Module 3
Administering and
Automating SharePoint
Module Overview
• Configuring Central Administration
• Administering SharePoint from the Command Line
• Automating SharePoint Operations with Windows
PowerShell
Lesson 1: Configuring Central Administration
• Administrative Options
• Central Administration
• Administrative Roles
Administrative Options
• Central Administration
• Stsadm

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\
web server extensions\14\BIN
• Windows PowerShell
• SharePoint 2010 Management Shell

Supports Stsadm
•

Includes the BIN folder (STSADM) in its path configuration
Preloads the SharePoint snap-ins for Windows PowerShell
Central Administration
• Web application

Everything is done using the app pool identity
for the Central Administration Web application: SP_Farm

If something is not working, be sure SP_Farm has permissions
•
Local Administrators group on each SharePoint server
•
SQL Server permissions
• Change the port

Windows PowerShell
Set-SPCentralAdministration -Port <PortNumber>

•
Blocks port 443 (SSL)
•
Blocks ports <1023 or >32767
Stsadm
stsadm –o setadminport <PortNumber>
Administrative Roles
• Farm Administrators

Security  Users  Manage the Farm Administrators group

Capabilities

No default access to sites or content, but can take ownership
• Local Administrators

Members of Farm Administrators

Install products or applications, Web Parts, features
• Service application administrators

Click row of service application (don’t click the link!)

Ribbon  Administrators
• Service application feature administrators
• Site collection administrators and site owners
Lesson 2: Administering SharePoint from the
Command Line
• SharePoint and Command-Line Administration
• Stsadm
• Introducing Windows PowerShell
• Demonstration: Windows PowerShell Basics
SharePoint and Command-Line Administration
• SharePoint v1/v2 (2001–2003):

No command-line interface
• SharePoint 2007:

Stsadm: 182 Commands (MOSS)
• SharePoint 2010:

More than 600 Windows PowerShell cmdlets

Superset of Central Administration tasks

Windows PowerShell 2.0 is required
•

Microsoft SharePoint Products
Preparation Tool (PrerequisiteInstaller)
Stsadm: Supported but deprecated
Stsadm
• Included but deprecated

However, a few functions can be performed only with Stsadm
• Buried in the Program Files folder

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\
web server extensions\14\BIN

Add to %PATH% or use SharePoint 2010 Management Shell
• Command-line administration of SharePoint

Must be run directly on the SharePoint server
• Command syntax

stsadm –o <OperationName> [-parameter <Value> …]
• Get help

stsadm -help <OperationName>
Introducing Windows PowerShell
• Command-line and task-based scripting language
• A framework
• Easy to learn, use, and adopt
• Why use Windows PowerShell?

The most powerful Windows-based command-line environment
• Windows PowerShell vs. Stsadm

Some overlap, but Windows PowerShell has unique capabilities
including management of all new features

Install and configure SharePoint 2010

Manage service applications

Granular control of backup and restore
Demonstration: Windows PowerShell Basics
In this demonstration, you will learn to use:
•Windows PowerShell
•SharePoint 2010 Management Shell
•cmdlets
•Tab completion
•Get-Help
•Objects
•Pipeline
•Aliases
•Variables
Demonstration: Windows PowerShell Basics
• SharePoint 2010 Management Shell
• cmdlet (Get-Command)

Not case sensitive

Verb-Noun (Action-Object) format
• Tab completion
• Get-Help
• Objects
• Pipeline ( | )
• Aliases (Get-Alias)
• Variables

$variable = value

String can be with single or double quotation marks

$_ is the current object in the pipeline
• Windows PowerShell on Microsoft TechNet
Lesson 3: Automating SharePoint Operations with
Windows PowerShell
• SharePoint 2010 Management Shell
• Delegate Permissions to Use Windows PowerShell
• Examine the SharePoint Logical Structure Using Windows
PowerShell
• Create a SharePoint Intranet Using Windows PowerShell
• Objects, Members, Properties, and Methods
• Select, Sort, and Format Output
• Filtering Objects
• Typical Pipeline
• Variables
• Iteration (Looping)
• Iteration in Scripts
• Local, Global, and Remote Commands
• Windows PowerShell Scripts
SharePoint 2010 Management Shell
• SharePoint 2010 Management Shell vs.
Windows PowerShell

Windows PowerShell available on clients

SharePoint 2010 Management Shell only on SharePoint servers
• SharePoint 2010 Management Shell has

SharePoint snap-ins loaded automatically
•
Part of the SharePoint.ps1 profile located in
%CommonProgramFiles%\Microsoft Shared\Web Server
Extensions\14\Config\PowerShell\Registration
•
Windows PowerShell:
Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell

ReuseThread option

Stsadm (/BIN folder) in path
Delegate Permissions to Use Windows PowerShell
• Requirements to use Windows PowerShell to administer
SharePoint

WSS_ADMIN_WPG group on all servers in the farm

SharePoint_Shell_Access database role on database

Note: Setup user (SP_Admin) is not given rights by default
• Delegate these permissions with Add-SPShellAdmin
Add-SPShellAdmin -username <DOMAIN\user> -database
(Get-SPContentDatabase <Content Database Name>)

To run Add-SPShellAdmin, you must be
•
securityadmin server role on SQL instance
•
db_owner role for the database
•
Administrators membership on local computer
• You must also be a site collection owner
Set-SPSiteAdministration <SiteCollectionURL> -OwnerAlias
<DOMAIN\user> -SecondaryOwnerAlias <DOMAIN\user>
• Management Shell Run as Administrator may be required
Examine the SharePoint Logical Structure Using
Windows PowerShell
• Examine the SharePoint Logical Structure with Get

Get-SPFarm, Get-SPWebApplication, Get-SPSite, Get-SPWeb
• Interface vs. Object Model Terminology
• Using the Pipeline
Create a SharePoint Intranet Using
Windows PowerShell
• Cmdlets

Remove-SPWebApplication

New-SPWebApplication

New-SPContentDatabase

New-SPSite

New-SPWeb
• Create the Intranet Web Application, Site Collection,
and Site
• Create a Content Database, Site Collection, and Site
Objects, Members, Properties, and Methods
• Cmdlets output objects
• Objects can be stored in variables for later use or
piped to a subsequent cmdlet for use as input by the cmdlet
• Objects have members: properties and methods
• A special kind of property is a collection
• Get-Member
object | Get-Member
object | Get-Member –MemberType Methods
object | Get-Member –MemberType Properties
Select, Sort, and Format Output
• Write-Output

Writes object to the console: The default “end of pipeline” command

Default properties are displayed
• Select-Object (alias: Select)

Select * displays all properties

Select PropertyName [,PropertyName…] displays specific properties
Get-SPWebApplication "http://intranet.contoso.com" | Get-SPSite
-limit all | Get-SPWeb -limit all | Select URL,WebTemplate
• Sort-Object (alias: Sort)
Get-SPWebApplication "http://intranet.contoso.com" | Get-SPSite
-limit all | Get-SPWeb -limit all | Sort URL [-descending]
• Format-Table, Format-List (alias: fl)
• Export-CSV, ConvertTo-XML, Out-GridView
Filtering Objects
• Where-Object (alias: Where, ?)

Filters objects in the pipeline and passes only the filtered objects
down the pipeline to the next cmdlet
Get-SPWebApplication "http://intranet.contoso.com" |
Get-SPSite -Limit ALL | Get-SPWeb -Limit ALL |
Where-Object { $_.WebTemplate -eq "BLOG"}

Server-side filtering (-Filter parameter) for specific properties:
•
SPWeb: Title and Template
•
SPSite and SPSiteAdministration: Owner, SecondaryContact,
LockState
•
Use -Filter parameter (rather than Where-Object cmdlet)
when possible
Get-SPWebApplication "http://intranet.contoso.com" |
Get-SPSite -Limit All |
Get-SPWeb -Limit All -Filter {$_.Template -eq "BLOG"}
• Operators
Typical Pipeline
• Get objects | Filter objects (Where) | Manipulate | Select |
Sort | Format/Export/Out/Convert/Save
Get-SPWebApplication "http://intranet.contoso.com" | GetSPSite -Limit ALL | Get-SPWeb -Limit ALL | Where-Object {
$_.WebTemplate -eq "BLOG"} | Select
URL,Title,WebTemplate, LastItemModifiedDate, Created |
Sort LastItemModifiedDate |
Export-CSV desktop\StaleBlogs.csv
Variables
• Variables start with $

Assign a variable
$username = “CONTOSO\SP_Admin"
$password = Read-Host "Enter the password: " AsSecureString

Use a variable
Write-Host "The user name is: " $username
Write-Host "The password is: " $password
•
Note: This doesn’t work! Secure, one-way passwords only!
• Windows PowerShell has built-in variables that you can
call at run time

$true, $false

$home

Many more: Get-Help about_automatic_variables
Iteration (Looping)
ForEach-Object (%, ForEach)
• Iterates through each object in the pipeline
• Sometimes, this is done implicitly by a cmdlet on the receiving
side of the pipeline
• For-Each is helpful where a cmdlet does not do its own iteration
Get-SPWebApplication "http://intranet.contoso.com" |
Get-SPSite "http://intranet.contoso.com/sites/Sales" |
ForEach-Object { Enable-SPFeature "Ratings" -url $_.url -whatif }
• Commonly used alias: %
Iteration in Scripts
• Syntax
ForEach-Object ($variable in $array)
{
Actions
}
$i = ("HR", "Marketing") Creating an Array
Parentheses are optional here
ForEach($url in $i) Iterate through each item in the array
Assign $url to the current item
{
Start loop actions
New-SPContentDatabase -Name WSS_Content_Intranet_$url WebApplication http://intranet.contoso.com
New-SPSite -Url http://intranet.contoso.com/sites/$url ContentDatabase WSS_Content_Intranet_$url -OwnerAlias
CONTOSO\SP_Admin -Template "STS#0"
}
End loop actions
Blank line starts execution
Local, Global, and Remote Commands
• Two types of commands:

Local (“box”)—must be run on each box
•

Examples: Start-SPServiceInstance,
Connect-SPConfigurationDatabase
Global (“config db”) —run only once per farm
•
Examples: Set-SPWebApplication, New-SPSite
• Remoting

Windows PowerShell 2.0 features Windows PowerShell
Remoting

From your machine, perform Windows PowerShell commands
and scripts on a remote machine

Think “psexec.exe”
Windows PowerShell Scripts
• Creating scripts (.ps1)

Windows PowerShell Integrated Scripting Environment (ISE)

Readability
•
Can be multiline or one line: Multiline
- Join commands on a single line with ;
•
Can be full cmdlets or aliases: Full cmdlets
- ForEach-Object alias is %
• Execution

Set-ExecutionPolicy -unrestricted

Read up on script signing
• Schedule a Windows PowerShell script with Task Scheduler

Command: PowerShell.exe

Arguments: path\scriptname.ps1
• Scripts you’ll see in this course
Lab A: Automating SharePoint with Windows
PowerShell
• Exercise 1: Adding SharePoint Functionality to Windows
PowerShell
• Exercise 2: Delegating the Ability to Use Windows
PowerShell to Manage SharePoint
• Exercise 3: Reporting Web and Site Collection Properties
• Exercise 4: Creating Site Collections Using Windows
PowerShell
• Exercise 5: Creating and Updating Items
Logon information
Virtual machine
10174A-CONTOSO-DC-C
10174A-SP2010-WFE1-C
Administrative user name
CONTOSO\Administrator
CONTOSO\SP_Admin
Password
Pa$$w0rd
Pa$$w0rd
Logon user name
Estimated time: 30 minutes
Scenario
• You are responsible for ensuring that the SharePoint farm
can be built consistently in both lab and production
environments, and that the farm can be rebuilt in the
event of a catastrophic failure. Additionally, you are
required to produce weekly reports showing the webs and
storage utilization of each site collection in the production
farm. To meet these goals, you must build Windows
PowerShell scripts that can automate SharePoint
management tasks.
Lab B: Administering SharePoint with Stsadm
• Exercise 1: Executing Stsadm Commands
Logon information
Virtual machine
10174A-CONTOSO-DC-C
10174A-SP2010-WFE1-C
Administrative user name
CONTOSO\Administrator
CONTOSO\SP_Admin
Password
Pa$$w0rd
Pa$$w0rd
Logon user name
Estimated time: 20 minutes
Scenario
• Contoso’s policies encourage and in some cases mandate
the automation of common tasks. As such, your Microsoft
Office SharePoint Server 2007 environment had several
Stsadm scripts that were used to create site collections
and webs.
Module Review and Takeaways
• Review Questions