Category Archives: SharePoint 2013

The SharePoint Cloud Search Service Application – initial thoughts

In May, I was lucky enough to attend Microsoft’s Ignite 2015 conference in Chicago along with a handful of other Content and Code colleagues. A stand-out session for me unveiled the forthcoming SharePoint Cloud Search Service Application, which – among other enhancements – will finally deliver a consolidated on-premises and cloud Search Index, that lives in SharePoint Online. The news that this thing will be available for both SharePoint Server 2013 and 2016 was particularly interesting.

You can read more over on the Content and Code blog, in a post titled .

ULSViewer.exe download (MSDN archive version)

17/09/2014 update: Microsoft have released a , which you might want to try instead of this one.

For reasons that are unknown to me, the has recently been taken down. That gallery contained ULSViewer.exe, a much-loved tool that no SharePoint guy or gal should be without. Although there are many versions of the tool out there in the wild, I believe this is the version originally created for Microsoft’s internal support teams by Dan Winter. I’m not sure if this is the “best” version as such, but it certainly works for me.

ULSViewer appears to be subject to the MSDN Code Gallery Binary License, meaning that we are free to install, use, copy and distribute the software. To my surprise, I couldn’t find the tool elsewhere online, so have uploaded it to this blog. Enjoy!

Download ULSViewer 2.0.3530.27850

Continue reading →

Configuring Active Directory Import for a SharePoint 2013 User Profile Service Application using PowerShell

Writing an IT PRO focussed blog post on any aspect of the User Profile Service in SharePoint is tough as there is a good chance that someone like  will come along and write a better/more informed one. However, whilst configuring a new SharePoint 2013 environment today I found myself wondering how one automates configuration of the “new” Active Directory Import mode – there doesn’t appear to be much out there on Technet. I figured a quick post would be useful in the absence of more detailed information. Continue reading →

Using SPWebService.FileWriteChunkSize to turn off Shredded Storage in SharePoint 2013 RTM

14/11/2013 update:​ Chris Mullendore, a Microsoft PFE has written a ​ that discusses both Shredded Storage and RBS. He whole-heartedly recommends using the default FileWriteChunkSize settings. I’ll leave this blog up just to illustrate that it is possible to modify this value, but it appears to be one of those “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should” settings.

Over the last few weeks​ I’ve been looking at some of the new capabilities in SharePoint 2013 from an infrastructure perspective, focusing mainly on search and the topic of this blog post: Shredded Storage. Continue reading →

SharePoint 2010 & 2013 URL Cheat Sheet

05/11/2012 update: since writing this, the  has been updated to include a supported limit of up to 20 Web Applications per SharePoint 2013 farm. This is in line with what I have heard from various SharePoint MCMs.

Designing a URL structure for a SharePoint farm sounds like a straightforward task. Surely it’s just a case of creating a few Web apps and corresponding DNS entries, right? Continue reading →