June 2011 saw the release of Microsoft SharePoint 2010 SP1 which contained a number of stability, performance and security enhancements.  Cumulative updates have been included in the service pack as well as the following features:

• Support for SQL Server Code Name “Denali”
• Shallow copy functionality
• Site-level recycle bin
• Improvements to storage management (StorMan.aspx)
• Cascading filters for Performance Point services
• Additional browser support
• New PowerShell cmdlets

I’ve provided a quick summary of each of these but for more in-depth information visit the Microsoft site and download their whitepaper (link at the end of this blog entry).

Shallow Copy Functionality

Shallow copy, a migration technique, improves performance of moving site collections between content databases when using remote blob storage (RBS).  Structured site collection data is moved across content databases while the unstructured data remains untouched in its originally configured BLOB store. This new feature can greatly reduce the time it takes to perform this administrative function by simply updating the destination content database pointers to the objects in the BLOB store.

Site-Level Recycle Bin

The site recycle bin captures the site as it’s deleted so saves unnecessary large database restores to recover a deleted site.  This enables self-service recovery of site collections and sites.  The recovery process is similar to that of the recycle bin for lists, libraries and documents.

Storage Management

In previous versions, the page StorMan.aspx (Storage Space Allocation) enabled granular management and insight into storage. For example, the page would list the 100 largest documents or document libraries. With this information, end-users could easily clean up their sites by deleting the large content that they no longer needed.

The StorMan.aspx page was removed in SharePoint 2010 but StorMan.aspx is back in SP1 giving site collection administrators storage reports.  This allows them a better understanding of their storage usage and helps them take action to clean up content from their site.

Cascading Filters in PerformancePoint Services

New cascading filter support enables you to pass the value of one filter to another.

Browser Support

SP1 provides support for Internet Explorer 9 in Internet Explorer 8 Standards Mode and also provides support for the Google Chrome.

PowerShell cmdlets

As well as the new cmdlets for the site recycle bin there are a number of profile synchronisation cmdlets and health anaylsis rule cmdlets.  See Gary Lapointe’s blog for a quick overview http://blog.falchionconsulting.com/index.php/2011/06/sharepoint-server-2010-service-pack-1-powershell-changes/

This service pack also included updates for Office 2010 products and a useful update is that Project Professional now synchronises scheduled tasks with SharePoint lists.

As with all service packs, plan and test your upgrade thoroughly as even though the service packs and updates have been tested by Microsoft, they are not tested in your environment with your customisations!  It is also worth looking at any known issues with the SP1 installation starting with the Microsoft knowledge base article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2532126.

For more information on updated features in service pack 1 here are a few other useful resources:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/office_sustained_engineering/archive/2011/05/11/announcing-service-pack-1-for-office-2010-and-sharepoint-2010.aspx - this also provides links to the list of fixes to date for the 2010 products

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=26573 – Microsoft’s SP1 whitepaper highlighting changes and features added in SP1

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/chaks/archive/2011/06/30/sharepoint-2010-sp1-site-recycle-bin-ui-experience.aspx – an overview of SP1’s site recycle bin.