Dave Cooper

Hardware, Network & Application Monitoring in a SharePoint Environment

cooperfdiv — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 18:54:00 GMT

“It’s better to be proactive then reactive”

Performance and Availability are very important aspects of a well running Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 environment. But, how do you know that and when there is an issue? And once you have determined there is an issue, how do you determine exactly where it is?

First, understanding the MOSS farm’s architectural limitations perspective should play a role in troubleshooting methodologies to isolate where the bottleneck is and what measures are necessary to eliminate it.

Troubleshooting

Here are some initial questions to ask:

1. What is the server hardware monitoring solution in place within the organization? i.e. HP Compaq Insight, Dell OpenManage or IBM Director

2. What network monitoring tools are being utilized? i.e. CA UniCenter or HP OpenView

3. What is the software/application monitoring solution used? i.e. Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) or NetIQ AppManager

4. What needs to be monitor?

As mentioned, knowing there is a problem is the first step in process. Here are some cases where a methodical process could be implemented to determine the issue:

1. A planned outage or load on the system

2. An outage or slowness to the system for a brief period

3. The system has an outage, or displays systems of slowness with no noticeable pattern

4. The system systematically experiences an outage or slowness

However, there might be issues seen in the system that are only apparent to end users within the environment. Users know if there is an issue because the system does not operate as expected and generally will report this to the help desk. The regular monitoring of support calls over a period can be a good indicator an issue is present. Another way issues can be discovered is through system monitoring. This will be discussed in more detail below.

After you have determined there is a problem, the next step is to find out the cause. Using solid troubleshooting techniques and process will prove to be a priceless and save time when problems and issues are discovered. The following are recommended steps that should be followed when issues are discovered:

1. Check the monitoring logs from the hardware monitor for hardware issues

2. Check network monitoring logs for a traffic load or outage related issue

3. Look into the SharePoint server(s) windows logs for problems that may have occurred

4. Look at the database logs for any load or outage that may have resulted in this issue

5. Check the domain controllers to see if authorization was the point that caused the occurrence

6. Review the SharePoint’s logs

Once you have a clear understand where the issue is, you can now proceed to eradicate it. The solution could be as simple as having a piece of hardware in one of the servers replaced to adding additional server(s) to a cluster. Other solutions could be adding network bandwidth or adding another domain controller to manage more authentication request to adding another web-front-end server to the farm.

Monitoring

Monitoring an environment is broken up into three major components: hardware, network and software/application monitoring. As with any monitoring solution, if it is not utilized correctly it is of no use. Once metrics are determined and thresholds are set, make sure an individual is responsible for the actions if one of the thresholds is reached. In addition, notification must be configured to alert a responsible resource when an issue occurs and then trigger a resolution.

Utilize reporting. Make sure you are keeping tracks of trends of the three major system components. Make sure the appropriate information is being reviewed and observed. If there are thresholds set for certain services make sure these specific thresholds are being captures and reported on so that intervention will occur when needed. Doing baseline load testing on the MOSS “farm” and knowing where the load causes performance degradation is the best way to determine the appropriate monitoring thresholds needed for each piece of the MOSS environment.

Suggestion: look to implement solutions that work one with another. An example would be the CIM management pack for MOM consolidator. This will allow for a better more unified monitoring environment, and easier to manage.

Know the limits of the network infrastructure. Make sure and segment more traffic intensive services and/or logical applications (i.e. SharePoint farm) are put in their own VLAN or network segment.

An example of some things to monitor and their thresholds are as follows:

System Monitor Counter	Threshold
Memory: % Committed Bytes in Use	Greater than 80 percent
Memory: Available Mbytes	Less than 50 MB
Web Service: Connection Attempts/sec	Greater than 500 attempts per second
Processor: % Processor Time: _Total (CPU Utilization)	Greater than 80 percent
Current Connections–Warning	1000 connections
Current Connections–Error	2000 connections
Disk Usage	Less than 10 percent
System: Processor Queue Length	Greater than 10 threads
Memory Pages/sec	Greater than 220 pages per second

New Application Templates for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

cooperfdiv — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 12:49:00 GMT

Application templates are out-of-the-box custom scenarios tailored to address the needs and requirements of specific business processes or sets of tasks in organizations of any size. They can be applied to a task, such as managing a help desk or tracking a marketing campaign, to easily create a dedicated web-based application for a more efficient and effective way of working.

While application templates can be used to solve particular business needs, they also provide a starting point for partners and developers looking to build deeper SharePoint-based solutions. The templates make use of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 capabilities and are compatible with Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 to help make customization easier.

Application Templates for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 are broken down into two groups, site admin templates and server admin templates, to provide different levels of integration with the platform and ease-of-deployment within an organization.

Site admin templates are custom templates that are easy for any SharePoint site administrator to install into the template gallery without requiring server administration access. Simply download and plug into a SharePoint site.

Server admin templates will be created as site definitions, providing tighter integration and enhanced functionality within the Windows SharePoint Services platform. They will require a server administrator to install.

Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Overview Demo
This demonstration will present the main functional areas of a SharePoint site. It will give you a virtual tour of how to use and customize several key features via a click-through demonstration of each topic.

-->

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsserver/sharepoint/wssapps/templates/default.mspx

SharePoint Development Resources

cooperfdiv — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 19:40:00 GMT

First off let me start by saying. I know there are about one thousand of these out on the net. This is just my personal list. The site and resources I personally use the most. So when starting to delv into SharePoint (MOSS 2007) development here is a list to start from.

First of all, MOSS is totally built on ASP.NET 2.0 a good foundation is important, these links are a good place to start.

ASP.NET:
http://www.asp.net is a great resource for learning the power and capabilities of ASP.NET.
How Do I: Use Master Pages and Site Navigation?
http://www.asp.net/learn/videos/view.aspx?tabid=63&id=9
http://www.asp.net/learn/videos/view.aspx?tabid=63&id=48
How Do I: Customize my Site with Profiles and Themes?
http://www.asp.net/learn/videos/view.aspx?tabid=63&id=44
How Do I: Utilize Web Parts and Personalization?
http://www.asp.net/learn/videos/view.aspx?tabid=63&id=43
How Do I: Learn the Tips and Tricks of Experts?
http://www.asp.net/learn/videos/view.aspx?tabid=63&id=39

SharePoint Resources:
The main informational Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Page
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointserver/FX100492001033.aspx
SharePoint Resources on TechNet
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsserver/sharepoint/default.mspx
SharePoint on MSDN (This is one of the site I use the most.)
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/default.aspx
Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SDK
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms441339.aspx
Creating a basic SharePoint Web Part
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms452873.aspx

Screencasts - http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/office/aa905382.aspx
Creating a Custom Page Layout with SharePoint Server 2007
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=5519356
Building ASP.NET Web Parts for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=5519355
Creating and Testing Features with Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=5519357
Creating and Using Event Handlers in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=5519359
Creating Custom Workflows with the SharePoint Designer 2007
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=5519363
Customizing a Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 site with the SharePoint Designer 2007
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=5519365
Generating Office Documents using the New Open XML File Formats
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=5519369

Newsgroups:
SharePoint - General Q&A and Discussion
http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/default.aspx?dg=microsoft.public.sharepoint.general&lang=en&cr=us
SharePoint - Setup and Administration
http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/default.aspx?dg=microsoft.public.sharepoint.setup_and_administration&lang=en&cr=us
SharePoint - Design and Customization
http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/default.aspx?dg=microsoft.public.sharepoint.design_and_customization&lang=en&cr=us
SharePoint - Development and Programming
http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/default.aspx?dg=microsoft.public.sharepoint.development_and_programming&lang=en&cr=us

BLOGS:
Stefan Goßner
http://blogs.technet.com/stefan_gossner/
Andrew Connell
http://andrewconnell.com/blog/
Arpan Shah
http://blogs.msdn.com/arpans/
Mei Ying
http://meiyinglim.blogspot.com/
Todd Baginski
http://www.sharepointblogs.com/tbaginski/
Dan Larson
http://daniellarson.spaces.live.com/
Joel Oleson
http://blogs.msdn.com/joelo/

Performance & Tuning Guidelines for MSCMS 2002.

cooperfdiv — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 20:49:00 GMT

I have been asked many times “our CMS site is running a little (or a lot) slow, is there anything we can do to speed it up?” The answer to this common question is yes. There are several tuning guidelines you can follow to make sure you are achieving maximum performance from your MSCMS system.

If you are restricted by the number of processors, add more processors. This has an impact on not only your MSCMS performance, but the .NET Framework as well.

Memory can be another restriction. If you do not have enough memory in your machine then you may see a sluggish response time and may want to increase the amount of system memory you have. This also has an impact on the performance of the .NET Framework as well. The amount of memory you have directly relates to the amount of objects MSCMS can cache.

Make sure you are on the latest service pack(s) and .NET Framework. Since MSCMS is a .NET application this will allow you to take advantage of other tuned base framework components and leverage their improvements and performance gains.

Please see Sefan Gossner’s Blog on MSCMS and the .NET Framework 2.0 at http://blogs.technet.com/stefan_gossner/archive/2005/11/10/414147.aspx

There are sever caching options you can look at to improve performance. I will not go into to all of these now but they are.

ASP.NET Output Cache
Fragment Cache
Disk Cache

And Node Caching is a good way to get some performance out of your MSCMS system. From your MSCMS database you will want to execute this SQL expression. This will calculate the number you need to set the node caching option in the SCA to.

SELECT

count(*)

FROM

node WITH (NOLOCK)

WHERE

(datediff(hour, archivedwhen, getdate()) < 1 OR archivedwhen IS null)

AND (deletedwhen is NULL) AND datediff(hour, expirydate, getdate()) < 1

AND (datediff(hour, effectivedate, getdate()) > 1 OR effectivedate IS null) AND (datediff(hour, approvedwhen, getdate()) > 1 OR (type >= 65535

AND approvedwhen is null))

Note: Microsoft strongly recommends that you set your node cache to at least the number that is returned by this script. If constant authoring and updates occur on your site, increase the node cache size accordingly.

There are limitations, for example Microsoft states that if the number returned is more than 35,000 you could possibly have memory issues if you do not have the sufficient amount of memory, and some pieces of you application may not be cached.

See Article 318976 at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/318976/ for a more in depth look at node caching within MSCMS.

Also see the Performance Planning and Deployment with Content Management Server 2002 at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e1f50824-c281-4fd6-966c-ac4c68106010&DisplayLang=en for an view detailed and in depth look at how to plan and tune a MSCMS 2002 system.

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“Send someone a note that reads "Congratulations." Regardless of who he is, he'll think he's done something the past week to deserve it.”

cooperfdiv — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 19:28:00 GMT

This week one of our fellow bloggers here on DOTNETGEEKS, Garry Farris, has been promoted to the position of Associate Director over the .NET Practice with Fujitsu Consulting. I have known Garry over the last couple of years, and I will have to say that they could not have picked a better person. Join me, The Original .NET Geek and all the otheres here in congratulating him as he endeavors to make this one of the best teams in the industry.

CONGRADULTATIONS!

Dave Cooper

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Blogging from Word and OneNote 2007

cooperfdiv — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 22:37:00 GMT

Ok, everyone who said to themselves when they read that the blogger.com users could now blog directly from word, "man I wish I could do that for our site!". Well if you are using Office 2007 beta 2 you can.

I will say that the blogging from OneNote is a little awkward. You have to copy the word blog template to you Documents and Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates directory. There is a "Blog this" option in the context menu of the page. Which in turn opens and ports the page into words blog template. After that you can publish you blog.

See this article from Joe Friend about blogging from Word 2007. The only reason I prefer to take the extra steps is because I like the way I can organize my blogs in OneNote. Those people who use OneNote know what I am talking about.

Blogging to our site you will need to set your blog URL in the blog wizard in word to http://www.dotnetgeeks.com/blogs/metablog.ashx

There is also an online Word help page about setting up blogging to your blogging service at http://kristab.officeisp.net/picture%20library/blog%20help.mht

Dont expect to see the blog as soon as you post it. It takes several hours for the blog to show up on the site (don't ask me why, I have not clue). So don't freak out like me and publish it several times. or you will end up with mutliple of the same blog. And we dont want that now, do we?

Just trying to make life easier.

Dave Cooper

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F# - Combining the efficiency, scripting, strong typing and productivity of ML with the stability, libraries, cross-language working and tools of .NET.

cooperfdiv — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 17:55:00 GMT

From the F# Site at http://research.microsoft.com/fsharp/fsharp.aspx

F# is a programming language that provides the much sought-after combination of type safety, performance and scripting, with all the advantages of running on a high-quality, well-supported modern runtime system. F# gives you a combination of

interactive scripting like Python,
the foundations for an interactive data visualization environment like MATLAB,
the strong type inference and safety of ML,
a cross-compiling compatible core shared with the popular OCaml language,
a performance profile like that of C#,
easy access to the entire range of powerful .NET libraries and database tools,
a foundational simplicity with similar roots to Scheme,
the option of a top-rate Visual Studio integration,
the experience of a first-class team of language researchers with a track record of delivering high-quality implementations,
the speed of native code execution on the concurrent, portable, and distributed .NET Framework.

The only language to provide a combination like this is F# (pronounced FSharp) - a scripted/functional/imperative/object-oriented programming language that is a fantastic basis for many practical scientific, engineering and web-based programming tasks.

F# is a pragmatically-oriented variant of ML that shares a core language with OCaml. F# programs run on top of the .NET Framework. Unlike other scripting languages it executes at or near the speed of C# and C++, making use of the performance that comes through strong typing. Unlike many statically-typed languages it also supports many dynamic language techniques, such as property discovery and reflection where needed. F# includes extensions for working across languages and for object-oriented programming, and it works seamlessly with other .NET programming languages and tools.

For further information, read about F# in more detail, download the F# distribution, read the getting started pages (a guide to installation and running your first program), go to the F# Manual, and learn about the growing F# Community. A short FAQ is also included on this site.

Some Starting points

About F# and comparison with OCaml, talks, performance and the FAQ.
Getting started is a guide to installation and running your first program.
The F# Downloads page contains release and download information for the Microsoft Research implementation of F#.
The F# Manual focuses on F#-specific features.
The F# Community page lists key F# sites and projects.

A good blog is Don Syme at http://blogs.msdn.com/dsyme/default.aspx and hubFS at http://cs.hubfs.net/.

And here is a good blog comparing C# to F# named Functional Programming with C#/F#

Anyway what the heck I'll give it a shot. I am always up to trying something new. I will blog again once I have a better concept of the language.

Dave Cooper

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"So long as they don't get violent, I want to let everyone say what they wish, for I myself have always said exactly what pleased me." -- Albert Einstein

cooperfdiv — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 12:42:00 GMT

As this being my first (of hopefully many more to come) blog here on .Net Geeks, I want to take the opportunity to thank The Original .NET Geek for inviting me to participate in such an exciting start of something I know is going to be very successful. Stay tuned for more

Here we go……

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