Posts

Installing Workflow Manager Offline

Image
Microsoft has introduced new Workflow engine and concept with SharePoint 2013 called Workflow Manager. The SharePoint 2013 Workflow platform uses the new Workflow Manager service. Workflow Manager is built on top of Windows Workflow Foundation. Windows Workflow Foundation is part of the .NET Framework 4.5. Workflow Manager is a separate download and must be configured to communicate with the SharePoint Server 2013 farm. In several cases your environment is secured and not accessing the internet and you want to install the workflow manager so in the following steps I am going to explain how to do that so you can install Workflow Manager offline to server(s) not connected to the internet. Download the web platform installer  http://download.microsoft.com/download/C/F/F/CFF3A0B8-99D4-41A2-AE1A-496C08BEB904/WebPlatformInstaller_amd64_en-US.msi and install it on a machine with internet access Run the following commands as administrator from command prom

Configure Multiple App Domain

Introduction One of the feature updates of the   March 2013 Public Update   for SharePoint 2013 enables you to use multiple app domains in SharePoint 2013 environments with alternate access mapping or host-header web application configurations. Microsoft introduced a new concept with SharePoint 2013 and Office 365 to extend the out of the box functionality instead of the normal approach of farm solutions now you can add apps (add ins) through Java script code or using .net and hosting apps outside SharePoint environment without need to go and deploy code into SharePoint which increase the  re-usability , enhance the security and assure that SharePoint farm stability and code isolation. To have apps working you need to configure App Domain which is a corner stone to have apps working, at some cases you will need to have more than one app domain configured so I am going through this topic in the few lines. Why we need multiple App Domains? You could use app

Unable to save site as template "unexpected error has occurred"

Image
Here we go, it’s been a long time I didn’t publish an article which consist of hardcore troubleshooting! Yes, you are correct. It took some time to resolve but finally the issue has been resolved. This time it’s regarding problem occurring while ‘save site as template’ and how we found the culprit.  Problem description:- User has raised the problem ticket by mentioning “facing problem while saving the site as template”, additionally the templates are getting saved in the solution gallery but not able to activate it also.   Error message:- An unexpected error has occurred. Troubleshoot issues with Microsoft SharePoint Foundation. Correlation ID: acd95f50-4049-4625-9682-aa93aded118f   Troubleshooting done:- Further debugging in the SP ULS logs and we found some strange facts which are based on event receivers- please refer below-   SPSolutionExporter: Microsoft.SharePoint.SPException: Feature definition with Id 77658379-50ff-4e1e-a431-5652bee07a87 failed

Project Server Error Codes

Project Server 2010 Error Codes Project Server 2013 error codes

Share service applications across farms in SharePoint 2013

Image
In SharePoint 2013, some service applications can be shared across server farms. By publishing a service application, you can optimize resources, avoid redundancy, and provide enterprise-wide services without installing a dedicated enterprise services farm. You can publish the following service applications in a SharePoint 2013 farm: Business Data Connectivity Machine Translation Managed Metadata User Profile Search Secure Store Additionally, a SharePoint 2010 farm can consume services from a SharePoint 2013 Server farm. This allows for upgrade of multi-farm environments in which a farm hosting service applications is upgraded first. In this scenario, the service applications and features that the SharePoint 2010 farm experiences are limited to those that are available in SharePoint 2010. For example, a SharePoint 2010 farm cannot consume the Machine Translation service application from a SharePoint Server 2013 farm and does not benefit from the new features of the User Prof

Parallel Query Processing

* SQL Server provides parallel queries to optimize query execution and index operations for computers that have m ore than one microprocessor (CPU) . Because SQL Server can perform a query or index operation in parallel by using several operating system threads, the operation can be completed quickly and efficiently. * During query optimization, SQL Server looks for queries or index operations that might benefit from parallel execution. * For these queries, SQL Server inserts exchange operators into the query execution plan to prepare the query for parallel execution .  * An exchange operator is an operator in a query execution plan that provides process management, data redistribution, and flow control . The exchange operator includes the Distribute Streams , Repartition Streams , and Gather Streams logical operators as subtypes, one or more of which can appear in the Show plan output of a query plan for a parallel query. * After exchange operators are inserted, the resul

SharePoint Error : The Managed Metadata Service or Connection is currently not available. The Application Pool or Managed Metadata Web Service may not have been started.

Image
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. Click on Specific

SharePoint 2010 - Out of box webparts

Out Of Box ( OOB ) Webparts These are the basic in-built components in SharePoint for displaying and managing list data without the need of any custom development. Not all of them will be available depending upon the version of SharePoint installed. List of OOB Webparts in SharePoint 2010 Following is the list of OOB webparts in SharePoint 2010 along with the category. List and Libraries Announcements – Use this list to track upcoming events, status updates or other team news Calendar – Use the Calendar list to keep informed of upcoming meetings, deadlines, and other important events Links - Use the Links list for links to Web pages that your team members will find interesting or useful Shared Documents – Share a document with the team by adding it to this document library Site Assets – Use this library to store files which are included on pages within this site, such as images on Wiki pages. Site Pages – Use this library to create and store pages on this site Ta

SharePoint 2010 - The 14 Hive and other important directories

Image
The 14 Hive - Folder Location The 14 Hive folder is located at the following path C:\Program Files\Common files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14 The 14 Hive - Folder Structure The 14 Hive has a definite folder structure which holds the core SharePoint server files. ADMISAPI:- It contains soap services for Central Administration. If this directory is altered, remote site creation and other methods exposed in the service will not function correctly. Bin:- The directory contains all the core binary files, utilities which used by SharePoint Services.  command line tools such as STSADM.EXE also present in this folder. Config:- This directory contains files used to extend IIS Web sites with SharePoint Server. If this directory or its contents are altered, Web application will not function correctly. HCCab:- This directory has a set of cab files which has content information used by the SharePoint help system. Help:- The folder contains html help file (.chm

Chart Web Part SharePoint 2010

Image
One of the new additions to Microsoft's SharePoint Server 2010 platform is the Chart Web Part (CWP), which allows you to create static and dynamic charts for your site without a line a code. One of the complaints from MOSS 2007 was that users wanted to be able to drop a chart onto their site to create dashboard or display information from Excel documents, or provide metrics to other users in a graphical way. So now that the Chart Web Part is available, let see how we can use it. To drop a Chart Web Part on your page, go to Site Actions > Edit Page. From there, click "Insert" from the Editing Tools menu. The "Chart Web Part" is available under the "Business Data" category, then you can click on the CWP option and add to a content area. Once added to the page, you will see "Data & Appearance" and "Advance Properties" options. There are a couple of ways you can go once you click the "Data & Appeara

Access Requests Explained for SharePoint 2013 – With a Script to Assign Default Groups

One of the features of SharePoint that has been around is the ability for users that need access to a site, and are denied access, through the “Request Access” process . To enable or review these settings, * go to “ Settings ” > “ Site Settings ” > “ User and Permissions ” and click “ Access Request Settings ” . In the “ Access Request Settings ” dialog box, select the check box next to “ Allow access requests ” then provide an email address of the individual you’d like to manage this feature. * If a site has multiple groups with the same permission levels (Owners, Members and Viewers) but there is not an assigned default group, then you will see the problem where access requests will either not display for the impacted user or an owner will not be able to approve requests. Here’s a Windows PowerShell script to change each of the groups for a site so that each is identified as the default group for Members, Owners and Visitors You’ll need to a the “ Microsoft.S

How it works: SharePoint’s Site Use Confirm and Deletion

Image
* Recently, I was asked exactly how the Site Confirmation and Deletion feature works in SharePoint? * Does the timer restart when a user visits the site? * Does the feature look at the some field and then reset the value in a service?  It was a simple question that made me think about how the process worked from an Administrator     point-of-view. * The simple answer is that once a user adds content to a site, a field in a content database is updated and then when a timer job is run, it will review that field and notify site owners appropriately to ensure that they are notified that their site is on “the chopping block”. * Based on your configuration, it will notify you after 90 days (by default) of site collection creation or confirmed use. You can change the amount of notifications sent or you can automatically delete the site collection if use is not confirmed after 28 notices. To access this feature, go to Central Administration > Site Collections > Site U

Extend a Web application

* If you want to expose the same content in a Web application to different types of users by using additional URLs or authentication methods , you can extend an existing Web application into a new zone. * When you extend the Web application into a new zone, you create a separate Internet Information Services (IIS) Web site to serve the same content, but with a unique URL and authentication type . * An extended Web application can use up to five network zones (Default, Intranet, Internet, Custom, and Extranet). For example, if you want to extend a Web application so that customers can access content from the Internet, you select the Internet zone and choose to allow anonymous access and grant anonymous users read-only permissions. Customers can then access the same Web application as internal users, but through different URLs and authentication settings. For more information, see Logical architecture components (SharePoint Server 2010) , Configure anonymous access for a cla

SharePoint 2013 Host Name Site Collections

Image
Intro to Host Name Site Collections (HNSC) * Host Name Site Collections are the answer to simplifying and consolidating SharePoint Farm/s.   Let’s assume a SharePoint Farm has 5 web applications each mapped to a unique application pool.   While this gives you a nice separation for security purposes, it adds unnecessary strain on each WFE.   E ach time an application pool is spun up, it must load all of the assemblies from memory.  * So in this case, each WFE is consuming 5x memory right off the bat.   The costs increase by having to procure beefy machines with lots of memory to support this requirement. * For many of our customers, this led to many multifarm environments due to hitting a cap in physical memory.   Also as you’ve experienced, the sheer # of web applications can lead to long patching cycles with PSConfig . * By consolidating web applications, your essentially cutting operations costs (faster patching times) and reducing infrastructure costs (additiona