First impressions – Veeam and SharePoint Explorer

Since the countdown began to Veeam Backup and Replication V7, Veeam has released some new features, which are going to be included in the upcoming version.
(Read more about it here à
http://go.veeam.com/v7.html ) And as a part of this, the SharePoint Explorer. This includes granular restoration of objects within a SharePoint content database.
I have tried the beta and this is how it looks.

System Requirements

  • Veeam Backup & Replication 6.5
  • Microsoft Windows 2008 SP2 or later (64-bit version)
  • Microsoft SQL 2008 or later (Express Edition supports SharePoint databases under 10GB in size)
  • Microsoft SharePoint 2010 (full support)
  • Microsoft SharePoint 2013 (browse and search only)

After installation, launch the tool and browse to the SharePoint database file (MDF) you want to explore. You can open any SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint 2013 database file, including those backed up by third-party solutions. A sample SharePoint database is available in the download area.
To use this beta with Veeam backups, you should initiate the guest file level recovery on the backup of SQL Server VM hosting the SharePoint database, and then browse to SharePoint database file (MDF) under C:\VeeamFLR mount point.

So how does this work.

In this case, I have created a blank site where I store my import work documents. (In this case VIKTIG.TXT) In the same case I’m going to add a number to calendar entries.
After I’ve added all my entries I take a Veeam backup of the Database.

Then I go back to the sharepoint site and delete all my documents and attributes.

Then I open the SharePoint Explorer and point it to the backup file I created.

From here I can explore the SharePoint database and choose those files that got deleted.

Depending on what type of file / attribute I’ve posted in the SharePoint site, I have the option to store the file locally or send it to a user via a e-mail. Or I can restore the file directly to SharePoint

And the document is now back on the SharePoint site.

#sharepoint-2013, #sharepoint-explorer, #veeam

Office 2013 Web App Server + SharePoint 2013 Integration

Office 2013 Web App Server + SharePoint 2013 Integration
With the release of the Office 2013 Preview, Microsoft also launched a beta of Office Web App Server. This product which is also known from Office 365 and SharePoint 2010, allows you to host the apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.) in your own infrastructure to work in conjunction with either Exchange, SharePoint or Lync 2013.You can also manage the deployment via PowerShell pretty nifty! (we will go more into detail on that later)
This new features has some new features from the previous versus and removes some restrictions.
The name Web App, allows users to use the Apps via a browser, even from a tablet (Even thou not all support the editing function yet, just viewing)
(From Microsoft.com)
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Now in order to install the product you need either a
Windows 2008 R2 with SP1 + .Net 4.5 + PowerShell 3.0 + KB2592525
Download .Net 4.5 RC http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=256560
Download KB2592525 http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=236954
Download PowerShell 3.0 http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=256560
or Windows Server 2012 (Which has all the prerequisites installed)
And your server has to be joined to a Active Directory domain as well. And you would need a another service like SharePoint to integrate it with in order to make it work.
+ have to have IIS installed with the following features.

For Windows Server 2008 R2

Import-Module ServerManager

And then run:

Add-WindowsFeature Web-Server,Web-WebServer,Web-Common-Http,Web-Static-Content,Web-App-Dev,Web-Asp-Net,Web-Net-Ext,Web-ISAPI-Ext,Web-ISAPI-Filter,Web-Includes,Web-Security,Web-Windows-Auth,Web-Filtering,Web-Stat-Compression,Web-Dyn-Compression,Web-Mgmt-Console,Ink-Handwriting,IH-Ink-Support

For Windows Server 2012

Import-Module ServerManager

And then run:

Add-WindowsFeature Web-Server,Web-Mgmt-Tools,Web-Mgmt-Console,Web-WebServer,Web-Common-Http,Web-Default-Doc,Web-Static-Content,Web-Performance,Web-Stat-Compression,Web-Dyn-Compression,Web-Security,Web-Filtering,Web-Windows-Auth,Web-App-Dev,Web-Net-Ext45,Web-Asp-Net45,Web-ISAPI-Ext,Web-ISAPI-Filter,Web-Includes,InkandHandwritingServices

Now we can start installing OfficeWebApps
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After the installation you can open PowerShell and import the Officewebapp module.

Import-Module OfficeWebApps
you might need to open Powershell from the Admin module folder within Office Webapps.
We can list out all the cmdlets avaliable from the module
Now we can create a Webapp server farm (Which consists of this single server)
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By running this command

New-OfficeWebAppsFarm –InternalURL http://servername –AllowHttp -EditingEnabled
(This just creates a web farm with the URL of http://servername and only communicates using HTTP and it enables the editing function in conjunction with SharePoint 2013. Since I don’t have SharePoint installed at this moment I’m going to run the command without the Editing parameter.
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Now we have to verify that the farm is successfully created, by opening a browser window to http://servername/hosting/discovery
If it works as expected you should see some WOPI XML in the browser.
<?xml version=»1.0″ encoding=»utf-8″ ?>

– <wopi-discovery>

– <net-zone name=»internal-http»>

– <app name=»Excel» favIconUrl=»http://servername/x/_layouts/images/FavIcon_Excel.ico» checkLicense=»true»>
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Something like that.
After that is complete, head over to the SharePoint 2013 server and open a PowerShell window.
But remember that Office webapps can only be used in conjunction with Claims based authentication.
If you are unfamiliar how to configure a claims based authentication website in SharePoint you can view it here à http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee806885(v=office.15)

Import the SharePoint module

Add-PsSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell

Now you have to create a binding between the SharePoint server and the Office Web App server.

New-SPWOPIBinding -ServerName <WacServerName> -AllowHTTP

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In my case New-SPWOPIBINDING –Servername SCCM –AllowHTTP
Next we have to add the SPWOPIZONE to internal

Set-SPWopiZone internal-http
After that open a SharePoint Library and open a document, 

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Just by marking the document if will trigger the office webapp and open the document. 



This release is a part of Office 365 solution to Microsoft, they have already released the Azure portal available for download, will we see Office365 portal as a download soon as well? 
If you wish to try the product you can download it from here:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30358

#office-2013, #office-web-apps, #sharepoint-2013

Office 365 preview

For a couple of days ago, Microsoft released a new preview of the office 365 family,
http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/en/try-more-products

This release includes the new versions (2013 release) of SharePoint, Exchange & Lync (Which all of these was released for a few days ago as well) as well as Office 2013 Preview.
Office 2013 release includes new versions of (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Publisher, and Access. In the Home Edition)
Business & Pro Plus also includes Lync.

NOTE: That Office 2013 requires either Windows 7 or Windows 8.
And with this release Microsoft wants users to move towards the cloud with Office as well, since you need to sign up for Office 365 in order to download Office 2013.
Office 2013 Preview users can sign in by using either of two types of credentials: Personal (Microsoft account) or Organization (the Office 365 user ID that is assigned by the organization).

Here a the features as stated at Microsoft.com (For the Home Premium version)

  • A personalized Office experience on up to 5 PCs or tablets.
  • Powerful new versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Publisher, and Access.
  • Streaming full versions of Office applications with Office on Demand (PC running Windows 7 or 8 and Internet connection required).
  • If you’re also trying Windows 8 Release Preview, be sure to check out the OneNote Preview in the Windows Store. Keep your notes, pictures, voice memos, and web pages in one easy to access place so you have them when you need them.
  • Coming soon, with the full release of Office 365 Home Premium:
    • Talk to anyone using Skype, including 60 minutes of free international calls every month to landlines in over 40 countries and to cell phones in 7 countries. (Skype account required. Excludes special, premium and non-geographic numbers.)
    • Get an additional 20 GB of SkyDrive online storage for easy access and sharing of your documents.
    • Office for Mac

Also when you install Office 2013 you have the option in all the different applications to upload files directly to a SkyDrive folder.And by default when you install it uses the “Click-to-run” install method which is a virtualized & streamed installation, so a cached version of office is available from your computer (Notice when you start installing that you cant right away use Office Offline but you can use the applications, this is because Windows is caching the applications for offline use. Think of it as using App-v)

If you need to customize the Click-to-run setup you can download a customization tool here –> (You can run the setup file there with the parameters setup.exe /download to download the source files.
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30344

And also you can download the regular installation files here –> http://www.windowsvalley.com/office-2013-customer-preview/

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This preview release has been launched in four different «packs»

Home Premium Preview (For the common household for up to 5 PCs or tablets)
Small Business Premium Preview (For SMB’s includes Lync, and Exchange online)
Pro Plus Preview (Same here)
Enterprise Preview (Pro Plus + some more)

Lets take a quick look at the new pages.

Here is the new Admin center preview, like the previous release I have all my other stuff like Outlook, SharePoint etc. on the top menu.
But I like the new look and feel over it.

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Here is new Office 365 Exchange ( Powered by Exchange 2013) This also includes the Calendar and the People pane.

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The new EAC

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SkyDrive Pro (The web part powered by SharePoint 2013)
When you install Office 2013, you also get a SkyDrive App which you can connect to the SkyDrive Pro.

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The regular “Team-site”

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And of course you have the admin modules. (Still cant see any new PowerShell functions that I can download)

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Lync Administration Center, in this release you can now use Enterprise Voice with Office 365, so far the only available service provider is Jajah.

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You can also download a software that sets up your Office Apps to work directly with Office 365.
All users have to do is to enter username and password and then everything gets setup accordingly.

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Microsoft has also released a version of Office Web Apps Server. This is

  • browser-based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.

This server has the same requirements as a SharePoint server.
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30358

 
They have also released new versions of Project Server 2013 and Visio, which you can get here.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/evalcenter/hh973403.aspx?wt.mc_id=TEC_120_1_33 (Project Server)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/hh973399.aspx (Visio 2013)

Word 2013

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Here I can also add sharing features like LinkedIn, and Storage features like another SkyDrive account or a SharePoint site, pretty nifty.
Don’t know what Microsoft’s fascination with the color blue but I like it..

I also adore the new Lync client (New one and the old one )
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With this new release of Office 365, Microsoft is making its cloud product even better! Now fueled with 2013 Server of Exchange, Office, Lync and SharePoint, we end users have a lot of new functionality coming our way.
I am particularly looking forward to how Office 2013 works on Windows RT (Surface)  since it is supposedly going to be touch friendly. But something I’m stilling missing in this release of Office 365 is the possibility to connect O365 with Intune in that way so we can manage mobile devices that are connected to O365 via Intune, hopefully this feature will appear in the future Smile
Since Microsoft released the web portal for Azure last week, maybe they will release the portal for Office 365 in the future?
I’m also guessing this means new certifications for Office 365.

#exchange-2013, #lync-2013, #office-2013, #office-365-preview, #project-2013, #sharepoint-2013, #visio-2013