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

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.