I'M A PC

Yes, I'm a proud participant of this campaign. Microsoft's new generation of products advertised by the people, that means us.

Go on, and be a part of it, you know you want to :)

I'M A PC, Life Without Walls.

Still very unhappy with their initial attempt though. The one with the has been comedian in it. What a waste of money and time that was, and idiotic. Anyway, trust Microsoft to turn things round for the better.

Don't see the Service tab on IIS?

Well chances are, you're probably looking at the properties of an individual web site. The Service tab is a "Server Wide" setting, so right-click on the Web Sites folder and go to properties from there.

File Share Crawl - The Start Addresses

Ok, just a very quick tip/reminder,  if you're creating a file share content source for crawling.

If the file share you're crawling is located locally on the server then do NOT type in the start address as such:

\\server\directory

All you have to do is type in the start address as below:

file://server/directory

Reporting Services: BI in WSS 3.0 Part1

Have you seen the Business Intelligence functionality in MOSS? One of its main feature, is to have data summarised and displayed as graph/chart on a site (see pic).

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could have something similar with WSS 3.0? Well, yes we actually can !!!

In this 4 part series, I intent to walk you through in setting up and integrating MS SQL Reporting Services with WSS 3.0 and applying it as our BI functionality.

In this first part I intend to go through the MS Reporting Service installation, if you already have this installed then you may want to skip this part.

We start from the MS SQL Server CD auto-play or alternatively click on setup.exe yo run MS SQL. Read and accept the EULA agreement then click Next.

After the prerequisite have been installed, click Next.

On the Installation Wizard screen, click Next.

Allow the System Configuration check to progress through, and then click Next.

After filling out your registration information, click Next.

On Components to install, tick and select Reporting Services, then click Next.

Leave the selected Default Instance, and then click Next.

Fill out the credential details for your user account, I used the same account that MS SQL Server was installed with. Ensure that you have the Reporting Services option ticked, and then click Next.

Click on Next again.

Once ready, click on Install to begin the installation of MS SQL Reporting Services component.

Allow the installation to progress through. Once completed, click Next.

Now click on Finish, and now we officially have Reporting Services installed.

We're almost complete with the first part. But before moving on it's always good to have the latest service pack installed as well. And that's exactly what I intend to do, install Service Pack 2 for MS SQL 2005. Service Pack 2 for MS SQL 2005 can be found here.

Run the Service Pack, and on the Security Dialog Box click Run to begin extracting the files.

On the Setup screen click Next.

Read and accept the License terms, then click Next.

On the Feature Selection screen, ensure that Reporting Services is ticked and selected, then click Next.

On the Authentication mode screen, be sure that Windows Authentication is selected then click Next.

Un-tick and unselect both options on the next screen and click Next.

Click on Next again.

Once ready, click on Install to begin the installation of Service Pack 2.

Allow the installation to progress completely. Once done, click on Next.

Click on Next again.

Un-tick the provisioning tool for Windows Vista, then click Finish.

Now we have MS SQL Reporting Services with the latest service pack installed and ready for use. In my next post I’ll walk through the installation of Reporting Services Add-On for SharePoint.

WSS 3.0 vs MOSS 2007 Standard & Enterprise

Found this diagram after looking around for a bit. Probably the neatest and nicest one out there. Meant  to show the licensing difference. But does give a breakdown in the difference in functionality. Credit and thanks to whoever put it up out there :)

MCTS 70-631 Passed!

Can't describe how happy I was after completing the Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Configuration exam (70-631) on 05/08/2008, Tuesday.

I got full marks, that's right 1000 out of 1000!!! Really pleased with myself, as I was quite worried prior to the exam. I've had only about 6 months of working experience with the technology. But I must admit, that I did sacrifice a lot towards study time and made full use of the resources available (Webcasts, Virtual Labs, Documentation etc etc).

I am currently compiling my study notes together and will be posting them up shortly, so stay tuned. For now, I am just enjoying the moment of pride and relief :)

My Site Provisioning - Lesson Learnt

Setting up of Shared Services is not a very straight-forward as we would expect. Planning beforehand is crucial. In my case, after creating a Web Application for my SSP, I decided to use the same Web Application for My Site.

Now after clicking on the OK button, I got this message (see pic).

Seriously, I should have got the hint. Anyway, I still went ahead with the provisioning, and everything went through fine and rosy.

Now, I decided to enable Self-service site management. Users can then go ahead and create their own My Sites. Not surprisingly, I was thrown an error stating that I don't have an URL with "/" on the web application. (Sorry: I missed getting a screen-shot here).

Instantly, my spider-senses told me it had something to do with using the same web application as SSP. Recall the warning message we got earlier? Here's the top bit of it again.

Turns out, SharePoint wasn't joking. Anyway, what would be the safest workaround to this?

For starters, create a new Web Application. Once completed, create the Site Collection. But wait, on the Site Collection creation page, under Template Selection, click on the Enterprise tab and select the My Site Host template.

Once the Site Collection creation process has completed, click on the URL link and we'll get a surprisingly very intelligent option on the site page (see pic).

The option empowers us with the ability to set this site as the My Site Host. How good is that? All with a single mouse-click. NOTE: Any My Sites created prior to this will have to be migrated over. Click on the button, and allow the provisioning to proceed.

Once completed, under the Manage Farm Shared Services page, we'll see that the site URL is now part of the associated Web applications.

Click on Shared Services, edit properties. And on the edit page, we'll see that the URL is now the My Site location.

Simplicity at it's best. Now back to Self-service site management, enable it and all goes through as normal.

Paint.NET

Thank you to all at Paint.NET. Developed using C# and a little bit of C++ this is a highly impressive image and photo editing software. It's free as well, and I also had a look at the forums, some of the work presented by Paint.NET users is nothing short of amazing.

Being an amateur in any form of design, I am extremely proud of the banner I created for this blog using Paint.NET (not available anymore). The current version is 3.35 and can be downloaded here.

IIS Config Error - 4275

Have you ever had this happen to you? One day, you open up your Central Administration page and SharePoint portal and nothing appears. Then you open up your IIS Manager and get the shock of your life when you realise that nothing appears in IIS as well. No Application Pools, no Web Sites, no Web Server Extensions, nothing! Well, if this does happen to you then follow the steps below:

1. Click on Start --> Administrative Tools, then select Event Viewer.
2. Select System from the viewer (left-pane), and go through the logs on the right-pane.
3. You will notice there would be a few IIS Config error logs. Clicking on it gives you the Event ID, which would be 4275. And also give you a description of the problem, which would be 'Error parsing XML file. Reason: Invalid at the top level of the document'.
4. Now, in order to fix this navigate to Local Folder\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv. In this folder you will see two xml files called MBSchema.xml and MetaBase.xml. Copy these files and place them in another location.
5. Then navigate to the History folder Local Folder\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv\History. And you will see a couple of MBSchema_xxxxxx_xxxxxx.xml and Metabase_xxxxxxx_xxxxxxx.xml files. Sort them by date modified, and copy the newest files.
6. Paste them into the Local Folder\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv directory. And rename them to MBSchema.xml and Metabase.xml.
7. Click on Start --> Administrative Tools, then select Services.
8. Scroll down till you find IIS Admin Service. Start the service again, or Restart it if it's currently running.

Open up IIS Manager again, and voila! You'll find things back to normal again. Hope you guys find this useful, special thanks to Rakki Muthukumar for his tip.

Recycle Bin

If you delete something and then go into the recycle bin and try to restore it, then realise there's nothing in the recycle bin. Don't be alarmed, chances are you have the recycle bin functionality turned off (Central Administration --> Application Management --> Web application general settings) .

 

Turning it back on requires Farm Administrator privileges. Interesting to note, that even when it's turned off the recycle bin does not get hidden. Maybe too much work is involved on the design side of things.

Uninstalling Windows Internal Database (WID)

If you're curious, then from command prompt run this command:

msiexec /x {CEB5780F-1A70-44A9-850F-DE6C4F6AA8FB} CALLERID=ocsetup.exe

And then follow the Uninstall process.

If you're running a 64bit Windows 2003 Server then run this command:

msiexec /x {BDD79957-5801-4A2D-B09E-852E7FA64D01} CALLERID=ocsetup.exe

Note: The WID does not appear under Add/Remove programs, so don't waste your time searching there.

HRESULT 0x80040D1B Search Settings

I keep getting this error every time I try getting into Search Settings on Shared Service Provider (SSP). All other services are fine and work as normal. What really annoys me is that Googling this up does not prove to be quite successful either. You would get different suggestions (many which are helpful), but bear in mind that your HRESULT error could be very different from theirs.

Best way to go about this is to firstly download the Err.exe tool from here. The tool will help translate the hexadecimal number you got into meaningful human language. My hexadecimal number literally meant Access is denied! After checking further, I found out that someone has change my Content Crawl service account. Changed it back again, and it worked.

Kerberos to NTLM

I notice there are many posts and articles concerning authentication methods in SharePoint, especially Kerberos. This post shows you how to revert back to NTLM authentication from Kerberos.

From Central Administration click on the Application Management tab. Navigate to Authentication providers link (under the Application Security grouping) and click on it. Choose the Web Application from the drop-down list, then click on the desired zone.

Specify and change the authentication method then click on Save.

Additionaly, I also run this stsadm.exe command:

stsadm.exe -o authentication -url <web application> -type windows -exclusivelyusentlm

That's it, now we are back to NTLM authentication on SharePoint. I would check my logs on the 12Hive and Event Viewer just as a precaution.

Device activation error 42000

Got this error while doing an SQL 2000 restore (.bak) for a SharePoint site. Realised that under options the .ldf log file was on a different path to the .mdf file. Change the path to match the .mdf path, and the restore process went through fantastic.

Providing for a Site Collection Administrator

As we create a new Site Collection, we have to provide an account as the Primary Site Administrator (mandatory).

1. It is best to provide the account as: domain\username
2. However do NOT use the FQDN for the account.
   Such as: domain.com\username
3. And do NOT just provide the username.
   Such as: username

Although the above (#3) will work, and a Site Collection will be created successfully, we are going to be prompted for login each and everytime we try visit the site. So remember, provide the domain and username but do not use the FQDN.

Deleting a View

Select the view from the View list on the top-right corner of a library or list.

On the view, select "Modify this View" from the view list.

Click on Delete and you're done, the View is gone.

Installing Templates (WSS & MOSS)

Windows Shared Services (WSS) and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) are flexible when it comes to design and customisation. One big plus point is the ability to create and use customised templates. We can also readily download templates for various purposes. Microsoft provides some templates free of charge (FOC) available here.

Before we jump any further, I would like to take a moment and briefly describe the two available template types.

• We have the .stp templates, which are also known as Site Admin templates. They are basically just a skeletal structure that can be installed by Site Administrators or Owners.
• We also have the .wsp templates, which are also known as Farm Admin templates. These templates represent a full solution, which may include features, web parts and .Net codes. They can only be installed by Farm Administrators.

I have just downloaded a Contacts Management (.wsp) template from Microsoft. Note: Before installing any templates, a solution called Application Template Core must be deployed and installed first. To do this, follow the steps below:

• Download the Application Template Core (ApplicationTemplateCore.exe) solution from Microsoft here.
• Create a folder somewhere locally, and place the solution in there for deployment (Eg: C:\Templates\). Note: Do NOT place this or any other templates in the 12 Hive.
• Run the downloaded executable file, read the license agreement and extract the files into an appropriate location (Eg: C:\Templates\Application Core). Note: The Application Template Core is also a .wsp file.
• Open up Command Prompt via-Start --> All Programs --> Accessories, and select Command Prompt.
• Navigate to the stsadm.exe utility located in the Bin directory under the 12 Hive (Eg: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\BIN).
• Deploy the solution by typing in the following command and hitting Enter: stsadm.exe -o addsolution -filename <file path>\<filename> (Eg: stsadm.exe -o addsolution -filename "C:\nPoint Templates\Application Core"\ApplicationTemplateCore.wsp).
• Wait for a moment or so and you'll get an 'Operation completed successfully' message.

Now, that the solution has been added, we've got to deploy it. To do this follow the steps below:

• On Command Prompt, navigate to the Bin directory under the 12 Hive.
• Type in the following command and hit Enter: stsadm.exe -o deploysolution -name <filename> -allowgacdeployment (Eg: stsadm.exe -o deploysolution -name ApplicationTemplateCore.wsp -allowacdeployment -local). Note: I used the -local switch as I'm only doing this on a single server.
• After a couple of moments, you'll get the 'Operation completed successfully' message.
• To double-check on confirm that the solution has gone in successfully, open up Central Administration.
• Go to Operations, and under Global Configuration setting, click on the Solution management link.
• On Solution Management, we'll see that the applicationtemplatecore.wsp has been deployed (see image 1).

Image 1

Done! Now that we've got the Application Template Core solution installed. We can now deploy and install templates of our choice, in my case I'm installing the Contacts Management .wsp template. To do this, follow the steps below:

• Download the template file of your choice from Microsoft here.
• Place the template file (Eg: ContactsManagement.exe) on a folder locally, but NOT the 12 Hive (Eg: C:\Templates\).
• Run the executable file, read the license agreement and extract the files into an appropriate location (Eg: C:\Templates\Contacts Management).
• Now, open up command prompt and navigate to the Bin folder under the 12 Hive.
• To deploy the template, type in the following commands and hit Enter: stsadm.exe -o addsolution -filename <file path>\<filename> (Eg: stsadm.exe -o addsolution -filename "C:\nPoint Templates\Contacts Management"\ContactsManagement.wsp).
• After a moment of so, you'll get the 'Operation completed successfully' message.
• Now, still in command prompt and under the same Bin location, type in the following command and hit Enter: stsadm.exe -o deploysolution - name <filename> -allowgacdeployment (Eg. stsadm.exe -o deploysolution -name ContactsManagement.wsp -allowgacdeployment - local). Note: Once again, I wish to stress that I used the -local switch as I'm performing these steps on a single server.
• Again, after a moment or so you'll get the 'Operation completed successfuly' message.
• In Central Administration --> Operations and under the Global Configuration settings click on the Solution management link.
• In here you will notice that the new templates has been deployed successfuly (see Image 2).
• Also, on the Template Selection setting, we'll see a new tab created automatically by SharePoint called Application Template (see Image 3). Prior to this deployment, they would not be an Application Template tab (see Image 4) This is where we'll find all our new templates deployed for selection and use.

Image 2

Image3

Image 4

Well, that's it for now. Hope you find this post helpful in some way, and thanks for coming by.

SharePoint Online

That's right, cloud computing is firmly on it's way. Microsoft is offering SharePoint (standard) online, on a cloud. Check it out here.

Windows Live Writer

Being new to serious blogging, I found gold in Microsoft's Windows Live Writer tool/application. Now, I am not very sure about what most blogger's would look for in a writing tool. But to me Live Writer has it all. Let me just break it down a little:

• Firstly, it has a very familiar and easy to learn and use UI.
• It's also a Rich-Text editor, WYSIWYG tool.
• It has features such as tables, tags, videos, maps etc etc.
• It works not just with Microsoft Live Spaces, but with Wordpress and Blogspot as well (tried and tested).
• Functions perfectly well offline, makes it really handy to keep blogging on with no connection.
• Integrates with Internet Explorer 7 web browser.
• It's Free, no hidden licensing fee or cost.

Overall, these are a few goodness I've discovered. I am quite certain there are much more to learn and apply, making blogging a totally pleasant experience.

The current version is 12.0.1366.1026, and can be downloaded here. Two-thumbs up to the guys at the Live Writer team, keep up the great work. Oh, and thank you :)

Pros: Too many to list out (more to be discovered soon)

Cons: Haven't found one as yet.

Kerberos to NTLM

I notice there are many posts and articles concerning authentication methods in SharePoint, especially Kerberos. This post shows you how to revert back to NTLM authentication from Kerberos.

From Central Administration click on the Application Management tab. Navigate to Authentication providers link (under the Application Security grouping) and click on it. Choose the Web Application from the drop-down list, then click on the desired zone.

Specify and change the authentication method then click on Save.

Additionaly, I also run this stsadm.exe command:

stsadm.exe -o authentication -url <web application> -type windows -exclusivelyusentlm

That's it, now we are back to NTLM authentication on SharePoint. I would check my logs on the 12Hive and Event Viewer just as a precaution.