Month: September 2010

Categories
Off Topic Virtualization

What if Microsoft released Virtual PC x64?

Have you ever wondered why Microsoft has yet to release a 64 bit version of Virtual PC? I suppose it’s a question that most of us ask ourselves when we’re setting up an environment to develop code and we’re not too keen on paving our hefty notebooks to run Windows Server 2008 x64 with HyperV to install other VMs on top of it in support of our SharePoint 2010 instances.

Interestingly enough, Microsoft states that the Virtual PC software is more to assist small businesses…

Does Windows Virtual PC support 64-bit Windows XP as a guest operating system?

No. Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP Mode was designed to help small business with application compatibility from Windows XP to Windows 7. The majority of business applications currently run on 32-bit versions of
Windows XP.

Source: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/support/faq.aspx

And yet, so many small businesses are adopting SharePoint, wouldn’t it seem like the natural fit to release a software package that can allow for 64-bit virtualization? And I bet that they could write a memory management module that would allow to go beyond what the 32-bit software operating system is typically bound to similar to Windows Server 2003 x86 Enterprise Edition’s ability to see up to 32 GB of RAM and address it as well.

I wonder if they did if it would look something like this:

VPC x64

I guess since it’s not yet available, we’ll go with the next best thing… 🙂

http://www.vmware.com/workstation

Categories
Off Topic

SharePoint, Entropy and Design

After talking with one of my colleagues in the community, I felt that needed to share this comment that was made during the conversation, or at least the gist of it…

SharePoint Implementations today consist of a race between Architects, Developers and IT Pros striving to build well planned out, bigger and better idiot-proof solutions, and the Universe trying to produce requirements of entropy with bigger and better idiots.

So far, the Universe is winning.

Categories
Uncategorized

Achieving Work Management Success with SharePoint

So often I seem to find case studies out there that discuss technical problems that have been successfully executed against leveraging SharePoint as a platform, or how to perform specific tasks – there are a slew of awesome blogs out there that are chocked full of information to assist IT Pros, Developer and Architects.  But what about the Business Executives?

There aren’t too many blogs out there that talk about the business applications of SharePoint in terms of case studies, though there are a handful that touch the surface and dive in a particular area.  And there are sessions at conferences now and then that really get into the softer side of SharePoint implementations and the success they’ve achieved – but again they’re far and few between.

Well, if you happen to be in the Washington DC Metro area on 8 October 2010, I’d suggest you check out “Executive Insights: How Three D.C. Organizations Achieved Work Management Success”. It’ll be hosted over at the Ritz Carlton Tyson’s Corner with several great speakers discussing the business value of SharePoint implementations, the approaches and methodologies taken and the return on investment. Featured speakers include Arpan Shah of Microsoft, Marie-Michelle Strah, PhD of Aquilient, Joe Snyder of Video Gaming Technologies, Matthew Fritts, MPH of Samueli Institute, and Bill English of MindSharp.

Definitely an event worth considering as an executive, technology officer, business analyst or decision maker in the SharePoint field.

Categories
Development

SharePoint Server 2010 SDK Update Released

Looking for some SharePoint 2010 goodness and looking to dive deep into the software development kit?

Look no further than the newly released SharePoint 2010 SDK available at – http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=f0c9daf3-4c54-45ed-9bde-7b4d83a8f26f

Enjoy!

Categories
Infrastructure

Installing SharePoint 2010 on an Island

Have you found yourself installing SharePoint on an island of sorts – completely disconnected from the Internet, without external DNS connectivity or the ability to download files that are required for SharePoint? Even though you know that the Internet is within reach you’re unable to access it, probably because of an OSI layer 1 network adapter not being plugged in just yet.

So how do you install SharePoint? Where do you pull the prerequisites from? What do you need to grab and transfer via sneakernet?

Island Tree on Lochan na h-Achlaise ~ Rannoch Moor, Scotland

Look no further… Microsoft kindly provides the SharePoint Server 2010 Hardware and Software Requirements which includes links to downloads of the prerequisites in the "Access to Applicable Software" section.

One thing to make note of is the release of the QFE for SharePoint issues addressing "Performance Counter fix and User Impersonation" (KB979917).

Also, something to make note of, while Microsoft has the "Applicable Software" section, it doesn’t exactly give you links that will work when you’re trapped on an island. For instance, the link for the .NET 3.5 Framework with SP1 is for the Bootstrapper which launches to download files from the Internet.  This isn’t exactly useful when you’re in a disconnected environment.  Instead, scroll down and make note of the information pertaining to the Full Redistributable.  Also note that there are updates that need to be downloaded for the .NET 3.5 Framework with SP1 (three of them actually) and an update to re-associate XPS files with the .NET framework.

Alas, there are some caveats… an item to make note of is that as of this writing the SQL Native Client download button from the link provided pushes you to an ill formed HTML page where you have to seek out the SQL Native Client package for downloading purposes.  See below for proper link.

SharePoint Prerequisites  
Server Roles  
Web Server (IIS) role  
Application Server role  
Software Components Link
Microsoft .NET Framework version 3.5 SP1 http://go.spdan.com/dotnet35sp1
Microsoft .NET Framework version 3.5 SP1 Update http://go.spdan.com/dotnet35sp1u
Update for .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 (KB967190) http://go.spdan.com/wutng
Microsoft Sync Framework Runtime v1.0 (x64) (English) http://go.spdan.com/yaxrr
Microsoft Sync Framework v1.0 (if other than English) http://go.spdan.com/phusl
Microsoft Filter Pack 2.0 http://go.spdan.com/dmegl
Microsoft Chart Controls for the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 http://go.spdan.com/mvknw
Windows PowerShell 2.0 http://go.spdan.com/fjsbq
SQL Server 2008 Native Client http://go.spdan.com/jvdsx
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services ADOMD.NET http://go.spdan.com/ryziu
ADO.NET Data Services Update for .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 (Server 2008 SP2) http://go.spdan.com/mjrni
ADO.NET Data Services Update for .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 (Server 2008 R2 / 7) http://go.spdan.com/nllmd
A hotfix for the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 that provides a method to support token authentication without transport security or message encryption in WCF. (Server 2008 SP2) http://go.spdan.com/ndubn
A hotfix for the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 that provides a method to support token authentication without transport security or message encryption in WCF. (Server 2008 R2) http://go.spdan.com/fgpvy
Windows Identity Foundation (WIF) (Server 2008 SP2) http://go.spdan.com/tiqfd
Windows Identity Foundation (WIF) (Server 2008 R2) http://go.spdan.com/zweak