Command-line Administration

Microsoft's SharePoint™ Team Services and Microsoft® FrontPage 2002 Server Extensions introduce two new tools for command-line administration: Owsadm and Owsrmadm. These tools can help you administer SharePoint Team Services and FrontPage 2002 Server Extensions from either the local server (Owsadm.exe) or from a remote computer (Owsrmadm.exe).

Note   For FrontPage 2000 Server Extensions and Microsoft Office 2000 Server Extensions, you used the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) to perform certain administrative tasks. With SharePoint Team Services and FrontPage 2002 Server Extensions, you now perform all administrative tasks from either HTML Administration pages or the command line.

These tools provide a method for performing the SharePoint Team Services and FrontPage 2002 Server Extensions administration tasks to run once, to be used in batch files, or to be used within a script. Command-line tools have a more streamlined interface than HTML Administration pages, yet they retain full functionality. For example, you can use the command-line tools to:

• Manage users and roles.

• Detect potential problems with the server extensions installation and repair it.

• Set database connection properties (SharePoint Team Services only).

• Add, delete, or merge subwebs.

• Recalculate a Web site.

• Upgrade to the new version of the server extensions.

• Uninstall the server extensions for a particular Web site.

• Set properties for a subweb, root web, or all Web sites on a server.

Note   For a complete list of the operations you can perform by using the command-line tools, see Command-line Operations.

Command-line tools are not interactive

Unlike Fpsrvadm.exe in the FrontPage 2000 Server Extensions, Owsadm and Owsrmadm are not interactive tools. With the Fpsrvadm tool, you typed a command and operation, and then you were asked for parameters. With Owsadm and Owsrmadm, you type the operation and parameters all at once, and you are not queried for further information. If a required parameter is missing, the operation fails, and you must type the operation and parameters again.

This new behavior allows better flexibility for batching commands, since the tools do not prompt you for information after you have submitted a command. However, it does mean that you cannot perform queries, such as looking up the role assigned to a particular user. If you want a more interactive tool, try using HTML Administration pages. With HTML Administration pages you can perform most of the same operations as the command-line tools, but you can also see the options you have for those operations, and look up information about each Web site, user, server, and so on.

Using the command-line tools

The command-line tools are applications for the UNIX and Microsoft Windows NT® operating systems that offer a complete set of SharePoint Team Services and FrontPage 2002 Server Extensions operations. You can use the command-line tools from the command line or from batch files. Owsadm.exe must be run on the server computer, while Owsrmadm.exe can be run from a remote location (on the Microsoft Windows® platform only). The Owsadm tool can be run even when the Web server is not running (although the Web server administration service for your server may need to be running). The Web server must be running before you can use the Owsrmadm tool.

To use the Owsadm tool, you must have machine administrator rights on the server computer. To use the Owsrmadm tool, you must have machine administrator rights on the server computer, and you must have a copy of the Owsrmadm tool on your computer.

When you invoke Owsadm, you supply an operation and a set of command-line parameters in the form:

-operation CommandName -parameter value

Each parameter for the command line also has a short form that you can use instead of the full parameter name. For example, the following command upgrades port 80 of the virtual server, sample.microsoft.com with SharePoint Team Services and a SharePoint team Web site:

owsadm.exe -o upgrade -u username -p 80 -ds Server1 -dn Server1_collab 
-du User1 -dp password -sp sharepthp

For example, on a UNIX-based FrontPage-patched Apache Web server, here is how you would use Owsadm.exe to install FrontPage 2002 Server Extensions on the new virtual server, example.microsoft.com:

owsadm.exe -o install -u username -pw password -p 80 
-m example.microsoft.com 
-s /usr/local/www/apache/conf/httpd.conf -xu UNIXUserName 
-xg UNIXGroupName

The following table explains the command and parameters from this example.

Related links

For detailed information about each command-line operation and related parameters, see Command-line Operations and Command-line Parameters. For a list of all properties that you can set, see Command-line Properties.

For more information about remote administration, see Using the Administration Tools Remotely.

SharePoint Team Services and FrontPage 2002 Server Extensions have configuration properties that you can set by using the command line or by using HTML Administration pages. For more information, see Setting Configuration Properties.