SharePoint: Community Best Practices

Article
1/17/2024

Introduction

Best practices are, and rightfully so, always a much sought-after topic. There are various kinds of best practices:

Microsoft best practices. In real life, these are the most important ones to know, as most companies implementing SharePoint best practices have a tendency to follow as much of these as possibly can. Independent consultants doing architecture and code reviews will certainly take a look at these as well. In general, you can safely say that best practices endorsed by Microsoft have an added bonus. Microsoft best practices are only published under TechNet or MSDN, not individuals blog sites and not this Wiki. Microsoft only uses the terms "Microsoft Best Practice" or "Microsoft Recommended" in TechNet or MSDN when referring to an actual best practice. Microsoft best practices are based on how the product is designed and ment to be used and how the Microsoft field has found best works. These are typically best for customers that want a supportable, scalable, reliable SharePoint configuration.
- TechNet SharePoint section https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/fp179725.aspx
- Microsoft SharePoint Developer Support Team Blog - https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/sharepointdevelopersupport/
- Microsoft's future of SharePoint https://blogs.office.com/2016/05/04/the-future-of-sharepoint/
- Microsoft Online Server now available https://blogs.office.com/2016/05/04/office-online-server-now-available/
- Microsoft's announcement of SharePoint Server 2016 https://blogs.office.com/2016/05/04/sharepoint-server-2016-your-foundation-for-the-future/
Community best practices. These practices are patterns that have proven themselves over and over again as a way to achieve a high quality of your solutions, and it is important to know who proposed them and for what type and size of environments they are for as the best practice can be different for different size environments and different target workloads. The benefits of a Community best practice is you can pick recommendations that are similar to your environment.
Practices. These are just approaches that are reused over and over again, but not necessarily the best ones. Wiki's are a great way to discern best practices from practices. It's certainly possible that this page refers to these "Practices of the 3rd kind", but hopefully, the SharePoint community will eventually filter them out. Therefore, everybody is invited and encouraged to actively participate in the various best practices discussions.

This article is not the Microsoft best practice page for SharePoint. This Wiki page contains an overview of SharePoint practices provided from the public community.

Community practices in this article are divided by categories below.

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Performance

This section discusses practices regarding performance issues.

http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/The-SharePoint-Flavored-5b03f323 , the SharePoint Flavored Weblog Reader (SFWR) helps troubleshooting performance problems by analyzing the IIS log files of SharePoint WFEs.
http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/office/PressurePoint-Dragon-for-87572ee1 , PressurePoint Dragon for SharePoint 2013 helps executing performance tests.
http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Maxer-for-SharePoint-2013-52208636 , a tool for checking capacity planning limits.
http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Ping-Dragon-for-SharePoint-70fb299e , a command line tool for pinging SharePoint and getting the response time of a SharePoint page.
http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/WinPing-Dragon-for-eefb6dd3 , a WPF client for for pinging SharePoint and getting the response time of a SharePoint page.
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/16218.sharepoint-2013-best-practices-in-depth-performance-counters.aspx , in depth info about performance counters relevant to SharePoint 2013.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff758658.aspx , TechNet performance monitoring tips.
http://www.iis.net/downloads/community/2007/05/wcat-63-(x64) , the Web Capacity Analysis Tool (WCAT) is a lightweight HTTP load generation tool to measure the performance of a web server. Used by MS support in various capacity analysis plans.
Improve SharePoint Speed by fixing a SSL Trust Issue, http://sharepoint-community.net/profiles/blogs/how-to-improve-speed-on-sharepoint-2013
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262813.aspx , Large Lists.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh395916.aspx , Estimating performance and capacity.

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SharePoint Server 2013 Build Numbers

Version	Build #	Type	Server Package (KB)	Foundation Package (KB)	Project Server Package (KB)	Office Web Apps (KB)	Language specific	Notes
Public Beta Preview	15.0.4128.1014	Beta	n/a	n/a			yes	Known issues
SPS 2013 RTM	15.0.4420.1017	RTM	n/a	n/a			yes	Setup, Install
Dec. 2012 Fix	15.0.4433.1506	update	2752058 2752001	n/a			yes	Known Issue
March 2013	15.0.4481.1005	PU	2767999	2768000			global	New Baseline
April 2013	15.0.4505.1002	CU	-	2751999			global	Known Issue
April 2013	15.0.4505.1005	CU	2726992	-			global	Known Issue
June 2013	15.0.4517.1003	CU		2817346			global	Known Issue 1 Known Issue 2
June 2013	15.0.4517.1005	CU	2817414	-			global	Known Issue 1 Known Issue 2
August 2013	15.0.4535.1000	CU	2817616	2817517			global	-
October 2013	15.0.4551.1001	CU		2825674			global	-
October 2013	15.0.4551.1005	CU	2825647				global	-
December 2013	15.0.4551.1508	CU		2849961			global	-
December 2013	15.0.4551.1511	CU	2850024				global	see KB
Feb. 2014 - skipped!	n/a	-	-	-			-	-
SP1-released Apr.2014	15.0.4569.1000 (15.0.4569.1506)	SP	2817429 2880552	-			yes	- Re-released SP
SP1-released Apr.2014	(15.0.4569.1509) fixed Build: 15.0.4571.1502	SP	-	2817439 2760625 - Fix 2880551 - Current			yes	Known Issue - Re-released SP
April 2014	15.0.4605.1004	CU	2878240	2863892			global	Known Issue
MS14-022	15.0.4615.1001	PU	2952166	2952166			n/a	Security fix
June 2014	15.0.4623.1001	CU	2881061	2881063			global	n/a
July 204	15.0.4631.1001	CU	2882989	2882999			Global	File information
September 2014	15.0.4649.1001	CU	2883068	2883087			Global	File information
November 2014	15.0.4667.1000	CU	2889944	2899468			Global	File information
December 2014	15.0.4675.1000	CU	2910938	2910945			Global	File information
February 2015	15.0.4693.1001	CU	2920804	2920801			Global	File information
March 205	15.0.4701.1001	CU	2956166	2956159			Global	File information
April 2015	15.0.4711.1000	CU	2965266	2965261			Global	File information
May 2015	15.0.4719.1002	CU	3039780	3039747			Global	File information
June 2015	15.0.4727.1001	CU	3054866	3054864			Global	File information
July 2015	15.0.4737.1000	CU	3054937	3054931			Global	File information
August 2015	15.0.4745.1000	CU	3055009	3055004			Global	File information
September 2015	15.0.4753.1003	CU	2986213	2975894			Global	File information
October 2015	15.0.4763.1000	CU	3085492	3085488			Global	File information
November 2015	15.0.4771.1000	CU	3101373	3101368			Global	File information
December 2015	15.0.4779.1000	CU	3114345	3114339			Global	File information
January 2016	15.0.4787.1000	CU	3114497	3114492			Global	File information
February 2016	15.0.4797.1001	CU	3114726	3114722			Global	File information
March 2016	15.0.4805.1000	CU	3114827	3114822			Global	File information
April 2016	15.0.4815.1000	CU	3114938	3114935			Global	File information
May 2016	15.0.4823.1003	CU	3115029	3115023			Global	File information
June 2016	15.0.4833.1000	CU	3115174	3115171			Global	File information
July 2016	15.0.4841.1000	CU	3115293	3115290			Global	File information
August 2016	15.0.4849.1000	CU	3115450	3115447			Global	File information
September 2016	15.0.4859.1000	CU	3118279	3118271			Global	File information
October 2016	15.0.4867.1002	CU	3118366	3118361			Global	File information
November 2016	15.0.4875.1000	CU	3127933	3127930			Global	File information
December 2016	15.0.4885.1000	CU	3128005	3128001			Global	File information
January 2017	15.0.4893.1001	CU	3141481	3141479			Global	File information
March 2017	15.0.4911.1001	CU	3172497	3172456			Global	File information
April 2017	15.0.4919.1003	CU	3178730	3178727			Global	File information
May 2017	15.0.4927.1000	CU	3191913	3191911			Global	File information
June 2017	15.0.4937.1000	CU	3203430	3203428			Global	File information
July 2017	15.0.4945.1000	CU	3213569	3213563			Global	File information
August 2017	15.0.4953.1000	CU	4011076	4011073	4011074		Global	File information
September 2017	15.0.4963.1001	CU	4011116	4011132	4011115	3213562		File information
October 2017	15.0.4971.1002	CU	4011177	4011173	4011175	4011231		File information
November 2017	15.0.4981.1002	CU	4011251	4011248	4011249	4011247		File information
December 2017	15.0.4989.1001	CU	4011593	4011588	4011589	4011587		File information

reference: http://blogs.technet.com/b/steve_chen/archive/2013/03/26/3561010.aspx

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SharePoint security fixes offered through Microsoft Update

KB	Suite	Release	Notes
3038999	SharePoint Server, Foundation, Excel Services, Office Web Apps Server	March 10, 2015	File information
3052044	SharePoint Server, Foundation, Project Server, Word Automation Services, Office Web Apps Server	April 14,2015	File information
3057181 3058083	SharePoint Server, Foundation, Word Automation Services, Excel Services, Office Web Apps Server	May 12, 2015	File information
3072620	Excel Services	July 14, 2015	File information
3080790	Word Automation Services, Office Web Apps Server	August 11, 2015	File information
3089664	SharePoint Foundation, Excel Services, Access Services, Office Web Apps Server	Septermber 8, 2015	File information
3096440	SharePoint Server, Foundation, Excel Services, Office Web Apps Server	October 13, 2015	File information
3104540	Exccel Services, Word Automation Services, Office Web Apps	November 10, 2015	File information
3124585	SharePoint Foundation	January 12, 2016	File information
3134226	SharePoint Foundation, Excel Services, Word Automation Services, Office Web Apps Server	February 9, 2016	File information
3141806	Word Automation Services, Office Web Apps Server	March 8, 2016	File information
3148775	Word Automation Services, Office Web Apps Server	April 12, 2016	File information
3163610	Word Automation Services, Office Web Apps Server	June 14, 2016	File information
3170008	Word Automation Services, Office Web Apps Server	July 12, 2016	File information
3185852	Excel Services, PowerPoint Services, Word Automation Services, Office Web Apps Server	September 13, 2016	File information
3194063	Word Automation Services, Office Web Apps Server	October 11, 2016	File information
3199168	Word Automation Services, Office Web Apps Server	November 8, 2016	File information
4013241	SharePoint Foundation, Excel Services, Office Web Apps Server	March 14, 2017	File information
Security Update Guidance	Excel Services, Office Web Apps Server	April 2017	File information
Security Update Guidance	SharePoint Foundation, Access Services, Education Services, Excel Services, InfoPath Services, Slide Library, SharePoint BI, Translation Services, Workflow Services, Word Automation Services, Visio Services, Project Server, Office Web Apps	May 2017	File information
3213559	Excel Services for SharePoint 2013	July 11, 2017	File information
None	SharePoint 2013 Suite	August 2017	File information

Feature Overview

This section discusses places to get SharePoint feature overviews.

http://www.apps4rent.com/sharepoint-2013-features-comparison.html , nice feature comparison.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj819267.aspx , extensive SharePoint Online overview.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff607742(v=office.15).aspx , deprecated features.
http://www.andrewconnell.com/blog/archive/2013/01/11/sharepoint-2013-amp-office-365-feature-matrixndashan-easier-way-to.aspx , matrix overview.
http://www.rharbridge.com/www.rharbridge.com/?page_id=966 , nice overview including SharePoint 2013, 2010, 2007, and Office 365.
http://www.fpweb.net/sharepoint-hosting/2013/compare-sharepoint-server-standard-enterprise/ , 2013 standard vs enterprise.
http://www.khamis.net/Blog/Post/275/SharePoint-2013-Standard-vs--Enterprise-vs--Foundation-Feature-Comparison-Matrix, 2013 standard vs enterprise vs foundation.
http://blog.blksthl.com/2013/01/14/sharepoint-2013-feature-comparison-chart-all-editions/#SIT , overview of all 2013 versions.

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Capacity Planning

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc261834.aspx , excellent planning resource.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263199.aspx , overview of various technical diagrams.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj219628.aspx#HW_Enterprise , info about scaling search.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262787.aspx , capacity boundaries.

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Installation

This section discusses installation practices.

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/fp179725.aspx
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/15289.sharepoint-2013-best-practices-creating-a-development-environment.aspx , provides a detailed explanation how to create a SharePoint 2013 development environment.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262749.aspx , system requirements overview.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee662513.aspx , provides an overview of the administrative and service accounts you need for a SharePoint 2013 installation.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc678863.aspx , describes SharePoint 2013 administrative and service account permissions for SQL Server, the File System, File Shares, and Registry entries.
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/14500.sharepoint-2013-best-practices-service-accounts.aspx , naming conventions and permission overview for service accounts.
http://www.slideshare.net/michaeltnoel/spcsea-2013-upgrading-to-sharepoint-2013, a methodical approach to upgrading to SharePoint 2013.
http://autospinstaller.codeplex.com/ , Automated SharePoint 2010/2013 installation using PowerShell and XML configuration.
http://autospinstallergui.codeplex.com/ , GUI tool for configuring the AutoSPInstaller configuration XML.
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/16343.sharepoint-2013-best-practices-setting-up-a-dev-environment-for-windows-apps-and-sharepoint.aspx , describes how to set up a dev environment needed for creating Windows Apps that leverage SharePoint.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj658588.aspx , installing workflows.
Install SharePoint 2013 on a single server with SQL Server
Install SharePoint 2013 on a single server with a built-in database
Install SharePoint 2013 across multiple servers for a three-tier farm
Install and configure a virtual environment for SharePoint 2013
Install or uninstall language packs for SharePoint 2013
Add web or application servers to farms in SharePoint 2013
Add a database server to an existing farm in SharePoint 2013
Remove a server from a farm in SharePoint 2013
Uninstall SharePoint 2013
Install and configure a virtual environment for SharePoint 2013
Step by step installation of SharePoint 2013

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Upgrade and Migration

This section discusses how to upgrade to SharePoint 2013 from a previous version.

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/fp179725.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/russmax/archive/2013/04/01/why-sharepoint-2013-cumulative-update-takes-5-hours-to-install.aspx?CommentPosted=true#commentmessage Why SharePoint 2013 Cumulative Update takes 5 hours to install, improve CU (patch) Installation times from 5 hours to 30 mins.
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/15743.sharepoint-2013-best-practices-upgrading-from-sharepoint-2007.aspx discusses best practices for upgrading from SharePoint 2007 to 2013.
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/16033.sharepoint-2013-best-practices-migrate-from-sharepoint-foundation-2013-to-sharepoint-server-2013.aspx , upgrade SharePoint Foundation 2013 to SharePoint Server 2013.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262483.aspx , SharePoint 2010 to 2013.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc303436.aspx , upgrade databases from SharePoint 2010 to 2013.
http://www.google.nl/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=download%20proven%20practices%20for%20upgrading%20or%20migrating%20to%20sharepoint%202013&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CEgQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Feu.avepoint.com%2Fassets%2Fpdf%2Fwhite-papers%2Femea%2FSharePoint-2013-Migration-White-Paper.pdf&ei=L2FRUdPHJoqX1AWy44CgBw&usg=AFQjCNHA6Iuoigex0xyHb-EuPdBDIiLrhw&bvm=bv.44158598,d.d2k , PDF document containing extensive info about Proven Practices for Upgrading or Migrating to SharePoint 2013.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee947141.aspx , upgrade from sharepoint 2007 or wss 3 to sharepoint 2013.

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Infrastructure

This section discusses infrastructure practices.

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/fp179725.aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263199(v=office.15) , infrastructure diagrams.
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/16180.sharepoint-2013-best-practices-dealing-with-geographically-dispersed-locations.aspx , dealing with geographically dispersed locations.

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Backup and Recovery

This section deals with practices about the back up and restore of SharePoint environments.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee663490.aspx , general overview of backup and recovery.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee428315.aspx , back-up solutions for specific parts of SharePoint.
http://www.slideshare.net/thomasvochten/sharepoint-high-availability-disaster-recovery , good info about disaster recovery.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc748824.aspx , high availability architectures.
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/17195.sharepoint-2013-best-practices-back-up-sharepoint-online.aspx , how to back up SharePoint online?

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Database

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc678868.aspx , great resource about SharePoint databases.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff851878.aspx , removing ugly GUIDs from SharePoint database names.

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Implementation and Maintenance

This section deals with practices about implementing SharePoint.

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/fp179725.aspx
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/6575.ten-steps-to-a-successful-sharepoint-implementation-en-us.aspx explains how to implement SharePoint.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff851878.aspx , rename service applications.

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Apps

This section deals with practices regarding SharePoint Apps.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/fp161237(v=office.15).aspx , great resource for planning Apps.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj163230.aspx, a resource for building apps for SharePoint.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj163264.aspx , practices and design patterns for app license checking.

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Every day use

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/16166.sharepoint-2013-best-practices-using-folders.aspx , using folders
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/17829.sharepoint-2013-going-up-in-the-navigation.aspx , discusses options for navigating up
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/17997.sharepoint-2013-best-practice-choosing-between-a-choice-lookup-or-taxonomy-managed-metadata-column.aspx , discusses practices for choosing between choice, lookup or taxonomy column

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Development

This section covers practices targeted towards software developers.

Microsoft SharePoint Development Blog Site: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/sharepointdevelopersupport/
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/13373.sharepoint-2013-what-to-do-farm-solution-vs-sandbox-vs-app.aspx , discusses when to use farm solutions, sandbox solutions, or sharepoint apps.
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/13637.sharepoint-2013-best-practices-what-client-api-should-you-choose-when-building-apps.aspx , guidelines to help you pick the correct client API to use with your app.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj164060(v=office.15).aspx , guidelines to help you pick the correct client API for your SharePoint solution.
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/16343.sharepoint-2013-best-practices-setting-up-a-dev-environment-for-windows-apps-and-sharepoint.aspx , describes how to set up a dev environment needed for creating Windows Apps that leverage SharePoint.
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/16353.sharepoint-2013-best-practices-working-with-connection-strings-in-auto-hosted-sharepoint-apps.aspx , discusses how to deal with connection strings in auto-hosted apps.

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Debugging

This section contains debugging tips for SharePoint.

Use a network monitoring tool to capture traffic on the SharePoint server.
Use a Text Differencing tool to compare if web.config files on WFEs are identical.
Use a client and browser monitoring tool to monitor web traffic.

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