The Ultimate Guide: Dos and Don’ts for a Successful SharePoint Administration

SharePoint Administration can be a complex role, involving a balanced mix of technical, managerial, and strategic skills. Acting as both a gatekeeper and facilitator, the SharePoint Administrator ensures that a company's digital workplace runs smoothly and efficiently. Understanding the best practices and pitfalls is crucial for optimizing workflows and maintaining a seamless SharePoint environment. Here's a comprehensive guide that details the dos and don'ts of successful SharePoint administration.

Table of Contents

1. Understanding Your Environment
2. Managing Permissions Effectively
3. Keeping SharePoint Updated
4. Regular Backups Are Vital
5. Document Control and Management
6. Automating Tasks with PowerShell
7. Performance Monitoring and Optimization
8. Training and Support
9. Don'ts of SharePoint Administration

Understanding Your Environment

Before delving into administration, it’s critical to fully understand the SharePoint environment you’re managing. Each organization might use SharePoint differently, thus knowing the specifics of your environment is crucial.

Dos

• Assess Current Configurations: Regularly review the architecture of your SharePoint installation. Understand the number of farms, databases, and servers involved.
• Document Everything: Make detailed notes on setups, user permissions, and customizations to avoid future chaos.
• Align with Business Goals: Ensure your configurations meet both immediate and long-term business objectives. Engage stakeholders in your decision-making process.

Don’ts

• Assume All SharePoint Versions Are the Same: Each version of SharePoint has its unique features and limitations. Familiarize yourself with these nuances.
• Underestimate Data Growth: Consistently evaluate your storage needs, considering future growth to avoid performance issues.

Managing Permissions Effectively

Security within SharePoint is paramount. Proper administration of permissions safeguards sensitive information while promoting collaborative efforts.

Dos

• Implement Least Privilege Principle: Users should only have access to necessary information and features, minimizing security risks.
• Regularly Audit Permissions: Conduct periodic reviews to ensure that permissions align with user roles and responsibilities.
• Use Role-based Access: Group users according to roles, making management more streamlined and efficient.

Don’ts

• Avoid Direct Permissions: Directly assigning permissions to users can complicate administration; use groups instead.
• Neglect Inactive Accounts: Regularly prune inactive user accounts to maintain security integrity.

Keeping SharePoint Updated

Regularly updating your SharePoint installation ensures improved functionality, performance enhancements, and security patches.

Dos

• Schedule Regular Updates: Create a timetable for patching and updating to prevent disruptions.
• Monitor Release Notes: Stay informed of new updates from Microsoft and assess their impact on your environment.

Don’ts

• Update Without Testing: Utilize a test environment to trial updates before rolling them out to the live system.
• Ignore Backward Compatibility: Ensure new updates won’t disrupt existing functionalities.

Regular Backups Are Vital

Backups form the cornerstone of a robust SharePoint administration strategy. A well-planned backup system ensures data safety and availability.

Dos

• Adopt a Backup Routine: Institute daily or weekly backup schedules based on your organization's needs.
• Test Restore Procedures: Regularly validate your backup methods by performing test recoveries.

Don’ts

• Rely Solely on One Type of Backup: Combine different backup methods (full, incremental, differential) for comprehensive coverage.
• Forget Disaster Recovery Plans: Develop and routinely update an extensive disaster recovery plan.

Document Control and Management

Organizations rely heavily on SharePoint for document management, making it imperative to have a systematic approach to document control.

Dos

• Encourage Metadata Usage: Implement metadata to enhance searchability and organization of documents.
• Set Version Controls: Enable versioning to keep track of document edits and history.
• Use Workflow Automations: Streamline document approval processes through workflow automation.

Don’ts

• Overlook Naming Conventions: Create clear, standardized document naming conventions to avoid confusion.
• Allow Document Duplication: Regularly clean repositories to prevent unnecessary document overlaps and clutter.

Automating Tasks with PowerShell

PowerShell provides powerful scripting abilities, enabling the automation of many time-consuming administrative tasks in SharePoint.

Dos

• Learn PowerShell Basics: Invest time in learning PowerShell scripting to automate repetitive tasks effectively.
• Create Reusable Scripts: Develop scripts that can be reused for various tasks, saving time and effort.

Don’ts

• Run Scripts Without Testing: Always test scripts in a development environment before implementing them in production.
• Overlook Script Documentation: Document your scripts diligently, so you or your colleagues can understand them later.

Performance Monitoring and Optimization

Maintaining optimal performance in SharePoint necessitates constant monitoring and proactive optimization strategies.

Dos

• Utilize Monitoring Tools: Leverage SharePoint’s built-in tools or third-party solutions to monitor system health and performance.
• Optimize Server Resources: Check server capacity and resource usage regularly to ensure smooth operation.

Don’ts

• Ignore Warning Signs: Act promptly on alerts about potential issues to prevent downtime.
• Overlook Capacity Planning: Plan for storage and system expansion in advance to avoid last-minute troubles.

Training and Support

By providing adequate training and support, SharePoint administrators can empower users to utilize SharePoint tools effectively while minimizing administrative overhead.

Dos

• Organize Regular Training: Schedule consistent training sessions to keep users updated with SharePoint features.
• Maintain Support Documentation: Create comprehensive guides and FAQs for self-service support.

Don’ts

• Underestimate User Inquiries: Encourage users to ask questions and report issues to improve the system continually.
• Dismiss Feedback: Regularly collect user feedback to identify areas for system improvement and training needs.

Don'ts of SharePoint Administration

Having explored the essential Dos of SharePoint Administration, understanding what to avoid is equally critical in establishing a productive system.

• Don’t overwhelm End Users: Avoid deploying features that users do not need. This can confuse them and decrease productivity.
• Don’t keep unnecessary legacy systems: Regularly review the need for old integrations and systems and decommission those that are no longer needed to safeguard performance.
• Don’t neglect scalability: Always plan for growth in terms of user access and data storage to ensure long-term efficiency.
• Don’t skip governance planning: Without a solid governance plan, managing the SharePoint site lifecycle can become chaotic.

In conclusion, mastering the dos and don’ts of SharePoint Administration not only enhances your ability to manage a seamless digital workplace but also aids in aligning SharePoint’s capabilities with organizational goals. Keeping up with the latest developments, reinforcing a secure environment, and maximizing SharePoint’s feature set helps ensure you are a successful SharePoint Administrator.