SharePoint 2010/2013: Trim audit Logs with Powershell

In case that your storage or MSSQL filegroup is full, because  you didn't implement a proper housekeeping of your Audit logs, you can use this PowerShell command to delete them fast:


$site = Get-SPSite https://yoursite.yourdomain.com
$date = Get-Date "20/04/2015"
$site.Audit.DeleteEntries($date)

As the deletion in SQL Server LL happen on a Transaction base it might take a while. Moke sure you have enough free space on your log drive, as the log LL grow and please don't truncate table or apply any operations directly in SQL Server - SharePoint LL not be your friend anymore after such operations! ;-)

SharePoint 2016: InfoPath is still alive!

It' looks like Microsft changed it's strategy when it comes to the support of InfoPath in SharePoint 2016 on prem.

According to latest Microsoft news, good old InfoPath 2013 is still supported in the new SharePoint version. For now it ll be the last release of InfoPath and it could help to migrate the masses of enterprise customers, which are still on SharePoint 2010. Maybe we ll see a direct upgrade path for such customers and InfoPath is one cruzial point, when it comes to migration of workfows or customized list forms,

See detailed Information here: http://blogs.office.com/2014/01/31/update-on-infopath-and-sharepoint-forms/

There are good 3rd Party products on the market, but in my opinion lists and related activities are one of the core functions in SharePoint and  therefore should be massively optimized by Microsoft itself. Also I don't really see Word and structured documents as a nice way to optimize this use case.

At the same time, efforts in FoSL (Forms on SharePoint List) were stopped and there is no clear Roadmap right now. Maybe we ll see smth totally new...

SharePoint 2013: Configure Search Topology with Powershell

The best and the only tool to configure a SharePoint 2013 Search Topology is PowerShell. in my case i had to reconfigure a midsize Server farm with one wfe and an one application Server based classical farm architecture. The script below can also be used to configure a streamlined farm architecture.

 #Define topology variables and assign servernames:

$SPApplication1 = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance -Identity "SEARCHSERVER/APPLICATION"
$SPWFE1 = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance -Identity "WFE"

#Start Search Service Instances on both servers

Start-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance -Identity $SPApplication1
Start-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance -Identity $SPWFE1

#Get services Status / Make sure thate Service is in started state, otherwise don't proceed with configuration and fix issue first.

#Get Search Service Instance status (started or stopped) after running the above commands
Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance -Identity $SPApplication1
Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance -Identity $hostWF1
#Setting up the topology
$ssa = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceApplication
$newTopology = New-SPEnterpriseSearchTopology -SearchApplication $ssa

#SEARCHSERVER
New-SPEnterpriseSearchAdminComponent -SearchTopology $newTopology -SearchServiceInstance $hostApp1
New-SPEnterpriseSearchCrawlComponent -SearchTopology $newTopology -SearchServiceInstance $hostApp1
New-SPEnterpriseSearchContentProcessingComponent -SearchTopology $newTopology -SearchServiceInstance $hostApp1
New-SPEnterpriseSearchAnalyticsProcessingComponent -SearchTopology $newTopology -SearchServiceInstance $hostApp1
New-SPEnterpriseSearchIndexComponent -SearchTopology $newTopology -SearchServiceInstance $hostApp1 -IndexPartition 0

#WFE
New-SPEnterpriseSearchQueryProcessingComponent -SearchTopology $newTopology -SearchServiceInstance $hostWF1
#Activate the Topology
Set-SPEnterpriseSearchTopology -Identity $newTopology
# Verify the Topology
Get-SPEnterpriseSearchTopology -SearchApplication $ssa