Chapter 4: Configuring Network Application Services

There are two more server roles that you need to study in order to prepare for exam 70-643: Windows Media Server and Windows SharePoint Services. These are distinct from other server roles in that they provide unique network services and each has its own requirements for installation and maintenance. Another technology covered in this chapter is Windows Media Rights Manager, which is designed to apply digital rights management policies on video and audio media. One characteristic all of these share is that none is included on the Windows Server 2008 installation media, they are available as free downloads from Microsoft’s website.

Windows Media Server is a streaming media server that organization’s can use to deliver both live and prerecorded digital media over the Internet and internal networks. It includes support for both Windows Media Video (WMV) and Windows Media Audio (WMA) formats.  Windows SharePoint Services is a flexible technology designed to improve productivity by helping teams of all sizes to communicate and collaborate more efficiently and effectively. Windows SharePoint Services facilitates the sharing of different types of information including documents, schedules, and project plans across organizational boundaries. In this chapter you will learn how to:

  • Configure Windows Media server.
  • Configure Digital Rights Management (DRM).
  • Configure Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services server options.
  • Configure Windows SharePoint Services email integration.

 Configuring Windows Media Server

There are 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows Media Server available for full installations of Windows Server 2008 and Server Core installations. You will need to download the appropriate file from the list here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=9CCF6312-723B-4577-BE58-7CAAB2E1C5B7&displaylang=en. They vary in size between 10 and 17 megabytes. For your practice lab I suggest you download the appropriate version for a full installation on Windows Server 2008. Windows Media Server uses port 80 for some functionality, before proceeding I suggest that you completely remove the Web Server server role and anything that requires it if you had previously installed it on the server. Alternatively, you can bind Windows Media Server and IIS to different ports and IP addresses. Execute the downloaded file, after you complete the installation wizard Server Manager will be updated with information about the Streaming Media Services server role, you may need to restart Server Manager. When you install the new role in your practice lab only add the Windows Media Server role service and install both data transfer protocols: Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) and Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).

RTSP was designed for unicast streaming of digital content, it supports user-friendly features such as stopping, rewinding, and fast-forwarding but it is only available in Windows Media Player 9 or later and Windows Media Services 9 or later. HTTP is supported over a wider variety of clients and network architectures but it does not support as many features. The URL to the stream determines client behavior, if it includes RTSP (e.g. rtsp://media1/vid.wmv) then the client will automatically negotiate the best protocol to use. If the URL includes RTSPU (e.g. rtspu://media1/vid.wmv) then the client will be forced to use RTSP, you should avoid forcing the protocol whenever possible.

Open Windows Media Services from the Administrative Tools folder. Expand the server and all of its nodes in the navigation tree, as shown in figure 1. The two major services that Windows Media Services provides is hosting streaming media and acting as a caching and proxy server, you can see nodes for managing each of these capabilities in the navigation tree. You can see several tabs in the details pane, and at the bottom of the details pane a row of action buttons that you click to perform tasks such as stopping the service or blocking additional clients.

Figure 1: The Windows Media Services Management Tool.

Configuring Publishing Points

Windows Media Services uses the term publishing point to describe a streaming media event. A publishing point can consist of a live stream of audio or video, one or more static files that clients can play in whatever order they prefer, or a playlist that includes live streams or static files played in the sequence you specify. There are two default publishing points which you can examine to get an idea of what the server role can do. For practice, create a new one by doing the following:

  1. Right-click Publishing Points and select Add Publishing Point (Wizard).
  2. Click Next, provide a name for the publishing point, and click Next again.
  3. On the Content Type page, select Files and click Next.
  4. Click Next to confirm that you are creating a broadcast publishing point.
  5. Click Next to confirm that the content will be delivered via unicast. Unicast streaming works in most situations but multicast consumes far less network resources. With unicast streaming every client receives a dedicated data stream whereas with multicast streaming the server transmits a single stream and the network hardware splits and replicates the stream as needed to deliver it to all clients. The drawback with multicasting is that not all network routers and switches are be capable of supporting it.
  6. Verify that the Location of Directory is %systemroot%\WMPub\WMRoot, then click Next.
  7. Enable Shuffle on the Content Playback page, then click Next.
  8. Enable logging on the Unicast Logging page and click Next twice, and then click Finish to complete the wizard.
  9. Accept all of the defaults for the Unicast Announcement Wizard.

You probably do not have Media Player installed on your practice server, so you cannot use the feature for testing your announcement. Select the publishing point you just created in the navigation tree. You can see a summary report of how the publishing point is being used by selecting the Monitor tab. Note the functions of each button at the bottom of the details pane. Click the Source tab to see the list of files in the playlist, you may have noticed that the buttons at the bottom of the page are different, this is the case with each tab. Some of the buttons on this page are only accessible when the publishing point is stopped. Click the Advertising tab. There are links you can click to learn more about configuring advertising in general and interstitial advertising in particular but you can configure wrapper advertisements on this tab. You can configure and run unicast and multicast announcements on when you access the Announce tab. The Properties tab is the most complex of all; you select an item from the Category list, right-click on a Property, and then choose a command such as Enable, Disable, or Properties to modify it, as shown in figure 2.

Figure 2: Configuring Publishing Point Properties.

This is another case where you do not need to memorize every detail of the user interface, but you should understand how to navigate the management tool and remember that it works differently than the other tools you worked with in previous chapters. To make it easier for users to find your streaming content you can create an announcement using the Unicast Announcement Wizard and the Broadcast Announcement Wizard. The announcement is a Windows Media metafile with information about how to connect to the stream.

What we have discussed so far is the process of creating and managing on demand content, that is, digital media that has already been recorded. Another important feature of Windows Media Services is streaming live content in real-time. This introduces several new elements: the event being observed, the microphone or camera recording the event, and the encoding computer attached to the recording device. The encoding computer takes the digital content from the camera or microphone and converts it into the Windows Media Format which it then publishes on a URL that Windows Media Services accesses. Figure 3 shows an example of live event made available to both unicast and multicast clients.

Figure 3: Example of Streaming of Live Content.

Note: Multicast streaming is not available on the Standard Edition of Windows Server 2008.

 Proxy and Cache Management

Windows Media server can be configured as a cache/proxy server or as a reverse proxy server to ease the workload on other Windows Media server. To enable this feature select the server in the navigation tree, select Cache/Proxy Management in the Category list, right-click WMS Cache Proxy in the Plug-in list and click Enable as shown in figure 4.

Figure 4: Enabling WMS Cache Proxy.

To configure WMS Cache Proxy right-click WMS Cache Proxy in the Plug-in list and select Properties. You can specify which protocol the WMS Cache Proxy plug-in will use on the General tab. Select the Cache tab to configure how much disk space the plug-in can utilize, the cache location, and the caching speed. You also use this tab to enable Play While Archiving, which allows the server to start streaming content to clients before the content has been completely cached from the source server.  To specify whether the server is a standard proxy, proxy redirect, or reverse proxy click the Proxy tab. Select the Prestuff tab to configure the server to cache streaming content from the origin server even if no clients have requested it, this can improve the users’ experience by limiting delays when they do request the prestuffed content. Use the Query tab to find and delete cached files from the server.

How frequently the caching servers update content is configured on the origin server, to do so do the following:

  1. Select the desired publishing point in the navigation tree.
  2. Click the Properties tab in the details pane
  3. Click Cache/Proxy in the Category list, then right-click Stream splitting expiration and select Properties.
  4. Specify whether the content never expires, expires immediately, or expires after the specified number of seconds.

 Understanding Digital Rights Management

Who knew Windows sysadmins would be creating digital media and protecting the content with digital rights management (DRM)? Well, I never expected to and was surprised to see DRM on the list of objectives for exam 70-643. If you think I am joking take a look for yourself: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-643.mspx. Granted, it is a small part, but its there! The software is called Windows Media Rights Manager (WMRM), but Microsoft strictly limits distribution of this product. I cannot get a copy of it, it would probably be a waste of your time to try to get one. There is some documentation online, for example, Windows Media Rights Manager 10 SDK. For the exam I do not think that you need to know how to install and configure WMRM, but you should understand what its purpose is and how it can be used to protect digital content from unauthorized use.

WMRM is a digital rights management (DRM) platform that can be used to distribute digital media while limiting what viewers can do with the content. Digital media files are packaged in an encrypted format, with a file header that includes usage and distribution rules. The process is shown in figure 5, and described below:

  1. The content owner creates the content and stores it in a file.
  2. The content owner converts the content to Windows Media format and adds business usage and distribution rules to the file, for example limiting the number of times the file can be played or setting an expiration date.
  3. Using WMRM the content packager packages the file into an encrypted format. The decryption key is stored separately in a license. The packager can add other information to the content file such as the URL where the license can be acquired.
  4. The content distributor makes the file available by placing it on a streaming media server, web site, CD, or some other method.
  5. The content owner chooses a clearinghouse to store the license using WMRM license services. The clearinghouse could be the same entity as the content distributor, but the license and media file are stored separately regardless.
  6. A user acquires the file, Windows Media Player tries to retrieve the license automatically. Depending on how the clearinghouse configures things the license is either downloaded silently or the user must fill out a registration form.
  7. Once the user has the file and its corresponding license Windows Media Player can play it within the restrictions imposed by the business usage and distribution rules.
  8. The user can share the file, but not the license because it is tied to a specific computer. Other users who acquire a copy of the file must request their own license.

Figure 5: Creating and Delivering Content with WMRM

As the systems administrator for either the distributor or clearinghouse you would download WMRM; install WMRM; get a license, certificate list, and revocation list from Microsoft; create a script to install the license keys; and customize the WMRM web site that is created during the installation process. At that point you should be able to start the packaging and licensing process by accessing the sample pages, located at http://web.dillard.test/wm/package.asp, substituting your server name for mine. You are presented with a form where you specify the file to be packaged, the output file to create, and the type of License acquisition URL. Then you click Package to create the encrypted file. Other sample pages and scripts are included for creating different types of licenses, batch processing, and other common procedures. You publish the packaged file so that users can acquire it. Then you deploy another WMRM server that runs the licensing service, users request licenses from this service as described in step 6 above.

 Installing Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services

Windows SharePoint Services is a Windows Server 2008 server role, however you have to download the installation package. There are separate downloads for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows, each is over 100 megabytes:

Windows SharePoint Services has several prerequisites to be aware of. You need to install the package which includes service pack 1, using an earlier version of the installer that is not bundled with service pack 1 will cause the installation to fail. You must install the .NET Framework version 3.0 before installing this server role. Windows SharePoint Services also requires the Web Server role and the Windows Internal Database, these will be installed automatically if they are not already present. If you are using the same server for Windows SharePoint Services that you used for Windows Media Services you should uninstall that server role or shut down the service in order to avoid contention over TCP port 80. Launch the Windows SharePoint Services installer, accept the terms of Microsoft’s software license then choose the Basic install and complete the wizard. The SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard should start automatically, if it does not you need to open it from the Administrative Tools folder before proceeding. Accept the defaults and complete the wizard. Now you need to Add the SharePoint site to the list of trusted sites by doing the following:

  1. Open Internet Options in the Control Panel.
  2. Select the Security tab, select Trusted Sites, then click Sites.
  3. Enter the URL for the site in the Add this Web site to the zone text box, then click Add.
  4. Click Close, then click OK to close the dialog boxes.

Internet Explorer will open and render the SharePoint site, you could start customizing it and adding content if you wished.

  Configuring Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services

There are some things you can configure by connecting to the SharePoint site with an account that has administrative privileges, such as granting accounts permissions to access and manage the site. Click People and Groups from the menu on the left, select the desired group on the left, then click New and select either Add Users or New Group as shown in figure 5. There are 3 built-in team site groups: Members can contribute content, Owners have full control over the site, and Visitors and view content. The other changes you can make to the site are all related to adding and modifying content and the appearance of the site, which I believe are outside of the scope of this exam. SharePoint is great technology for collaboration though, I encourage you to explorer it further to see if its something your organization can take advantage of.

Figure 6: Configuring SharePoint Users and Groups.

All other SharePoint administration is accomplished using the server’s administrative website. Open SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration from the administrative tools folder, provide administrative credentials if prompted to log in.

Backing Up Windows SharePoint Services

You can use Windows Server Backup to backup Windows SharePoint Services sites, services, and data. For many organizations this will be the ideal solution to ensure the content is backed up daily. You can also use the backup features built into Windows SharePoint Services. Both approaches are discussed in this section.

 Configuring Windows Server Backup for Windows SharePoint Services

You need to adjust some registry keys in order to use Windows Server Backup with SharePoint. Use the Registry Editor to create a new key named WindowsServerBackup at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\. Select the new key and create a key called Application Support, select it and create a new key called {c2f52614-5e53-4858-a589-38eeb25c6184}. Select this key and create a new string value called Application Identifier and set it to Windows SharePoint Services. Create a new DWORD (32-bit) value called UseSameVssContext and set it to 00000001. In summary, you should have two new values as follows:

  • A new string value at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\WindowsServerBackup\{c2f52614-5e53-4858-a589-38eeb25c6184}\ Application Identifier\ set to Windows SharePoint Services.
  • A new DWORD value at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\WindowsServerBackup\{c2f52614-5e53-4858-a589-38eeb25c6184}\ UseSameVssContext set to 00000001.

After making these changes Windows Server Backup should be able to backup Windows SharePoint Services data and content reliably. For information on using Windows Server Backup refer to Maintaining the Active Directory Environment in the section called Configure Backup and Recovery; and Configuring File and Print Services in the section called Configure Backup and Restore.

Configuring Windows SharePoint Services Backup

To use the backup and restore features included in Windows SharePoint Services open SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration, click the Operations tab, click Perform a backup or Restore from backup as appropriate. When you perform a backup you are presented with a tree that represents the SharePoint farm and the applications hosted on it. You enable checkboxes to specify what to backup, then you click Continue to Backup Options to select either full or differential backup and a location to store the backup. Once you start the backup you can refresh the Backup and Restore Status page to see how it is progressing, it will automatically refresh periodically too. Restore operations are not complex, to perform a restore do the following:

  1. Open SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration, click the Operations tab, then click Restore from backup.
  2. Specify the location where the backup is stored, then click Continue Restore Process.
  3. Select the desired backup job, then click Continue Restore Process.
  4. Select the content to restore from the backup tree, then click Continue Restore Process. Click OK to start the restore.

 Configuring Windows SharePoint Services Anti-Virus Settings

For these settings to take effect an antivirus scanner that is compatible with Windows SharePoint Services must be installed on the server. To configure Windows SharePoint Services for an anti-virus scanner open SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration, click the Operations tab, click Antivirus in the Security Configuration section and enable one or more of the following:

  • Scan documents on upload – this helps prevent infected documents from being distributed to others.
  • Scan documents on download – this helps prevent users from downloading infected documents by warning them.
  • Allow users to download infected documents – enable this option if you want users to be able to download files that are infected with a virus.
  • Attempt to clean infected documents – enable this option to automatically clean documents that are found to contain viruses.

You can also configure the time out and number of threads for the antivirus scanner.

 Configuring Incoming Email

There are two ways you can configure Windows SharePoint Services to receive incoming email: You can install the SMTP service on the same server or you configure a drop folder on a different SMPT server where Windows SharePoint Services can periodically pull messages. Microsoft recommends against using drop folders because of the possibility that the administrator of the SMTP server may reconfigure it and cause the folder to become unavailable. I disagree with this concern, in a properly managed network the SMTP server should be very reliable.

To configure Windows SharePoint Services and the SMTP service on the same server do the following:

  1. Install the SMTP service as described in Configuring a Web Services Infrastructure. Configure the SMTP service to accept relayed email from the appropriate mail server.
  2. Ensure that the Windows SharePoint Services Web Application service is running using SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration: click Operations, then click on Services on Server, if Windows SharePoint Services Web Application is not started click Start.
  3. Configure SharePoint email settings using SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration: click Operations, then click Incoming e-mail settings.
  4. Select Yes for Enable sites on this server to receive e-mail?
  5. Select Automatic for the Settings mode.
  6. Enter the name of the email server in the E-mail server display address text box.
  7. In the Safe E-Mail Servers section select either Accept mail from all e-mail servers as shown in figure 6, or select Accept mail from these safe e-mail servers and enter the list of mail servers in the text box (one IP address per line), click OK.

Figure 7: Configuring Incoming Email Settings.

 

To configure Windows SharePoint Services to use a drop folder on a different server do the following:

  1. Grant the logon account for the Windows SharePoint Services Timer service Modify permissions on the email drop folder. You can determine the service account by viewing Log on tab of the Properties dialog box of the Windows SharePoint Services Timer service in the Services console.
  2. If you server uses different application pool accounts for Central Administration and the web applications each account must also have Modify permissions on the email drop folder.
  3. To configure SharePoint email settings using SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration: click Operations, then click Incoming e-mail settings.
  4. If the SMTP service is not installed a dialog box will appear warning that this is the case, click OK to close it. You will be forced to use the Advanced setting mode, as shown in figure 6. If the SMTP service is installed selected Advanced for the Settings mode.

Figure 8: Configuring Incoming Email Settings.

  1. Select Yes for Enable sites on this server to receive e-mail?
  2. Enter the name of the email server in the E-mail server display address text box.
  3. Enter the location of the drop folder in the E-mail drop folder text box, click OK.

After configuring email for the server email enabled lists and document libraries can be configured on the SharePoint sites. You can also enable the SharePoint Directory Management Service to create distribution groups and contacts. Doing so makes it possible to create and manage email distribution groups within SharePoint sites. It also makes it possible for people to find email enabled SharePoint lists in their address books. You will need to create an organizational unit (OU) in Active Directory and configure delegation for the Central Administration application pool account, as described in the Configure Active Directory section of Configure incoming e-mail settings. With regards to the exam, you should understand this capability but I do not think you need to memorize the all of the steps required to configure the OU.

Configuring Outgoing Email

Setting up outgoing email for Windows SharePoint Services is less complicated, however the SMTP service must be installed on the same server.

  1. Install the SMTP service as described in Configuring a Web Services Infrastructure. Configure the SMTP service to allow anonymous access and enable relaying of e-mail messages.
  2. To configure SharePoint email settings using SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration: click Operations, then click Outgoing e-mail settings.
  3. Enter the name of the outbound mail server in the Outbound SMTP server text box.
  4. Enter the address which will appear in the messages in the From address text box.
  5. Enter the address where recipients will reply in the Reply-to address text box.
  6. Select the character set appropriate for your language from the Character set drop-down list, as shown in figure 8. Click OK.

Figure 9: Configuring Outbound Email Settings.

Configuring Diagnostic Logging

SharePoint-based applications can be large and complex, Windows SharePoint Services is capable of logging detailed information about errors in the Windows event log and the trace logs. To configure diagnostic logging open SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration, click the Operations tab, then click Diagnostic Logging. There are several sections:

  1. Microsoft’s Customer Experience Improvement Program was created to improve the quality of their products and technologies by anonymously collecting diagnostic data. If you enable it on the Diagnostic Logging page it may not fix issues you encounter directly, but the information your server provides can help improve future versions of Windows SharePoint Services.
  2. The next section the page, Error Reports, is similar in that information can be submitted which can help Microsoft to identify issues affecting numerous systems and lead to the creation of patches and service packs. Error reports are created when software and hardware problems arise. You can choose to share the information with Microsoft and its partners, however these reports include the Digital Product ID, which could be used to identify your license. The report could contain other sensitive or private data that was present in the log files including email addresses, user names, and computer addresses. Microsoft promises to not use the information to identify anyone, however you still may wish to not share. In most cases you will want to enable SharePoint to automatically download a file from Microsoft that can help identify problems.
  3. Configure the Event Throttling section to specify which types of events for various categories will be written to the Windows event log and the trace log. Select a category from the Select a category dropdown list, then use the Least critical event to report to the event log and the Least critical event to report to the trace log dropdown lists to configure throttling for that category. These two dropdown lists are sorted from most critical to least critical. You can configure categories individually or all at once, as shown in figure 9. In this example I have specified the all levels of events will be recorded for all categories.

Figure 10: Configuring Event Throttling and Trace Logging.

  1. Configure the Trace Log section to specify the location for trace logs, how many log files to maintain, and how many minutes to record before starting a new log file.

Other Windows SharePoint Services Management Tasks

There are many other less significant procedures that may arise in a production environment. They are well documented in the SharePoint help files, which you can access by clicking the question mark symbol in the upper right-hand corner of the SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration website. There is also a lot of useful information available in the list of Administrator Tasks, which you can access on the Home tab of SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration. I do not think that these are procedures that you need to memorize for the exam, but when you are ready to deploy Windows SharePoint Services on your production network you should explore them all and review the links provided in the References section at the end of the chapter. I suggest that you take a quick look at each of the links on the Operations tab and also spend some time exploring the Application Management tab before moving on.

One of the more interesting features is integration of Windows SharePoint Services with Active Directory Rights Management Services (AD RMS), for more information on installing and configuring AD RMS see Configuring Additional Active Directory Server Roles. Windows SharePoint Services relies on IIS, so many management tasks can be performed using IIS Manager. It also requires the Windows Internal Database, but the data can be stored in a Microsoft SQL Server-based database instead, so a production deployment may require administration of SQL Server too.

 Deploying SharePoint Sites

Windows SharePoint Services uses Web applications, site collections, and sites to organize content. A Web application can contain one or more site collections. A site collection includes a top-level Web site and a hierarchy of subsites. Control over the content of the subsites can be delegated in whatever way is needed to accommodate the people using it.

Creating Web Applications

Before you can create a new site or site collection you have to create a Web application, which is an IIS site with its own application pool. If you need to have different users access content using different domains you can extend the Web application to another IIS site. To create a Web application using SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration do the following:

  1. Click the Application Management tab, then click Create or extend Web application.
  2. Click Create a new Web application.
  3. Select either Use an existing IIS web site and select a site from the dropdown list or Create a new IIS web site and enter a description in the IIS Web Site section. Specify a port number, host header, and physical path for the site.
  4. In the Security Configuration section, choose either Negotiate (Kerberos) or NTLM for the Authentication provider; then choose whether to allow anonymous access and whether to use SSL.
  5. Configure a URL and select a zone in the Load Balanced URL section.
  6. In the Application Pool section choose either Using existing application pool and select a pool from the dropdown list or choose Create new application pool. If you chose the latter then enter a name for the pool and select either a predefined security account or a configurable one. If you choose to configure one enter the credentials.
  7. In the Reset Internet Information Services section select Restart IIS Manually.
  8. In the Database Name and Authentication section specify the names of the database server and the database then provide authentication information for the database.
  9. Select a Windows SharePoint Services search server from the dropdown list in the Search Server section.
  10. Click OK.

To extend an existing Web application to another IIS site do the following:

  1. Click the Application Management tab, then click Create or extend Web application.
  2. Click Extend an existing Web application.
  3. Click the Web application link then click Change Web application.
  4. Click the desired Web application.
  5. You can choose to use an existing IIS web site or to create a new one.
  6. Specify the settings for the Security Configuration and Load Balanced URL sections, as in steps 4 and 5 in the previous exercise. Figure 10 illustrates a completed form for extending a Web application.

Figure 11: Extending a Web Application.

  1. Click OK.

 Creating Sites

Now that you have created a Web application its time to create a new site, to do so you must first define a new site collection. Click the Application Management tab, then click Create site collection. Specify which Web application to use for the collection, provide a title, description, URL, select a template, provide the names for the site administrators, and select a quota template from the dropdown list if desired. When you are done entering information click OK to create the collection. You have now created a site collection and the top-level site.

You do not create subsites using Central Administration, connect to the top-level site using web browser, then click Sites in the left-hand menu. Click the Create button, then select the kind of subsite to create, for practice select Document Library. Enter a name and description, configure the other settings as desired, and click Create when ready, as shown in figure 11. The information you are prompted to supply may vary depending upon the type of site you are creating.

           

Figure 12: Creating a Site.

 Configuring Site and Application Settings

You can limit how much data can be stored in a site collection by implementing quota templates. When the limit is reached an alert will be emailed to the site collection administrator. You create and manage quota templates using SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration, on the Application Management tab click Quota Templates, then click the desired command. Each quota has a name, a site storage limit, and an email warning limit. After you have created one ore more quota templates you can apply them to new and existing site collections.

Another important feature are workflows, you can enable users to create their own workflows. using SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration, click the Application Management tab, then click Workflow Settings. Select a web application from the dropdown list then configure the desired settings for it.

This chapter has covered the major implementation and management tasks for Windows SharePoint Services, I have tried to introduce everything that I think is likely to appear on the exam. There are others that you can explore the others on the Operations and Management tabs. There is also a great deal of information available in the help files included with Windows SharePoint Services.

Tip: While it has nothing to do with the exam, Microsoft’s Office SharePoint Server is even more powerful than Windows SharePoint Services. It is a fully featured collaborative solution that includes numerous features not available in Windows SharePoint Services. If your organization is looking for ways to foster cooperation across business groups and improve the effectiveness of all types of project teams Office SharePoint Server has a lot to offer. Your organization may already own it too, it is commonly part of the license agreements offered to customers who purchase several Microsoft products.

Summary

This chapter examined two Windows Server 2008 features that you can install by downloading them from Microsoft’s websites: Windows Media Server and Windows SharePoint Services. Each of these server roles are powerful tools that extend the capabilities of Windows Server 2008. Windows Media Server can be used to publish both live and recorded digital audio and video. Windows SharePoint Services has become a very popular collaboration solution.

Chapter Review

This section presents a list of review questions designed to help reinforce the knowledge presented earlier in the chapter. To persuade you to explore the management tools more deeply a few questions may require you to examine those tools further rather than rereading the chapter.

Questions

  1. You have deployed Windows Media Services 2008 and have created a publishing point accessible over the Internet so that your organization can stream live video to customers. You configure the stream to use RTSP by publishing it at rtspu://media.kurtdillard.com/live.wmv. You can connect to the stream from your internal network from a computer running Windows Vista but some external users are reporting problems, what should you do?
    1. Inform all customers that they must install the latest version of Windows Media Player to view the live video.
    2. Encode the video using Windows Media Services 9 instead of Windows Media Services 2008.
    3. Reconfigure the stream so that the client’s media player can automatically negotiate the best protocol.
    4. Provide a link to the latest video codecs available on Microsoft’s website.
  2. You have deployed Windows Media Services 2008 for organization’s internal network so that executive announcements, training videos, and other kinds of video can be streamed to all employees. The network consists of a central office and ten branch office. Each branch office has between 20 and 50 users. The branch offices are connected to the Internet with a 1.5 megabit synchronous digital subscriber line (SDSL) over which a dedicated VPN links them to the central office. All infrastructure servers and the servers running Windows Media Services are located in the central office. Under most circumstances the streaming video system works great; however, every time the president or chief executive officer use the system the number of viewers grows significantly. When this happens users in the branch offices report that the video is choppy and blurry, making it very difficult to view. What is the best solution to explore first?
    1. Reconfigure the encoding computer to set the video to a much lower resolution.
    2. Install cache/proxy media servers in each branch office, configure the users in those offices to connect to their local server.
    3. Record the video to DVD and ship copies of the DVD to each user who wishes to view it.
    4. Deploy multicast streaming.
  3. You work for a large corporation that has offices in several countries. Windows Media Services 2008 has been deployed throughout the company, with several locations for recording and encoding digital video and a handful of servers for streaming both live and prerecorded content. To improve performance cache/proxy servers have been deployed at many offices, however users in these offices complain that sometimes it takes several minutes for a video to start playing. What should you do? (pick 2).
    1. Enable the Play While Archiving feature on the cache/proxy servers.
    2. Enable prestuffing on the cache/proxy servers.
    3. Install additional memory in the cache/proxy servers.
    4. Upgrade all wide area network connections to the highest available capacity.
    5. Install high capacity network cards in each cache/proxy servers.
  4.  What kind of ads are designed to be interspersed within digital content?
    1. Banner ads.
    2. Wrapper ads.
    3. Digital ads.
    4. Interstitial ads.
  5. You use WMRM to package a Windows Media Video file and publish it on a server running Windows Media Services. Users report that they can download the file but they are unable to view it. What should you do?
    1. Deploy a licensing server and make the license available to users on that server.
    2. Repackage the file using the .avi format.
    3. Upgrade all users to Windows Media Player 11.
    4. Deploy Active Directory Certificate Services, use group policy to configure automatic certificate enrollment.
  6.  You plan to publish a series of digital videos to users on the Internet, although anyone will be able to view the content you want to lower the risk of users redistributing it. What should you employ?
    1. NTFS permissions.
    2. BitLocker.
    3. Active Directory Rights Management Services (AD RMS).
    4. WMRM.
    5. Configure the read-only attribute on each file.
  7. You complete a new installation of Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition and then attempt to install Windows Sharepoint Services 3.0 on it but receive several errors. What should you do to resolve this problem? (pick 2)
    1. Install the Web server role first.
    2. Install the Windows Internal Database feature first.
    3. Install .NET Framework version 3.0 first.
    4. Install Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 with Service Pack 1.
    5. Install Service Pack 1 for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.
  8.  Windows Server Backup is not backing up all of the data on a server running Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, what should you do?
    1. Perform the backup using wbadmin.
    2. Verify the necessary changes to the registry have been completed.
    3. Stop the system services related to SharePoint and then start the backup job.
    4. Stop the Windows Internal Database system service and then start the backup job.
  9.  You configure the antivirus settings in Windows SharePoint Services using the Central Administration website but virus continue to appear in documents that users publish to sites on the server, what should you do?
    1. Reboot the server after making changes to the antivirus settings.
    2. Restart the SharePoint system services.
    3. Purchase and install antivirus software designed to work with Windows SharePoint Services.
    4. Upgrade to Office SharePoint Server.
  10.  You want to limit the number of errors recorded by Windows SharePoint Services in the Windows event logs, what feature should you configure?
    1. Event throttling.
    2. Customer Experience Improvement Program.
    3. Error reports.
    4. Trace logging.
  11. You have deployed Windows SharePoint Services. You want to create a new parent site for users to use for collaborating on business documents. What is the first thing that you should do?
    1. Create a new IIS web site.
    2. Create a new Web application.
    3. Create a new site collection.
    4. Create a new document library.
  12.  You have deployed Windows SharePoint Services but you want to restrict how much space each site uses, what should you do?
    1. Create a quota template.
    2. Configure disk quotas.
    3. Configure NTFS quotas.
    4. Configure NTFS Permissions.

 Answers

  1. C is correct, simply reconfigure the publishing point so that it uses RTSP in the URL instead, e.g. rtsp://media.kurtdillard.com/live.wmv.
  2. C is correct, if the network infrastructure supports multicasting it would be an inexpensive and quick way to resolve the issue. Deploying cache/proxy servers in each office would probably solve the problem too but at a much higher cost.
  3. A and B are correct. These two features are simple to configure and they are designed to allow users who connect to cache/proxy servers to view content more quickly. C is incorrect because adding memory typically does not significantly improve performance. Implementing D or E may improve performance, depending on how the network is currently configured, but both involve spending additional money.
  4. D is correct. Ads mixed with content are called interstitial ads. Advertising does not appear to be major focus on the exam so you should not feel compelled to investigate the topic deeply.
  5. A is correct, a licensing server is the missing ingredient.
  6. E is correct. A is incorrect because NTFS permissions can only control which users can access a file, not what they do after they have accessed it. B is wrong, BitLocker is a disk encryption technology that is not designed to address this scenario. C is wrong because AD RMS does not support digital video. E is incorrect, well, it should be blatantly obvious that its wrong!
  7. C and D are correct. Although the Web server role and Windows Internal Database are required the installation wizard will install them automatically. You cannot install the Service Pack separately, you have to install the version of SharePoint that is integrated with it.
  8. B is correct, remember that two registry values must be added in a new registry key for Windows Server Backup to work with Windows SharePoint Services.
  9. C is correct. The antivirus settings available on the Central Administration website merely allow you to configure the features in SharePoint designed to facilitate using antivirus software, it does not include antivirus software.
  10. A is correct.
  11. B is correct. First you create the new Web application, then you create a new site collection that uses the new Web application, then you configure a document library.
  12. A is correct, none of the other answers will address the problem.

References

Streaming Media Services.

Streaming Media Services.

How to Install Windows Media Services in Windows Server 2008.

Windows Media Rights Manager 10 SDK.

Microsoft SharePoint Team Blog: Windows Server 2008 and SharePoint Resources.

Windows Server 2008 Resource Center for SharePoint Products and Technologies.

Upgrading to Windows Server 2008 for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 with SP1.

Install a stand-alone server on Windows Server 2008 (Windows SharePoint Services).