Month: August 2011

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SharePoint Conference 2011 Session – How eBay Successfully Upgraded their Intranet to SharePoint 2010

Dear SharePoint Colleagues, 

Join the eBay team and myself as we discuss the eBay upgrade to SharePoint 2010 and how we did it in 3.5 months.  The Conference session link is here:

How eBay Successfully Upgraded their Intranet to SharePoint 2010  

Here is an outline of what we plan on speaking about:

  • Why eBay moved to SharePoint 2010
  • The environments (2007 and 2010)
  • eBay Governance
  • eBay Project Plan – how we managed the project and the methodologies we used
  • How we documented the farm
  • How we approached the technical side of the upgrade
  • How we increased performane by 30%
  • How eBay implemented disaster recovery
  • And alot more!

We will answer questions after the session, but to have a one on one with the eBay team, join us Wednesday night at our SoCal SharePint.  We will have a limited number of drink tickets and details on how to get the tickets are here:

https://blogs.architectingconnectedsystems.com/blogs/cjg/archive/2011/08/24/SharePoint-Conference-2011-_2D00_-SoCal-SharePint.aspx 

Hope to see you there!
Chris

 

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What the hell is NDR64 and why should you care?

Sooo, I mentioned that we did a few *firsts* at eBay.  One of them was to put Windows Server 2008 R2 in the DMZ and try to get SharePoint 2010 to work.  Needless to say, after setting everything up properly, it didn't.  After enabling 500 failed request tracing in the web servers and doing some crazy port analyzer stuff with good ole WireShark, I determined that there was some kind of firewall issue occuring between IIS and the domain controller in the DMZ. 

Everything was setup properly in the firewall, with IIS and with SharePoint, so we all were very confused by what was occuring.  It got so bad, that we made a preimer support call to see if someone could help us figure out what the hell was going on.  Turns out we got one of the top IIS guys in Redmond on the phone and he was able to very quickly tell us we were having an RPC problem.  We were all very confused, why are we having an RPC problem?  He quickly told us about NDR64.   NDR64 is a new protocol for RPC communicaiton in windows server 2008 and windows server 2008 R2.  This protocol was not exactly written by Microsoft nor did Microsoft want to implement it (hint it was a MS partner that drove them to do it, but NDA keeps me from saying who and why).  here's the details of NDR64:

 http://bit.ly/nN1YOt

So what does that mean?  Well, let me explain it…turns out that today's firewalls are able to recognize RPC packets and conversations and can dynamically open the ports between servers based on these conversations.  The new NDR64 is a 64bit version of the older 32bit version of the RPC protocol and MOST firewalls today, DO NOT know how to handle or interrogate the traffic.  SO what does that mean?  It means that you better be ready to open a whole bunch of high level ports to ensure that your authentication traffic will work when running SharePoint 2010 in your DMZ on Server 2008 and Server 2008 R2.

Until all the firewall vendors write a new bios/software to support his new RPC protocol, you will have to keep from implementing a DMZ 2010 environment, or open a lot of ports until your firewall vendor figures it out.

I'd start calling your firewall vendor NOW and see when you can get the latest firmware/software version.

Enjoy,
Chris

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SharePoint 2010 Upgrade Project and Goverance Plan Samples

Dear SharePoint Colleagues, 

We are pleased to announce that we are making available generic MS Project Plan and Governance plans and the SP Build Guide and MS Project Deployment Project based on all the upgrade projects we have been involved with over the years (including the latest eBay project).  I will post the PayPal links for these later this week in this blog post and will setup a seperate site for them.  Licensing will be based on user and will be non-transferrable except for projects you work on at least 25%.  I'll post some pictures of the generic outline of the sections for both so you see what you are getting.  You will get a full stampled PDF version and/or a MS Project template of each as part of your purchase.  These items have been and will continue to be included in ACS SharePoint courses at no additional charge.

OR get all four for a discount!

  • SharePoint 2010 Documentation Package – $599
    		•

    Each of these are based on large SharePoint projects and years of working with customers around the globle implementing SharePoint 2007 and 2010. The most recent being the large eBay upgrade project.

    Enjoy!
    Chris

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    SharePoint Conference 2011 – SoCal SharePint

    Dear SharePoint Colleagues,

     

    Get ready for a great evening at the 2011 SharePoint Conference!  On Wednesday night, Oct 5th, after the exhibit hall reception, we will be having a SoCal SharePint party.  Join us at Bar Louie's outside patio reserved specifically for us (directly across the street from the Convention Center) for a quick drink from 7 to 9pm. Meet the eBay team, one of a few reference customers of the SPC11 conference, and several SharePoint MVPs and superstars.  After the SoCal SharePint, we will head over to enjoy another SharePint in the ESPNZone in Downtown Disney!

    This event is hosted by the local Southern California companies that want to make sure you have a great time while in Anaheim, CA:

    Get your free drink tickets!  There are several ways to get a free drink ticket:

    • Find any of the eBay team (they will be wearing eBay shirts and badges as well as have a session during the conferece) and ask them about their upgrade, and you get a free drink ticket!
    • Stop by the ShareSquared booth and ask them about their great SharePoint offerings, and you get a free drink ticket!
    • Call your local SoCal New Horizons Account Executive, 888-825-6684, and/or stop by the New Horizons office in Anaheim, and you get a free drink ticket!

    Looking forward to seeing you there!
    Chris

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    FAST Seach – Admin OM Exception occurred. Message: Failed to communicate with the WCF service – The trust relationship between the primary domain and the trusted domain failed.

    I was getting this error:

    Admin OM Exception occurred. Message: Failed to communicate with the WCF service. , Error Code:e107, Stacktrace:Microsoft.SharePoint.Search.Extended.Administration.Common.AdminException: Failed to communicate with the WCF service. —> System.ServiceModel.FaultException`1[System.ServiceModel.ExceptionDetail]: The trust relationship between the primary domain and the trusted domain failed. 

    This was a great blog to point me to the issue.  Turns out I had two domains in my Active Directory that had lost the trust setup but nothing was broken with my Active Directory or FAST setup.  I had to delete the trusts and add them back, then it started working again.

    http://blog.isaacblum.com/tag/the-trust-relationship-between-the-primary-domain-and-the-trusted-domain-failed/

    Enjoy!
    Chris

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    Just another Don’t Do this when Developing SharePoint Blog Post – IT IS NEEDED!

    Ok, you hear over and over and over again, don't do this, don't do that when developing SharePoint.  But it seems that not too many people listen to all that wonderful best practice guidance.  As part of the eBay project, we inherited A LOT of code from previous developers and consultants (which will remain unnamed, but ask me at SPC and I'll tell you).  This code has so many bad components to it it was unbelieveable.  Every SharePoint rule was broken.  There were so many broken things that we couldn't fix them all, so we focused on the most important and visable items. 

    Maarten has done a great job of summarizing all the things we had to do to fix this code.  Check out his blog post here:

    http://withinsharepoint.com/archives/186

    Enjoy!
    Chris