Todd Baginski's SharePoint 2003 and MOSS 2007 Blog

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During my preparations for the the MSDN Webcast I'm presenting tomorrow I realized the eSATA
drive I purchased was not performing as fast as I thought it would.  I decided to see exactly how
fast my external hard drive runs a virtual machine when it is connected via USB 2.0 vs. the eSATA
interface. I also threw in a test to see how the virtual machine runs on the host machine's C:.  It's
been a couple of years since I benchmarked a SharePoint virtual machine, so I thought I would
share the results with everyone.  Hyper-V is the virtual technology I used to run the virtual machine
in this series of tests.

Host Machine:

Dell Precision M6300 Laptop
Intel Core 2 Duo T9300 2.5Ghz
8GB RAM
Operating System: Windows Server 2008 Enterprise x64

External Hard Drive:

Seagate 2.5" SATA II Hard Disk – 7200RPM 8MB Cache
INEO 2.5" External Hard Drive Case (Supports USB 2.0 and eSATA) – $29.95
eSATA Express Card 54 – $29.95

Virtual Machine:

Windows 2003 Server R2 – Standard Edition
Domain Controller
Application Server
SQL Server 2005 – Standard Edition
MOSS 2007 Enterprise
VS.NET 2008
SharePoint Designer
Office 2007
Memory allocated to virtual machine: 2548MB

Test results in mm:ss format:

* The tasks were performed in identical and sequential order for both the USB 2.0 and
eSATA interfaces.

* I should note that while these tests were run I had the following applications open on the
host machine.

• 3 Instances of Internet Explorer
• Microsoft Outlook
• Microsoft Office Communicator
• Windows Live Messenger
• Hyper-V Manager
• Windows Explorer

The results are quite interesting.  A few years ago virtual machines running on external hard drives
ALWAYS out-performed virtual machines running on my laptop's C:.  However, as these tests
indicate, with the technology advancements in laptop processors, memory, motherboards and
hard disks an external hard disk no longer provides a significant performance gain, if any.

It's also important to note that although the eSATA interface does not offer a significant
performance boost for virtual machines, it does offer a significant performance boost associated with
copying large files (such as virtual hard disks) and performing system backups.  I was able to use
the built in Windows Server Backup to back up my C: (74.8GB of data) in less than 20 minutes.
The same backup operation took over an hour with USB 2.0.

What about you?  Have you seen the same behavior in your experiences?

As you may have seen, Microsoft recently announced a pair of new certifications for SharePoint Products and Technologies.  Spencer Harbar and Andrew Connell both have blog posts which describe the new certification programs and provide additional information that is not found on the official Microsoft site.  I encourage you to read their posts to learn more.

As Andrew mentions in his blog post, the course authors and presenters include SharePoint Rangers, CAT team members, PFEs, MCS personnel, several members of the SharePoint product team and two SharePoint MVPs.  Andrew Connell is the content owner, author and instructor for the WCM portion of the course and I am the content owner, author and instructor for the Business Data Catalog (BDC) portion of the SharePoint Master Certification course.

Last week I presented the BDC portion of the course during the alpha delivery and I can definitely say that the training sessions are unlike any I have ever seen or presented before.  Mitch Prince also contributed content to the BDC portion of the training and presented some if it last week as well.  Between now and the next time the training is offered I will be incorporating Mitch’s content into the BDC portion of the curriculum before I present it again. 

Hopefully this post will help provide some insight into what the course is all about and give you an idea what the classroom atmosphere is like.  Like any training course there are slides, demos and lab exercises, however the discussions that take place during the sessions go way beyond your typical training course and provide a tremendous amount of value and insight into the SharePoint platform.  Imagine a training environment where you are not only learning from highly qualified and experienced instructors, but you are also learning from the experiences the entire class brings to the table.  Couple this with the fact that every person who partakes in the SharePoint Master Certification program has passed a stringent set of pre-requisites, exams, and personal interviews and you quickly realize that the depth of the training and the subject matter is incredibly valuable.

The content presented in the curriculum is constantly evolving and being updated to incorporate student feedback.  During the alpha delivery of the program last week I collected several interesting and helpful pieces of information from the students which stemmed from the real world experiences they had with the topics at hand.  The information I collected will become part of the curriculum going forward.  This open and iterative approach ensures that the certification always includes the most up to date information and tips from not only the instructors, but from students/experts from around the world.  Essentially, every time the class is taught, it is better than before!

Since the program was announced many people have asked me what I believe the true value of achieving the SharePoint Master Certification is.  Based on the session I delivered and the other sessions I sat in on later in the day, there is no doubt in my mind that the true value of the certification is that it ensures those who attain it know the SharePoint platform inside and out, from top to bottom.  I believe that you can certainly hire a person with this level of certification and have complete confidence they are capable of properly and successfully implementing a multimillion dollar infrastructure with SharePoint Products and Technologies.  I’m not trying to knock the existing SharePoint certifications, I’m just pointing out that if you can pass the SharePoint Master Certification exams and hands on lab tests then you have certainly proven you know your stuff.  To say it another way, this certification proves you can walk the walk and not just talk the talk – not just from a technical point of view, but also as a true consultant who knows how to work with the business to implement solutions that solve their problems and meet their needs quickly and effectively.

In the future I hope to not only continue presenting the BDC portion of the course, but to also achieve this level of certification.  It’s a tall mountain to climb; but as you may know, I love to ski and it’s another mountain I’d love to summit.  Speaking of skiing; I’m going to go hop in the FJ and head up to Breck for my first turns of the year!  J  Pray for snow!

It saddens me greatly to know Pat Tisseghem passed away yesterday.  Every single time I met Pat at a conference or had dinner and drinks with him he was energetic, smiling, and a fun guy to be around; and that is how I will always remember him.

My heart goes out to his close family and friends and I wish you all the best!

If you missed my Creating Solutions With The Business Data Catalog session at TechEd last week, and you'd like to see the SilverLight / BDC integration demo I did there, come attend the SharePoint Web 2.0 FireStarter event next week on the Microsoft campus.  Heck, come attend anyway, there are many great topics and presentations scheduled.  I'll be presenting my demo at the tail end of Steve Fox's SilverLight on SharePoint session.  You can see the complete schedule and register here.

Thanks to everyone who came to my session last week at the Microsoft TechEd 2008 North America Developer conference!  It was really nice to see so many past students at the show and I enjoyed catching up with everyone.  On Wednesday night I had the chance to hang out with many of the Microsoft MVPs and watch the Blues Brothers kick it at the House of Blues.  Eric Shupps accompanied the Blues Brothers for a song, I wish I had a picture of it, I thought he did pretty well.    I met Brett Lonsdale for the first time, Nick Swan's partner at BDC Meta Man, and we shared some great laughs with Rob Bogue.  AC was absolutely mobbed during his book signings; it was really cool to see a person as talented and hard working as Andrew enjoying the spotlight.  Thanks for the book AC!  Brad Smith gave us a demo of his new Black Black appliance and we were all impressed.  I only saw Stacy Draper, Scott Hillier and Bob Mixon for a short time, and it's always good to their smiling faces.

You can find the Site Template Package (STP) for the SharePoint site I used for my demos here.

The SilverLight and BDC Integration demo will be available soon right here on my blog, so please keep an eye out for it.

As of May 18, I am no longer with SharePoint Experts, Inc.  Over four years ago, I first met Dustin Miller, the president of SharePoint Experts.  Back then, I was attending his “Original” SharePoint Bootcamp, and SPS 2003 was still in the beta stages.  Shortly after that, I joined the team, and since then, with Dustin's support and the support of all my friends at SharePoint Experts, I wrote the first SharePoint development training class in the industry (the SharePoint Development Bootcamp), became a SharePoint MVP, and started a new role as a regular conference speaker.  As time went on, my role within the company grew even more!

Throughout these exciting years, I was privileged to create strong friendships with Dustin, Matt Passannante, Heather Solomon, Doug Ortiz and all the other members of the SharePoint Experts family and contractor network.   I'm very thankful for the opportunities, expertise and support they have provided me along the way, and I look forward to many more years of friendship with these great folks.  Don't be surprised if you see us all together at conferences!

Although I am leaving the company to pursue another opportunity, I'm moving into a new type of role, and I'll continue to recommend SharePoint Experts for your SharePoint training needs!  In fact, I personally trained the instructor that will be teaching my class (Doug Ortiz), and he's going to be writing new material for future deliveries of the course. I have nothing but the fondest of memories of my time with the SharePoint Experts crew.  They will be deeply missed, and I wish all of them the best in their future endeavors.

WOW!  What a day!  First, I got to meet Greg Lemond!  He is a very down to earth guy and I really enjoyed spending some time with him.  It was an experience I will certainly remember forever!  Then, believe it or not, Master Chief himself showed up in our booth in the expo hall!  As soon as I get a copy of the pictures I'll post them here.   As if those two things were not enough excitement for one day; then I presented my Creating Solutions with the MOSS Single Sign On Service session and finally the day wrapped up with a great dinner and some good times at Kell's Irish pub here in Seattle.  I'm very thankful for all the wonderful opportunities I've had this week and I'd like to send a special thank you out to all the folks who put on the Microsoft SharePoint Conference that made it all possible!

Thanks to everyone who came to my session today!  I really enjoyed presenting my session to such an enthusiastic crowd.  As promised, here you will find the materials that I presented in my session today.  Enjoy!

I can't wait to get back home and jump on my bike again … it's time to climb some mountains!

What a fun week it has been so far at the Microsoft SharePoint Conference!  I just finished presenting my Creating Solutions with the Business Data Catalog (BDC) session and I'm looking forward to presenting my Creating Solutions with the MOSS Single Sign On Service session tomorrow.  Thanks to everyone who came to my session today!  All the code and materials for today's session are now available here. Enjoy!

I'm really looking forward to next week!  It will be great to meet all sorts of new people and see so many colleagues from across the globe at the Microsoft SharePoint Conference.  I will be presenting the following two sessions at the conference, I hope you have a chance to attend them! 

• Creating Solutions with the Business Data Catalog (BDC)
• Creating Solutions with the MOSS Single Sign On Service

All the code and materials that are part of my sessions will be posted here, on my blog, after the sessions have been delivered.

If you would like to talk about these topics after the sessions, or other SharePoint development topics, please drop by and say hello at one of the sessions or come and chat with me in our booth in the expo hall.  You can also find me at the Ask the Experts sessions, or the Game Night on Wednesday.

On Tuesday night, Microsoft has rented out the Museum of Flight for the conference attendees.  If you have not been there before, I recommend checking it out.  The flight simulator is a really good time!

See you soon!