Although
the vast number of administrative tools are stored within either the
SharePoint Central Admin tool and individual Site Settings
Administration, there are some additional tools that can be used by
SharePoint administrators to fully administer a SharePoint environment.
These include the critical PowerShell scripting tool, the legacy
command-line STSADM tool, and specialty admin tools such as the IIS
Manager and the SQL Server Management Studio.
Command-Line Administration of SharePoint Using the STSADM Tool
The STSADM tool has a long
history with SharePoint products and technologies. Indeed, the acronym
itself refers to SharePoint Team Services (STS) administration, which
was the 1.0 version name of the SharePoint Foundation product,
originally released with older version of the FrontPage (now SharePoint
Designer) web authoring tool.
With SharePoint 2010, the
STSADM tool is still used and supported, but Microsoft is switching
focus of command-line administration to its PowerShell tool, which now
supports more than 500 commandlets specifically built just for
SharePoint. Administrators should first learn how to use PowerShell
before using STSADM, because it is the preferred method of administering
SharePoint.
It’s not intuitive to find
the STSADM tool, unfortunately, because it is buried in the C:\Program
Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\14\BIN folder
on a SharePoint front-end server, where C:\ is the drive where
SharePoint was installed.
Tip
It is convenient to add the
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server
extensions\14\BIN folder to the PATH statement on a SharePoint server so
that STSADM can be run from any location in the command prompt window.
STSADM can create sites,
delete sites, back up sites, restore sites, add users, remove users,
change timer job intervals, change roles, and perform many other tasks.
You should review the entire list of options available.
Working with the Internet Information Services Manager Tool
Occasionally, some
administration of the Internet Information Services (IIS) application is
required that cannot be performed using the SharePoint Central Admin
tool. This includes installing the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
certificates and changing authentication settings. The IIS Manager tool,
as shown in Figure 1,
can be used for this functionality and can be invoked by clicking on
Start, All Programs, Administrative Tools, and Internet Information
Services (IIS) Manager.
Some SharePoint
administration tasks can only be performed from within IIS Manager,
including IP address assignment for web applications, SSL certificates,
bindings, and some authentication settings. It is subsequently critical
to become familiar with this tool for administration of a SharePoint
2010 environment.
SQL Server Administration for SharePoint
Administration of the
SharePoint databases needs to be performed using the SQL Server
Management Studio with SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2008, or SQL Server
2008 R2. The SQL Server Management Studio, as shown in Figure 2.
