With the SharePoint 2010 official launch occurring on May12th, we complete our series of articles reviewing the new features of SharePoint 2010 with a look at the Administrative enhancements, System Requirements and Upgrade Path for SharePoint. One major improvement in SharePoint 2010 over previous versions is the overall stability and availability of SharePoint. There are several related new features from the infrastructure and administrative perspective that are worth noting.
The major features include:
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Support for automatic failover for SQL Server (2008). A failover database server can be added when creating a web application on the farm.
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Health Analyzer that performs proactive farm monitoring. Built in health rules analyze the farm on a predetermined schedule and alert administrators to any issues. These rules are customizable and can be changed as needed for a specific farm environment. Some issues can even be repaired automatically using the Repair Now feature.
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Granular backup and restore capability using the SharePoint User Interface. New functionality gives administrators the ability to perform backups at the site, web and list level. Additionally, content can be recovered from databases that are not attached to the SharePoint farm. Even more options are available for these features when using PowerShell.
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Patching state insights including patch status health rules. Products and versions farm wid e are tracked within Central Administration and health rules alert administrators to patch level inconsistencies. Installation of patches is also more flexible allowing the servers to be patched first while scheduled downtime for the databases can be set for a later time.
SharePoint 2010 also includes several improvements to Security including the ability to granularly secure SharePoint Designer 2010 functionality from within Central Administration.
Administrators now have more control over what actions users
can perform when using SharePoint Designer. The settings listed below can be configured per Web Application.
As with most new version of software platforms, SharePoint 2010 requires additional server resources and requires several software updates to existing platforms.
SharePoint 2010 requires the following Operating System configurations
§ Windows Server 2008 SP 2 or later
§ Windows Server 2008 R2
§ SharePoint 2010 only supports 64 bit installations of the Operating System
SharePoint 2010 requires the following SQL Server configurations
§ SQL Server 2005 SP 2 or later
§ SQL Server 2008 SP1 Cumulative Update 2 or later (SP1 + KB 970315)
§ Again, SharePoint 2010 only supports 64 bit installations of SQL
SharePoint 2010 allows the following upgrade methods:
§ In Place Upgrade
§ Database Attach Upgrade
You’ll note that Side by Side installation and the Gradual Upgrade methods are not supported in SharePoint 2010. If you are running a WSS 3.0/MOSS 2007 instance currently, you will need to be on Service Pack 2. Prior versions of SharePoint are not able to perform a direct upgrade.
