What's new in SharePoint 2016?
** Before you read: This post is written right after the preview (beta) is released. The product features may change with the release of the RTM version of SharePoint 2016
* Last updated: 11/07/2015
Now that the product’s preview is out (Can be downloaded from here), I have had the chance to deploy an instance on my Azure machine and wanted to share quickly few of the new features compared with SharePoint 2013.
Before I list the new features, I wanted to summaries few important points:
- The site UI (Look and feel) is the same compared to SharePoint 2013
- SharePoint 2016 has better support for mobile and touch experience. (I haven’t tested that yet though)
- InfoPath is supported in SharePoint 2016. You can use InfoPath designer 2013 with SP 2016
- SharePoint designer 2013 works with SharePoint 2016
- Workflow Manager still is part of SharePoint 2016
- MOSS 2007 workflows are supported in SharePoint 2016
- Sandboxed Solutions are still supported
- SharePoint 2016 only comes in the full server version. A Foundation (Free) version will not be released for SharePoint 2016.
- Excel Services is not longer part of SharePoint in the 2016 version. It's part of the Office Online Server (AKA: Office Web Apps) product
- SharePoint 2016 doesn't support standalone install mode
- Stsadm.exe command line tool still exists and will ship with SharePoint 2016
- Note that SharePoint Apps now are called SharePoint Add-ins
- SharePoint 2016 will provide no downtime patches to avoid production interruption during the application of CU update
Here is a list of new things I found that are introduced to SharePoint server 2016:
- Server roles: A setting that allows you to define the role of a SharePoint server and help you maintain the best performance of the desired server role. We have different roles available:
- Front-end
- Application
- Distributed Cache
- Search
- Custom
- Single Server Farm
You will get the following screen when you run the configuration wizard to add a new server to an existing farm or when you create a new farm:
You also can change the server role from central admin: System settings | Servers | Convert server role in this farm
- App launcher. If you have used Office 365 recently you will be familiar with this cool gadget. It allows you to navigate between SharePoint, OneDrive & newsfeed. It will be extensible and customizable as well.
- Enhanced simple controls (for document library). This allows you to execute simple commands like: new, share, upload …etc.
- Larger content databases sized at TBs not GBs. The numbers are not announced as of yet. It used to be, 200GB recommended per content db and a maximum of 4 TB (under certain conditions) for SharePoint 2013.
- Added the support of 100K site collections per content db up from 10K for SharePoint 2013.
- Increased the list threshold more than 5000 items per view\query. Numbers to be announced later this year.
- Increased the maximum file size to 10 GB up from 2 GB for SharePoint 2013. Make sure you increase the maximum file upload limit in the web application settings in Central admin if you want to test this out. Please note if you increase the limit above 10 GB and try to upload a file using the explorer view, the file will look like it uploaded successfully, however, you will notice that the file got uploaded with 'Zero' bytes. Hopefully that gets fixed in the RTM version.
- Search index size increased from 250 million supported items per farm to 500 million items.
- Added automatic list column indices management to make it easier for SharePoint users to create and use large lists without worrying too much about indexing.
- Improved and stabilized distributed cache (App Fabric). App Fabric is announced to be discontinued already as a standalone product but the product group will continue to support it as a component part of SharePoint.
- Added the support of the BITS Protocol instead of COBALT for file transfer. BITS utilizes an unclaimed bandwidth to enhance file transfer experience.
- Microsoft Project Server 2016 (PWA) is now part of the SharePoint product (install) but still requires a separate license.
- Improved bidirectional sync with active directory. FIM (Forefront Identify Manager) product is removed from the SharePoint media (Install). Added support for external standalone FIM product\service.
- Added a new site collection template called “Compliance Policy Center”. It allows you to manage policies and assign policies to SharePoint site collections to help you enforce your organization governance requirements. It includes the ability to discover sensitive information like “Social security number”, credit card numbers …etc. You also can add document delete policies.
- Added a new Site collection template called “In-Place Hold Policy Center”
This allows you to manage governance policies across site collections.
- Introduced Fast Site Creation, SharePoint will leverage master copies for common site templates (I.e. STS0) to do a SPSite.Copy at the content db level to speed up site collection creation.
- Added 115 new PowerShell commandlet, a lot of them existed before part of the Project Server when it was a separate install, the rest are brand new that provide more control on server administration, integration with the cloud for hybrid scenarios …etc.. Here is a list of all the new commandlets:
Command-let |
Product |
Add-SPIPRangeAllowList |
SharePoint |
Compare-SPDatabaseSchema |
SharePoint |
Copy-SPDatabase |
SharePoint |
Copy-SPSideBySideFiles |
SharePoint |
Disable-SPIPRangeAllowList |
SharePoint |
Disable-SPProjectActiveDirectoryEnterpriseResourcePoolSync |
Project |
Disable-SPProjectEmailNotification |
Project |
Disable-SPProjectEnterpriseProjectTaskSync |
Project |
Disable-SPProjectQueueStatsMonitoring |
Project |
Disable-SPSecureStoreMinDB |
SharePoint |
Disable-SPVideoStreaming |
SharePoint |
Disable-SPWebTemplateForSiteMaster |
SharePoint |
Dismount-SPSiteMapDatabase |
SharePoint |
Enable-SPIPRangeAllowList |
SharePoint |
Enable-SPProjectActiveDirectoryEnterpriseResourcePoolSync |
Project |
Enable-SPProjectEmailNotification |
Project |
Enable-SPProjectEnterpriseProjectTaskSync |
Project |
Enable-SPProjectQueueStatsMonitoring |
Project |
Enable-SPSecureStoreMinDB |
SharePoint |
Enable-SPVideoStreaming |
SharePoint |
Enable-SPWebTemplateForSiteMaster |
SharePoint |
Export-SPAccessServicesDatabase |
SharePoint |
Export-SPTagsAndNotesData |
SharePoint |
Get-SPAppStoreWebServiceConfiguration |
SharePoint |
Get-SPAzureVideoServiceAccount |
SharePoint |
Get-SPConnectedServiceApplicationInformation |
SharePoint |
Get-SPInsightsAuthSettings |
SharePoint |
Get-SPIPRangeAllowList |
SharePoint |
Get-SPMicrofeedOptions |
SharePoint |
Get-SPO365LinkSettings |
SharePoint |
Get-SPProjectDatabaseQuota |
Project |
Get-SPProjectDatabaseUsage |
Project |
Get-SPProjectEnterpriseProjectTaskSync |
Project |
Get-SPProjectEventServiceSettings |
Project |
Get-SPProjectIsEmailNotificationEnabled |
Project |
Get-SPProjectOdataConfiguration |
Project |
Get-SPProjectPCSSettings |
Project |
Get-SPProjectPermissionMode |
Project |
Get-SPProjectQueueSettings |
Project |
Get-SPProjectWebInstance |
Project |
Get-SPRuntimeTelemetry |
SharePoint |
Get-SPService |
SharePoint |
Get-SPSiteMapDatabase |
SharePoint |
Get-SPSiteMaster |
SharePoint |
Get-SPVideoStreamingConfig |
SharePoint |
Get-SPWebTemplatesEnabledForSiteMaster |
SharePoint |
Import-SPAccessServicesDatabase |
SharePoint |
Invoke-SPProjectActiveDirectoryEnterpriseResourcePoolSync |
Project |
Invoke-SPProjectActiveDirectoryGroupSync |
Project |
Migrate-SPDatabase |
SharePoint |
Migrate-SPProjectDatabase |
Project |
Migrate-SPProjectResourcePlans |
Project |
Mount-SPSiteMapDatabase |
SharePoint |
Move-SPAppManagementData |
SharePoint |
Move-SPSecureStorePartitionData |
SharePoint |
New-SPAzureVideoServiceAccount |
SharePoint |
New-SPProjectServiceApplication |
Project |
New-SPProjectServiceApplicationProxy |
Project |
New-SPSiteMaster |
SharePoint |
Pause-SPProjectWebInstance |
Project |
Register-SPContentDatabase |
SharePoint |
Remove-SPAzureVideoServiceAccount |
SharePoint |
Remove-SPIPRangeAllowList |
SharePoint |
Remove-SPProjectWebInstanceData |
Project |
Remove-SPSiteMaster |
SharePoint |
Repair-SPProjectWebInstance |
Project |
Reset-SPProjectEventServiceSettings |
Project |
Reset-SPProjectPCSSettings |
Project |
Reset-SPProjectQueueSettings |
Project |
Reset-SPSites |
SharePoint |
Resume-SPProjectWebInstance |
Project |
Resume-SPVideoStreamingAccess |
SharePoint |
Set-SPAppStoreWebServiceConfiguration |
SharePoint |
Set-SPDefaultProfileConfig |
SharePoint |
Set-SPInsightsAuthSettings |
SharePoint |
Set-SPIPAccessControlOperationMode |
SharePoint |
Set-SPIPAccessControlSubscriptionId |
SharePoint |
Set-SPIPRangeAllowList |
SharePoint |
Set-SPIPRangeAllowListSetting |
SharePoint |
Set-SPMicrofeedOptions |
SharePoint |
Set-SPO365LinkSettings |
SharePoint |
Set-SPProjectDatabaseQuota |
Project |
Set-SPProjectEventServiceSettings |
Project |
Set-SPProjectOdataConfiguration |
Project |
Set-SPProjectPCSSettings |
Project |
Set-SPProjectPermissionMode |
Project |
Set-SPProjectQueueSettings |
Project |
Set-SPProjectServiceApplication |
Project |
Set-SPProjectUserSync |
Project |
Set-SPProjectUserSyncDisabledSyncThreshold |
Project |
Set-SPProjectUserSyncFullSyncThreshold |
Project |
Set-SPProjectUserSyncOffPeakSyncThreshold |
Project |
Set-SPRuntimeTelemetry |
SharePoint |
Set-SPServer |
SharePoint |
Start-SPService |
SharePoint |
Stop-SPService |
SharePoint |
Suspend-SPVideoStreamingAccess |
SharePoint |
Switch-SPSitesToNewDatabase |
SharePoint |
Sync-SPProjectPermissions |
Project |
Test-SPIPRangeAllowList |
SharePoint |
Test-SPO365LinkSettings |
SharePoint |
Test-SPProjectServiceApplication |
Project |
Test-SPProjectWebInstance |
Project |
Update-SPAzureBlobConfigLocator |
SharePoint |
Update-SPAzureBlobConfigLocatorEx |
SharePoint |
Update-SPAzureBlobConfigLocatorEx1 |
SharePoint |
Update-SPAzureBlobLogStoreSignatures |
SharePoint |
Update-SPAzureBlobSignaturesEx |
SharePoint |
Update-SPAzureBlobSignaturesEx1 |
SharePoint |
Upgrade-SPAppManagementServiceApplication |
SharePoint |
Upgrade-SPConfigurationDatabase |
SharePoint |
Upgrade-SPProfileServiceApplication |
SharePoint |
Upgrade-SPServer |
SharePoint |
Upgrade-SPSiteMapDatabase |
SharePoint |
Upgrade-SPWebApplication |
SharePoint |
- Added durable links feature. This provides resource Id based URL to make it easier to locate documents with their URL no matter where you move them.
- Added two new features for document libraries:
Generate a file plan report for a folder in document library:
Change enterprise metadata and keywords settings
- Added SMTP Connection encryption for outgoing email. You can use custom ports & enable SSL …etc.
- Enabled Office 365 hybrid scenario integration with SharePoint 2016 on-premises through central admin.
You can configure one of two different integration scenarios:
- OneDrive & Sites
- OneDrive only
- Tags and Notes are deprecated and users will no longer be able to create new tags\notes or access existing ones.
- You can easily configure SSL for central admin using PowerShell:
I tried to cover most of the new futures I came across. Let me know what else I should add to the list. Here are few links that has more information:
- New and improved features in SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview
- What's deprecated or removed from SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview
Comments
Anonymous
August 27, 2015
Very good !Anonymous
August 28, 2015
Thanks for this post, very useful :)Anonymous
September 09, 2015
This is Most Usefull articleAnonymous
December 01, 2015
Thank you for this overview. Very thorough!Anonymous
December 22, 2015
Thanks for providing such useful information. The given information is really very helpful to me. Hope, I will get more information regarding the same in future.Really I appreciate. www.agilinesharepoint.comAnonymous
January 14, 2016
Superb keep post such a useful like above.