SP 2013 User Profile Service Overview
Connecting your Profile to the Portal
Keith Tuomi, SharePoint MVP
SharePoint
Consultant
&
Developer
Agenda
- A bit about User Profiles in SharePoint
- Birds eye view of the User Profile Service
- A bit of Infrastructure (yay!)
- Synchronization options for getting UPS data in and out of SharePoint
- UPS as a base layer for social features & My Sites
- A bit of SkyDrive therapy
(Yo)user Profiles
(Yo)user Profiles
User Profile Service
Application
My Sites (Sky Drive
Pro)
User Profiles
Audiences
Others
Promoted Sites
Links
Social/Newsfeed
Ask Me About/Like
Uses and benefits of the User Profile service application
Provides a central location where service administrators configure and administer the following
features:
User profiles – contain detailed information about people in an organization. A user profile
organizes and displays all of the properties related to each user, together with social tags,
documents, and other items related to that user.
Profile synchronization – provides a reliable way to synchronize groups and user profile
information that is stored in the SharePoint Server 2013 profile database together with information
that is stored in directory services across the enterprise.
Uses and benefits of the User Profile service application
Audiences – target content to users based on their job or task, as defined by their membership in a
SharePoint Server group or distribution list, by the organizational reporting structure, or by the
public properties in their user profiles..
My Site – a personal site that gives users in your organization a central location to manage and
store documents, links, and information about colleagues.
Social tags and notes – enables users to add social tags to documents to SharePoint Server items.
Users can also leave notes on profile pages of a My Site or any SharePoint Server page.
Newsfeed - is the user’s social hub where he or she can see updates from the people, documents,
sites, and tags that the user is following
UPS Architecture
When you create a User Profile service application, SharePoint Server creates three databases for
storing user profile information and associated data:
Profile database – used to store user profile information.
Synchronization database – used to store configuration and staging information for synchronizing
profile data from external sources such as the Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS).
Social tagging database – used to store social tags and notes created by users. Each social tag and
note is associated with a profile ID.
Related service applications
The User Profile service application relies on other service applications to implement the full range of
social computing features in SharePoint Server. These related service applications include the
following:
Managed metadata service – makes it possible to use managed metadata and share content types
across site collections and web applications.
Search Service application – needed to enable the People Search feature.
Business Connectivity Services – makes it possible to populate the properties of existing user
profiles from a business system during profile synchronization.
Bringing it all together
Active Directory Import
Features
-Active Directory forest with multiple domains,
one connection per domain
-Selection of OUs from which to import
-Import user and group objects
-Supports LDAP-based filters
-Supports full and incremental import
Benefits
-Fast and simple
-Performance similar to profile import in
SharePoint 2007
-Excellent for simple environments with Active
Directory
-No Synchronization database to manage
Limitations
-Active Directory data only
-Sync is one-way
Active Directory Import
User Profile Synchronization
Benefits
Features
-Bidirectional read/write to your Active
Directory/Identity provider
-Uses Forefront Identity Manager
-Let’s SharePoint user interactions drive
identity in your organization
-One to one or one to many profile
property mapping is possible e.g. First
Name +Last Name + Job Title
-Excellent for more complex environments
with a grab bag of identity sources
Limitations
-Slower to synch, although improved
performance in 2013 -Complex to set up
User Profile Synchronization
Which Synch Method to Use?
Active Directory import
Small to midsize company
No custom HR system, no SAP
Want a fast, single synchronization option
User Profile Synchronization
Small to midsize or large company with a non-Microsoft identity solution
Slightly more complex needs such as multiple forests
Additional data systems (SAP, etc.)
What’s improved in SharePoint 2013 UPS?
Manageability
User Profile Service is easier to manage, monitor, troubleshoot, and grow
Performance
Better ability to get up and running quickly with Active Directory Import capability
Quicker Synching
Social Integration
Deeper & more useful social tie in’s. The 2013 version of SharePoint splits My Site into three sections: Newsfeed,
SkyDrive, and Sites.
My Sites
What are personal sites:
People do their everyday tasks in SharePoint by navigating among three hubs: Newsfeed, SkyDrive,
and Sites. The underlying software powering the features in these hubs is My Sites technology.
Why would I use this scenario:
My Sites technology surfaces profile data, activity feeds, tagging capabilities, and search results for
each SharePoint user in your organization. When you deploy My Sites, each user gets a starting
place in SharePoint that brings together the sites, documents, and other information that they care
about and helps them share what they know.
Reference: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/jj573574.aspx
Social Without MySites?
It’s possible, but:
- No MySites
- No News Feed integration
- No SkyDrive Integration
- No Mentions
- No Hashtags
- No Community Portals and Community Sites integration with your News
Feed
Newsfeed
The Newsfeed is the default page that displays when a user accesses his or her My Site. This page
displays the feed of recent activities related to a user's specified colleagues and interests.
Users can customize their newsfeeds by adding or removing colleagues they are interested in,
specifying interests, and configuring the kind of activities they want to follow, such as when a
colleague tags a shared interest.
Newsfeed Security Trimming - Based on Search & User Profile Service Application Admin settings.
Excellent explanation can be found here: http://www.sharepointsecurity.com/sharepoint/sharepoint-
development/sharepoint-2013-social-feed-security/
Newsfeed Demo
About Me (You)
About Me is your personal profile page. Your organization may fill out some basic details about you,
such as your job title, department, and manager. Typically, the rest is up to you. Use your About Me
page to highlight details about yourself you’d like others to know about, such as your expertise,
interests, and background.
About Me Demo
The Newsfeed is the default page that displays when a user accesses his or her My Site. This page
displays the feed of recent activities related to a user's specified colleagues and interests.
Users can customize their newsfeeds by adding or removing colleagues they are interested in,
specifying interests, and configuring the kind of activities they want to follow, such as when a
colleague tags a shared interest.
Newsfeed Security Trimming - Based on Search & User Profile Service Application Admin settings.
Excellent explanation can be found here: http://www.sharepointsecurity.com/sharepoint/sharepoint-
development/sharepoint-2013-social-feed-security/
SkyDrive
SkyDrive – Link on the Ribbon Bar
When you create a My Site as a user, you get your own Site Collection, which includes a Site with a
Documents Library amongst other things. The SkyDrive hyperlink at the top is just a link to this
Document Library.
.
SkyDrive
SkyDrive Pro – The document synchronization service
SkyDrive Pro is not really something that comes with SharePoint 2013. It actually comes with Microsoft Office 2013 and very recently
as a standalone download from the Microsoft site.
SkyDrive Pro isn’t a specific Document Library or place in SharePoint. It’s the service that runs on your computer that does the Sync job
for you. You can even launch SkyDrive Pro from the start menu
.
Bonus Topic! Microsoft Office Division Demos
http://www.microsoftofficedemos.com
.
Questions?
Keith Tuomi
Email: ktuomi@itgroove.net
Blog: http://yalla.itgroove.net
Twitter: @itgroove_keith