SharePoint 2016 Overview By Vignesh Ganesan | MCP, MCITP,MCTS & ITIL V3

SharePoint Consultant Blog site : www.vigneshsharepointthoughts.com

Active Blogger on SharePoint Community & C Sharp corner DISCLAIMER: Ideas may differ but these are my own thoughts

@sharepointnerd / vignesh.ganesan.14

Software & Hardware Requirements

What’s new & what’s deprecated?

Agenda

Recap & ConclusionMigration Approach to SharePoint 2016

Feature Packs ,MinRole & Zero downtime patching

Deployment Guidelines and Best practices

Evolution of SharePoint

SharePoint 2016SharePoint Server 2016 RTM was released on March 14th

2016 Later was subsequently made available to the public on

May 2016 Most of the features were cherry picked from Office 365

and implemented here.Based on SharePoint online learnings

Infrastructure

Handle more data, more efficiently, at less cost

Maximize existing infrastructure

Flexible deployments

Scalable Flexible Cloud Connected

Lower IT costs with a scalable collaboration platform

Flexibility to deploy on-premises, in the cloud, or in a hybrid scenario

Naturally extend business applications to the cloud with simple, integrated hybrid solutions

MinRole for improved role-based installation architecture

Support for Windows Server / SQL Server 2016 and Windows Azure

Enable discovery with Office Graph/Delve and on-premises content

Follow documents, sites, and people across on-premises and Office 365

Rapidly deploy new extranet scenarios with Office 365 integration

New streamlined topology

2x improvement in search scale to 500 million documents

Ability to update and patch SharePoint Server 2016 with no downtime

Spotlight capabilities

Cloud-inspired infrastructureMajor server release with significant scalability, flexibility, and functional enhancements

User Experience:

Office 365 integrationHybrid implementation

Improved mobile accessTouch-based experiences

Document storage and collaborationPeople-centric

Improved browsing experiences on mobile devices

New APIs to develop solutions that span SharePoint and Office 365

Faster page load performance

Improved link share experience

Rapid provisioning logic for fast site creation

Spotlight capabilities

Access and Share Mobile Developer Experience

Instant access and share to people, applications, and content

Consistent user experience across screens and devices with a new and improved touch UX

Create contextual solutions and apps that integrate with Office applications

New intuitive experiences help you get things done—more quickly and cost effectively

Compliance

Keep information secure

New features and capabilities

Greater access control

Built-in and cloud-connected compliance, security, and threat protection for both administrators and end users

Enable item-level encryption when combined with Office 365

Enable document encryption when combined with IRM or cloud-accelerated with Office 365 Compliance Center integration

Built-in DLP policy templates

Document Hold and Deletion centers

Discover sensitive content via eDiscovery

Find sensitive information with 51 unique classification IDs

Spotlight capabilities

Auditing and Reporting Compliance Data Loss Prevention

Monitor and report who actually accessed and modified critical information

Better manage risk by safeguarding your business with secure and reliable capabilities

Exercise fine control over who has access to information

ComplianceFind the perfect balance between compliance and collaboration

Hardware requirements for SharePoint 2016

Physical servers must be in the same networkStretched farm is supported with <1ms intra-latency and 1 Gbps Ethernet

connections

For MinRole Architecture:Deployment type and scale DescriptionTwo computer farm with:

•One SharePoint server that uses the Single-Server role.•One SQL Server

This is the Single-Server farm role in the MinRole feature. Use this role to test installation, create a farm and use common features that have minimal changes, good for basic assessment of SharePoint Server 2016.

Four or five computer farm with:

•One SQL Server•One Front-end web server.•One Application server.•One Distributed Cache server.•One Search server.

Good for testing more complex topologies and all the services. Suited for testing Enterprise Search and provides a foundation to build on for doing build-to-build upgrades.

Software requirements for SharePoint 2016

Latest generation of Windows and SQL server are needed Operating system requirements: • Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard or Datacenter• Windows Server 2016 Standard or Datacenter

SQL Server requirements:• The 64-bit edition of Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Service Pack 1 (SP1)• The 64-bit edition of Microsoft SQL Server 2016 • SQL Server Express is not supported

Note : SP1 for SQL Server 2016 is out

Prerequisites:• Web Server (IIS) role• Application Server role• Microsoft .NET Framework version 4.6• Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Service Pack 1 Native Client• Microsoft WCF Data Services 5.6• Microsoft Information Protection and Control Client (MSIPC)• Microsoft Sync Framework Runtime v1.0 SP1 (x64)• Windows Server AppFabric 1.1• Cumulative Update Package 7 for Microsoft AppFabric 1.1 for Windows Server (KB

3092423)• Microsoft ODBC Driver 11 for SQL Server• Visual C++ Redistributable Package for Visual Studio 2012• Visual C++ Redistributable Package for Visual Studio 2015

Supported browsers for SharePoint 2016:Browser Supported Not supported

Microsoft Edge X

Internet Explorer 11 X

Internet Explorer 10 X

Internet Explorer 9 X

Internet Explorer 8 X

Internet Explorer 7 X

Internet Explorer 6 X

Google Chrome (latest released version) X

Mozilla Firefox (latest released version plus immediate previous version)

X

Apple Safari (latest released version) X

Boundaries and limits:SharePoint 2016 SharePoint 2013

SharePoint 2010

Content Database Size Content database sizing into TB’s

200 GB in general usage scenarios.

200 GB in general usage scenarios.

Site Collections per Content Database

100,000 site collections per content database

2,000 recommended5,000 maximum

2,000 recommended5,000 maximum

List Threshold Increased List Threshold >5,000 5,000 items 5,000 items

MaxFile SizeMaxFile Size increases to 10GB and removed character restrictions

Default maximum file size is 250 MB which can increase up to 2GB

Default maximum file size is 250 MB which can increase up to 2GB

Indexed Items 2x increase in Search scale to 500 million items

100 million per search service application.10 million per index partition

100 million per search service application.10 million per index partition

What’s new and updated in SP 2016:

Access Services Compliance features

Customized web parts

Document Library accessibility Durable links Encrypted

Connections

Fast Site Collection Creation

Filenames - expanded support

for special characters

Hybrid in SharePoint 2016

Identify and Search for sensitive

content

Image and Video previews

Information Rights Management

Large file support MinRole Mobile experience

New controls for working with OneDrive for

Business

New Recycle Bin in OneDrive and

Team sites

Open Document Format (ODF)

Project Server ReFS file system support

SharePoint business

intelligenceSharePoint Search Sharing

improvements Site Folders view

Sites page pinning SMTP Connection Encryption

SMTP ports (non-default)

Web Application Open Platform

Interface Protocol (WOPI)

Deprecated and removed from SP 2016:

SharePoint Foundation

&Stand alone Install mode

Duet Enterprise for Microsoft

SharePoint

Forefront Identity Manager client

(FIM)

Excel Services in SharePoint

SharePoint BI capabilities (SQL2016)

Tags and Notes/Stsadm.exe

Work Management

Service Application

SharePoint Designer

&InfoPath

Hybrid Features:• Hybrid is just not meant to bring your business to the cloud but to bring cloud

to your business

Hybrid Sites Hybrid Follow Office 365 Profiles

Hybrid OneDrive for Business

Cloud Hybrid Search

Where are we now?

SharePoint 2016(Mar 2016) PU PU PU

Feature Pack 1(PU) PU PU …..

SharePoint 2016 has a converged code base that serves both cloud and on-premises customersFeatures are released in Office 365 firstSharePoint Server 2016 will be serviced with many of these features

Major releases remain on a traditional 2-3 year release cycle

Release Frequency Contents

Security Update As required Security fixes

Public Update Monthly Bug fixes, new features from cloud

Major Release Every 2-3 years New features

SharePoint

Feature Pack 2(H2 2017)PU

Converged codebase

SharePoint Online

SharePoint Server

Converged SharePoint

Feature Packs Leverage cloud features with SharePoint Server 2016

What’s a Feature Pack?Unlike previous versions of SharePoint, release-to-manufacture (RTM) did not define the end of innovation, but the beginning. As we continue to develop SharePoint Server 2016, we’ve paid close attention to customer feedback, trends in content management, team collaboration, user experiences across devices, and how the cloud can be blended into existing on-premises scenarios in new and compelling ways. Feature Packs allow us to accelerate delivery of cloud-first features to our Software Assurance customers (where noted) of SharePoint Server 2016 outside of the traditional 2- to 3-year release cadence.

New in Nov 2016 PU for SharePoint Server 2016 (Feature Pack 1):

MinRole enhancements

SharePoint Custom Tiles

SharePoint Hybrid Taxonomy(Preview)

Administrative Actions Logging

OneDrive API for SharePoint on-

premises and Office 365

SharePoint Hybrid Auditing(Preview)

OneDrive for Business modern

experience

Normal Information Worker

OneDrive for business user experience

Custom app launcher tiles

IT

MinRole enhancements

Hybrid auditing

Hybrid taxonomy

Administrative action logging

DeveloperOneDrive API 2.0

OneDrive for Business Modern UX New Modern UX accrued from Office 365• Adds Move to and Copy to • Adds new Information Panel• Adds Rename• Fast and responsive

Available for Software Assurance customers

Custom Tiles• It was already available on Office 365 and now it's available on SharePoint

2016 as well . • Simple, list-based support for creating custom App• Mainly based on a list item called “Custom tiles”

Custom tiles list • Hidden list which is configured at the web application level so that all the site

collections can make use of it .• Use PowerShell to configure this

Hybrid Auditing (Preview):Users can choose to upload their SharePoint diagnostic and usage logs and

have reports generated for them in Office 365.With SharePoint Hybrid Auditing, the SharePoint Administrators now have

visibility to user's file access activities in their SharePoint 2016 on-premises farms or in their SharePoint Online sites

If you opt in for this service, audit logs get collected and uploaded to Office 365 regularly.

Reports are available via Office 365 audit log search

Configuring Hybrid Auditing : https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt622371(v=office.16).aspx

Hybrid Taxonomy (Preview):A one stop shop solution to create and maintain a shared Taxonomy

between your On-Premises farm and Office 365 SharePoint Online tenantTerms, Term Sets, and Groups are available in both environmentsUpdate your taxonomy in SharePoint Online and the changes are

automatically propagated across all of your site collections and listsLocal terms (site specific) remain local and are not replicatedYou control which term groups are shared between On-Premises and

SharePoint OnlineYou can choose to keep some term groups as On-Premises only or SharePoint

Online onlyConfiguring Hybrid Taxonomy :_ https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Configure-hybrid-SharePoint-taxonomy-Preview-dd287a75-09e0-403e-974e-4cc84a152815

Administrative Actions Logging

To track changes made to SharePoint Server settings which can sometimes cause errors or have unintended effects

Logging is available for both Central Administration and Windows PowerShell actions.

New PowerShell command - “Merge-SPUsageLog” to retrieve administrative actions logs .

Detailed description :_ https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt790698(v=office.16).aspx

PowerShell – “Merge-SPUsageLog”

Migration approach to SharePoint 2016:

How to upgrade?• Version to Version upgrade• All Site Collections must be in 15 mode• Database attach upgrade (content only)• Create new SharePoint 2016 farm and attach SharePoint 2013 databases to

SharePoint 2016• SharePoint Server 2016 does not support SharePoint 2010 mode (i.e.,

compatibility level 14) site collections.• SharePoint Server 2016 supports an upgrade from SharePoint Server 2013

with Service Pack 1 (SP1) with March 2013 PU, version 15.0.4481.1005 or higher

Upgrading to the next version :If you are planning to upgrade to the next major release of SharePoint, make sure

your existing environment is running a version of SharePoint that can be upgraded to the next one.

Fix the errors in the current version before upgrading

List of the build numbers required to upgrade to the next major version of SharePoint:To upgrade from SharePoint 2007 to 2010, minimal build: SharePoint 2007 SP2,

build number (12.0.6421.1000)To upgrade from SharePoint 2010 to 2013, minimal build: SharePoint 2010 SP1,

build number (14.0.6029.1000)To upgrade from SharePoint Server 2013 to 2016, minimal build SharePoint

Server 2013 SP1 + March 2013 PU, build number (15.0.4481.1005)

Overall Upgrade Process

Plan & Audit Existing

Architect, Build & Test

Run Tests (Pre-Upgrade) Run Upgrade

TestCommitDecommission

Points to consider for upgrading

No more preupgradecheck . Use PowerShellTest-SPContentDatabase –name Intranet_Content_DB -Webapplication http://upgrade.sp.com Works the same in 2010, 2013, and 2016SharePoint 2016 is Claims based . However, Classic is still there but don’t use it until really required Recommended to upgrade to 2016 (or 2013) and then convert to claims Detailed explanation :

https://blog.qipoint.com/2016/08/14/upgrading-to-sharepoint-2016-step-by-step/

SharePoint 2016 build numbers:

You also need these updates:Office Online ServerApp Fabric (2013)Language PacksProject Server

Configuring Office Online server for SP 2016:_ https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff431687(v=office.16).aspx

Office Online Server version compatibility list:

Product Office Web Apps Server Office Online Server

SharePoint Server 2013 Yes Yes*

SharePoint Server 216 No Yes

Lync Server 2013 Yes Yes

Skype for Business Server 2015 Yes Yes

Exchange Server 2013 No No

Exchange Server 2016 No Yes

Deployment guidelines Two types of deployment method 1. GUI Installation 2. Using PowerShell

Onsight

Method 1: GUI InstallationInstall everything manually: the ”Next-Next” install Pros Cons

Very easy Hides a lot of logic and configures things with potential issues

Errors trapped in the UI

Re-running setup might fix errors, or introduce new issues

Fastest way Also the ugliest way! Just look at it.

1) Download Prerequisites online (prerequisitesinstaller.exe)

2) Reboot3) Run Setup 4) Run Configuration Wizard5) Enjoy SharePoint 2016 if everything goes well

Onsight

Method 2: Using PowerShellCreate a custom PowerShell script and run it

Pros ConsDeployment can be customized

Requires a lot of work for end-to-end custom scripts

Can be automated and fully controlled

Error-prone

Bit slow You don’t need to keep staring at the screen

1) Install Prerequisites online 2) Run the script 3) Finalize with GUI if prompted

Deep Dive into MinRole , Zero Downtime Patching and other noteworthy features in SharePoint 2016…….

MinRoleUser/Interactive Scenarios

Background Tasks

Caching Services

Timer jobs Search

Caching

Provisioning

Sync client OneNote Pagerendering

User profile

Sandboxcode

Project Subscriptionsettings

Leverages our experience of operating the service in the cloud and the optimizations we’ve made in the code to maximize performance and stability

Onsight

What is MinRole? Ability to create SharePoint farms

based on pre-defined server roles

Each role maps to pre-defined services, rules and settings on a server

Roles together include all services in a SharePoint farm

You still have the option to build a single-server farm.

Onsight

Why MinRole?Simplified deployment SharePoint Admin no longer needs to worry about which service has been

enabled on which server Reduce the risk of misconfigurations You can focus on what functionlaity to enable in the farm and let SP do the rest

Improved performance and reliability MS has been running SP Online since 2011 Optimization based on Office 365 findings and learnings- CPU memory, disk IO

and network latency

Simpler capacity planning and Farm scalability Predictable and easier to manage Easy to add new servers to the farm as the need grows Easy role conversion – A server which was WFE today can be made as

APP tmrw Self healing- Auto fixes misconfigurations

Onsight

MinRole roles and servicesRole Contains

Web Frontend End user requests and services, such as SharePoint Foundation Web Application, Administration, Managed Metadata Web Service etc.

Application Backend jobs and services, such as Machine Translation Service, App Management Service and Word Automation Service

Search Search related services, such as Host Controller Service, Search Query and Site Settings Service

Distributed Cache Distributed cache services for the farm

Custom A custom combination of services and tasks – also backward compatibility with SP2013

Other rolesSingle-Server Farm• Service applications, services, and components required for a single-server farm

belong on a server running the Single-Server Farm role. Use this role for development, testing, and limited production tasks.

Custom• Service applications, services, and components that you want to manage, instead

of using MinRole to manage them, belong on a Custom server.

Onsight

MinRole topology Smallest supported MinRole farm is 4 servers –SP alone

Smallest MinRole farm with high availability is 8 servers –SP alone

Application Distributed Cache Web Front end Search

Application Distributed Cache Web Front end Search

Search Application Disbuted Cache Web Front end

Comparing a Typical SP 2013 topology with SP2016 MinRole topology

Highly Available SharePoint 2016 MinRoleTopology

Two of each server role is recommended Three servers required for Distributed cache in a cluster quorum Add SQL availability groups to achieve HA in the SQL layer. Potentially requires 11 servers Added Office Online Servers totals 13 Servers

Custom 3 Tier MinRoleTopology

Front end servers benefit from MinRole. Configure custom servers to run majority of SharePoint service applications and reduce number of servers. Manual configuration of services and monitoring required on custom servers. SharePoint Administrators determine which custom server will run which services.

Onsight

No of servers required for deploying a HA farm with MinRole How many servers are needed?

4 +5+2 +3+2+218

MinRoleHigh availability(some

services might need 3)Provider hosted apps

Workflow ManagerOffice Online Server

Databases

MinRole post Feature Pack 1 release:

Onsight

MinRole topology post Feature Pack 1

Smallest supported MinRole farm is just 2 servers –SP alone

Smallest MinRole farm with high availability is 4servers –SP alone

Application+ SearchDistributed

Cache + Web Front end

Application+ Search Distributed Cache + Web Front end

Application+ Search Distributed Cache + Web Front end

Onsight

Administering & Managing MinRoleUsing PowerShell to change or specify a role

Set-SPServer –Role { WebFrontEnd | Application | SingleServer | SingleServerFarm | DistributedCache | Search | Custom }

Changing or specifying a role from Central Admin

Onsight

MinRole health monitoring Health monitoring for

MinRole is built into Health Analyzer

Automatic repair for all MinRole roles except Custom

You can disable auto-repair easily, enabled by default

Single-Server Farm cannot coexist with MinRole roles

Onsight

Issues and challenges with MinRole

Optimized for larger farms Often do not have the luxury to start +10 servers

Still bugs with role conversion Distributed Cache is sometimes still the

problematic one

Cannot combine roles on same server Custom roles not supported

Zero downtime patching• The dream became real folks • Deploy updates and fixes while minimizing downtime and user disruption• You get full read and write uptime when the farm is getting patched and

when the content databases are getting updated.• Reduced number of updates, which

minimizes disruptions during installationVideo Demo :_ https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt767550(v=office.16).aspx

Things to know about Zero downtime patching

• Only feasible when you're running a SP 2016 farm with High Availability• Not possible when you're running a single-server farm• Time taken to patch the farm has been reduced by consolidating the

upgrade packages . Now you just have two packages , you have a core package which has all the files and the language pack package which has the update for all the language pack files .• Point to Note –MinRole is not required for Zero downtime patching .

Detailed explanation :_ https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/stefan_gossner/2016/04/29/sharepoint-2016-zero-downtime-patching-demystified/

Comparing the ZD patching experience with SP 2013:SP 2013• Involves 2 phases : Installing the binaries

Running the SharePoint configuration wizard.• Installing the actual binaries requires to stop/restart SharePoint specific windows services and IIS

websites to ensure that the updated files (e.g. dlls) are loaded.• Zero downtime patching is achievable in 2013 as well with HA .However , you don’t get complete

farm uptime. It’s only possible during hot fix installation with SP 2013 with LB• Total farm outage while running the configuration wizard which does the DB upgrade process• DB upgrade takes care of updating stored procedures, views, triggers . SharePoint calls to SQL stored

procedure will fail during this process• Use Upgrade-SPContentDatabase –UseSnapshot ( available only on SQL Server Enterprise edition )• Work around –(Run Upgrade-SPContentDatabase parallely in all the DB’s to speed up the

upgradation operations )

SP 2016 –ZD Patching experience MSP file size is reduced which in turn reduces the time taken to patch .HA is mandatory for each server role .Biggest improvement on the upgrade phase .Stored procedures are made backward compatible to ensure that if one

stored procedure is updated with a hotfix it can still be called by an older stored procedure which gets updated through a later step in the update cycle.

Stored procedures gets updated without being dropped .These changes are long tested in SharePoint online where upgrades are

performed for all SharePoint online servers every couple of weeks while the service is live without any read-only windows for customers.

Other noteworthy features:• Durable links –Requires SP 2016 + Office online server. Earlier the docs were

being looked up by name but now docs are looked up by Identifier ( ID )• New Compliance center is introduced to take care of DLP • PROJECT SERVER –Not a separate product .It’s a separate service application in

SP 2016 but has different set of licenses • Fast site collection creation• Forefront Identity Manager is gone, Microsoft Identity Manager is in!

DLP

The owner gets to resolve it

SQL Server Best Practices Use a dedicated server for SQL Server Configure specific SQL Server settings before you deploy SharePoint Server 2013 Harden the database server before you deploy SharePoint Server 2013 Configure database servers for performance and availability Design storage for optimal throughput and manageability Proactively manage the growth of data and log files Continuously monitor SQL Server storage and performance Use backup compression to speed up backups and reduce file sizes

Detailed explanation :_ https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh292622.aspx

White paper for SQL Server :_ https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/13146.white-paper-gallery-for-sql-server.aspx

DB Best Practices• Database files and transaction log files should not be on the primary drive• Storing all files in the same location and on the system drive can lead to

severe performance issues in the SQL Server.• TempDB (Number of files, size, response times)• Disk allocation size• ModelDB (growth, initial file size)• Set Maximum Degree of Parallelism (MAXDOP) to 1• Use SQL alias whenever possible. Cliconfg.exe is your friend • Database autogrowth and initial size

Onsight

High Availability in SQL Server Configure SQL Server AlwaysOn Availability Groups

Guidance https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj715261.aspx

Consider MinRole allocations and the need for MinRole

Configure Log Shipping for Disaster Recovery Guidance http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms190640.aspx

Other best practices to be followed for optimization Managing Logs :• SQL

• Databases• Logs

• SharePoint• Logs (ULS, Usage)

• Also make sure ULS is enabled and restricted• Make sure logging is not in Verbose if not necessary

• Search Index

• IIS• Logs

Quick Recap SharePoint 2016 Evolution SharePoint 2016 Focus areasHardware & Software requirements What’s new and what’s deprecated ?Feature Packs Migration approach to SharePoint 2016MinRole Zero Downtime patching and other noteworthy features SQL Server and DB best practices

2017

July 2016 PU

June 2016 PU

2016 2017

SharePoint 2016 launched

SharePoint Server 2016 in

Azure VM

August 2016 PU

September 2016 PU

May 2016 PU

Feature Pack 1

April 2016 PU Feature Pack 2

SP 2016 Review & Roadmap

Conclusion:SharePoint 2016 is truly phenomenal and is definitely the next go to on-

premises version of SharePoint.It’s indeed a multi-tentacle beast SharePoint 2016 was built for continuous innovation .SharePoint 2016 uses the SharePoint Online source code, which in turn is

based on the SharePoint 2013 source code, indicating that SharePoint 2016 is stable .

Please endorse SharePoint 2016 to your customers for it’s beauty As always , SharePoint is just not meant to dump your files. It’s meant to

make wonders HAPPY SHAREPOINTING …….THANKS FOR JOINING

Questions???????????