Install of SharePoint Fails to Create Configuration Database

Before I get into the details let me give you information about the environment. This was a simple farm installation, one server as the DB Server, and the other as the SharePoint front end. Both Servers are running with Server 2008 Standard 64-bit, the Database server is running SQL Standard 2008, the SharePoint version is MOSS Enterprise.

When I went to install SharePoint the first time around I would get to step 2 and then got Failed to Created Configuration Database.

Failed to create the configuration database
An exception of type System.Data.SqlClient.SQLException was thrown. Additional exception information: The definition for column 'some crazy Japanese character' must include a data type.

This got me thinking that maybe the collation on SQL was incorrect. Looking into this just the default collation for 2008 was created which was not what is recommended. As a reference Microsoft indicates the following should be selected when installing the instance
Latin1_General_CI_AS_KS_WS. My determination was that KS was not set and that was where the strange character request came from. Just as a reference below are the items needed for this collation.

• Case insensitive
• Accent sensitive
• Kana sensitive
• Width sensitive

I uninstalled the instance, SharePoint has its own in this environment. (!note this collation is not in the list you have to select the options), and then reinstalled with the correct collation.

Thought this would have fixed the problem, and it did, but now I ended up with a new error with the Configuration Database still failing to create(Note that it was being created, my guess just not completed, so you will have to go in and delete the config every time you rerun psconfig)

On to the next error:
Failed to create the configuration database.
An exception of type System.Xml.XmlException was thrown. Additional exception information: '㐀' is an unexpected token. The expected token is '='. Line 1, position 568.
System.Xml.XmlException: '㐀' is an unexpected token. The expected token is '='. Line 1, position 568.
at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Throw(Exception e)
at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseAttributes()
at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseElement()
at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseElementContent()
at System.Xml.XmlLoader.LoadNode(Boolean skipOverWhitespace)
at System.Xml.XmlLoader.LoadDocSequence(XmlDocument parentDoc)
at System.Xml.XmlDocument.Load(XmlReader reader)
at System.Xml.XmlDocument.LoadXml(String xml)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPConfigurationDatabase.GetObject(Guid id, Guid parentId, Guid type, String name, SPObjectStatus status, Byte[] versionBuffer, String xml)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPConfigurationDatabase.FetchObject(Guid id)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPConfigurationDatabase.GetObject(Guid id, Boolean checkInMemoryCache)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPConfigurationDatabase.GetObject(Guid id)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPConfigurationDatabase.GetObject(String name, Guid parentId, Type type)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPConfigurationDatabase.get_Farm()
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPPersistedObject.get_Farm()
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPPersistedObject.Update()
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPServer.Update()
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPConfigurationDatabase.RegisterDefaultDatabaseServices(SqlConnectionStringBuilder connectionString)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPConfigurationDatabase.Provision(SqlConnectionStringBuilder connectionString)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPFarm.Create(SqlConnectionStringBuilder configurationDatabase, SqlConnectionStringBuilder administrationContentDatabase, IdentityType identityType, String farmUser, SecureString farmPassword)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPFarm.Create(SqlConnectionStringBuilder configurationDatabase, SqlConnectionStringBuilder administrationContentDatabase, String farmUser, SecureString farmPassword)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.ConfigurationDatabaseTask.CreateOrConnectConfigDb()
at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.ConfigurationDatabaseTask.Run()
at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.TaskThread.ExecuteTask()

AND When attempted again

Failed to create the configuration database.
An exception of type System.Xml.XmlException was thrown. Additional exception information: The '=' character, hexadecimal value 0x3D, cannot be included in a name. Line 1, position 1300.
System.Xml.XmlException: The '=' character, hexadecimal value 0x3D, cannot be included in a name. Line 1, position 1300.
at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Throw(Exception e)
at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseElement()
at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseElementContent()
at System.Xml.XmlLoader.LoadNode(Boolean skipOverWhitespace)
at System.Xml.XmlLoader.LoadDocSequence(XmlDocument parentDoc)
at System.Xml.XmlDocument.Load(XmlReader reader)
at System.Xml.XmlDocument.LoadXml(String xml)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPConfigurationDatabase.GetObject(Guid id, Guid parentId, Guid type, String name, SPObjectStatus status, Byte[] versionBuffer, String xml)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPConfigurationDatabase.FetchObject(Guid id)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPConfigurationDatabase.GetObject(Guid id, Boolean checkInMemoryCache)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPConfigurationDatabase.GetObject(Guid id)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPPersistedObject.get_Parent()
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPPersistedObject.CreateDiagnosticString()
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPPersistedObject.ToString()
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPPersistedObject.Update()
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPServer.Update()
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPConfigurationDatabase.RegisterDefaultDatabaseServices(SqlConnectionStringBuilder connectionString)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPConfigurationDatabase.Provision(SqlConnectionStringBuilder connectionString)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPFarm.Create(SqlConnectionStringBuilder configurationDatabase, SqlConnectionStringBuilder administrationContentDatabase, IdentityType identityType, String farmUser, SecureString farmPassword)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPFarm.Create(SqlConnectionStringBuilder configurationDatabase, SqlConnectionStringBuilder administrationContentDatabase, String farmUser, SecureString farmPassword)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.ConfigurationDatabaseTask.CreateOrConnectConfigDb()
at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.ConfigurationDatabaseTask.Run()
at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.TaskThread.ExecuteTask()

At this point I had already called Microsoft Support

They checked a couple of areas to ensure the right items were created, and permissions had been set up correctly. Found out that some of the web.config files did not actually install, very strange. So we completely uninstalled SharePoint and renamed the HIVE (web server extensions/12) to 12_old and reinstalled SharePoint.

The previous two errors did not appear I got a new one:

Failed to Create Configuration Database

Unknown SQL Exception 156 occurred. Additional error information from SQL Server is included below.
Incorrect syntax near the keyword 'CREATE'.

OK seriously what is going on. Symantec Endpoint had been installed on both servers. While I had stopped the services, I still could not get SharePoint installed, so I went out on a limb and uninstalled it from both machines. Ran PSConfig again and low and behold SharePoint was able to make it through configuration and sequential Service Packs, and is now fully configured.

Enter a new issue. Reinstallation of Endpoint once again brings SharePoint to a standstill. Now I need to figure out a way to resolve this issue. Will update once I figure this out.

SharePoint 2010 Sneak Peek

Well with the SharePoint Conference not until October, Microsoft seems to have decided to release a sneak peek into some of the items that will be available in 2010. This is good because I just picked up on some of the add-ons for SQL 2008 R2.

SQL 2008 Add-ins
Add-in for Microsoft Office SharePoint 2010
Share & Collaborate with Confidence

• Enables users to publish reports and analyses to SharePoint to make them available to others in the organization
• Applications and reports can be refreshed automatically while also maintaining version control and tracking
• Central, secure location where users can easily control who has access to sensitive data while also maximizing the number of people who can view the reports

SharePoint 2010 Management Console
Manage User-Generated Analytical Applications

• Provides a single, comprehensive management tool through Microsoft Office SharePoint that gives IT administrators the ability to set server policies and monitor Self Service BI activities
• IT can manage and secure all BI assets, freeing the original authors to focus on business priorities
• Dashboard views to monitor access and utilization of analyses and reports as well as track patterns of hardware usage to help ensure the right security privileges are applied and user generated solutions are continuously available, up-to-date, and secured
  

New Capabilities
General Overview

• Ribbon - Similar to Office 2007
• Selecting mutliple documents to check-in/check-out
• Graying out of sections not needed, such as pop-ups for adding comments when checking back in, all other items are grayed out.
• Easer editing via Web Edit and uploading of images from your desktop without having to upload and then point to the file
• Out of the Box Silver light Web Part for adding silverlight applications
• Rich Theming - Select Themes from PowerPoint, edit color palletes
• Better Compatability with Firefox
• Visio Services - Publish straight to SharePoint, users dont need Visio to see templates
• SharePoint Designer 2010 is greatly improved allowing direct tie in to backend systems by creating content types
• Business Connectivity Services - Read Write from within SharePoint, Seemless is Sweet
• Seemless integration with Office templates, Business Connectivity
• SharePoint Workspace (Formerly Groove) taking SharePoint offline including line of business applications
• Rich Media Support (PowerPoint 2010 now has a new inline video editing capability) for powerpoint, silverlight and other media services.

IT Professional - Just an interesting fact the video on the demo was done using Firefox

• Streamlined Central Administration - Cleaner Layout with the Ribbon
• SharePoint Best Practices Analyzer - Operational Insight and Health, checks for issues and can automatically fix issues. Fully Extensible
• Usage Reporting and Logging - SQL Logging Database for all SharePoint logging, also completely extensible - Tons of reports
• Large List Resource Throttling - to help with user load, and view creation to help with scalability
• Unattached Content Database Recovery - Option to map and detach a content database from Central Admin granual file extract
• Visual Upgrade - Upgrades directly to same look and feel, and allows to preview new visual, preview prevents users from making changes not compatibile with 2007

Developer

• Visual Studio 2010 SharePoint Tools
• LINQ for SharePoint
• Developer Dashboard
• Business Connectivity Services
• Client Object Model
• Silverlight Web Part

http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/2010/Sneak_Peek/Pages/default.aspx

If there was any thought that there could be some competitors to SharePoint they would now be blown out of the water in my eyes. Hoping to be able to get to the Conference in October

SharePoint workflows not starting Automatically

I did some work on a site recently and the workflow as simple as it was not automatically kicking off. After doing some research I kept finding links to a Microsoft KB explaining why this may happen after upgrading to SharePoint Service Pack 1. However the installation was fully upgraded to the most recent version and none of the items mentioned in the KB were happening on this server. At first I didnt have access to central administration. Once I got in the first place I checked was the Timer Job Status. Everything was successful here. Then I realized that it may be a Alternate Access Mapping (AAM) issue. Turns out that the outside URL was not even set up in the AAM. Adding this url to the internet zone and restarting IIS solved the problem. If you are unfamilar with Central Administration here are the steps.

1. Go to Central Administration


2. Go to Operations


3. Go to Alternate Access Mappings (under Global Configuration)


4. Click on Edit Public Urls


5. Ensure you have the right Web Collection selected


6. Enter in the public facing URL into the Internet field


7. Click Save


8. Restart IIS

Passed WSS 3.0 Application Development Exam

After a couple of days studying and taking the Microsoft E-Learning Collection for this exam. I found it wasnt as difficult as I was anticipating. This exam makes 3 out of the 4 SharePoint Specifc exams, I think Ill go for the next one in either August or September.

Using URL to filter Web Parts on a SharePoint Page

Adding URL Query to filter Web Parts
The point of this walk through is to explain how to create filters for web parts based on the page URL. Web parts to be filtered must be XSLT Data View Web parts. One of the fields that exist in the web parts corresponding list or library must contain data that matches the page name. If filtering multiple web parts on a page you must complete the following steps for each one. !!Note that some performance issues may arise if your filter has to process through thousands and thousands of records!!

1. Add Web Part(s) to page
2. Open page in SharePoint Designer
3. Right Click on Web Part and Select Convert to XSLT Data View
4. Select the Common Tasks
5. To remove the tool bar select Change Layout
6. Go to the General Tab
7. Uncheck any boxes to remove the toolbar and filtering
8. Click Ok
9. Select Common Tasks
10. Select Parameters…
11. Enter New Parameter
12. Enter CurrentUrl
13. Select Server Variable as Parameter Source
14. Enter URL as Server Variable
15. Click Ok
16. Select the Common Tasks
17. Select Filter
18. Check Add XSLT Filtering
19. Click Edit
20. Enter the following code and/or adapt it to your use[@Title=substring-after(substring-before($CurrentUrl,'.aspx'),'/Pages/')]
    Code Explanation
    @Title = the field that contains the content that matches your page name (i.e. ProductA is an item in the Title field and ProductA.aspx is the page)
    
    $CurrentUrl = the parameter we just created
    
    /Pages/ = the document library the pages reside in (if your pages reside in a document library named Products set this to /Products/)
    
    The query pulls out the red information to use as the filter criteria http://sharepoint/pages/page2.aspx and matches it against the field chosen.
21. Click Ok
22. Click Ok
23. Save your page, you will notice at this time that your web parts return no results, the results will not show because the filter only processes at runtime.
24. Refresh the page
    

Actual Code that is added to the Page is as follows:

In Parameter Bindings
parameterbinding location="ServerVariable(URL)" defaultvalue="" name="CurrentUrl"

In XSL Style Sheet
xsl:param name="CurrentUrl"

In xsl:template name="dvt_1"
xsl:variable name="Rows" select="/dsQueryResponse/Rows/Row[@Title=substring-after(substring-before($CurrentUrl,'.aspx'),'/Pages/')]"

Slacking latley

I have been slacking lately with adding items to this blog, my wife and I just recently had a baby and of course I lost track of other items I have been working on, but I am on the upswing again so items should start popping up again.

SharePoint PreScan Utility Hiccups

I haven't had any chances to work on doing an upgrade from SharePoint 2003 to 2007 until now. So in order to get myself up to speed I decided to begin testing with my companies old 2003 implementation since we have already moved to 2007, we had just decided to do a complete rebuild from scratch instead of the upgrade.

The first thing I do is run the PreScan Utility, you can find it here http://www.microsoft.com/Downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e8a00b1f-6f45-42cd-8e56-e62c20feb2f1&displaylang=en.

I got an error which stated "Skipping virtual server: . Server state = NeedUpgrade. Most likely this virtual server is not extended with WSS v2. "

To me this seems strange as I thought the Virtual Server was already set to be SharePoint. So I google the issue, here is the KB from Microsoft for the different prescan errors and solutions http://support.microsoft.com/kb/937291.

In my case I just needed to do the upgrade as whoever set up the portal server originally had not done this. To do this you would use the stsadm utility.

1. Open Command as an administrator
2. Change the Path - cd "\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\60\Bin"
3. stsadm -o upgrade -url http://serverbeingupgraded

Run the Prescan utility using the config xml, this config file maps the site templates correctly, if you run the prescan with out this you will get back notifications that SharePoint is using a lot of custom templates, which may not be the case.

1. Open Command as one of the SharePoint admin accounts
2. Run the utility
prescan /c preupgradescanconfig.xml /v http://serverbeingupgraded

Getting the results below is good, if any of the items marked in blue come back with something other than 0 you will want to look into things a little deeper, and will most likely have to recreate your custom templates for use with 2007.

03/25/2009 10:36:55 Number of sites skipped (already scanned): 0
03/25/2009 10:36:55 Number of sites scanned: 50
03/25/2009 10:36:55 Number of broken sites: 0
03/25/2009 10:36:55 Number of webs scanned: 125
03/25/2009 10:36:55 Number of broken webs: 0
03/25/2009 10:36:55 Number of webs using custom template: 0
03/25/2009 10:36:55 Number of pages scanned: 6145
03/25/2009 10:36:55 Number of unghosted pages: 315 (5.13% of total).

Unghosted pages are not necessarily a bad thing and there is a way of reghosting.

For more info on this visit Joel Olsens blog
http://blogs.msdn.com/joelo/archive/2007/04/13/don-t-be-afraid-of-prescan-part-1.aspx

Create New Site Collection using New Database

Background
This document explains how to create a new site collection with its own database within SharePoint. Site collections can only be part of one content database and a site collection can contain many subsites. For the most part site should be fine with the way the departments can be broken out into Site Collections, each department can now have subsites if they are needed and those subsites will be created in the same database as the site collection. However if a new company or new department needs to be created a new site collection will therefore need to be created.

Creating a New Database

1. Go to Central Administration
2. Go to Application Management
3. Select Content Databases
4. Make sure that all of the databases statuses are set to Stopped, there is typically one set to ready even though this is not required for SharePoint to work. (Stopped does not mean the database is not running, it just means that new Site Collections cannot be created for that database) To set a database to stopped:
5. Click on the database name
6. Change the database status from ready to Offline
7. Click Ok
8. Click on Add a content Database
9. Ensure the correct web application is selected
10. Ensure the correct database server and server instance is selected
11. Enter the database name, should be something recognizable such as WSS_Content_Department or Company Name/Abbreviation
12. Click Ok

Create a New Site Collection

1. Go to Central Administration
2. Go to Application Management
3. Select Create Site Collection
4. Select the correct Web Application
5. Enter the title
6. Enter the URL
7. Select the appropriate template (Blank if importing existing site)
8. Enter the site collection information
9. Click Ok, this will now create a new site collection in the new database

Change settings in the Site Collection

Now that a new site collection has been created modify it so that it resembles the look and feel of all the other sites and uses the correct search center and features. Audiences may need to be used to control who has access to see what links in the navigation.

1. Go to the new site collection
2. Go to Site Actions > Site Settings
   
   Enable Features - Server Features may need to be activated
3. Under Site Collection Administration select Site Collection Features
   Activate the following:
   Office SharePoint Server Enterprise Site Collection (If applicable)
   SharePoint’s Server Publishing Infrastructure (If applicable)
   SharePoint Server Standard Site Collection (If applicable)
4. Repeat this step under Site Administration > Site Features
   
   Search Settings
5. Under Site Collection administration select Search Settings
6. Select use custom Scopes and enter /searchcenter/pages
7. Click Ok
   
   Look and Feel (Navigation)
8. Under Look and Feel select Navigation
9. Add the other sites as New Links under Global Navigation
10. Enter Title
11. Enter URL – this can be relative, if it is the root site just put a /, if another site collection enter /sites/sitecollectionname
12. If adding an audience, select the audience
13. Click Ok
14. Click Ok
    
    Audiences
    Audiences in this situation can be used to control “security by obscurity”, while users may not have access to some sites when using site collections they will see the links because the links are not looking at the security of the actual site collection they link to. This means that users may click on the link and then get an error stating they do not have access.
15. Add Audience
16. Go to the Shared Service Provider
17. Select Audiences
18. Create Audience
19. Enter the Name
    Enter the Owner
20. Select the include rules (this can be changed later)
21. Click Ok
22. Select the Operand, generally user
    Under Operator select Member Of for doing groups
23. Select the AD group for the people that will be in this audience
    Click Ok
24. Select compile audience
    The audience is now created and can be added wherever needed.

Moving a site into a new site collection
If a site is located in the wrong site collection or needs to be moved to its own site collection.

Export:
Export the site to ensure all permissions and versions are copied over using the stsadm utility, using command prompt

Cd “Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\Bin”

Stsadm –o export –url http://currenturl -filename c:\directory\exportfile.cab –includeusersecurity –versions 4

Create New Site Collection or new site for the new location using the blank site template

Import
Import the site to the new location

Cd “Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\Bin”

Stsadm –o import –url http://newurl -filename c:\directory\exportfile.cab –includeusersecurity

Re-run Profile Import

1. Go to Central Administration
2. Go to the Shared Services Provider
3. Go to User Profiles and Properties
4. Select Start Full Import

MediaRich Visualizer for SharePoint!!!

Here is something I have been waiting for, a product that will take many different file formats and create thumbnails, and allow me to do bulk export, import, zooms, pans, etc. FOR FREE!!!

Recently one of my clients asked about storing images in different file formats and for seeing those formats displayed as thumbnails. We all know about Photo Libraries but they only do a couple of items out of the box. In my wanderings across the net I found MediaRich DAM for SharePoint from Equilibrium. Great product and it met the needs of my client however there is a one time license fee and then an annual maintenance fee.

They just announced yesterday (3/3/2009), MediaRich Visualizer for SharePoint for free. While it doesn't do everything MediaRich DAM does, it does offer a lot of nice features for those that don't need full scale Digital Asset Management.

I am gearing up to install it on my development box to play around with it, but from reading and checking out the comparison chart, things are looking good to me. I did realize as I started my installation that OpenOffice may be required depending upon what formats you want to view as thumbnails.

Ill keep updating as I explore this product.

Auction Site in SharePoint??? You sure can*

Background: Client wants to do an internal auction site for all employees for their Bucks Program, basically they are given fake money for accomplishments. The client is in the middle of a SharePoint rollout and was wondering about creating the auction using SharePoint inorder to get an even better ROI. So of course this got me thinking, it should be possible (albeit some limitations) to complete with some workflow and a picture library. Auction would be using preset bid increments of $10,000, company of about 300 employees.

Solution: Created a Picture Library with some custom fields and two workflows one for new items and one for on item change. Created a Master Edit Page in another secured folder so that end users couldn't alter bids. Created a Data View Web part on the main auction page with a Bid button, and last but not least a Thank You redirect page.

*Caveats: Make sure you have the hardware and pipe to handle this feature or you will peg your environment, this happened to the client because they forgot to increase their Virtual Environment power for this VM during the auction. You may also run into a few items that will error out, my thought is that this is caused by end users clicking on the workflow at the same time. You are also limited to the type of auction (at least with this example).

I will post my steps for creating this later today or tomorrow

Migrating SharePoint Intranet from Central Administration

In my previous blog I talked about an improper implementation of SharePoint. I am going to walk through the steps I took to resolve the situation.

Steps required

• Move SharePoint to new SQL Instance
• Break Intranet out from under Central Administration
• Create a new site collection and content database for each department

1. Backup the entire farm, I did this using the Central Administration Backup

2. Export the Intranet and each department

Run a stsadm export on the Intranet site and subsites.
stsadm -o export -url http://yoursite -versions 4 -includeusersecurity
In this case I created a batch file to export each site to a seperate file since I would be breaking them out later.

3. Disconnect the Server from the Farm using the SharePoint Configuration and Technologies wizard.

4. Run the SharePoint Configuration wizard again and create a new farm point to the new instance, this will create the new SharePoint_Config database and the new Administration Content Database(which is why you needed to run the export before creating the new farm)

5. Start the farm services (search services, and excel services) because it is a new config database you need to add in your settings, so farm admin accounts, email settings, etc.

6. Do a Restore from the backup performed in step 1. This will add back the SSP and other Databases and all their corresponding settings.

7. Since we are going to be doing imports we will need to rebuild the intranet site collection because you can only perform an import into a blank site.

8. Import the Root site to the root site collection, this does infact restore all the sites underneath the root site as well. So once it is created delete all the additional subsites that you are going to create new site collections from.

stsadm -o import -url http://newintranetsitecollection/ -includeusersecurity

Being that I planned out my structure prior to this export I created another batch file to simplify the import process and set it to pause between imports.

9. Now we want to start creating new site collections with their seperate Content Databases, the naming convention I used was ContentDB_AM to correspond to http://intranet/sites/AM

• In Application Management go to Content Databases
• Set the current database to offline(this just means new site collections cant be built here, data will still be added for the site collection that exists in this database)
• Create the new content database
• Create a new site collection
• Perform the import for that site
• Repeat until you have done this for all sites (For me it was 10 new Databases and site collections)

10. Build a Search Center on the root site(or where ever, this is where I did it) then set the search settings for each site collection to point to this search center and modify the navigation to your needs.

I did hit an issue with the permissions not working correctly, I decided to do a fresh profile import and that appeared to solved the problem.

You DID WHAT with your SharePoint Implementation?

I was subcontracted out to another company to go and do a SharePoint audit of one of their clients. I get to the client and start looking at his implementation, while he is running through the items that are not working correctly, some being alerts not working, the search configuration not working, not being able to access additional features, etc.

As soon as he brings up Central Administration I can basically tell where most of the problems are coming from. The entire Intranet is built as a subsite under Central Administration. Well as any SharePoint Admin will tell you that is just bad news waiting to happen or in this case already happened. There are numerous reasons why this is a bad idea, to name a few security, scalability, features not working as designed, etc.

Alerts of course are not working because the timer job is not created in Central Administration. The Publishing feature is also unavailable and the Search Center will not work either. I have to give the guy some slack however because he runs a tight ship and had one of the cleanest server rooms I have ever walked into, for a one man band this guy has it together managing an entire 60 server farm and an insane amount of applications all while performing tech support, but you cant do everything yourself when it comes to IT, so I am glad he realized he needed some outside experience.

So I then continue my audit seeing that the databases are all included in one instance, I am not just talking SharePoint here, all of his database applications, so 30+ databases. I see the default SharePoint Databases so no problem there (besides Central Admin containing the Intranet of course). All items are also stored on the same network store. The infrastucture updates were not in place either, and some other misc timer jobs were failing, as well as some errors in the application log. All in all a big mess.

My recommendation:

• Install the Infrastucture updates
• Diversify the user accounts for the different web apps and the search service
• Move the SharePoint Databases to their own instance in SQL
• Carve out a seperate store for the SharePoint databases and logs
• Break the Intranet out into its own web app and create new site collections each with their own content database 1. For Scalabilty(I have seen different recommendations but the most common is to try to never go over 100GB for a content DB and try to stay under 50GB, 25GB even better) 2. For Disaster Recover, youll have less downtime if you have to restore a 50GB DB vs a 250GB database.
• Tie all items back to one search center

Im sure there was more but this is all I can remember off the top of my head, Ill explain how I did the move in my next blog.

Time to Start Blogging

I have decided I should start blogging about my experiences and insights into using SharePoint. I have been involved with SharePoint since 2005, I started working with it fulltime as the beta of 2007 came out, implementing it at the company I was working for at that time. I moved to a consulting company in June of 2007 and have been implementing it for School Districts, Townships, and Small-Medium Companies since. I really enjoy discovering new things to do with it and there are certainly a great deal of things that can be done. I got my certification in MOSS 2007 Implementation and Configuration in Nov 2007 and just recently the certification for WSS Implementation and Configuration, of course I feel like I did it in reverse.