Mastering Workflow Reports in SharePoint 2010

One of the challenges for SharePoint administrators is getting insight into what’s actually happening within the farm.  One element of management is workflow.  It’s not easy to discover what workflow processes are running, are there exceptions for a given process and how often is a process being used.

In the August edition of the SharePoint eZine, I discuss how to leverage workflow reports in the new 2010 version.  The various reporting and management interfaces make it relatively easy for administrators to better understand what’s happening.  While there are shortcomings in the available data (e.g. no whole farm reporting), what Microsoft provides does immediately provide value.

Managing SharePoint SandBox (User) Solutions

In SharePoint 2010, Microsoft has provided new functionality called “Sandbox” or “User Solutions” that allow administrators and Site Collection owners to upload new functionality scoped to a single site collection. This means that site collection owners can host bespoke code or 3rd party add-ons that are useful to them without affecting others on the same farm. This functionality is incredibly useful in situations where organizations have shared SharePoint farms that serve the needs of various groups. It’s also very useful if organizations are looking to leverage services like SharePoint Online or Microsoft Business Productivity Online (both services offer a SaaS-based version of SharePoint), but have historically been prevented from including custom code.

In the May issue of SearchWinIT’s SharePoint E-Zine, I discuss the management controls and shortcomings of this new feature.

Article: How to Monitor your SharePoint Environment

As SharePoint becomes a more critical component of your infrastructure, it also becomes a service that needs to be more closely monitored to ensure its availability. But many organizations mistakenly try to treat SharePoint like other application servers, such as SQL Server. The reality is that SharePoint can be incredibly more complicated.

The most common misconception is that it's SharePoint that you have to monitor. This false belief will lead most operations personnel to overlook the fact that SharePoint is really a combination of services that act together. Because these services are tightly integrated, your monitoring strategy needs to be multidimensional.

For more information, read “How to Monitor your SharePoint Environment” on SearchWinIT.