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Static NAT

In the "Introduction to Network Address Translation" article, the first thing that was discussed was static NAT. With static NAT there is a one-to-one relationship configured between an inside and an outside address. The image below lays out the scenario as shown in the initial article.

 Figure 1

There are three main commands that are required to configure this. An overview of these commands and the steps to follow to utilize them  are shown below in Table 1.

Table 1 - Static NAT Configuration Commands

Taking from the steps shown in Table 1, the commands shown in Table 2 can be planned to configure NAT based on the scenario shown in Figure 1.

Table 2 - Static NAT Example Configuration

Dynamic NAT

The second thing that was discussed was dynamic NAT. With dynamic NAT a pool of addresses is defined that can be used by any number of inside hosts; once this pool is exhausted, however, the next host attempting to send traffic outbound will be denied. Below, the image shows the scenario as referenced in the initial article.

Figure 2

There are a few differences between the commands to configure static and dynamic NAT. The commands and the steps to follow to utilize them are shown in Table 3.

Table 3 - Dynamic NAT Configuration Commands

Following the commands shown in Table 3, the configuration to match the contents of Figure 2 can be developed. These are shown in Table 4.

Table 4 - Dynamic NAT Example Configuration

Overloaded NAT

The final thing that was covered was overloaded NAT, which is also referred to as Port Address Translation (PAT). Overloaded NAT works similarly to dynamic NAT except instead of assigning a one-to-one IP address translation from a static IP address pool, overloaded NAT uses different port numbers along with pool IP addresses to allow a much larger number group of source hosts to be translated. There are over 65,000 ports that are available with each pool IP address, and overloaded NAT assigns one of these ports for each connection coming through the NAT router (matching the ACL). Most people don’t realize this, but the majority of broadband connected homes use overloaded NAT on their small home router/gateways (think Linksys and Dlink).

There is one difference between the configuration of dynamic NAT and overloaded NAT, which includes the addition of the overload parameter to the ip nat command. Figure 3 shows the scenario that was displayed in the in initial article.

 Figure 3

Following the commands shown in Table 3 and adding the Overload command, the configuration to match the contents of Figure 3 can be developed – these are shown below in Table 5.

Table 5 - Overloaded NAT Example Configuration

The problem that many people have is not the configuration of NAT but a good understanding of how it works in the first place. Once the basic concepts are understood, the configuration is not overly complex. Hopefully the content of this article will make the configuration of NAT clear and enable the reader to set up NAT in their own environment.

Daft Punk's Aerodynamic covered by an octet of floppy disk drives.

YouTube user MrSolidSnake745 hooked up eight floppy drives to recreate a quartet of Daft Punk songs, including his cover of Daft Punk's Aerodynamic. See the full YouTube video below.

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Microsoft CMO and CFO Tami Reller confirms that Windows 8.1 will arrive before the holidays.

Reller's remarks about Windows 8.1 were made at the JPMorgan Technology, Media & Telecom Conference (you can stream the full audio). Microsoft's Brandon Leblanc also commented about Reller's remarks in a blog post on the Microsoft site. Both Reller and LeBlanc don't go into detail about what the new Windows 8.1 update will contain, but various leaks from Redmond and some smart reporting by journalists covering Microsoft have revealed some clues.

Microsoft watcher Mary-Jo Foley has reported that Windows 8.1 may provide the option to boot directly to the desktop and possibly add an optional Start button, changes that would address the two biggest grievances Petri readers have about Windows 8.

Paul Thurrott over at the Windows Supersite has also been taking a deep-dive look at a leaked build of Windows 8.1 over the last few days and is providing details on what the build contains, including his thoughts on assigned access, lock screen alarms, and other new features.

I'll be updating this page with more information about Windows 8.1 as it becomes available, so remember to bookmark this page and return often for more updates.

So are you looking forward to the relief that Windows 8.1 could potentially bring to IT administrators? Drop me an email with your thoughts, or reach out to me on Twitter.

• Follow Jeff James on Twitter (@jeffjames3) and Google+ (add Jeff to your circles)
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• Follow us on Facebook and Google+ as well!

While Microsoft is doing its best to persuade us to manage remote servers using the Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT), such as Server Manager, it’s common that system administrators will have a number of remote desktops that they connect to on a daily basis for administration purposes. When this number reaches more than a handful, managing and tracking these connections around your desktop can be frustrating.

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The Remote Desktop Connection Manager (RDCM), originally developed around the time of Windows Vista and not updated for a couple of years, can still be downloaded and works on Windows 8. You can download the Remote Desktop Connection Manager for free.

Once the tool is installed, you need to create a new RDCM group collection.

1. Select New from the File menu and in the New File dialog give your new group collection a name and click Save.
2. You will now see your new group collection in the left pane of RDCM.
3. Right-click the new group and click Add group… in the menu. Give the group a name in the Add Group dialog. At this point you have the option to set a variety of options for all servers that will become a member of the group. If you click on any of the tabs in the Add Group dialog, you’ll see that the settings are inherited from the group collection. This can be changed by deselecting the Inherit from parent check box.
4. Click Add to create the new group.
5. Right-click the new group in the left pane of RDCM and select Add server… from the menu. Enter the DNS name of the server in the Server name box and click Add.
6. To connect to the server, double-click the server in the left pane of RDCM.

The Options dialog on the Tools menu lets you configure various settings, such as the display size of remote desktops and connection experience settings. Also useful is the ability to right-click a server in the left pane and undock it from the main RDCM window.

Recently we blogged about what Hyper-V snapshots are and why to use them. In this post we will describe to use create, manage, and delete Hyper-V snapshots.

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Creating a Snapshot

You can create a snapshot of a virtual machine (running or not) very easily: Just select the VM and select Snapshot from the Actions pane in Hyper-V Manager. The status of the virtual machine will change to “Taking Snapshot” and show the progress of the action using a percentage value.

You can view your snapshots in the Snapshots pane (this might require expanding) of a selected virtual machine in the center of Hyper-V Manager. By default, the snapshot is named after the virtual machine and shows the date and timestamp of the snapshot. You can rename the snapshot to something more descriptive. You can also view the settings of a snapshot to observe the specification of the virtual machine at the time of snapshot creation.

Tiered Snapshots

You can create up to 50 snapshots of a single virtual machine. Please remember that 50 is a limit, and not a goal.  Creating a snapshot will slow down a virtual machine. Creating more snapshots will increase that degradation. And you should also remember that Hyper-V snapshots are not to be used as a VM backup – that's why Volume Shadow Copy Service snapshots exist.

Maybe you would like to keep multiple captures of a single virtual machine over time. For example, you could snapshot a virtual machine with just the operating system, service pack, and patches. You could then create a second snapshot with SQL Server, service pack, and update rollup. And then a third snapshot with an application installed in the virtual machine. You can roll back the virtual machine (by applying a snapshot) to any of those three points in time to redo an install for the purposes of demo, testing, documentation, or training.

You simply create more snapshots as before. A hierarchy of snapshots will be created for you. It would be a good idea to rename these snapshots with something descriptive.

Note that the current state of the virtual machine is highlighted as Now, a child of a snapshot. The way to interpret this is that the virtual machine has had changes since the parent snapshot of Now was created or applied.

Applying and Navigating Between Snapshots

You apply a snapshot to roll a virtual machine back in time. To do this, select a snapshot and select Apply.  A dialog will open to ask you how you want to proceed. You can:

• Cancel the creation of a snapshot
• Apply the snapshot and abandon all changes since the last snapshot
• Create a new snapshot to capture all changes since the last snapshot, and then apply the old snapshot

Using Take Snapshot And Apply, you can create a more complicated hierarchy of snapshots.

Note that applying a snapshot will also revert the specification of a virtual machine if it was changed since the snapshot was created.

Deleting Snapshots

In past versions of Hyper-V, the merge of the snapshot AVHD/X files did not occur until the virtual machine was powered down. Unfortunately, Hyper-V Manager had no indication that the snapshot really was still present and that a power down was required for the merge. Starting with Windows Server 2012 (and Windows 8), Hyper-V will perform a live merge of the snapshot without powering down the virtual machine. This merge might be delayed by a few minutes, but it will happen.

Please remember that any dynamically expanding virtual machines will need to expand before their child AVDH/X file(s) can be merged. This might be an issue if snapshots filled the LUN the virtual machine was stored on – move the virtual machine and perform the merge. Fixed virtual hard disks don’t have this issue.

You can select a snapshot and choose the Delete Snapshot action to delete a snapshot. To delete a collection of snapshots, select the top snapshot that you want to delete, and choose the Delete Snapshot Subtree action.

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One of the best uses for Server Core in Windows Server 2012 is as an Active Directory Domain Controller. Why? For starters, Server Core minimizes the Windows components installed. Fewer components mean fewer security patches and Windows updates. It also means a lower attack surface making the server easier to protect from malware. Less running processes and services reduce the opportunity for system crashes and hangs.

Preparing a DC Using Windows 2012 Server Core

Now it’s time to go from just wanting a Server Core DC to actually having one. Before we get too far along, we better start by making sure our bases are covered and that all prerequisites have been met. It should go without saying Windows Server 2012 Server Core must already be installed. Next, we need to make sure network settings have been correctly configured. We'll begin by assigning a static IP address.

• Logon using an account with administrative privileges on the Server Core system.
• At the Windows Server 2012 Server Core Command Prompt, type sconfig.cmd and press Enter to start the Server Configuration Tool.

• Type 8 and press Enter to select Network Settings from the menu.
• Type the Index# for the network adapter to change from the displayed list.

• Type 1 and press Enter to select the menu option to Set Network Adapter Address.
• Type S and press Enter to select the option for a Static IP.
• Type the IPv4 static IP address and press Enter.
• Type the subnet mask for the network and then press Enter.
• Type the default gateway for the network and then press Enter.

• The settings will be applied and the Network Settings menu will be redisplayed.

Down the road, this server will query the existing domain controllers in the domain. It’s essential this works without any hiccups so set a DNS Server address while still in the Network Settings menu.

• Type 2 and press Enter to Set DNS Servers.
• Enter the IP address of the preferred, or primary, DNS server for the domain. Press Enter.
• Click OK when prompted that the Primary DNS Server has been set.

• If a secondary DNS server exists for the domain, enter its IP address when prompted for an alternate DNS server. If no secondary DNS server exists, leave blank. Press Enter.
• Click OK when prompted that the Alternate DNS Server has been set. The Network Settings menu will be redisplayed.

• Type 4 and press Enter to exit the Network Settings menu.
• Type 15 and press Enter to exit the Server Configuration Tool.

Domain Controller Setup with PowerShell

I bet a number of you are anticipating my usual “Do this in one step with PowerShell” approach. Well, I have no intention of disappointing anyone, so here we go!

• At the Windows Server 2012 Server Core Command Prompt, type PowerShell and press Enter to begin a PowerShell session.
• Get the name of the installed network adapter by typing Get-NetAdapter at the PowerShell prompt and then pressing Enter.

• Pay attention to the name displayed for the adapter you intend to modify. Petri insider’s tip: In a fresh Server Core installation with one network adapter installed, the name will be Ethernet by default.

Type the following cmdlet, and replace the IPAddress parameter with the static IP to assign this server. The InterfaceAlias parameter is the name of the adapter found using the Get-NetAdapter cmdlet. Also, be sure to set the DefaultGateway parameter appropriately for the network.

New-NetIPAddress -IPAddress 10.0.10.142 -InterfaceAlias "Ethernet" -DefaultGateway 10.0.10.254 -AddressFamily IPv4 -PrefixLength 24

Armed with the interface name retrieved earlier using the Get-NetAdapter cmdlet, it’s time to set the DNS servers using the Set-DNSClientServerAddress cmdlet. The IPs entered for the ServerAddresses parameter are the primary and secondary DNS servers.

Set-DnsClientServerAddress -InterfaceAlias "Ethernet" -ServerAddresses (“10.0.10.151”,”10.0.10.152”)

Okay, technically that’s two cmdlets, but come on – it’s still way faster than the non-PowerShell way!

There’s no sense in slowing down now. Without exiting the PowerShell session, install the Active Directory Services Role using the following cmdlet:

Install-WindowsFeature AD-Domain-Services –IncludeManagementTools

This is a great time to mention a few things about an error you may see: “WARNING: Windows automatic updating is not enabled. To ensure that your newly-installed role or feature is automatically updated, turn on Windows Update.”

First, don’t worry – this has zero impact on the installation of the AD Services Role. If this is the only error you see, rest assured everything installed just fine.

Second, since this server will ultimately be joined to a domain and if Windows Update is enabled in the domain’s Group Policy settings there’s nothing to worry about. Once joined to the domain, the server will automatically turn on Windows Update.

Third, if you absolutely will not sleep well knowing that Windows Update is turned off even for a moment, don’t break out in a sweat just yet: It can be enabled manually. Since I prefer that all IT admins be calm and well rested as they read my Petri articles, here’s the process.

• Type sconfig.cmd and press Enter to start the Server Configuration Tool.
• Type 5 and press Enter to select Windows Update Settings from the menu.
• Type A and press Enter to change the Windows Update to Automatic. Click OK.

• Type 15 and press Enter to exit the Server Configuration Tool and return to the PowerShell prompt.

Almost done! It's now time to move forward with promoting the server to function as a domain controller. In this scenario, the domain tree where this DC will live is called awssol.com. Keep in mind that we’re adding this DC to an existing domain and configuring this server as an additional DNS server for the domain.

•  Type Install-ADDSDomainController -DomainName awssol.com -InstallDNS:$True –Credential (Get-Credential) and click Enter. Of course, remember to replace awssol.com with your domain name.

The cmdlet will prompt for credentials. This needs to be an account with Domain Admin privileges in the domain where the DC is being created.

Next, it will ask for a SafeModeAdministratorPassword. This is the Directory Services Restore Mode Password used primarily for disaster-recovery scenarios. Type in the password you’d like to set and then press Enter. If you’re a fan of simple passwords, you’re out of luck: A non-blank password that meets the password complexity rules of the domain is required. You’ll need to confirm the password by entering it twice.

• The system will prompt you to confirm that the server will be configured as a DC and rebooted. Type A and press Enter to confirm everything and get this train rolling.

There are a couple warnings you’ll probably be presented with as the promotion does its job.

The first warning lets you know that Windows Server 2012 has defaults for certain security settings that can affect very old OSes on the network such as Windows NT 4.0. The second warns that a DNS Server delegation can’t be created. Since we’re installing DNS on this server as part of the DC promotion process, both of these errors are safe to ignore. Unless of course you are still running Windows NT 4.0 systems on the network (in which case, what are you thinking? Get those servers upgraded!)

I’m a big fan of Windows Server 2012 Server Core Active Directory Domain Controllers and of Server Core in general, and I'll have more Server Core related articles here on Petri in the future. In the meantime, why not turn all your AD DCs into Server Core machines?

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The primary purpose of UAC was to restrict user access to a least privilege model, where a user operates with a limited number of system privileges until more advanced privileges are required. When a program attempts to make changes to the system, UAC triggers an administrator prompt that requires administrator permission to continue. UAC helps keep Windows more secure by requiring users permission for system changes, which can help stop the spread of malware and other malevolent software. UAC was also a bit of a user-experience headache, which led to UAC being ridiculed in the infamous Mac vs PC TV ads and led to changes in Windows 7 that made UAC less obtrusive. (See also: How to Disable UAC in Windows 7.)

Changes in Windows 8 UAC

The most significant change to UAC in Windows 8 is that setting UAC to "Never Notify" in User Account Control Settings (see detailed steps on how to do this below) doesn't actually turn off UAC completely, as it did in Windows 7. In the vast majority of cases this isn't an issue, but some legacy applications -- especially those designed to work with Windows XP that may expect perpetual administrator-level access -- may have issues working properly. To get more background on the the changes in Windows 8 UAC, I spoke with Chris Hallum, a Microsoft product manager who specializes in Windows 8 client security.

"When you put UAC in the never-notify position the key difference is... [that] you’ll never get a prompt to elevate and UAC will auto-approve elevation. The key thing to realize is that if the app you’re running attempts to perform a function that requires elevation and it just assumes it’s running in admin mode, the app will fail unless it properly written," Hallum said.

"It’s critical that the app be implemented in a way where it requests elevation before executing a function that requires it. If you have a poorly written app, you could try the registry hack (Editor's note: See below for details on how to disable Windows 8 UAC via the registry) to work around the prompts but the consequences [of changing the Windows 8 registry to disable UAC]... are pretty extreme and all but break Windows."
Hallum continued by saying that good Windows application development practices (that have been applied since UAC was introduced) translates into newer applications not having any issues with the way UAC is handled in Windows 8.

4 Ways to Disable Windows 8 UAC

There are a number of ways to disable UAC in Windows 8, and I describe four of them below. They include disabling the UAC using the Windows 8 GUI, disabling UAC using Windows 8 search, disabling UAC using Group Policy, and disabling UAC by editing the Windows 8 system registry (not recommended!).

Option 1: Disable UAC using the Windows 8 GUI

• Right-click on an open area of the Windows 8 start screen to bring up the All apps icon, which will appear in the lower-right corner. Double-click on that icon to bring up the Windows 8 Apps screen.

Figure 1: The Windows 8 'All apps' icon.

• On the Apps screen, scroll to the right and look for the Windows System category. Double-click on the Control Panel icon, as shown below.

Figure 2: The Windows 8 Control Panel icon.

• On the Control Panel screen, double-click on User Accounts and Family Safety.

Figure 3: Accessing Windows 8 user account settings.

• On the User Accounts and Family Safety windows, select User Accounts.

Figure 4: Selecting User Accounts.

• Next, select Change User Account Control Settings.

Figure 5: Changing user account control settings.

• From the Change User Account Control Settings screen, use the vertical slider to select the desired UAC security level. In order to disable UAC*, move the slider all the way to the Never Notify setting at the bottom. (*Please note that this alone does not -- technically speaking – disable UAC in Windows 8 entirely. Keep reading for more details.)

Figure 6: Setting UAC to 'Never Notify' on the 'User Account Settings' screen.

Option 2: Disable UAC with Windows 8 Search

• Access the Windows 8 Start Screen by hitting the Windows Key, then type user account control settings in the search text field.
• Click on the search results in the Settings heading, then double-click on the Change user account control settings icon on the left side of the screen.
• Next, refer back to Figure 6 (shown above) and the steps listed there.

Figure 7: Using Windows 8 search to access the UAC settings screen.

Option 3: Disable UAC by Using Group Policy

This option uses the Local Group Policy Editor (filename: gpedit.msc) to change Windows 8 UAC settings.

• Access the Windows 8 Start Screen by hitting the Windows Key, then type gpedit.msc in the search text field. In Settings, click on the search results, then double-click on the gpedit.msc icon on the left side of the screen.

First introduced in Windows Server 2008 R2, the Active Directory (AD) recycle bin builds on AD’s tombstoning feature to allow administrators to easily restore deleted directory objects. Prior to Windows Server 2012, the recycle bin was accessible only from the command line using PowerShell. Windows Server 2012 contains a graphical user interface for working with and enabling the recycle bin as part of the Active Directory Administrative Center.

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Before following this procedure, it’s important to understand that once enabled, the recycle bin can’t be disabled. You’ll need to make sure that your forest is running at the Windows Server 2008 R2 forest function level or higher, that you have at least one Windows Server 2012 domain controller (DC) in the domain, and that all other DCs in the domain are running Windows Server 2008 R2 or higher.

Enabling the Active Directory Recycle Bin

• Log on to a domain controller or a machine with the Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) installed as an enterprise administrator.
• Open the Active Directory Administrative Center from the Start screen (or Start menu if not using Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012). Alternatively, the AD Administrative Center can be opened from the Tools menu in Server Manager.
• In the left pane of the Active Directory Administrative Center, select the Active Directory domain that you want to connect to.
• Right click the AD domain in the left pane and select Raise the forest functional level.
• The dialog will show the current forest functional level. If the forest function level is not at least Windows Server 2008 R2, you will need to raise the level to Windows Server 2008 R2 or higher. This process is irreversible. In this case, my forest is already at the Windows Server 2012 forest function level, so I can click Cancel in the dialog and proceed to enable the AD recycle bin.
• In the Tasks pane of the Active Directory Administrative Center, click Enable Recycle Bin.

• Click OK in the confirmation dialog.
• You’ll now see another dialog asking you to refresh the Administrative Center. Click OK in the dialog. In the Administrative Center, click on the Refresh icon in the top right corner.

Any AD objects that you delete will now be moved to the Deleted Objects container.

Files are flexible, and this is why snapshots can be made of virtual machines – pass-through disks do not support snapshots. The default location for storing a snapshot is configured in the virtual machine settings. By default, the snapshots are stored in subfolder of the virtual machine’s folder called Snapshots. You can change this setting and you can move snapshots using Live Storage Migration.

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The configuration of the virtual machine is stored in an XML. The contained settings are copied into an XML file in the Snapshots folder.  The running state of the virtual machine is also stored using BIN and VSV files.

Each virtual hard disk of the virtual machine is also treated by the snapshot.  This is done using a special kind of differential virtual hard disk called the advanced virtual hard disk (AVHD):

• Each VHD file will become a parent to an AVHD file. The virtual machine will start using the AVHD file for reads and writes after the snapshot, and the VHD file for reads older than the snapshot.
• Each VHDX file will become a parent to an AVHDX file. The virtual machine will start using the AVHDX file for reads and writes after the snapshot, and the VHDX file for reads older than the snapshot.

A virtual machine can be sent back in time by applying the snapshot – that is, by erasing the contents of the AVHD/X files. A snapshot can be deleted by merging the AVHD/X back into their parent VHD/X files.

Aren’t Snapshots Dangerous?

In one word: Yes – but all powerful tools can be dangerous if misused. You must ensure that the guest applications in the virtual machine support snapshots and you must understand that you can delete data by applying a snapshot to a virtual machine.

Like with differential virtual hard disks, a snapshot should not be a short-term solution. Once created, all writes will go into the VHD/X files. This can lead to unplanned storage consumption. The physical LUN that stores virtual machines can fill. If this happens, Hyper-V will protect virtual machines that are stored on that LUN by pausing them.

There are several deadly mistakes that one can make with snapshots:

• Swap the parent VHD/X files: There is a link between the AVHD/X and the VHD/X file. Do not attempt to break and recreate this link.
• Delete the VHD/X files: Data older than the snapshot, such as the guest operating system, are stored in the parent disks. Do not delete the virtual hard disks.
• Delete the AVHD/X files: Doing this will delete all the data of the virtual machine since the snapshot was created. Do not do this.
• Leave a snapshot in place for a long time: Differential disks, and therefore AVHD/X files, is intended for short-term usage. Performance will degrade over time, and the files will continue to grow over time.

The final issue was resolved in Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V. In versions of Hyper-V, deleting a snapshot was not enough – you also needed to shut down the virtual machine to allow Hyper-V to merge the AVHD/X files back into the parent VHD/X files. Live snapshot merging is a feature of Windows 8 Client Hyper-V and Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V. The merge may not be immediate, but it will happen within a few minutes of the snapshot being deleted, and it will happen without shutting down the virtual machine.

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1. SharePoint 2013 Is Cloud Ready

SharePoint 2013 is built to enable and help usher in cloud services. You can run SharePoint 2013 completely in the cloud through Office 365 and have almost all of the features of SharePoint on-premises. If you want to enable every feature of SharePoint 2013 and still stay in the cloud, you can opt for a solution where you run it on VMs in the cloud through Windows Azure or Amazon Web Services. If running in the cloud makes some sense, but you have some features that you want to stay on-premises, you can implement a hybrid architecture.

Some enterprises aren’t ready to embrace the cloud just yet, even if they know that cloud services will be in their infrastructure within the next couple of years. If this describes your organization, you’ll be glad to know that the cloud isn’t being forced upon you. You can still do everything on premises in SharePoint 2013 with no help from the cloud at all if that’s what you want to do.

(Video via Technet.)

2. Workflow Integration with Workflow Manager

In SharePoint, workflow is huge, so it makes sense to talk about some of the improvements in workflow in SharePoint 2013. For example, SharePoint workflows will now integrate with Workflow Manager. So, as your enterprise starts to look more and more to the workflow manager infrastructure in place in your organization, SharePoint workflows will be able to leverage those services as well.

3. Machine Translation Services

Machine Translation Services is one of the new features of SharePoint 2013. Machine Translation Services performs automatic content translation by the same Web Services that translate for Bing.

I know that some people view automatic translations to be second best to having a human translator who is able to infer the intricacies of context, but not every organization has the time and resources to push all of their content through human translators.

Buyer beware on any automated translation services, but if your content needs to be translated consistently into one or more languages, then the Machine Translation Service in SharePoint 2013 is going to be a huge help to your content creators.

4. SharePoint Store

This is one of the most recognizably different feature changes in SharePoint 2013.  This is not something like workflow, which already existed and is now made more robust. The SharePoint App Store is something completely new, where your organization and even individual users can choose to license, activate, and use software within SharePoint.

5. Improved Search Capability

Search is one of the killer features in SharePoint. I’ve seen users that are resistant to moving to SharePoint, but when shown how effectively SharePoint can index websites, SharePoint sites, and even existing NTFS file shares, they go from “resisting SharePoint” to “resisting SharePoint but loving SharePoint search”.

Improvements for searching in SharePoint 2013 were eagerly anticipated, and they don’t disappoint. First, analytics is now integrated into the search engine. This is huge, because it modifies how search results are displayed.

You might think that searching for “leave request form” would include the content related to the leave request form that was highly trafficked, and you’d be right. But with integrated analytics, SharePoint Search identifies that people searching for “leave request form” it bypasses other content and choosees the actual leave request form. Once Search learns which content people are actually searching for, the search results are improved.

Another huge improvement is the ability to use query rules to create promoted results. As in the previous example, you could specify that when users search for “leave request form,” they are provided the form they are looking for as a promoted result.

And search presentation isn’t the only thing that got an upgrade. Crawling gets a nice feature upgrade, too, with Continuous Crawl. SharePoint search can now place a content scope under “Continuous Crawl," making new content appear in search results that much faster.

6. Simplified Licensing

This isn’t so much a feature unto itself, but it is worth mentioning here because the improvements made to the licensing allow you to get access to features that were previously restricted to additional license fees.

FAST Search, which carried with it an additional cost in SharePoint 2010, is now integrated into the SharePoint 2013 search service – no extra license, no extra fee.

In SharePoint 2010, you also had to take on the more expensive “For Internet Sites” license if your server provided any services to Internet users. In SharePoint 2013, Internet users are included as part of the Standard and Enterprise SharePoint Server licenses. No more “FIS” license concerns.

7. Increased Performance

Performance gains in SharePoint 2013 are widespread. The new version takes a streamlined approach to handling data from the bits stored on disk to the application presentation. For instance, only data that has changed on a viewed webpage is sent to the client. Any pieces of the SharePoint site that remain unchanged after the page is updated stays presented from cache. A similar approach was taken at the SQL level: If you make a change to a document stored in your SharePoint document library, only the delta is modified in SQL. This can have a dramatic performance improvement, especially in cases where the editing of large documents are taking place.

8. Full Cross-browser Functionality

SharePoint 2007 was Internet Explorer-only. SharePoint 2010 tried to work with other browsers, but the differences were apparent and frustrating. Working with Chrome or Firefox would work in some parts of SharePoint 2010, but for doing some features you just had to switch to IE to get things done. This was due to the reliance on Active X to perform site administration. Even though some items could be done in other browsers, for anything that required Active X you could only perform that in Internet Explorer.

SharePoint 2013 now works with no Active X controls, so you can do everything – from working with lists and sites to fully managing your farm through Central Administration – through any modern browser.

9. eDiscovery Advances

Performing discovery for an audit or investigation can be a time-consuming, error prone, and frustrating process. Unfortunately, it’s also a completely unavoidable and absolutely mandatory process in many organizations. e-discovery is the process of identifying data that has either been accessed, edited, or communicated about either a person or a topic. This is for legal professionals to make a request to “give me all of the documents dealing with X former employee" (or partner, contractor, product, or client).

SharePoint 2013 includes an eDiscovery Center site template; what’s more, it makes the process of finding the data available through Enterprise Wide eDiscovery. Enterprise Wide eDiscovery lets SharePoint 2013 be the central authority for finding this documentation, whether it exists in an Exchange 2013 mailbox, Lync 2013, a SharePoint site, a searched website, or an NTFS share.

If the legal team needs to find all data relevant to their investigation, a discovery can be completed quickly and the results saved off in a format that can be accessed later.

10. OData Connections in Business Connectivity Services

Business Connectivity Services is not new, but like workflow and search, it’s such a huge part of SharePoint’s successful features, that its improvements are worth mentioning. Especially this one, because SharePoint already did a great job of surfacing data from external sources through Business Data Connectivity, that the inclusion of OData is the frosting on the cake.

For those that aren’t aware of OData, it’s a protocol for posting data to the web. If you’re already thinking that sounds cool, and that you'd like BCS to connect up to some web data, you’re right. If you weren’t already thinking that, you might like to know that there is some pretty awesome web data out there that is waiting for you to connect up to it using OData, including:

• Netflix
• Ebay
• DBPedia (an OData representation of Wikipedia)
• Datalab
• Pluralsight
• Stack Overflow
• TechEd 2013
• Twitpic
• Server Fault
• Research.microsoft.com

And not only are websites making their data accessible through OData, but other applications make their data available as OData producers, too.

• SharePoint 2010 and 2013
• Team Foundation Server
• SQL Server 2012
• Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM
• Windows Azure Table Storage
• Sitefinity CMS by Telerik

I’m looking forward to seeing how this develops into some great mashups of data pulling enterprise documentation with inline resources from Wikipedia, Server Fault, or Team Foundation Server as columns in a list.

What is your favorite new feature?

So now you know some of the new features that I’m most excited about, but let's turn this around: Which of these are features that are benefits to you in your organization? Are there features that didn’t make it onto my list that you would have included in your Top Ten? Is your organization moving to the cloud and wanting to use SharePoint 2013? Let me know in the comments below, or start a conversation on Twitter (@FlashDenning).