Priyo's SharePoint Blog

Having a custom Admin Content Database in SharePoint 2007

One of the common business requirements is to have a custom name for the Admin Content (Central Administration) Database. There are two ways to achieve that. One is to choose the custom name while installation and the second way is to rename the databases after the initial configuration.

Choose Custom Admin Content DB Name During Initial Configuration

It is possible to have a custom Admin Content DB name while setting up SharePoint for the first time. Follow these steps to achieve a custom name for the Admin Content Database and SharePoint Configuration Database.

1. Install SharePoint 2007 and all associated updates (such as SP1, and the latest cumulative updates). Do not run SharePoint Configuration Wizard.

2. Open up Command Prompt in Admin Mode (Run as Administrator).

3. Go to BIN folder or add the path c:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\BIN to environment variables to access PSCONFIG.EXE from anywhere.

a. To Add a Path either use the Environment Variables menu or via REGEDIT in the following path HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment

4. Type the following command to create the Configuration and the AdminContent Database

Psconfig –cmd configdb –create –server <YourDatabaseServerName> –database <YouyCustomSharePoint_ConfigDBName> –user <domain\FarmAdminUserAccount> –password <FarmAdminPassword> –adminicontentdatabase <YourCustomAdminContentDBName>

In the screenshot below, ContosoSQL is our Database Server and contoso\MOSSAdmin is our SharePoint Farm Administrator Account.

Once the command finishes, you will get the Custom database names:

5. After this you have to provision the Central Administration Site, preferably with a port number that you can easily remember. Use the following command to achieve this:

psconfig.exe -cmd adminvs -provision -port 12345 -windowsauthprovider onlyusentlm

Onlyusentml is used to configure SharePoint in NTML (default). If you need SharePoint to be configured in Kerberos there are additional steps required. Refer to Configure Kerberos authentication (Office SharePoint Server) (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263449.aspx) article for more information.

6. The next step is to secure the registry entries. Run the following command:

psconfig.exe -cmd secureresources

The following steps are required if this is fresh install.

7. To install the Help Collection run the following command:

psconfig -cmd helpcollections –installall

8. Register services in the server farm:

psconfig -cmd services –install

The rest of the steps can be performed via the GUI or command line.

9. Start the Windows SharePoint help search.

10. Start the Office SharePoint Server Search.

11. Provision the services of the farm psconfig -cmd services –provision

12. Register all features - psconfig -cmd installfeatures

13. Configure shared service administration.

Renaming the Admin Content DB - post install

Often when you will visit the client you will see that SharePoint has already been deployed and that the default Admin Content DB name is Admin_Content_<GUID> .

To change the names to something more meaningful, follow the steps below.

Changing the Admin Content Database Name

Follow the steps below to rename the admin content database

1. Log in to SQL Server and take a full backup of the Admin Content Database.
2. Run the preparetomove switch to get the Web application ready:

stsadm.exe -o preparetomove
           {-ContentDB <DatabaseServer:DatabaseName> |
            -Site <URL>}
           [-OldContentDB <uniqueidentifier>]
           [-undo]

1. Through Central Admin make the database Offline and remove it.

• Log into SharePoint Central Administration and navigate to Application Management > Content Databases.
• Change to Admin Content Database (Choose Central Administration).

• Click the Database Name (Admin_Content_<GUID>) and change the database status to Offline and Click OK.

• Click the Database Name (Admin_Content_<GUID>) and choose Remove Content Database and Click OK.

NOTE: If the database size is huge, for example a site content database, use the stsadm tool to do this. (Ref: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262449.aspx). You may get an unknown error after the database is removed, which is okay. This error doesn’t appear if you are removing the DB from command prompt.

4. Go to SQL Server (using an account with Admin permissions) and restore the backup of the Admin Content Database with a new name. You can also rename the LOG and MDF file now.

• Change the Database Name in the To database field.

• Take the old database Offline from SQL Server.
• Go to the command prompt and enter the following command to attach the content database to the Web application:

stsadm -o addcontentdb -url <CentralAdminURL> -databasename <YourCustomDatabaseName> -databaseserver <YourDatabaseServerName>

5. From the Manage Content Database you can verify the new database associated with your central Admin Site.

DTS_E_OLEDB_EXCEL_NOT_SUPPORTED : Resolved

Today morning i was working with a SSIS package and came across this error while running the package through a SQL Agent Job on a 64 Bit WIn SRV 08 running SQL 08 SP1.

A little more about my dev environment:

My Dev machine is running a 64 bit Win 7 RC with 08 BIDS

My Production machine is running SQL 08 SP1 on Win 08 all 64 Bit.

What I am doing?

Creating a SSIS package to get some data stored in a Excel File (Office 2003 Format) on a remote share to my production warehouse.

What's the Error?

Simply put…

Executed as user: domain/Username. Microsoft (R) SQL Server Execute Package Utility  Version 10.0.2531.0 for 64-bit  Copyright (C) Microsoft Corp 1984-2005. All rights reserved.    Started:  10:00:00 AM  Error: 2009-05-02 10:00:02.36     Code: 0xC00F9304     Source: PackageName Connection manager "Excel Connection Manager"     Description: SSIS Error Code DTS_E_OLEDB_EXCEL_NOT_SUPPORTED: The Excel Connection Manager is not supported in the 64-bit version of SSIS, as no OLE DB provider is available.  End Error  Error: 2009-05-02 10:00:02.36     Code: 0xC020801C     Source: Remote to Staging 1 Excel Source [521]     Description: SSIS Error Code DTS_E_CANNOTACQUIRECONNECTIONFROMCONNECTIONMANAGER.  The AcquireConnection method call to the connection manager "Excel Connection Manager" failed with error code 0xC00F9304.  There may be error messages posted before this with more information on why the AcquireConnection method call failed.  End Error  Error: 2009-05-02 10:00:02.38     Code: 0xC0047017     Source: Remote to Staging 1 SSIS.Pipeline     Description: component "Excel Source" (521) failed validation and returned error code 0xC020801C.  End Error  Error: 2009-05-02 10:00:02.38     Code: 0xC004700C     Source: Remote to Staging 1 SSIS.Pipeline     Description: One or more component failed validation.  End Error  Error: 2009-05-02 10:00:02.38     Code: 0xC0024107     Source: Remote to Staging 1      Description: There were errors during task validation.  End Error  DTExec: The package execution returned DTSER_FAILURE (1).  Started:  10:00:00 AM  Finished: 10:00:02 AM  Elapsed:  1.857 seconds.  The package execution failed.  The step failed.

Why the error?

Excel Connection Manager is not supported on 64 bit runtime

How I resolved?

1. Open up the Agent Job >> Go to Steps :

2. Double click and Open the Step >> Go to Execution Options and Select Use 32 bit Runtime

You’re good to go.

Cheers!!

Do I need SP1 for WSS and MOSS before I install SP2

A question on everyone's mind now!!

The answer – No You don't. SP2 has the following inbuilt:-)

This service pack includes the following updates for Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0:

· Service Pack 1

· Infrastructure Update

· All Cumulative Updates through the February Cumulative Update.

If you need to know more read here - Service Pack 2 for SharePoint Products and Technologies and More about SharePoint 2007 SP2.

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

More about SharePoint 2007 SP2

If you haven't read it yet there is a nice document posted here that has overall view of the great enhancements made in SP2. For your convenience the extract of the document is below…

Performance and Availability Improvements

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP2 and Office SharePoint Server SP2 include several fixes and enhancements designed to improve performance, availability, and stability in your server farms.

Database Integrity

Index fragmentation is a major cause of performance degradation in Microsoft® SQL Server™ databases. This problem is addressed in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP2 and Office SharePoint Server SP2 with a new, enhanced version of the Database Statistics timer job. Previously, the sole responsibility of the Database Statistics job was to update query optimization statistics for content databases. As of SP2, the job also rebuilds content database indexes every time it runs. This automatic index rebuild helps to stop fragmentation and maintain database performance.

The Database Statistics job uses the online index rebuild feature of SQL Server 2005 and should run without any impact on performance for content databases of up to the recommended size limit of 100 GB.

Read-Only Content Databases

While performing some maintenance tasks, you may need to mark content databases as read-only. On farms that are running Office SharePoint Server 2007 with SP2 or Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 with SP2, the site collection associated with a read-only content database is set to be read-only automatically, and the user interface is modified so that users cannot perform tasks that require writing to the database. Previously, the user interface was not modified, and users received error messages when they attempted to perform operations that wrote information to the content database.

Content Deployment and Site Variations

Office SharePoint Server 2007 SP2 includes several enhancements that improve the performance and stability of the content deployment and variations features. In particular, Office SharePoint Server 2007 SP2 adds a new operation to the Stsadm command-line tool that enables a SharePoint administrator to scan sites that use the variations feature for errors. The operation reports on errors encountered and, where possible, fixes the underlying issues. For example, the operation can find and repair missing peer relationships and corrupted entries in the internal variations relationships list. The Office SharePoint Server 2007 SP2 enhancements also provide a more manageable way to handle the propagation of large quantities of variation content.

Other Stsadm Enhancements

In addition to the site variation enhancements, SP2 includes other new and extended commands for the Stsadm command-line tool. Most notably, SP2 adds Stsadm operations and parameters that ease the removal of orphaned objects from SharePoint databases. Orphaned objects—typically sites and site collections without corresponding entries in the configuration database—posed challenges in previous upgrades. Other additions include a operation that you can use to tune various aspects of search query processing and the preupgradecheck operation, which this paper discusses in a subsequent section.

Excel Services and InfoPath Forms Services

SP2 includes a broad range of fixes and enhancements that improve the performance, security, stability, and usability of Excel Services. SP2 makes it easier to configure Excel Web Access Web Parts on new sites. Several rendering, calculation, and security issues have been resolved.

SP2 also offers a range of improvements for users of InfoPath Forms Services. Performance enhancements in SP2 reduce both the memory requirements and the page load times for large browser-rendered forms. SP2 also improves the browser rendering of various controls, such as the Cannot be blank red asterisk and the rich text field.

Improved Interoperability

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP2 and Office SharePoint Server SP2 introduce substantial improvements to the way that SharePoint Products and Technologies integrate with other products and platforms. In particular, SP2 offers support for a broader range of Web browsers. SP2 also provides enhancements to user experience with forms authentication.

Improved User Experience with Forms Authentication

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP2 and Office SharePoint Server 2007 SP2 offer a substantially improved client integration experience for forms-based authentication users. Previously, forms-based authentication provided a poor experience when users attempted to use the client integration features of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 or Office SharePoint Server 2007; the client application would repeatedly prompt users for credentials whenever they executed a command in a document. To avoid this, administrators were advised to disable SharePoint client integration features in forms-based authentication environments.

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP2 and Office SharePoint Server 2007 SP2, together with the SP2 updates for Microsoft Office Client applications, provide a much smoother user experience and make client integration a viable option for forms-based authentication users. Users of Microsoft Windows Vista™ must install Vista SP2 to take advantage of the improved user experience.

Browser Support

Web browser support in SharePoint Products and Technologies is divided into two levels. Level 1 Web browsers provide an optimal user experience for all SharePoint sites, through the use of advanced Microsoft ActiveX® control features. Level 2 Web browsers support all of the basic features of SharePoint Products and Technologies, including read and write functionality and site administration tasks.

As of SP2, Level 1 browser support is extended to include Microsoft Internet Explorer 8. Level 2 browser support is extended to include Firefox 2 and Firefox 3.

Getting Ready for SharePoint Products and Technologies "14"

As well as improving performance, availability, and stability, Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP2 and Office SharePoint Server 2007 SP2 provide the groundwork for future major releases of SharePoint Products and Technologies. In particular, SP2 includes a new Stsadm operation that can help you to prepare your SharePoint deployment for an upgrade to SharePoint Products and Technologies "14".

The preupgradecheck operation

The Stsadm preupgradecheck operation can be used to scan your server farm to establish whether it is ready for upgrade to SharePoint Products and Technologies "14". It identifies issues that could present obstacles to the upgrade process. It also checks for SharePoint Products and Technologies "14" system requirements, including the presence of Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008 and a 64-bit machine, and provides feedback and best practice recommendations for your current environment, together with information on how to resolve any issues that the tool discovers.

After installing SP2, scanning your server farm by using preupgradecheck gives you the benefit of time to resolve any potential issues in your SharePoint environment, ensuring a smooth and painless upgrade to SharePoint Products and Technologies "14".

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights

SharePoint 2007 and WSS 3.0 SP2 is here….

The long awaited SP2 for MOSS and WSS is here!! Download them from here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=b7816d90-5fc6-4347-89b0-a80deb27a082 

Description is available here - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953334 

This file has all the changes that has been made in SP2 - Download the 2007 Office servers Service Pack 2 Changes.xlsx package now 

For how to deploy software updates on a MOSS Server Farm (or WSS Server Farm as the case may be) keep this link handy - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263467.aspx . Note : additional steps are required if there are multiple servers. Do read the whole article.

For comprehensive lift of WSS 3.0 SP2 visit the following links:

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Service Pack 2
Download (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=79BADA82-C13F-44C1-BDC1-D0447337051B&displaylang=en)
953338 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953338)

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Service Pack 2, 64-bit edition
Download (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=79BADA82-C13F-44C1-BDC1-D0447337051B&displaylang=en)
953338 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953338)

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Language Pack Service Pack 2
Download (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=085E5AC8-58F6-4CF9-8012-33B95EE36C0F&displaylang=en)
953338 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953338)

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Language Pack Service Pack 2, 64-bit edition
Download (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=2C2B6CAF-B46D-45EB-AC4D-DEAAA48C3A2C&displaylang=en)
953338 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953338)

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 with Service Pack 2
Download (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=EF93E453-75F1-45DF-8C6F-4565E8549C2A&displaylang=en)
-

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 x64 with Service Pack 2
Download (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=9FB41E51-CB03-4B47-B89A-396786492CBA&displaylang=en)

For comprehensive list of MOSS 2007 SP2 visit the following links:

The 2007 Microsoft Office servers Service Pack 2
Download (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=B7816D90-5FC6-4347-89B0-A80DEB27A082&displaylang=en)
953334 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953334)

The 2007 Microsoft Office servers Service Pack 2, 64-bit edition
Download (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=B7816D90-5FC6-4347-89B0-A80DEB27A082&displaylang=en)
953334 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953334)

The 2007 Microsoft Office servers Language Pack Service Pack 2
Download (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=01C6A3E8-E110-4956-903A-AD16284BF223&displaylang=en)
953334 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953334)

The 2007 Microsoft Office servers Language Pack Service Pack 2, 64-bit edition
Download (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=66C5026F-9F47-4642-8378-2526918009FA&displaylang=en)
953334

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights

Error: Essentials is already installed in this domain

Recently I am working on a project where i am using SCE 2007 to monitor MOSS. Yesterday my DC crashed while merging snapshots and hence i had to start all over again. I was about to install SCE when it came up with a error that said SCE is already setup in the domain and that i can have only 1 SCE per domain. I realized that when i had uninstalled SCE last time, it didn't remove everything from the DC (which was recovering from the restore). The error message is as shown below:

I found a KB that describes this behavior and will solve it. The KB was written for Win 2003 but works well on 08 as well. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/954700.

Since, now my project involves lot of screenshots and I am obsessed with screenshots now, I decided to have same here while resolving the issue.

1. First log on to you DC and fire up MMC >> Then from Add the ADSI Edit Snap-in

2. Right click on ADSI Edit and Click Connect To >> Choose Computer >> Default

3. Right-click the domain node, point to New, and then click Query. The New Query window is displayed.

4. In the Name box, type SCESCP Query.

5. In the Root of search box, Select the domain name.

6. In the Query String box, type (&(objectCategory=serviceConnectionPoint)(cn=SCESCP)).

7. Click OK to close the New Query dialog box.

8. Expand the domain node, and then click SCESCP Query. In the result pane, the "CN=SCESCP" object is listed with a distinguished name of “CN=SCESCP,CN=ComputerName,CN=OUName,DC=DomainName,DC=com”. This object entry lets you determine which computer account has the SCP object.

9. In the result pane, right-click CN=SCESCP, and then click Delete.

10. When you are prompted to confirm the deletion, click Yes.

I also delete C:\Program Files\Microsoft System Center… folder.

Install SCE 2007  and it works like a charm.

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

How to install System Center Essentials on Windows Server 2008

Recently I was working on a project and preparing a Lab environment. The goal was to install and configure MOSS on Windows 2008 and SQL 2008 and monitor it with SCE. Since I faced some roadblocks while trying to install and configure SCE on a Win 08 VM i thought to post the step-by-step here to make someone’s life a little easier.

Note – reference - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb422968.aspx

First you need a SCE SP1

Step 1 -

Install .net 3.0 Framework -

From Administrative Command Prompt - ServerManagerCmd -install NET-Framework-Core. You can also use the GUI while configuring IIS 7 as well.

Step 2 -

Install IIS 7. As stated before you can use the GUI, however, technet has a great script which will run just smooth and fine:

Note: Right click on Command Prompt and click Run as Administrator

call start /w %SYSTEMDRIVE%\windows\system32\pkgmgr /l:log.etw /iu:IIS-WebServerRole;IIS-WebServer;IIS-CommonHttpFeatures;IIS-StaticContent;IIS-DefaultDocument;IIS-DirectoryBrowsing;IIS-HttpErrors;IIS-HttpRedirect;IIS-ApplicationDevelopment;IIS-ASPNET;IIS-NetFxExtensibility;IIS-ASP;IIS-CGI;IIS-ISAPIExtensions;IIS-ISAPIFilter;IIS-ServerSideIncludes;IIS-HealthAndDiagnostics;IIS-HttpLogging;IIS-LoggingLibraries;IIS-RequestMonitor;IIS-HttpTracing;IIS-CustomLogging;IIS-ODBCLogging;IIS-Security;IIS-BasicAuthentication;IIS-WindowsAuthentication;IIS-DigestAuthentication;IIS-ClientCertificateMappingAuthentication;IIS-IISCertificateMappingAuthentication;IIS-URLAuthorization;IIS-RequestFiltering;IIS-IPSecurity;IIS-Performance;IIS-HttpCompressionStatic;IIS-HttpCompressionDynamic;IIS-WebServerManagementTools;IIS-ManagementConsole;IIS-ManagementScriptingTools;IIS-ManagementService;IIS-IIS6ManagementCompatibility;IIS-Metabase;IIS-WMICompatibility;IIS-LegacyScripts;IIS-LegacySnapIn;IIS-FTPPublishingService;IIS-FTPServer;IIS-FTPManagement;WAS-WindowsActivationService;WAS-ProcessModel;WAS-NetFxEnvironment;WAS-ConfigurationAPI

Step 3 -

Unfortunately SQL 2005 Express cannot be installed on Win 08 hence the option is SQL 2005 Std / Ent with SP2. You could also use SQL 2005 Adv Services with SP2. I used the Adv Services with my testing and it works like a charm.

Install SQL Server 2005 Express SP2 with Advanced Services - http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=5B5528B9-13E1-4DB9-A3FC-82116D598C3D&displaylang=en or SQL 2005 with SP2

Step 4 -

Before SSRS 2005 can run on Win 08 there are one more thing to do (else, your installations fails :)). Technet has a great article on this, however, the only step you need to perform in this particular scenario is as mentioned below:

Configure Reporting Services

1. Start > Run > Inetmgr
2. Expand [Server Name] > Sites > Default Web Site
3. Highlight ReportServer$SQLExpress
4. Double-click Handler Mappings
5. Click Edit Feature Permissions…
6. Enable Script and click OK (do not enable Execute)

More information available at - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938245

Important Notes -

• One of the supported deployment topologies in System Center Essentials is that of the Management Server installed on one computer and a remote Essentials 2007 console on another.

More info - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb437322.aspx

• Essentials 2007 installs agents automatically during the process of computer discovery. Sometimes a computer is not discoverable or scheduled discovery might attempt to automatically add Essentials 2007 management to computers that you don't want to be managed. In such situations, you can manually install an agent to manage a specific computer. After the agent is installed, you must complete some additional steps to fully configure the agent and computer for management.

More Info - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb437257.aspx

• "Performance Module could not find a performance counter" temporary workaround

If you are receiving alerts “Performance Module could not find a performance counter” in the Essentials Console, please perform the following steps to disable the rule via override.

Navigate to the Authoring Space in the Console.

Select “Rules” under “Management Pack Objects”.

Type “Performance Data Source Module” in the “Look for:” box and click “Find Now”. Be sure a Scope is not set or filtering the “Health Service” Target.

Find the rule, “Performance Data Source Module could not find a performance counter” under “Type: Health Service (2)”, right-click, select “Overrides”, “Disable the Rule”, “For all objects of type: Health Service”.

When prompted, “Are you sure you want to disable this rule for Health Service?” click “Yes”.

Hotfix - Yet to be released. SCOM hotfix can be found at - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/951979/en-us

Management Packs can be downloaded from -

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sce/cc462787.aspx

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Move MOSS 2007 from test to production

I get this question quite often and frankly speaking there is no one way of doing it. This is what I do in my environment....

Note: this process can also be followed in case of Migrating the MOSS farm from 1 server to another. Of coarse you can also to a full farm backup and restore using the Central Admin UI.

The best and fastest way that I find is content DB attach and detach mode. Usually you will not have any change in the Search / SSP DB and User Profiles in test. Hence no point moving them, however, if you do have any changes to profile / search config you have to move the SSP and Search DB as well.

Here is how you do it (Before doing anything take a full backup from Central Admin on both test and production site):

1. On the Test Box make the site Read Only (http://<YourCentalAdminURLHere>/_admin/sitequota.aspx)

Make sure you select Read Only Option (If you want the site to be at least accessible to users, else choose No Access)

2. From command prompt run the stsadm command with –preparetomove switch (TechNet)
stsadm -o preparetomove -contentDB <database_server:database_name> (If your DB server and the application server are on the same box you can omit the <database_server:database_name> or any of -databaseserver switch mentioned below)

3. Then use the –deletecontentdb switch to detach the DB from the site collection (TechNet)
stsadm -o deletecontentdb -url http://computername -databasename

4. Go to SQL Server and backup (FULL) the DB

5. Go to production Server

6. Make the production site Read Only and follow the above mentioned step 1 - 3

7. From SQL Server Management Studio – Restore the DB (you have to overwrite the existing DB of course!! )

8. Go to command prompt and use –addcontentDB to attach the DB to the existing Site Collection (TechNet)
stsadm -o addcontentdb -url <http://backupservername:port> -databasename <ContentDBName> -databaseserver <NewPrincipalServer>

9. You have custom webpart or site definitions that you have deployed in the Test box you have re-deploy them in the production in the _Layouts and the GAC or BIN as the case may be.

If you want to move the SSP (almost never done in such cases) – detach the SSP DB from SQL Management Studio (full backup and restore will also do) and restore / attach on the production server. Then run the –editssp switch (TechNet)

stsadm –o editssp –title <SSPName> –ssplogin <username> –ssppassword <userpassword> -sspadminsite <newSSPDatabaseServerName>

Hope this helps.

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Remotely reboot Windows Server 2003

I know I know its a SharePoint Blog. But I faced this problem in my server farm and thought of posting it so that it helps somebody else too...

So this is what happened:- I came to office and logged on to my Remote Desktop Console to take a look in my MOSS Farm Event Viewers (something I started doing in MOSS Beta 1 days and now I am addicted :-)). What I found was a Event ID 10039 from Office Server Search:

"Retry of query machine 'WFE2' has failed with error: The network path was not found.   0x80070035.  It will be retried again in 60 seconds. Component: 5cfead2d-124a-4532-ab47-7b1bfd618059"

-- Tried logging in to WFE 2 (2nd Web Front End Server) with the Farm Admin Account (local admin on the WFE)

-- Access Denied !!

Thought of remotely rebooting the server (I don't want to troubleshoot such weird error and moreover to see the logs first I have to log in!!)

-- a technet article came handy (meant for XP Pro but worked perfect with Windows Server 2003 Ent x64).. check it out.

Excerpts below:

To perform a remote shutdown

1. Open Computer Management (Local)

2. In the console tree, right-click Computer Management (Local), and then click Connect to another computer.

3. In the Select Computer dialog box, click Another computer, type the name of the computer that you want to restart or shut down, and then click OK. You can also click Browse to search for the name of the computer.

4. In the console tree, right-click Computer Management (Remote computer name), and then click Properties.

5. On the Advanced tab, click Startup and Recovery.

6. Click Shut Down to open the Shut Down dialog box.

7. Under Action, select the actions you want to perform on the computer to which you are connected.

8. Under Force Apps Closed, select the circumstances under which you want to force applications to close when you shut down or restart the computer, and then click OK.

Note

• To open Computer Management, click Start, and then click Control Panel. Click Performance and Maintenance, click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Computer Management.

• You must be recognized as an administrator or a member of the Administrators group on your computer and on the computer you are managing to perform this task.

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Microsoft Search Server 2008

Its there and its there to rock!!

Microsoft Search Server 2008 is launched. Read what Forrester has to say about it...

"...MSSE has a substantial set of capabilities, most notably its
connectivity to many intranet- and Internet-based resources, including Microsoft Exchange, IBM’s Lotus Notes, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, and even EMC’s Documentum and IBM’s FileNet enterprise content management systems. MSSE trumps Google’s search appliances by offering a stronger set of administration, reporting, and connectivity features, and it can be upgraded to the Microsoft Search Server 2008 (MSS) licensed version that enables multiserver scalability and high availability.
Businesses looking at any enterprise or workgroup search deployment should take note: Microsoft has dealt itself in to the search game and with MSSE is placing good-sized bets that it will build even more momentum in its SharePoint workplace strategy."

Read the full Article here.

With this now we have 3 flavours of Enterprise Search. The table here gives a full comparison of what you get when on what you choose (don't forget the best part - Microsoft Search Server Express is FREE, so if you don't require High Availability and Load Balancing you, this is the Search solution for you...)

Happy Searching...

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Crawl Lotus from MOSS

One of the great feature of Microsoft Enterprise Search - crawling a Notes Database through MOSS. Though the protocol handler is installed by default with the MOSS installation it is not enabled by default. To enable the crawler to work read the great article posted at:

• How to setup the MOSS 2007 Protocol Handler for Lotus Notes to search multiple Domino Databases
• How to setup the MOSS 2007 Protocol Handler for Lotus Notes to search multiple Domino Databases. Part 2 of 3
• How to troubleshoot MOSS 2007 Protocol Handler for Lotus Notes and other tips/tricks. Part 3 of 3
• Technet: Configure MOSS to crawl Lotus DB

Additional reading:

• Enterprise Search Architecture

Additionally if you want to configure Lotus crawling (Email, Contacts, Calendar, Journal etc) you need to install Lotus Notes Add-in for WDS (Windows Desktop Search) from here.

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

MOSS and SAP Integration

Some really good information on SAP and MOSS Integration available at the following post:

http://blogs.msdn.com/joanna_bichsel/archive/2007/09/25/sap-integration-with-moss.aspx. and the following link on MS Site: http://www.microsoft.com/isv/sap/technology/interop/sharepoint.aspx.

Apart from this MOSS Out Of Box have iView webpart which allows users to connect to SAP EP from MOSS. If you are considering using SAP Data in MOSS for Search etc consider using Business Data Catalogue. With the help of BDC you can crawl and index SAP DB (through web service if you like) and create a MetaData Database in MOSS. This data can then be used in MOSS Search results (customie the CustomResult.aspx page with XSLT formatting and use thepower of Math, Logic of XSLT using SharePoint Designer) or use OOB web Parts like Business Data List to allow users to filter through the SAP Data. You can implement security on the Application Definition File so that users can access the data that is meant for them. The best part is when using Business Data List, when the users can filter the data on the MOSS Page directly and get required information (it adds the AND or OR SQL Clause in the query on runtime) which was almost impossible without BDC.

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

MOSS Deployment - How to mix 32 bit and 64 bit servers

One most common deployment questions that I get is whether it is possible to to have a mix and match of 32bit and 64bit servers in the same server farm. In short the answer is yes, you can.

A little more explanation on this....

The inevitable scenario where you would need a 32bit server is where you have a MOSS farm and you want to crawl Lotus. Since Lotus does not support 64bit C++ API (at the time of publishing this post) it is mandatory to use a 32bit MOSS Server. You can have all WFE (Web Front - End) Server 32 bit and all index servers 64 bit. Essentially, you must have same server level (32bit or 64bit) in all tier of servers. You cannot have 1 WFE in 32bit and the other one 64bit.

Hope this helps.

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Configuring WSS 3.0 on Longhorn (Windows Server 2008) RC0 Build

Sorry folks, I have been pretty busy lately and its been long that I have posted something here. So here we go....

How to configure Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 on a Windows Server 2008 (Codename: longhorn) Build RC0. (You can download RC0 build from here.)

First of all, I did a upgrade from Windows Server 2003, (it didn't had WSS installed, but IIS was there.). I had Windows PowerShell 1.0 installed, and that needs to be removed before you can do a in-place upgrade. After the upgrade I had to struggle a bit with the display drivers (Intel 865G Chipset on DELL OptiPlex box), but it got sorted out with the Vista 32* driver for the same Chipset.

Ok now the actual steps...

1. Open up Service Manager (for people who are seeing Longhorn for the first time can find it on the taskbar )

2. Locate Roles Summery and Click on Add Roles 

3. This will open up Add Role Wizard >> Click Next and Choose Windows SharePoint Services as the Server Role

4. Click Next to read the instructions about installing WSS (I am assuming you already know the concept of installing WSS as a stand-alone mode and Farm Mode)

5. For this post I will choose Stand-Alone from the next page which means it will create its on DB

6. Select Administration Language in the Next Page

7. Click Next and you will be required to enter the Outgoing Email Settings - so enter your SMTP (Exchange / Windows SMTP / Any SMTP Server) address, the From Email Address field and the To Email Address Field

8. Click Next >> Read the summery and Click Install

9. The progress bar will show the installation progress and once its finished you will see a screen of installation succeeded. This will automatically create a WSS site on port 80 (will stop the Default Web Site) with Team Site Template.

In my next post I will explain more on Installing MOSS on LongHorn. Happy reading...

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Estimate performance and capacity requirements for search environments

Good capacity and performance planning guidance at http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/5465aa2b-aec3-4b87-bce0-8601ff20615e1033.mspx?mfr=true

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.