Wednesday, February 22, 2012

SharePoint 2010 - DEV box increase available space by shrinking SQL data

On a 2010 development server space can become short especially with large profile imports and search indexes - one way to assist in gaining some space is to adjust a few settings on SQL Server - please note this should only be done on DEV/Test as can cause index fragmentation and therefore slow performance and also can impact backup recovery.

Follow these steps within SQL  - Firstly amend recovery mode (this reduces log files)

  1. Find the databases that are large and taking up the space - in my case this is on my my DEV server.
  2. Connect to SQL Object explorer and connect to instance
  3. Right click on the database that is large - in my case ProfileDB - click Properties and Options and ensure the Recovery mode is set to "Simple" - see screenshot



The 2nd step is too Shrink databases - this will  recover space by moving data from the end of a file to unoccupied space closer to the front of the file.

  1. Use the steps in the following link to carry out this simple task - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms189035.aspx - 



Windows Server - Check Ports

To quickly check the ports open on a server run the following from a DOS prompt


netstat -an |find /i "listening" > c:\ports.txt


Or to check an individual port use telnet


telnet <servername> <port>


example - telnet contososmtp.com 83

Monday, February 13, 2012

SharePoint 2007 - Configuration must be performed in order for this product to operate properly

Received this error when trying to upgrade a 2007 farm from 12.0.06545 to 12.0.06565 on a test environment.


I had run all patches on the farm both WSS and MOSS and could not see why the configuration wizard would not complete - my first reaction was to try re-installing patches but all stated "Already Installed".


I then checked the servers in farm via CA and saw the following - see version numbers






From the screen shot you can see the versions are not displaying correctly and this was causing the wizard to fail, even though all had been installed !!


After a few reboots, IIS resets I realised that the issue was the timer job on the offending server was not running (not on purpose). As soon as this was started the version upgraded and wizard run correctly.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

SharePoint 2007 - Errors after patch deployment

Recently we started seeing the following errors appearing in our SharePoint 2007 environment and sites not able to be created.:



  • The element 'FormTemplatesList' of type 'ListInstance' for feature 'IPFSWebFeatures' (id: a0e5a010-1329-49d4-9e09-f280cdbed37d) threw an exception during activation: Operation aborted (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80004004 (E_ABORT))
  • Failed to activate template-associated site-collection-scoped features for template 'STS#0' in site
  • Failed to apply template "STS#0" to web at URL 
  • Feature Activation: Failed to ensure feature dependencies for feature 'PublishingSite
  • Feature Activation: Failed to ensure feature dependencies for feature 'PremiumSite'



In our environment  by mistake one of the servers in the farm had a latest patch downloaded to it - in this case 12.0.0.6565 - and the rest of the servers were on 12.0.0.6545. However we were not aware the patch had been deployed to the above errors were the only indication something had changed in the farm as via CA it still displayed the old version number.


Out first thought was to run the wizard on the affected servers which proceeded in upgrading the server to the patch and then also all the content databases in the farm .... not ideal and against all Microsoft best practices. Once we realised there was no way to roll back we upgraded the rest of the farm and the errors above disappeared.


Its seems the errors were around mismatches in dlls 









Thursday, February 2, 2012

SharePoint 2010 - Developer Dashboard


Great tool for troubleshooting SharePoint 2010 page performance - you can easily capture bad performing web parts and page loads. Even grab a correlation id that can be traced back to ULS logs. To turn on 


STSADM:
Mode ON
STSADM –o setproperty –pn developer-dashboard –pv On
Mode OFF
STSADM –o setproperty –pn developer-dashboard –pv Off
Mode ONDEMAND
STSADM –o setproperty –pn developer-dashboard –pv OnDemand
                      
PowerShell:
$DevDashboardSettings = [Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPWebService]::ContentService.DeveloperDashboardSettings;
$DevDashboardSettings.DisplayLevel = 'OnDemand';
$DevDashboardSettings.RequiredPermissions = 'EmptyMask';
$DevDashboardSettings.TraceEnabled = $true;
$DevDashboardsettings.Update() 


I use the OnDemand mode, SharePoint displays a small icon beside the Welcome web part. 


Clicking this icon will open the Developer Dashboard at the base of the page and show timings etc

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

SharePoint 2007 Locked Documents

SharePoint Locked Documents


This document contains three potential problems that can occur on SharePoint with locked/checked out documents.  The below will help a reader to recognize and resolve these issues.

Index


Identifying the problems
Fixing the issues
Recovering lost Information/document
Understanding the issue

Identifying the problems


1) A user reports that they cannot edit a SharePoint document as it is locked.  They receive the “File In Use” popup when trying to edit the document.
At some point in time, you will run into the DocumentName is locked for editing by ‘Username’ message when working with SharePoint. Most of the time, this is a very valid message and is notifying the user that someone else is already editing the document.

    Figure 1
 
2) A user reports that they cannot edit a SharePoint document as it is locked, and it is their username that has it locked.
This situation most commonly occurs under the following scenarios:
·         The Microsoft Office product crashes while you were working on the document
·         Computer freezes or crashes while document is open
·         Lost of network connectivity while document is open
3) A user is on holiday or has left Bromley employment and they have some documents checked out (locked). As such users are unable to edit these documents which are checked out.
When trying to edit a document you receive the message reported in “Figure 1”.  The user who has locked/checked-out the document is on holiday or left the company.

Fixing the issues


1) Issue one is a valid message from SharePoint which informs the user that someone else had the document open for editing. 

2) Issue two happens when SharePoint has not received an updated from the client computer that the document has been closed.  To resolve this issue please follow the steps below to reset the lock on the document.

  • If the user has lost information or can not find the document please first follow the “Recovering lost Information/document” section of this document”.
  • Navigate to the document which you are unable to edit, and then check the document back in using the menu in SharePoint as below.  If you are unable to check in the document select the “Discard Check Out” option, and click OK.


  • Move all files from the location below to a temporary folder, wait 10 minutes, then restart the P.C.

“C:\Documents and Settings\<UserName>\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.MSO”



  • Once the P.C. has been restarted the file will be accessible for editing on SharePoint.
  • Request confirmation from the user that the document is accessible and up to date.  If the document is accessible and up to date remove the temporary folder you created.   If the document is not up to date please follow the steps outlined in “Recovering lost Information/document”

3) With Issue three, report this to the SharePoint administrator as they will have to take ownership of the documents and then check them into SharePoint.

Recovering lost Information/document


If word has terminated unexpectedly when editing a SharePoint document, or the network became unavailable and the user has lost work you can attempt to recover this information from three places on the users P.C.

  • Navigate to the hidden folder below.

    “C:\Documents and Settings\<UserName>\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.MSO”

    This folder should contain the last saved changes.  The document will not have the same name but will be a .doc file extension as below.  Also there should not be a lot of files in this folder as it is cleared out once the file is correctly checked-in to SharePoint.


  • Draft documents are also saved in M:\SharePoint Drafts.  When a document is checked out, it is saved in the user's My Documents folder in a subfolder named "SharePoint Drafts." As long as the document is checked out, the user can only save edits to this local folder. When the user is ready to check the document in, the document is saved back to the original server location. 
  • Microsoft Word also has an auto recovery folder for which can be checked for office documents that have not been saved correctly.  The default location of this folder is

    C:\Documents and Settings\<user_name>\Application Data\Microsoft\<office application i.e. word>. 
The document may never have been saved and so may not have title. This will make it hard to identify, but again there should not be lots of files in this location.  Use the detailed view for the most recently created documents to help identify the correct file.


Understanding the issue

When you edit a document, SharePoint registers that you have this document open for editing.  Word launches and informs SharePoint that you have the document open for editing.  A copy of the document that you have opened is placed into a hidden folder in your temporary internet files
C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.MSO
Once every 3 minutes or so, the Office product will check back in with SharePoint letting it know that it is still open by you, after 10 minutes without office checking back the soft lock will be removed (soft lock is a document that is being edited but not checked out, checked out is a hard lock). Once the document is saved, closed and checked-in the content.MSO folder be removed and office will let SharePoint know that the document is now available to other users. 
If the document has not been saved closed and checked back into SharePoint and another user tries to access this document they will receive the message reported in “figure 1”.  This is a normal function of SharePoint informing users that someone has the document open and is editing it.
On some occasions you will receive the locked for editing message with your name there and no matter what you attempt to do you cannot get rid of the message (closing / reopening the document or restarting your computer does nothing to help rectify this).
This situation most commonly occurs under the following scenarios:
·         The Microsoft Office product crashes while you were working on the document
·         Computer freezes or crashes while document is open
·         Lost of network connectivity while document is open
Further information:

SharePoint 2010 - FIM Key


FIM Synchronization Service encryption key

In the case the of DR or a complete rebuild of a SharePoint 2010 environment it is very important that you back the up the FIM key on initial install of the environment. Without this on a rebuild you will NOT be able to re- start the user profile service.

To export the key:
  1. From command prompt go to Program Files%\Microsoft Office Servers\14.0\Synchronization Service\Bin
  2. Type miiskmu.exe /e D:\<path>\FIM_Key
  3. This will backup the key to a directory - then and this is also important copy this off to another location just in case of OS failure.
  4. the user name and password are the credentials for the farm administrator.
     

  1. To import the encryption key, say on rebuild - complete these steps:
  2. Use farm admin to log on to the computer that contains the new User Profile Service service application database.
  3. Ensure the  User Profile Synchronization service has a status of the service is Stopped.
  4. Open the Command Prompt window, and then change to the following folder:

    %Program Files%\Microsoft Office Servers\14.0\Synchronization Service\Bin\
  5. Type the following command, and then press Enter:

    miiskmu.exe /i  D:\<path>\FIM_Key

    Where <Path> is the full path of the file to which you exported the key.
The following like is slightly less clear - 
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff806338.aspx