Study Guide for Exam 70-331 Core Solutions of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013

This exam measures your ability to accomplish the technical tasks listed below.The percentages indicate the relative weight of each major topic area on the exam.The higher the percentage, the more questions you are likely to see on that content area on the exam.

The information after “This objective may include but is not limited to” is intended to further define or scope the objective by describing the types of skills and topics that may be tested for the objective. However, it is not an exhaustive list of skills and topics that could be included on the exam for a given skill area. You may be tested on other skills and topics related to the objective that are not explicitly listed here.

1. SP2013 IT Pro resources:   http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/fp142366
2. New and updated articles in the SharePoint 2013 TechNet library: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262043%28v=office.15%29.aspx

• 1.1  Design information architecture

  • Design an Intersite Navigational Taxonomy

  • • SharePoint Managed Navigation, Part 1 (MSDN Blog)
    • SharePoint Managed Navigation, Part 2 (MSDN Blog)
    • Managed Metadata and Navigation in SharePoint 2013 (MSDN Library)
    • Managed Navigation in SharePoint 2013 (MSDN Library)
    • Managed Metadata Navigation in SharePoint 2013 video (TrainSignal)

  • Design Site Columns and Content Types
    • Plan content types and workflows in SharePoint 2013 (TechNet Library)
  • Design Keywords
    • Overview of managed metadata in SharePoint Server 2013 (TechNet Library)
  • Plan publishing sites for cross-site publishing in SharePoint Server 2013
    • Create and deploy a thesaurus in SharePoint Server 2013 (TechNet Library)
  • Promoted Results
    • Plan to transform queries and order results in SharePoint 2013 (TechNet Library)
    • Create query rules for web content management in SharePoint Server 2013 (TechNet Library)
    • How To Customize SharePoint 2013 Search Results Using Query Rules and Result Sources (Premier Field Engineering Blog)
  • Managed Properties
    • Overview of crawled and managed properties in SharePoint Server 2013 (TechNet Library)
    • Manage the search schema in SharePoint Server 2013 (TechNet Library)
    • Use Windows PowerShell cmdlets to administer and configure search in SharePoint 2013 (TechNet Library)
  • Plan Information Management Policies
    • Overview of document management in SharePoint 2013 (TechNet Library)
    • Plan for information management policy in SharePoint Server 2013 (TechNet Library)
  •  Plan Managed Site Structure
    • Plan authoring sites for cross-site publishing in SharePoint Server 2013 (TechNet Library)
    • Plan publishing sites for cross-site publishing in SharePoint Server 2013 (TechNet Library)
    • Configure cross-site publishing in SharePoint Server 2013 (TechNet Library)
  • Plan Term Sets
    • Plan terms and term sets in SharePoint Server 2013 (TechNet Library)
    • Plan navigation term sets in SharePoint Server 2013 (TechNet Library)
    • Managed metadata cmdlets in SharePoint Server 2013 (TechNet Library)

  1.2  Design a logical architecture

  • Plan Application Pool
    • SharePoint 2013 design samples: Application pools (TechNet Library)
  • Plan Web Applications
    • Capacity planning for SharePoint Server 2013 (TechNet Library)
    • SharePoint 2013 design samples: Corporate portal and extranet sites (TechNet Library)
    • Create a web application in SharePoint 2013 (TechNet Library)
  • Plan for Software Boundaries
    • Software boundaries and limits for SharePoint 2013 (TechNet Library)
  • Plan Content Databases
    • Content database limits (TechNet Library)
  • Plan Host-header Site Collections
    • SharePoint 2013 design samples: Corporate portal and extranet sites (TechNet Library)
    • Powershell commands: Set-SPSiteURL, Remove-SPSiteUrl, Get-SPSiteUrl (TechNet Library)
    • Plan for host-named site collections (SharePoint Server 2010) (TechNet Library)
  • Plan Zones
    • Plan for user authentication methods in SharePoint 2013 (TechNet Library)
    • Create a web application in SharePoint 2013 (TechNet Library)
    • Configure basic authentication for a claims-based web application in SharePoint 2013 (TechNet Library)
  • Alternate Access Mapping (alternate access mappings are automatically created when you create a zone)
    • SharePoint 2013 design samples: Corporate portal and extranet sites (TechNet Library)

  1.3  Design a physical architecture

  • Design a Storage Architecture
  • • Capacity planning for SharePoint Server 2013 (TechNet Library)
    • Hardware and software requirements for SharePoint 2013 (TechNet Library)
    • Storage and SQL Server capacity planning and configuration (SharePoint Server 2010) (TechNet Library)
  • Configure Basic Request Management:
    • Configure Request Manager in SharePoint Server 2013 (Request manager has two supported deployment modes: Dedicated and Integrated. Request Manager has two configurable parts: General settings and Decision information (TechNet Library)
    • Powershell: Set-SPRequestManagementSettings (Set-SPLogLevel “Request Management” –TraceSeverity Verbose)  (TechNet Library)
  • Define Individual Server Requirements
    • Hardware and software requirements for SharePoint 2013 (TechNet Library)
    • Capacity planning for SharePoint Server 2013 (TechNet Library )
    • Detailed design and system specification process for a virtual SharePoint 2013 farm (TechNet Library)
  • Define Service Topologies
    • Overview of SharePoint 2013 installation and configuration (TechNet Library)
    • Install SharePoint 2013 across multiple servers for a three-tier farm (TechNet Library)
    • Manage the search topology in SharePoint Server 2013 (TechNet Library)
  • Plan Server Load Balancing
    • Capacity planning for SharePoint Server 2013 (TechNet Library)
    • Install SharePoint 2013 across multiple servers for a three-tier farm (TechNet Library)
  • Plan a Network Infrastructure
    • Overview of farm virtualization and architectures for SharePoint 2013 (TechNet Library)
    • IP support in SharePoint 2013  (TechNet Library)

  1.4  Plan a SharePoint Online (Microsoft Office 365) deployment

  • Evaluate Service Offerings
    • SharePoint Online for IT pros (TechNet Library)
    • SharePoint Online Service Description (TechNet Library)
  • Plan Service Applications
    •  Overview of Excel Services in SharePoint Server 2013 (TechNet Library)
  • Plan Security for SharePoint Online
    •  Manage Windows Azure Active Directory by using Windows PowerShell (TechNet Library)
    • Powershell: New-MsolFederatedDomain, Update-MsolFederatedDomain (TechNet Library)
    • Powershell: Connect-SPOService (TechNet Library)

2. Plan Security (20-25%)

• 2.1  Plan and configure authentication

  • Plan and Configure Windows Authentication
    • Plan authentication in SharePoint 2013 (TechNet Library)
    • Plan for user authentication methods in SharePoint 2013 (TechNet Library)
    • Plan for Kerberos authentication in SharePoint 2013 (TechNet Library)
  • Plan and Configure Identity Federation
    • Configure SAML-based claims authentication with AD FS in SharePoint 2013 (TechNet Library)
    • Test Lab Guide: Demonstrate SAML-based Claims Authentication with SharePoint Server 2013 (TechNet Library)
    • Claims authentication does not validate user (SharePoint 2013) (TechNet Library)
  • Configure Claims Providers
    • Configure authentication infrastructure in SharePoint 2013 (TechNet Library)
  • Configure Site-to-Site (S2S) Intra-Server and OAuth Authentication
    • Plan for server-to-server authentication in SharePoint 2013 (TechNet Library)
    • Configure server-to-server authentication in SharePoint 2013 (TechNet Library)
    • oAuth authentication in SharePoint 2013 (Bing video) (TechNet Library)
  • Plan and Configure Anonymous Authentication
    • Authentication in SharePoint 2013 learning roadmap (TechNet Library)
    • Plan authentication in SharePoint 2013 (TechNet Library)
  • Configure Connections to Access Control Service
    • Plan app permissions management in SharePoint 2013 (TechNet Library)
      • App permission request scopes: SPSite, SPWeb, SPList, Tenancy
      • App permission requests: Read-Only, Write, Manage, Full Control
      • App authorization policies: User and app policy, App-only policy, User-only policy
    • App Management Service cmdlets in SharePoint 2013 (TechNet Library)

  2.2  Plan and configure authorization

  • Plan and Configure SharePoint Users and Groups
    • Permissions planning for sites and content in SharePoint 2013 (TechNet Library)
    • Understanding permission levels (Office 365 support)
    • Determine permission levels and groups in SharePoint 2013 (TechNet Library)
    • Plan user profiles and identities (SharePoint Server 2013) (TechNet Library)
  • Plan and Configure People Picker
    • People Picker and claims providers overview (SharePoint 2013) (TechNet Library)
    • Plan for People Picker in SharePoint 2013 (TechNet Library)
    • Configure People Picker in SharePoint 2013 (The stsadm.exe command is used to configure the people picker at the zone level) (TechNet Library)
  • Plan and Configure Sharing
    • Plan document libraries in SharePoint 2013 (TechNet Library)
  • Plan and Configure Permission Inheritance
    • Plan site permissions in SharePoint 2013 (TechNet Library)
  • Plan and Configure Anonymous Access
    • Assign permission levels in SharePoint 2013 (TechNet Library)
  • Plan Web Application Policies
    • Manage permission policies for a web application in SharePoint 2013 (TechNet Library)

  2.3  Plan and configure platform security

  • Plan and Configure Security Isolation
    • Security planning for SharePoint 2013 farms (TechNet Library)
    • Plan for administrative and service accounts in SharePoint 2013 (TechNet Library)
    • SharePoint 2013 app infrastructure configuration and isolation (Bing video) (Security Tip: use a separate domain to host SharePoint Apps because some browsers don’t support sub-domain isolation i.e. *.contosoapps.com instead of apps.contoso.com) (TechNet Library)
  • Plan and Configure Services Lockdown
    • Security planning for SharePoint 2013 farms (TechNet Library)
    • Plan security hardening for SharePoint 2013 (TechNet Library)
  • Plan and Configure General Firewall Security
    • Security planning for SharePoint 2013 farms (TechNet Library)
    • Plan security hardening for SharePoint 2013 (TechNet Library)
    • Configure SQL Server security for SharePoint 2013 environments (TechNet Library)
  • Plan and Configure Antivirus Settings
    • Microsoft’s Position on Antivirus Solutions for Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server (Microsoft Support)
    • Certain folders may have to be excluded from antivirus scanning when you use file-level antivirus software in SharePoint (TechNet Library)
    • Antivirus and SharePoint 2013 (Blog post)
  • Plan and Configure Certificate Management
    • Exchange trust certificates between farms in SharePoint 2013 Tip: SharePoint CA or PowerShell can be used to manage trust certificates. In the SharePoint CA it is located via Security, General Security, Manage Trust. (TechNet Library)
    • Powershell:  Get-SPCertificateAuthority, Get-SPSecurityTokenServiceConfig, New-SPTrustedRootAuthority, New-SPTrustedServiceTokenIssuer, Get-PfxCertificate (TechNet Library)
    • Guidelines for using certificates in high-trust apps for SharePoint 2013 (TechNet Library)
    • Configure SSL for SharePoint 2013 (TechNet Library)

  2.4  Create and configure a Managed Metadata Service (MMS) application

  • Plan Rights Management
    • Plan Information Rights Management in Office 2013 (TechNet Library)
    • Enabling IRM services in SharePoint Online (TechNet Library)
    • Apply Information Rights Management to a list or library (Microsoft Office Support)
  • Plan and Configure Delegated Farm Administration
    • Choose administrators and owners for the administration hierarchy in SharePoint 2013 (TechNet Library)
      • Server or farm level: Farm Administrators group, Windows Administrators group
      • Shared services level: Service application administrators, Feature administrators
      • Web application level: (web policy via CA)
      • Site level: Site collection administrators, Site owners
  • Plan and Configure Delegated Service Application Administration
    • Assign or remove administrators to a service application (SharePoint 2013) (TechNet Library)
    • Powershell: New-SPClaimsPrincipal, Get-SPServiceApplication, Get-SPServiceApplicationSecurity, Grant-SPObjectSecurity, Revoke-SPObjectSecurity,Set-SPServiceApplicationSecurity (TechNet Library)
    • Delegate administration of User Profile service application features in SharePoint Server 2013 (TechNet Library)
  • Plan and Configure Managed Accounts
    • Plan for administrative and service accounts in SharePoint 2013 (TechNet Library)
    • Configure automatic password change in SharePoint 2013 (TechNet Library)
    • Powershell: Get-SPManagedAccount, New-SPManagedAccount, Remove-SPManagedAccount, Set-SPManagedAccount (TechNet Library)
  • Plan and Configure Blocked File Types
    • Manage blocked file types in SharePoint 2013 (TechNet Library)
  • Plan and Configure Web Part Security
    • Manage Web Parts in SharePoint 2013 (TechNet Library)
    • Configure and deploy Web Parts in SharePoint 2013 (TechNet Library)

3. Install and Configure SharePoint Farms (20-25%)

4. Create and Configure Web Applications and Site Collections (15-20%)

5.Maintain a Core SharePoint Environment (15-20%)