Where I store my tech stuff

With the public release of the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 beta 2, you may be trying to figure out your plan of attack. Deciding when and how quickly you want to move depends on where you are now and where you want to be.

MOSS 2007 is the successor for SharePoint Portal Server 2003. For lots of folks, if you're already using the portal product, then you'll likely upgrade to MOSS 2007. However, if you're using Windows SharePoint Services version 2, the path is a little murky. You could jump from WSS version 2 to version 3 or to MOSS 2007. It really depends on whether you need those portal features.

For those of you using SharePoint Portal Server 2001, you may be considering skipping WSS version 2 and SPS 2003 and making the leap to MOSS 2007. The same is also true if you're just starting to evaluate SharePoint for your organization. But not so fast! Windows SharePoint Services version 2 is miles ahead of SPS 2001 in terms of features. You may find that WSS v2 meets most of your needs right now. WSS v2 is a component of Windows Server 2003. You can download it free from the Microsoft Web site. (Yes, I said free, but your Windows Server must be properly licensed.)

I suggest you evaluate WSS version 2, WSS version 3, and MOSS 2007 separately before you take the plunge. Sounds like a lot of work? See my previous post for some tips on how you can use Virtual Server 2005 to set up a testing environment without trashing your hardware.

Also, be sure to check out SharePoint Designer, which is replacing FrontPage as the Microsoft-sanctioned design tool for SharePoint. You can download SharePoint Designer from the Office 2007 beta site. 

The Windows SharePoint Services version 3 beta 2 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 beta 2 Software Development Kits are available for download from Microsoft's Web site. Get the kits:

• WSS SDK
• MOSS 2007 SDK

This is a slightly more technical post detailing my installation of the SharePoint beta. See my previous two posts for less technical information about the Office 2007 beta 2.

I installed Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 beta 2 on a Virtual Server. Virtual Server 2005 is a free download from Microsoft's Web site. It's a great way to set up a test environment without trashing your machines. Check out my previous post on Virtual Server for more info.

So here's my setup in a nutshell:

• Installed Windows Server 2003 on a dynamically expanding virtual hard drive. Installed .NET Framework version 2.0 and Windows Workflow Foundation Beta 2.2. Configured server as an IIS server.
• Created a differencing virtual hard drive with the preceding drive as the parent.
• Installed MOSS 2007 beta 2 on the differencing virtual hard drive.

In Virtual Server, you create virtual machines that use virtual hard drives. So, I created a base hard drive with Windows Server 2003 and all the MOSS prerequisites installed. The second virtual hard drive is a differencing hard drive. By associating it with the parent or base hard drive, my virtual machine merges both drives and runs them as a single image. The benefit is that I can create multiple differencing hard drives for use with my virtual machine. I can reuse my base or parent Windows Server 2003 hard drive with the differencing hard drives.

There are still two flavors of SharePoint, but Microsoft is doing a pretty good job of obscuring that detail from non-technical folks. The two products are:

• Windows SharePoint Services version 3 beta 2 (WSS) – WSS is still the foundation of all things SharePoint. It's an add-on technology for Windows Server 2003.
• Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 beta 2 (MOSS) – MOSS is the successor of SharePoint Portal Server 2003, and includes features such as search and content management.

WSS is bundled with the MOSS download. If you want to test WSS separate from MOSS, then you can download just WSS from the SharePoint Team's blog.

MOSS installs WSS and Microsoft SQL Server Express 2005. The MOSS installation is pretty straightforward. I just clicked Next a few times. MOSS installs and configures itself in a single server installation. There are a few prerequisites, so be sure to read the readme before installing.

You may wish to download the SQL Server Express 2005 Management Studio so you can visually manage SQL Server Express. Just remember not to mess around in the SharePoint databases themselves.