Access – it will leave your current database structure as is, however, some custom table calculations may be upgraded/not working. For databases with custom built interfaces with forms, some things may have to be realigned and some VB might have to be changed, but it does not affect the functionality if the code is somewhat modern.

Excel – thankfully when it comes to Excel, it has kept all its previous functions and added new ones. All the math functions still work correctly and if you had versions of Office previous to 2007, you still don’t have to worry, all the rules set in place for auto calculations and spreadsheet math are exactly the same. On a side note, if you’re a Quickbooks person, they also added in some of those custom functions you can find within Formulas>Financial. Not much has really changed here.

Lync (client only) – for those of you who don’t know what Lync is, it’s basically Windows Live Messenger on steroids with VOIP capabilities and more cool features. The Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2013 release includes this program and they have given it a polished and sleek new look. Basic changes with this release are each chat is no longer a separate window, it’s one window with tabs to your left for each conversation; which makes it easier if you only have one monitor. Also, it includes all your basic settings for your phone, call forwarding, etc. On the back end, not really much has changed here, it’s more the cosmetics of the program that make it different.

OneNote – one of the favorites for mobile people, they made some cool adjustments on this end. For those of you who don’t know what OneNote is, it’s a program that allows you to sync data of various types to your phone and vice-verse; so when a change is made on either device, it is seen on both ends. Of course the features of the program is limited to the features of your device, but if you have a Windows phone or tablet and see a use for this, you’ll be in seventh heaven.

Outlook – they made this extremely easy. If you’re on an Exchange environment, other than making a backup of your .pst file, you don’t have to do anything. Let the upgrade feature work its magic and it will copy over your profile information, upgrade it, and your folder structure, calendar, etc are all the same as they were. Although this may seem standard to some, this has been a serious issue Microsoft has had with previous releases that I believe in this version they perfected. On the flip side, if you’re starting new with a new profile, they made the setup of the email account easier as well.

PowerPoint – one thing Microsoft did right with this release is they have integrated social media within PowerPoint; so now you can add these kinds of features to spice up your presentation. They have also gotten much better with current media technology (audio and video files). Also, before in previous versions, if a slide was overloaded with moving objects it would clip; in this new version there is a warning message that comes up to let you know that the slide may have difficulties when played.

SkyDrive – have data on a cloud somewhere? This Microsoft based FTP program will make sending/receiving data as easy as it can get. Not really too many thrills here, just the basic file transfer protocol functions done the Microsoft way. This tool is extremely useful for people who have data on multiple clouds as well, they have implemented cool features that allow you to manage all of them at once.

Word – staying true to their baby of it all, they keep all the previous functions and bells and whistles with Word and just give it the newer 2013 look and feel. All the older functions are still here plus the newer functions of Office 2007 and 2010. As noted with the Office 2013 review at the top, for someone who is not technical/computer savvy, this will be a good platform to teach Microsoft Word on. It’s colors and layout make it easier to the eyes than in previous releases, so people can find things and functions easier and faster.

Before installing, the profile on the machine you’re installing from needs to have every Administrator right possible.

• Before installing Lync, the server has to be part of a domain.
• Also before installing, install Directory Administrative Tools under the Features in the Server Manager under “Remote Server Administration Tools”. A reboot is necessary to complete this installation.
• SQL Server also has to be installed and working before installing Lync, it will be required when setting up the configuration store.
• Net Framework 3.5 needs to be configured. It is already installed on the server but if it has not been activated it will not register with the installation. Go into the Server Manager under Features and click “Add Feature”, .NET Framework 3.5 should be at the top, click that and its dependencies and let it install.
• In the next screen of selecting the role services associated with .NET Framework, select all the option boxes and continue.
• You will also have to install the Microsoft C++ package to 2008 if it hasn’t been done already.
• The first install box will confirm the program installation directory, click next to proceed and agree to the EULA.
• The next screen that pops up has several different options on it, click “Install Topology Builder”. Once it completes it will take you back to the main menu and if successful, there is a green check mark next to it.
• Next, click “Prepare Active Directory for Lync Server”.
• In this next box that comes up, assuming that the current credentials work, and that the right tools are installed you should get no errors. In this case, go ahead and click the first “Run” button to the right.
• For the following window, click next and Lync will execute commands to prepare the schema for the install. As it finishes compiling, it will then have “Prepare Schema” in the dropdown below it, click Finish.
• In the next section of verifying the replication of the schema partition, it requires some manual interaction.
  • Log onto the domain controller and click Start>Administrative Tools>ADSI Edit
  • In this program window at the top, click Actions and select “Connect to…” In the next box, under “Select a well-known naming context”, select Schema and click okay.
  • In the list of schemas that appear, search for CN=ms-RTC-SIP-SchemaVersion. Open this schema and you want to confirm that the value of the rangeUpper attribute is 1100 and that the rangeLower is 14. If this information is what you see, then the Schema replicated correctly. Once step two is completed, go back to the Lync install screen.
  • On step 3, click Run and click next to proceed onto the screen where it asks for the Universal Group Location. This is basically asking in what domain the universal groups will be created. Seeing as how the server should already be attached to the domain, click Local Domain and click next. In the following screen, click Finish.
  • Back to the Lync install screen, proceed to step four. Now we need to make sure the global catalog replicated to the domain controller. To do this, go to the DC and open up Active Directory Users and Computers.

On the left, expand down to Users and view the user list. If you now see the CS users there, the replication has successfully completed. In this case, go on back to the Lync install menu to step five.

• Click Run to get step five started and click next and wait for the compiler to finish. Afterwards, click Finish.
• We now need to verify that the domain replicated the results. From here, open the Lync Server Management Shell and wait for it to log in. Once logged in, type in Get-CsAdDomain –Domain (domain-name) – GlobalSettingsDomainController (full domain name) and press enter. If the domain replicated correctly, your end result should be “LC_DOMAINSETTINGS_STATE_READY”.
• Lastly, we need to add users to provide administrative access to the Lync Server Control Panel. To do this, log back to the domain controller and open up Active Directory Users and Computers.
• In the users folder on the bottom of the forest, right click on the CSAdministrator profile and open its properties. In the Members tab, click Add and then type in the profile user(s) you wish to add to this group. To help speed this process along, open up a cmd window and type in “gpupdate /force” (without the quotations). This will force the changes to replicate.

• From here, back to the main menu and click “Prepare first standard edition server”.
  • It will run through its processes automatically.
  • During this particular process, the server might have to be rebooted in order for the installation to continue.
  • Once this is completed, click Finish and it will take you back to the main menu.
  • Back on the main menu, click “Install or update Lync server system”.

The Topology has to be already setup to proceed from here. If the Topology Builder has not been setup completely and published, you need to do that before proceeding.

• Click on Run for “Install local configuration store”.
• In this next box that pops up, click the Advanced button under the dropdown and select the bottom option of the SQL default.
• This next process will be automatic, go ahead and click next and as the processes get done, click Finish.
• Time for the next option, click Run for “Setup for remove Lync server components” on the main menu. This process is also automatic; however, a reboot may be needed in the end. Once rebooted, go back to this same step in the Lync Setup and click Run again. Once all the msi packages gets done installing and the setup completes, click Finish.
• Back on the main menu, click Run for “Request, install or assign certificates.”

You might have certificate problems, in that case, you need to check the certificate authority on the domain and make sure the certificate is imported into the front end server.

• In this next window, you see a dropdown, click that to reveal the other certificates. Under the “status” column, make sure that all the entries have “Assigned”. If not, highlight the ones that don’t, and click “Assign” on the right and it will assign the local certificate to the entries. Once all entries have been assigned, click “Request”.
• The next window that comes up will confirm what you’re needing to do, go ahead and click next to the request type, make sure the top option of “Send the request immediately….” Is checked and click next. It will run through a process and once its completed, click Finish. From there, another Window will pop up confirming to assign the authority to the certificates in the previous list. Once that process gets done, click Finish and close that window.
• Onto step four to start the services, click Run. In the next window that comes click next to get the processes rolling. After it’s done, click Finish and exit the application, from there, you’re done.

• Setting up the Topology

Unfortunately when it comes to setting up the Topology, importing a file from another similar topology will cause errors, so it’s best to do this from scratch.

• On the Lync main menu, select Install Topology Builder and the pop up will ask you for what kind, select new topology.
• The first box will ask you for the primary domain controllers name (i.e. misdivision.com), type the controller name in and click next.
• This next screen will prompt you for any additional SIP domains you want to be added, enter these in here; click next when you’re done.
• The “Define the first site” window is basically asking you for a name for your site you’re creating. Anything can be entered here to call your site, once you’re done, click next.
• The next window will ask you for details on the site, enter these in correctly as the Topology depends on their accuracy for correct Lync usage.
• This next window should be a confirmation screen saying your Topology has been successfully defined. Make sure the checkbox for “open the new front end wizard…” has been checked and click finish.
  • Setting up the Front End Pool
    • This first window is asking you what you want to call your FQDN, this is a unique identifier used to reference Lync, so adding lync to the name often helps (i.e. lyncpool.misdivision.com). Make sure the checkbox for “Enterprise Edition Front End Pool” is checked and click next.
    • This next window is asking for the features you want to install. All of these are not mandatory and are completely optional, but select the ones you want and click next.
    • In the “Selected collocated server roles” window, check the options you want added to the server, both of these are also optional, but highly recommended.
    • The “Associate Server roles…” window is asking for what servers and features you want enabled. To ensure a thorough Lync setup, check all of them and click next.
    • Define the SQL store; this window should already have the name of the server store you created when you check “Define a new SQL store”. From there, go ahead and click next.
    • This next window is asking you to define the file share. In order to make this possible, a file needs to be created on the Lync server and have everyone be able to read and write to it, you can find those permissions in the sharing options of the folder. Once this is completed, type the name of the Lync server and the name of the shared folder and click next.
    • If you are not using DNS load balancing, click finish on this screen, if you are then enter in the name of the web server you’re using in the “internal base URL” (i.e. lyncweb.misdivision.local) and enter in the “external base URL” of your website (i.e. lyncweb.misdivision.com).
    • This next screen is asking you for PSTN gateways. IPs are mandatory for this screen in order to use Lync to make a call to someone, so if you have PSTN gateways then they need to be entered in here. Once you’re done, go ahead and click finish.
    • Once you click finish from there, the initial Topology will then be created in the Lync Server Topology Builder. This is the first screen we see where the Topology has been completed and is ready to be Published.
    • To publish the topology, right click on the “Lync Server 2010” at the top of your topology and scroll down and select “Publish…”
    • The first screen that comes up is the window confirming your SQL database you setup earlier, leave it as is and click next.
    • The builder will then run through its processes and at the end, you should see “Publishing wizard complete” window. That’s it, you’re done.

• How to back up a Microsoft Lync environment

All certificates need to be exportable before continuing.

• A command prompt batch file has been created by an employee of Global Technology Services that encompasses all the commands needed to backup everything within a Lync environment. This batch file can be found here.
• Download the folder onto the C drive and extract its contents. From there, open it and right click the “LyncBackup.bat” file, and select to run as Administrator. Once the script is done, it will say it has completed successfully, press any button to close it.
• Open the Topology Builder and download a copy of the current topology and save that to the same folder on the root.
• Navigate to the backup folder that was created on the root and copy it to a network share.
• From here, once everything is backed up, unjoin the server from the domain and remove the IP addresses.
• Go into an Active Directory server in that domain and delete the server under “Computers”. From here, you’re done with the old Lync server.

• How to restore a Microsoft Lync environment
  • Notes before restoring:
    • Everything about the new Lync server needs to be exactly the same: IP address, DNS defaults, computer name, previous domain user used, on the same domain, etc.
    • Create a folder on the new server on the C drive called “Share” (without quotes) and set its share permissions to allow everyone everything.
    • Use the instructions for installing Lync up until you get to the point of “Install or update Lync server system” and stop. (The preparing Active Directory will by default be skipped).
    • Restoring Microsoft Lync

Items underlined are explained in the previous directions of Installing Microsoft Lync.

• Locate to the folder share when you stored the backup file and copy it to the root and extract all the data.
• Open the mmc.exe panel and add the “Certificate” snap in. Import the certificates from the folder on the C drive.
• Open the Topology Builder and when it asks you, choose to open a local file, select the topology file in the backup folder. Once it’s loaded, publish it.
• Go to the Lync install and continue from “Install or Update Lync Server System” and click Run for step one. When it asks you if you already have CSConfig data, navigate to the backup folder under “CsConfig” and select that zipped folder.
• Back on the install menu for step two, click Run for “Install Lync Server Components” and go through that process.
• For step three for installing and assigning certificates, when you get to the screen where it displays the items needing a certificate, click “Assign” and select the certificate you imported earlier and complete that process.
• Once the certificate assigning is done, navigate to the “backup” folder on the root under “File Store>Server Name” and you’ll see three folders. Copy the folders in the “backup” and overwrite the ones on the “Share” folder created earlier.
• Open the Lync Server Control Panel and under the menu option “Topology” on the left, look at the status window of the PSTN’s and your server on the bottom. Verify your server on the bottom is green for status and that the “Replication” field has a green check mark. This verifies Lync is being replicated when changes are made. If any changes are made in this screen, all the services in that window need to be restarted.
• While in the LSCP, open a Lync user and go into their properties. Make sure the “registrar pool” has the server name in it, if it doesn’t, run the following commands:
  • Open Powershell and type in Get-CsUser and press enter; you will then see all the users within the domain pop up.
  • Then type in Get-CsUser | Move-CsUser -Target <domain here> and press enter. This will correct the registrar entries for the users in the pool.
  • Go into Microsoft Lync and click the arrow by the wheel and go into Tools>Options and click “Advanced” by the sign-in address. Click the radio button for “Manual Configuration” and enter in the server name in the “internal server name or IP” and OK that.
  • If you are able to sign into Microsoft Lync, make a call and have it go through and the Console works on the Lync server, your environment is functioning correctly.

Go back to the SCOM server into the “Agent Managed” window and you should then see your server registering as healthy.

- Verify your machine name is what you want it to be; this will be the last time to change it before proceeding. If it turns out you need to change the machine name after you installed domain services, you will have to remove the domain and start over again.

- It often helps to have your network on a static configuration instead of DHCP. That way it will make managing the computers, your domain and your network as a whole that much easier.

- Keep an eye out for Windows Updates when it comes to your domain environment as your machine might need to be rebooted and might do so automatically depending on your AU settings. If the server goes down for updates, so does the domain functionality.

- Once you’re inside the domain, you will not have the ability to easily transfer files from your older profile to a new one; it would help to put your files on some other source before proceeding.

The directions below are for Windows Server 2008 and adding a new domain into a new forest; it does not include directions on adding a domain into an existing forest.

• Go into the Server Manager and into the Roles portion, “Active Directory Services” needs to be installed; a reboot is not necessary afterwards.
• Once installed, click Start and in the command box, type in “dcpromo” (without the quotations). In the first box that comes up, click the “Use advanced mode installation.”
• Press next to go through the Operating System Compatibility screen, reading this screen is only necessary if you plan to attach another domain with a different operating system.
• In the next screen, select “Create a new domain in a new forest” and click next.
• This next screen is asking for the domain name; enter in your domain name like the example below it.
• The NETBIOS screen that comes up next will then ask if you want to keep the default name, it often helps to keep the default name to avoid confusion.
• The next screen of “Set Forest Functional Level” is basically asking you how low (as far as operating systems) you want the compatibility to go. If your domain is in a network full of servers that need to be added to the domain that have different OS’s on them, set the functionality to Windows Server 2000, this will make adding older machines much easier.
• In “Set Domain Functional Level”, it’s basically the same step as before but its asking you to verify OS functionality on a domain level instead of a forest level. It often helps to set this to the same selection as the previous screen.
• Once clicking next it will then ask you for adding additional domain controller options, make sure the DNS option is checked, it makes attaching workgroup computers to the domain much less complicated. Once you click next on this screen, a security window will pop up asking if you want to confirm using static IP addresses, click the top option to continue.
• A window might pop up after the AD gets done configuring the DNS telling you that a delegation for the server cannot be created. This is okay, just click Yes to proceed.
• The next window will show you where all the log files are kept on the server. It is strongly recommended to keep all of these at default, but if you have a specific place you want to keep server log files, feel free to change them.
• The next screen will take you to the “Directory Services Restore Mode” admin password; to help keep uniformity, it often helps to make this password the same as the local Admin password. Once you’re done, click next.
• This next screen is your last chance to change something or cancel out as it will give you the option to scroll through your configuration settings before proceeding.
• After clicking next, the Active Directory Domain Services will then begin and go through its phases. After it’s done, it will prompt you to restart, do that.
• Reboot the server and log in and open up the network properties for the active public adapter. The first DNS entry might be the loopback address of 127.0.0.1 and if so, this needs to be changed to the current server IP. Since this machine is the domain controller, it will also be giving out DNS directions as well, so the server IP should also be the first DNS entry.

To join work group computers/servers to the domain:

• Go into the network properties for the active adapter and open up IPv4 properties.
• The first DNS entry needs to be the IP address of the domain server.
• Right click on “My Computer” and scroll down to properties.
• Click the “Computer Name” tab and click the Change button below.
• In the section on the bottom of the window where it says “Member of”, type in the domain name as you specified in the previous set of instructions.
• If done correctly, you will get a welcome notification welcoming you to the domain. From there, whether prompted or not, reboot.
• Depending on your current operating system, you will need to change some things here to be able to log onto the domain.
  For Windows Vista/Windows 7/Server OS’s: your log on credentials go as follows (domainname\user, i.e. mynetwork\jdoe) and then the password you assigned for the profile.
  For Windows XP and below: when you log on, you will most likely see a dropdown box below the password field asking what network you want to log into, select the domain you just    created and type in the profile name and password.

That’s it!

- When performing a backup, there are a couple different types you can choose from, however, only two really matter; the Site Backup and Full Backup. Either way, both these options can be used for importing/exporting and can both be found in the Central Admin Console.
Site Backup – this will backup the preferences of your site and its configurations for the actual site, not the data. If any custom changes are made to the Central Admin page or the site itself, this should be exported along with the full backup.
Full Backup – this will backup everything when it comes to the SharePoint server: the farm, the configurations (data wise), the databases, SQL express settings, everything except custom site changes. This is basically the way to go to take the entire SharePoint server contents from one site to the other.

- Some things to keep in mind when you’re having issues is:

• The Central Admin Console a registered service with IIS, so any changes that are made that affect the operation to the point to where the console is no longer accessible might mean the service has to be restarted.
• The Central Admin Console is basically the GUI for the site itself. It will allow you to control everything about the site, its configurations, and how it operates
• There is a what’s called “SharePoint Products Configuration” app that comes with the installation that allows you to basically roll the clock back on different products within the SharePoint environment leaving the current data untouched, think of it as a Windows System Restore. If you have any issues with the farm configuration, the CA console, site issues, etc, run this app and it will set everything back to default. Just be sure when it asks you to keep it on the same farm/database. You’ll find this in the Start Menu.
• In order for some changes to be made by either the CA console or the app mentioned above, the SharePoint Central Admin Service must be turned off for a certain period of time. A reboot is not necessary but once the service is turned off and no longer recognizable by the related apps, it allows you to make certain changes now that were refused before (i.e. rolling back the CA console and getting an error).
• When you perform a backup and you designate the location its being stored to, make sure the location is accessible by everyone within the folder security properties. For example, if you put it on the root of the C drive and try to perform a backup it will give you access denied to that location.
• If you accidently turn off the Central Admin Console and its no longer accessible on the server, use the “SharePoint Products Configuration” app in the Advanced Settings to remove the website from the current server (keep it attached to the farm). Stop the SharePoint IIS services in IIS Manager and leave them for about five minutes. Then use the same SharePoint app and select to have the web applet on the current server, make sure during this whole process you keep the current farm selected. If done correctly, the CA Console should now be working using the original ID and password.
• There can be multiple farms per site but only one site per server. If a different site has to be created for whatever reason, it will have to be installed on a different server running the same operating system and SharePoint version.

Think that about covers it but I might add more and come back to this.

For this case we have the following scenario:

A critical set of database servers which has grown from a relatively small deployment has expanded over the course of some time to include fully redundant high capacity primary database servers which are utilizing mirroring to provide high availability. Additionally there has been several servers added over the life of this environment which are utilizing replication, wherein the primary database server has been configured as the sole publisher and distributor of the publication. It has become evident that the replication sessions are too critical to leave in this state and therefor they must be redeployed to utilize a remote distributor database and publisher failover partnership.

In the lab environment I will demonstrate the following procedure:

1. Remove existing publications, subscriptions and distributor database.
2. Remove database mirroring.
3. Take backup of Live Production Database.
4. Restore Backup of Live Production Database to Mirror.
5. Create Distributor Database on Remote Witness and Distributor server.
6. Configure Privileges on Distributor Database to Allow Backup Publisher.
7. Create Publication.
8. Deploy Database Mirroring.
9. Associate Secondary Mirror Server as a Publisher on Distributor Database.
10. Add Mirrored Server as Publisher to Distributor.
11. Add Agent Parameters for Failover Partner.

Reference Articles:

Replication and Database Mirroring: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms151799.aspx

Configuring Remote Distributor: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms147363.aspx

Manually Removing Replication: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324401

How To Prepare a Mirror Database for Mirroring: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms189047.aspx

Step 1. Remove existing publications, subscriptions and distributor database.

First we need to ‘Drop all subscriptions that are configured for the replication.’

USE MirrorRepTest

GO

EXEC sp_droppublication @publication = N’MirrorRepTest-Pub’

USE master

GO

EXEC sp_replicationdboption @dbname = N’MirrorRepTest’, @optname = N’publish’, @value = N’false’

The final step for removing replication is to ‘Drop the distributor that is configured for the replication.’

Firstly on the Publisher we will need to execute the following script in order to drop the subscriber designation which is assigned to the subscriber server.

USE master

GO

EXEC sp_dropsubscriber @subscriber = N’sqldev-03′, @reserved = N’drop_subscriptions’

Next, we will run the following script on the Distributor server in order to remove the Distributor.

USE master

GO

EXEC sp_dropdistributor @no_checks = 1

Now that all of the replication configurations have been cleanly removed, we can simply use the SQL Management Studio GUI to remove any lingering push subscription records on the subscriber servers.

Step 2. Remove database mirroring.

Removing database mirroring is a lot less complicated than removing replication, for this I would advise simply using the GUI in SQL Studio. If for you need to fail-over first, remember to do this prior to removing mirroring.

After removing mirroring, whichever database was the mirror at the time the mirroring session was broken will end up in a restoring state.

The restoring state indicates that the database is waiting for completion of the log restore before the database will enter a normal state. However, this also will prevent you from being able to remove this database. Although, if you intend to re-establish mirroring on this database this is a good state to leave the databaes in… But in some cases you may need to remove it. In that case, you would want to use the following script to force a recovery. In this case I’m executing against the DB called ‘MirrorRepTest’

restore database MirrorRepTest with recovery

Now that I’ve run this command, you can see the database is back to a normal state.

If needed I can perform normal operations such as dropping or altering this database now.

Note that in cases where databases become stuck “In Recovery” the above will not work. In those cases, if you need to remove the database… My method is simply to stop the entire SQL server and delete the actual MDF/LDF files and then start the server. Once you do this and refresh the list of databases, the stuck database will be gone.

Step 3. Take backup of Live Production Database.

Now that all the preliminary cleanup of our environment is complete, we’re ready to proceed with taking a backup of the live production database in preparation for configuring Mirroring. In my experience with huge databases it’s often good to use something like a USB hard-drive in order to transport the databases efficiently. However, for this demonstration I’ll simply be taking a regular backup to the C: drive of the server. There’s nothing particularly special about this operation other than to make sure you include this in your planning as this operation can take a long time to complete when dealing with huge databases.

Step 4. Restore Backup of Live Production Database to Mirror.

Please note that the following scenario is somewhat limited in scope and as always I would recommend reviewing the official Microsoft guidance here prior to performing this operation in a live environment.

The method I prefer for performing this operation starts with creating an empty database which will receive the backup taken in step 3. In our scenario this database will have the same name as the principal server ‘MirrorRepTest’. It’s important at this point to specify the correct logical drive/folder where you ultimately want your data files to reside.

Now that the DB is ready to receive the data, we’ll go ahead and restore the backup to this database. Firstly you’ll need to click on the following:

From the next menu I simply want to select my data source, in our case it’s just a file on the C: that I’ve copied via remote desktop… However in a production scenario it would likely be either a USB drive, or possibly a SAN location or something of that nature.

Next I need to click on the ‘Options’ tab on this menu and make sure to specify ‘RESTORE WITH NORECOVERY’ in order for the DB to be in the correct state to initiate mirroring. You will also need to select WITH REPLACE as we’re over-writing the blank database that we created previously.

Once you’ve completed the above you may be ready to go. However, in a lot of cases you’ll also need to take another backup of transaction logs. In that case you’ll simply take a transaction log backup instead of a full backup, and then restore it to the database in the same way except this time using the logs… You’ll need to select NORECOVERY during that procedure as well. Once that’s complete you will be ready to proceed with the rest of the setup and you will see the database in a ‘Restoring…’ state on the SQL Studio GUI.

Step 5. Create Distributor Database on Remote Witness and Distributor server.

Official Microsoft guidance for this portion can be found here.

Now we’re getting into the real meat of this setup. In our lab environment I’ve specified a single server as a witness and a distributor server however this distributor server does not have to be on the same server as the witness as they are completely independent of each other.

The first script we’ll use will utilize stored procedures to setup the distributor database itself on the specified server. This must be run against what is to be the Distributor server.

USE [master]

exec sp_adddistributor @distributor= ‘sqldev-03′, @password= ‘v3rys3cur3p4ss’

GO

USE [master]

exec sp_adddistributiondb @database= ‘distributor’, @data_folder= ‘C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10_50.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\DATA’, @data_file= ‘distributor.mdf’, @log_folder= ‘C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10_50.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\DATA’, @log_file= ‘distributor.ldf’

GO

Assuming this script is successful you should get a return showing a bunch of tables and clustered indexes being created that will be used for the distributor database.

Step 6. Configure Privileges on Distributor Database to Allow Backup Publisher.

Once the distributor database is created, we’ll need to configure it to allow what is to become our primary mirror server to act as a publisher. As an additional note, we will first need to create a shared folder on the distributor server. In order for replication to function properly you’ll need to grant access to the appropriate SQL Server Agents to access this folder.

For making the needed configuration we will use the following script:

USE [master]

exec sp_adddistpublisher @working_directory= ‘\\sqldev-03\RepShare’, @publisher= ‘sqldev-01′, @distribution_db= ‘distributor’

GO

Step 7. Create Publication.

We’re now ready to create our primary publication. In our case, SqlDev-01 is to be the primary publisher as it will be the primary mirror and so the configurations will be made on that server.

If you remember, the first thing we did was check to see if a distributor database was installed on our server using the following script:

USE [master]

exec sp_get_distributor

GO

If this distributor database is already installed, then we’ll need to use the following command to get rid of it.

USE master

GO

EXEC sp_dropdistributor @no_checks = 1

Assuming the distributor database is not present, when we go to create the publication using the SQL Studio GUI wizard, the first menu prompt will be asking us which Distributor database we want to use. At this point we’re going to want to select the remote distributor we created in step 5. Again, if this menu does not appear then you’ve messed up somewhere along the way removing the Distributor.

The next screen will ask you for a password. This is the password that you’ve entered in the script in step 5. In my lab it was ‘v3rys3cur3p4ss’.

Once that password is entered the rest of the wizard is just your standard publication creation. Make sure to select the correct Database. In my lab environment we’ll be creating a ‘Transactional publication’. With all tables and views selected, and creating a snapshot immediately to later initialize subscriptions with.

For the Agent Security menu I’m simply using my administrator account in the domain. This account needs access to that share we created earlier.

As a general rule, always check ‘Generate a script file with steps to create the publication’ even if you’re letting the default script run. This can come in very handy if you run into problems with a publication later on.

If you check the script that it generates, you’ll notice that the first command it issues is as follows:

use master

exec sp_adddistributor @distributor = N’sqldev-03′, @password = N’<password needed>‘

GO

This is running a stored procedure which is configuring the distributor database used by this SQL Server. We basically made this configuration on the first screen when we chose sqldev-03 as the distributor, however the command isn’t actually issued until the script runs. Note that the password field is blank as a security measure.

The reason I’m pointing out this command is that if you think about it, the backup mirror server will need to have this configuration made as well. Why? Well, if it’s going to become the publisher in the event of a failover… It will need to know what distributor to connect to.

Step 8. Deploy Database Mirroring.

Previously we had prepared the database for mirroring, but didn’t actually get around to setting it up. We could have done it earlier, but we’re doing it now instead…

Since the databases are already created, all we need to do is use the SQL Studio GUI to create the mirroring session. One thing to note here, at least in my experience, you’ll have a lot easier time doing this if you first generate a couple SQL accounts with full privileges solely for the purpose of mirroring on the primary, secondary, and witness servers. Make sure to configure these accounts not to expire passwords too… For obvious reasons.

For the first few screens you’re just picking the needed servers and specifying the service accounts that we intend to use for the mirroring session.

Once you complete the wizard steps, you’ll be prompted as to whether you wish to start the mirroring session. Obviously you want to attempt this. At this point you may encounter a failure if SQL detects that it needs a transaction log backup. If that’s the case, refer back to step 4. Remember that you’re taking a transaction log backup though, and not another full backup. The transaction log backup should not take nearly as long on a large database as it would to take a full backup.

Also one thing to note, if you get stuck here and it seems like the restore transaction log menu is grayed out.. Don’t Panic! You simply need to cancel out of the mirroring session and refresh the secondary mirror database, and it will go back to being in a restoring state. This is caused by mirroring trying to grab the DB to bring it into the fold. The main thing here you need to be sure of is to leave the database in a NORECOVERY state by selecting the following:

If all goes well, you should now have an active mirroring session. We’re now ready to move on to finalizing the replication configurations.

Step 9. Associate Secondary Mirror Server as a Publisher on Distributor Database

This command is going to specify that the secondary mirroring server is allowed to be a publisher on the distributor server. This is needed in the event of a fail-over. This command is run on the distributor server.

USE [master]

exec sp_adddistpublisher @working_directory= ‘\\sqldev-03\RepShare’, @publisher= ‘sqldev-02′, @distribution_db= ‘distributor’

GO

In this case I’m specifying sqldev-02 which is the secondary mirror.

Step 10. Add Mirrored Server as Publisher to Distributor.

Remember the command I made you look at when we created the publication? Well we need to run that now, this command is going to be run on the Secondary Miror Server. This command is a stored procedure which is configuring the remote distributor server to be used as a distributor for any publications.

use master

exec sp_adddistributor @distributor = N’sqldev-03′, @password = ‘ v3rys3cur3p4ss’

GO

If you’ll remember when we created the distributor we specified ‘v3rys3cur3p4ss’ as the password. Hopefully it’s obvious that you’d be better off using something else.

Step 11. Add Agent Parameters for Failover Partner.

The last thing we need to do to the publication itself is to configure the ‘–PublisherFailoverPartner’ parameter on the various agents involved in the publication. This operation should be taking place on the Distributor server.

First we’ll want to use the sp_help_agent_profile stored procedure to return a list of agents via the following script.

exec sp_help_agent_profile

As you can see in the above screenshot I’ve highlighted 4 rows. For the rest of this procedure we’ll be making configurations to each of these Agent profiles to configure the ’–PublisherFailoverPartner’ parameter. The agent_type field refers to the type of agent that each profile corresponds to. For this procedure requires that all snapshot, log reader, and queue reader agents be configured. Note that in some environments the profile_id’s will be different from the following commands and you will need to refer back to the ‘sp_help_agent_profile’ output in order to script out the following configurations.

So for instance, with the above output I would need to run the following script

exec sp_add_agent_parameter @profile_id = 1, @parameter_name = N’-PublisherFailoverPartner’, @parameter_value = N’SQLDEV-02′

exec sp_add_agent_parameter @profile_id = 2, @parameter_name = N’-PublisherFailoverPartner’, @parameter_value = N’SQLDEV-02′

exec sp_add_agent_parameter @profile_id = 3, @parameter_name = N’-PublisherFailoverPartner’, @parameter_value = N’SQLDEV-02′

exec sp_add_agent_parameter @profile_id = 11, @parameter_name = N’-PublisherFailoverPartner’, @parameter_value = N’SQLDEV-02′

In the above command I am specifying the secondary mirror which is SQLDEV-02 as the parameter value for the publisherfailoverpartner parameter name.

Now that the above configurations have been made, you simply need to restart the SQL Agents on both of the servers involved in mirroring.

Once those servers are back online, you’re ready to proceed with deploying as many subscriptions as you need using push subscriptions. There shouldn’t be anything special about deploying the actual subscribers themselves assuming everything above has been completed successfully.

Step 1: Open an elevated command prompt and run the following command to stop SQL services:

NET STOP MSSQLSERVER

Step 2: Next, we will need to start SQL Server in single-user mode. This is done by running the following command:

NET START MSSQLSERVER /m

Step 3: Now, open up SQL Server Management Studio and log in using Windows Authentication:

Step 4: Expand Security, and then Logins. Find your SQL user account, right click it and select Properties.

Step 5: Enter in the new password and confirm it, then click OK.

Step 6: Go back to your elevated command prompt, and restart SQL Server with the following two commands:

NET STOP MSSQLSERVER
NET START MSSQLSERVER

Step 7: Confirm that your new login is working and you’re done!

The basic steps to create the subscription are as follows:

1. Run the snapshot agent.

2. Take a backup of the database to be replicated

3. Restore the backup onto the subscriber server

4. Run publisher SQL commands to add a subscription for the subscriber.

5. Run subscriber SQL commands to finish creating the subscription and to add the subscription agent.

Be aware that setting up replication can be a time intensive process.  For example, taking a backup of a 1TB database could take as long as 8 hours; the restore would take about the same amount of time.  After setting up replication, it may take up to several days for the involved databases are synchronized.

First, you’ll need to run the snapshot agent on the publication on the publisher server.  Inside of the SQL Server Management Studio, Right-click the publication and select View Snapshot Agent Status.

Next, select Start to create the snapshot.  Wait until the snapshot has finished.

So long as there aren’t any problems, you should see a screen like the one below.  You can close the dialog box.

The next step is to create a backup of the database to be replicated.  Right-click the database, select Tasks and then select Back Up…

Here, you will specify the source database, the type of backup, the name of the backup set, and where the back up will be saved.  For the backup type, select Full.  If you are going to save to a hard drive, you need to select Disk under Destination and then select Add to specify where the backup will be saved.  Select OK to start the backup.

This dialog box comes up when you select Add… Select … to browse for a backup destination.  Select OK when done.

Once the backup has completed, a dialog box will appear saying so.  Even if the progress shows Executing (100%), the backup is not really complete until you see the following dialog box appears.  Select OK to close out the backup window.

Now on your subscriber server, restore the backup.  Move the backup file you specified in the previous step to the subscriber server.  In Management Studio, right-click Databases and select Restore Database…

Here you specify the database, the backup file to be used for the restore, and the backup sets to restore.  The database should be the same name as the database being replicated.  Check the box next to the backup set.  Select OK to start the restore.

Similar to the backup, the restore is not complete until you see a success dialog box.

Now, that the backup has been restored on the subscriber server, the commands to create the subscription need to be run.  Text in italics is a description of what to put into the command.  You can see specific examples in the images following each respective command.  On the publisher server, run the following command:

EXEC sp_addsubscription
@publication = N’publication name‘,
@subscriber = N’subscriber server‘,
@destination_db = N’destination database name‘,
@subscription_type = N’pull’,
@sync_type = N’initialize with backup’,
@backupdevicetype = N’disk’,
@backupdevicename = N’backup file location‘,
@article = N’all’,
@update_mode = N’read only’,
@subscriber_type = 0;

There are a few different subscription types.  A pull subscription will have agent processes run on the subscriber server, placing less load on the distributor server.  You should note that if you had placed a backup file and moved it via an external device, you’ll have to move the USB device back to the publisher after restoring the backup.

Jump to the subscriber server and run the following command:

EXEC sp_addpullsubscription
@publisher = N’publisher server‘,
@publisher_db =  N’publisher database‘,
@publication =  N’publication name‘,
@independent_agent =  ‘true’,
@subscription_type =  ‘pull’,
@description =  ‘description’,
@update_mode =  ‘read only’,
@immediate_sync =  1

Lastly, run this command on the subscriber:

exec sp_addpullsubscription_agent
@publisher =  N’publisher name‘,
@publisher_db =  N’publisher database‘,
@publication = N’publication name‘,
@distributor = N’distributor name‘,
@job_login = N’login for job‘,
@job_password = N’password‘,
@subscriber_security_mode = 1,
@frequency_type = 64,
@frequency_interval = 0,
@frequency_relative_interval = 0,
@frequency_recurrence_factor = 0,
@frequency_subday = 0,
@frequency_subday_interval = 0,
@active_start_time_of_day = 0,
@active_end_time_of_day = 235959,
@active_start_date = 20120113,
@active_end_date = 99991231,
@enabled_for_syncmgr = N’False’,
@distributor_security_mode = 1,
@distributor_login = N’login to connect to distributor‘,
@distributor_password = N’password‘,
@alt_snapshot_folder = N”,
@working_directory = N”,
@use_ftp = N’False’

The security mode = 1 means using Windows authentication which is possible with domain user logins.  If you need to use SQL authentication, the security mode should be set to 0.

If no errors occurred, the replication should be established now.  You can check replication status using the replication monitor.  Right-click the Replication folder and select Launch Replication Monitor.

The replication monitor will show the replication latency between the publisher and subscriber servers.

You can get a more accurate view of the replication health by viewing the details on the subscription.  Inside of the replication monitor, select the Subscription Watch List tab.  Right-click the subscription and select View Details.

Inside of the details on the subscription, select the Undistributed Commands tab.  You will see the number of commands to be applied to the subscriber and a time estimate to apply the commands.  If you have a large production database to replicate, there will probably be a lot of commands to apply since taking the original backup.  You’ll know that the replication health is good so long as the number of commands is going down.  Once replication has caught up completely, the number of commands to applied will be 0; as stated earlier, it may take several days to catch up completely if you have a large database.

From your Lync client, click the gear icon and then navigate to tools –> options

From here you will see the options menu.

Next, click the “Personal” tab on the left and then the “Advanced…” button. This will pop-up Advanced Connection Settings.

From here, insert the internal server name or IP address and External server name or IP Address fields as seen below with the server: sip.misdivision.com

Once you have complete this, simply login with your assigned user name and password.

1. In Internet Explorer, click “tools” then click “internet options”
2. Click the “Secuirty” tab and then click the “Local Intranet” icon
3. Click the “Sites” button and then click “Advanced”
4. Type or otherwise enter the domain for the SharePoint site into the “add website to the zone:” input box and click the “Add” button

Next, as this is an external site you must store a credential for the site via this method:

1. Navigate to Control Panel\User Accounts\Credential Manager on your Windows computer. This can be accessed either via the control panel, or by simply entering “Control Panel\User Accounts\Credential Manager” into a My Computer window.
2. Click “Add a windows credential”
3. In the window that appears, enter your SharePoint sites domain.
4. Enter in your username/password.

After completing the above steps you should automatically be logged into the SharePoint site without needing to authenticate each time.