Archive for SharePoint

Exchange 2010: No In-Place Upgrade

By | Published June 2, 2010

Really disappointed to have just found out that an in-place upgrade is not available when migrating from Exchange 2007 to 2010.

Totally understand why this is the case though. Database schema changes and the lack of storage groups in 2010 being the root cause. Not great news for the smaller places which probably haven’t got the finances to purchase a new server for a bare metal installation, or enough hardware to perform some sort of swing installation.

At least on a plus point, SharePoint 2010 does support an in-place upgrade from SharePoint Server 2007 SP2. At least one of the upgrades will be simple this year. Looking forward to trying out the new features. Shortly going to be getting our development system up and running ready to formulate our deployment plans.

Anyway, enough of my drivel. Back to coming up with a plan for our Exchange 2010 upgrade.

1 person found this post useful.
Unmark this post as useful.
Posted in Exchange, SharePoint | Tagged , | Leave a comment

SharedServices1 (Unprovisioning) – Delete the SSP failed.

By | Published April 22, 2010

Just had to do a restore of our Sharepoint server. Someone had deleted a load of resources from our room bookings site, but also deleted from the Recycle Bin.

We use Symantec Backup Exec 12 with the Sharepoint agents installed. Took a backup of the current state of the server (after all, it does work, just missing some information). The restore failed. Various errors all surrounding the restore of the SSP.

When checking the Sharepoint Central Administration, the SharedServices1 had a status of Unprovisioning. From our testing before Sharepoint went into production, I knew that I could force the deletion of the SSP and then restore from backup again (and from experience this is generally more successful than restoring over the existing SSP).

First attempt is to run the following command line:

stsadm -o deletessp -title SharedServices1 -force

This failed though, and referenced the log files for further details. In the log files, the following line was logged.

Could not clean up shared service database. Details: Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPUpdatedConcurrencyException: An update conflict has occurred, and you must re-try this action. The object SharedResourceProvider Name=SharedServices1 Parent=SPFarm Name=SharePoint_Config is being updated by DOMAIN\backupuseraccount, in the STSADM process, on machine SERVERNAME.  View the tracing log for more information about the conflict.

A stack trace is then shown afterwards (information overload if I put the whole lot in here). Again, seen this error before when dealing with Alternate Access Mappings. This was fixed using the Microsoft KB below.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/939308

Although the symptoms do not describe anything to do with SSP, following this solution fixed it for me. I was then able to run the stsadm command above, and my SSP was deleted.

Re-ran the restore from Symantec Backup Exec, but this time only selected the SSP components. This time the restore completed. SSP restored, MySites working and a fully functioning search.

1 person found this post useful.
Unmark this post as useful.
Posted in SharePoint | Tagged , | Leave a comment

SharePoint_Config_Log file size is 78GB

By | Published April 15, 2010

Been doing a routine check of my servers, and noticed that our SharePoint server was lacking some free space. A little unusual, given our SharePoint installation is quite small. And although this server also acts as a Streaming Media server using Windows Media Services, I didn’t think that we had that much streaming media.

Turns out that the SharePoint_Config_Log file size was 78gb. This is around 80% of the drive that it is stored on. This meant that we had only 6gb remaining.

In this situation a full backup was not possible to truncate the logs. Symantec Backup Exec was still backing up the databases every night though. To cure this problem, a quick little fix:

  1. Open up Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio
  2. New Query
  3. Type in the following and press execute.
USE [master]
GO
ALTER DATABASE[SharePoint_Config] SET RECOVERY SIMPLE WITH NO_WAIT
GO
USE [SharePoint_Config] 
GO
DBCC SHRINKFILE ('SharePoint_Config_Log')
GO

Database size magically down from 78gb to 10mb.

Server is now happy, and running better.

5 people found this post useful.
Unmark this post as useful.
Posted in SharePoint | Tagged , | 10 Comments

Sharepoint Search 2007: Your License for Office Server Search has expired.

By | Published April 6, 2010

Just been fixing the problem mentioned above. Lets set the scene here: Walk in this morning, coffee, boot up. Open up IE, need to update a record on our asset log. Enter the asset ID into the search bar, press enter. Easy day ended. 9:10am.

‘Your license for Office Server Search has expired’

We have recently upgraded from SharePoint standard to SharePoint Enterprise (recently being the middle of last week). It seems that whenever a configuration change (i.e change of license, installation of a language pack) occurs on a SharePoint server, some of the permissions that SharePoint require are changed on the server. These settings are then reset to their correct values by running the ‘SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard’. When running the wizard, ensure you select the options that leave your topology in the same configuration as it is now. (Assuming that you don’t want to change anything.) Afterwards, you should be able to search. Took a couple of refreshes in the browser, but all working.

I did find that straight afterwards, search performance was not as I expected. About 15 minutes later, performance resumed. On our system it started a crawl as soon as the wizard completed (which completed around 10-15 mins later). Not sure if this is a feature that happens on all installations or not. Might be a warning if you have a larger topology, and a crawl might negatively affect your performance. It may mean that you run the wizard afterwards.

So, today’s early morning lesson is: Runthe Sharepoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard after any change to the SharePoint server.

Now, asset updated, and back to the coffee.

Be the first to like.
Unmark this post as useful.
Posted in Server 2008, SharePoint | Tagged | 3 Comments

Backup Exec 12: Remote SharePoint Agent – Access Denied

By | Published February 17, 2010

Just coming to the end of fixing a very frustrating problem with Backup Exec 12, and backing up our SharePoint 2007 farm. After over 8 hours on the phone and extra work done by email with Symantec engineers, I have a solution.

Here’s the basic information:

SharePoint Server:

  • Windows Server 2008 Standard x64
  • SharePoint Server 2007 Standard x64
  • Backup Exec Remote Agent for SharePoint

    • A second server runs the Backup Exec program, and a third dedicated database server hosts the Backup Exec database.

    The main problem is described well in the following Symantec document (which is what they keep referring me to) http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/300675.htm

    After going through a number of fixes, mainly checking that you have actually given permissions to all of the necessary areas (I can’t say exactly what you need at the minute, I still have some very sweeping permissions in place from testing) and creating the SPSWrapperV3.exe.config files, we still weren’t getting anywhere.

    After fixing another program (on Vista this time) which had issues relating to User Account Control, gave it a try.

    On Windows Server 2008, go into Control Panel -> User Accounts then select Turn User Account Control On or Off.

    After a restart backups start working!!

    Not sure who I am more frustrated at right now: Symantec for not making software that works with UAC, but is supposedly designed for Server 2008, or Microsoft for putting the feature in. Totally see why it exists, and most of the time I like it’s existence. Some of the time it is a total pain.

    1 person found this post useful.
    Unmark this post as useful.
    Posted in Server 2008, SharePoint | Tagged , , | 14 Comments

    SharePoint Workflows

    By | Published November 26, 2009

    Many people have probably already found this resource, but I thought that I would post it again as once more it has been the solution to my workflow woes.

    This great collection of resources gives you greater flexibility with all of the workflows included with SharePoint, and with no setup hassles.

    I’m not going to list everything it can do here, but just link to the other site. Have a look. It could save a lot of time and frustration.

    http://www.codeplex.com/SPDActivities

    Be the first to like.
    Unmark this post as useful.
    Posted in SharePoint | Tagged | Leave a comment

    SharePoint Search

    By | Published September 30, 2009

    Although we have had SharePoint running now for quite a while, since the server rebuild in August we have not had our search service working.

    We access our local site through http://intranet.domain.co.uk. Works great. The problem with this is that the web address is different to the machine name, and is mapped to the local loopback address. (Only an issue where the search service is running on a WFE.) The fix is a simple registry change:

    To specify the host names that are mapped to the loopback address and can connect to Web sites on your computer, follow these steps:

    1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
    2. In Registry Editor, locate and then click the following registry key:
      HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\MSV1_0
    3. Right-click MSV1_0, point to New, and then click Multi-String Value.
    4. Type BackConnectionHostNames, and then press ENTER.
    5. Right-click BackConnectionHostNames, and then click Modify.
    6. In the Value data box, type the host name or the host names for the sites that are on the local computer, and then click OK.
    7. Quit Registry Editor, and then restart the IISAdmin service.

    From Microsoft article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896861

    Step 1 complete, but still no search results. It all turns out that it some cases the Default Content Access account needs to be specified in the username@domainc.co.uk format rather than DOMAIN\username. Not sure why this is the case, just found the answer here: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepointsearch/thread/84f93fbe-f4a6-4683-b25b-b595b9006ad7

    Now we have a perfectly working search!

    Be the first to like.
    Unmark this post as useful.
    Posted in SharePoint | Tagged , | Leave a comment

    FBA Using AD

    By | Published September 22, 2009

    Just working on Forms Authentication for SharePoint. Causing a bit of a headache to say the least.

    The objective: Enable staff to access the Intranet from home on a specific URL, and sign in using their username and password with a graphical form, so that a disclaimer can be shown.

    After some hunting I came across a thorough post here:

    https://blogs.technet.com/nishants/archive/2009/05/22/how-to-configure-forms-based-authentication-active-directory-ldapmembership.aspx

    This nearly works. Just got issues getting the users added in to the Policy for Web Application pages for the Alternate Access Mapping zone.

    Will post if (and when) I get it to work!

    Be the first to like.
    Unmark this post as useful.
    Posted in SharePoint | Tagged , | Leave a comment

    SharePoint Room Reservations Date Format

    By | Published September 22, 2009

    I have been setting up the SharePoint Room Equipment and Reservations Template for use in the college as a bookings system for ICT Rooms, Minibuses, Halls and Meeting Rooms. Came across an annoyance where when selecting a time period in the day, the form would automatically fill in the date in American format (mm/dd/yyyy).

    All of the locale settings on the server and the client had been set to UK English.

    Turns out that the locale is hard coded in that page. To edit,

    1. Go to the Reservations Page, and select Site Actions –> Edit Page

    2. Modify the Gantt Chart web part.

    3. Select XSL Editor.

    4. Near the top you will find a line like this:

    <xsl:param name=”lcid”>1033</xsl:param>

    Replace it with

    <xsl:param name=”lcid”>5129</xsl:param>

    Save your changes and your form will now work in UK date format.

    Be the first to like.
    Unmark this post as useful.
    Posted in SharePoint | Tagged | Leave a comment

    SharePoint Learning Kit

    By | Published September 17, 2009

    Just been looking SCORM compliance and how we can use SCORM resources on our existing SharePoint sites. A quick google found the following MS resources on the SharePoint Learning Kit (SLK).

    First of all, the official MS link: http://www.microsoft.com/education/SLK.mspx#E3AAC

    And a great post by Alex Pearce, of Hillcrest School in Birmingham: http://blogs.technet.com/industry_insiders/pages/introduction-to-scorm-and-sharepoint-learning-kit-slk.aspx

    I’m really excited about having found this. What a great resource! Think I have just planned tomorrow’s work. Just wish I had a little less on.

    Oh, nearly forgot the best bit: It’s Open Source. Free. Hooray!

    1 person found this post useful.
    Unmark this post as useful.
    Posted in SharePoint | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

    • Tags

    • Categories

    •  

      May 2012
      M T W T F S S
      « Apr    
       123456
      78910111213
      14151617181920
      21222324252627
      28293031  

    • Meta

    • Top Liked Posts

      Powered by WP Likes

    Swedish Greys - a WordPress theme from Nordic Themepark.