The second video is just under 15 minutes but it will be time well spent. It gives you a walk through the different Office 365 applications. Good for SharePoint guys to have a glance of Exchange and Lync online.

Background
SharePoint 2013 uses the AppFabric (Caching) by Microsoft. Read here for a background on AppFabric. AppFabric Caching stores serialised managed objects in a ‘cache cluster’. The cache cluster consists of one or more machines (Cache Hosts) that pool their available physical memory. This pooled memory is presented  and used by SharePoint as a single source of caching memory.

How is it used in SharePoint
SharePoint uses the Distributed Cache to store data for very fast retrieval across all entities. The Distributed Cache service provides in-memory caching services to several features in SharePoint Server 2013. Some of the features that use the Distributed Cache service include:
· Newsfeeds
· Authentication
· OneNote client access
· Security Trimming
· Page load performance

In SharePoint Server 2013, there are several caches that exist, all of which depend on the Distributed Cache service.
Different caches that depend on the Distributed Cache service as indicated in the following table:

Source: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj219700.aspx

Installation
AppFabric is a required component for SharePoint 2013 and is installed as part of the prerequisite installer. Thus each server automatically becomes part of the ‘cache cluster’. There is nothing to configure here as SharePoint does this automatically.

Farm Architecture – modes
Here is some terminology that will be useful when talking SharePoint architecture and topology:
There are two ‘modes’ for Distributed Cache – A collocated mode or a dedicated mode. The Distributed Cache is started and run on all WFE and APP servers by default. If you have over 10000 users, you should look into a dedicated server (dedicated mode) Distributed Cache. Dedicated Mode simply means all other services are turned off and more memory is allocated to the Distributed Cache.

Farm design
While designing your topology, could consider starting the Distributed Cache service on your WFE servers (for redundancy) and stop the Distributed Cache Service on the APP server if you are concerned with ‘overhead’ caused by all the other services running on the APP server. You can consider a scale up plan if you are low on resources or scale out (by starting the Distributed Cache on other servers in the farm).
Finally it boils down to memory allocation at the end of the day. By default, the Distributed memory allocation size defaults to a value of 10 percent of total physical memory when SharePoint Server 2013 installs. You can change the memory allocation with the Update-SPDistributedCacheSize cmdlet.

Here is a link that may help on the ‘right approach’: http://technet.microsoft.com/library/jj219572%28office.15%29.aspx (note the ‘Capacity planning for the Distributed Cache service’ section).

Management
The Distributed Cache service can be stopped or started via the Central Administration or via PowerShell.

Servers can be added or removed from the ‘Cache cluster’ too. When removing the server, the Distributed Cache service is stopped, then unregistered from the server. Unregistering the Distributed Cache service means that you will not see the Distributed Cache service listed on the Services on Server page in Central Administration. Adding a server means that you will see the Distributed Cache service listed on Services on Server page in Central Administration.

To add a server and start the service in PowerShell: Add-SPDistributedCacheServiceInstance

To remove a server and stop the service in PowerShell:
Remove-SPDistributedCacheServiceInstance

To stop (not remove) the Distributed Cache service by using Central Administration: In Central Administration, click Application Management. In Service Applications, click Manage Services on Server. On the Services on Server page, locate the Distributed Cache service. If the Distributed Cache service is started and you want to stop the service, under Action, click Stop.

To stop (not remove) the Distributed Cache service by using Windows PowerShell: At the Windows PowerShell command prompt, run the following command: $instanceName =”SPDistributedCacheService Name=AppFabricCachingService” $serviceInstance = Get-SPServiceInstance | ? {($.service.tostring()) -eq $instanceName -and ($.server.name) -eq $env:computername} $serviceInstance.Unprovision()

To check existing memory allocation of the Distributed Cache Host:
Use-CacheCluster
Get-AFCacheHostConfiguration -ComputerName ComputerName -CachePort “22233″

To reconfigure the cache size of the Distributed Cache Service:
Update-SPDistributedCacheSize -CacheSizeInMB CacheSize

Firewall configuration considerations
The Distributed Cache service uses the following communication ports:
22233
22234
22235
22236

Monitoring
The Distributed Cache can be monitored using below performance counters in Perfmon:

SharePoint Distributed Cache Counters
Cache Data Transferred Per Sec
Cache Hit Count
Cache Hit Ratio
Cache Miss Count
Cache Read Requests per sec
Cache Write Requests per sec
Total Cache Read Requests
Total Cache Write Requests

Additionally, there are three groups of ‘AppFabric’ counters available. Note there are multiple instances – indicating the different caches present in the Distributed Cache.
AppFabric Caching:Cache
AppFabric Caching:Host
AppFabric Caching:Secondary Host

Important Distributed Cache resource
Manage the Distributed Cache service in SharePoint Server 2013
Plan for feeds and the Distributed Cache service in SharePoint Server 2013

The above link shows how you can:

• Change the memory allocation of the Distributed Cache service
• Add or remove a server in a Distributed Cache cluster
• Perform a graceful shutdown of the Distributed Cache service
• Change the service account
• Repair a cache host

Further reading
5 Minute Cheat Sheet on SharePoint 2013 Distribution Cache
Leveraging AppFabric for custom caching in SharePoint 2013
AppFabric Distributed Caching and SharePoint 2013
AppFabric Caching and SharePoint: Concepts and Examples (Part 1)
AppFabric Caching (and SharePoint): Configuration and Deployment (Part 2)
How to get Distributed Cache size (SharePoint 2013)
Leveraging AppFabric for custom caching in SharePoint 2013
Cache cluster is down, restart the cache cluster and Retry

Here is a summary of the steps to create a new Host Named Site Collection

• Create a new Web Application or use an existing Web Application. I chose http://jeremy as my WebApplication
• Decide what your new Site Collection unique URL should be. I chose http://test and http://teamsite to run off a Team Site template.

• Run the following in the SharePoint Management Shell:

$w = Get-SPWebApplication http://jeremy
New-SPSite http://test -OwnerAlias "testdomain\testowner" -HostHeaderWebApplication $w -Name "test" -Template "STS#0"
New-SPSite http://teamsite -OwnerAlias "testdomain\testowner" -HostHeaderWebApplication $w -Name "teamsite" -Template "STS#0"

• Once done, add site bindings in IIS, otherwise you cant browse to your site.

• Configure kerberos for your Host Name site collection.
  Create a Managed Path if required (New-SPManagedPath)

For more information on creating Host NamedSite Collections  and App host configuration:

http://www.sharepointblues.com/2012/11/22/configurin-sharepoint-2013-host-named-site-collections-and-apps-host

Host Named Sited Collection in SharePoint 2010 (applies to SharePoint 2013):

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/kaevans/archive/2012/03/27/what-every-sharepoint-admin-needs-to-know-about-host-named-site-collections.aspx

Note: Just update the $ServiceName variable as it appears in Central Administration and run.
The following PowerShell runs on the local server (-server $env:COMPUTERNAME). Replace $env:COMPUTERNAME with the server name in the farm to stop and start services on the other servers in the farm.

To stop a service:
$ServiceName = “Visio Graphics Service”
Get-SPServiceInstance -server $env:COMPUTERNAME | where-object {$_.TypeName -eq $ServiceName} | Stop-SPServiceInstance -confirm:$false > $null

To start a service:
$ServiceName = “Visio Graphics Service”
Get-SPServiceInstance -server $env:COMPUTERNAME | where-object {$_.TypeName -eq $ServiceName} | Start-SPServiceInstance -confirm:$false > $null

However, I came across Shane Young’s brilliant one line PowerShell command to get the job done!

Export all of the Solutions from your farm:

(Get-SPFarm).Solutions | ForEach-Object{$var = (Get-Location).Path + “\” + $_.Name; $_.SolutionFile.SaveAs($var)}

Import all of the Solution into another farm

Get-ChildItem | ForEach-Object{Add-SPSolution -LiteralPath $_.Fullname}
Note: Shane’s blogpost has the third step to deploy all these solutions. Not all Web Applications may need to have farm solutions deployed to them. So – you might want to plan this one, rather than deploy all these solutions to all Web Applications.

Check out Shane’s blogpost:
http://msmvps.com/blogs/shane/archive/2011/05/05/using-powershell-to-export-all-solutions-from-your-sharepoint-2010-farm-and-other-fun.aspx

Since SharePoint servers are all 64bit, if you create a SQL Alias via the gui you would only create a 64bit SQL Alias. What about a 32bit SQL Alias? Do we need a 32 bit SQL Alias??

Keep in mind that tools such as SSMS – SQL Server Management Studio are 32bit, so we DO need a 32bit SQL Alias created if you want to connect to SQL using the SQL Alias name.
I find it easy to script out both my 64bit SQL Alias (for SharePoint) as well as 32bit SQL Alias so that we can connect via SSMS (makes life easier to remember friendly names!).

Now there are other ways to do this but here is a simple PowerShell script that I have used over the years to create a 32 bit and a 64 bit SQL Alias.

# Set the two variables and then run in a PowerShell prompt
$SQLAliasName = “SQLALIASNAME”
$sqlserver = “Sqlservername\instancename,1433″ # Update as required. Change the port if using a custom port.

# This script creates a 64bit and 32bit SQL Alias on the server. Run this script on all servers in your SharePoint farm.

Write-Host “Creating x64 SQL Alias”

New-Item -path HKLM:SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSSQLServer\Client\ConnectTo
New-ItemProperty HKLM:SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSSQLServer\Client\ConnectTo -name $SQLAliasName -propertytype String -value “DBMSSOCN,$sqlserver”

Write-Host “Creating 32bit SQL Alias”

New-Item -path HKLM:SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\MSSQLServer\Client\ConnectTo
Write-Host “Configured SQL Alias on the Server”
New-ItemProperty HKLM:SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\MSSQLServer\Client\ConnectTo -name $SQLAliasName -propertytype String -value “DBMSSOCN,$sqlserver”

Note: Not all applications are SQL Alias aware. When configuring Reporting Services (SharePoint integrated mode), specifying a SQL Alias in the Reporting Services Configuration Manager does not work. I had to specify the database server in the SQLSERVER\InstanceName format.

Will be interested to know if you have had issues using SQL Alias names with other applications/features.

Windows 2012
So much change for us SharePoint Admins and developers as we have to re-learn a new Windows operating system with its new ‘metro’ UI.
If you are into SharePoint certifications, then it is a requirement to achieve the MCSA in Windows 2012 to get your SharePoint certification. I am working on getting myself an MCSA in Windows 2012 and since Im an MCITP, I have to just do one upgrade exam 70-417.
Dont know where to start? Here is a great set of free training videos by Microsoft Senior Technical Evangelist Rick Claus and Ed Liberman from TrainSignal. http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKJ4uTj5tbxHMdt1yT0FWNzderYzv5_Ca

PowerShell 3.0
Learning Windows 2012 has led me to learning PowerShell 3.0. There is so much more we can do with it! There are over 2300 PowerShell cmdlets with Windows 2012. I have been playing around with PowerShell ISE too. It has evolved to become a great help in learning more cmdlets and constructing your PowerShell scripts. Im looking forward to spending a lot of time with PowerShell 3.0 in the coming year.

SharePoint 2013
Once I get my MCSA in Windows 2012, it will be time for the SharePoint 2013 exams. Training generally will be available for it towards the middle of the year. The two exams I will be doing are: 70-331 – Core Solutions of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013 and 70-332 – Advanced Solutions of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013.
Doing the 70-417, 70-331 and 70-332 will make me a Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert – SharePoint.
I will be posting more training links on SharePoint 2013 in the coming weeks.

SQL 2012
A new database server was released bringing some new features and improvements such as: AlwaysOn, improved Business Intelligence features, improved management and performance. I found some good improvements with PowerPivot and SharePoint. If I have time this year, I might do a certification in SQL 2012 in the second half of the year. In my experience, SQL is most often the main culprit for poor SharePoint performance – thanks to a badly configured SQL instance by SharePoint Admins with limited SQL knowledge or by traditional SQL DBAs who still think SharePoint databases with their tables are a mess because they wished they knew how SharePoint ran (Microsoft does not support running SQL queries on SharePoint databases except for the logging database). I hope to post more on SQL for SharePoint on my blog.

I trust you have chalked out a plan to embrace and adopt these new products for the year ahead.

Wishing you a Happy New SharePoint 2013 year!

Here is a list of SharePoint 2013 free ebooks available on the internet:

Microsoft: Explore SharePoint 2013

Microsoft: Deployment guide for SharePoint 2013

Microsoft: IT Professional Reviewer’s Guide for SharePoint Server 2013

Microsoft: Plan and use the Distributed Cache service in SharePoint Server 2013

In a command prompt, type in

“%SystemRoot%\Downloaded Program Files\transfermgr.exe”

Then Enter.

Hope this helps someone!

Some of the features that have been discontinued may continue to operate in SharePoint 2013. But warnings have been given for some of the features that will be completely removed from the next version of SharePoint – maybe SharePoint 16 or SharePoint 2016 ?

Some of my notes:

• When you create a site, all Meeting Workspace site templates (Basic Meeting Workspace, Blank Meeting Workspace, Decision Meeting Workspace, Social Meeting Workspace, and Multipage Meeting Workspace) are not available. I know some environments that heavily use workspaces and I’m keen to inform them about this change.
• FAST for SharePoint has now been integrated into SharePoint 2013. So a lot of features have changed in this space. One of them is the Search RSS feeds being discontinued and another is the Web Analytics are part of the Search service.
• Office Web Apps server has sort of divorced from SharePoint 2013. 2 years ago with SharePoint 2010 they were inseparable! So a lot of functionality has changed in this space. In case you didn’t know, you cant install Office Web Apps on the same server as SharePoint 2013, it doesn’t allow you to. It has to reside on a separate server.

Click here for more info:
Discontinued features and modified functionality in Microsoft SharePoint 2013