When it comes to discussing SharePoint tools, there are a number of crucial aspects that need to be considered. SharePoint services consist of multipurpose set of applications that is supported by a common technical platform. These services offer many features related to intranet such as content management, browser-based management and administration, tools for collaboration, and document management.
Many corporations are making use of SharePoint services in order to be more successful in connecting masses and information by collaborating with project sites, teams, and workspaces. SharePoint offers a variety of management tools to help them handle different tasks such as data backup, security, and lots more.
SharePoint Tools to Know
1. Microsoft SharePoint Administration Toolkit 2.0
This is basically a toolkit that creates test loads to find out the performance of SharePoint deployment. A Security Configuration Wizard is also included in this tool, which strengthens the profile of your deployment through Windows Server 2008. The SPDiag 3.0 is probably the most effective utility that captures a lot of statistics from all the servers, translates them, presents them in a clear, and concise manner. This tool can be easily downloaded from Microsoft’s TechNet website.
2. ManageEngine’s Free SharePoint Health Monitor Tool
If you are looking for a lightweight tool that offers you an overall view of the health status of your SharePoint farm, then you should consider installing ManageEngine Free SharePoint Health Monitor tool. It will help you achieve a simple dashboard view where you can find important details regarding CPU, disk space usage, and memory for each server using SharePoint.
3. Microsoft SharePoint Designer
This can be referred to as a designer tool of the SharePoint environment. It can be used to customize the appearance and feel of the SharePoint sites, generate and modify workflows, and also personalize a SharePoint deployment. With that said, if you are using a large SharePoint deployment with numerous versions working at the same time, then you would need to use the Designer version concerned with the specific SharePoint edition. All versions of the SharePoint Designer can be easily downloaded from Microsoft’s site.
4. Free SharePoint Performance Monitor
In order to achieve a better understanding of what is happening with your SharePoint farm, you must consider Free SharePoint Performance Monitor by Idera. This tool provides you with a holistic outline of the performance metrics and statistics for SharePoint, information about the operating system of the host, memory configuration, and information regarding SQL server.
5. SharePoint SUSHI
SharePoint SUSHI is an open source project that handles the most common tasks and sorts them in one tool. This tool allows you to look at the lists and sites that any user has access to, which is quite productive for viewing effective permissions; upload photos as profile images; apply a theme to a group of sites with just one click, and backup and restore sites. All you need to do is to simply download the EXE file to a SharePoint server and run it.
These SharePoint Tools are sure to help you transform and expand your SharePoint experience.
