Connecting a service between Publishing and Consuming SharePoint 2010 farm

Hello Friends,

As discussed in my previous blog the new architecture of Service Application in 2010. Let’s today discuss about connecting two different farms: 

Connecting a service between Publishing and Consuming SharePoint farm

 There are some service applications which have the capability to Publish and which can be used by different SharePoint farms. What that actually means:

We all know Search and crawl is the most intensive task in SharePoint. If a company has 2-3 SharePoint farms and every farms runs its own search/index application. It will be very intensive and time consuming task. Instead of running index in every SharePoint Farm:

We can just do the index in one farm and use that publishing service in different farm. It will save lot of resources and will be very less intensive task.

So what to do next:

As we have other farm where some services are hosted locally as that cannot be published or consumed. So they reside in the same farm and we can consume the search application from the other farm. Below are the steps how to consume the publishing service from other farm:

 Note: To publish or consume the service applications, two farms should be in a far trust.

Once the farm-trust is configured, below are the steps:

Publishing a Service Application

a) Go to a publishing server whose service you want to publish and be used in other farms, open Central Administration.

b) Go to Application Management and then move to è Manage service applications.

c) Click to the right of the service application which you want to publish, clicking on application will open it features be sure to click on its right.

d) On the SharePoint Ribbon, click on Publish. Feature.

e) On the next page check the option “Publish this Service Application to other farms” .

f) Now we have to copy the whole url: It will begin with urn: and ends with .svc.

ex: urn:schemas-microsoft-com:sharepoint:service:ac51d6g73agg
96z8a6d89dg45fk972c243dbec93f0c7#authority=urn:uuid:da764
dko856wgbvfk86542564757&authority=https://xyz:2500/Topolo
gy/topology.svc

g) Make it ok and proceed.

h) Again do the same step as step C.

i) On the SharePoint Ribbon, click on Publish. Feature.

j) Provide farm Id of the consuming farm, you can find as:   Get-SPFarm | Select Id

k) Add the same.

l) Click the farm id you entered, for the permission.

Now the part of publishing farm is over, we have to enter the url in the consuming farm to use the service:

a) Go to a Consuming server where publishing service needs to be used, open Central Administration.

b) Go to Application Management and then move to manage service applications.

c) On the SharePoint Ribbon, click on Connect.

d) Pass the URL for the service application you have taken in step (f) of publishing server and press OK.

e) Highlight the service application by clicking on it.

f) Here you have an option to can choose, whether or not to include this service application in the default service application group. Click OK once done.

Now when all the stuff is over you can use the service application of a farm just as a locally hosted service application of your farm.

Hope I was able to describe the content correctly based on my knowledge and learning.

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Hope this help
Ashi

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Service Application Architecture

Hello Friends,

As discussed in my previous blog the new architecture of Service Application in 2010. Today I am here with the discussion with:
1) How different things holds together in Service Application?

2) What are the different aspects which combined and provide with the end to end functionality

It is a series of end to end structure which is needed to provide the exact flavors’.

Web Application==>Service Application Group==>Service Application Connection==>Service Application==>Service Application Service.

Web applications get associate with service application groups, It is the role of service application connection to connect the service application with the service application group. Service application uses the service application services to perform it operations.
Which application service needs database is already provided in Last Blog .

Service Application Groups

Service application group help to you to associate a web application with no of service application. Web applications uses the service application group. It can be engaged with the web application while creating it. When we create a web application, we have the option to select either the default group with a set of predefined services or we can use a custom group for that web application. while using a custom group we have the liberty to choose services as per our requirement while in default group it has a set of predefined services . using a custom group in a web application doesn’t mean that “ whenever we create a web application and use custom group we can get all service application which were chosen in earlier web application. It is an instance and every time we choose custom group we have to choose service for that”.. We can also add the services in a default group.

This is the main thing to understand from the previous MOSS2007. With using custom group we can use services which we require either it can be 1 or 10. We are not bounded to use all the services as a combined package as SSP.

Below is the screen which you can find when you create a web application.

When we create any service application we have the option to add that service in default list or not by using the below check box.

Service application Connection
Service application connection connect the service application with the service application group. It is the connection through which a web application can use a service application after the service group get associate with. But how we can find a service connection.

If a web application need any info on managed data, it will call managed data services but where it reside?. You can open IIS . under that there is website name SharePoint web services . If we expand this site we will see there are no of list . These are the services with their connection. You can check the advance setting of any one and find the location of it files and name of the connection.

Service application

Service application is part of main concern. It is responsible for providing the service . Some service application requires database to render it content and some service application are just web based for providing information.
Ex: Excel service application just require to a service and not database. While search require both search service and database to render it content.
Which application service needs database is already provided in Last BLog.

Service Application Service

It is the last part of this architecture but the inherent part of service application. You can check the services in:

Central admin==>Application Management==>Manage services on server. 

Whenever any request is made these services are responsible. Every service application will have a service associated with it.

Hope I was able to describe the content correctly based on my knowledge and learning.

If you liked this post, do like on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/Ashishsharepointblog
Feel free to Rate and provide feedback if you find post useful

Hope this help
Ashi

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list of the service applications in SharePoint 2010

Hey Friends, 

It’s been a long time , I was out of touch with my blogs. But thanks to all for checking the blog contents and sharing your views through mails. 

Today I am here with the service application of SharePoint 2010. We all are aware with the concept of SSP in MOSS2007 where all the services like Search, Profiles, Audiences, and My Sites are bundled together and a SharePoint web applications consume these services with the SSP. But the days are gone……………

Now in SharePoint 2010 , things are changed we don’t need the whole SSP to be used only one service is required. In SP 2010 all the individual services can be known as their own service applications. Main thing is that all service don’t require a database to store content like excel services as this is just the services to display just-in-time content.and some services like search are intensive and it can have more than one storage database. 

Below you can find the list of services which require database and which are cross-farm compatible and make your life easy.

SharePoint Foundation Service Applications

SharePoint Server 2010 Standard Service Applications

SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise Service Applications

Hope I was able to describe the content correctly based on my knowledge and learning.

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Feel free to Rate and provide feedback if you find post useful

Hope this help
Ashi

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Microsoft Security Bulletin || Vulnerabilities in FAST Search Server 2010 || Remote Code Execution

Friends, Microsoft has release a security bulletin for a FAST Search for SharePoint 2010. PF below for more help.

Full Details available at: http://technet.microsoft.com/security/bulletin/MS13-013

Bulletin ID : MS13-013
Bulletin Name: Vulnerabilities in FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint Parsing Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2784242)
Maximum Severity Rating: Important
Vulnerability Impact: Remote Code Execution
Restart Requirement: May require restart
Affected Software: Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint and Advanced Filter Pack.

General Information

Summary:This security update resolves publicly disclosed vulnerabilities in Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint. The vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution in the security context of a user account with a restricted token. FAST Search Server for SharePoint is only affected by this issue when Advanced Filter Pack is enabled. By default, Advanced Filter Pack is disabled.

This security update is rated Important for supported editions of FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint. For more information, see the subsection, Affected and Non-Affected Software, in this section.The security update addresses the vulnerabilities by updating the affected Oracle Outside In libraries to a non-vulnerable version. For more information about the vulnerabilities, see the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) subsection for the specific vulnerability entry under the next section, Vulnerability Information.

This update is available from the Microsoft Download Center only.

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Note: Reference: Taken from Microsoft TechNet site on 14-feb-2012

Hope this help
Ashi

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How to find and install common IFilters||For Search||Crawl

Friends, As covered in one of my previous blog:

How crawl works in SharePoint ||How indexing work||Basic concept .

We were discussing about ifilters , so How to get these ifilters and what are the various steps need to be taken in the configuration of ifilters? I will work with the example of PDF and the same works for the other types of ifilters or the extension of document which you want in search.

So, to install a PDF ifilters:

1. Download Adobe PDF Ifilters for 32 & 64 bit platform in MOSS and 64 bit for SharePoint2010.Example Link for pdf version 11 is given below:
   http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=5542
2. Run the setup
3. When the welcome page comes in, click Next.
4. When the Software License Agreement page comes, click Accept.
5. When the Choose Installation Location page comes, click Next.
6. When the confirmation is displayed that the installation was successful, click OK.

Now to crawl the pdf files with pdf icon images , we have to put the image at SharePoint binary location:

Copy ICPDF.gif(it can be copied from installed files of ifilter) to location drive at which SharePoint Binaries installed: $\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\Template\Images.

A PDF extension entry need to be added in SharePoint XML file:

Edit the file \Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web server extensions\12\Template\Xml\DOCICON.XML and put
<Mapping Key=”pdf” Value=”icpdf.gif”/>

Reset IIS to clear the cached settings. It is better to go for iisreset with noforce command: iisreset /noforce

It is pretty necessary to add the file types in the index list, only then the search will work:

1. On the SharePoint Central Administration home page, Goto Shared Service Provider to open the Shared Services Provider administration site.
2. On the Shared Services Administration home page, in the Search section, click Search settings.
3. On the Configure Search Settings page, click File types.
4. On the Manage File Types page, click New File Type.
5. On the Add File Type page, in the File extension box, type pdf and click OK.

Note: If the filter for a document is installed after content is indexed, Full crawl on the content indexes need to be done in order to reflect the changes and include PDF documents in search results.

Hope I was able to describe the content correctly based on my knowledge and learning.

Feel free to Rate and provide feedback if you find post useful

Hope this help
Ashi

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1000 Views on 26 Blog Posts – Thanks a Ton

Thank You all for your support to give me inspiration . It is the result of this that I have achieved first 1000 Hits in less no of blogs and in very small time.
Thanks to my parents and my friends.

Details of all my Blogs: BlogList

1)

2)

3)

Thank you all very much.

Ashi

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How crawl works in SharePoint || How indexing work || Basic Concept

Hey Friends,

Today I am here with some concept task . How a search work in SharePoint, but for a search to work SharePoint would first index the content sources.

So, How a crawl work to index the content from MOSS?

Main thing is that it can index, it can crawl anything stored in a server, in any format PDF, Zip, word, excel , txt, HTML, RTF, MS-Office etc. But to index the content other than office or Microsoft the index process is little more complicated but interesting. But the initial or the process is same for all. So let’s have a look on it.

1) When the scheduler for the crawl or index run, it will search for every place you have defined or what you called it a content source.

2) When it find a file in that, it will look on it extension. It will check in SharePoint SSP whether the type is defined to be indexed or not.

3) Now when the SharePoint confirms of file type it will look for a software/Ifilter to read this file. Ifilter is a software which will read a file. Every file need its own ifilter.

4) If SharePoint finds a ifilter for it. It will start opening this file and start scanning the file. It will remove certain words that are not required in search or not need to be indexed ex: 1 ,2 numerals etc.

5) After scanning the whole file it will index the content in index file with the pointer of name and location of the file.

6) Once a file is completed with full process. It will start for next file and with the same process as above.

Now to search or index any file of our use like PDF etc. we need to install the ifilter of every such types, which do not come by default. We can also put the images of such file type in SharePoint images file(12 hive) so that in search document come with their images.

Hope I was able to describe the content based on my knowledge and learning.

Feel free to Rate and provide feedback if you find post useful

Hope this help
Ashi

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Happy New Year 2013 !

New Year begins,
Let us pray that it will be a year with new peace, new happiness and abundance of new friends. May the year brings the true example of Humanity.

Let us pray to get the courage to feel the difference of Right and Wrong.
Let us pray for the Delhi Victim girl to Rest in Peace.

Happy New Year.

.

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Login issues with WSS 3.0 || Moss2007 || SharePoint2010

Hey Friends,

Sometime when we build a SharePoint server we can face issues with login. The login prompt keeps on asking password and no matter what I try, it is not letting me in.

You can follow the below step to get rid of this problem:
This solution I have found on TechNet website when I faced the same issue.

==========

Method 1: Specify host names (Preferred method if NTLM authentication is desired)

To specify the host names that are mapped to the loopback address and can connect to Web sites on your computer, follow these steps: Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.

• In Registry Editor, locate and then click the following registry key:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\MSV1_0
• Right-click MSV1_0, point to New, and then click Multi-String Value.
• Type BackConnectionHostNames, and then press ENTER.
• Right-click BackConnectionHostNames, and then click Modify.
• In the Value data box, type the host name or the host names for the sites that are on the local computer, and then click OK.
• Quit Registry Editor, and then restart the IISAdmin service.

Method 2: Disable the loopback check (less-recommended method)

The second method is to disable the loopback check by setting the DisableLoopbackCheck registry key. To set theDisableLoopbackCheck registry key, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
2. In Registry Editor, locate and then click the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa
3. Right-click Lsa, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
4. Type DisableLoopbackCheck, and then press ENTER.
5. Right-click DisableLoopbackCheck, and then click Modify.
6. In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.
7. Quit Registry Editor, and then restart your computer.

Sometime it ask for reboot and it is difficult in prod environment. you can follow this link to avoid reboot but on your risk.
How-to-avoid-windows-reboot-after-any-operation-required-restart

Hope I was able to describe the content based on my knowledge and learning.

Feel free to Rate and provide feedback if you find post useful

Hope this help

Ashi

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Claim Based Authentication || Part 3

Hey Friends,

Back with the topic: Claim Based Authentication. For this topic blogs becomes too large and still feel learning is too short to describe Claim based Authentication.

To get the previous part over view you can refer the blog:

Claim based authentication || Part1

Claim based authentication || Part2

I left at

Description of ADFS

and have to start with Last point

3) How the package is prepared and brought to the forefront in SharePoint 2010.

Claims-Based Authentication is successful with 3 ideology.

WIF(Windows Identity Foundation) ie. called the “Geneva Framework” is an application programming interface which can be used to develop a claim enabled application. It provide a framework to the application to make it claim enable and also to create custom security token service. With the help of WIF Companies/Farms/Organizations uses a single identity model.

ADFS 2.0 : ie. called “Geneva Server,” is a service which is fully responsible for providing security token using security token service. For providing token it can used AD, LDAP and SQL as an identity and attribute store. It is supported by both active (WS-Trust) and passive (WS-Federation) mode.

Windows CardSpace 2.0: is an technology to select identity and help to logon to a website by replacing username and password with your identity. It is the repository of identity and represent the info in form of information cards.

 

Main components which can be extracted from above 3 are : tokens, identity providers, and Security Token Service.

 

Steps to explain authentication process:

1. When a person browse a site , web browser will request for a token from STS. This request is made using Active mode of ADFS (WS-Trust). The request includes the name of the user for whom the token is requested and an identifier that will give description of application the user is trying to access.

2. STS will look for the information and it verification. Information can be stored in any of source ex:- AD, LDAP and MS-SQL. After verifying the information of user , STS will issue a token which is then returned to the browser. Token which is issued by STS has been issued by and identity provider and who will be responsible for the validation of token or the information.

3. Once the token is received by browser it will forward the same to a web application. On the basis of that token, Application will verify the information and confirms that it is originated from trusted STS (as a trusted STS will be supported by Identity provider) . In this way authentication of a user is done.

Hope I was able to describe the content based on my knowledge and learning.

Feel free to Rate and provide feedback if you find post useful

Hope this help

Ashi

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