7 Steps to SharePoint 2013 HA Farm in Azure

QUESTION:  How many months, weeks, days does it take to provision the infrastructure to deploy your SharePoint FARM?   What if with careful design and planning; you’ll be up and running in minutes using the Azure cloud to configure, deploy, and manage all the infrastructure required for you next SharePoint deployment.

The REMAINING time can be focused on INNOVATION and GROWTH of BUSINESS activities required to drive your business to the next level with more focus.

You can now easily deploy a two or three-tier SharePoint Server 2013 farm in Azure. This is designed to help you quickly create an Internet-facing SharePoint farm for dev/test, demonstration, or proof-of-concept purposes.

The SharePoint 2013 HA Farm template deploys a SharePoint Server 2013 three-tier farm topology including Active Directory Domain Services and Microsoft SQL Server in a high-availability configuration with nine servers and 29 cores (using default virtual machine sizes). The completed deployment consists of two Windows Server 2012 R2 domain controllers, two SQL Server 2014 servers and a cluster majority node server configured with SQL Server Always On Availability Groups, and four SharePoint Server 2013 servers (two web front ends and two application servers).

Each farm is configured with just a single web application and site collection. The SharePoint service application deployment is left to you to configure.

Create a SharePoint HA Farm in Minutes using Azure Deployment template.   Focus on the WHY Focus on the WHEN   Less focus on HOW; let the Azure Deployment wizard guide you through the installation.

 

 

SharePoint farm name	Name our FARM
Subscription Type	Based on your subscription enrollment
Resource Group	Resource Group to manage your resources
Location	Where in the World you want to host?

 

 

 

Username	Administrator account to manage the virtual machines
Password	Password for the account
Confirm Password
Storage account name prefix	Prefix to name your storage account
Storage account type   With estimate pricing per Month for Storage per 100GB; pick the storage configuration based on the requirements based on the high availability requirements
Virtual Network Name	Name of the Virtual network or reuse an existing one already created

 

 

 

Forest root domain name	Fully qualified domain name
Active Directory virtual machine size   With estimate pricing per Month; pick the configuration based on the requirements based on the high availability requirements

 

 

 

SQL Server virtual machine size   With estimate pricing per Month; pick the configuration based on the requirements based on the high availability requirements
SQL Witness virtual machine size   With estimate pricing per Month; pick the configuration based on the requirements based on the high availability requirements
Service account name	Account to run the SQL services
Service account password	Account password
Confirm password

 

 

 

Public IP address for SharePoint web tier	Name space for Public IP address to get assigned
Domain name label for SharePoint web tier	DNS label for SharePoint web tier
SharePoint virtual machine size   With estimate pricing per Month; pick the configuration based on the requirements based on the high availability requirements
Setup user account username & password	Domain account used to run setup SharePoint product installation
Server farm account username & password	Domain account used to run the SharePoint Central Administration services
SharePoint farm passphrase	Secure the farm used to protect farm; required to join additional resources to the farm
Content Site Template

 

 

 

You may want to download the template as JSON to create another FARM as required for test, stage, acceptance, pre-production, or for any other purpose required by defining the requirements for your environments.

 

 

 

 

 

Additional Information

Microsoft Azure Documentation Center –

 

Office 365 talk

The part that is still a bit unknown is SharePoint.

Specifically, we would need to have a SharePoint server in-house, running a hybrid environment.

What is drives this decision?

Hybrid deployments are complex and costly requiring multiple servers

Points of concern:

We want to be able to work locally and remotely; however, the remote option is secondary to quickly accessing files from a server internally. 

– Using SharePoint Online allows for work on any device, anywhere, anytime – you need a USERNAME / PASSWORD or optionally configure multi-factor authentication.

We are not willing to put everything in the Microsoft cloud as it just doesn't work for us operationally speaking.

Can you describe your typical operational day for the different types of workers?

We have tried to implement systems in the past where we asked people to download files in a check-in/check-out process people have to download things continuously to work with them offline

One Drive for Business allows for editing within the browser; no download; no check out; however, depends a bit on those operational process and the type of worker

We also need to be able to have both Microsoft files as well as Adobe Creative Suite files in the same client directories. 

Document libraries are what they are called; they can store many different file types; there are some files which are excluded (such as viruses signatures) and any type of executable file.

Surrounding the SharePoint hybrid I wanted to give you a bit more information so you can plan accordingly and get me the most accurate pricing. We can assume we would have less than 250 users accessing SharePoint Server 2013. So I believe we need 1 SharePoint Server 2013 license and 250 CALs. 

A lot! A typical on premise installation without Hybrid in the equation is 3 servers; 4 if you plan to use Web Applications; 3 SharePoint Server Licenses and 1 SQL Server License. If we start to introduce any type of Business Intelligence generally this installed on its own server. When we talk about Hybrid; then some additionally PROXY servers are necessary to allow on premise to talk to online.

Topical Traditional Typologies from Technet - http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=257304 

3 Business Drivers for Collaboration

Hello, I spend much of my time talking to IT about SharePoint installations or upgrades. Most of the time spent answering questions about what is the recommended practice for installation or upgrading. In the back of my mind, I can’t stop thinking about those business users who are not involved. As a business owner myself working with my wife trying to grow a small local Office Cleaning business, I can’t wonder what IT business drivers are requiring to install or upgrade SharePoint. As a business owner, I spend a lot of time innovating new ways to connect to potential customers for my wife.

As a thought leader, we need to look to increase revenue identifying key business drivers.  Does this seem logical?  The business drivers to build laser focus aligning individuals and business revenue could leverage three (3) key business drivers and phrase differently by Isaac Getz at at Ted video.

• Enable Employees to increase innovation (personal growth)
• Make it easy to collaborate with others inside and outside the company (self-direction)
• Improve employee cohesiveness (intrinsic equality)

Define your Best in Class Collaboration  questions?

• is your SharePoint installation healthy, engaging, and easy to navigate?
• did IT install a version use in IT and say, hey this might help our business?
• did IT train the business how to upload a document into a document library?
• does the company use a common set of terms to describe your business?
• are you willing to work in new ways?

Collaboration Attributes to consider to achieve those business drivers

Searchable – content (documents, excel spreadsheets, power point presentations, pdf, video, email) should be easy to find; do you have employees with complex folder structures in email housing tribal knowledge? Perhaps storing files on file shares; are some of those files dated with 05/31/2005? Is it easy to take the contents with you remotely; do you have employees using unsanctioned methods sharing 8 year old content? How easily is it to truly collaborate (co-author a document together) with someone external to your company; for that matter internally. Is this use case using “best in class” collaboration tools?

Champion – Seattle Seahawks Super Bowl Champion. Not exactly what your “best in class” collaboration solution is looking for (Unless you are Seahawk fan)? Oh, you assigned someone in IT who trained those users how to upload a document. Ask yourself; does the IT person also know your business and what it takes to increase revenue or get others engaged to collaborate about innovative ways to work differently?  I dare you to find a business knowledgeable person who is not interested in being a champion.

Real-time – does your collaboration happen in real-time? Does your business make decisions with information using currently entered transaction data or updated compliance procedures? Do you believe analyzing a specific market segment or maybe a customer segment could be key to increasing revenue?

Drive development, sales, marketing activities – Do you block Twitter, Facebook, and other Social collaboration outlets; or do you bring into your collaborative environment data which could prove to increase your revenue? What percentage of your employees are engaged to drive such activities both internally and externally?

Embedded into day to day activities – Collaboration embedded into day to day activities engages employee’s and removes perceptions while enabling ability to increase revenue. Is there a process in your company which starts and stops; perhaps even halts completely when some is on vacation or leaves the company.

Unafraid of disruptive innovation – Collaboration encourages disruption; have you have been instant messaged during a great song on your iPod? Perhaps, you were disrupted by a telephone call only to find out it was a wrong number or worse yet; your boss asking why the your sales plan is not completed.

How do you rate your collaboration attributes… “BEST IN CLASS”?   Yup, SharePoint is installed or Nope, we need to talk to Marketing and other departments outside of IT.

IT and Business Areas site down together to work out some specific use cases and metrics; do be afraid of each other or intimidate the other by saying “NO” or “You cost too much”.

There are best practices for “best in class”; start with business drivers and align them with your business objectives “increase revenue”.

Give it a try work differently!

Do Open-ended Questions lead to conversations?

Alright, so you have allowed employees to bring their devices of choice.  Now what?  

You first need to provide some governance and allow for some input from those outside IT and Security to help balance security and usability.  We are not going to talk about “device management” (However, there are mature tools available).

We are discussing your challenges to providing methods for communication and interaction beyond phone calls, text messaging, and email.  These types of interacts are generally “closed” conversations or “private”.   

By providing some additional controlled methods to communicate creating higher transparency and encouraging broader collaboration to improve processes, increase revenue, giving others a voice to sharing ideas and thoughts.  

I ask, if you have seen the Movie JOBS; he challenges his team to provide him with a device that can play music with no constraints, do you believe Steve Jobs was encouraging collaboration.

By providing a place for employees to start a conversation (outside of email) in an “open” area or “public”; you may even want to include some business partners outside your company as part of your extended team.

Give it try!  Post an open-ended question about increasing revenue, reducing costs, or seek productivity improvement ideas.  Then, encourage and reward engagement through some specific controlled questions back to those engaged.  You might be surprised with some of the responses especially when your audience is provided a channel directly into your decision makers.

Consider this hypothesis:  What if you post a question such as; “Please share your ideas to increase revenue for (a product or a service)?  Pick something related to your companies’ ability to generate revenue.  Give it try; what question did you post to get your company engaged to increase revenue?  Did you follow up with a controlled question to sharpen your sword?

6 Requirements mapped to SharePoint

Requirements listed with some quick links to more details:

Requirement	Capabilities
Give us a place to put all files (possibly including CAD)	Document Library – working with document libraries
Allow us to search for a document based on keywords found inside the document or in the file-name?	Crawling and crawled properties
Allow us to categorize documents based on certain criteria (accounting, customer name, etc) for faster searches?	Content Type workshop and planning for logical and physical configuration
Allow for archiving or purging old documents?  As we add more and more documents the storage needed will grow.  At some point we will need to purge.	Information Management policy
Allow for revision control of files so we can easily see and maintain multiple versions of files	Version control planning workshop for logical and physical configuration
Allow for easy access to files/folders for users across the WAN (small 1 meg connection)?	SkyDrive Pro or Office Web Applications including Browser support planning and mobile support planning along with overall capacity planning

Yesterday, today, tomorrow – 6 ways to enable innovation?

A quick history lesson – leadership has traditionally controlled who was allowed:

1. …to have a chair with arm rests

2. …a telephone on their desk

3. …a personal computer on their desk

4. …to send email to persons outside the company

5. …to use a cell phone

6. …to use a tablet

Are these 6 ways to enable innovation?

The focus from top down corporations controlling keeping a low transparency until employees were ready. Here comes the “always connected” generation! They have chairs with arm rests, cell phone, and tablet. This generation has been innovating ways around parents and teachers for years now.

Once this generation begins to enter the workforce; which has already begun. Is leadership to continue a top down focus controlling transparency? This is one option; likely to have the “always connected” generation along with others finding ways to work outside these constraints.

Today…

Let not take about TECHNOLOGY; let’s talk about embracing self-service; enabling; transparency; educating; and identifying types of information. Who goes to the gas station and waits for the tenant to come pump your gas? Do you use the self-service check-out lines in a grocery store? Do order product from a website to have it delivered to your door or pick it up later today? These self-servicing; enabling; transparent options are available.

Image for a moment, if a platform similarly could provide a self-servicing; enabling; transparent to employees for a Hospital, Construction Company, Logistics Company, Retail Stores, a Law Firm, Financial Services Company, or a small start-up company seeking assistance. A platform connecting ALL employees toward a common goal (“Success”) working in concert a ONE organism (similar to a large ant colony; have you seen some of those ant hills?).

How can this be done? In our history lesson; we understood these were likely costing cutting measures. Keeping the number of assets manageable. If we step back and look at the trees through the forest; what we see is what? The “always connected” generation already owns assets such as cell phone, tablet, or ultra-books.

Ok, so we lean into this generations desire to allows be connected using current “evergreen” devices; proven by those standing lines or pre-ordering online a new XBOX ONE, PS4, or the next generation iPHONE. These assets are already in the hand of our next generation leaders.

SHORT STORY: My son 23 is a Manager of a store. He uses text messaging to alert his employees. His employees alert him when they are unable to make it to work. My son has an alert on his mobile phone to alert him while walking about to send updated numbers and issues to upper management; he can quickly use SKYPE to video conference (a personal touch by management, who could be visiting another store or at corporate) to talk about strategy for troubled employee, share ideas for next year’s strategy, quick bring to their attention “anything” wherever his management is; my son is able to quickly and transparently communication as ONE.

Is your company ready for this type of transparency? Perhaps IT is scheduling meetings to plan how much CAPITAL is available to spend; meeting after meeting figuring out what’s in and what’s out. Likely using some requirements which have gathered over the past 6-8 months. Like my Son’s company and management; would you be more interested on focusing on revenue and seeking innovative strategies learned by those in the line of fire?

Consider this hypothesis: What if you enabled your employees to purchase a device of their choice and provided a “service” for the device which they are able to connect from anywhere at any time for web conferencing, instant messaging, collaborating on different types of information, or transparently sharing thoughts and ideas without judgment?

Installing SharePoint 2013 from scratch

Using CloudShare to experiment with installing SharePoint 2013 from scratch in addition to setting up logging into SharePoint with Azure this week.

See what I have captured during the setup and configuration steps to setting up Active Directory, SQL Server, and Windows Server for SharePoint.



Additionally, I used the instructions from Danny who posted how to configure Azure to use Facebook to allow access into a SharePoint Web application.   Thank you @dannyjessee