Getting StoragePoint connected to the cloud is simple. 

 

The basic steps are

a.) Get a Cloud Storage Account

b.) Plug in a connection string pointing StoragePoint at your Account

 

Below, you will find the bare-bones information needed in order to get started with the current crop of cloud adapters.   For each Cloud Storage provider this includes:

 

1.) Sign up link.

2.) Account Information provided by the provider.

3.) How to plug that information into a connection string suitable for use on a StoragePoint Profile.

 

Please keep in mind that, each StoragePoint adapter also comes with a PDF document describing all of it's supported connection options.  For example in addition to account details this would include optional things like retry counts \timeouts\ ssl etc .

 

Amazon 

http://aws.amazon.com/s3/

 

When you have completed the sign-up process take the Access Key that is provided and the Secret Key and place them into a connection string as follows:

Example:

For an Access Key of: "93MY44FAKE0ACCESS665KEY"

And A Secret Key of:  "some884fake90345secretkey21234"

 

One more parameter is advised and this is a named "Bucket" which will be created within Amazon Storage by StoragePoint in order to hold all of the SharePoint blobs.

 

And a bucket named "MySharePointBlobs"

 

Sample connection string:

ACCESSKEY=93MY44FAKE0ACCESS665KEY;

SECRETKEY=some884fake90345secretkey21234;

BUCKET=MySharePointBlobs;

 

 

Atmos 

http://www.emccis.com/

 

When you have completed the sign-up process take the UID that is provided and the Secret Key and place them into a connection string as follows:

Example:

For a UID of: "998737698734598987365/SomeUserThingHere"

And A Secret Key of:  "some/privategobbldygook="

 

You would build a connection string with three parameters as follows:

 

UID=998737698734598987365/SomeUserThing;

Key=some/privategobbldygook=;

 

ATT 

https://www.synaptic.att.com/signup

 

When you have completed the sign-up process take the UID that is provided and the Secret Key and place them into a connection string as follows:

Example:

For a UID of: "998737698734598987365/SomeUserThingHere"

And A Secret Key of:  "some/privategobbldygook="

 

You would build a connection string with three parameters as follows:

 

BaseURI=storage.synaptic.att.com;

UID=998737698734598987365/SomeUserThing;

Key=some/privategobbldygook=;

 

Note that the BaseURI unlike the UID and Key MUST be specified exactly as listed above.

 

Azure

(You will need a microsoft LiveId.  If you do not have one these steps will begin with the process of creating one.)

1.       Create a New Windows Azure Account
Before you get started, you need to have a Windows Azure token.

2.       Request a token by completing the application here. Tokens are generally issued within a few hours.

3.       Once you have received your token, redeem it at http://windows.azure.com.

4.       Create a New Windows Azure Storage Project
Login to the Windows Azure Portal at http://windows.azure.com.

5.       Click New Project, and then select Storage Account.

6.       Enter a project label (such as davidtododb) and click Next.

7.       Enter the same name for the Storage Account Name. Check to make sure the account is available and then click Create.

8.       At the end of this process you will receive a set of EndPoints and a Primary Access Key.

9.       This is the information you will need in order to build a connection string and use the Azure Adapter for StoragePoint.

 

Example Endpoint:

http://storagepoint.blob.core.windows.net/

 

Take the first segment of the EndPoint (in the example this portion is highlighted) and this will be the value to use for an "AccountName".   In this case: storagepoint

 

Take the Primary (or Secondary) Access Key and this is the value to use as a "Key".  In this case: myprivatekeystringofbase64junk==;

 

One more parameter is advised and this is a "Container" which will be created within Azure Blob Storage by StoragePoint in order to hold all of the SharePoint blobs.  In our example let's call this SharePointBlobs

 

A connection string is the complete list of semi-colon delimited name\value pairs. 

Thus you should have something similar to:

 

AccountName=storagepoint;

Key=myprivatekeystringofbase64junk==;

Container=SharePointBlobs;

 

 

RackSpace

https://www.rackspacecloud.com/signup

 

Only the "Cloud Files" service is required for use with the StoragePoint adapter.

 

Once enrolled you will get a UID and a Secret Key.

When you have completed the sign-up process take the UID that is provided and the Secret Key and place them into a connection string as follows:

Example:

For a UID of: "SomeUserIDName"

And A Secret Key of:  "some999private947262gobbldy12100675gook87"

 

One more parameter is advised and this is a named "Container" which will be created within Rackspace Cloud Files by StoragePoint in order to hold all of the SharePoint blobs.

 

And a container named "MySharePointBlobs"

 

 

You would build a connection string with three parameters as follows:

 

UID=SomeUserIDName;

Key=some999private947262gobbldy12100675gook87;

Container=MySharePointBlobs;

 

By now everyone knows that StoragePoint is to SharePoint what coffee is to mornings.  Yes, you can have a morning without coffee\caffeine – but would you want to?  StoragePoint externalizes the content of SharePoint.  This generally makes SharePoint perform a bit quicker, scale further and generally exceed expectations.  Given that StoragePoint “externalizes” the content of a SharePoint deployment, astute readers will be wondering “Ok, where does it go then?”

The answer (as with all questions worth asking) is … it depends.  StoragePoint is implemented with an extensible set of storage providers called (strangely enough) “adapters”.  The out of the box experience is based on a FileSystem adapter which puts content anywhere you could point a UNC path.  This is pretty basic and functional.  Put your content on a SAN for blinding fast access, or a NAS or direct-attached disk.  Alternatively you could look at using our EMC Centera or Hitachi HCAP adapters to target a dedicated hardware storage appliance.  However, none of these adapters are the focus of today’s blog.

Today’s blog is (if you’re a geek) substantially more fun.  We’re talking about an adapter that handles storing your SharePoint blobs inside of Windows Azure Blob Storage on the cloud.  Yes - you heard me correctly – all the un-ghosted site content and documents will live in the cloud and continue to be surfaced locally through your SharePoint farm UI and API’s.  While the novelty factor with this is high (consider that Azure is in CTP stage only right now), the most practical message of this article is that the StoragePoint adapter model is supremely flexible. 

Without further ado, on to the novelty factor. 

Prerequisites

Mandatory Prerequisites:

1.)    WSS \ MOSS (SP1 or higher)

a.       WSS is free but install is beyond the scope of this article.  For details please see the official Microsoft documentation. 

b.      One possible starting place is

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc288005.aspx

 

2.)    BlueThread StoragePoint v2.0

a.       Free 30 day trial available here http://www.storagepoint.com/tryit.aspx

      

3.)    Azure account with a Blob Storage Project

a.       Free - join the Azure CTP http://www.microsoft.com/azure/register.mspx

  

4.)    Download The Azure Adapter for StoragePoint

 Suggested Prerequisite:

·        Azure Storage Explorer 2.1

o   Free download from CodePlex

The Storage Explorer is a handy free tool that gives you an “explorer like” view over your Blob Storage containers and contents.  This can be interesting if you wish to “prove” that StoragePoint content is indeed living on the cloud!  It takes only minor configuration to get this pointed at your Azure blob storage account.

We’re going to assume you have WSS\MOSS already under your belt. (If you don’t, you probably stopped reading by now…)  Installing and configuring StoragePoint on your farm takes approximately five minutes and is covered reasonably well in this webcast:

 

 

The next step is to sign up for an Azure account.  You do after all recall that this post is about working with Azure Blob Storage right?

Note – you do NOT need to download or install anything from Microsoft in order to work with the StoragePoint Azure adapter.  Simply sign up for the Azure CTP, log into the Azure web portal and use the web UI to configure an Azure Storage project. 

Once you get a token in the email and follow any activation instructions, you should arrive at a screen similar to the one below. (Obviously you won’t have any projects listed by default – you have to create a new one.)

 

 

 

When you have finished creating the project, you should see a screen similar to the one below.

Note down the name you chose for the project and one of the keys that was assigned.  (See red boxed items in the image below for example.)  You will need these shortly.

 

 

 

Now it’s time to install the Azure Adapter for StoragePoint.  This component is packaged as a WSP file that is installed and deployed using the SharePoint Installer on CodePlex.  Just run the StoragePoint_AzureAdapter executable and follow the easy install steps.

With this solution imported and deployed within SharePoint you can now use the Storage Profiles page in Central Administration to create a new storage profile (…you should be directed there after the installer finishes).

 

 

The reference material included with the StoragePoint product does a reasonable job of explaining how to set up a new profile (and it’s not that hard) so I’ll just capture the “Azure specific” details here.

Let’s walk through the “colored boxes” in the following image one at a time:

 

 

Setting Name	Recommended Setting Value	Comments
Externalize Content BLOBs	Yes	Other controls are disabled and the profile will not externalize any blobs until this setting is changed to Yes.  (No is generally only used to implement an auto-foldering behavior inside of document lists.)
Adapter	Azure	This option only becomes available when the Azure Adapter solution file has been deployed in the SharePoint Farm.
Compress Content in BLOB Store	Yes	This compresses and decompresses the files sent to and from the Azure cloud.  It’s an easy (and recommended) performance win.

  

Connecting to Azure

The “Connection” setting deserves a bit closer attention as it contains critical configuration information that the Azure Adapter will use when connecting to the cloud based storage service.  This value is a semi-colon delimited set of name\value pairs split by the equals sign.  For example:

BaseURI=http://blob.core.windows.net/;
AccountName={Application Name from the Azure Web UI};
Key={Primary Storage Key from the Azure Web UI};
Container={Top-level container name in which the blobs will be stored};

RetryPolicy={How you want the adapter to handle failed operations};

Note: The curly braces indicate substitution and should NOT be present in the final Connection string.

Connection Setting Name	Recommended Value	Comments
BaseURI	http://blob.core.windows.net/	This is supplied by MSFT and not likely to change.     If you don’t supply this connection attribute it will default to the Recommended Value.
AccountName	{Azure specific}	This is the name you gave your application in the Azure web UI.   See the previous screen-shot for a sample of where to find this.
Key	{Azure specific}	This is the Primary or Secondary storage key of your storage application in the Azure Web UI. See the previous screen-shot for a sample of where to find this.
Container	{you choose}	This is the top level container name in which the profile blobs are stored in Azure. It must be lower case and may NOT include the underscore character.  This container will be created by the adapter automatically.  You may create a different name for each profile.
RetryPolicy	{you choose}	N,{max} – where {max} is the number of times you want it to retry the operation. ExponentialN,{max} – the same as N,{max} except the delays between retries will become exponentially larger. None – no retries. N,2 is the default value if this connection attribute is not supplied.

 

Click the “Test Storage Settings” button on the profile page to be sure that the Azure adapter settings are correct.

Save the profile and StoragePoint (and you) are ready to “rock and roll” on Azure.  New documents will be managed in the blob store (in this case Azure) for the Web App or Site Collection you have chosen in this profile.  You can run the Externalize or Recall timer jobs against this profile to push all existing content out to Azure or alternatively to pull it back in.

The Azure adapter of today is suitable primarily for experimentation and demo purposes with the CTP.    The responsiveness of Azure Blob Storage has been very good over-all.  However, if there is a significant amount of data to be shuffled around, network through-put and latency will be the primary factors that determine your performance results.  With StoragePoint for SharePoint “it just works” but you still have all the options, both local and cloud if you want them.

Some additional useful adapter features:

·         Files over 2MB are chunked in 1MB blocks followed by a final “commit” call.

·         Uses ULS logging.  See the StoragePoint Installation and Administration Guide for configuring ULS for StoragePoint.  Note that Adapter logging falls under the StoragePoint EBS Provider category.

o   Set to Verbose and you will see timing and profiling information related to adapter Get and Put operations.

For more details on StoragePoint and Azure blob storage please consider the following resources:

·         http://www.StoragePoint.com

o   Describes the StoragePoint product and gives access to the 30 day free trial.

·         http://blog.StoragePoint.com

o   More technical information on the StoragePoint technology.

·         http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=153400

o   This is an interesting white-paper describing the current Azure Blob API and related recommendations.

·         http://azurestorageexplorer.codeplex.com/

o   Free tool gives a convenient “explorer like” view of the contents of your Azure Blob Storage account.