You may think why I want to configure forward lookup zones, that is not my job and it is related to Windows administrator (not SharePoint admin)

Let me illuminate the contextual background first

Just recently I bought a new laptop with Core i5 2.66 Ghz processor, installed memory of 6GB RAM, system type is 64 bit, I got the laptop with pre-installed OS Windows 7 however my idea is to create a server farm on single machine, so initially I have installed a fresh copy of Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise (still Windows 7 is there and has choice of selecting the operating system before booting, we can call it as dual boot machine)

After installing Windows Server 2008 R2 ENT, I have configured DNS (Domain Name System) then given FIVENUMBER.COM as domain name, my full computer name is SHAREPOINT.FIVENUMBER.COM (SHAREPOINT is my computer name, computer name + domain name = full computer name), then in Active Directory I have created two service accounts for SharePoint basically FIVENUMBER\SPAdmin and FIVENUMBER\SPService

At that moment I have restarted the system and logged in with the newly created account FIVENUMBER\SPAdmin

Then, I have installed SQL Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition, followed by SharePoint 2010 pre-requisites, we will get pre-requisite installer file within the SharePoint 2010 software, then last but not least I have installed my favorite SharePoint 2010 Enterprise Edition

Throughout the installation period the whole thing went smooth without a single problem, and then after I was on the go to configuring services and created the first web application on the new laptop, creation of web application was very fast and site accessing too, as it is recommended 4GB of RAM for developer or evaluation use for SharePoint 2010 (Please have a look at hardware and software requirements for SharePoint 2010) but my laptop has 6GB of RAM then apparently it will be fast.

Now we will get into the real article.

After finalizing the installations and configurations on my new laptop, I assumed to access my blog site www.fivenumber.com, as soon as I type the URL in the browser a windows authentication prompt appeared, look as if prompt for SharePoint sites, observing the prompt I stood shocked and I provided the user and password and then it navigated to the SharePoint site which is running on 80 port number, I have tried couple of times to access my blog site but continuously it prompts the box and takes me to SharePoint site, the blog site was working without any problem if I access from another PC, but I cannot access the blog site from my new laptop, then I become conscious that my domain name is also same as my blog site name

At that point I started Binging and came to identify that this is called as Single Zone Split DSN and can be fixed by configuring forward lookup zone, that means I have to create a new zone under forward lookup zone in the DNS manager, then I have to create a new host (A record), then followed by creating an Alias (CNAME)

Now we will see step by step how to add a forward lookup zone in Windows Server 2008 R2

Go to Start > Administrative Tools > DNS (see Figure 1)

Figure 1 - Configuring Forward Lookup Zone

In DNS Manager, right click on Forward Lookup Zones and click on New Zone (see Figure 2)

Figure 2 - Create New Zone

Then New Zone Wizard will start click Next (see Figure 3)

Figure 3 - New Zone Wizard

Under Zone Type ensure that Primary Zone is selected and Store the zone in Active Directory is checked, click Next (see Figure 4)

Figure 4 - Zone Type

Under Active Directory Zone Replication Scope ensure that To all DNS servers running on domain controllers in this domain <domainname.com> is selected, click Next (see Figure 5)

Figure 5 - Active Directory Zone Replication Scope

Under Zone Name, please provide the domain name (for example: fivenumber.com), click Next (see Figure 6)

Figure 6 - Zone Name

Under Dynamic Update ensure that Allow only secure dynamic updates is selected, click Next (see Figure 7)

Figure 7 - Dynamic Update

We reached the final step in the wizard and can view Completing the New Zone Wizard, click Finish (see Figure

Figure 8 - Completing the New Zone Wizard

Now we have to create a new host under the new zone, to do that select the newly created created zone, in the DNS manager, then right click and click on New Host (A or AAA) to create the A record (see Figure 9)

For your information: A record is an entrance in the DNS zone, that maps each domain to an IP address.

Figure 9 - Creating New Host (A record)

In the New Host dialog box provide the name as www and IP address in the appropriate boxes and click Add Host (see Figure 10)

Note: You will come to know the IP address of the site when you ping the site in command prompt

Figure 10 - Creating New Host

You can view the host record successfully created message (see Figure 11)

Figure 11 - Host Record Successfully Created

Now we have to create a new alias under the new zone, to do that select the newly created created zone, in the DNS manager, then right click and click on New Alias (CNAME) to create the alias name (see Figure 12)

For your information: Canonical Name in short called as CNAME that indicates the true host name of a computer that it’s aliases are linked with

Figure 12 - Creating New Alias Name (CNAME)

In the New Resource Record dialog box provide Alias name as www2, then click on Browse and select the newly created host file www located under Forward Lookup Zones > <Newly created zone name> (see Figure 13)

Figure 13 - Creating Alias Name (CNAME)

After selecting the fully qualified name, click OK (see Figure 14)

Figure 14 - Creating New Alias Name (CNAME)

We are done almost, now try to execute the NSLOOKUP command to verify the IP address of the site and ping the site to view the reply ping back (see Figure 15 and 16)

Figure 15 - Executing NSLOOKUP command to verify the IP address of the site

Figure 16 - Pinging the Site to view the reply ping back

One more method using SQL query

SELECT Version FROM Versions WHERE VersionId = ’00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000′

Also you can find Sharepoint version programmatically using API

using (SPSite site = new SPSite(“<Central Administration Site URL…..>”))
{
SPFarm farm = site.WebApplication.Farm;
Console.WriteLine(SPWebService.ContentService.Farm.BuildVersion.ToString());
}
Console.WriteLine(“Press any key to continue…..”);
Console.ReadLine();

The great gigantic sites http://www.snap-undp.org/ and http://www.unops.org/ already developed in Sharepoint, in order to:

• Humanize user experience with feel of branding and look.
• Modernizing the development with rich internet experience
• Generalizing the content management system

The sites are heavily used over on internet, the folks of UNDP and UNOPS extensively developed, customized, branded the site one that cannot imagine the underlying supporting technology which was extended over on Internet web platform.

After bearing in mind a number of alternative solutions, UNDP made the conclusion to build its Solutions Network of Asia Pacific (SNAP) portal using Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007

“From simple file sharing, e-mail messaging and phone communications, we have moved on and now have the capacity to share document libraries, participate in real-time discussion boards, have centralized communities of practice, and execute document check-in check-out using SharePoint Server 2007,” says Norman Sanders, Regional ICT Officer at UNDP Regional Centre, Bangkok.

Please look in to UNDP case study

It’s a breathing of fresh air when a website loads fast and clean, two good examples are UNDP-SNAP and UNOPS sites, proved by creating websites on Sharepoint platform loads very quickly. The UNOPS site supports multiple languages like Spanish, French including English.

UNDP - Solution Networks of Asia-Pacific

United Nations Office for Project Services

The main advantage of this scenario is to copy document library files from one Sharepoint site to another very easily

Steps:

• Select My Network Places, right click and Open

Open My Network Places generally located on desktop

• In the windows of My NetWork Places, you can seen an icon Add Network Place, double click on that to open Add Network Place Wizard Click Next

Open Add Network Place

In the Add Network Place Wizard, Click Next

• Under Service Providers Select Choose another network location, then click Next

Select 'Choose another network location' and click 'Next'

• Under Internet or network address Type the Sharepoint Site url, then click Next

Type Sharepoint site url and click 'Next'

• Under Type a name for this network place provide some name to identify the network place, then click Next

Type a name for the network place and click 'Next'

• Finally click Finish

Almost done, click 'Finish'

you can see Sharepoint site in windows explorer

Sharepoint site in windows explorer

Copy document library files to another Sharepoint site

Now, you are done, you can see all the file(s)/folder(s), subsite(s), list(s), document librarie(s) etc, in the windows explorer

If you want to copy the files of document library, double click on the particular document library then you can see all the files which are already existed, just select the file to copy and paste where ever you want, even you can copy and paste to the file system.

If you want to copy the document library files to another Sharepoint site, you should follow the above steps to open the another Sharepoint site in windows explorer, so that you can easily copy and paste files from one Sharepoint site to another.

Download WSS SP2

Download MOSS SP2

To enjoy reading, please follow the link http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2009/05/07/announcing-sharepoint-server-2010-preliminary-system-requirements.aspx

On Site Content Type Gallery page click on Create, then redirects to new site content type page.

In the Name and Description section, fill the text boxes Name and Description.

From the drop down list Select parent content type from: select Document Content Types option

From the drop down list Parent Content type: select Document option

Under Group Section:
From the Existing group: select any one of the group (I prefer to select Custom Content Types becuase it is easy to identify the custom content types)

else we can create a new group by selecting the ‘New group: radio button option and give the name to the group

Click OK

Creating Content Type

Now the Content Type is created and ready to use.

Go to document library, where you want to use the newly created content type.

Click Settings > Document Library Settings

Under General Settings Section click Advanced settings

Make sure Allow management of content types is selected to Yes, if not select Yes option and click OK

Allow management of content types

You will be redirected to the document library settings page, there under Content Types section, Click on the link Add from existing site content types, so that we can add the newly created content type to make use in the document library.

In the Add content types page select the newly created content type from the list box and click on Add button which will be populates in the right side list box, then click OK

Again, you will be redirected to document library settings page, there under Content Types section click on the newly added content type

In the content type page, under Settings section click on Advanced Settings, in Advanced Settings page, Enter the URL of an existing document template or upload a new document template by selecting option Upload a new document template and click Browse button locate the file.

Note: If you want to upload a document template you should have a template before (Example: word template files like .dot or word document files .doc)

Click OK

Set the template location

We are almost done, go to document library Click on New menu, now you can see the newly document template as a menu item.

Word, Excel, Powerpoint template by using site content types

Repeat the above steps if you want to show the templates like Excel, Powerpoint, Infopath etc.

• Creating the SQL database
• Creating the users in SQL database
• Creating two sharepoint sites (one is web application and other extending the web application)
• Configure membership, role provider and connection string in both web.config files of the Sharepoint site
• Configure authentication type in central administration

We will discuss all the above point in detail

Creating the SQL database

To create SQL database Microsoft has provided a utility called  aspnet_regsql.exe, browse to the location C:WINDOWSMicrosoft.NETFrameworkv2.0.50727

aspnet_regsql utility for creating SQL database

Creating SQL database

Creating SQL database

Creating SQL database

Creating the users in SQL database

To create users in SQL database first of all create one ASP.NET web application using Visual Studio 2005, open Visual Studio 2005, then click on.

File > New > Website

Select the ASP.NET website and click OK

Creating ASP.NET web application

To add the web.config file, right click on the project name in solution explorer select add new item, select web configuration file and then Add

or

Press F5 to automatically adding the web.config file to the project

Add the connection string in the web.config file

<!–Connection String Starts–>
<connectionStrings>
<add name=”Fbadb_sqlConnectionString”
connectionString=”uid=sa;pwd=sa;
Initial Catalog=FBADB;
Data Source=fivenumber” />
</connectionStrings>
<!–Connection String Ends–>

<system.web>

<!–Membership Provider Starts–>
<membership defaultProvider=”Fbadb_ASPNETSqlMembershipProvider”>
<providers>
<add name=”Fbadb_ASPNETSqlMembershipProvider”
type=”System.Web.Security.SqlMembershipProvider,
System.Web, Version=2.0.0.0,
Culture=neutral,PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a”
connectionStringName=”Fbadb_sqlConnectionString”
enablePasswordRetrieval=”false”
enablePasswordReset=”true”
requiresQuestionAndAnswer=”true”
applicationName=”/”
requiresUniqueEmail=”false”
passwordFormat=”Hashed”
maxInvalidPasswordAttempts=”5″
minRequiredPasswordLength=”1″
minRequiredNonalphanumericCharacters=”0″
passwordAttemptWindow=”10″
passwordStrengthRegularExpression=”"/>
</providers>
</membership>
<!–Membership Provider Ends–>

<!–Role Provider Starts–>
<roleManager enabled=”true” defaultProvider=”Fbadb_ASPNETSqlRoleProvider”>
<providers>
<add name=”Fbadb_ASPNETSqlRoleProvider”
connectionStringName=”Fbadb_sqlConnectionString”
applicationName=”/”
type=”System.Web.Security.SqlRoleProvider,
System.Web,Version=2.0.0.0,
Culture=neutral,PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a”/>
</providers>
</roleManager>
<!–Role Provider Ends–>

As show in the below image

Web configuration file

Save the web.config file and run ASP.NET configuration wizard by clicking on Website menu and click ASP.NET Configuration

ASP.NET Configuration wizard

ASP.NET Configuration wizard

To test the Membership and Role provider click provider tab and then click on Select a different provider for each feature (advanced)

Select your Membership provider name and click on Test link

ASP.NET Configuration wizard - Testing the Membership and Role Provider

If you can see the message like ‘Successfully established a connection to the database’ think that the communication between the interface and database is successfull

Now go on to create the user

Click on the Security tab of ASP.NET web site administration tool, under Users section click the link Select authentication type and select the radio button From the internet click Done

Then, again click on Security tab click on Create user fill the appropriate fields

Creating the user

Creating two sharepoint sites (one is web application and other extending the web application)

Go to Central Administration > Application Management > Create or Extend Web Application > Create New Web Application

Fill the appropriate fields

Creating the web application

Create a site collection by choosing a template (team site, collaboration portal etc)

After creating the Top Level Site Successfully

Now, Extend the web application

Go to Central Administration > Application Management > Create or Extend Web Application > Extend Web Application to Another IIS Web Site

Extending web application

After Extending the web application, now we should configure connection string in web.config file’s of sharepoint site (web application and extended application) by adding the connecton string tag exactly below the </configSections> tag and above the <sharepoint> tag (Note: Change the Data Source name according to your database servername)

<connectionStrings>
<add name=”FBA_sqlConnectionString” connectionString=”uid=sa;pwd=sa;Initial Catalog=FBADB;Data Source=fivenumber” />
</connectionStrings>

See the image below:

Web Configuration File of web application

Confiure Membership and Role provider in both the sharepoint sites (web application and extended application)

Search for the machinekey tag (<machineKey validationKey=”79DDCD075B91C0B088FA25244D65D0745641F91E8A823392″
decryptionKey=”C855BB4C77B455A6706638B8A9D1439B5BB0F3612F2F9DCA” validation=”SHA1″ />)

Copy and paste the below tags exactly after the machinekey tag

<!–Membership provider starts–>
<membership defaultProvider=”Fbadb_ASPNETSqlMembershipProvider”>
<providers>
<add name=”Fbadb_ASPNETSqlMembershipProvider”
type=”System.Web.Security.SqlMembershipProvider,
System.Web, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,
PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a”
connectionStringName=”FBA_sqlConnectionString”
enablePasswordRetrieval=”false”
enablePasswordReset=”true”
requiresQuestionAndAnswer=”true”
applicationName=”/”
requiresUniqueEmail=”false”
passwordFormat=”Hashed”
maxInvalidPasswordAttempts=”5″
minRequiredPasswordLength=”1″
minRequiredNonalphanumericCharacters=”0″
passwordAttemptWindow=”10″
passwordStrengthRegularExpression=”" />
</providers>
</membership>
<!–Membership provider starts–>
<!–Role provider starts–>
<roleManager enabled=”true” defaultProvider=”Fbadb_ASPNETSqlRoleProvider”>
<providers>
<add name=”Fbadb_ASPNETSqlRoleProvider”
connectionStringName=”FBA_sqlConnectionString”
applicationName=”/”
type=”System.Web.Security.SqlRoleProvider,
System.Web,Version=2.0.0.0,
Culture=neutral,PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a” />
</providers>
</roleManager>
<!–Role provider ends–>

See the below image:

Configuring Membership and Role Provider

Configure the authentication type in central administration

Go to Central Administration > Application Management > Authentication Providers

Click on the extended web application (2nd in the row) enter the Membership provider name and Role provider name as shown in the below image:

Configuring Authentication Type

Now, add the user in the web application  (which you have created in SQL database) in Site Settings > Permissions > Add Users

Try to access the extended form based authentic web application

Form based authentication - SQL login

Regional and Language Options

In Regional and Language Options box, under Supplemental language support section, check both check boxes
Install files for complex script and right-to-left languages
and
Install for East Asian languages
Click OK to install
Download language packs for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007:

Select the language from Change Language dropdownlist

Available language packs:

Arabic
Bulgarian
Catalan
Chinese (Simplified)
Chinese (Traditional)
Croatian
Czech
Danish
Dutch
English
Estonian
Finnish
French
German
Greek
Hebrew
Hindi
Hungarian
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Latvian
Lithuanian
Norwegian (Bokmal)
Polish
Portuguese (Brazil)
Portuguese (Portugal)
Romanian
Russian
Serbian (Latin)
Slovak
Slovenian
Spanish
Swedish
Thai
Turkish
Ukrainian

After downloading the Server Language Pack.img

Extract the ServerLanguagePack.img file (I prefer to extract using ISO Edit)

Extract the ServerLanguagePack.img

Run Setup

After installing the language pack

Rerun the Sharepoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard using default settings.(If you don’t run the language pack will not be installed properly)

To run the Sharepoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard:

Click Start > Programs > Administration Tools click sharepoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard

then click Next

Click Yes in the dialog box.

On the modify server farm settings, click Do not disconnect from this server farm, then Next

After configuration successful click Finish

After success installation, you will be find the language pack which you installed before in the dropdownlist while creating the site collection

Creating site collection

Result:

Sharepoint collaboration portal in German language