SharePoint 2010 Interview Questions for Administrators

SharePoint 2010 Interview Questions for Administrators

Q. What are the Hardware and Software requirements for SharePoint 2010.

Ans.

Hardware requirements :

# Processor 64-bit, four-core, 2.5 GHz minimum per core.

# RAM 4 GB for developer or evaluation use, 8 GB for single server and multiple server farm installation for production use.

# Hard disk 80 GB for installation

For production use, you need additional free disk space for day-to-day operations. Add twice as much free space as you have RAM for production environments.


Software requirements :

# The 64-bit edition of Windows Server 2008 Standard with SP2. If you are running Windows Server 2008 without SP2, the Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies 2010 Preparation Tool installs Windows Server 2008 SP2 automatically.

For more see : Prerequisites for SharePoint 2010


Q. What Has Changed with SSP in SharePoint 2010.

Ans. In SharePoint 2010 Shared Service Providers (SSP's) are replaced by Service Applications. Services are no longer combined into a SSP. They are running independent as a service application. The service application architecture is now also built into Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010, in contrast to the Shared Services Provider (SSP) architecture that was only part of Office SharePoint Server 2007.

A key benefit here is that all services are installed by default and there is no SSP setup.

Additional improvements for the service application model include:
• The services architecture is extensible, allowing third-party companies to build and add services to the platform.

• Services are managed directly in Central Administration (rather than a separate administration site).

• Services can be monitored and managed remotely.

• Services can be managed and scripted by Windows PowerShell™.

• Shared services communications take place over HTTP(S). Shared services do not directly access databases across farms.

• Most new services are built on the Windows Communications Framework. They have optimization built into their protocol, using binary streams instead of XML for data transfer. Test results show improvements in network throughput with this change.


Q. What are the advantages of Service Applications over
SSP ?

Ans. The key limitation of the SSP architecture was that it was configured by using a set of services, and all Web applications associated with the SSP bore the overhead of all the services even if they weren’t being used. To change the service configuration for a particular Web application, a new SSP would have to be created.

The service application architecture on the other hand, allows a set of services to be associated with a given Web application and a different set of services to be associated with another Web application. Also, the same service application can be configured differently in different Web applications; therefore, Web sites can be configured to use only the services that are needed, rather than the entire bank of services.


Q. Can we create a Single set of Services that will be shared across the farm?

Ans. Similar to the SSP model in Office SharePoint Server 2007, a single set of services can be shared by all sites in a farm. By publishing a service application (from the sharing group, under Service application tab), you can share it across server farms. This capability does not apply to all service applications, and some services can be shared only within a single server farm.


Q. What are Managed Accounts?

Ans. To reduce the load of managing various service accounts in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, the concept of managed accounts has been introduced. Much like managed accounts in Windows Server 2008, they allow SharePoint Server to take control of all the service accounts you use. After SharePoint Server has control of these accounts, it can either manage their passwords — automatically changing them as necessary — or it can notify you when an accounts password is about to expire, allowing you to make the change yourself.


Q. What are the Methods of Backup and Recovery in SharePoint 2010?

Ans. Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 provides a broad range of levels for performing backups, including the entire farm, farm configuration information, site collections, subsites, or lists.

SharePoint Server 2010 uses two different tools to configure backup and recovery.

1. Central Administration : Central Administration provides a user interface where SharePoint Administrators will be prompted via menu structures to select the information that needs to be backed up. (see the Image below)


2. Windows PowerShell : Windows PowerShell is a command line tool that provides SharePoint administrators a way to perform backup and recovery with additional options such as file compression or working with SQL snapshots.

Listed below are a few of the benefits available when working with Windows PowerShell:

• Windows PowerShell scripts can be developed and scheduled (with Windows Task Scheduler), whereas Central Administration is used for single-use backups and restores.

• Windows PowerShell has the advantage of running against SQL snapshots instead of the production database. One of the parameters of the Windows PowerShell command will cause a SQL snapshot to be generated, and then Windows PowerShell will run the action against the snapshot instead of the production database. This will reduce the resource impact of the backup operation on the production environment.

• With Windows PowerShell, SharePoint administrators will have more granular control of options for the backup or restore.

For more info See : Windows PowerShell Tutorial



Q. How to Move content Databases using PowerShell ?

Ans. To attach\detach an existing content database use

Mount-SPContentDatabase "<ContentDb>" –DatabaseServer "<DbServer>" –WebApplication http://WebapplicationName

<ContentDb> is the content database to be attached.

<DbServer> is the name of the database server.

http://WebapplicationName is the name of the Web application to which the content database is being attached.

To detach a content database:

Dismount-SPContentDatabase "<ContentdBName>"

See more Commands at Windows Powershell Common Commands


Q. How to Export a Site or List in SharePoint 2010?

Ans. SharePoint Server 2010 provides several new features that provide a granular level of backup for various components of site content. This includes content at the site, subsite, and list level.

Through Central Administration(Granular level Back-up) a SharePoint Administrator can configure a backup of a subsite or list. An Administrator can choose a site and a specific list to be exported.The administrators can also choose to export security and select the different versions that will be exported with the list.

SharePoint Administration Interview Questions and Answers

SharePoint Administration Interview Questions and Answers

1. How many web applications we can create on WSS Server / SharePoint Server?

Every ASP.NET page creates DLL to the web application. Each DLL consumes the memory. And because of this, number of web application running on a server is limited to 99.

2. What is the Farm in SharePoint?

Farm is a collection of SharePoint servers having the same configuration database.
Configuration DB stores all the required information to run the farm. Each farm is administered through a central administration. There is only one configuration database for a SharePoint farm.

3. What is STS and SPS ? Stare difference?

SPS – SharePoint Portal Services

• It has better document management
• It has check-in, check-out, versioning, approval, publishing, subscriptions, categories, etc.
• It has a better search engine, and can crawl multiple content source
• It is better for an organization, and where Document Management is crucial.

STS – SharePoint Team Services

• It is easier to manage and much better for a team environment where there is not much Document Management going on.
• Above SPS features are not available in STS.
• This is only for team based environments

4. What is SharePoint Feature? What are all the scopes available? What files are used to define a feature?

A SharePoint Feature is a functional component that can be activated and deactivate at various scopes throughout a SharePoint instances.

Scopes:

• Farm
• Web Application
• Site (site collection)
• Web (site)

The two files that are used to define a feature are,

• feature.xml
• manifest file(elements.xml)

The feature XML file defines the actual feature and will make SharePoint aware of the installed feature. The manifest file contains details about the feature such as functionality.

5. What is WebPart Maintenance Page?  How to access it?

A page you can see all the webparts inserted in the page. We can remove harmful webpart in the page even if the page not opening due to the harm code.

We can access the WebPart maintenance page by keeping “?contents=1″
at the end of the webpart page URL, E.g,.

http://anandhsharepoint.loc/SitePages/Welcome.aspx?contents=1

6. What authentications are available in Sharepoint?

SharePoint 2010

1. Classic Based Authentication
   • Only Windows Authentication (NTML – Users are available in Active Directory)
   • Anonymous access can be enabled (Any one can access the site without login)
2. Claims Based Authentication
   • Windows Authentication (NTML – Users are available in Active Directory)
   • Form Based Authentication (ASP.NET FBA – Users stored in SQL database, Mainly used for vendors)
   • Anonymous access can be enabled (Any one can access the site without login)

SharePoint 2013

1. Claims Based Authentication (Classic based Authentication is removed remaining same as above)

Note: NTLM – Windows NT LAN Manager, FBA – Form Based Authentication

7. What is claims based authentication in SharePoint?

Claims is a new authentication method that SharePoint 2010/2013 can utilize. This allows a single authentication store for multiple types of authentication (Windows NTLM, SQL FBA, LDAP, etc). This allows all of these authentications to access SharePoint under a single URL.

Claims creates a SAML token based on the sign-in, that contains the user’s identity.

8. What is new in Shared Service Provider (SSP ) in Sharepoint 2010 ? ( Alternate Question : What is new Service Application?

In SharePoint 2010, Shared Service Provider is replace as Service Applications. SSP Services are split out into separate services.

What is replaced:
Profiles, Audiences = User Profile Service Application
Search = Search Service Application
Excel = Excel Service Application
Whats new:
Project Server = Project Server Application
Visio Services = Visio Service Application
Advantages:
Web applications can be configured to only use a subset of the deployed services.We can create same service application multiple times with different names. You can share services across multiple web applications in a farm.

9. Difference between Application Page and Site Page in SharePoint?

Application Page : 

• Stored in server file system, SharePoint designer cannot edit these pages.
• If you see page url contains “_layouts” that page is application page and we cannot customize.
• Developer can create these pages from visual studio and deploy as FARM solution.
• Sandbox solution will not be supported in application page.
• Application page can be accessed from any web application because page is deployed under layouts folder.
• E.g., site settings pages, All site contents page, List setting page etc,.

Site Page :

• Pages created by user and stored in content databases
• Page can be edited by end user and can insert webparts.
• Two types of site pages are available
  • Wiki Page (User can type and insert articles and webparts)
  • WebPart Page (Only webparts can be inserted)

10. What is BDC and BCS?

It is a shared service that enables Microsoft Office SharePoint Server(MOSS) 2007 to surface business data from back-end server applications. Business Data Catalog or BDC provides built-in support for displaying data from databases and Web services. That is, you can use Business Data Catalog to display data from your SAP, Siebel, or other line-of-business (LOB) application via Web services or databases connections.

BDC is read only to the database data, but is SharePoint 2010 and 2013 BDC is replaces as BCS names called Business Connectivity Services. BCS is read and write to the database data.

11. What is stsadm?

It is a Command-line tool used for administration of Office SharePoint 2007 (or MOSS 2007) servers and sites.

Even in SharePoint 2010 and 2013 we can still use stsadm commands but PowerShell scripts are popular than stsadm.

12. What is a dwp?

The file extension of a web part. dwp is data web part. We can dwp files in webpart gallery under site settings.

13. What is the GAC?

GAC is Global Assembly Cache. Global Assembly Cache is assembly folder on the server. You place your assemblies (web parts,services etc) to use in FARM level

Configuring the User Profile Service in SharePoint 2010 - Part 4

We will finish off by initiating a full synchronization via Central Administration / Application Management / Manage Service Applications / User Profiles / Start Profile Synchronization.

In order to confirm that the import was a success, the Number of User Profiles should now be set to the number of users in your organization, in my case I have 269 dummy users in my Active Directory domain.  Word of note; this will take some time and is considerably slower than an Active Directory User Profile import in SharePoint 2007.

You can also venture into Manage User Profiles and search for users (please take note that SharePoint 2010 does not display any users by default and that you will have to search for them).

Edit a User Profile to ensure that all the necessary Active Directory attributes were successfully imported.

We have now successfully completed a User Profile Synchronization which will form as a basis for User’s My Sites in my next article.  Until then, happy SharePointing!!

Configuring the User Profile Service in SharePoint 2010 - Part 3

We will now venture back into Central Administration / System Settings / Manage services on server.

Scroll down to the User Profile Service and User Profile Synchronisation Service and start both.  The User Profile Service should start without any further user interaction, however the User Profile Synchronization Service will ask for your SharePoint Farm credentials.

Click Ok.

Both services should now be listed as started.

This in turn, will correctly configure and start our ForeFront Identity Manager Windows Services (FIM).

At this point, it is imperative you run an IIS reset.  Even better, just reboot the machine 

We will now configure our User Profile Connection to our Active Directory Domain.

Navigate to Central Administration / Application Management / Manage Service Applications.

Click on User Profiles / Manage.

Click on Configure Synchronizations connections / Create New Connection.

Enter the follow details;

Connection Name:

Type: Active Directory

Auto discover domain controller or specify a domain controller

Authentication Provider Type: Windows Authentication

Account Name / Password:

Port: 389

Click on Populate Containers

Click OK.

Your connection should now be listed as follows upon successful creation.

We can now easily setup connection filters against our Active Directory User Profile connection by clicking on the connection that was just created and selecting “Edit Connection Filters”.

Specify and Add any User or Group exclusions and then click OK.

Next we will Configure a Synchronization Timer Job via Central Administration / Application Management / Manage Service Applications / User Profiles.

Click Enable

Configuring the User Profile Service in SharePoint 2010 - Part 2

User Profile Service

Now that we have successfully configured our Managed Metadata service we can now focus our attention on the User Profile Service.  The User Profile Service provides our SharePoint farm with all the social networking features that we have come to love in SharePoint 2007, plus more.  It forms the basis of My Site support, User profile pages, Audiences and some of the newer features in SharePoint 2010 social computing such as social tagging.

Before we begin, we need to ensure that our Farm account (DOMAIN\sp_farm) is listed as a member of the Local Administrator’s group where the User Profile Synchronization (UPS) service will be deployed.  Please make a note to remove the DOMAIN\sp_farm account from the Local Administrator’s group after provisioning the User Profile Synchronization service.  Please also note, that if you ever have to re-provision the UPS service at a later date, that you will need to ensure the DOMAIN\sp_farm account is added back to the Local Administrator’s group.

Let’s now navigate to Central Administration / Application Management / Manage Service Applications.

Click New and select “User Profile Service Application”

The “Create New User Profile Service Application” window pops up in which you will enter the following details; (you will obviously enter in the details based on your environment setup)

Name: User Profiles

Create new application pool: SharePoint – User Profiles

Register a new managed account: e.g. DOMAIN\sp_userprofiles (nb: this account will need to be provisioned in Active Directory first)

Enter your Profile Database server details and database authentication.  You will notice that SharePoint 2010 introduces the ability to configure Failover Server which allows you to associate your SharePoint databases with another SQL server for failover purposes utilising SQL Server database mirroring.   We will not specify a Failover Database server for any of our databases at this present time.

Specify your Synchronization Database which is used to store configuration and staging data for synchronization of profile data such as that from Active Directory.

Next, specify your Social Tagging Database which is used to store tags and notes that are created by users.  Social Tagging is a new feature in SharePoint 2010 which is not only displayed against the items that user’s are tagging, but are also displayed in the user’s activity feed.

Next, select your Profile Synchronization Instance Server.

In the proceeding section, we will not create a My Site Host URL and will leave this for part two of this series.

Click Create.

You should now have the User Profiles service application listed and  started.

Configuring the User Profile Service in SharePoint 2010 - Part 1

I first introduced Service Applications and User Profile Service Synchronization back when SharePoint 2010 was in beta, and as many of you who would have attempted this feat, would have come to realize that there were a couple of known issues, in particular those around utilizing a least privilege model with service accounts.  I’m confident in stating that these issues have now been resolved with RTM and in today’s article I will share with you my step by step guide in setting up the User Profile Service application, focusing on its configuration and administration and how we can enable the creation of user profiles via an Active Directory import .

SharePoint 2010 introduces the notion of “Service Applications” which build’s upon the “Shared Services Provider (SSP)” which was introduced in SharePoint 2007.  Service Applications are individual services that can be configured independently and can be shared across other sites within your farm with some service applications that can also be configured across farms.

The individual service applications provided with SharePoint 2010 are listed as follows;

• Access Services
• Business Data Connectivity
• Document Conversion
• Excel Services
• Managed Metadata Service
• PerformancePoint
• Search Service
• Secure Store
• State Service
• Visio Graphics Service
• User Profile Service

This article will build upon our initial SharePoint 2010 install utilizing the least privilege model which I have documented here, so check it out if you haven’t already done so.

Managed Metadata Service

The User Profile service requires that the Managed Metadata Service is setup and configured first before attempting setting up our first User Profile Service.  The Managed Metadata service allows you to utilize managed metadata and provides you with the ability to share content types across sites.  You can read more about Managed Metadata here.

To setup our Managed Metadata Service, navigate to Central Administration / Application Management / Manage Service Applications.

Click New and select “Managed Metadata Service”

Enter the follow details;

Name: Managed Metadata Service

Database Server: <server_name>

Database Name: Managed Metadata DB

I will utilize the sp_farm account for the Application Pool Identity.

Click Create.

Lastly, navigate to Central Administration / System Settings / Manage services on server and start theManaged Metadata Web Service.

Farm Topology

Link

My Site

My site

Claim Based Authentication with SP 2010

Details

Useful info blog as Architect

Click

Sandbox Architecture

Details