C's SharePoint Collective: June 2007

28 June 2007

Tired of not being able to save your WSS sites as templates because they exceed the maximum template size?

Well, courtesy of my buddy Todd Klindt, here's a little unknown STSADM command that you can use to change all that once and for all. The command you need is:

STSADM –o setproperty –pn max-template-document-size –pv 524288000

The –pv value is the value, in Bytes, that you wish to set the limit to.
The maximum value that can be set is 500 MB or 524288000 Bytes.

Note: STSADM will crunch away at this command for a while so be patient and PLEASE do NOT terminate STSADM midstream!

Later
C

21 June 2007

SharePoint gradual migration “gotcha” to be aware of…

When installing MOSS 2007 into an existing SPS 2003 environment, you undoubtedly have already decided on a migration strategy i.e. In Place, Database or Gradual.
One of the little gotchas to be aware of if you decided to choose the Gradual migration strategy affects pre-existing web applications. If you look at this screen shot:

You will notice the default state of our web server BEFORE in installation and configuration of the Gradual migration. In our case, we have a web application installed on the web server that is leveraged by the portal. As expected, the web application is installed in a virtual directory under the Default Web Site, in this case called SPSWebApp. Furthermore, it shares the web traffic port i.e. port 80, with the Default Web Site, as it should in order for the WEB application to work properly.

After installing MOSS, successfully running through the Config Wizard and commencing a gradual migration, we see the following in the IIS Manager:

As you know, SharePoint will create a web site called "Default Web Site_Pair" for the new MOSS portal. That web site will be assigned port 80. The old "Default Web Site" web site will have a new TCP port assigned to it, the port you specified in the Gradual Upgrade configuration steps. In our case we used port 8000 and as you can see above, port 8000 is where it now sits.

The problem with this is that any and all web applications such as our SPSWebApp that are installed into virtual directories under the Default Web Site also now have a new port under which they run. Since most web application references and code simply reference the URL without any port specification, IIS would default to port 80 on said web application requests. Given that the web application does not exist on port 80 anymore, such requests would fail with 404 errors.

So, be aware of this little gotcha. The way to work through this is to uninstall your web applications before you commence the gradual upgrade, but after the Config Wizard was done. Then once the new port 80 web site was created, reinstall your web applications to the Default Web Site_Pair web site on port 80.
That should about do it. J

Later
C

Home sweet home…

My house from the air… J

This photo is relatively new… I would say probably 3 years old.

The basketball ½ court.
The huge pine tree on the corner of the house… removed last year.
The old shed, 8x8 in size. I tore it down 2 years ago and rebuilt a 12x12 in its place.
The flower bed I built for my wife, 3 years ago.
The HUGE old, 100 year + silver leaf maple we love!

Later
C

20 June 2007

My BIGGEST pet peeve!

Well, besides idiots clogging up intersections when the light turns red of course… I know this sounds silly, but I just can't stand it when people don't know how to SPELL product names. I don't know why it drives me up the walls, but it does. At my firm, I'm constantly waging a campaign for getting people to spell product names correctly. By spelling I mean, proper spelling with the right letters capitalized! (Told you it sounds silly)

The one that always trips my wire, because it's my product that I love, is when people spell SharePoint with a lower case "p" as in Sharepoint. Ug, it's hard for me NOT to correct that last one in my blog! ;-) Here's a good example I stumbled upon this morning:

Now this dude is "blogging all things" SharePoint. And it's not like he DOESN'T know how to spell it either. The arrow points out where he clearly got it right the first time. But then it all just went downhill after that. This guy really doesn't have ANY consistency to his spelling of SharePoint. At least most people are consistent in using an upper case "S" and a lower case "p".

So I beg you PLEASE! If you're going to use product names, not just SharePoint, please, PLEASE spell them properly! :-)

Ah, it feels good to get that out of my system!

Later
C

19 June 2007

Step-by-Step – A REAL world upgrade of a SharePoint Portal Server 2003 (SPS) farm to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS)

Well I've been catching up on my To Do list this morning. One of my items is this MONSTER post that I've been working on… it seems forever! Anyway, it is finally completed and scrubbed and I hope it provides some useful information for you…

This Step-by-Step guide will detail my journey through the upgrade wilderness and will hopefully help you migrate your SharePoint Portal Server 2003 medium farm to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. I have intentionally documented mistakes that I made and ran into to allow this guide to also help you trouble shoot some of the most commons issues you could expect to run into. By documenting my pain, I'm hoping to save you some pain.

At the time I struggled through this migration, there was hardly any documentation around it. Microsoft has done a good job since then of creating good documentation to assist in these processes. When deploying a server farm, be sure to read this TechNet Article first:
http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/356d3a0b-fc26-455c-9afb-6d2ffdceef841033.mspx?mfr=true

When adding servers to a farm, be sure to read this TechNet article:
http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/b4279ff9-2842-475a-8d7f-cc90711c47271033.mspx?mfr=true

Before we commence, it is important to note the configuration of the SPS 2003 farm. I'm going to be using a farm together with Kerberos authentication because in the REAL WORLD most configurations are that way, not the single server/NTLM configurations that most documentation and demos use and show you.

Please note that this guide is MASSIVE to say the least. It over 7000 words long and contains almost a 100 screen shots so it's going to take you a while to get through this. You may want to download it for future reference from the Downloads section. Now grab your coffee, fire up your remote desktops and let's get going. J

The farm is configured as follows:

SPWEB
- Windows Server 2003 SP1.
- SharePoint Portal Server 2003 SP1.
- Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 SP1.
- SharePoint Web/Search server roles.
SPJOB
- Windows Server 2003 SP1.
- SharePoint Portal Server 2003 SP1.
- Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 SP1.
- SharePoint Job/Index server roles.
SPSQL
- Windows Server 2003 SP1.
- SQL Server 2000 SP4.
- SharePoint database store.

* IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE THAT YOU HAVE TO SIGN ONTO THE SHAREPOINT SERVERS WITH THE SERVICE ACCOUNT THAT HAS ADMIN RIGHTS THROUGHOUT THE FARM, INCLUDING THE SQL SERVER.

You may need to add the account to the local administrators group in order to logon using the account.
If we take a look at the portal BEFORE the upgrade, we see the following:

We are now ready to commence the upgrade by following these steps:

If your portal is not yet upgraded to SP2:
1. Upgrade WSS to SP2.
  1. Download the Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 Service Pack 2.
  2. Download the SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Service Pack 2.
  3. Begin by double clicking the "WSS2003SP2-KB887624-FullFile-ENU.exe" file.
  4. Setup will prompt you to confirm that you wish to install the update.
  5. Click "Yes" to proceed.
  6. You will now be presented with the End User License Agreement.
  7. Click "Yes" to accept the EULA.
  8. Setup will now unpack the installation files.
  9. Once Setup is complete, you will be prompted to restart the server.
  10. Click "Yes" to restart the server.
2. Upgrade SPS to SP2.
  1. Begin by double clicking the SPS2003SP2-kb887623-fullfile-ENU.exe file.
  2. You will be presented with the End User License Agreement. Click "Yes" to accept the EULA and proceed.
  3. Setup will now unpack the installation files and proceed with the installation.
  4. You will receive a prompt to configure error reporting. Decide which option is best for you and click the appropriate button.
  5. Setup will NOT notify you of the need to restart your server, but believe me, IT IS NEEDED! So go ahead and reboot your server one more time.
    
    Congratulations! You have completed your portal web server upgrade to Service Pack 2.
    
    REPEAT STEP 1 ON YOUR SPJOB SERVER.
    
    Once your job server has been upgraded to SP2, you can proceed with the MOSS installation.
The prerequisite for installing MOSS is the .NET Framework 3.0. Download it here. If you need the full download versions, you can get the x86 version or the x64 version depending on your platform.
1. Double click the "dotnetfx3setup.exe" file.
2. Setup will unpack the installation files.
3. Once all the files have been extracted, you will be presented with the .NET Framework 3.0 End User License Agreement.
4. Ensure you've read the agreement and agree with its terms.
5. Select the "I have read and ACCEPT the terms of the License Agreement" radio button.
6. You can also check the "Send anonymous information about my setup experiences to Microsoft Corporation" check box if you wish to do so, but it is not required to continue.
7. The "Install" button should now be enabled.
8. Click the "Install" button.
9. Setup will now minimize to the system tray and conduct a background installation. You can double click the icon if you wish to see more detailed installation status.
10. Setup will proceed to download the remaining components of the installation package.
11. After the download is complete, Setup will commence the actual installation.
12. Once Setup completes the installation, you'll be presented with the final status screen.
13. Click "Exit" to complete the installation.
14. You will need to restart your system for the new framework to take effect.
15. If you don't have any other applications open, click "Restart Now" or otherwise, click "Restart Later" and manually shut down your application and restart your system.
  
  REPEAT STEP 2 ON YOUR SPJOB SERVER.
Now proceed with the main MOSS installation.
1. Launch MOSS from either the CD or the folder location where the installation files was copied by double clicking the "setup.cmd" file.
2. The file, being a DOS command file will open a black command window as it processes in the background prior to launching Setup.
3. Once Setup launches correctly, you will be presented with the Product Key screen.
4. Enter your 25 character product key.
5. A green check mark should appear behind the product key indicating a valid key.
6. Click "Continue".
7. You will be presented with the End User License Agreement screen.
8. Ensure you are familiar with the contents of the EULA.
9. Click to check the "I accept the terms of this agreement" check box.
10. Click "Continue".
11. You are now presented with upgrade options.
12. On the "Upgrade" tab, select the "Yes, perform a Gradual upgrade" option.
13. Click on the "Server Type" tab or press Alt+T to activate the server type tab.
14. By default the "Complete – Install all components…" option is selected. If it is not selected, select it now.
15. Click on the "File Location" tab or press Alt+F to select it.
16. Depending on your server configuration, you may have to changes these settings. In our case, we have a small OS drive C:\ and then the main data drive as D:\, so we change our application and file location as well as our index file location to the D:\ drive maintaining the same path.
17. It is important to note that the index files generally are about 150% the size of the SQL database files they represent so if your SQL data files are 10 GB in size, then you would want to ensure that the index file location has at least 15 GB free space in order to hold all the data. This figure varies with content types for example if you're storing a bunch of binaries or video files, there generally isn't that much to index besides properties and name so your index size would be considerably smaller. Our figures are just used as a safe guidance rather than a rule.
18. Click the "Install Now" button.
19. Installation will begin and Setup will provide you with feedback related to installation progress.
20. Once the installation is complete, you will be notified.
21. IMPORTANT NOTE: UN-check the "Run the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard now" check box option.
  
  The reason we do NOT run the wizard directly after installation is because part of the upgrade wizard's prerequisites is that PRESCAN must have been run on our environment. Because PRESCAN is only dropped onto our server by Setup, it stands to reason that we cannot have run it before now.
22. Click the "Close" button to close Setup. Don't worry, we'll get back to the Config Wizard soon enough.
  
  REPEAT STEP 3 ON YOUR SPJOB SERVER.
We can now proceed with the MOSS configuration.
1. Conduct a PreScan.
  1. Locate the "prescan.exe" application. The default installation location for this file is in the "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\BIN" folder. NOTE: This is NOT the program file installation location you specified earlier. This is the location of the WSS services which is almost always installed to this folder location. In our example, we installed the program and data files to the D:\ drive, but the PreScan tool is still installed to the C:\ drive.
  2. You should also see the "preupgradescanconfig.xml" file listed with the "prescan.exe" file.
  3. Open a command window.
  4. Navigate to the source location for PreScan. The easy way to do this is to copy the Address URI from Windows Explorer, excluding the "C:\" part, and then in the command window after confirming that the prompt is on the same drive as the URI and typing "cd\", right click in the command window and select "Paste" from the popup window. Saves a LOT of typing. Alternatively you could use "cd\pro*\com*\mic*\web s*\12\bin". It might also be a good idea to add this path into your command prompt default path for the future because you're going to spend a LOT of time in this folder using the likes of STSADM.exe etc.
  5. Enter the "prescan /c preupgradescanconfig.xml /all" command.
  6. PreScan will provide progress indicators, rudimentary indicators but indicators nonetheless.
  7. If you have a customized portal solution, or anything but a blank standard portal installation for that matter, odds are you will run into this.
  8. As you can see, PreScan failed.
  9. Note the names of the files that PreScan had written.
  10. Navigate to the folder location PreScan had noted.
  11. Locate the files in question.
  12. The Summary XML file will contain an inventory of sites in the portal. This list is very useful when you're putting together a communication plan for the migration of sites as it will identify unghosted pages. Sites that contain unghosted pages will not migrate and automatically inherit the cool new features of Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. Instead these sites will need to be reverted back to template in order to accomplish this and this fact need to be communicated to your users. Failure to do so is a recipe for disaster and aversion to adoption of the new platform so PLEASE communicate, communicate, communicate!
  13. Opening the Log text file however is the one we're interested in as it contains the listing of sites that caused errors during PreScan.
  14. In our example, you can see that the test5 site is using a template that could not be located on the server. In most cases you will be doing this as a dry run on staging servers with production backups for data so errors like this is possible. In this case, we debug the issue by opening a browser and navigating to the site in question.
  15. As you can see, we simply got an error on the site.
  16. You can navigate to the original site as well to see what the template looks like. In our example, the original master site turned out to be a Business Scorecards Accelerator (BSA) site. We had not installed BSA on the staging server thus the error occurred during PreScan. Remedy the situation by installing the BSA into the staging server and rerunning PreScan.
  17. Another alternative is to do some cleanup throughout this process. We saw that the site called "test5" had very little on it, in fact, it is safe to say the site had never been used. Being a test site, it is probably OK for us to delete the site. You can delete the site by navigating to the parent site's Sites and Workspaces page. Remember to check with the site owner before proceeding with this course of action.
  18. Remove the site by clicking the Delete link, but ONLY if you are ABSOLUTELY sure the site is not in use anymore. Remember to contact the Site owner!
  19. When you scroll to the bottom of the log file you will notice a summary of site collections that experienced problems during PreScan.
  20. In our example, the Test5 was under the /ED site collection and as such /ED is listed as a problem.
  21. It should be obvious why the SocrecardDevelopment site collection was listed as well.
  22. Looking at the original site it's clear it's a BSA site.
  23. The log file also provides some useful summary stats derived from PreScan.
  24. As you can see, it notes the number of site collections, the number of web sites, the number of custom templates and the number of unghosted pages. These are all important to note as each will have some effect on your upgrade process. Unghosted sites will need to be reverted back to template. It is a manual process and knowing how many sites will need to be addressed helps in the planning of the upgrade.
  25. Correct all the issues at hand and rerun the PreScan tool.
  26. This time around, provided all issues were addressed, the PreScan should complete successfully.
2. Execute the configuration tool to configure MOSS.
  1. Using the "Start/All Programs/Microsoft Office Server/SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration" option, restart the Config Wizard.
  2. You will be presented with the Config Wizard Welcome Screen.
  3. Click the "Next" button to continue.
  4. You will receive a services reset warning dialog that warns you about the need to restart certain services such as IIS and some SharePoint services.
  5. Click the "Yes" button to confirm and proceed.
  6. You will receive a Language Pack warning message that states the need to install additional language packs at this point. If you do indeed need to install more language packs, this is the time to do so. You can download the following language packs.
    1. MOSS 2007 Language Pack for X86.
    2. MOSS 2007 Language Pack for X64.
    3. WSS 3.0 Language Pack for X86.
    4. WSS 3.0 Language Pack for X64.
  7. For more information on deploying the language packs, see the TechNet site.
  8. Leave the dialog window open and conduct your language pack installations.
  9. Once all language packs have been installed, click the "OK" button to proceed.
  10. You will be presented with the Server Farm Connection screen.
  11. VERY IMPORTANT! Select the "No, I want to create a new server farm" option NOT the "Yes, I want to connect to an existing server farm" option if this is your SPWEB server cycle. This is a very confusing option because you already have a server farm and instinctively you would want to just add to the farm as opposed to creating a new. To clarify, we're not doing anything with the old farm which is why we need to create an entirely new farm.
  12. Click the "Next" button to continue.
  13. Next you will be presented with the Database Settings page.
  14. Enter the name of your SQL Server into the "Database Server" edit box e.g. "SPSQL".
  15. By default the Config Wizard will have populated the "Database Name" edit box with "SharePoint_Config". You can change this value if you want or you can simply accept the default setting. It is recommended that your retain the "Config" moniker in the name though as it will help you identify your database later on during administration and backups.
  16. By default the Config Wizard will enter the domain service account in the "Username" edit box. This is the same account that is used as the service account for our existing farm i.e. the account that has "Security Administrator" and "Database Creator" roles on the SQL Server and it should also be the same account we're logged into the server with. Ensure that the account is entered as DOMAIN\USER. If you only enter the USER portion of the account name, it will automatically try and authenticate as a local user i.e. SERVER.DOMAIN\USER.
  17. Enter the password for the service account in the "Password" edit box.
  18. Click the "Next" button to continue.
  19. In my case, we got the following error dialog window. If you do not get an error, simply skip ahead to step xxiv:
  20. After locating the log file and opening it, we searched for the "ERR" code and found the following. I have highlighted the important parts in RED:

04/06/2007 14:13:08 1 ERR A System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException was thrown on server , database

04/06/2007 14:13:08 1 INF Entering function Common.BuildExceptionInformation

04/06/2007 14:13:08 1 INF Entering function Common.BuildExceptionMessage

04/06/2007 14:13:08 1 INF Entering function StringResourceManager.GetResourceString

04/06/2007 14:13:08 1 INF Resource id to be retrieved is ExceptionInfo for language English (United States)

04/06/2007 14:13:08 1 INF Resource retrieved id ExceptionInfo is An exception of type {0} was thrown. Additional exception information: {1}

04/06/2007 14:13:08 1 INF Leaving function StringResourceManager.GetResourceString

04/06/2007 14:13:08 1 INF Leaving function Common.BuildExceptionMessage

04/06/2007 14:13:08 1 INF Leaving function Common.BuildExceptionInformation

04/06/2007 14:13:08 1 ERR An exception of type System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException was thrown. Additional exception information: An error has occurred while establishing a connection to the server. When connecting to SQL Server 2005, this failure may be caused by the fact that under the default settings SQL Server does not allow remote connections. (provider: Named Pipes Provider, error: 40 - Could not open a connection to SQL Server)

System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: An error has occurred while establishing a connection to the server. When connecting to SQL Server 2005, this failure may be caused by the fact that under the default settings SQL Server does not allow remote connections. (provider: Named Pipes Provider, error: 40 - Could not open a connection to SQL Server)

at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlInternalConnection.OnError(SqlException exception, Boolean breakConnection)

at System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParser.ThrowExceptionAndWarning(TdsParserStateObject stateObj)

at System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParser.Connect(Boolean& useFailoverPartner, Boolean& failoverDemandDone, String host, String failoverPartner, String protocol, SqlInternalConnectionTds connHandler, Int64 timerExpire, Boolean encrypt, Boolean trustServerCert, Boolean integratedSecurity, SqlConnection owningObject, Boolean aliasLookup)

at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlInternalConnectionTds.OpenLoginEnlist(SqlConnection owningObject, SqlConnectionString connectionOptions, String newPassword, Boolean redirectedUserInstance)

at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlInternalConnectionTds..ctor(DbConnectionPoolIdentity identity, SqlConnectionString connectionOptions, Object providerInfo, String newPassword, SqlConnection owningObject, Boolean redirectedUserInstance)

at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnectionFactory.CreateConnection(DbConnectionOptions options, Object poolGroupProviderInfo, DbConnectionPool pool, DbConnection owningConnection)

at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionFactory.CreateNonPooledConnection(DbConnection owningConnection, DbConnectionPoolGroup poolGroup)

at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionFactory.GetConnection(DbConnection owningConnection)

at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionClosed.OpenConnection(DbConnection outerConnection, DbConnectionFactory connectionFactory)

at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection.Open()

at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.SqlSession.OpenConnection()

at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.SqlSession.ExecuteNonQuery(SqlCommand command)

at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.SqlServerHelper.DatabaseExists(String database)

at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.ConfigurationDatabaseTask.EnsureDatabase(Parameter parameterDatabase)

04/06/2007 14:13:08 1 INF Entering function StringResourceManager.GetResourceString

04/06/2007 14:13:08 1 INF Resource id to be retrieved is SqlServerOrDatabaseConnectionFailure for language English (United States)

04/06/2007 14:13:08 1 INF Resource retrieved id SqlServerOrDatabaseConnectionFailure is Failed to connect to the {0} or the {1} does not exist. Ensure the {2} exists, is a Sql server, and that you have the appropriate permissions to access the {3}. To diagnose the problem, review the extended error information located at {4}. Please consult the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard help for additional information regarding database server security configuration and network access.

04/06/2007 14:13:08 1 INF Leaving function StringResourceManager.GetResourceString

04/06/2007 14:13:08 1 ERR Task configdb validation threw an exception