SharePointSupport

Recently I have involved in an interesting troubleshooting issue. There are many blog posts and TechNet discussions about this error. Thought that to post it here about my experience. Here is the scenario. Customer has two Windows 2008 R2 Std machines (lets call it as srvsp1 & srvsp2) installed and configured with the following products. SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise Edition Office Web Apps Recently we have patched those two servers , for some troubleshooting one of the servers (srvsp2) was disconnected from the farm. After completing the installation while trying to add the server back to the farm by running the PSConfig we got the below error, The license state for the current server doesn't match the farm's license state. System.InvalidOperationException: The current server cannot be joined to this farm because the set of installed products does not match the products installed in the farm. The license state for the current server doesn't matc

* Recently I had worked with my customer to setup a new SharePoint farm with pre-created (DBA created) databases. *  Concept and prerequisites are very well documented in this TechNet article . While testing the deployment what really matters were the creation of couple of service application.  * Bad guys were Usage Logging & State Service Application . All other service applications were easy to provision (we were using auto AutoSPInstaller http://autospinstaller.codeplex.com /   to automate the deployment using Power Shell). * Except Usage Logging & State Service application all other service applications were able to use the pre-created database while provisioning the new service application using New-SP* commandlets.  * Usage Logging & State Service applications were complaining that the there is already a database exists with the same name .  * To work-around this, we have to approach the provision in a different way. I’m giving the provisioning s

* Though this topic is very simple and highly recommended approach in the enterprise deployments, I have seen many deployments which are not following this approach. E.g.: Using SQL client alias for SharePoint installations will be really useful if you want  move all databases to another SQL Server  by just making alias change point to the new SQL server. * In this post I’m going to cover how we can install & configure SharePoint 2013 Preview with SQL Client Alias. Though this post is talking about SharePoint 2013 preview, the underlying concept will be same for SharePoint 2010 & SharePoint 2013 RTM. * In my test lab, I have total four virtual machines configured. This post is based on a SharePoint small server farm for setup and proof of concept. I will refer to this same environment in my future blog posts, there will be more servers adding to the existing server farm. litdc  : is the domain controller and AD server (domain : litware.local), this machine is inst

If you block UDP port 1434 or TCP port 1433 on the computer that is running SQL Server, you must create a SQL Server client alias on all other computers in the server farm. You can use SQL Server client components to create a SQL Server client alias for computers that connect to SQL Server. To configure a SQL Server client alias 1. Verify that the user account that is performing this procedure is a member of either the sysadmin or the serveradmin fixed server role. 2. Run Setup for SQL Server on the target computer, and install the following client components:  Connectivity Components  Management Tools 3. Open SQL Server Configuration Manager. 4. In the navigation pane, click SQL Native Client Configuration . 5. In the main window under Items, right-click Aliases , and select New Alias . 6. In the Alias - New dialog box, in the Alias Name field, enter a name for the alias. For example, enter SharePoint_alias. 7. In the Port No field, enter the port number fo

To access a SQL Server instance through a firewall, you must configure the firewall on the computer that is running SQL Server to allow access. Any ports that you manually assign must be open in Windows Firewall. To configure Windows Firewall to open manually assigned ports 1. Verify that the user account that is performing this procedure is a member of either the sysadmin or the serveradmin fixed server role. 2. In Control Panel , open System and Security . 3. Click Windows Firewall , and then click Advanced Settings to open the Windows Firewall with Advanced Security dialog box. 4. In the navigation pane, click Inbound Rules to display the available options in the Actions pane . 5. Click New Rule to open the New Inbound Rule Wizard . 6. Use the wizard to complete the steps that are required to allow access to the port that you defined in   Configure a SQL Server instance to listen on a non-default port . Note: You can configure the Internet Protocol security (IP

Windows Firewall with Advanced Security uses Inbound Rules and Outbound Rules to help secure incoming and outgoing network traffic. Because Windows Firewall blocks all incoming unsolicited network traffic by default, you do not have to explicitly block the default SQL Server listening ports. For more information, see Windows Firewall with Advanced Security and Configuring the Windows Firewall to Allow SQL Server Access .

SQL Server provides the ability to reassign the ports that are used by the default instance and any named instances. In SQL Server 2008 R2, and SQL Server 2012, you reassign the TCP port by using SQL Server Configuration Manager. When you change the default ports, you make the environment more secure against hackers who know default assignments and use them to exploit your SharePoint environment. To configure a SQL Server instance to listen on a non-default port 1. Verify that the user account that is performing this procedure is a member of either the sysadmin or the serveradmin fixed server role. 2. On the computer that is running SQL Server, open SQL Server Configuration Manager . 3. In the navigation pane, expand SQL Server Network Configuration . 4. Click the corresponding entry for the instance that you are configuring. The default instance is listed as Protocols for MSSQLSERVER . Named instances will appear as Protocols for named_instance. 5. In the main window in

Account Purpose Requirements SQL Server service account The SQL Server service account is used to run SQL Server. It is the service account for the following SQL Server services:  MSSQLSERVER  SQLSERVERAGENT If you do not use the default SQL Server instance, in the Windows Services console, these services will be shown as the following:  MSSQL<InstanceName>  SQLAgent<InstanceName> Use either a Local System account or a domain user account. If you plan to back up to or restore from an external resource, permissions to the external resource must be granted to the appropriate account. If you use a domain user account for the SQL Server service account, grant permissions to that domain user account. However, if you use the Network Service or the Local System account, grant permissions to the external resource to the machine account (<domain_name>\<SQL_hostname>). The instance name is arb