i:0#.w|Ali.Mazaheri

Upgrading MOSS 2007 SSP User Profiles and MySite content to SharePoint Server 2010 using DB-Attach method

Note: This post is based on Beta 2 and is subject to change in future releases.

I highly recommend to review the Services upgrade model on SP 2010 TechNet site before trying the following steps to upgrade a MOSS 2007 SSP database and My Site content to SharePoint Server 2010.

Upgrading SSP

1. Under Services on Server in Central Admin, make sure both the User Profile Service and the Managed Metadata service are running.

2. Use the “New-SPProfileServiceApplication” cmdlet to create the new user profile service, make sure to use the MOSS 2007 SSP database name you want to upgrade for “ProfileDbName” parameter.

3. At this point SSP database should be upgraded along with two new databases for “Sync” and “Social”.

4. Check the “Upgrade Status” Page and confirm that SSP database upgrade finished successfully.

5. Create a Service Proxy using “New-SPProfileServiceApplicationProxy” cmdlet and pass the ID for the new Profile Service Application provisioned in step 2.

6. Confirm that all user profiles and other settings are imported.

7. From “Manage service application” page, select the upgraded User Profile service application and click “Administrators” icon on the ribbon.

8. Give Search default crawler account “Retrieve People Data for Search Crawlers” permission.

Upgrading My Site host and Personal site collections

1. Run “Test-SPContentDataBase” cmdlet against the 2007 My Site Host content database and resolve the issues as needed.

2. After resolving the issues and installing missing DLLs and Features, run the command again to verify there are no further issues with the content database.
 

3. Make sure to remove the default content database when you provisioned the web application for My Site host. 
4. Run the following stsadm command:
stsadm -o addcontentdb -url http://<yourwebappsURL> -databasename <2007 MySite content database> [-databaseserver <the database server from above>]

5. Make sure Upgrade completed successfully by checking the “Upgrade Status” page.

6. After upgrading the content database, go to Manage Service Applications in Central Administration site and click on the upgraded User Profile Service you want to associate with the My Sites and click on “Setup My Sites” link.

7. Enter “My Site Host” URL and “Personal Site Location”, click on “OK” to save the setting and run the IISRESET.

Make sure that all existing content such as documents are accessible in the upgraded Personal site.

Upgrade and Migration Resource Center for SharePoint Server 2010 (Beta)

If you are planning for upgrading your MOSS 2007/WSS 3.0 to upcoming Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010/Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 I definitely encourage you to look at the “Upgrade and Migration Resource Center for SharePoint Server 2010 (Beta)” site.

Configuring FBA in SharePoint Server 2010

In SharePoint server 2010 deployments in order to allow access to the sites using Form Based Authentication (FBA) the web application hosting the site collection(s) should be provisioned in Claims Mode as opposed the classic Windows auth mode, in this post I provide step by step guide on how to configure the FBA against SQL server and AD using UI (Same can be done via SP 2010 PowerShell cmdlets):

Note: This post is based on Beta 2 and is subject to change in future releases.

Steps

Provisioning a Claims based web application using UI

1. From CA, go to 'Application Management'

2. Click on 'Manage Web Applications' link

3. From the Ribbon Select New

4. make sure to select the 'Claims Based Authentication'
 

5. In the Authentication Type section select Enable Windows Authentication and select NTLM or Kerberos

6. Click on “OK” button to create the web application

7. If required extend the web application and configure the desired authentication (In 2010 you can select more than one Authentication provider per zone)

8. In the Authentication Type section select Enable ASP.NET Membership and Role Provider and enter in the Membership provider and Role manager

9. Modify all Web.config files (Central Admin, Security Token Service, Forms Web Applications)

Modifying Web.Config files for the Central Administration, FBA web applications and Secure Token Service

1. Modify all Web.config files (Central Admin, Security Token Service, Forms Web App) and add the following sections:

“connectionStrings” setting (SQL FBA)

<configuration>

<configSections>…

</configSections>

<connectionStrings>

<clear />

<!-- FBA Claims Auth-->

<add name="AspNetSqlMembershipProvider" connectionString="data source=[Server Name];Integrated Security=SSPI;Initial Catalog=aspnetdb"

providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />

<!-- FBA Claims Auth-->

</connectionStrings>

…

</configuration>

People Picker Wildcards setting for Central Admin and Extended web application (SQL and LDAP FBA)

<configuration>

…

<PeoplePickerWildcards>

<clear />

<add key="AspNetSqlMembershipProvider" value="%" />

<add key="LdapMembershipProvider" value="*"/>

<add key="LdapRoleManager" value="*"/>

</PeoplePickerWildcards>

…

</configuration>

“roleManager” and “membership” sections for Central Administration web.config (SQL and LDAP FBA)

<configuration>

…

<roleManager enabled="true" cacheRolesInCookie="false" cookieName=".ASPXROLES"

cookieTimeout="30" cookiePath="/" cookieRequireSSL="false" cookieSlidingExpiration="true"

cookieProtection="All" defaultProvider="AspNetWindowsTokenRoleProvider"

createPersistentCookie="false" maxCachedResults="25">

<providers>

<clear />

<add connectionStringName="AspNetSqlMemberShipProvider" applicationName="/"

name="AspNetSqlRoleProvider" type="System.Web.Security.SqlRoleProvider, System.Web, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" />

<add applicationName="/" name="AspNetWindowsTokenRoleProvider"

type="System.Web.Security.WindowsTokenRoleProvider, System.Web, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" />

</providers>

</roleManager>

<membership defaultProvider="AspNetSqlMembershipProvider" userIsOnlineTimeWindow="15"

hashAlgorithmType="">

<providers>

<clear />

<add connectionStringName="AspNetSqlMemberShipProvider" enablePasswordRetrieval="false"

enablePasswordReset="true" requiresQuestionAndAnswer="true"

passwordAttemptWindow="10" applicationName="/" requiresUniqueEmail="false"

passwordFormat="Hashed" name="AspNetSqlMembershipProvider" type="System.Web.Security.SqlMembershipProvider, System.Web, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" />

</providers>

</membership>

</system.web>

…

</configuration>

“roleManager” and “membership” sections for Extended web application web.config (SQL FBA)

<configuration>

…

<roleManager enabled="true" cacheRolesInCookie="false" cookieName=".ASPXROLES"

cookieTimeout="30" cookiePath="/" cookieRequireSSL="false" cookieSlidingExpiration="true"

cookieProtection="All" defaultProvider="AspNetWindowsTokenRoleProvider"

createPersistentCookie="false" maxCachedResults="25">

<providers>

<clear />

<add connectionStringName="AspNetSqlMemberShipProvider" applicationName="/"

name="AspNetSqlRoleProvider" type="System.Web.Security.SqlRoleProvider, System.Web, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" />

<add applicationName="/" name="AspNetWindowsTokenRoleProvider"

type="System.Web.Security.WindowsTokenRoleProvider, System.Web, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" />

</providers>

</roleManager>

<membership defaultProvider="AspNetSqlMembershipProvider" userIsOnlineTimeWindow="15"

hashAlgorithmType="">

<providers>

<clear />

<add connectionStringName="AspNetSqlMemberShipProvider" enablePasswordRetrieval="false"

enablePasswordReset="true" requiresQuestionAndAnswer="true"

passwordAttemptWindow="10" applicationName="/" requiresUniqueEmail="false"

passwordFormat="Hashed" name="AspNetSqlMembershipProvider" type="System.Web.Security.SqlMembershipProvider, System.Web, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" />

</providers>

</membership>

</system.web>

…

</configuration>

“roleManager” and “membership” sections for Extended web application web.config (LDAP FBA)

<configuration>

…

<roleManager defaultProvider="c" enabled="true" cacheRolesInCookie="false">

<providers>

<add name="c" type="Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.Claims.SPClaimsAuthRoleProvider, Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" />

<add name="LdapRoleManager" type="Microsoft.Office.Server.Security.LdapRoleProvider, Microsoft.Office.Server, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" server="servername.contosocorp.com" port="389" useSSL="false" groupContainer="DC=Contosocorp,DC=com" groupNameAttribute="cn" groupNameAlternateSearchAttribute="samAccountName" groupMemberAttribute="member" userNameAttribute="sAMAccountName" dnAttribute="distinguishedName" groupFilter="(&amp;(ObjectClass=group))" userFilter="(&amp;(ObjectClass=person))" scope="Subtree" />

</providers>

</roleManager>

<membership defaultProvider="i">

<providers>

<add name="i" type="Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.Claims.SPClaimsAuthMembershipProvider, Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" />

<add name="LdapMembershipProvider" type="Microsoft.Office.Server.Security.LdapMembershipProvider, Microsoft.Office.Server, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" server="servername.contosocorp.com" port="389" useSSL="false" userDNAttribute="distinguishedName" userNameAttribute="sAMAccountName" userContainer="DC=Contosocorp,DC=com" userObjectClass="person" userFilter="(&amp;(ObjectClass=person))" scope="Subtree" otherRequiredUserAttributes="sn,givenname,cn" />

</providers>

</membership>
…

</configuration>

“roleManager” and “membership” sections for Security Token Service web.config (SQL and LDAP FBA)

Note: Security Token Service web.config can be found under "[14hive]\WebServices\SecurityToken" folder

<configuration>

…

<membership defaultProvider="i">

<providers>

<clear />

<add name="i" type="Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.Claims.SPClaimsAuthMembershipProvider, Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" />

<add connectionStringName="AspNetSqlMemberShipProvider" enablePasswordRetrieval="false" enablePasswordReset="true" requiresQuestionAndAnswer="true" passwordAttemptWindow="10" applicationName="/" requiresUniqueEmail="false" passwordFormat="Hashed" name="AspNetSqlMembershipProvider" type="System.Web.Security.SqlMembershipProvider, System.Web, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" />

<add name="LdapMembershipProvider" type="Microsoft.Office.Server.Security.LdapMembershipProvider, Microsoft.Office.Server, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" server="servername.contosocorp.com" port="389" useSSL="false" userDNAttribute="distinguishedName" userNameAttribute="sAMAccountName" userContainer="DC=Contosocorp,DC=com" userObjectClass="person" userFilter="(&amp;(ObjectClass=person))" scope="Subtree" otherRequiredUserAttributes="sn,givenname,cn"/>

</providers>

</membership>

<roleManager enabled="true" defaultProvider="c">

<providers>

<clear />

<add name="c" type="Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.Claims.SPClaimsAuthRoleProvider, Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" />

<add connectionStringName="AspNetSqlMemberShipProvider" applicationName="/" name="AspNetSqlRoleProvider" type="System.Web.Security.SqlRoleProvider, System.Web, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" />

<add name="LdapRoleManager" type="Microsoft.Office.Server.Security.LdapRoleProvider, Microsoft.Office.Server, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" server="servername.contosocorp.com" port="389" useSSL="false" groupContainer="DC=Contosocorp,DC=com" groupNameAttribute="cn" groupNameAlternateSearchAttribute="samAccountName" groupMemberAttribute="member" userNameAttribute="sAMAccountName" dnAttribute="distinguishedName" groupFilter="(&amp;(ObjectClass=group))" userFilter="(&amp;(ObjectClass=person))" scope="Subtree"/>

</providers>

</roleManager>

</system.web>
…

</configuration>

Post-setup configuration

1. Browse to Central Admin web site.

2. Under ‘Application Management’, click on ‘Policy for Web Application’ link and add the first admin user.

3. Select the Zone (e.g. Extranet)

4. Add the selected user

5. Make sure to give required permission policy

Accessing the site

1. Browse to Extranet site, if both Windows and FBA authenticated is selected for the zone user should be redirected to a landing login page to select the type of authentication

2. Select Forms Authentication and provide the credentials

3. Make sure users have access to all content and add additional FBA users with required permission level as needed

SharePoint Server 2010 (Beta) on TechNet

The following SharePoint 2010 resources are now available on TechNet:

SharePoint Foundation 2010

SharePoint Server 2010 Beta resources

Also make sure to watch the Overview video by Arpan going through major SharePoint Server 2010 investment areas for IT Pros.

SharePoint Conference 2009 in Vegas

Just a quick note that I will attend and participate at couple of Ask The Expert events for MCM and Microsoft Services during SPC 2009 and will be more than glad to meet the folks attending:

Tuesday October 20th : 11:45 - 1:15 pm @ MCM Kiosk
Tuesday October 20th: 5:30 - 6:30 pm @ Microsoft Services Ask The Expert event
Wednesday October 21st: 11:45 - 1:15 @ MCM Kiosk
Wednesday October 21st: 5:45 - 7:00 pm @ MCM Ask The Expert event

See you all in Vegas!

SharePoint Conference 2009 (Las Vegas)

Cross posting from SharePoint Team blog:

Have you watched the SharePoint 2010 Sneak Peek videos and are hungry for more?!

The SharePoint Conference 2009 will be the first time Microsoft will publically share all of what SharePoint 2010 has to offer.  We know you want to know what you can expect to see and hear about during the conference – so here’s your SharePoint Conference 2009 session sneak peek!

We have almost 250 sessions planned, and over 80% of them will be brand new 2010 content. That’s 15,000 minutes of SharePoint, SharePoint and more SharePoint that you’re simply not going to get anywhere else!

You’ll get to listen, talk and network with Microsoft Product experts, SharePoint MVPs, Customers, top Industry Analysts and over 140 SharePoint Partners.  There won’t be anywhere else on the planet with this concentration of SharePoint knowledge and experience in one place and at one time.

Here’s a little session sneak peek to give you taste of what’s coming…

• SharePoint 2010 Overview and What’s New
• Upgrading to SharePoint 2010
• SharePoint 2010 Capacity and Performance Planning
• SharePoint 2010 Security and Identity Management: What’s New.
• Visual Studio 2010 Tools for Office Development
• SharePoint 2010 Ribbon, ECMAScript and Dialog Framework Development
• Developing with REST and LINQ in SharePoint 2010
• Upgrading SharePoint Server 2007 Code to SharePoint 2010
• Building SharePoint Composite Applications with the Microsoft Application Platform
• What’s New in Business Connectivity Services (The Business Data Catalog Evolves!)
• FAST Search for SharePoint – Capabilities Deep-Dive
• Advanced Dashboard Creation with PerformancePoint Services for SharePoint 2010
• Overview of Visio 2010 and Visio Services for SharePoint 2010
• SharePoint 2010 Web Content Management Deep-Dive
• If You Build It, They Will Come: Driving End User Adoption

To help you get maximum value from the conference, we will be recording every session and publishing the files within 48 hours for registered attendees to watch, on demand, through the SharePoint Conference 2009 web site. Almost 250 sessions and you won’t miss a thing!

For more information visit www.mssharepointconference.com and we look forward to seeing you in Las Vegas in October!

I will also attend the conference and would love to see you all in Vegas.

SharePoint 2010 sneak peek site is live!

SharePoint 2010 sneak peek site is live and can be accessed here. Currently there are three videos, first one which goes over a general overview of new and enhanced features of SharePoint 2010 by Tom Rizzo, an IT pro by Richard Riley and a Development focused by good colleague of mine Paul Andrew! There is also a FAQ section with some good information on how to and when to get the SharePoint 2010 beta bits.

Enjoy.

 

Service Pack 2 Update

The public update for the Service Pack 2 expiration date issue is now available for download. 

The update can be applied before or after Service Pack 2 installation.  If the update is applied prior to installing Service Pack 2 it will prevent the expiration date from being improperly activated during installation of Service Pack 2, if it is applied after Service Pack 2 it will remove the expiration date incorrectly set during installation of Service Pack 2.

More info here. 

 

Important Information on MOSS 2007 Service Pack 2

If you are planning to install MOSS 2007 SP2 or already installed it please read the following important announcement which just posted by SharePoint Team Blog:

Attention: Important Information on Service Pack 2 

 

 

 

IIS 7.0 and RequestLimitsElement

As we all know in ASP.NET we can configure the maximum length of the request using httpRuntime's  "maxRequestLength" attribute (By default this is set to 4KB and SharePoint uses 50MB as a default value). While this setting works with IIS 6.0, in IIS 7.0 a new attribute "RequestLimitsElement" needs to be configured as well to allow uploading files larger than 30 MB through HTTP.

More information can be found here and KB944981.

 

 

WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 SP2

Just a quick note that the SP2 for WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 will be available on April 28th 2009! More information can be found here.

Microsoft Certified Master program for SharePoint 2007

I just wrapped up an intensive Three week MCM training up in Redmond and wanted to share couple of posts on the program from colleagues who attended the R2 (Beta) for folks who are interested:

• Master Training: Are You Ready?
• My Microsoft Certified Master experience 
• Certified Master for SharePoint 2007 R2

As soon as I get a chance I will share my experience as well, also Arpan Shah had a great post on MCM which can be found here.

Update:

I just found out today that I am officially a MCM for SharePoint 2007!

 

Developing a custom MySite host site definition using VSeWSS 1.3

In MOSS 2007 as part of the SSP provisioning process “SPSMSITEHOST” site definition is being used to provision the MySite host (Root site) which provides access to user profile information through “person.aspx” and “SPSMSITE” site definition used to provision a personal site collection for each individual user.

One thing to consider is while each user owns a seperate site collection as personal site, MySite host is shared among all users and changes to “Person.aspx” will affect all users. Feature Stapling is my method of choice for customizing or extending the OOB “SPSMSITE” features as explained in this great post by Steve Peschka. As for customizing the MySite host, in most cases changes should be applied directly to “Person.aspx” file or the related "ONET.XML”. As best practice it is always recommended not to modify the OOB site definitions and although SharePoint Designer can be used to apply changes to “Person.aspx”(which leaves the page as un-ghosted) in scenarios where changes should be deployed from one environment to another (e.g. from Development to QA and eventually Staging and Production) leveraging a custom site definition wrapped in a solution package is a better approach.

Following explains the steps to create and deploy a custom MySite host site definition based on the OOB “SPSMSITEHOST” site definition using Visual Studio 2008 extensions for Windows SharePoint Services v 1.3 and STSADM command:

1. Create a new project using “Blank Site Definition” template 
   
2. In VS 2008 copy over “ONET.XML”, “Person.aspx”, “Default.aspx”, “Discussion.aspx” and “Blog.xsl” files from “12\Templates\SiteTemplates\SPSMSITEHOST” folder under “CustomMSITEHost"\Site Definition”
   
    
3. Make sure to add the required namespaces to the <Project> element in the new “ONET.XML” file and change other sections if required
   

   ONET.XML

   <?xml version="1.0"?>

   <Project  Revision="2" xmlns:ows="Microsoft SharePoint" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/" SiteLogoUrl="/_layouts/images/mysite_titlegraphic.gif">

   …

   </Project>

4. Change the “ID” value from 1 to 0 in “WebtempCustomMSITEHOST.XML” so it references the default configuration in “ONET.XML”
   

   webtempCustomMSITEHOST.XML

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

   <Templates>

     <Template Name="CustomMSITEHOST" ID="10001">

       <Configuration ID="0" Title="CustomMSITEHOST" Description="" Hidden="FALSE" ImageUrl="/_layouts/images/stsprev.png" DisplayCategory="Development" />

     </Template>

   </Templates>

5. Modify the “Person.aspx” file (In this example a border attribute is added to the html table for “Business Card” section)
   

   Person.aspx

   <!-- business card -->

   …

   <table cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 width="100%" style='table-layout:fixed;word-wrap:break-word;' border=”1”>

   <tr>

   <td class="ms-vb ms-announcementtitle ms-profilevaluelarge" id="ProfileViewer_ValueTitleDept">

    <SPSWC:ProfilePropertyValue PropertyName="Title" class="ms-profilevalue" runat="server" /><SPSWC:ProfilePropertyCheckValue PropertyNames="Title,Department" runat="server" Text=", "/><SPSWC:ProfilePropertyValue PropertyName="Department" class="ms-profilevalue" runat="server" />

   </td>

   </tr>

   <tr>

   <td class="ms-vb ms-announcementtitle" id="ProfileViewer_ValueOfficePhone">

   <span class="ms-profilevaluesmall"><SPSWC:ProfilePropertyValue PropertyName="Office" class="ms-profilevalue" runat="server" /><SPSWC:ProfilePropertyCheckValue PropertyNames="Office,WorkPhone" runat="server" Text=" &nbsp; "/><SPSWC:ProfilePropertyValue PropertyName="WorkPhone" dir="ltr" class="ms-profilevalue" runat="server" /></span>

   </td>

   </tr>

   <tr>

   <td valign=top class="ms-descriptiontext" id="ProfileViewer_ValueAboutMe">

6. Switch to WSP view and make sure that all the elements and files included in solution package
   
   
   
7. From “Solution Explorer” tab, build and deploy the package
     
8. Confirm that the solution package has been deployed successfully, at this point "My Profile" information should be displayed via OOB “Person.aspx”
   
9. Delete the root MySite host site collection and provision a new site collection based on the custom template (i.e. CustomMSITEHost)
   
10. Refresh the profile page and notice the change
    

Troubleshooting team site's default page errors caused by adding faulty web part

In cases when SharePoint cannot load the default page for a team site caused by adding a faulty web part, "Web Part Maintenance" page can help the site admin to remove the fault web part or reset the page to its default setting. While a link to this page is available on the "Edit Item" form for pages added to document library, adding "?contents=1" to the end of the URL for default page will cause a redirect to the "Web Part Maintenance" page for default.aspx.

 

More info can be found at : Customize Web Parts

 

Unable to refresh the external connection via browser when Excel Services running in Trusted Subsystem mode

On standalone configuration where ECS (Excel Calculation Services) and Microsoft SQL server reside on same machine, external resources such as tables and cubes should be accessible via Office Data connections (ODC) in Trusted Subsystem mode (Default settings) using SSO authentication (In farm scenarios where ECS resides on a dedicated machine Constraint Kerberos delegation is required for Integrated windows Auth and ECS access mode should be modified from Trusted Subsystem to Delegation via STSADM -o set-ecssecurity command).

In cases that separate accounts are being used for SSP and SSO service/admin/configuration, you will get the following error while trying to refresh a connection:

In order to resolve this issue, I usually create an AD group (e.g. SSOAdmin) and add the SSP and SSO admin accounts as members and set the group as SSO and Application definition administrators in SSO configuration page as follows:

More detail on this issue can be found on Ten Tips for Using SharePoint Server 2007 with Excel Services.