How do identify a web server from a an app server- SharePoint 2013 Farm

The simplest answer I've found is that Web Front Ends (WFE) are the ones that have "Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Web Application" service running on them.

SQL Aliases are optional (but recommended), and are a great way to configure your SharePoint environment.
They allow for flexibility in case the SQL instance is changed, or the server names/IPs change then it’s possible to only “re-point” to the new servers. This way, there’s no need to reinstall SharePoint for the new server/instance.
SQL Aliases are configured on each SharePoint Server. This is very important to remember!
Let’s dive in and configure our aliases.

Run cliconfg utility on SharePoint Server

On Windows Server 2012 R2 & Windows Server 2016, we have an utility called cliconfg.
There are 2 versions: 32-bit and 64-bit.
In this blog post, we will be installing the 64-bit version (32-bit would be for apps compatibility, and located at C:\Windows\SysWow64)

Log into the SharePoint Server
Browse to C:\Windows\System32
Double-click on cliconfg

cliconfg utility location

When the SQL Server Client Network Utility opens, click on the “Alias” tab, then “Add“.
Then configure the following:

Network libraries => TCP/IP
Server Alias => The name for your alias
Server name => The SQL Server’s name (for default instance) or ServerName\Instance(if named instance)
Port number => SQL Server port number for the instance

Then click on “OK”

Alias configuration

Recap

And we have our SQL Alias setup

Now when installing SharePoint, enter the alias when asked for the database server.
And remember… Setup the alias on each SharePoint Server in the Farm!

Reference

https://veronicageek.com/sharepoint/sharepoint-2013/configure-sql-aliases-for-sharepoint-server/2018/04/
https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/gabn/2014/04/14/configuring-sql-server-alias-with-sharepoint-server-2013/

SharePoint Online/2016/2013: HTML Rendering in Calculated Columns

ntroduction

Recently we heard that Microsoft has blocked the execution of custom mark-up in SharePoint Online as well as SharePoint On-Premise. In SharePoint 2013/2016, this functionality is disabled on web applications which are provisioned after installation of June 2017 PU and subsequent PUs. Its mean that calculated fields that contain any unsupported mark-up (i.e. HTML) will not display correctly.

Alternatives

In this article, I am going to share couple of ways to handle this.

One, you can use JSLink to render list fields which is recommended by Microsoft now for both SharePoint Online as well as for SharePoint On-Premise. I hope you know JSLink, if not, please visit links provided in see also section.

Second, Microsoft has provided a new web application setting called as CustomMarkupInCalculatedFieldDisabled using which an administrator can enable/disable this feature at web application level, for SharePoint On-Premise.

This value has been set to $true as default which disables the rendering of the HTML. Below is the Powershell cmdlets to enable it for a web application.

Reference

Handling HTML markup in SharePoint calculated fields

$webApp = Get-SPWebApplication http://sp2016onprem.com
$webApp.CustomMarkupInCalculatedFieldDisabled = $false
$webApp.Update()

SharePoint

Tuesday, 12 November 2019