How To Deploy Sharepoint 2007 Web Parts-00-7249

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It's the last point of fast deployment that we will cover in this article and, more specifically, how to make sure that you get the basics right and ensure your deployment goes smoothly.

The Basics

Whether you are preparing to deploy a simple web part you have created yourself or you are using a third party product, it is important to follow a clear set of governing rules regarding deployment. This will ensure that your production environment is reliable, has high availability and performs to an optimum level.

In preparation for deploying third part tools ensure you have the following:

1. A clear documented deployment process
2. An adequate level of testing required for multiple environments
3. Clearly defined roles and responsibilities for deployment
4. An understanding and adherence to SharePoint's security model - this is an area where a SharePoint consultancy firm can assist you

It is surprising to learn that many customers have environments where third party tools have been deployed, for testing and evaluation purposes, directly to a production environment without ...
... any prior testing or deployment to an acceptance environment. This is definitely not recommended and introduces a level of risk which is unacceptable for an application, such as SharePoint, that can quickly become a critical system to your business.

Key points:

Deployment to Acceptance and Production environments should be performed by operations (not the people who developed the product/solution) using clear, step-by-step instructions provided by the supplier or developer.
All solutions must have a documented and tested disaster recovery procedure.
The Acceptance and Production environments should be matched as closely as possible (including the number of servers) within your budget.

Recommended Hardware

Web front-end servers and Application servers
Minimum Dual 2.8 GHz Pentium 4 CPU
Minimum 2Gb RAM
Database servers
Minimum Dual 2.8 GHz Pentium 4 CPU
Minimum 2Gb RAM

Recommended Software

The following software MUST be installed on the server farm before proceeding with the installation.

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 SP1 (Standard or Enterprise) or Windows SharePoint Servers 3.0 SP1
Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 or later
Internet Explorer version 5.5 with Service Pack 2 or later

SharePoint 2010 and Sandbox Solutions

With SharePoint 2007, only a SharePoint Farm Administrator (the highest level of access) can deploy third party products before they can be made available to users. If you were unfortunate enough to deploy a rogue product, or if something went wrong during the installation, it is possible that the deployment could bring down your entire environment.

Now, with SharePoint 2010, this problem has been mitigated by the introduction of a new feature, known as Sandbox Solutions. Sandbox solutions allow you to deploy products to a single site collection without affecting the entire farm, thereby isolating the risk. Additionally SharePoint 2010 also monitors third-party products, and if they are performing badly, or negatively affecting the system, they will be automatically disabled. This means, that with SharePoint 2010 it will be even easier and faster to deploy third party tools and products.

There have also been enhancements to SharePoint which will enable you to use products with limited or no upfront costs that can be consumed on a pay-as-you-go model.

About the Author:

Article author Mathew Holden provides a guide on deploying http://store.contentandcode.com/ and useful tips for successful product development. Content and Code a leading SharePoint consultancy, and qualified Microsoft Gold Certified Partner have experience developing high quality SharePoint products such as the http://store.contentandcode.com/default/products/1orgchart.html.

If you have any questions about this article or would like to know more about Content and Code products contact products@contentandcode.com.