SharePoint Musings

I have been using SharePoint since about the middle of April 2004. I consider myself to be an expert on SharePoint. I by no means know everything but I have learned a lot and continue to learn everyday about the things that make SharePoint actually work and about the things that make it NOT work. One thing that I would like to pass on to any person that thinks that SharePoint is just another web site is this. 'Put it in front of a user and tell them, there you go there is your web site'. Guess what, you just gave them a web site. (nothing on it, no content, no users, no interaction) they will never return to that site because they don't know what to do with it and even if they did go to it there is nothing there for them.
Now take that same user. Sit them down in front of the "web site" you have given them, show them how to add users, show them how to upload a document, show them how to add a link to a link list, show them how to make a discussion, show them how to add pictures and create their own sub sites and you have just given them the ability to take everything that they currently have on their own computers and share it with every other person they work with. This is what SharePoint is about, its about giving people the power to take control over the information they currently have and share it with the people that need that information.

SharePoint Interview Questions

Here are a few SharePoint interview questions that may help you out. Whether your HIRING or being HIRED.

Target Candidate:(Overall SharePoint knowledge including Development, Administration and Architecture)

1. What is the difference between WSS and SPS?
2. What is the primary reason for dual NIC's on your web front ends in a Load Balanced Architecture?
3. What is the size limitation on Site Templates?
4. When would you use a Site Template and When would you use a Site Definition.
5. Why would a page that was modified in Front Page have problems when migrating from v2 to v3 SharePoint?
6. Explain the reason behind the degradation of Performance when a page is edited in Front Page?
7. Can you list the Events that can occur inside a Document Library?
8. Are you familiar with the Double Hop issue?
9. How do you solve the errors caused by Double Hop?
10. Explain a Web Part.
11. What major authentication change was added with SharePoint Service Pack 2
12. What is Kerberos? When would you use it?
13. How do you force a site to use its OWN database?
14. What is the reason behind a site using its own Application Pool?
15. What is the GAC?
16. Can you explain the basic use of a content editor web part?
17. What is the difference between Manifest.xml and webpartName.dwp
18. Can you give one example of a Custom Web Part that you may have to build?
19. Can you describe each of the SharePoint Server Farm Architectures?
20. For a Starting point how many users can each SharePoint architecture Support? Small, Medium and Large.
21. Can you tell me the differences in WSS Search and SharePoint Portal Search?

Each of these answers can delve into many other possible conversations, but for a starting point the most basic of answers follows.

Q1. WSS are the collaboration sites of the portal this is where the Content is produced. SPS is the aggregator the place where all of the content that is produced is collected and distributed.

Q2. The first NIC handles incoming HTTP requests from users while the second handles the back-end connection to the database servers.

Q3. Site Templates with "include content" enabled are limited to 10mb.

Q4. Typically a Developer would use a Site Definition and an end user would use a Site Template. If you will be modifying a site after deployment changing a Site Definition by anything other then adding will BREAK existing deployed sites. Site Templates can be modded and will change the current site but not sites already created.

Q5. Pages that are modified with Front page would be unghosted and this in turn creates its own template to specify layout. MOSS uses master pages to specify layout and may cause problems with pages that were modified in front page.

Q6.Front page makes a page unghosted which means that it follows its own template. Pages that have not been modifed are ghosted meaning they follow a base template. The difference according to Microsoft can be as much as 30% degradation. i.e. One Thousand sites using One Template (ghosted) or One Thousand Sites using One Thousand Templates(un-ghosted).

Q7.Insert, Delete, Copy, Check-In, Check-out,Cancel-Check-Out,Move or Rename, Update

Q8. Double Hop is when you access SharePoint or any other .Net Application and integrated security Allows you to access the page your on but does not allow the application or a web part to access a SQL Database. Basically your credentials are passed to the application (1st HOP) then from the application to the Database(2nd HOP) they are not passed.

Q9. Implement Kerberos, or Implement a Single Sign On solution.

Q10. Web parts are web based controls that are utilized by SharePoint to give functionality and interaction to SPS or WSS. They can be added, removed and moved on each site and can be reused.

Q11. When installing SharePoint it asks if you want to use NTLM or KERBEROS as the authentication method.

Q12. Kerberos is a ticket based authentication system that allows your credentials to impersonate the priveleges of a more priveleged user or service. Use it to allow access to Databases and third party tools that would need higher permissions then those granted to your own user account.

Q13. In SharePoint Central Administration open the "configure virtual server settings from Virtual Server List Page" --> Choose the Virtual Server by Clicking it. Choose "Manage Content Databases" -- > Click the Content Database --> change the Maximum Number of sites that can be created in this database to 1

Q14. A site using its own application pool will isolate its processes. Therefore a Crash of the Application or Site using its own application pool will not necessarily break the entire portal as long as the portal is using a seperate application pool.

Q15. Global Assembly Cache allows assemblies stored here as long as they are strongly named to have full trust. Placing items here may have more permissions then needed.

Q16. Content Editor is used to display code or allow a user to create a web part using content editor to display HTML, or scripting languages code.

Q17. The .dwp file is the XML description of the web part the manifest.xml is the file that describes the pieces of a web part to be placed in a .cab file to install a web part.

Q18. A web part that accesses a custom database that allows you to View,Insert,Update and Delate Data.

Q19.

• Single - All SharePoint Aspects installed on ONE Server.
• Small - One Web Front end Server and One Database Server.
• Medium - One or more Web Front end Servers, One Dataabse Server, One Job and Index Server.
• Large - One or more Web Front End Servers, One or more SQL Servers (can be clustered), One or more search servers, One Index/Job Server.

Q20.

• Single/Small - 10,000 users
• Medium up to 100,000 users
• Large more then 100,000 users

Q21. Both use Full text Search capabilities as specified in SQL Full Text Indexing. But SPS Aggregates all searches and can index other resources such as shared folders and email resources then it Indexes the results for retrieval of the information from multiple sections or the SharePoint Sites. WSS searchs only the CURRENT Site and no others. WSS cannot search Sub Sites of the top level site collection each site searches its own site.

Feel Free to add comments as you feel are needed. I am aware that there are caveats to each of these answers and they are intended as a Basic Answer that can be elaborated on.