SharePoint 2010 PATCHING

This is the blog  post is from  Mr.Jie Li blog ,i really like so i am posting it on my blog

Thanks Jie for the hardwork and informative post

[Update: People asked why the official guidance on SharePoint Team Blog and CAPES Blog are different from my post - The official guidance is to keep the consistency with the patching methods in the past. At the meantime we are also working hard internally to provide crisp clear official guidance in the future, so stay tuned. ]

There’re always lots of questions around SharePoint patching. How to patch SharePoint? Which patch should I use to get a certain build number? In which order should I apply those patches? What is CU? What is SP? What is the difference between them?… All these questions are hard to answer – because to understand the answers, you have to understand the patching process of SharePoint.

Let’s go through different scenarios of SharePoint patching. Hopefully this can explain the mystery. I will start with the easy one and then the complex one.

Apply a security/feature fix on SharePoint Server Farm

This is the most simple scenario in SharePoint patching. Download the patch, apply it to every SharePoint Server in the farm and run PSConfig on all of them. That’s it.

Wait, is this really that simple?

The answer is no. Because there will be quite a few questions here:

• Will my database be updated?
  Maybe. Depending on which DB version you have right now, a DB schema may or may not be triggered.
• When will the database be updated?
  If a database schema update is necessary, then the first time you run PSConfig those databases will be updated. Alternatively you can detach all content databases, apply the patch, run PSconfig, and then reattach content databases. In this way you can choose when to update individual content databases.
• How can I tell if this patch can be applied to my farm?
  Take a look at the build number. SharePoint patch will check the version number to decide if a file should be replaced or not. If you already have a component with a higher version number, then it will not be touched since all the fixes are already included.
• How can I know what is included in the patch?
  Aha! Now you get the point. I’m going to share my secret here, you may have never seen this before on any official documents.
  
  Look at the KB article of the fix. There is a file information table which contains all MSI/MSP/CAB filename, size and date. The following quick table may help you to understand the names:
  
  

  Directory Name	File Name	Component
  SharePoint Server 2010
  ACCSRV	acsrvwfe	Access Services
  DLC	dlc	Document Lifecycle Component
  IFS	ifswfe	Infopath Forms Services
  LHPSRV	lhpwfe	Slide Library
  OSRV	osrv	Shared Components
  MEWA	mewa	Excel Mobile Viewer Component
  PPL	pplwfe	User Profile
  PPSMA	ppsmawfe	PerformancePoint Services
  SEARCH	oschwfe	Search Server 2010 Core
  SPS	spswfe	SharePoint Portal
  VISIOSERVER/VisioSrv	vsrvwfe	Viso Services
  WASRV	wasrvwfe	Web Analytics
  WDSRV	wdsrv	Word Server (Word Automation)
  WSS	sts (wss)	SharePoint Foundation 2010 Core
  XLSERVER	xlsrvwfe	Excel Services
  SharePoint Foundation 2010
  WSS	sts (wss)	SharePoint Foundation 2010 Core
  Office Web Apps 2010
  WACMEWA	wacmewa	Office Web Apps Excel Mobile Viewer
  WACWFE	wacwfe	Office Web Apps Web Front End
  WOSRV	wosrv	Office Web Apps Shared Components
  XLSERVERWAC	xlwacwfe	Excel Web App Components
  Project Server
  PRJSRV	prjsrvwfe/pswfe	Project Server Web Front End

  
  Table 1. All Components in SharePoint 2010 Related Products
  File names ending with “MUI” means MUI/Language Pack for that component. For example dlc and dlcmui, sts and wssmui, etc. Ending with -x-none means it is not language related.
  
  It is very important to understand the above table – if you really want to get clear on patching, you may want to recite it . Anyway, sometimes the description provided on KB pages are not correct. For example http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2516497 says it is a Office Web Apps hotfix package in April. And here’s the file table:

Wdsrv-x-none.msp
Not Applicable
44,946,432
17-Mar-2011
22:59

Use my table above to look up the component, you will find WDSRV does not belong to Office Web Apps, but SharePoint Server 2010. It is the Word Server (Word Automation) component. Someone mistakenly labeled it Office Web Apps hotfix. So, if you tries to apply this update to a SharePoint Foundation + Office Web Apps installation, it will never work – because this WDSRV component does not exist. If you applied any SharePoint Server update that has a higher version number than this patch, it will not be able to be applied either since the fix is already included.

Is this helpful? Let’s go on to the second scenario: Cumulative updates.

Apply Cumulative Updates/Service Packs on SharePoint Server Farm

CU packages are released in a bi-monthly manner. We want to make it more predictable so customer can plan their patching window, and save time by package everything together. CU does not have the same testing quality with Service Packs in theory, and the release schedule is always a little bit funny. Most of the CUs are scheduled to be released at the end of that month (subject to change), for example Apr CU was released on Apr 26th. If a last minute regression comes in at that time, then the release will be delayed, and you may already noticed Feb CU was released in March 3rd, to ensure the quality.

I used to post CU release information on SharePoint Team Blog. Now Stefan Goßner’s blog is my favorite to catch up with all the information. For example his Apr CU post is quite clear on the packages:http://blogs.technet.com/b/stefan_gossner/archive/2011/04/27/april-2011-cu-for-sharepoint-2007-and-2010-has-been-released-today.aspx

You can see he listed all the full server packages. Please remember, unless necessary, please only use these server packages to apply CU update. Internally we call them “Uber” updates, which includes all language packs and all components. If you are not using these packages, you may be missing some component updates. How to tell that? Using the table above to compare with the file information tables in KB article, and you will find all of the components are covered, with all MUI packages. Individual fixes do not have all of them.

Service Packs are different. Traditionally the service pack downloads does not give you an all-in-one package like the Uber updates do. Language packs are not there in the main package, you need to download and apply them separately.

Now here are the questions:

• Do I need to install SharePoint Foundation CU first to update a SharePoint Server farm?  【Please follow SharePoint Team Blog/TechNet guidance to apply the patches at this moment】
  No. SharePoint Foundation CU are included in SharePoint Server CU packages. Look at the table I showed you above, STS.CAB is all what Foundation has, and that is already included as part of SharePoint Server 2010 and its CU/SPs. Apply Foundation CU before a SharePoint Server CU won’t break your farm, just a waste of time since the setup program has to go through those files twice.
• Should I use slipstreamed SharePoint server installation files to deploy SharePoint and its CUs?
  Maybe – depending on if you want to use language packs or not. If language packs are not installed when you install SharePoint Server, and you install those LPs after the server has been installed, you may need to reapply SharePoint CU packages to get all those LPs up to date.
  
  Best way to install a up-to-date multi-language SharePoint Server 2010 farm now is
• Install SharePoint Server 2010 with SP1 Slipstreamed
• Install SharePoint Server 2010 Language Packs with SP1 Slipstreamed
• Install Office Web Apps 2010 and Project Server 2010 with SP1 Slipstreamed if necessary
• Install SharePoint Server 2010 (with Project Server 2010) latest CU Full Server Package
• Install Office Web Apps 2010 latest CU (if exists)
• Run PSConfig

All the above is just to identify which update should be installed. The best “how to patch” article is still the one on TechNet: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff806338.aspx and it covered how to monitor patching, how to reduce downtime, etc.

RSS Viewer Proxy Authentication Error

RSS viewer webpart in SharePoint 2010

2 steps are needed in this case :

1-      Web.config of mySite :

a.       updated the defaultProxy section inf "D:\inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\mysite-uat.acc-bgc.net80\web.config" with :

<system.net>

     <defaultProxy>

          <proxy proxyaddress="http://yourproxyname:80" bypassonlocal="true" />

          </defaultProxy>

  </system.net>

b.      IISRESET (optional) & do a page refresh

2-      On ISA Server, add the SharePoint Server (CA Server) to the rule that allow it to access http.

Also, "Allow All Users" for the authenticated mode must be used in the ISA rule.

This will avoid the error message hereunder :

Now, all is working as requested :

How to Configure Secure Store Service in SharePoint 2013

Configuring the secure store services

To configure Secure Store, you perform the following steps:

1. Register a managed account in SharePoint Server 2013 to run the Secure Store application pool.
2. Start the Secure Store Service on an application server in the farm.
3. Create a Secure Store Service service application.

To run the application pool, you must have a standard domain account. No specific permissions are required for this account. Once the account has been created in Active Directory, follow these steps to register it with SharePoint Server 2013.

To register a managed account

1. On the SharePoint Central Administration Web site home page, in the left navigation, click Security.
2. On the Security page, in the General Security section, click Configure managed accounts.
3. On the Managed Accounts page, click Register Managed Account.
4. In the User name box, type the name of the account.
5. In the Password box, type the password for the account.
6. If you want SharePoint Server 2013 to handle changing the password for the account, select the Enable automatic password change box and specify the password change parameters that you want to use.
7. Click OK.

Once you have configured the registered account, you must start the Secure Store Service on an application server in the farm. Because Secure Store deals with sensitive information, we recommend that you use a separate application server just for the Secure Store Service for better security.

To start the Secure Store Service

1. On the Central Administration home page, in the System Settings section, click Manage services on server.
2. Above the Service list, click the Server drop-down list, and then click Change Server.
3. Select the application server where you want to run the Secure Store Service.
4. In the Service list, click Start next to Secure Store Service.

Once the service is started, you must create a Secure Store Service service application. Use the following procedure to create the service application.

To create a Secure Store Service service application

1. On the Central Administration home page, in the Application Management section, click Manage service applications.
2. On the Manage Service Applications page, click New, and then click Secure Store Service.
3. In the Service Application Name box, type a name for the service application (for example, Secure Store Service).
4. In the Database Server box, type the instance of SQL Server where you want to create the Secure Store database.
5. Select the Create new application pool option and type a name for the application pool in the text box.
6. Select the Configurable option, and, from the drop-down list, select the account for which you created the managed account earlier.
7. Click OK.

SharePoint Docave

In many Interviews I attend i have to give the answer of this Question every time .So i like to share that question with you

Q. What is Doc-ave in SharePoint ?

.
Ans:- Basically Doc-ave is migration tools and with help of this tool we can perform full fidelity content migration from previous version of Microsoft SharePoint such as SharePoint server 2007 to the Microsoft SharePoint server 2010 and 2013 at the site, sub-site or item level. Doc-ave's efficient and reliable data transfer is unique in its ability to migrate content while retaining all of the associated metadata, letting organizations maximize their return on existing investment and gain more for Microsoft latest release.


I hope this will be helpful for all the people going for the interview in SharePoint

Thank you for reading

Setting Up the Development Environment for SharePoint 2010 on Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008

Step 1: Choose and Preconfigure the Operating System

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The requirements for a development environment are less stringent and costly than the requirements for a production environment, and the guidelines in this topic do not support a production environment installation. You have several options for preconfiguring the operating system of a local computer on which you will install SharePoint 2010 for development purposes. The choice that you make will be determined by factors specific to your organization and environment (such as budget, the size of your development team, and the operating systems that you and your organization are already using).

In any development environment, you should use a computer with an x64-capable CPU, and at least 2 gigabytes (GB) of RAM to install and run SharePoint Foundation; 4 GB of RAM is preferable. You should use a computer with 4 GB of RAM to install and run SharePoint Server; 6 GB to 8 GB of RAM is preferable.

Following are the options:

• Install SharePoint on Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 x64 (or Windows Server 2008 R2 x64).
• Use Microsoft Hyper-V and install SharePoint on a virtual machine running a Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 x64 (or Windows Server 2008 R2 x64) guest operating system.
• Install SharePoint on Windows 7 x64, Windows Vista Service Pack 1 x64, or Windows Vista Service Pack 2 x64.
• Use Microsoft Hyper-V and install SharePoint on a virtual machine running a Windows 7 x64, Windows Vista Service Pack 1 x64, or Windows Vista Service Pack 2 x64 guest operating system.

You must install the WCF Hotfix for Microsoft Windows. The hotfix is available for Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2, Windows Vista Service Pack 1, and Windows Vista Service Pack 2 and for Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7.

If you are using Windows Vista Service Pack 1 or Windows Vista Service Pack 2, install the hotfix for ASP.NET on IIS 7.0 (KB967535). This hotfix, which has already been installed on Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2, and Windows Server 2008 R2, updates the ASP.NET common language runtime (CLR) to recognize a new option of optimizing compilations. To take advantage of this option, set the optimizeCompilations property of the<compilation> tag in your web.config file to true:

XML

<compilation optimizeCompilations="true">

This change significantly improves the initial page load time after you have installed a solution to the bin directory.

You must install the ADO.NET Data Services Update for .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 to enable REST-based data services. This update is available for Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2, Windows Vista Service Pack 1, and Windows Vista Service Pack 2 and for Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7.

Windows 7 and Windows Vista cannot be used for production deployments of SharePoint 2010. If you use Windows 7 or Windows Vista for your development environment, you should have access to a test environment that has the same operating system installed as your production environment. Windows 7 and Windows Vista are recommended only for developer workstations and should be used only for stand-alone installations. You can use a separate Microsoft SQL Server instance, but you should not configure your installation as a SharePoint farm and you should not host active sites on this configuration.

Step 2: Install the Prerequisites for SharePoint 2010

---

SharePoint requires your operating system to have certain prerequisites installed before installation begins. For this reason, SharePoint includes a PrerequisiteInstalle.exe tool that installs all of these prerequisites for you. If your developer workstation is set up with the Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 or Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system, you can install SharePoint 2010 by running the PrerequisiteInstaller.exe tool (which is included with SharePoint 2010) to install the prerequisites that SharePoint needs, and then run Setup.exe. However, you cannot use PrerequisiteInstaller.exe on Windows 7 or Windows Vista. For those operating systems, you must follow the additional instructions in this section.

Because the default installation works only for Windows Server 2008, you must edit one configuration file and install many of the prerequisites manually. You must perform each of the following steps while logged on with an account that has administrator access on the local computer. These steps assume that you received the SharePoint 2010 distribution as a single compressed executable file named SharePointFoundation.exe for SharePoint Foundation 2010 and setup.exe for SharePoint Server 2010.

To set up a developer workstation

1. Copy the SharePointFoundation.exe (or setup.exe) installation file to a folder on the computer where you are installing SharePoint and doing your development, such as in the following path:
   c:\SharePointFiles
2. Extract the installation files by opening a Command Prompt window, and then typing the following command at the directory location of the folder where you copied the installation files in the previous step.
   For SharePoint Foundation 2010:
   c:\SharePointFiles\SharePoint /extract:c:\SharePointFiles
   For SharePoint Server 2010:
   c:\SharePointFiles\OfficeServer /extract:c:\SharePointFiles
3. Using a text editor such as Notepad, open the installation configuration file, config.xml, located in the following path:c:\SharePointFiles\files\Setup\config.xml
   Add this line inside the <configuration> tag:
   XML

   <Setting Id="AllowWindowsClientInstall" Value="True"/>
   

4. Save the configuration file.
5. Review the complete configuration file. It now looks similar to the following for SharePoint Foundation 2010. The complete configuration file will be longer for SharePoint Server 2010 (and therefore the text below cannot replace the contents of that file), but should use the same setting for theAllowWindowsClientInstall attribute.
   XML

   <Configuration>
     <Package Id="sts">
       <Setting Id="SETUPTYPE" Value="CLEAN_INSTALL" />
     </Package>
     <DATADIR Value="%CommonProgramFiles%\Microsoft Shared\Web Server
      Extensions\14\Data" />
     <Logging Type="verbose" Path="%temp%" Template="Microsoft Windows
      SharePoint Services 4.0 Setup *.log" />
     <PIDKEY Value="PIDKey Value" />
     <Setting Id="UsingUIInstallMode" Value="1" />
     <Setting Id="SETUP_REBOOT" Value="Never" />
     <Setting Id="AllowWindowsClientInstall" Value="True"/>
   </Configuration>
   

   All of the text in this configuration file is case-sensitive. If you do not edit the configuration file as described in the previous step or if you do not save the configuration file, when you try to run the installation you see the error message shown in Figure 1.
   Figure 1. Setup is unable to proceed error message
   
   
6. If you are using Windows Vista Service Pack 1 or Windows Vista Service Pack 2, you must install the following prerequisites:
   • .NET Framework 3.5 SP1
   • Windows PowerShell 2.0
   • Windows Installer 4.5 Redistributable
7. If you are using Windows Vista Service Pack 1, Windows Vista Service Pack 2, or Windows 7, install the following additional prerequisites:
   • Microsoft FilterPack 2.0. At a command prompt, type the following:
     c:\SharePointFiles\PrerequisiteInstallerFiles\FilterPack\FilterPack.msi
     

   • Microsoft Sync Framework
   • SQL Server Native Client
   • Windows Identity Foundation (Windows6.1-KB974405-x64.msu)
   • Chart Controls (this is not required if you are going to install SharePoint Foundation 2010).
   • SQL Server Analysis Services - ADOMD.Net (this is not required if you are going to install SharePoint Foundation 2010).
8. Manually enable each of the required Windows Features. You can do this quickly by copying and running the following command in a Command Prompt window.

   Caution
   The following text contains line breaks.

   start /w pkgmgr /iu:IIS-WebServerRole;IIS-WebServer;IIS-CommonHttpFeatures;^
   IIS-StaticContent;IIS-DefaultDocument;IIS-DirectoryBrowsing;IIS-HttpErrors;^
   IIS-ApplicationDevelopment;IIS-ASPNET;IIS-NetFxExtensibility;^
   IIS-ISAPIExtensions;IIS-ISAPIFilter;IIS-HealthAndDiagnostics;^
   IIS-HttpLogging;IIS-LoggingLibraries;IIS-RequestMonitor;IIS-HttpTracing;IIS-CustomLogging;IIS-ManagementScriptingTools;^
   IIS-Security;IIS-BasicAuthentication;IIS-WindowsAuthentication;IIS-DigestAuthentication;^
   IIS-RequestFiltering;IIS-Performance;IIS-HttpCompressionStatic;IIS-HttpCompressionDynamic;^
   IIS-WebServerManagementTools;IIS-ManagementConsole;IIS-IIS6ManagementCompatibility;^
   IIS-Metabase;IIS-WMICompatibility;WAS-WindowsActivationService;WAS-ProcessModel;^
   WAS-NetFxEnvironment;WAS-ConfigurationAPI;WCF-HTTP-Activation;^
   WCF-NonHTTP-Activation
   

9. Verify that the required Windows Features are enabled. The command in the previous step enables all of the required features in the Internet Information Services section of the Windows Features dialog box (which you can access through the Programs section in Control Panel). Use Figure 2 and Figure 3 to check that you have enabled all of the required Windows Features. If any features are missing in your operating system, return to the Internet Information Services section of the Windows Features dialog box and enable them.

   Note
   The following figures represent one Windows Features dialog box on a computer running the Windows 7 operating system. They have been broken into two figures for the sake of readability. The list of Windows Features will look the same on Windows Vista.

   Figure 2. First part of Windows Features list from Windows 7
   
   
   Figure 3. Second part of Windows Features list from Windows 7
   
   
10. Restart your computer to complete the changes that you made to Windows Features.

Step 3: Install SharePoint 2010

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1. To install SharePoint Server 2010 or SharePoint Foundation 2010, open a Command Prompt window, and then type the following at the command prompt:
   c:\SharePointFiles\Setup.exe
   

2. Accept the Microsoft Software License Terms.
3. On the Choose the installation you want page, click Standalone to install everything on one developer workstation.
   Figure 4. Installation type choice
   
   
4. If any errors occur in the installation, review the log file. To find the log file, open a Command Prompt window, and then type the following commands at the command prompt. The log file is displayed at the end of the directory listing.
   cd %temp%
   dir /od *.log
   
   

   Tip
   A link to the log file also appears when the installation is complete.

5. After the installation is complete, you are prompted to start the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard. If you are using a local instance of Microsoft SQL Server 2008, install the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 KB 970315 x64 before starting the wizard. If your development environment uses a remote instance of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 or if it has a pre-existing installation of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 on which KB 970315 x64 has already been applied, this step is not necessary. With the wizard open, do the following:
   1. Install SQL Server 2008 KB 970315 x64.
   2. After the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 KB 970315 x64 installation is finished, complete the wizard.
6. Alternatively, you can choose not to run the wizard by clearing the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard check box and closing the completed installation dialog box. Install SQL Server 2008 KB 970315 x64, and then manually start the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard by opening a Command Prompt window and executing the following command:
   C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\BIN\psconfigui.exe
   

Caution
The SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard may fail if you are using a computer that is joined to a domain but that is not connected to a domain controller. If you see this failure, connect to a domain controller either directly or through a Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection, or sign in with a local account that has administrative privileges on the computer.

After the configuration wizard is complete, you see the new SharePoint site.

Figure 5. New SharePoint site

Step 4: Install Visual Studio 2010 and Developer Documentation

---

1. Install Visual Studio 2010.
2. Download and install the Microsoft SharePoint 2010 SDK.

Step 5: Create Hyper-V Images from Your Installed System

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After you set up a working development environment on a physical host computer, you can store your setup as a virtual computer, so that others can use it, or so that you can reuse this "clean" installation at a later date. Alternatively, you can set up a development environment on a newly created virtual machine. The Hyper-V role in Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 provides infrastructure and management tools that enable you to create multiple server environments on a single host. For more information, see Getting to Know Hyper-V: A Walkthrough From Initial Setup to Common Scenarios. For a useful Windows PowerShell script that enables you to create a virtual hard drive (VHD) out of an existing Windows Server 2008 image, see Install-WindowsImage PowerShell Script on MSDN Code Gallery.

If you are using Windows 7, you can also create a VHD on which SharePoint is installed in Windows Hyper-V, and then configure Windows 7 with BDCEdit.exe so that it boots directly to the operating system on the VHD. This improves performance because the virtualization layer is not present. It also enables you to use VHD differencing disks (VHDs that contain only elements that differ from a single base installation), which save disk space and make it easier to roll back changes. See Deploy Windows on a Virtual Hard Disk with Native Boot to learn more about this kind of configuration.

If you choose to create a single server installation on a virtual computer, the standard memory requirements still apply. Your virtual computer requires at least 2 GB (preferably 4 GB) of RAM. Virtualization also gives you the opportunity to create a server farm that includes more than one machine. In a farm installation of SharePoint Server 2010, each machine requires at least 1.5 GB (preferably 2 GB) of RAM. You could run a fully functional domain infrastructure on a setup installation such as the following example installation:

• Two virtual computers, each with 2 GB of RAM
• Domain controller and Microsoft SQL Server 2008 running on one computer
• SharePoint Server 2010 and two Web applications (including Central Administration) running on another computer

Apply a theme in SharePoint 2010

The following article explains how to apply a theme in SharePoint. SharePoint comes with a number of themes preinstalled to allow you to change the look and feel of your SharePoint interface. The selected theme will appear to all users who log in.

Note: SharePoint will only work properly in Internet Explorer.

1. Open a web browser and log into SharePoint
2. Click Site Actions and select Site Settings
   
3. Under Look and Feel, click Site theme
   
4. Choose a theme from the list
   
5. Click Apply

How To Create a Website using SharePoint 2010

This article applies only to SharePoint 2010.

1. Log into SharePoint 2010 admin as the administrative user.
2. The first step in the process is to create a Web Application to host the Site Collections. Navigate to Web Applications and click Manage Web Applications.
   
   
3. Click the New icon in the top left corner and fill out the resulting form. This contains the authentication method and using an existing or new website in IIS. It also allows you to use anonymous access to the site as well as turning on SSL configuration options. Once the form is filled out, click OK.
   
   
   
4. The changes will then process and SharePoint will return the Application Created message if all is well. Click OK once more.
   
5. The web application you just created is now listed under the SharePoint Central Application v4. Next you will create the Site Collection. Navigate to Central Administration > Application Management >Create Site Collections.
   
6. Enter in the requested information and choose a template. After clicking OK, the site collection is now created. You can navigate to it via the URL specified.
   

SharePoint 2010

The SharePoint Foundation 2010 technology helps teams stay connected and productive by providing easy access to the people, documents, and information that can help in decision making and getting work done. See the following page on the Download Center for a free download: Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010

The SharePoint can also be called a collaboration platform

In this blog we are going to talk about SharePoint Administration

The role of the SharePoint Administrator is often a topic that comes up when beginning to plan out a SharePoint implementation, as it should. The various roles and responsibilities should be clearly defined upfront, but I often receive the initial feedback from customers that we should be able to just tell them what those responsibilities are. The problem with that philosophy is that the organization, management, goals, and skill sets of every organization are not the same.

The role of a SharePoint Administrator will vary depending upon your organization. If you are looking for the SharePoint Administrator to be the "lone tiger" that can support everything you need to get started and that same person will be solely responsible for keeping the environment running, the list of roles and responsibilities will be different than that of a team approach. Differences will certainly occur based upon such things as your need to support environments around the clock or the view of how highly sensitive your data is or if you have a highly-audited environment. Some administrators will be license police, procurement clerks, infrastructure management, farm administration, back up, recovery support, and help desk. Some organizations have people and roles (part-time to full-time) that have specializations in each of these areas.

Because of the wide variety of organizations, a discussion of decent length should be undertaken to understand the responsibilities that you consider part of the role. Once you understand what those responsibilities entail, you can determine if this is just a part-time job duty or a full-time job in and of itself.

The SharePoint Administrator should be responsible for the following (though not a standard):

• Managing and checking the overall server health and functionality
• Monitoring SharePoint disk space usage through the built-in SharePoint reports for each site collection
• Managing SharePoint permissions
• Analyzing and reporting upon SharePoint usage and activity
• Moving/copying sites
• Taking Backup/Restoring sites and sub sites
• Supporting network load balancing needs and ensuring its correct operation.
• Regular review of the events and messages reported in Event Viewer and Performance Monitor
• Regular review, clean-up, management and configuration of SharePoint accounts and sites. This portion of the role will work closely with an Active Directory administrator if they are separated.
• Regularly analyzing SharePoint content and storage
• Monitoring SharePoint trends (e.g. site usage and growth, disk space usage and growth)
• Setting up alerts and enforcing policies
• Regularly auditing your SharePoint environment
• Identifying and reporting governance violations
• Checking for operating system, SQL Server and SharePoint patches and cumulative updates.