My Site web application root site collection

Scenario: root top site collection for My Site web application got deleted (don’t ask how :-).

All my sites are still in tact as each of them is a separate site collection on it’s own, but if the top site collection under /">http://<mysitesURL>/ is deleted then people will not be able to create new my sites, this root site collection servers as provisioning mechanism for new MySites and also hosts Person.aspx page where end-users can view other people profiles.

So some of the things that you will notice right away:

1. No new My Sites can be created, instead people are getting “Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage”.

2. When people search result set is displayed, clicking on the person’s link to profile will bring to the “Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage” as well.

3. Your SharePoint search will not crawl people profiles anymore. This is because the top level site collection does not exist.

At this point you can recreate this mysite root site collection from Central administration under my sites web application, but only if you have the option to recreate it in the root. If you don’t have this option (I did not), you might have to recreate the whole web app, but backup all existing “my sites” firsts. For the first site collection that you will create use “My sites host” template under “enterprise” tab. After this create a managed path named “Personal”.

After you have done all of this restore all "”Mysites” that you have created backups for but not under the root URL :-), under /pesonal">http://<mysites>/pesonal

And you should be all set.

Enjoy

Technorati Tags: My Sites,web application,site collection,my sites host template,people crawl

BP 2009 - Educated approach for selecting third party products and Vendors presentation

The conference is over and I enjoyed it very much. I’ve met a lot of great people “Hi all!” and as promised here is my presentation on third party products.

Educated approach for selecting third party products and Vendors

Description: SharePoint has become the platform that companies and businesses are turning to in search of solutions for their business needs.  Windows SharePoint Services also provides a foundation platform for building Web-based business applications that can easily scale to meet the changing and growing needs of business, as a result there is plethora of 3rd-party suppliers. In some cases third party applications and add-ons add some flexibility or more functionality to the basic feature set offered by SharePoint, and in others they enable powerful administrative capabilities and allow integration with critical business applications and databases. The number of third-party SharePoint applications and Web Parts is growing at a remarkable rate. This growth brings a lot of confusion on how to select the right vendor and product to customers that are looking to supplement their SharePoint environment. In this session, you will learn to identify difference categories of third party products available on the market and their value, select the right product and vendor that would fit their budget and business needs, and understand implications of introducing different products into their SharePoint environment

Technorati Tags: third party products,best practices conference,sharepoint,sharepoint applications

BP 2009 in San Diego – Training your SharePoint staff presentation

Just Got back home from the conference and even though I greatly enjoyed the conference and people attending, but home is home :-)

As promised here is the presentation on Training Staff Responsible in the Various Roles and Responsibilities

Description: The SharePoint implementation can be very complex, involving many types of roles and responsibilities within an organization, it’s critical that all groups involved are competent enough to take advantage of its functionality. Even if your portal solutions are state of the art, but when end users don’t use it, the implementation is a waste of time and budget. This session will cover all roles and role based training approach. This presentation covers the identification of the key roles involved in the usage/development/maintenance of the SharePoint Portal, describes the type of training each role is required to receive based on their responsibilities, and how to deliver more focused and relevant training. It is hoped that audience members walk away with enough understanding of the importance of delivering training to all roles involved and with concrete and useful information that help them to develop the right training strategy.

Enjoy :-)

Technorati Tags: training,best practices conference,sharepoint