Joe Rodgers : Services Packs

WSS and MOSS Language Pack Slipstreaming

rodgerjt — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:37:41 GMT

In case you didn’t know, you can slipstream server pack 1 (or the latest SP) of a language pack into the RTM service pack installation point, creating a single install point for each language pack include includes SP1. You may think, big deal, I’m saving one installation. That’s true, but if you have a a medium or large farm, it cuts the number of items you need to install by half, which can add up over time, especially if you have a dev and QA/staging environment you keep in sync. Unfortunately, you can only do this per language, so you still need to do one install per language, but every little bit helps.

For WSS Language Packs (example here is for the Spanish language pack):

Download the WSS Language Pack RTM and SP1 packages for the languages you are installing to C:/WSS_LPs/Spanish.
Extract the RTM package to a folder using the following command:

C:\WSS_LPs\Spanish>SharePointLanguagePack.exe /extract:C:\WSS_LPs\Spanish\
Extract the SP1 package to the UPDATES folder inside your language folder, using the following command:
C:\WSS_LPs\Spanish>wssv3lpsp1-kb936988-x86-fullfile-es-es.exe /extract:C:\WSS_LPs\Spanish\Updates
Install the language pack with SP1 by executing C:\WSS_LPs\Spanish\setup.exe

For MOSS Language Packs (example is for the Spanish language pack):

Download the MOSS Language Pack RTM and SP1 packages for the languages you are installing to C:\MOSS_LPs/Spanish.
Mount the ServerLanguagePack.img file using a virtual CD drive application
Copy all the contents from the mounted volume to C:\MOSS_LPs\Spanish\
Extract the SP1 package to the UPDATES folder inside of your language folder, using the following command:

C:\MOSSLanguagePacks\Spanish>officeserverlp2007sp1-kb936984-x64-fullfile-es-es.exe /extract:C:\MOSS_LPs\Spanish\Updates
Install the language pack with SP1 by executing C:\MOSS_LPs\Spanish\setup.exe

Lastest WSS and MOSS Patches - 9/2008

rodgerjt — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 23:13:00 GMT

For those of you that are building a new WSS and/or MOSS farm, I've assembled a list of the patches you will need to build a "lastest and greatest" farm. The list below is published for an RTM farm, but if you have a farm in production already, you only need to install the patches dated after your current patch level. For example, if you have the IU installed, you only need to install 957109 and 956057 for WSS and 955586, 956056 and 953397 for MOSS.

To hopefully clear up some confusion, for localized WSS and MOSS patches, you need to install a localized patch for every lanague you have installed. At a minimum, this is one patch, which is for the base lanaguge of MOSS you have installed. For example, if you have an English SKU of WSS and MOSS, you need to install the English WSS and MOSS localized patches. If you have a German SKU of MOSS installed, you need to install the German WSS and MOSS localized patches. You will also need to install a localization patch for each language pack you have installed. So if you have an English SKU of WSS and MOSS and have the German and Spanish language packs installed, you need to install a English, German and Spanish localization update.

Lastest bits required for WSS 2007

1. WSS SP1

2. WSS Localized – 957109 – August 26^th Package

3. WSS Global – 956057 – August 26^th Package

Lastest bits required for MOSS 2007 (in addition to the WSS bits above)

1. MOSS SP1

2. MOSS Global – 951297 – July 15^th Package (a.k.a. IU package)

3. MOSS Local (Document Life Cycle) – 955586 – July 23^rdPackage

4. MOSS Global – 956056 – August 26^th Package

5. MOSS Global – 953397 – MS08-043: August 12^th Package

I can’t stress enough the need to review the software update procedures. Checking and removing orphaned content is a vital prerequisite for update installation, orphaned content will cause some packages to fail. One additional orphan check that is not detachable by STSADM -o databaserepair , that I also highly recommend running, is outlined here.

Deploy software updates for Office SharePoint Server 2007

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263467.aspx

Deploy software updates for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc288269.aspx

Windows SharePoint Services & Microsoft Office SharePoint Server hotfixes for March 27, 2008

rodgerjt — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 20:55:00 GMT

The latest post SP1 global WSS and MOSS patches are:

Description of the SharePoint Server 2007 hotfix package: March 27, 2008

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=950487

Description of the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 hotfix package: March 27, 2008

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=950484

The lastest post SP1 localized WSS (no localized MOSS patches after SP1 yet) patch is:

Description of the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 hotfix package: February 22, 2008

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=948957

You need all three of these patches installed to be running the most current WSS and MOSS updates.

Your build number will be 12.0.0.6308 after this installation.

The database on \Microsoft##SSEE is not accessible to missing Windows Internal Database signatures

rodgerjt — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 04:46:00 GMT

One of the more frequent issues we are seeing with the installation of our most recent WSS v3 hotfix, KB934525, is the error message "The database <databasename> on server\Microsoft##SSEE is not accessible to missing Windows Internal Database signatures" being logged in the server event log.

(SSEE = SQL Server Embedded Edition, which is what you get when you install WSS 3.0 without using a seperate SQL instance. SSEE is also know as WYUKON, WSSEE, WID or Windows Internal Database).

Event Type: Error Event Source: Windows SharePoint Services 3 Event Category: Topology Event ID: 6800 Date: 10/17/2007 Time: 8:09:40 PM User: N/A Computer: HOME Description: The database WSS_Content on <SERVER_NAME>\Microsoft##SSEE is not accessible to missing Windows Internal Database signatures.

To verify if you are experiencing this problem, look for something like the following from Services in Server page in Central Administration. Note how Windows SharePoint Services Web Application is showing Starting but no stop option.

If you experiencing this issue, you should also have entries like the following in the upgrade.log log file:


[SPServerSequence] [DEBUG] [10/22/2007 7:44:21 AM]: Web service Instance SPWebServiceInstance Parent=SPServer Name=<URL> not added. Status = Provisioning

A solution is available to administrators experiencing the issue.

Run the following STSADM operations to stop and start the SPWebService:

stsadm -o provisionservice -action stop -servicetype spwebservice -servicename ""
stsadm -o provisionservice -action start -servicetype spwebservice -servicename ""

Instantiate the upgrade by executing psconfig.exe or psconfigui.exe

The cause of this issue appears to be because the SPWebService instance failed to finish provisioning. The status of that service is marked as provisioning. However, it has done enough provisioning work so that the user sites are working and/or during upgrade, the upgrade code skipped any web service instances that are not online, upgrading the administration sites; however, skipping the user sites.

SharePoint Hotfix and SP Deployment

rodgerjt — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 15:39:00 GMT

I seen a few instances of companies attempting to use HFNetChkPro to deploy WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 hotfixes to their farm environments. Hotfixes and service packs for WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 do not install like "normal" patches we see for the O/S. SharePoint requires unique patch deployment steps, which makes the use of HFNetChkPro or other automated patch deployment tools a bit complicated. The steps below are from the TechNet article Deploy software updates for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.

The following approach updates the database from the first front-end Web server, so that when you run the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard (psconfig.exe) on the subsequent front-end Web servers, they can simply connect to the updated database, rather than attempting to upgrade the database.

You must update the Web servers in your server farm in the following order:

The files from the software update must be installed on all the Web servers in the server farm by running the software update installation on each Web server up to the point where the following dialog box displayed:

You must run setup to install new binary files for every server in your server farm. If you have multiple servers in your server farm, run setup and the configuration wizard on the other servers now, and then return to this server and click OK to continue.

Complete the software update by clicking OK in the dialog box on one Web server that hosts the Central Administration Web site (front-end Web server) for the server farm.
Complete the software update, one Web server at a time, for the rest of the server farm.

SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Service Pack 3 & Windows SharePoint Services Service Pack 3 available for download

rodgerjt — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 21:57:00 GMT

Description of SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Service Pack 3

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=923644

Issues that are fixed in SharePoint Portal Server 2003 by SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Service Pack 3

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=938795

SharePoint SP3 Download Site

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=AB086D48-1148-48DE-B4EC-A6298367E5F0&displaylang=en

Description of Windows SharePoint Services Service Pack 3

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=923643

Issues that are fixed in Windows SharePoint Services by Windows SharePoint Services Service Pack 3

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=938793

Windows SharePoint Services SP3 Download Site

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=2BBFC89B-EB59-49FF-B58F-684693CB25A7&displaylang=en