SharePoint Online - Create Libraries automatically

A - OBJECTIVE: 

During data migration to move files from local drives to SharePoint Online, you may need to create a big number of libraries to anticipate the list (soft) threshold of 5,000 items.

B - PROBLEMS :

Creating libraries manually is tedious & a script to automate the process will be shared to ease your work.

C - SOLUTION:

Powershell script can be used at your own PC to create libraries automatically at any SharePoint Online site.

D - SOURCE CODE or BENCHMARK:

Pre-requisites:

• SharePoint DLLs saved at your PC & loaded to the script session.

• Source File which predefines all libraries in each row in the format of "Internal Name, External or Display Library Name".
• SharePoint Online Management Shell must be installed at your PC.

What you need to do is:

1. Load the neccessary components

# Load DLLs
Add-Type -Path "D:\SharePoint\PowerShell\SPO-DLL\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.dll"
Add-Type -Path "D:\SharePoint\PowerShell\SPO-DLL\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Runtime.dll"
Add-Type -Path "D:\SharePoint\PowerShell\SPO-DLL\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.UserProfiles.dll"
 
# Source File to be synced from SharePoint On-Prem to Online
$sourcefile = "D:\Projects\Libraries.txt"

2. Load your SharePoint tenant

#variables that needs to be set before starting the script
$siteURL = "https://anthonynhn.sharepoint.com/sites/fat/cs"
$adminUrl = "https://anthonynhn-admin.sharepoint.com"
$userName = "admin@anthonynhn.onmicrosoft.com"
# Let the user fill in their password in the PowerShell window
$password = Read-Host "Please enter the password for $($userName)" -AsSecureString

3. Initialize the creation task

# set SharePoint Online credentials
$SPOCredentials = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.SharePointOnlineCredentials($userName, $password)  

# Creating client context object
$contextLocal = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext($siteURL)
$contextLocal.credentials = $SPOCredentials
$contextLocal.ExecuteQuery() 

$listTemplate = 101 #doclib

Foreach ($line in [System.IO.File]::ReadLines($sourcefile)) {
    $lib = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ListCreationInformation
 $libInput = $line -split ',';
 
 # set the Internal Name
    $lib.Url = $libInput[0]
 
 # set the Lib Title
 $lib.title = $libInput[1]
 
    $lib.TemplateType = $listTemplate
    $list = $contextLocal.web.lists.add($lib)
    $contextLocal.load($list)
    #send the request containing all operations to the server
    try{
        $contextLocal.executeQuery()
        write-host "info: Created $($listTitle)" -foregroundcolor green
    }
    catch{
        write-host "info: $($_.Exception.Message)" -foregroundcolor red
    }  
}

Search Service Application

A - OBJECTIVE: to create a new Search Service Application.

B - PROBLEMS :

1. Search Application: Index Component grows bigger when more content is populated at SharePoint farm.

2. Available Drive Space: this should have at least twice the value of physical memory (RAM). By default, all Search components are saved at C drive and it will consume this drive; hence, it leads to many operational issues. For example: permissions removed silently due to the problem at Virtual memory swap file.

C - SOLUTION:

1. Search Availability: to ensure the Search service is available to users, "Query Processing" and "Index" components should be replicated at all SharePoint servers.

2. Index Components of Search Application should be allocated at a separate drive to cater for future growth & access speed.

# to move the Index Components at all SharePoint servers to drive I
New-SPEnterpriseSearchIndexComponent -SearchTopology $new -IndexPartition 0 -SearchServiceInstance $hostWFE1 -RootDirectory "I:\FEOshareSearchComponents2015"
New-SPEnterpriseSearchIndexComponent -SearchTopology $new -IndexPartition 0 -SearchServiceInstance $hostWFE2 -RootDirectory "I:\FEOshareSearchComponents2015"
New-SPEnterpriseSearchIndexComponent -SearchTopology $new -IndexPartition 0 -SearchServiceInstance $hostApp -RootDirectory "I:\FEOshareSearchComponents2015"

D - SOURCE CODE:

### GET THE EXISTING ENVIRONMENT PARAMETERS ###
$ssa = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceApplication "Search Service Application - FEOshare"
$current=Get-SPEnterpriseSearchTopology -SearchApplication $ssa -Active
$new=New-SPEnterpriseSearchTopology -Clone -SearchApplication $ssa -SearchTopology $current


# list all search servers deployed in the farm
$hostApp = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance -Identity "kc1mspappprd01"
$hostWFE1 = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance -Identity "kc1mspwfeprd01"
$hostWFE2 = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance -Identity "kc1mspwfeprd02"

# check the settings of the search application
Get-SPEnterpriseSearchStatus -SearchApplication "Search Service Application - FEOshare"


### RE-CONFIGURE TO ALLOCATE SEARCH COMPONENTS ###

# delete the old configuration at the default location (drive C)
$del = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchComponent -SearchTopology $new | ? {$_.Name -eq "IndexComponent1"}
Remove-SPEnterpriseSearchComponent -Identity $del -SearchTopology $new


# create new INDEX components at new location
# must configure RootDirectory https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj219721.aspx
New-SPEnterpriseSearchIndexComponent -SearchTopology $new -IndexPartition 0 -SearchServiceInstance $hostWFE1 -RootDirectory "L:\FEOshareSearch2015"
New-SPEnterpriseSearchIndexComponent -SearchTopology $new -IndexPartition 0 -SearchServiceInstance $hostWFE2 -RootDirectory "L:\FEOshareSearchComponents2015"
New-SPEnterpriseSearchIndexComponent -SearchTopology $new -IndexPartition 0 -SearchServiceInstance $hostApp -RootDirectory "I:\FEOshareSearchComponents2015"


# create new QUERY PROCESSING component at new location
New-SPEnterpriseSearchQueryProcessingComponent -SearchTopology $new -SearchServiceInstance $hostWFE1
New-SPEnterpriseSearchQueryProcessingComponent -SearchTopology $new -SearchServiceInstance $hostWFE2

### SET THE NEW TOPOLOGY TO BE ACTIVE ###
Set-SPEnterpriseSearchTopology -Identity $new