SharePoint Server 2016 Preview

MinRole overview

New MinRole feature available in SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview, the types of server roles, and how to configure the feature.

What is MinRole?

By using the new MinRole feature in SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview, SharePoint farm administrators can define each server’s role in a farm topology. The role of a server is specified when you create a new farm or join a server to an existing farm. SharePoint automatically configures the services on each server based on the server's role, and the performance of the farm is optimized based on that topology.

Types of server roles

There are six predefined server roles you can choose. You can read more about the roles and their descriptions in the following table.

Server role	Description
Front-end	Service applications, services, and components that serve user requests belong on Front-end web servers. These servers are optimized for low latency.
Application	Service applications, services, and components that serve backend requests (such as background jobs or search crawl requests) belong on Application servers. These servers are optimized for high throughput.
Distributed cache	Service applications, services, and components that are required for a distributed cache belong on Distributed Cache servers.
Search	Service applications, services, and components that are required for searching belong on Search servers.
Custom	Custom service applications, services, and components that do not integrate with MinRole belong on Custom servers. The farm administrator has full control over which service instances can run on servers assigned to the Custom role. MinRole does not control which service instances are provisioned on this role.
Single-server farm	Service applications, services, and components required for a single machine farm belong on a Single-Server Farm. A Single-Server Farm is meant for development, testing, and very limited production use. A SharePoint farm with the Single-Server Farm role cannot have more than one SharePoint server in the farm.

Note:

The use of the term Application in the SharePoint Server 2016 version has a different meaning from the common use of the term Application server in previous versions. . In previous releases of SharePoint, the Application server typically hosted service application endpoints. Front-end servers would call these endpoints while serving user requests. From a services perspective, the Application server and the Front-End server roles are very similar. However, each role serves a different purpose. The Front-End roles are performance-sensitive and optimized for receiving end use traffic, They also have built-in logic to always service requests from local service instances as opposed to going across the farm to another server. For example, Managed Metadata calls will route to the managed metadata service instance on the local computer if it is available instead of service instances on other servers. This serves two useful purposes. First, it limits the communication to the shortest possible path to reduce latency. Second, the service is local, which is helpful should anything go wrong with the server and it requires to be restarted or removed from the topology. It is a much simpler operation when there is much less inter-server traffic.

Note:
The Single-Server Farm role replaces the Standalone Install mode available in previous SharePoint Server releases. Unlike Standalone Install, the SharePoint administrator must separately install and prepare Microsoft SQL Server. The SharePoint administrator must also configure the SharePoint farm services and web applications, either manually or by running the Farm Configuration Wizard.

How does MinRole work?

When you create a new farm or join a machine to an existing farm, SharePoint starts a base set of service instances that are required for the server’s role. It also detects which additional services have been enabled in the farm and starts those service instances as appropriate for the server’s role. Finally, it detects which service applications have been created in the farm and which services are necessary to support those service applications. Those service instances will be started as appropriate for the server’s role, as well.

MinRole management of service instances doesn’t happen only when you join a server to a farm. As you enable or disable services in the farm, or as you create and delete service applications in the farm, MinRole starts and stops service instances on the existing servers in the farm. This ensures that each server in your SharePoint farm is running only the services it needs.

The result is that SharePoint farm administrators no longer need to think about service instances at an individual server level. Instead, administrators can now focus on which services should be enabled at the SharePoint farm level.

Benefits of MinRole

There are three primary benefits to using MinRole:

1. Simplified deployment: Now you no longer need to worry about which services should be started on which servers. By deploying your farm in a recommended MinRole topology, you can focus on what functionality to enable in your farm and let SharePoint take care of the rest.
2. Improved performance and reliability: Microsoft has been operating SharePoint Online for years and has analyzed the performance characteristics of SharePoint at Internet scale, including CPU, memory, disk I/O, and network latency. The SharePoint services have been optimized for the MinRole topology based on that analysis. By deploying your farm in a recommended MinRole topology, you’ll be able to reduce network latency and increase reliability.
3. Simpler capacity planning and farm scalability: Microsoft bases capacity planning on the MinRole topology. By deploying your farm in a recommended MinRole topology, you’ll be able to leverage better predictable and prescriptive capacity-planning guidance. Plus, it’s now easier to add servers into your farm as your needs grow because SharePoint automatically configures the additional servers for you.

MinRole server deployments

With the introduction of MinRole, there is clearly a change to the farm topologies that can be deployed and still be referred to as a MinRole deployment. With four core server roles, the minimum 100% support MinRole configuration becomes a four-server farm with one of each role. However, this doesn’t account for any resiliency, and so if we want to take it one step further and gain high availability across the farm, we need nine servers, three servers for the Distributed Cache role as a cluster quorum is needed plus two of each other role, making nine in total. Add to this the SQL Server layer using Always on availability groups, and you have a 100% compliant MinRole farm from which all the benefits of auto provisioning and the gains in stability and performance can be realized.

However, what if you want to deploy a two-, three-, or four-server farm, but you need an element of high availability? Well, in this case, you need to think carefully about which services are most important, and build accordingly. By utilizing a combination of MinRole roles and a specialized role, you can build two-, three-, and four-server farms. For example two front-end servers and two custom role servers can provide all the services needed. However, only the two front-end servers will benefit from the additional logic built into MinRole roles. You will need to manually configure and monitor the custom role server for the additional required services.

Recommended MinRole topologies

Microsoft recommends the following MinRole topologies.

Server role	Required for Content Farm ?	Required for Shared Services Farm ?	Required for Search Farm ?
Front-end web	Yes	Yes	No
Application	Yes	Yes	No
Distributed cache	Yes	Yes	No
Search	Yes, if hosting Search	Yes, if hosting Search	Yes
Custom	Optional	Optional	Optional

Farm deployment methods

Use the following methods to create a new farm or join servers to an existing farm with MinRole:

• SharePoint 2016 Products Configuration Wizard (PSConfigUI.exe)
• PSConfig.exe command line tool
• Windows PowerShell cmdlets

The MinRole feature introduces two new command-line parameters for PSConfig.exe and Windows PowerShell. The LocalServerRole parameter specifies the role of the local server you when create a new farm or join a server to an existing farm. The LocalServerRole parameter accepts the following values:

• WebFrontEnd (Front-end server role)
• Application (Application server role)
• DistributedCache (Distributed Cache server role)
• Search (Search server role)
• Custom (Custom server role)
• SingleServerFarm (Single-Server Farm server role)

The ServerRoleOptional parameter configures the farm not to require a server role to be specified. It can be used when you create a new server farm. If no server role is specified, the server defaults to the Custom role.

SharePoint 2016 Products Configuration Wizard

When you create a new farm or join a server to an existing farm by using the SharePoint 2016 Products Configuration Wizard, a new form is displayed in the wizard. This form provides a description of each server role, and you can use it to select the role of this server. The server role radio button will be disabled for roles that are not available in this farm.

Create a Farm by using the PSConfig.exe command-line tool

To create a farm by using the PSConfig.exe command-line tool, use the following syntax:

psconfig.exe -cmd configdb -create -server  -database  -user  -password  -passphrase  -admincontentdatabase  -localserverrole  -cmd helpcollections -installall -cmd secureresources -cmd services -install -cmd installfeatures -cmd adminvs -provision -port  -windowsauthprovider onlyusentlm -cmd applicationcontent -install

Where can be any of the following values: WebFrontEnd, Application, DistributedCache, Search, Custom, or SingleServerFarm.

Create a farm by using Windows PowerShell

In the examples that use a Windows PowerShell cmdlet, verify that you meet the minimum requirements, see Add-SPShellAdmin.

To create a farm by using the New-SPConfigurationDatabase cmdlet, use the following Windows PowerShell syntax:

New-SPConfigurationDatabase -DatabaseServer  -DatabaseName  -FarmCredentials  -Passphrase  -AdministrationContentDatabaseName  -LocalServerRole 

Install-SPHelpCollection -All

Initialize-SPResourceSecurity

Install-SPService

Install-SPFeature -AllExistingFeatures

New-SPCentralAdministration -Port  -WindowsAuthProvider NTLM

Install-SPApplicationContent

Where can be any of the following values: WebFrontEnd, Application, DistributedCache, Search, Custom, or SingleServerFarm.

Join a farm by using the PSConfig.exe command-line tool

To join a farm by using the PSConfig.exe command-line tool, use the following syntax:

psconfig.exe -cmd configdb -connect -server  -database  -passphrase  -localserverrole  -cmd helpcollections -installall -cmd secureresources -cmd services -install -cmd installfeatures -cmd applicationcontent -install

Where can be any of the following values: WebFrontEnd, Application, DistributedCache, Search, Custom, or SingleServerFarm.

Join a Farm by using Windows PowerShell

In the examples that use a Windows PowerShell cmdlet, verify that you meet the minimum requirements. See Add-SPShellAdmin.

To join a farm by using the Connect-SPConfigurationDatabase cmdlet, use the following Windows PowerShell syntax:

Connect-SPConfigurationDatabase -DatabaseServer  -DatabaseName  -Passphrase  -LocalServerRole 

Install-SPHelpCollection -All

Initialize-SPResourceSecurity

Install-SPService

Install-SPFeature -AllExistingFeatures

Install-SPApplicationContent

Start-Service SPTimerV4

Where can be any of the following values: WebFrontEnd, Application, DistributedCache, Search, Custom, or SingleServerFarm.

Opting out of MinRole

SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview supports the backward compatible behavior of previous SharePoint releases with the Custom role. SharePoint farm administrators can directly manage service instances on individual servers assigned to the Custom role. You can assign zero, some, or all servers in a farm to the Custom role.

If you have existing deployment scripts that you do not want to modify to support MinRole, you can specify the ServerRoleOptional parameter when you create a new SharePoint farm by using the PSConfig.exe command-line tool or Windows PowerShell. This parameter configures the farm to not require a server role to be specified. If no server role is specified, the server defaults to the Custom role.

MinRole administration

Central Administration changes for MinRole

With the addition of the MinRole feature, there are several changes to the Central Administration website.

Manage servers in this farm

This page shows the servers that are joined to the farm. Two columns have been added to this page: Role and In Compliance.

The Role column displays the role that is assigned to the server in the farm.

The In Compliance column displays whether the server configuration is in compliance with its server role. If the server is not in compliance, a Fix link will be provided to automatically reconfigure the server to match the expected configuration of its server role.

Note:
Only members of the Local Administrators group on the server that hosts Central Administration have access to the Fix link.

Manage services in this farm

This is a new page in the System Settings category of Central Administration. It displays the state of each service in the farm. This page has three column of interest:Auto Provision, Action, and In Compliance.

The Auto Provision column displays whether the service is enabled in the farm. If the value Yes is displayed, service instances for this service will be started on the appropriate servers in the farm. If the value No is displayed, service instances for this service will be stopped on the appropriate servers in the farm.

The Action column displays one of three values depending on the type of service it is and whether it is enabled in the farm: Manage Service application, Disable Auto Provision, and Enable Auto Provision.

The Manage Service Application value indicates that the service is associated with a service application. This service will be enabled or disabled in the farm by its service application, typically when you create or delete the service application. Click the link to access the Service Application Management page.

The Disable Auto Provision link disables the service in the farm. When you click this link, services instances would be stopped, and appropriate services to be started on servers with roles that support that service and stopped on others for the appropriate servers in the farm.

The Enable Auto Provision link enables the service in the farm. When you click this link, service instances for this service will be started on the appropriate servers in the farm.

The In Compliance column displays whether the service is in compliance on every server in the farm. If this service is not in compliance on one or more servers, a Fixlink will be provided. Click this link to automatically reconfigure the service instances of this service to match the expected configuration.

Note:
Only members of the Local Administrators group on the server that hosts Central Administration have access to the Fix link.

Manage services on server

This page displays all of the service instances on a server. Some things have changed as highlighted in red in the following diagram.

In previous releases of SharePoint, this page was accessible only to members of the Local Administrators group on the Central Administration server. In SharePoint Server 2016, all members of the SharePoint Farm Administrators group have access to this page.

The role of the server is now displayed next to the name of the server.

The In Compliance column has been added to the page. It displays whether the service instance is in compliance on this server. If this service instance is not in compliance on this server, a Fix link will be provided. Click this link to automatically reconfigure the service instance on this server to match the expected configuration.

Note:
Only members of the Local Administrators group on the server that hosts the UNRESOLVED_TOKEN_VAL(CentralAdmin_2ndt) have access to the Fix link.

The Action column has changed. The link to start or stop a service has been removed for servers that are managed by MinRole. The only actionable item is Restartfor service instances that are already started on this server. To start or stop a service you now use, click the Enable Auto Provision or Disable Auto Provision link inManage services in this farm page.

Note:
Servers that are assigned to the Custom role will still display the Start and Stop links in the Action column.

Note:
Only members of the Local Administrators group on the server that hosts the UNRESOLVED_TOKEN_VAL(CentralAdmin_2ndt) have access to the Restart, Start, and Stop links.

Manage the services in the farm by using Windows PowerShell

New Windows PowerShell cmdlets have been introduced to manage the services in the farm.

Cmdlet name	Description	Syntax example
Get-SPService	The Get-SPService cmdlet gets a service in the farm.	Get-SPService -Identity "Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Sandboxed Code Service"
Start-SPService	The Start-SPService cmdlet enables a service in the farm. Service instances for this service will be started on the appropriate servers in the farm.	Start-SPService -Identity "Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Sandboxed Code Service"
Stop-SPService	The Stop-SPService cmdlet disables a service in the farm. Service instances for this service will be stopped on the appropriate servers in the farm.	Stop-SPService -Identity "Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Sandboxed Code Service"

Health monitoring

A new health analyzer rule has been created to ensure that your servers are operating in their optimal MinRole configuration. The Server role configuration isn’t correct rule runs every night at midnight on each server in your farm. It scans all service instances on the server to detect if any are not in compliance. If any service instance is out of compliance, the health rule will automatically reconfigure it to match the expected configuration. No manual intervention by the SharePoint farm administrator is required.

The automatic repair functionality of the health rule can be disabled by the SharePoint farm administrator while still allowing the health rule to run. If the health rule detects that a server is out of compliance and the automatic repair functionality is disabled, it will generate a health report in Central Administration. The health report will identify which servers are out of compliance, offer the ability to automatically repair the servers, and provide instructions on how to manually repair the servers.

The SharePoint farm administrator can control the health rule schedule, changing it to run more frequently or less frequently or disabling it so that it is never scheduled. It can also run on demand.

Note:
This health rule will not scan or repair servers that are assigned to the Custom role.

How to change a server role

To change a server role by using the Central Administration Website

1. Verify that the user account that is performing this procedure is a member of the Farm Administrators group.
2. On the Central Administration, click System Settings section.
3. On the System Settings page, click Convert server role in this farm.
4. On the Role Conversion page, in the New Role area, click the drop-down box to select the appropriate new role.
5. Click Apply.

To change a server role by using Windows PowerShell

1. Verify that you have the following memberships:
   • securityadmin fixed server role on the SQL Server instance.
   • db_owner fixed database role on all databases that are to be updated.
   • Administrators group on the server on which you are running the Windows PowerShell cmdlets.
   An administrator can use the Add-SPShellAdmin cmdlet to grant permissions to use SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview cmdlets.

   Note:
   If you do not have permissions, contact your setup administrator or SQL Server administrator to request permissions. For additional information about Windows PowerShell permissions, see Add-SPShellAdmin.

2. On the Start menu, click All Programs .
3. Click Microsoft SharePoint 2016 Products.
4. Click SharePoint 2016 Management Shell.
5. At the Windows PowerShell command prompt, type the following command:
   Set-SPServer -Role 
   

   Where:
   •  is the name of the server role which accept the values: WebFrontEnd, Application, DistributedCache, Search, SingleServerFarm, or Custom.

For more information about how to manage the farm by using Windows PowerShell, see Set-SPServer.

Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

1. Do I have to deploy servers in a certain order?
   Answer: No, you can deploy servers in a farm in any order you want. Any server role can be the first server in your farm. All server roles except for the Custom role will host the Central Administration by default. The SharePoint farm administrator can choose whether a server assigned to the Custom role will host the Central Administration.
2. Can I convert a single-server farm into a multiple-server farm?
   Answer: Yes, you can convert a single-server farm into a multiple-server farm. To do this, you must first remove the server assigned to the Single-Server Farm role from the farm. Then you can join that server or others servers to the farm by selecting a different server role. Note that this will involve a farm outage during the time that no server is joined to the farm.
3. Does the MinRole features support cross farm services?
   Answer: Yes, MinRole supports cross farm services.
4. Do I have to use MinRole?
   Answer: No, you can opt out of the MinRole experience by using the Custom server role. However, you will lose the benefits that MinRole provides. You might also be unable to take advantage of new features introduced in the future if they rely on MinRole. See Opting Out of MinRole.

New and improved features in SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview

Summary of features

The following table provides a summary of the new features that you can try out in this SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview release.

Feature	Description	More information
Access Services	New Access features are available when you deploy Access Services in SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview .	For more information, see Access Services.
Compliance features	New compliance features for SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview include the document deletion and in-place hold policies.	For more information, see Compliance features.
Customized web parts	The compile time for customized XSLT files used for Content Query, Summary Links, and Table of Contents Web Parts is improved.	NA
Document Library accessibility	SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview includes new document library accessibility features.	For more information, see Document Library accessibility.
Durable links	Resource-based URLs now retain links when documents are renamed or moved in SharePoint.	NA
Encrypted Connections	SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview supports TLS 1.2 connection encryption by default.	For more information, see Encrypted Connections.
Fast Site Collection Creation	The Fast Site Collection Creation feature is a rapid method to create site collections and sites in SharePoint.	For more information, see Fast Site Collection Creation.
Filenames - expanded support for special characters	SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview now supports using some special characters in file names that were previously blocked.	For more information, see Filenames.
Hybrid in SharePoint 2016	Hybrid in SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview enables you to integrate your on-premises farm with Office 365 productivity experiences, allowing you to adopt the cloud at your own pace.	For more information, see Hybrid in SharePoint 2016.
Identify and Search for sensitive content	SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview now provides the same data loss prevention capabilities as Office 365.	For more information, see Identify and search for sensitive content in both SharePoint 2016 and OneDrive documents.
Image and Video previews	You can now preview images and videos in SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview document libraries.	For more information, see Image and Video previews.
Information Rights Management	SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview provides Information Rights Management (IRM) capabilities to secure information by encrypting and securing information on SharePoint libraries with OneDrive for Business.	For more information, see Information Rights Management.
Large file support	SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview now supports uploading and downloading files larger than 2,047 MB.	For more information, see Large file support.
MinRole	MinRole is a new feature in SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview that allows a SharePoint farm administrator to define each server’s role in a farm topology.	For more information, see MinRole farm topology.
Mobile experience	SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview offers an improved mobile navigation experience.	For more information, see Mobile experience.
New controls for working with OneDrive for Business	SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview provides controls at the top of your personal document folders that make common tasks in OneDrive for Business more accessible.	For more information, see New controls for working with OneDrive for Business.
New Recycle Bin in OneDrive and Team sites	SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview adds a link for the Recycle Bin in the left navigation area of the OneDrive and Team sites.	NA
Open Document Format (ODF)	SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview adds support for Open Document Format (ODF) files to use in document library templates.	For more information, see Open Document Format (ODF) available for document libraries.
Project Server	New Project Server features are available in SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview.	For more information, see Project Server.
ReFS file system support	SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview now supports drives that are formatted with the ReFS file system.	For more information about the ReFS file system see Resilient File System Overview and Resilient file system.
SharePoint Search	SharePoint Search Server Application has significant changes to its deployment.	For more information, see SharePoint Search Server Application.
Sharing improvements	SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview has many new sharing improvements available.	For more information, see Sharing improvements.
Site Folders view	SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview provides a new Site Folders view that lets you access the document libraries in sites that you're following.	For more information, see Site Folders view.
Sites page pinning	This new feature helps you see and follow sites.	For more information, see Sites page pinning.
SMTP Connection Encryption	SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview supports sending email to SMTP servers that useSTARTTLS connection encryption.	For more information, see SMTP Connection Encryption.
SMTP ports (non-default)	SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview adds support for SMTP servers that use TCP ports other than the default port (25).	For more information, see Use SMTP ports other than the default (25).
Web Application Open Platform Interface Protocol (WOPI)	You can now rename files, create new files, and share files from within the WOPI iframe on the browser page.	NA

Detailed description of features

This section provides detailed descriptions of the new and updated features in SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview.

Access Services plus Access client and server

The following new Access features are available when you deploy Access Services in SharePoint 2016 Preview:

• Support apps for Office. For more information, see Spice up your Access app with apps for Office.
• Access App Upgrade. For more information, see Upgrade an Access app.
• Download in Excel feature available for users to pivot Access tables. For more information, see Introducing a new feature in Access 2013 web apps-Download in Excel.
• With the improved Related Item Control, you can do the following:
  • Choose from any existing view for the dialog box on the Related Item Control.
  • Add a new item on the Related Item Control when the parent record isn't saved.
  • Turn off the Add link at the bottom of the Related Item Control.
• The Cascading Combo box is now available in Access. For more information, see Introducing a new user experience feature in Access web apps: Cascading Controls.

Compliance features

The document deletion policy allows you to delete documents in users' OneDrive for Business sites after specific periods of time. The In-Place Hold policy allows administrators to preserve documents, email, and other files.

For more information, see Overview of document deletion policies.

Document Library accessibility

The following features are now available for working in SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview document libraries:

• Landmarks to a page make it easier to navigate, and there are alt text improvements for all major navigation links.
• Keyboard shortcuts are provided for the following document tasks:
  • Alt + N - New
  • Alt + E - Edit
  • Alt + U - Upload
  • Alt + M - Manage
  • Alt + S - Share
  • Alt + Y - Synchronization
• Focus improvements, such as keeping focus on prior elements and focus trapping.
• Announcements for upload progress.
• Announcements for file name and file types when browsing folder and file lists.
• Improved callout reading.
• Fixed use of color issues for views switcher.
• Updates to the Help documentation.

Encrypted connections

When you set up an SSL binding in Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager to host your web application, SharePoint uses TLS 1.2 connection encryption if your client application supports it. SharePoint also supports TLS 1.2 connection encryption when connecting to other systems, for example when crawling websites.

Note:
A security vulnerability was identified in the SSL 3.0 protocol that can allow an attacker to decrypt data. For enhanced security, some SharePoint features now disable SSL 3.0 connection encryption by default, as well as certain encryption algorithms (for example RC4) with known weaknesses.

Important:
SharePoint Preview customers should test all of their SSL/TLS/HTTPS connection scenarios with SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview. We recommend that connection testing includes any third-party software that might integrate with SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview.

Fast Site Collection Creation

This new feature provides templates that work at same level as SQL Server, which reduces the round trips required between the SharePoint and SQL servers. Use Windows PowerShell cmdlets to create sites and site collections quickly.

File names - expanded support for special characters

SharePoint has historically blocked file names that included the &, ~, {, and } characters, file names that contained a GUID, file names with leading dots, and file names longer than 128 characters. These restrictions are removed in SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview and are now available to use.

Important:
Restricted characters such as % and # are still not allowed in file names.

Hybrid in SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview

In SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview, new hybrid features are available to enable hybrid solutions.

Hybrid sites

Hybrid sites features allows your users to have an integrated experience while using SharePoint Server and SharePoint Online sites:

• Users can follow SharePoint Server and SharePoint Online sites, and see them consolidated in a single list.
• Users have a single profile in Office 365, where all of their profile information is stored.

For more information, see Plan for hybrid sites features.

Hybrid OneDrive for Business

Hybrid sites features are used in concert with Hybrid OneDrive for Business (introduced in SharePoint Server 2013 with Service Pack 1 (SP1)):

• Users can sync files with Office 365 and share them with others.
• Users can access their files directly through Office 365 from any device.

Cloud Hybrid Search

Cloud hybrid search is a new hybrid search solution alternative. With cloud hybrid search solution provided in SharePoint Server 2013 lets you create a single search index that is deployed in Office 365:

• You index all of your crawled content, including on-premises content, to your search index in Office 365. You can set up the crawler in SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview to crawl the same content sources and use the same search connectors in Office SharePoint Server 2007, SharePoint Server 2010, and SharePoint Server 2013.
• When users query your search index in Office 365, they get unified search results from both on-premises and Office 365 content.

Important:
You will be able to configure and test Cloud Hybrid Search on September 7, when the Office 365 component of the hybrid topology is enabled.

For more information, see Plan for hybrid OneDrive for Business.

For more information about the hybrid solutions available today, please visit the SharePoint Hybrid Solutions Center.

Identify and search for sensitive content in both SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview and OneDrive documents

With this new capability, you can:

• Search for sensitive content across SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview, SharePoint Online, and OneDrive for Business.
• Leverage 51 built-in sensitive information types (credit cards, passport numbers, Social Security numbers, and more).
• Identify offending documents, export a report, and adjust accordingly.

Information on configuring and using this feature is documented in SharePoint Online and Office 365. For more information, see:

• Search for sensitive content in SharePoint and OneDrive documents
• Use DLP in SharePoint Online to identify sensitive data stored on sites

Image and video previews

In SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview when you post images and videos to a document library, you can see a preview by hovering the mouse over the image or video, or by clicking on them.

Information Rights Management

For more information, see Secure and sync with Information Rights Management on OneDrive for Business.

Large file support

Previous versions of SharePoint did not support uploading or downloading files larger than 2,047 MB. SharePoint 2016 now allows you to upload or download larger files. You can configure the desired maximum file-size limit on a per-web application basis in your SharePoint farm.

MinRole farm topology

The role of a server is specified when you create a new farm or join a server to an existing farm. SharePoint automatically configures the services on each server based on the server role, optimizing the performance of the farm based on that topology. There are six predefined server roles that are available, as shown in the following table.

 

Server role	Description
Front end	Service applications, services, and components that serve user requests belong on front-end web servers. These servers are optimized for fast performance.
Application	Service applications, services, and components that serve back-end requests, such as background jobs or search crawl requests, belong on Application servers. These servers are optimized for high throughput.
Distributed Cache	Service applications, services, and components that are required for a distributed cache belong on Distributed Cache servers. Optionally, you can configure these servers to also load balance farm traffic using the SharePoint Request Manager.
Search	Service applications, services, and components that are required for search belong on Search servers.
Custom	Custom service applications, services, and components that do not integrate with MinRole belong on Custom servers. The farm administrator has full control over which service instances can run on servers assigned to the Custom role. MinRole will not control which service instances are provisioned on this role.
Single-Server Farm	Service applications, services, and components required for a single-machine farm belong on a Single-Server Farm. A Single-Server Farm is meant for development, testing, and very limited production use. A SharePoint farm with the Single-Server Farm role cannot have more than one SharePoint server in the farm. Important: The Standalone Install mode is no longer available in SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview. The Single-Server Farm role replaces the Standalone Install mode available in previous SharePoint Server releases. Unlike Standalone Install, the SharePoint administrator must separately install and prepare Microsoft SQL Server for SharePoint. The SharePoint administrator must also configure the SharePoint farm services and web applications, either manually or by running the Farm Configuration Wizard.

For more information about the MinRole feature, see MinRole overview.

Mobile experience

When you use a mobile device to access the home page for a SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview team site, you can tap tiles or links on the screen to navigate the site. You can also switch from the mobile view to PC view, which displays site pages as they are seen on a client computer. This view is also touch enabled.

New controls for working with OneDrive for Business

You can click a control to create new Office documents, upload files, synchronize your files for offline use, and share your files. For more information, see “Simple controls” onThe OneDrive Blog.

Open Document Format (ODF) available for document libraries

The Open Document Format (ODF) enables you to create new files in a document library and save as ODF files so that users can edit the new file with a program they choose. For more information, see Set Open Document Format (ODF) as the default file template for a library.

Project Server 2016 Preview

Project Server 2016 Preview for SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview has many new capabilities and features. For more information, see What's new for IT pros in Project Server 2016 Preview.

Important:
Project Server 2016 Preview is installed with SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview. Currently there is no licensing restriction, but there will be in the future releases.

Sharing

The following list shows the sharing improvements that are available for SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview:

• Create and Share folder
• Sharing Hint
• See who the folder is shared with when viewing a folder
• Members can share
• Improved invitation mail
• One-click email to approve or deny a request for access

SharePoint Search Service application

SharePoint Search supports indexing of up to 500 million items per Search Server application.

SMTP connection encryption

The following list shows the SharePoint 2016 requirements that are needed to negotiate connection encryption with an SMTP server:

1. STARTTLS must be enabled on the SMTP server.
2. The SMTP server must support the TLS 1.0, TSL 1.1, or TLS 1.2 protocol.

   Important:
   SSL 2.0 and SSL 3.0 protocols are not supported.

3. The SMTP server must have a server certificate installed.
4. The server certificate must be valid. Typically, this means that the name of the server certificate must match the name of the SMTP server provided to SharePoint. The server certificate must also be issued by a certificate authority that is trusted by the SharePoint server.
5. SharePoint must be configured to use SMTP connection encryption.

To configure SharePoint to always use SMTP connection encryption, open the SharePoint Central Administration website and browse to System Settings > Configure outgoing e-mail settings and set the Use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) drop-down menu to Yes. To configure SharePoint to always use SMTP connection encryption in Windows PowerShell, use the Set-SPWebApplication cmdlet without the -DisableSMTPEncryption parameter. For example:

$WebApp = Get-SPWebApplication -IncludeCentralAdministration | ? { $_.IsAdministrationWebApplication -eq $true }

Set-SPWebApplication -Identity $WebApp -SMTPServer smtp.internal.contoso.com -OutgoingEmailAddress sharepoint@contoso.com -ReplyToEmailAddress sharepoint@contoso.com

To configure SharePoint to never use SMTP connection encryption in SharePoint Central Administration, browse to System Settings > Configure outgoing email settingsand set the Use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) drop-down menu to No. To configure SharePoint to never use SMTP connection encryption in Windows PowerShell, use theSet-SPWebApplication cmdlet with the -DisableSMTPEncryption parameter. For example:

$WebApp = Get-SPWebApplication -IncludeCentralAdministration | ? { $_.IsAdministrationWebApplication -eq $true }

Set-SPWebApplication -Identity $WebApp -SMTPServer smtp.internal.contoso.com -DisableSMTPEncryption -OutgoingEmailAddress sharepoint@contoso.com -ReplyToEmailAddress 
sharepoint@contoso.com

Note:

If SharePoint is configured to use SMTP connection encryption, it will only send email messages if it successfully negotiates connection encryption with the SMTP server. It will not fall back and send email messages unencrypted if connection encryption negotiation fails. If SharePoint is not configured to use SMTP connection encryption, it will always send email messages unencrypted, even if the SMTP server supports connection encryption.

Sites page pinning

You can now pin sites that you see on the sites page. A pinned site shows at the top of the list of sites that you're following.

Site folders view

For more information, see "Site folders" in The OneDrive Blog.

Use SMTP ports other than the default (25)

To configure SharePoint to use a non-default SMTP port open SharePoint Central Administration, browse to System Settings > Configure outgoing email settings, and set the SMTP server port to the port number of your SMTP server. To configure SharePoint to use a nondefault SMTP port in Windows PowerShell, use the Set-SPWebApplication cmdlet with the -SMTPServerPort  parameter. For example:

$WebApp = Get-SPWebApplication -IncludeCentralAdministration | ? { $_.IsAdministrationWebApplication -eq $true }

Set-SPWebApplication -Identity $WebApp -SMTPServer smtp.internal.contoso.com -SMTPServerPort 587 -OutgoingEmailAddress sharepoint@contoso.com -ReplyToEmailAddress 
sh  arepoint@contoso.com

What's deprecated or removed from SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview

Features in SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview that have been deprecated or removed. Deprecated features are included in SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview for compatibility with previous product versions. For information about new features in SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview, see New and improved features in SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview.

Features deprecated in SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview

The following features and functionality have been deprecated or removed in SharePoint Server.

SharePoint Foundation

SharePoint Foundation 2013 remains available for use. For more information, see SharePoint Foundation 2013.

Previous releases of SharePoint Server included SharePoint Foundation, a free edition of SharePoint that included most of the core functionality and architecture provided by the commercial editions of SharePoint. SharePoint Foundation is no longer available in the SharePoint Server 2016 release.

Standalone Install mode

SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview doesn't support the standalone install option, so it is no longer available in the setup program. Use the MinRole during installation and choose one of the available install options. The Single Server Farm option where everything is installed on the same computer is supported for dev/test/demo purposes. When you use this option, you must install SQL Server yourself and then run the SharePoint Server 2016 farm configuration wizard.. For more information, see "MinRole farm topology" in New and improved features in SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview.

ForeFront Identity Manager client (FIM)

Earlier versions of SharePoint used ForeFront Identity Manager client (FIM) to synchronize between Active Directory and SharePoint. SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview no longer uses FIM as the synchronization client. The default process is Active Directory Import. You can also use any synchronization tool such as Microsoft Identity Manager 2016, or any third-party tool. We'll soon release tools to help you deploy and configure Microsoft Identity Manager 2016 to work with SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview for identity synchronization.

Excel Services in SharePoint

Excel Services and its associated business intelligence capabilities are no longer available in SharePoint Server. Excel Services functionality is now part of Excel Online in Office Online Server Preview, and SharePoint users can use the services from there.

The following Excel Services functionality has been deprecated:

• Trusted data providers
• Trusted file locations
• Trusted data connection libraries
• Unattended service account
• Excel Services Windows PowerShell cmdlets
• Opening of Excel workbooks from SharePoint Central Administration site

The following Excel Services functionality requires Excel Online in Office Online Server Preview:

• Viewing and editing Excel workbooks in a browser (with or without the Data Model)
• Excel Web Access web part for SharePoint
• ODC file support (no longer requires Data Connection Librariees)
• Programmability features such as JavaScript OM, User Defined Function Assemblies, SOAP and REST protocol support

SharePoint BI capabilities

SharePoint Server 2016 requires updated versions that will ship later this year. The SQL Server 2014 Power Pivot and Power View add-ins for SharePoint 2013 cannot be deployed or used in SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview. The following business intelligence features won't be available until then:

• Power Pivot Gallery
• Scheduled Data Refresh
• Using another workbook's Data Model as a data source
• Power View reports (standalone or embedded in Excel workbooks)
• Power View Subscriptions and Report Alerting
  Power Pivot Management Dashboard
• BISM Link support

Tags and Notes

The Tags and Notes feature is no longer available in SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview. Users can no longer create new tags and notes or access existing ones.

Stsadm.exe

We recommend that you use Windows PowerShell when you perform command-line administrative tasks. The Stsadm command-line tool has been deprecated, but it is included to support compatibility with previous product versions.

Known Issues in SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview

Each section in this article describes features in SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview that have issues and also provides the workaround process for these issues. For additional information, see What's deprecated or removed from SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview.

PowerPivot and Power View add-ins are not available

The SQL Server 2014 PowerPivot and Power View add-ins for SharePoint 2013 cannot be deployed or used in SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview. This affects the following BI features:

• PowerPivot Gallery
• Scheduled Data Refresh
• Workbooks as a Data Source
• PowerPivot Management Dashboard
• Power View reports
• Power View Subscriptions
• Report Alerting

PerformancePoint Services in SharePoint

When using PerformancePoint Services to deploy dashboards they may not render in the correct order and filters don't apply successfully to the PerformancePoint Services content. To workaround this issue perform the steps in the following procedure.

Workaround to deploy dashboards in PerformancePoint Services

1. Edit the web.config file for each site that you need PerformancePoint Services to work in.
2. In the web.config file, navigate to the Configuration\SharePoint\SafeControls directory in the XML and add the following five values:
3. Redeploy all dashboards in Dashboard Designer.

User permissions

If a user is not given permissions to a top-level site collection but is given permissions to a path based site collection then the user will receive multiple authentication prompts. For example, if user A is given permission to http://contoso.com, a top-level site collection and then given permission to https://contoso.com/sites/teamsite there are no issues. However, if user A is not given permission first to the top-level site collection but only to the subsites, then the user will receive the authentication prompts. We recommend that you give all test accounts top-level site collection permissions for testing and evaluation.

Create site collections through CSOM is not available

SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview does not support creating new site collections from remote code using Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.Client.Tenant.dll, in particular, theMicrosoft.Online.SharePoint.TenantAdministration.Tenant.CreateSite() method. As a temporary workaround remote code can create site collections with admin user credentials using the CreateSite method of the admin web service. For information about using the temporary workaround remote code, see Admin.CreateSite Method.

Standalone install option removed from setup program

SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview doesn't support the standalone install option so it is no longer available in the setup program. Use the MinRole during installation and choose one of the available install options. The Single Server Farm option where everything is installed on the same computer is supported for dev/test/demo purposes. When you use this option, you must install SQL Server yourself and then run the SharePoint Server 2016 farm configuration wizard.

User Profile Synchronization service fails when using the SharePoint Profile Synchronization option

There are known compatibility issues with newer versions of SQL Server that can cause the provisioning of the User Profile Synchronization service to fail when using FIM for synchronization. You should only use the SharePoint Active Directory Import for profile synchronization.

SharePoint 2013 content farms cannot use services from a SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview User Profile Application database

Note:
This only applies to if the SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview User Profile Application database is located in a service farm. Additionally it only applies if the SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview service farm is a new install.

SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview does support SharePoint 2013 Content farms. However, for this to work the SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview service farm where the User Profile Application is located, must have been an upgraded farm from SharePoint 2013.

If you upgrade a SharePoint Server 2013 content farm to SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview service farm with User Profile Application this will work. If you migrate a SharePoint Server 2013 content farm to a new installation of SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview service farm, this will not work.

SharePoint workflows with app step get suspended

Workflows that include the app step action will suspend when the workflow reaches the app step. The workaround is to avoid using the app step and use only user impersonation in workflows.

Microsoft Edge limitations

The following limitations apply to when you use Edge in SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview. You can work around each of these issues by using Internet Explorer to perform these tasks. For more information, see Plan browser support in SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview.

• The drag-and-drop functionality doesn’t work to upload files to. The Edge team is working to add this capability in a future release.
• Documents won’t open in a rich client app when a Document Library link is clicked if the Office client applications are installed.
• The Export to Excel from a document library or SharePoint list feature doesn't work. However, it will show a warning message.
• The following features on the ribbon require SharePoint Designer to be installed to work correctly:
  • Edit Library
  • Edit List
  • New Quick Step
  • Workflow Settings
  • Create a workflow in SharePOint Designer
• The following features or buttons that use ActiveX won’t work with Edge. Some of these are as follows:
  • Open with Explorer
  • Open with Access
  • Open with Project
  • Customize in InfoPath

Product Catalog site template is not visible in the SharePoint Central Administration website

To workaround this issue, use the SharePoint 2016 Management Shell to create product catalog sites. Use, New-SPSite -Template ProductCatalog#0 to create a product catalog.

Search service application compatibility with MInRole

When provisioning a Search service application using Central Administration or Windows PowerShell, SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview will first provision Search on the local server. If the server role of the local server isn't intended to host the Search service, the Server role configuration isn't correct SharePoint health rule will detect a misconfiguration and attempt to unprovision Search on that server. This may cause a Search service outage.

To avoid this issue, provision the Search service application from a server assigned to one of the following server roles: Single-Server Farm, Search, or Custom. If you have already provisioned Search from a server assigned to a different server role, disable the Server role configuration isn't correct SharePoint health rule to prevent a Search service outage.

Legacy View Auditing cannot be enabled in Central Administration

In SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview the Configure Audit Settings page in Central Administration can't be used to enable legacy auditing for opening or downloading documents, viewing items in lists, or viewing item properties. We expect to address this issue in a future release. The new unified auditing feature is not controlled by this configuration page in Central Administration and is not affected.

Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 3

To install SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview on Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 3 you must follow the steps in the order shown in the following list:

1. Run the pre-requisite installer, prerequisiteinstaller.exe, and note the following:
   • the pre-requisite installer might restart and continue after it restarts
   • the pre-requisite installer completes but an error states that it was unable to configure the Internet Information Services (IIS) web server, ignore this error
2. Open Windows PowerShell in an elevated mode, Run as administrator, and run the following commands:
   Add-WindowsFeature NET-HTTP-Activation,NET-Non-HTTP-Activ,NET-WCF-Pipe-Activation45,NET-WCF-HTTP-Activation45,Web-Server,Web-WebServer,Web-Common-Http,Web-Static-Content,Web-Default-Doc,Web-Dir-Browsing,Web-Http-Errors,Web-App-Dev,Web-Asp-Net,Web-Asp-Net45,Web-Net-Ext,Web-Net-Ext45,Web-ISAPI-Ext,Web-ISAPI-Filter,Web-Health,Web-Http-Logging,Web-Log-Libraries,Web-Request-Monitor,Web-Http-Tracing,Web-Security,Web-Basic-Auth,Web-Windows-Auth,Web-Filtering,Web-Digest-Auth,Web-Performance,Web-Stat-Compression,Web-Dyn-Compression,Web-Mgmt-Tools,Web-Mgmt-Console,Web-Mgmt-Compat,Web-Metabase,WAS,WAS-Process-Model,WAS-NET-Environment,WAS-Config-APIs,Web-Lgcy-Scripting,Windows-Identity-Foundation,Xps-Viewer -verbose
   

3. Restart the server
4. Run the SharePoint setup.exe as normal

Excel Services is not available in SharePoint Server 2016

A standalone SharePoint 2016 farm is no longer able to support the following Excel Services features:

1. View Excel spreadsheets
2. EWA Webparts
3. SOAP API
4. REST API
5. JavaScript OM

You can enable this functionality by configuring SharePoint 2016 to use Office Web Apps Server for rendering Excel spreadsheets. For information about how to configure SharePoint to work with Office Web Apps Server, see Scripted Installation of SharePoint 2013 and Office Web Apps Server – From the Field (Part 4).

To enable Excel SOAP API and Excel Web Part rendering you also need to add the WopiLegacySoapSupport property to the SharePoint Farm properties using Windows PowerShell. For example:

$Farm = Get-SPFarm
$Farm.Properties.Add("WopiLegacySoapSupport", "http://wacserver.contoso.com/x/_vti_bin/ExcelServiceInternal.asmx");
$Farm.Update();

Excel Services Web Part

The Excel Services Web Part fails to insert. Use the following procedure to work around this issue.

Workaround to insert an Excel Services Web Part

1. Obtain the following files: ewr117.png and ewr.png.
2. Copy the ewr117.png and ewr.png files to the following location on your SharePoint Server 2016 Preview:
   C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\16\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS\1033\IMAGES
   

Excel workbooks that connect to OLAP/Tabular data sources may require additional setup on the SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS)

Excel workbooks connected to OLAP/Tabular data sources may not be interactive in Excel Online. Such workbooks can be opened and viewed in Excel Online but any interaction with the workbook (e.g., sort, filter, slice, and drill down) will cause an error. This behavior will be exhibited wherever EffectiveUserName authentication to SQL Server Analysis Services is used or in case Kerberos Constraint Delegations (KCD) is not set up on the Office Online Server Preview.

To fix this issue, SQL Server Management Studio should be upgraded to the latest version, found here Download SQL Server Management Studio. Note that the SSAS itself does not have to be upgraded. After SSMS is upgraded, a trust must be established between the SSAS server and the Office Online Server Preview that runs Excel Online. To do that, you need to list the Office Online Server Preview computer account as trusted in SSMS as follows:

• Open SSMS
• Choose Computers as the object type
• Add the Office Online Server Preview account as trusted.

To configure Office Online Server Preview to use the EffectiveUserName feature, use the following steps:

• Open the Office Online Server Preview that runs Excel Online, and use the following Windows PowerShell cmdlet parameter, Set-OfficeWebAppsFarm ExcelUseEffectiveUserName to configure whether to use EffectiveUserName setting or keep using KCD. This setting will be set to false by default. To configure this run the following syntax:
  Set-OfficeWebAppsFarm -ExcelUseEffectiveUserName:$True 
  Set-OfficeWebAppsFarm -ExcelUseEffectiveUserName:$False
  

  You can override this by adding the parameter to Settings_Service.ini as follows:
  ExcelUseEffectiveUserName=(System.Boolean)True 
  ExcelUseEffectiveUserName=(System.Boolean)False
  

Excel workbook that contain a Data Model require additional setup on Office Online Server Preview and SSAS

Excel workbooks containing a data model won't be interactive in Excel Online without using a workaround. Such workbooks can be opened and viewed in Excel Online but any interaction with the workbook (e.g., sort, filter, slice, and drill down) will cause an error.

To fix this issue, SQL Server Management Studio should be upgraded and configured on the SSAS servers that are dedicated to handling Data Models. For details, see the previous known issue section.

Additionally Office Online Server Preview that runs Excel Online must be configured to work with those dedicated SSAS Servers. Use the following Windows PowerShell cmdlets:

New-OfficeWebAppsExcelBIServer, Remove-OfficeWebAppsExcelBIServer, 
Get-OfficeWebAppsExcelBIServer

For information about setting up Office Online Server Preview, see Deploy Office Online Server Preview. For more information about configuring the server-to-server trust, seeConfigure server-to-server authentication between Office Online Server Preview and SharePoint Server 2016 Preview.

Upgrade to SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview

Upgrade overview

Important:
The SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview is provided for the sole purpose of evaluating new and updated features in SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview. This software is provided as-is for use in a test environment and is not supported by Microsoft Support. This preview release does not provide a migration/upgrade path to the final release of SharePoint Server 2016.

SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview supports an upgrade from SharePoint 2013 with March 2013 PU, version 15.0.4481.1005 or higher.

Note:
All database must be upgraded to version 15.0.4481.1005 or higher, otherwise upgrade to SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview will be blocked .

When you upgrade from SharePoint 2013 to SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview, you must use a database attach upgrade, which means that you upgrade only the content for your environment and not the configuration settings.

After you've configured a new SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview environment, you can copy the content and service application databases from the SharePoint 2013 environment to the SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview environment. You use a backup and restore process to copy the database. You can also choose to set the databases to read-only in the SharePoint 2013 environment so that users can continue to access their information, but not change it.

Note:

SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview does not support SharePoint 2010 mode (that is, compatibility level 14) site collections. Any site collection that is in this mode will block the attachment of that content database to the SharePoint Server 2016 farm. You must convert all SharePoint 2010 mode sites to SharePoint 2013 mode (that is, compatibility level 15) before you upgrade. For additional information about site creation modes, see the Control the compatibility range for site creation modes ofManage site collection upgrades to SharePoint 2013.

You can run the Windows PowerShell Test-SPContentDatabase cmdlet on a SharePoint 2013 content database that isn’t attached to the SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview farm to determine what site collections are running in SharePoint 2010 mode. From a Windows PowerShell command prompt, you can run the following Windows PowerShell syntax on the SharePoint 2013 farm to determine the URL of the sites in the SharePoint 2013 farm:

Get-SPSite -Limit All | ? { $_.CompatibilityLevel -eq 14 }

If you want to find sites in the SharePoint 2013 farm that are in SharePoint 2010 mode but on a per-content database basis, run the following Windows PowerShell syntax on the SharePoint 2013 farm:

Get-SPSite -ContentDatabase  -Limit All | ? { $_.CompatibilityLevel -eq 14 }

When you upgrade to SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview, you perform what’s called a database-attach upgrade. You back up the databases from the SharePoint 2013 environment, and then restore and upgrade the databases to SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview. SharePoint has several database types. Only some of the databases can be upgraded.

Before you attach and upgrade the content databases, review the following information and take any recommended actions.

• Make sure that the account that you use to attach the databases is a member of the db_owner fixed database role for the content databases that you want to upgrade.
• Make sure that the account that you use to create web applications is a member of the Farm administrators group in the SharePoint Central Administration website.