Uploading documents to SharePoint 2010 is slow!

Recently we have had the need to upload large batches of documents to SharePoint to accessed externally. The issue comes when we use either the drag and drop or explorer functionality to copy documents and folders into SharePoint.

Now I read lots of articles on performance tuning and things you should and should not do. We have a relatively small single server SharePoint 2010 installation that is running on Windows 2008 with SQL 2008.

It should not be having any performance issues!

After doing some digging though I found a very simple solution.

Internet Explorer was the culprit in this case. Since the explorer view or the drag and drop is controlled primarily by IE, then it only makes sense that the settings in IE can affect the file transfer speeds.

1. In Internet Explorer, on the Tools menu, click Internet Options.
2. On the Connections tab, click LAN settings.
3. On the Local Area Network (LAN) Settings dialog, under Automatic configuration, clear the Automatically detect settings check box.

Upgrading from Sharepoint Foundation to Sharepoint Server 2010: Part 2

What they don’t tell you…

After surviving a relatively painless upgrade from SharePoint Foundation 2010 to SharePoint Server 2010 I found myself racing to setup the Active Directory Profile sync using the User Profile Synchronization features.

Upon entering my Central Administration I found that the services had already been setup and all I need do is change some configuration and off I go!

Wrong…

Selecting my User Profile Service and clicking manage sent me to a generic error screen:

WTF!!!!! My dreams of connecting to Active Directory and farming data were dashed!

After an hour of searching I was sent to the logs files which can be found here:

\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\LOGS

If you have ever had to deal with SharePoint logs, they are heinous! I found a nifty little tool called ULSViewer that helps take away some of the pain that comes with log files. GET IT!

The logs revealed one line:

UserProfileServiceImportStatisticsWebPart:LoadControl failed, Exception: System.MissingMethodException: Method not found: ‘Boolean Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.UserProfileImportJob.get_IsSynchronizationRunning()’.
atMicrosoft.SharePoint.Portal.WebControls.UserProfileServiceImportStatisticsWebPart._LoadStatusAndSettings()at Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.WebControls.UserProfileServiceStatisticsWebPartBase.LoadControl(Object sender, EventArgs e)
What does this mean? Nothing if your not a SharePoint coder!

I did what any good IS Professional would do…hit Google and start sifting through information. To summarize the information I found the problem was related to SharePoint Server 2010 SP1. Which was the version I had installed. In order to fix this I needed to install the latest Cumulative Updates.

To verify this I was sent to my C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\ISAPI folder to check the file version on 3 dll files.

Microsoft.SharePoint.dll
Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.dll
OWSSVR.dll

I found the version number was different on one of the files which initially was causing my woes.

Microsoft.SharePoint.dll – 14.0.6029.1000
Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.dll – 14.0.6106.5001
OWSSVR.dll – 14.0.6029.1000

Installing all the latest updated and rebooting the server fixed the issue and now my User Profile Service and Synchronization is working like a charm.

A couple of Pain points to keep in mind.

• When I updated using the June Cumulative updates I would get a OWSTIMER.exe debug after each patch installed.
  • I was able to cancel each error and after reboot the server had no apparent problems. I believe this is because I did not stop the FIM Services before installing.
  • If Visual Studio is installed on the same server it will cause the debug message to appear on error.
• Don’t panic, the patch took me about 45 minutes to install which seemed like an eternity.

Where are all my new features?????

At first this wasn’t readily apparent to me either. I logged into my site and saw absolutely nothing different.

You need to be logged in as the Site Collection Administrator in order to see the features. I did this from the server.

Go to your SharePoint Server > Browse to your SharePoint Site > Click Site Actions > Site Settings. 

You now should see a ton of new options. One will be Site Collection Features. Under Site Collection Features you will be able to turn on some of the new features for your Site. This will need to be performed on all separate Site Collections.

I hope this helps someone out of a bind. It was an insane issue and I found little to no direct help from the internet.

Let me know if you have come across similar issues!

Upgrading from Sharepoint Foundation to Sharepoint Server 2010: Part 1

SharePoint 2010 upgrades are fairly simple when everything goes smoothly and nightmarish when they don’t. Surprisingly when I decided to upgrade from the free SharePoint Foundation 2010 to a licensed SharePoint Server 2010 I found a surprising lack of detailed information on what to expect.

I don’t know about you but I personally don’t know a single IT professional who likes to go into software installations and upgrades with a blindfold on.

The Scenario:
The starting platform is SharePoint Foundation 2010 with Search Server Express 2010 installed. The ending product will be a licensed version of SharePoint Server 2010. The server is setup in ‘Farm’ mode and uses a full version of SQL 2008. We are lightly entrenched in SharePoint usage for document version. So a failure would not be catastrophic but would be an annoyance to rebuild.
Prep:
The entire upgrade should take about an hour. Make sure you run a backup from within Central Administration on your SharePoint Foundation server. As an added precaution I also did a manual copy of all the documents and pages within SharePoint so they would be available for use in the event that something happened. Plan for the worst and hope for the best!
Make sure you have your Product Key and your installation files handy. I unpacked the ISO directly to my system and ran it from a directory on the server.
Install:
Open your DVD or Directory and start the Splashscreen.hta shortcut. This will bring up the initial install screen for SharePoint.
Assuming that you already have SharePoint Foundation installed you should not need to install the Pre-requisites or language packs. I did not perform either of these tasks.
The first thing you will be asked for is your Product key. The Copy/Paste handler works here so you can just paste your key right into the field. It will auto validate one input is complete.

For upgrading every option after this should be “greyed” out. It should find your current install and install accordingly.

***Note: The installations process can take awhile (About 40 minutes for me) so don’t worry if the process looks like it is hung at a certain point just be patient and let it run.

Once the completion screen comes up you will have the option of running the SharePoint 2010 Products Configuration Wizard. Make sure the checkbox is selected and click Finish.

The SharePoint 2010 Products Configuration Wizard will open. At this point it should find all the required information and grey out all selections. Just follow the prompts to go through the 10 tasks it performs.

Once finished fire up your Central Administration and check your upgrade status. As long as everything looks good you should now see some new things on your SharePoint website.

Social Tags will now be a prominent feature at the top right of the ribbon.

As well as a new “My Site” feature under your username drop down:

In Part 2 we will explore configuring some of the new features!!

Enjoy your new SharePoint site! Lets hear if anyone had a similar experience when installing?

References:

Upgrading from Sharepoint Foundation to Sharepoint Server 2010: Part 2