SharePointSupport

There are some scenario requiring utilization of psconfig.exe command line tool instead of the graphical psconfigui wizard. More information on psconfig.exe: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263093.aspx . For example, if you want to use a SQL server installed on different domain than SharePoint, without using domains trust relationship, you have to connect to the SQL instance using SQL authentication. When creating, or connecting a server to a farm, the only way to use SQL authentication is to use psconfig.exe (located at 12\bin directory) tool. Pre-Requisites SQL Server does not allow SQL authentication by default. To enable it, connect to your instance using SQL Server Management Studio, go to instance properties, click on connections and check "enable SQL authentication". Add a SQL user, and select the following server permissions: dbcreator and securityadmin Create your farm After you installed MOSS or WSS, you must create your farm using psconfi

You can use the pre-upgrade checker to report on the status of your environment and SharePoint sites before you upgrade to Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010. We highly recommend that the server administrator run the pre-upgrade checker and resolve as many problems as possible before scheduling the upgrade. Note : 1. You might need to run the pre-upgrade checker more than once. For example, if you run the tool to evaluate your server farm but do not perform the upgrade for a few weeks, you can run the tool again just before you perform the upgrade to scan any new sites and to ensure that no additional issues have appeared in the meantime. 2. One frequent cause of failures during upgrade is that the environment is missing customized features, solutions, or other elements. Be sure that any custom elements you need are installed on your front-end Web servers before you begin the upgrade process. You can use the pre-upgrade checker — and, for a database attach upgrade, the test-spconten

I had a client call me the other day as he was having an issue with a couple of his SharePoint 2010 sites that seemed strange, the sites just stopped working.  When anyone tried to access the sites, they would get HTTP 500 errors.  I was able to resolve this issue for the client so I thought I should share some of my troubleshooting tips. As SharePoint admins, we get sucked into IIS and SQL Server, it's just the nature of the beast.  Save yourself therapy and hours crying yourself to sleep and just accept it.  Today we’re going to look at a few different steps as we troubleshoot issues with issues when the SharePoint sites don’t come up, specifically in IIS. First, what is the HTTP 500? The page could not be displayed . The important piece of this page is the status code on the top right – "HTTP 500 ".  That’s the status code.  You can find more on general status codes in this Microsoft KB article.  It’s a fairly generic error code.  How do we know what’s brok

I published a SharePoint site today through TMG.  Everything looked great until you went to view/edit the properties of a document in a document library.  I got the following error: “Error Code: 500 Internal Server Error. The request was rejected by the HTTP filter. Contact the server administrator. (12217) “ Trying the same actions on any other list/library worked fine; just not for a document library.  The problem turned out to be related to HTTP filtering in TMG.  To fix the issue, Open the properties of the firewall policy.  Click Filtering > Configure HTTP under the Traffic tab Uncheck Verify normalization. Save and apply changes and you should be all set.

This error " The Managed Metadata Service or Connection is currently not available. The Application Pool or Managed Metadata Web Service may not have been started. Please Contact your Administrator ." appears with various possible ways. I have tried googling and everybody has given a solution to provide permission to Managed Metadata Service Application. But, this didn't fix my issue. I have looked at the ULS logs, it gives me access error as below. Exception occured while connecting to WCF endpoint: System.ServiceModel.Security.SecurityAccessDeniedException: Access is denied.    Server stack trace:    The below are possible solutions for this issue. Solution 1:  Check your IIS and check IUSR is added in Anonymous Authentication. Here are the steps. * Open the IIS and click on ServerName in left pane. Now Click on Authentication in middle pane as shown in below screenshot. Right Click on Anonymous Authentication and select Edit option.  * C

To STOP Distributed Cache $instanceName ="SPDistributedCacheService Name=AppFabricCachingService" $serviceInstance = Get-SPServiceInstance | ? {($_.service.tostring()) -eq $instanceName -and ($_.server.name) -eq "<server name>"} $serviceInstance.unprovision() To START Distributed Cache $instanceName ="SPDistributedCacheService Name=AppFabricCachingService" $serviceInstance = Get-SPServiceInstance | ? {($_.service.tostring()) -eq $instanceName -and ($_.server.name) -eq "<server name>"} $serviceInstance.provision()

This procedure will guide you on how to fix Distributed cache error. Usually you perform the stop/start of the service instance from central admin or thru powershell. However, if it doesn't work then you need to follow these steps below. Get the GUID of Distributed cache instance: - Run the Get-SPServiceInstance to find the GUID in the ID section of the Distributed Cache Service that is causing the error. Delete the Distributed cache instance: - Run these command $s = get-spserviceinstance GUID $s.delete() Recreate the Distributed cache instance: - Run this command Add-SPDistributedCacheServiceInstance

Stop the Windows SharePoint Services Timer service (Found in Windows Services) Navigate to the cache folder In Windows Server 2008, the configuration cache is in the following location: Drive:\ProgramData\Microsoft\SharePoint\Config Locate the folder that has the file “Cache.ini” Back up the Cache.ini file. Delete all the XML configuration files in the GUID folder. Do this so that you can verify that the GUID folder is replaced by new XML configuration files when the cache is rebuilt. Note When you empty the configuration cache in the GUID folder, make sure that you do not delete the GUID folder and the Cache.ini file that is located in the GUID folder. Double-click the Cache.ini file. Select the entire contents of the Cache.ini file and delete it, replacing all the text with the number ’1′. Save the file and close Start the Windows SharePoint Services Timer service Note The file system cache is re-created after you perform this procedure. Make sure that you pe

Problem: Intermitten requests are not returning the pdf/word documents.  Most requests are working and occasionally 1 request doesn't work.  Every 4th request tries to get the pdf to display on Office Web Apps for a few minutes without any error message and then stops trying and displays the message "Sorry, Word Web App can't open this ... document because the service is busy." Initial Hypothesis: Originally I thought it was only happening to pdfs but it is happening to word and pdf documents (I don't have excel docs in my system).  My monitoring software SolarWinds is badly configured on my OWA servers as the monitor is showing green, drining into the servers monitoring the 2 application monitors are failing.  The server should go amber if either of the 2 applications fail and in turn red after 5 minutes.  At this point I notice that I can't log onto my 4 OWA/WCA server.  Web request are not being returned.  I look at my KEMP load balancer and it says al

Problem: Can't open word, pdf, pptx or excel documents using Office Web Apps.  ULS on the OWA servers included these log messages: WOPI (CheckFile) - Invalid Proof Signature for file.  WOPI Proof: All WOPI Signature verification attempts failed.  WOPI Signature verification attempt failed with public key. Also found in the logs: "Error message from host: Verifying signature failed, host correlation" " HttpRequestAsync (WOPICheckFile,WACSERVER), request failure [HttpResponseCode:NotFound, HttpResponseCodeDescription:Not Found, url:https://www.demo.dev/_vti_bin/wopi.ashx/files/8b07d55558955551beb5555bed545553?access_token=REDACTED_1014&access_token_ttl=1392256555993]" Same issue ULS excerpt: Error message from host: Verifying signature failed, host correlation: WOPI CheckFile: Catch-All Failure [exception:Microsoft.Office.Web.Common.EnvironmentAdapters.FileUnknownException: WOPI 404    at Microsoft.Office.Web.Apps.Common.WopiDocument.LogAndThrowWireExcep

Problem:  When opening a docx file using WCA (Office Web Apps) I get the following error mes: "Sorry, there was a problem and we can't open this document. If this happens again, try opening the document in Microsoft Word." I then tried to open an excel document and got the error: "We couldn't find the file you wanted. It's possible the file was renamed, moved or deleted." Initial Hypothesis: Checked the ULS logs on the only OWA server and found this unexpected error:  HttpRequestAsync, (WOPICheckFile,WACSERVER) no response [WebExceptionStatus:ConnectFailure, url:http://webuat.demo.dev/_vti_bin/wopi.ashx/... This appears to be a networking related issue, I have a NLB (KEMP) and I am using a wildcard certificate on the WCA adr with SSL termination. Resolution: The error message tells me that it can't get back to the SharePoint WFE servers from the OWA server.  The request from the WCA/OWA1 server back to the SP front end server is not done using

Problem: When Opening a word document I get the following error when Office Web Apps tries to render the document " There's a configuration problem preventing us from getting your document. If possible, try opening this document in Microsoft Word. " Initial Hypothesis: Check the ULS logs on the Web Front End (SharePoint Server) as this doesn't tell me much.  I found the following issue in my UL S: WOPI (CheckFile) - Invalid Proof Signature for file SandPit Environment Setup.docx url: http://web-sp2013-uat.demo.dev/Docs/_vti_bin/wopi.ashx/files/6d0f38c0d5554c87a655558da9cedcad?access_token... Resolution: Run the following PS> Update-SPWOPIProofKey -ServerName "wca-uat.demo.dev" More Info: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj219460.aspx

Problem:  Can't open any document in WCA and the WCA ULS is generating the following issue: WOPI CheckFile: Catch-All Failure [exception:Microsoft.Office.Web.Common.EnvironmentAdapters.UnexpectedErrorException: HttpRequest failed ---> Microsoft.Office.Web.Apps.Common.HttpRequestAsyncException: No Response in WebException ---> System.Net.WebException: The underlying connection was closed: Could not establish trust relationship for the SSL/TLS secure channel. ---> System.Security.Authentication.AuthenticationException: The remote certificate is invalid according to the validation procedure.   Initial Hypothesis:  On each specific WCA server, I try open the SharePoint web Application i.e. https://www.demo.dev, the browser displays that the certificate has errors "Certificate error".  Opening up the certificate and the certificate chain looks correct. Resolution: 1. Run -> MMC -> File -> Add snap-ins -> Certificates -> Add -> Computer Accou

Problem: When opening a work or pdf document I receive the following error popup "Sorry, there was a problem and we can't open this PDF. If this happens again, try opening the PDF in Microsoft Word." Initial Hypothesis: WCA was working and PDF's were opening.  The error is similar to the error received when the networking is not correct (WCA machines can't access the SharePoint WFE's). Opening the ULS logs on the WCA machines, I can see the following error message   "WOPI CheckFile: Catch-All Failure [exception:Microsoft.Office.Web.Common.EnvironmentAdapters.UnexpectedErrorException: HttpRequest failed ---> Microsoft.Office.Web.Apps.Common.HttpRequestAsyncException: No Response in WebException ---> System.Net.WebException: Unable to connect to the remote server ---> System.Net.Sockets.SocketException: No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it 10.189.xx.15:443" Resolution:  * My load balancer is

Problem: In my redundant Search farm, search falls over.  It was working, nothing appears to of changed but it suddenly stops working.  This problem has caused itself to surface in several places: 1. In  Central Admin going to "Search Administration" displays the following error message:  Search Application Topology - Unable to retrieve topology component health states. This may be because the admin component is not up and running. 2. Query and crawl stopped working. 3. Using PowerShell I can't get the status of the Search Service Application PS> $srchSSA = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceApplication PS> Get-SPEnterpriseSearchStatus -SearchApplication $srchSSA Error: Get-SPEnterpriseSearchStatus : Failed to connect to system manager. SystemManagerLocations: net.tcp://sp2013-srch2/CD8E71/AdminComponent2/Management 4. In the "Search Administration" page within Central Admin, if I click " Content Sources " I get the error mes

I set up a Site Workflow that reads some properties of an employee from an external SQL Database. * created a dbreader user in SQL Server * added the SQL credentials to Secure Store * created External Content Type in Designer * created External List based on the previously created ECT * user is able to see data in the External List * created Workflow that reads data from the External List. * running the Workflow will return empty data for any query from the External List * following error in the logs w3wp.exe (0x029C)                         0x3D4C  Secure Store Service            Secure Store                    efr5  High      ValidateCredentialClaims - Access Denied: Claims stored in the credentials did not match with the group claim for a group app. w3wp.exe (0x029C)                         0x3D4C  Secure Store Service            Secure Store                    7493  Critical  The Microsoft Secure Store Service application Secure Store Service failed to retrieve credentials. The

All managers from the company were waked with this emails like: Subject: The My Site of X Y is scheduled for deletion The My Site of X Y is scheduled for deletion in 14 days. As their manager you are now the temporary owner of their site. This temporary ownership gives you access to the site to copy any business-related information you might need. To access the site use this URL: https://mysites.portal.domain.local/personal/xy Pretty uncomfortable. The day before this I deleted the AD Sync Connection from SharePoint's User Profile Service Application and this caused it. The sync job ran and with no connections SP thought that all the users have been deleted. Theoretically there should be 14 days until these profiles are deleted but for some reason I can't see past activity for the use users. Long story short, I need to restore MySites from a backup .   The Process The restoring process is simpler than thought. Later I found out that I had to restore the User Profi

Today I reconfigured my Search Service Application following this post. After restarting the SharePoint Search Host Controller in services.msc, I observed that the search is not working in SharePoint. Lots of logs, not much sense: Get-SPEnterpriseSearchStatus tells me that the Index Component and the Partition is degraded: PS C:\Windows\system32> $ssa = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceApplication PS C:\Windows\system32> Get-SPEnterpriseSearchStatus -Text  -SearchApplication $ssa Name      : IndexComponent1 State     : Degraded State     : List of degraded cells: Cell:IndexComponent1-SPeb9d40f9a806I.0.0; Partition : 0 Host      : SPSRV Name      : Cell:IndexComponent1-SPeb9d40f9a806I.0.0 State     : Degraded State     : (Secondary index cell) Primary   : False Partition : 0 Name  : Partition:0 State : Degraded State : Degraded cells: Cell:IndexComponent1-SPeb9d40f9a806I.0.0; Name  : AdminComponent1 State : Active Host  : SPSRV Name  : QueryProcessing

After performing a SharePoint 2013 upgrade we were having trouble with our search functions and got a rather generic error message. After doing a migration upgrade of SharePoint 2010 to SharePoint 2013, search failed with: Sorry, something went wrong. A correlation id is provided. We checked our Content Sources from Central Administration->Manage Services on Server->SharePointServer Search->Search Service Application->Content Sources   and found that Full Crawls had completed successfully. You will find a TON of log enties for that correlation id, so finding the root cause is daunting.  Buried in the results you will find a 500 Service Unavailable error connecting to the Metadata Management Service. In the Search Service Application, we saw that in Queries and Results->Search Dictionaries , we had an error: Managed Meta Data Error The Managed Metadata Service or Connection is currently not available.  The Application Pool or Managed Metadata Web Service

What is Host Named Site collections? Host-named site collections are the best option if you want to create multiple root-level site collections within a web application. (Or Unique URL for each site collection) * SharePoint supports both path-based & host-named site collections. * The primary difference:  All path-based site collections in a Web application share the same host name (DNS name) , where as each host-named site collection in a Web application is assigned with a unique DNS name . In other words: Host-named site collections allow you to create many root-level host-named sites within a single Web application. With path-based sites, you are limited to a single root-level site collection within a Web application What are the advantage/dis-advantages: Path-Named : * These sites can be accessed from any zone that you configure. * Alternate access mappings feature, which provides support for SSL, works with all path-based sites. * you are limited

What is iFilter ? * IFilters are components that allow SharePoint to index content of specific file types, letting users to search for content in those files. * Using the SharePoint Search we can find documents based on their filename, metadata or content within a document. * By default the content of Office documents is indexed by the SharePoint crawler, but PDF files are not crawled. * To add support for PDF files you have to add an I-Filter which the SharePoint crawler uses to read through PDF files and add the information to the search index. There are two steps in configuring PDF Search IFilters for SharePoint 1.       Install the PDF iFilter 2.       Configure the iFilter Installing IFilter The Installation of the iFilter 9.0 has to be done on the Index Server(s) How to install ifilter in SharePoint 2010? Download  and install the iFilter installation file for 64-bit machine from http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=4025 Cho