL from Search Administration.
26. To get list of fronted servers in the Farm
    Get-SPServiceInstance | ? {$_.TypeName -eq 'Microsoft SharePoint Foundation web Application' -and $_.Status -eq 'Online'}
27. How to plan for Distrubuted Cache Service http://sharepoint-community.net/profiles/blogs/distributed-cache-appfabrikcache-on-sharepoint-server-2013-part-1
28. It's recommanded to avoid running Distrubeted Cache service in Server which has Search , project ,SQL or excel services.
29. You can create a site column directly from inline editing of the list
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

Host Name Site Collection in SharePoint 2013

Steps to create a Host Name Site collection in SharePoint 2013 :

1. Open SharePoint Management Shell
2. Run the Following Command 

New-SPSite -Url "http://HostheaderForSiteCollection" -HostHeaderWebApplication "http://WebAppUrl" -Name "Test Name" -Template "sts#0" -OwnerAlias "domain\userDomain"

Steps to create DNS entry (A Record)

Steps to create A DNS record :

1. Open DNS
2. Go to Forward Lookup Zones
3. Right click on domain name and choose New Host (A or AAA..)
4. Then insert the name for example (intranet) and IP address
5. Then Click Add Host.

Open Port 1433 in Windows Firewall with Advanced Security

To open SQL port 1433 (or any port you configured) to enable SharePoint 2013 to communicate with SQL Server you need to do the following :

1. Login to SQL Server
2. Open Windows Firewall with Advanced Security
3. In Inbound Rules .. Click New Rule
4. Choose Port option and click Next
5. Choose TCP option and insert the port (1433) and then click Next
6. Choose Allow the connection option and click Next
7. Only Check Domain option and click Next
8. Inset a Name for the rule like 'SQL Server' and click Finish

SharePoint 2013 March Updates

• SharePoint Foundation: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36987
• SharePoint Server: http://www.microsoft.com/en-US/download/details.aspx?id=36989
• Project Server: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36988
• Office Web Apps 2013: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36981

Note: After you install these updates you need to run Configuration wizard in each SharePoint Server in the Farm.

Converting the document to a page failed. The converter framework returned the following error: CE_OTHER

I have a test environment which has all roles in one box (SharePoint , SQL Server and Domain controller ). When tried to run Document Convert feature I got the following error :

I checked the logs and I didn't find any logical reason for this error but I found this article which said
Document Conversion is not supported in Domain Controller so I think this is the reason
http://www.novolocus.com/2008/02/22/error-converting-the-document-to-a-page-failed-the-converter-framework-returned-the-following-error-ce_other/

Directly Save A Document to SharePoint 2013 List

In SharePoint 2013 you can save a word document from office application to SharePoint list directly by these steps :

1. From Word 2013 go to File >> Save AS
2. Click Browse Button >> put SharePoint List URL ex. http;//site/list
3. Click Save
4. Choose a Content type from the list if it asks
5. Then click Ok

Tips for Managed Metadata in SharePoint 2013

• To prevent Enterprise keyword fields from offering suggestions from a team set then unckeck this setting 

• Office 2010/2013 can integrate with Managed Metadata site column
• If you want to use Content type hubs then you need to activate this site collection feature :Content Type Hub Syndication feature.

The managed metadata service or connection is currently not available SharePoint 2013

After I created Managed metadata service in SharePoint 2013 I got the following error

I forgot to start the service in Manage Services on Server so to fix this do the following :

1. Go to Central Administration >> Manage Services on Server
2. Start Managed Metadata Web Service
3. run IISReset

Enable Anonymous Access in SharePoint 2013

Enable Anonymous Site Access in SharePoint 2013 is same as SharePoint 2010 ( check this link )  but there is one more option which ensure the anonymous users cannot interact with the anonymous site using Client Object Model without Remote Interfaces permission and this add more layer for protection.

Tips for SharePoint 2013 PowerShell

As Administrator , he can perform most of administration jobs from UI but with SharePoint 2013 there are some changes required only PowerShell like Modify Search topology or Configure Request Management...

• Still you can use stsadm commands with SharePoint 2013
• To grant the users permission to run the commands grant them the following :
• Member of SharePoint Shell Access role
• Memeber of local security group (WSS_ADMIN_WPG)
• To get list of stsadm commands , run the following :

stsadm

• To get list of commands in SharePoint 2013 PowerShell , run the following :

Get-Command

• To get list of commands with filtering , run the following to get commands for SPWeb only:

Get-Command -Noun SPWeb

• To get list of commands start with , run the following :

Get-Command -Noun SPW*

• To get help about the command , run the following and you can pass -Examples or -Full or -Details for more information :

Get-Help Get-SPWeb

• To get the command object or objects wrap it with ()

(Get-SPSite http://sps2013).RootWeb.Lists | ForEach-Object {$_.Title}

• You can dispose SPWeb or SPSite using for example $site.Dispose() or can use like using keyword in C# (wrapping the whole script) with Start-SPAssignment -Global and Stop-SPAssignment -Global
• To Get Correlation ID from logs file , run the following :

Get-SPLogEvent | ?{$_.Correlation -eq "<ID>"}

Get Site Content Size in SharePoint 2013

To Get Site Content Size in SharePoint using Powers hell run the following command :

Get-SPSite http://sps2013 | Select Url, @{Label="Size";Expression={$_.usage.Storage/1MB}}

To Get all Site Collections in the Farm and sorts them from largest to smallest based on content size run the following command:

Get-SPSite | Select Url, @{Label="Size";Expression={$_.usage.Storage/1MB}} 

| Sort-Object -Descending -Property "Size"

New WCM Features in SharePoint 2013

• Image Renditions
• Good Ref :
• http://blog.mastykarz.nl/image-renditions-sharepoint-2013/
• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj720398.aspx
• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj720392.aspx
• http://sp2013.blogspot.com/2012/07/image-renditions.html
• Required to enable Blob Cache
• IFrame Support
• Good Ref :
• http://www.learningsharepoint.com/2012/11/24/how-to-use-iframes-in-sharepoint-2013/
• SEO ,Friendly URLs and SiteMap
• Good Ref :
• http://blog.mastykarz.nl/search-engine-optimization-sharepoint-2013/
• http://www.informedconsulting.nl/blog/?p=283
• Managed Navigation
• Good Ref :
• http://blog.robgarrett.com/2012/09/23/sharepoint-2013-managed-navigation/
• Cross Site Publishing
• Good Ref :
• http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/blog/Pages/BlogPost.aspx?pID=1038
• http://blogs.msdn.com/b/justinvoels/archive/2012/09/24/sharepoint-2013-search-driven-publishing-and-cross_2d00_site-collection-publishing-overview.aspx
• http://blog.mastykarz.nl/easier-working-assets-cross-site-publishing/
• http://www.intrateam.com/gb/blogpost/cross-site-publishing-sharepoint-2013
• http://blog.helloitsliam.com/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=89
• Video Thumbnail
• Good Ref :
• http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/Blogs/GetThePoint/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=664
• Required Desktop Experience feature to install in the server
• Copy and Past from Word Support
• Site Design Manager
• Good Ref :
• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj822363.aspx
• http://sharepointbrian.com/2012/07/intro-to-sharepoint-2013-design-manager/
• http://bniaulin.wordpress.com/2012/07/18/sharepoint-2013-design-manager-convert-html-to-master-page/
• Error Page
• Good Ref :
• http://www.gknzcfc.net/subsite/custom-error-pages-on-sharepoint-2013.html
• http://www.learningsharepoint.com/2012/12/07/http-404-page-not-found-error-pages-in-sharepoint-2013/
• http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/15166.how-to-modify-error-pages-on-sharepoint-2013.aspx

The .Net Framework installed on this machine does not meet the minimum required version: 4.5.50709

I have got the following error while installing Visual Studio 2012 on Windows Server 2012 Release Candidate so to fix this I have installed on the last released Windows Server 2012.

Note: you will receive the same error if you try to install it on Windows 8 Preview.

This SQLServer instance does not have the required "max degree of parallelism" setting of 1

I have got this error while trying to install SharePoint 2013

What is Max Degree of Parallelism ?
When an instance of SQL Server runs on a computer that has more than one microprocessor or CPU, it detects the best degree of parallelism, that is, the number of processors employed to run a single statement, for each parallel plan execution. You can use the max degree of parallelism option to limit the number of processors to use in parallel plan execution. SQL Server considers parallel execution plans for queries, index data definition language (DDL) operations, and static and keyset-driven cursor population.
Read this for more details
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms189094.aspx

How to fix it ?

1. Open Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio
2. Login with sysadmin user 
3. Right Click on instance name and select properties >> Advanced
4. Change Max Degree of Parallelism to 1
5. Restart the SQL Service

SharePoint 2013 Prerequisites - Offiline install

You can install SharePoint 2013 Prerequisites by two ways :

1. Run SharePoint 2013 setup file and then choose Install software prerequisites if the server connected or has Internet Access.
2. In case no Internet access then you need to install them manually , Check this article which explain how to install them manually or by power shell and command line. Link

SharePoint 2013 - Standalone Farm Limitations

Standalone farm is targeted to development and testing environment so avoid to used it in production site for the following reasons:

1. Can't Scale : you cannot extend your farm by adding new server if it configured as standalone farm even you can't backup the farm and restore it from standalone farm to multiple servers farm (Small , Medium,.. Farm) and vice and versa.
2. Limit Storage: because it configured with SQL Server 2008 R2 SP 1 Express version your storage limit to 10 GB only for each database.
3. No Domain Service: because it configured in one server only so no Domain Service or domain accounts and it run under local accounts like Network Service account. also you can not create User Profile Service for this reason.

NetFx3.5 Error - Installing SQL Server 2012 on Windows Server 2012

Check this article link

Steps:

1. Insert the Windows Server 2012 installation image or DVD
2. Open a command window (run as Administrator),
3. Dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:NetFX3 /All /Source:D:\sources\SxS /LimitAccess

Note: D: is the label for DVD driver.

Update for Microsoft SharePoint Enterprise Server 2013

Microsoft released updates for SharePoint Server 2013 as the following :

• http://www.microsoft.com/en-sa/download/details.aspx?id=36033
• http://www.microsoft.com/en-sa/download/details.aspx?id=36034
• http://www.microsoft.com/en-sa/download/details.aspx?id=36035
• http://www.microsoft.com/en-sa/download/details.aspx?id=36032

Steps to apply them:

1. Download and install them in each SharePoint Server.
2. Then Run configuration wizard on each server starting from the server which host the Central Administration.
3. Done.