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In a guest post on the Bamboo Solutions team blog titled "How do I troubleshoot SharePoint, So many Logs!" I explored the various logs and what is important for troubleshooting issues on the Front end (Windows, SharePoint, IIS, etc…) and backend (SQL Logs), with a few links to the Index/Search logging aspects such as gatherer logs and change logs (SharePoint ULS logs, Windows (App, Security, System), and even IIS logs may be relevant and apply as well). 

Bamboo Solutions pushed a web based solution to address this common challenge of hunting and gathering and keeping track of these various logs with the key purpose of putting the power in the hands of the administrator even if they don’t have access to the physical server.  They’ve done this through a central admin interface that intuitively integrates an administrative web based log viewing console for viewing more than the most common logs, and even providing a filtered interface for narrowing down the relevant IIS, SharePoint ULS, SQL logs, and common Windows logs.

In a critical analysis of Bamboo’s SharePoint System Log Manager in a blog titled "SharePoint Troubleshooting: A Critical Analysis of the Bamboo System Log Manager" I break this new solution down bit by bit and tell you what I like and share where I think there’s room for improvement.  (As well dispersed across the two blogs you’ll find info where you may want to look beyond the product for certain types of troubleshooting… for example you should consider creating trace logs using IIS 7, or using SQL profiler and looking at perfmon or netmon for a more detailed analysis.)

Essentially the goal here is to help you understand the tool for what it is… face value.  This tool was requested by various SharePoint Admins and SharePoint MVPs (I’ve even asked for this!) and is frequently heard when SharePoint Ops find out how many logs are needed for troubleshooting a typical even common issue.  I say in my log blog, that there are more logs in SharePoint than any other Microsoft app with the exception of those built on it.  The way I look at it, if we want these tools to exist, we need to evaluate them and give our feedback or the tools won’t exist.  These tools aren’t for the business directly, they are for IT.  A tight feedback loop and broad awareness is a key principal of our community values.  Did Bamboo hit the mark?  I think they got pretty close, and my evaluation should give you a good idea of how close.  Feel free to check out the trial for yourself and give them the feedback to nail it.  I want to see tools to make it quicker and help us provide higher availability through systematic tools and interfaces.

After you’ve seen these posts… You should evaluate for yourself (you don’t have to take my word for it) and download the trial of Bamboo’s SharePoint System Log Manager.  If you decide to take it, be sure to use my discount code TABJO08 and save yourself 5% (if it looks like the discount didn’t work, it probably didn’t.  They are working on making it easier to add the code). 

Disclosure: If you weren’t aware I am working with Bamboo as a Technical Advisor to give them product feedback and community exposure, but I’m being honest here and I do see this as good for the community.  Give it to me straight if you see it any different.

Enjoy,

Joel Oleson

After I left Microsoft at the end of March, I had a few offers for big consulting gigs and had some horrible experiences.  Let me share what they won’t tell you…

1) Enteprise Company Politics are Slow (TONS of red tape) – The customer’s SharePoint folks were very excited to have me, but because of the size of the company and company politics, I needed to come on as a sub contractor through MCS.  So talking to the MCS account rep, he setup a call and we discussed it.  The whole account team was very excited.  We can have you start on Monday.  Monday comes, and I’m still there and I send mails with delayed responses.  Oh, sorry, we need to get upper level management approval and your rate is concerning them.  What?  I thought we were past this…  So tell me what they want.  Oh, MCS is adding a cushion?  Sure I expect that.  So will each layer.

2) Statement of Works are a fact of life and completely ridiculous – We know what you’re going to do, but we need a statement of work.  The statement of work might be approved, but it will take a review sometime in the next few weeks.  It might happen as soon as tomorrow or as late as next budget.  Template for the SOW?  Just write something up and we’ll let you know if it works.

3) To be a sub, you need to choose sub contracting company – So I need to get in a company to get in another company?  And we wonder why the rates are a problem.  Independent consulting really doesn’t exist at the enterprise level.

4) What sounds real is fake – the people who want to do things are often completely not enabled to make decisions.  This is very, very much a common problem.  I’m sure SharePoint ISVs see this all the time.

5) Life is completely random – You might get a call in the middle of the night from a client that has to have you on the ground tomorrow, and by the time you get yourself together.  It’s gone.  Something happened, but you don’t know what.  You just know they stopped calling and they don’t return your calls… if you even have their number.  Urgent has been reprioritized.

Lessons Learned – If you want to do consulting, then you likely are better off picking a company to hang your hat on, even if your relationship with them is loose.  Getting insurance can be hard if you have existing conditions that have medication.  Some alumni organizations either from your previous company or from your school may have options for you.  Small and medium companies are actually more agile and can make decisions much faster.  They often are willing to pay the rate and can pay it because they don’t have the multiple layers and red tape.  They want the expert and boom they can have them.

Long story short.  I never ended up at the big enterprise job that had to have me that made me drop other things off my plate.  They wasted a TON of my time and I wouldn’t even give them my time if they doubled my rates due to the way I was treated.  I had an awesome summer doing a ton of fun things from short high impact consulting gigs, training, workshops, and conferences all over the globe.  It was awesome.

Consulting at an independent level is ultimately sales.  So if you don’t like sales you may not like independent consulting.  You have to sell your skills, then you have to sell your solution, then you have to deal with account management.  No guarantees at all along the way.  No matter how much time the customer has invested there is no guarantee it will go through.  Those 2 months where you could make TONS of money could be 2 months of wasted time trying to get the job that gets reprioritized and you’re out all that time.  SAD.

There are upsides to independence don’t get me wrong, but that’s for another post.

• Setup.exe
• Install bits
• Use Answer file to provide needed details to automate.
• Psconfig.exe
• Create or Connect to config db
   Start or stop services
   Change server roles
• STSAdm.exe
• Create Web Apps
• Create Site Collections and sites
• Backup/Restore
• Import/Export
• Maintenance and management

I’m here in Kuala Lumpur doing some last minute prepping for my SharePoint Backup and Disaster Recovery session and figured I should share some of my content.