Here are the relevant links for anyone interested:

Updates Resource Center For SharePoint 2010
This page provides resources for IT professionals who are responsible for installing software updates on SharePoint 2010 farms.

Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 and Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 (white paper)
Describes the fixes and improvements to existing functionality that are included in SharePoint Server 2010 SP1 and SharePoint Foundation 2010 SP1.

Service Pack 1 for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 (KB2460045)
Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 contains new updates which improve security, performance, and stability. Additionally, the SP is a roll-up of all previously released updates.

Service Pack 1 for SharePoint Foundation 2010 (KB2460058)
Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 contains new updates which improve security, performance, and stability. Additionally, the SP is a roll-up of all previously released updates.

Service Pack 1 for Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 Language Pack (KB2460059)
Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 Language Pack contains new updates which improve security, performance, and stability. Additionally, the SP is a roll-up of all previously released updates.

Service Pack 1 for Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 Client Object Model Redistributable (KB2508825) 64-bit Edition
Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 Client Object Model Redistributable 64-bit Edition contains new updates which improve security, performance, and stability. Additionally, the SP is a roll-up of all previously released updates.

Service Pack 1 for Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 Client Object Model Redistributable (KB2508825) 32-bit Edition
Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 Client Object Model Redistributable 32-bit Edition contains new updates which improve security, performance, and stability. Additionally, the SP is a roll-up of all previously released updates.

1. Stop the Timer service. To do this, follow these steps:

   1. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Services.
   2. Right-click SharePoint 2010 Timer, and then click Stop.
   3. Close the Services console.
2. On the computer that is running Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 and on which the Central Administration site is hosted, click Start, click Run, type explorer, and then press ENTER.
3. In Windows Explorer, locate and then double-click the following folder:
4. %SystemDrive%\ProgramData\Microsoft\SharePoint\Config\GUID
5. Notes
1. The %SystemDrive% system variable specifies the letter of the drive on which Windows is installed. By default, Windows is installed on drive C.
2. The GUID placeholder specifies the GUID folder. There may be more than one of these.
3. The ProgramData folder may be hidden. To view the hidden folder, follow these steps:
1. On the Tools menu, click Folder Options.
2. Click the View tab.
3. In the Advanced settings list, click Show hidden files and folders under Hidden files and folders, and then click OK.
4. You can also simply type this directly in the path if you do not want to show hidden files and folders.
6. Back up the Cache.ini file. (Make a copy of it. DO NOT DELETE THIS FILE, Only the XML files in the next step)
7. Delete all the XML configuration files in the GUID folder (DO NOTE DELETE THE FOLDER). Do this so that you can verify that the GUID folders content is replaced by new XML configuration files when the cache is rebuilt.
   Note When you empty the configuration cache in the GUID folder, make sure that you do NOT delete the GUID folder and the Cache.ini file that is located in the GUID folder.
8. Double-click the Cache.ini file.
9. On the Edit menu, click Select All.
10. On the Edit menu, click Delete.
11. Type 1, and then click Save on the File menu. (Basically when you are done, the only text in the config.ini file should be the number 1)
12. On the File menu, click Exit.
13. Start the Timer service. To do this, follow these steps:
    1. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Services.
    2. Right-click SharePoint 2010 Timer, and then click Start.
    3. Close the Services console.
14. Note The file system cache is re-created after you perform this procedure. Make sure that you perform this procedure on all servers in the server farm.
15. Make sure that the Cache.ini file in the GUID folder now contains its previous value. For example, make sure that the value of the Cache.ini file is not 1.
16. Check in the GUID folder to make sure that the xml files are repopulating. This may take a bit of time.

For the original steps for clearing out the configuration cache in SharePoint 2007, there are many articles that cover the steps, one of them is the following: https://support.microsoft.com/kb/939308

• Silverlight Development for SharePoint (Upcoming Series of Articles)
• User and Group Management in SharePoint 2010 for Site Admins (Upcoming Series of Articles)
• Video Series on User and Group Management to accompany the above Series of Articles.
• Developing Tools using the SharePoint 2010 Client Object Model (Upcoming Series of Articles)

There will be more coming as well, this is just the top items I am building out for the immediate future. Stay tuned and check back next week.

Here is a brief summary of the event and the topics covered:

Business Insights Webcast: Creating an Integrated BI Solution with Microsoft SharePoint Server (Level 100)

Event ID: 1032477752

Language(s): English.

Product(s): Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010.

Audience(s): Non-Tech Influencing BDM, Tech Influencing BDM.

This webcast gives an overview of the value of business intelligence (BI) and an introduction to Microsoft PerformancePoint Server in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010. Learn about product capabilities such as dynamic scorecards, dashboards, decomposition trees, and capabilities for self-service access to information.
Presenter: Amanda Brophy, Senior Product Manager, Microsoft Corporation

Coming from the background of taking the SharePoint 2007 exams a couple years ago, the new exams were a whole different approach. There really isn’t a WSS/Foundation Specific exam anymore. Both exams cover topics that relate to the full SharePoint Server 2010 family (outside of project). Some of the things that really threw me for a loop were topics like Performance Point, Search Index Partitioning, Managed Metadata, OLAP cubes, Health and Web Analytics Monitoring and Migrations from various 2007 architectures.

Overall I felt these exams really do a much better job of testing your experience with SharePoint than previous exams have. Next week I will take a day to knock out the developer exams and see how these have changed from the 2007 exams as well. The main thing to have going into the current 2010 Configuration and Administration exams is experience with configuration for multiple topologies including mixed intra/extranet environments and multiple authentication methods (Windows, Forms Based, etc…) as well as familiarity with the use, configuration and fault tolerance features of Service applications.

Of course if you go over the exam topics in advance you will already know what topics are covered… I never bothered to check, so some of it was a surprise to me. And yes, I did pass both exams.

For more info on the SharePoint Server 2010 Certifications and Topics covered, see the following:

Microsoft Learning SharePoint Certifications Home Page

MCTS For SharePoint Server

Microsoft Professional (MCITP and MCPD) for SharePoint Server

For more information on the Certification Pack offerings: https://www.microsoft.com/learning/career/en/us/career-offer.aspx#certification

That should give you some extra incentive to knock out those exams for that certification you have been working on.

“The October Cumulative Update for the packages listed above (SharePoint Server Package 2394320 and Project Server Package 2394322) makes some changes and updates to the user profile database.  Unfortunately there are certain situations where this update does not complete as expected and leaves the update in an inconsistent state.  This causes issues with several SharePoint features that use the User Profile Application such as MySites, People and Expertise Search & Ratings.”

There is currently a workaround published on the Product Teams blog as well as more notes about the issue. If you have not installed the October CU for SharePoint 2010 yet, do not install it at this time. The updates have been pulled from the update servers and new versions will be published that do not cause the issue.

For those who have already installed the October CU, check the SharePoint teams blog for the current workaround:

SharePoint 2010 October Cumulative Update Issue: Details and Workaround (From the SharePoint Product team blog)

Microsoft SharePoint Foundation (MSF) October CU Server-Package(Article is not Live yet for the MSF Package):
https://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;2394323

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 (MSS) October CU Server-Package:
https://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;2394320

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 + Project Server 2010 October CU Server-Package:
https://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;2394322

Though the SharePoint Foundation KB Article is not live yet, the Server-Packages for MSS and MSS + Project include the Foundation Server-Package. Again, similar to the August updates, if you have SharePoint 2010 Server, you only need to install the SharePoint Server 2010 Server-Package as it includes all the Foundation updates as well. The same applies for the MSS + Project Server-Package, it includes all the Project, SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation packages. So you should only need to download and install one package.

As of the August CU, SharePoint Server Packages are now Consolidated based on what SharePoint products you have installed. Running Microsoft SharePoint Foundation (MSF)? How about Microsoft SharePoint Server or SharePoint with Project Server 2010? Well your life just got a whole lot easier. There is now a CU Server Package for each of these that includes all products. We have a CU for just Foundation, One for Server that also includes the CU for Foundation, and even one for SharePoint + Project Server that includes all the patches for all 3 products! Also included are the language packs, etc… So you should truly have one SharePoint patch to apply when it comes to CU’s. The key to figuring out which ones contain all the needed patches is to look for the term Server-Package. These are the ones the contain multiple hotfix packages. Here are the relevant links for the August CU Server-Packages:

Description of the SharePoint Foundation 2010 Cumulative Update Server Hotfix Package (SharePoint Foundation server-package): August 31, 2010

Description of the SharePoint Server 2010 Cumulative Update Server Hotfix Package (MOSS server-package): August 31, 2010

Description of the SharePoint Server 2010 and Project Server 2010 Cumulative Update Server Hotfix Package (MOSS server-package, Project server-package): August 31, 2010

So each CU now contains the patches for the its base or dependent products. For example, You can’t have Microsoft SharePoint Server without having Foundation installed, so the MSS Patches now include all fixes for Foundation. Project Server Relies on SharePoint Server, so it includes all the MSS patches as well, and since again, MSS depends on Foundation, it also includes the foundation packages. So the SharePoint + Project CU Server-Package contains the updates for all three.

The easiest way to verify this is to look at the Files listed towards the bottom of the KB articles for each package. Notice that in the Foundation Server Package, you have the file STS-X-NONE.msp listed with all the files and versions that it will update in SharePoint Foundation Server. Then look at the MSS and MSS + Project Server KB’s and notice that the same STS-X-NONE.msp is listed as part of each package with the same files and version numbers. So each package contains the patches from it’s base or dependent products.

So now your life should be much easier when managing your 2010 SharePoint environments, well, at least the patching piece should be easier. Also for those wanting some more guidance around patching SharePoint 2010 in general including limiting downtime for High Availability etc… here you go:

Software updates overview (SharePoint Server 2010)
This article provides an overview of the software update process for SharePoint Server.

Prepare to deploy software updates (SharePoint Server 2010)
This article helps you determine which approach to use to update the servers or server farms in your environment, and lists the steps that you must take before you can start to install the update.

Install a software update (SharePoint Server 2010)
This article contains instructions for installing a software update and upgrading your content to that level.