Moving SharePoint to a new SQL Server

A short while ago a colleague of mine ran into trouble while trying to move SharePoint from one SQL Server to another. He stuck to all the prescribed documentation, but it simply didn’t want to work. My suggestion to him was simply to backup and restore the farm.  Although this sounds simple, those of use that have ventured down the road of disaster recovery of any application, know that trouble awaits around every corner is attention to detail is not specifically acute.

He eventually got it right and was nice enough to document the steps.  Although this process is already fairly well documented, I think this “simple guide” gives a great overview of what is required to backup a SharePoint farm on one SQL Server and move it (restore) to another. 

Create backups of the Content databases for the following :

o   Shared Services

o   Shared Services Search

o   CompanyIntranet Content db

o   CompanyMysite Content db

Create backup of top level site using the following command:

o   Stsadm –o backup –url http://companyintranet –filename c:\companyintranet.bak

o   Stsadm –o backup – url http://companymysite –filename c:\companymysite.bak

Remove all servers from the Configuration database

Log into SQL, detach and drop the following databases

o   Shared Services

o   Shared services Search

o   CompanyIntranet content db

o   CompanyMysite content db

Copy DB and log files to new SQL server

Log onto new server and reattach DB files to server

Create new config database

Join all servers to new config database

Configure services on farm

Create all web applications exactly as before but specify a new db name

Go to Application Management, Content DB

Disconnect all DB’s on web applications

Reconnect to old DB that was copied to server

Go to Shared Services Administration

Select restore SSP

Complete the SSP form and click OK

**All should be well**

Note: The following steps are by no means supported by Microsoft and the officially white paper(s) should always be consulted.

For more information, please read the following whitepaper: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=108961&clcid=0×409

Cannot connect to configuration database

Recently I was deploying templates to a WSS2.0 site and I recieved the error “Cannot connect to configuration database”.  When I first recieved this error some years ago, I immediately thought I had network issues or SQL was not running.  I mean it only makes sense, right?  Wrong.

This error 9 out of 10 times means that the current user that you are logged in as or trying to perform the operation with does not have the appropriate permissions to the database server.  To get passed this error, simply add the relevant user to the Security Administrators and Database Creators server roles.

Please see the following article for more details:  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/823287.

So, you want to deliver real value to your customers?

It goes without saying that the primary goal of any software project is to deliver real value to the customer. The end goal is not simply a ‘state’ of the system, nor a set of requirements that need to be delivered (i.e. “The spec says we must deliver 7 components, we have delivered all 7, so the project was a success.”)

Unfortunately, many software development organizations still believe that this is how to build software that makes customers happy. Sadly, they are still building software the old way; that impersonal, rigid, change-inhibiting, plan-everything-up-front process. It’s always difficult to show these organizations the benefits of Agile development, as many are so embedded in their ways that they cannot imagine doing it any other way. What gets me is that, more often than not, companies continue to try to make these archaic processes work in today’s fast-paced environment even when it’s clearly not working out very well for them.

With many new players popping up all the time, it’s important for software companies to evolve and adapt to the changing battlefield. To be the best, you need to make use of the best tools at your disposal, and with tools like Agile Software Development we have an answer to the most common problems in software development. Agile helps to deliver better quality, reduce waste, reduce risk, and ultimately allow customers to gain more value from their system. Better value means happier customers.

iPhone Applications

iPhone Applications

I’m not a smartphone person, I like my phones basic, to the point of it being archaic.  I believe a phone should make calls and send text and multimedia messages.  Yes sure, I enjoy browsing the net every so often, but if I want to do anything work related, I’ve got my laptop and a trusty 3G connection with me more often than not.

Although this is my current view, I do recall that I was that guy that was still using a keyboard for first person shooter games months after the mouse was introduced to “look”.  So it’s clear that my outlook on smartphones might change in the near future and to be honest, judging by applications available on the iPhone, this time might be closer than I would like to admit.

Speaking of applications, iPhone has approximately 800 add-on applications on offer at the moment, compare that to Nokia’s 18000 and it doesn’t sound like a lot, but for the discerning application installer, 800 is still a lot to sift through in order to find the best.  Luckily Jeremy Caplan has already done that.  In his article titled “Sorting the Jewels from the Junk in the iTunes Store”  he picks the 11 coolest free applications that are available.  It’s a great overview for not only the smartphone user, but also for the interested but not yet converted among us.

Here is a quick summary on the applications that might convert me into a smartphone user:

http://www.yelp.com/:  Ever been stuck in a foreign place without something to do?  This application has a ton of user reviews on anything from restaurants to hairstylists.  It uses the iPhone’s GPS to track down places near to you, but sadly it currently only has American cities available.

http://www.instapaper.com/:  I often use my mobile phone to read a couple of news / blog articles when I’m killing time waiting in line at a grocer or sitting at an airport.  Instapaper allows you to send stories you find online to your phone to read later. 

Resources:

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1823107_1823513,00.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphone
http://www.yelp.com/
http://www.instapaper.com/

Infrastructure Update Announced

As announced on the 15th of July, on the Microsoft SharePoint Team Blog, a major infrastructure update was made available for download.  The update has been broken up into three separate patches and the following sections will note what products they relate to along with the “best” fixes / enhancements.  The sections are:

- Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Office Servers (KB951297)
- Infrastructure Update for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (KB951695)
- Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Office Project 2007 (KB951547)

Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Office Servers (KB951297)

This update relates to the following products:

- Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
- Microsoft Office Project Server 2007
- Microsoft Search Server 2008
- Microsoft Search Server 2008 Express

Summary:

This update is the biggest, in my opinion, and not only resolves issues, but also includes 2 new Enterprise Search components, namely Federated Search and a unified administration dashboard.  These components shipped with Search Server 2008 and Search Server 2008 Express and will now be available in SharePoint 2007!  Over and above the additional components a large amount of issues have also been resolved.   This update is so significant that I’m still left wondering why this isn’t a service pack.

In any event, here is a quick summary of the added components followed by my list of fixes I’m happy to see:

Federated Search:

I must admit, although I’m excited about Federated Search, I’m not entirely sure what all the fuss is about.  Federated Search gives SharePoint administrators the ability to create connections from their intranet to external sites for indexing purposes.  This is not a new concept as this ability was, and still is, available natively from within SharePoint 2007.  Administrator can very easily add multiple content sources to their search, including file shares, exchange folder, third party data (via BDC) and internet sites to “federate” their results.

Having said that, I’m happy that Microsoft have gone this route as it gives the less tech savvy administrator the ability to add value in their organisation easier (hopefully) as the setup and configuration should be less cumbersome.

Here is a screenshot of the updated results:

Federated Search Results

Unified Administration Dashboard:

The updated dashboard consolidates all the search related functions into one page.  This is going to make the life of the SharePoint Administrator a lot easier.  Although Microsoft have tried their best to layout the navigation and menu structure of the Central and Shared Service Provider Administration to be as self explanatory as possible, I still find myself getting a little lost in it from time to time.

Here is a screenshot of the updated dashboard:

Unified Administration Dashboard

Here is a list of the fixes I’m very happy have been included:

- Several database indexing adjustments are made to improve performance of core client-and-server scenarios, such as “Save and Publish” scenarios

- Resolves the most common usability issues that prohibit deployment for some customers

- Adds some end-user functionality that existed in Project 2003. For example, the update adds the following functionality: • You can sort on any column.
• The My Tasks page can be grouped.
• You can determine the hierarchy of a task. This functionality can be useful if you have multiple tasks that have the same name.

- In Microsoft Office Servers Service Pack 1, a Web Part property named Hours per day was added to the My Tasks view. This property lets you enter daily actual work in a grid in the My Tasks view. This Web Part property is now exposed in the View Options area. It appears as Timephased View

For a full description of what is resolved with this update, please read this article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953750/

Infrastructure Update for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (KB951695)

This update relates to:

- Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

Summary:

This update centres mainly around Workflow and Content Deployment, but here are the updates that I’m happy to see:

- Miscellaneous deadlocks occur in Microsoft SQL Server
- Custom master page settings on the source site are not propagated to the destination site during deployment. (I was hoping that they would solve the masterpage propogation to child sites, guess we will need to wait)

For a full description of what is resolved with this update, please read this article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953749/

Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Office Project 2007 (KB951547)

This update relates to:

- Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007

Summary:

A lot of work has been done on the “Cost resources” side of things, which is great news as apart from tracking progress, tracking cost is exceptionally important.  Here are the updates that I’m happy to see:

- When you enter actual cost for a task, the task’s finish date changes. Additionally, the new date differs from the assignment’s finish date
- Random costs are added to the planned cost contour when you enter actual costs at the end of the established contour
- Addressed top issues that relate to active cache data resiliency (Looking forward to seeing how this update works in practise)
- Added a dialog box that notifies users to make sure that you save all pending project data to the Project Server Queue before they exit Project Professional
- When you receive an error message in Project 2007, you may receive a check-in request message

For a full description of what is resolved with this update, please read this article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953751/

Resources:

- http://blogs.msdn.com/enterprisesearch/archive/2008/07/15/announcing-availability-of-infrastructure-updates.aspx
- http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/blogs/GetThePoint/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=101
- http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2008/07/15/announcing-availability-of-infrastructure-updates.aspx

SharePoint on the iPhone!

Straight out of a dream…

“I recently discovered what appears to be a “killer application” for mobile productivity: using and managing fully-featured SharePoint sites from an iPhone. No, not the dumbed-down, “/m” DOS-like simplified SharePoint views. We’re talking about the full, richly formatted and designed SharePoint user experience, including logging in to the back-end and configuring sites. Accessed from an iPhone, SharePoint now allows business workgroup teams to collaborate while truly “on the go”, potentially speeding up the tempo of team workflow on critical projects.” – Read the full article.

Now I just need an iPhone. I don’t think my Windows Mobile phone will be impressed.

Quantifying Agile value up-front

Recently, in a discussion on the topic of Agile software development, a colleague asked the question, “Yes, of course clients want value, but how do you quantify this before the project even starts?”

My answer was that in Agile, customers are an active stakeholder in the success of the project, and ideally would be committed to its success. They would play an active part in its progress in order to help the team aim the project in the right direction.

If anything, a project’s value proposition should be based on the idea of delivering the highest value possible early on (and obviously throughout the project lifecycle). Customers love this, and why wouldn’t they? They can see what they’re paying for right at iteration one (i.e. within the first few weeks of development), and can suggest amendments if necessary instead of waiting for months for a final deliverable only to realise that it’s not really what they need. There are many reasons why one would want features delivered sooner rather than later, and this is a key selling point that can be used to gain customer buy-in at the start of an Agile project.

I also came across an interesting post on Visualizing Agile Value, which I thought was worth sharing.

64bit PDF iFilter for MOSS now available

As you are aware the stock standard PDF iFilter does not support 64bit MOSS.  Thankfully, a solution has arrived.  Interestingly enough it hasn’t come from any of the players that own the platforms, but rather from a third party company, Foxit Software.

The following post has a link to the iFilter download and contains steps to install:  http://blogs.msdn.com/ifilter/archive/2007/05/10/long-awaited-64-bit-pdf-ifilter-finally-available.aspx

MOSS content management check-out errors

SharePoint 2007 has totally integrated SharePoint 2003 and MCMS 2002 to create a wonderful content management experience.  However, the error messages it displays are not always as helpful as one would expect. Here is an example:

“This item must be checked out before its properties can be edited.”

Now this might seem pretty simple as you’re reading it, but trust me, while you are editing the page, this error is pretty confusing due to the fact that the editing toolbar – which contains all the required information – isn’t always shown by default.

Basically, whenever you see this message it means that the page has been checked out by someone else.  The easiest way to see who has it checked out is to call up the Editing Toolbar by clicking on “Site Actions –> Show Editing Toolbar“.  The green bar that appears will clearly note exactly who has it checked out.  There you can interact with the relevant user via LCS, or if you have administrative rights, override the checkout and work from there.

Search errors after index recovery

I have done a number of deep dive SharePoint 2003 / 2007 search troubleshooting sessions, and every time I come out the other side, it feels good.  Here are two little tidbits that I came across the other day while assisting one of our clients with their search problems.

Note:  This applies to SharePoint 2003 only.

If you have custom search web parts that make use of the either the SharePoint object model or its web services to interact with search, you might have found the following exceptions in your code.

“System.Data.OleDb.OleDbException: The specified index list version is outdated or invalid.“

or

“…Error while building catalog list“

If you see either of these two errors in your logging, complete the following steps:

- Restart the Microsoft SharePointSP Search service

- Start an incremental crawl on all your indexes

This solved the problem in both instances for me.  Happy troubleshooting.