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What's new in SharePoint 2016?

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** Before you read: This post is written right after the preview (beta) is released. The product features may change with the release of the RTM version of SharePoint 2016

* Last updated: 11/07/2015

Now that the product’s preview is out (Can be downloaded from here), I have had the chance to deploy an instance on my Azure machine and wanted to share quickly few of the new features compared with SharePoint 2013.

Before I list the new features, I wanted to summaries few important points:

  • The site UI (Look and feel) is the same compared to SharePoint 2013
  • SharePoint 2016 has better support for mobile and touch experience. (I haven’t tested that yet though)
  • InfoPath is supported in SharePoint 2016. You can use InfoPath designer 2013 with SP 2016
  • SharePoint designer 2013 works with SharePoint 2016
  • Workflow Manager still is part of SharePoint 2016
  • MOSS 2007 workflows are supported in SharePoint 2016
  • Sandboxed Solutions are still supported
  • SharePoint 2016 only comes in the full server version. A Foundation (Free) version will not be released for SharePoint 2016.
  • Excel Services is not longer part of SharePoint in the 2016 version. It's part of the Office Online Server (AKA: Office Web Apps) product
  • SharePoint 2016 doesn't support standalone install mode
  • Stsadm.exe command line tool still exists and will ship with SharePoint 2016
  • Note that SharePoint Apps now are called SharePoint Add-ins
  • SharePoint 2016 will provide no downtime patches to avoid production interruption during the application of CU update

 

Here is a list of new things I found that are introduced to SharePoint server 2016:

- Server roles: A setting that allows you to define the role of a SharePoint server and help you maintain the best performance of the desired server role. We have different roles available:

  • Front-end
  • Application
  • Distributed Cache
  • Search
  • Custom
  • Single Server Farm

You will get the following screen when you run the configuration wizard to add a new server to an existing farm or when you create a new farm:

 

You also can change the server role from central admin: System settings | Servers | Convert server role in this farm

 

- App launcher. If you have used Office 365 recently you will be familiar with this cool gadget. It allows you to navigate between SharePoint, OneDrive & newsfeed. It will be extensible and customizable as well.

 

 

 

- Enhanced simple controls (for document library). This allows you to execute simple commands like: new, share, upload …etc.

 

- Larger content databases sized at TBs not GBs. The numbers are not announced as of yet. It used to be, 200GB recommended per content db and a maximum of 4 TB (under certain conditions) for SharePoint 2013.

- Added the support of 100K site collections per content db up from 10K for SharePoint 2013.

- Increased the list threshold more than 5000 items per view\query. Numbers to be announced later this year.

- Increased the maximum file size to 10 GB up from 2 GB for SharePoint 2013. Make sure you increase the maximum file upload limit in the web application settings in Central admin if you want to test this out. Please note if you increase the limit above 10 GB and try to upload a file using the explorer view, the file will look like it uploaded successfully, however, you will notice that the file got uploaded with 'Zero' bytes. Hopefully that gets fixed in the RTM version.

 

- Search index size increased from 250 million supported items per farm to 500 million items.

- Added automatic list column indices management to make it easier for SharePoint users to create and use large lists without worrying too much about indexing.

- Improved and stabilized distributed cache (App Fabric). App Fabric is announced to be discontinued already as a standalone product but the product group will continue to support it as a component part of SharePoint.

- Added the support of the BITS Protocol instead of COBALT for file transfer. BITS utilizes an unclaimed bandwidth to enhance file transfer experience.

- Microsoft Project Server 2016 (PWA) is now part of the SharePoint product (install) but still requires a separate license.

 

 

- Improved bidirectional sync with active directory. FIM (Forefront Identify Manager) product is removed from the SharePoint media (Install). Added support for external standalone FIM product\service.

- Added a new site collection template called “Compliance Policy Center”. It allows you to manage policies and assign policies to SharePoint site collections to help you enforce your organization governance requirements.  It includes the ability to discover sensitive information like “Social security number”, credit card numbers …etc. You also can add document delete policies.

 

 

- Added a new Site collection template called “In-Place Hold Policy Center”

 

This allows you to manage governance policies across site collections.

 - Introduced Fast Site Creation, SharePoint will leverage master copies for common site templates (I.e. STS0) to do a SPSite.Copy at the content db level to speed up site collection creation.

- Added 115 new PowerShell commandlet, a lot of them existed before part of the Project Server when it was a separate install, the rest are brand new that provide more control on server administration, integration with the cloud for hybrid scenarios …etc.. Here is a list of all the new commandlets:

Command-let

Product

Add-SPIPRangeAllowList

SharePoint

Compare-SPDatabaseSchema

SharePoint

Copy-SPDatabase

SharePoint

Copy-SPSideBySideFiles

SharePoint

Disable-SPIPRangeAllowList

SharePoint

Disable-SPProjectActiveDirectoryEnterpriseResourcePoolSync

Project

Disable-SPProjectEmailNotification

Project

Disable-SPProjectEnterpriseProjectTaskSync

Project

Disable-SPProjectQueueStatsMonitoring

Project

Disable-SPSecureStoreMinDB

SharePoint

Disable-SPVideoStreaming

SharePoint

Disable-SPWebTemplateForSiteMaster

SharePoint

Dismount-SPSiteMapDatabase

SharePoint

Enable-SPIPRangeAllowList

SharePoint

Enable-SPProjectActiveDirectoryEnterpriseResourcePoolSync

Project

Enable-SPProjectEmailNotification

Project

Enable-SPProjectEnterpriseProjectTaskSync

Project

Enable-SPProjectQueueStatsMonitoring

Project

Enable-SPSecureStoreMinDB

SharePoint

Enable-SPVideoStreaming

SharePoint

Enable-SPWebTemplateForSiteMaster

SharePoint

Export-SPAccessServicesDatabase

SharePoint

Export-SPTagsAndNotesData

SharePoint

Get-SPAppStoreWebServiceConfiguration

SharePoint

Get-SPAzureVideoServiceAccount

SharePoint

Get-SPConnectedServiceApplicationInformation

SharePoint

Get-SPInsightsAuthSettings

SharePoint

Get-SPIPRangeAllowList

SharePoint

Get-SPMicrofeedOptions

SharePoint

Get-SPO365LinkSettings

SharePoint

Get-SPProjectDatabaseQuota

Project

Get-SPProjectDatabaseUsage

Project

Get-SPProjectEnterpriseProjectTaskSync

Project

Get-SPProjectEventServiceSettings

Project

Get-SPProjectIsEmailNotificationEnabled

Project

Get-SPProjectOdataConfiguration

Project

Get-SPProjectPCSSettings

Project

Get-SPProjectPermissionMode

Project

Get-SPProjectQueueSettings

Project

Get-SPProjectWebInstance

Project

Get-SPRuntimeTelemetry

SharePoint

Get-SPService

SharePoint

Get-SPSiteMapDatabase

SharePoint

Get-SPSiteMaster

SharePoint

Get-SPVideoStreamingConfig

SharePoint

Get-SPWebTemplatesEnabledForSiteMaster

SharePoint

Import-SPAccessServicesDatabase

SharePoint

Invoke-SPProjectActiveDirectoryEnterpriseResourcePoolSync

Project

Invoke-SPProjectActiveDirectoryGroupSync

Project

Migrate-SPDatabase

SharePoint

Migrate-SPProjectDatabase

Project

Migrate-SPProjectResourcePlans

Project

Mount-SPSiteMapDatabase

SharePoint

Move-SPAppManagementData

SharePoint

Move-SPSecureStorePartitionData

SharePoint

New-SPAzureVideoServiceAccount

SharePoint

New-SPProjectServiceApplication

Project

New-SPProjectServiceApplicationProxy

Project

New-SPSiteMaster

SharePoint

Pause-SPProjectWebInstance

Project

Register-SPContentDatabase

SharePoint

Remove-SPAzureVideoServiceAccount

SharePoint

Remove-SPIPRangeAllowList

SharePoint

Remove-SPProjectWebInstanceData

Project

Remove-SPSiteMaster

SharePoint

Repair-SPProjectWebInstance

Project

Reset-SPProjectEventServiceSettings

Project

Reset-SPProjectPCSSettings

Project

Reset-SPProjectQueueSettings

Project

Reset-SPSites

SharePoint

Resume-SPProjectWebInstance

Project

Resume-SPVideoStreamingAccess

SharePoint

Set-SPAppStoreWebServiceConfiguration

SharePoint

Set-SPDefaultProfileConfig

SharePoint

Set-SPInsightsAuthSettings

SharePoint

Set-SPIPAccessControlOperationMode

SharePoint

Set-SPIPAccessControlSubscriptionId

SharePoint

Set-SPIPRangeAllowList

SharePoint

Set-SPIPRangeAllowListSetting

SharePoint

Set-SPMicrofeedOptions

SharePoint

Set-SPO365LinkSettings

SharePoint

Set-SPProjectDatabaseQuota

Project

Set-SPProjectEventServiceSettings

Project

Set-SPProjectOdataConfiguration

Project

Set-SPProjectPCSSettings

Project

Set-SPProjectPermissionMode

Project

Set-SPProjectQueueSettings

Project

Set-SPProjectServiceApplication

Project

Set-SPProjectUserSync

Project

Set-SPProjectUserSyncDisabledSyncThreshold

Project

Set-SPProjectUserSyncFullSyncThreshold

Project

Set-SPProjectUserSyncOffPeakSyncThreshold

Project

Set-SPRuntimeTelemetry

SharePoint

Set-SPServer

SharePoint

Start-SPService

SharePoint

Stop-SPService

SharePoint

Suspend-SPVideoStreamingAccess

SharePoint

Switch-SPSitesToNewDatabase

SharePoint

Sync-SPProjectPermissions

Project

Test-SPIPRangeAllowList

SharePoint

Test-SPO365LinkSettings

SharePoint

Test-SPProjectServiceApplication

Project

Test-SPProjectWebInstance

Project

Update-SPAzureBlobConfigLocator

SharePoint

Update-SPAzureBlobConfigLocatorEx

SharePoint

Update-SPAzureBlobConfigLocatorEx1

SharePoint

Update-SPAzureBlobLogStoreSignatures

SharePoint

Update-SPAzureBlobSignaturesEx

SharePoint

Update-SPAzureBlobSignaturesEx1

SharePoint

Upgrade-SPAppManagementServiceApplication

SharePoint

Upgrade-SPConfigurationDatabase

SharePoint

Upgrade-SPProfileServiceApplication

SharePoint

Upgrade-SPServer

SharePoint

Upgrade-SPSiteMapDatabase

SharePoint

Upgrade-SPWebApplication

SharePoint

- Added durable links feature. This provides resource Id based URL to make it easier to locate documents with their URL no matter where you move them.

- Added two new features for document libraries:

     Generate a file plan report for a folder in document library:

 

 

 

      Change enterprise metadata and keywords settings

 

- Added SMTP Connection encryption for outgoing email. You can use custom ports & enable SSL …etc.

 

- Enabled Office 365 hybrid scenario integration with SharePoint 2016 on-premises through central admin.

You can configure one of two different integration scenarios:

  • OneDrive & Sites
  • OneDrive only

- Tags and Notes are deprecated and users will no longer be able to create new tags\notes or access existing ones.

- You can easily configure SSL for central admin using PowerShell:

 I tried to cover most of the new futures I came across. Let me know what else I should add to the list. Here are few links that has more information:

Comments

  • Anonymous
    August 27, 2015
    Very good !

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    August 28, 2015
    Thanks for this post, very useful :)

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