Truly, it's astonishing how fast things are moving with SharePoint.

Right now, I have a new assignment and this is my first "Traveling Engagement"  I've got to fly out on Sunday and I've got through next Friday to install MOSS 2007 and migrate 200,000 documents from 250 file shares.

So I got my work boots all packed up and I'm flying away.

I did find some help here from my new best friend Joel Oleson.

My other new best friend Jose has an interesting effort here.

The Microsoft guys give us this which is a .doc that you'll have to download.

I also got a comment from a very helpful guy that suggested doing some reading and planning before my MOSS 2007 Install.  He's obviously not a long term reader.  My point is not to run the install and not run into problems.  My point is to run into problems so we can figure out how to avoid them.

But I really appreciate the comments and he does point to some great resources.  The guys at MindSharp are top notch.  I also have to give a shout out to the guys at SharePoint Experts.  They host this blog and they have pulled yeoman's duty lately.

Wish me luck guys!

-robot

Create Your Own Context Menu

So I've got my portal in the wrong place, i.e. http://MyServer/Sites/Home, when I just want it to be http://MyServer.

Also, I can't access it from a remote workstation; I can only access it when I'm working on the server.

More,bad news, I can still see the dorks.

The good news is we're running VMWare so I can just roll it back and start over.  I think, next time, I'll set a roll-back point before I run the initiaize admin tasks.

 -robot

I recovered the install post I had worked back in February but it does not have the detals with regards to:

• The .Net 2.0 intall
• The WWF install
• The .Net 2.0 "Allow" configuration

So I'm trying the MOSS2007 install again with practically none of my prior knowledge available.  And since I've been writing validation documents for SPS2003 for the last three months, I am little more that a mumbling idiot when it come to MOSS2007.

Just to recap, I've got two servers running Win 2K3 R2 in my domain.

To install IIS, you need the i386 folder off of the Server 2K3 installation disc.

I install MsSS on one and on the other, I run the Office SharePoint Server install and, of course I get the error:

Setup is unable to proceed due to the following error(s):
-This product requres .Net Framework 2.0 to install.
-This product requires at least Windows Workflow Foundation version 3.0.4203.2, which is part of the .Net Framework 3.0
-This product requires ASP.NET v2.0 to be set to 'Allow' in the list of Internet Information Services (IIS) Web Server Extensions.  If it is not available in the list, re-install ASP.NET v2.0.
Correct the issue(s) lsited above and re-run setup.

Now, I have to apologize to your people because I know I had covered each of these issues in detail, but we're still looking to recover some of my old posts and, since you know robots have less than perfect memory, this is about all I can recall:

The .Net 2.0 install requirement can be stupid in that it can be installed but you have to uninstall it and reinstall it.

The WWF install is essentially a .Net 3.0 install.

Once you take care of those issues, the "Allow" configuration is probably resolved as well.

So, let's see what we have to do…

I'm a little fuzzy on the difference between the .Net Framework 2.0 and ASP.Net v2.0 but I go to here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0856EACB-4362-4B0D-8EDD-AAB15C5E04F5&displaylang=en

And download dotnetfx.exe and run it.

"Set up is continuing the install."  That's great.

That's almost as good as the dialog box in the SQL Server 2005 install that says "Setup is proceeding to continue with the install."

The WWF install is really a .Net 3.0 install which you can get from here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=10CC340B-F857-4A14-83F5-25634C3BF043&displaylang=en

So when those installs are completed, I run setup again, enter my product key and click next.

I tell it I want a complete install as opposed to a web-front end or stand-alone install.  It shows me an installation progress bar and it moves slowly to the left.

Then we get the success dialog box with a check mark to run the Configuration Wizard now.

The wizard fires up…

I dot the "No, I want to create a new farm." option.

I specified my database server and my service account for connecting to the database server.  I went to my database server and created the login for my service account and gave it dbcreator and securityadmin roles.

I specified my Central Admin port number to my favorite: 63696 (use your number keypad) and NTLM authentication.

Reviewed the settings and clicked Next.

Now, it's counting nine tasks with the little green floater moving repeatedly from left to right.

1, 2…, 3, 4, 5, 6…, 7.., 8, 9

Configuration Successful! and click Finish.

The Central Administration page loads.

So we've got these administrative tasks in a list.

Task One: Read the tasks – kind of like that old elementary school trick where they tell you to read all the instructions before you start.  It says to delete the item from the list when you're done but I'll just mark it completed.

Task Two: Add Servers to Farm – This is done.

Task Three: Assign Services to Servers – This one has an action link.  I click on the link and it takes me to the page in Operations.  Now I'm on a medium farm so that option is dotted and a set of services appear in the table below like a connectable web part. To see all the services, you have to dot the Custom option or select the All view.

You have to start the Document Conversions Load Balance Service first, because you need a load balancer server to run the launcher service.  The Load Balancer service starts and then you can start the Document Conversion service where you'll select your Load Balancer server.  It chooses port 8082 for whatever reason.

I start the Excel Calculator.

I start MOSS search checking the options to Use this server for indexing content and Use this server for serving search queries.  I drop my own eMail address in the eMail address field for some reason and use my service account for crawling and set performance to Maximum

Finally, I start WSS Seach adding my service account and password in the service and content accounts and leave the rest unchanged.  All my services are started on this server.  I edit the task item and mark it completed.

Task Four: Configure Server Farm's Share Services – This one has an action link to Applications Management.  This page has been trouble in the past so I'm a little trepidatious.  The first issue is the ShareService Provider and it needs a web application so I click Create a new web application. 

Now this page wants to create SharePoint – 80 on port 80, create a matching folder in the Virtual Servers folder and a new application pool and restart IIS.  I've been right here before and didn't want to run SharedServices through port 80. But, I'm click OK all the same.  Now, I think this will just provision an IIS web site.  I do not have to use it for SharedServices.

So, this is taking forever.

Finally, it resets and it's taking me back to the New Shared Service Provider page where my SharePoint – 80 web application is selected.  I'm going to create another web application.

This one wants to be called SharePoint – 33988.  I'm going to change that to SharePoint – 63698 and click OK.

Again, we're taking forever.

And we took over an hour so I killed it.  Hmmm.

 

 

Let's review the MOSS 2007 Install

Great!

I've got a copy of a virtual machine that's already had a newSID installed and now it's been renamed and has SQLServer 2005 installed.  It's also got reporting services and Visual Studio on it.

The trick here is that there another virtual server that's a domain controller and I want to bring this server up so that it's in that domain and not in the LAN domain on which all the virtual hosts run.

So I add the new server to the domain, enter the static IP address and the domain controller as the DNS server but use our LAN DNS as the alternate DNS.

I see reporting services is installed in IIS under the Default Web Site.  I'm curious what will become of that after the SharePoint install.

So, I'm running the Office12 cd and here goes.

I enter the product key and then select the Advanced option.

Then, for server type, I select Complete and I click Install now.

The progress bar rolls across the screen and I get a dialog box telling me to run the configuration wizard and a close button.  I leave the box checked and click close.

The configuration wizard opens with a Welcome…

I want to create a new server farm.

I point my database to my local server name and my user is a domain service account I added to the local machine's Power User group.

And I get the Red X

Failed to connect to the database server or the database name does not exist.  Ensure that the database server exists, is a SQL Server, and that you have the appropriate permissions to access the database server.  To diagnose the problem, review the extended error information located at C:Program FilesCommon FilesMicrosoft SharedWeb Server Extensions12LOGSPSCDiagnostics_2_21_2007_…log  Please consult the SharePoint Products and Technologies Congifuration Wizard help for additional information regarding database server security configuration and network access.

So I correct the typo in the server name and try again.

This time it takes me to the next page.  Great.  One could note, however, that my database user is a Power User on the box but was not added to the database server at all. 

This second page wants a port number for Central Admin and an Authentication option.  I've only ever run NTLM so I'll choose it again and click next.

I review the setting and click next and get the flying green boxes that count off tasks 1 through 9.  I'm particularly fearful of step 4.

Success!  I love that…

So I start up Central Admin and I have to enter my username and password.  Now, I'm a domain admin so I enter my name and password.

I have to add the CA site to my list of trusted sites.

This takes a while but CA eventually comes up with the ugly red warning:

! Server Farm Configuration Not Complete !

Now this is not as esy as it was with 2003.  You've got this Shared Services thing to worry about.  So I look through the administrative tasks.

The first one is to look through the administrative tasks so I make that one done.

I'm not adding any servers to the farm so I mark that one done.

Now, Assign Services to Servers…

So you can select from one of five options and they are:

• Single server or small farm web server
• Medium farm web server.
• Search Indexing server
• Excel Calculations
• Custom

When you check Custom you see that you then get all the options in the service list below:

• Central Admin
• Document Conversions Launcher
• Document Conversion Load Balancer
• Excel Calculations
• OSS Search
• WSS Incoming eMail
• WSS Search
• WSS Web Application

I really want all these services running on this machine so I'll start them all.

First, start the Document Conversions Load Balancer Service.

Next, start the Launcher Service and choose the server and port number.

Start Excel.

Start Search.  Check Use this server for indexing… and Use this server for serving search queries… Enter an eMail address and provide a search account and password.  I select Maximum ondexing performance.  The Web Front End Crawling option is moot.  I click Start.

Oh! Crap!  I get the error:

An unhandled exception occurred in the user interface.Exception Information: OSearch (fn18spsvc)

With the dreaded:

Troubleshoot issues with Windows SharePoint Services.

Fortunately, our friends at Microsoft have seen this one before and give us this:

http://web.archive.org/web/20070516160637/http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928620

Where they explain that the problem arises from not distinguishing the user name with the appropriate domain prefix.

That done, I start the WSS search.

I use the same acount, this time, wary enough to add the domain name for both the search account and the database account.

All services running… Great! I mark that item done.

All that remains is to configure the farm's shared services.

I click the action link.

Shared services requires it's own web application so I click Create New Application.

So, I don't like this.  The Create New Application link takes me to the Create New Application page where it wants me to create a new web application called SharePoint – 80 on port 80 which, I expect will kill my report server.  I kind of wanted that to be my portal space but this acts like it will make it my SSP.  No sweat, i roll along with it.

NTLM, Anonymous, No SSL and set my app pool to my service account.

So I wait while my changes are processed.

It takes me back to the Create SSP page and says there's an error because I never added a user name and password for the SSP but, sure enough, it's going to create it on my port 80.  In the words of Darryll Hall, I can't go for that.  no, no can do.

I'm going to click Create New Web Application again, hoping I can create a web app that I can give to my SSP and then still have the port 80 app where I can run my MOSS site.

So, this time I assign a unique port, NTLM, Anonymous and no SSL.  Map the app pool to my same service account, restart IIS automatically and wait while my changes are processed.

I end up back at the Create SSP page.  This may, in fact, solve another problem.  Now, it's good with my SSP on they second web app I made but it's says it's going to let me put my My Sites on my main site using port 80.  That would be cool but I do extend the relative url out to /MySites/.

I have to enter my service account password one more time, click OK and wait till my changes are processed.

Shared Service Provider Successfully Created! I love that.  Now, I can mark that item done and the ugly red warning is replaced by about ten new tasks.  One of them is incoming eMail settings which requires the Windows SMTP service.  I'll wait on that one.

The next is Outbound SMTP settings.  Since I'm in my own domain, I can't use our internal mail server. So we're going to set up SMTP on the domain controller and so I'll set that later.

Workflow settings is easy.

InfoPath Forms is easy.  I'm not requiring SSL and I am allowing all those authentication options.

The rest of the administrative tasks can wait.

I still have the SharePoint – 80 site but it's all populated with Sharepoint stuff so I'm going to have to delete it.  Problem is, my MySite stuff is attached to it.  Let's see what happens.

I delete the SharePoint – 80 site and then I create a new web application, put it on port 80 and wait while my changes are processed.

I get the application create page.  So I click on Create Site Collection.

I give it a name and select the Collaboration Portal from the Publishing Templates tab and wait while my changes are processed.

I get the "Top Level Site Created" and my url.  I click it and I have to log in.

Then I wait, and wait…

and wait, and then…

EEEKKK!!! DORKSSSS!!!

Where do they get those dorks?  You gotta wonder.

The first thing I do is change the photo.  The second is in central admin where I allow all sites to use enterprise features.

-robot

Visual Studio Team Foundation Server

So now all the teams want their VSTF tasks and bugs reported in SharePoint.  And, while we'll be moving to MOSS 2007, we still need to work in SPS 2003 until we can make the move.

Our VSTF is running SQL2005 so it's got the sweet reporting services built in.  There's a canned set of reports but we'll need to tweak them for filters and such.

I can find a work item in VSTF by going to http://web.archive.org/web/20070317034000/http://myvstfserver/Reports and drilling down into my project eventually arriving at:

 http://web.archive.org/web/20070317034000/http://vstf:8080/WorkItemTracking/Workitem.aspx?artifactMoniker=wxyz

Where "wxyz" is your work item number and I guess your report server could be running on another port.

So, drop that URL in a page viewer and there you have your work item on your team site, complete with related work items that will open up in a new window.

Also, I've been able to create a custom report and load it into the VSTF report inventrory.  I'll have to think to retrace my steps.

I went to my VSTF Reports home site which is http://web.archive.org/web/20070317034000/http://myvstfserver/Reports.  From there I ran the Report Builder.  This is a pretty frustrating little guy that insinuates that you can build sophisticated queries interactively but really, he's pretty shallow.  On the other hand, when you go to save him, he falls right into the report directory which is pretty cool.

-robot

Out of DB Hell and on to SharePoint v3

So everyrobot that's anyrobot in the SharePoint crowd, already has the Office 12 SharePoint server up and running.  And just to prove I'm a noRobot, I'm only doing it just now, and, just as you've come to expect, I expect it will be alot like getting my teeth drilled.

So, let's give it a go, shall we?

First you've got to have a suitable host.  I'm using a virtual machine with Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition with Service Pack 1.  It's got a Gb of RAM and they let me add it to our domain.  So that's cool.

Next, you'll need the bits.  I went here:

http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/beta/download/en/default.mspx

Where I had to select my country and log-in and tell Microsoft all about me and then I had to pay $6 for WSSv3, MOSSv3, SharePoint designer and then I got the SharePoint Search.  So I'm left with the following files:

1. SharePoint_Setup.exe – I think this is WSSv3.
2. OSS-EN.img – I think this is MOSS 2007.
3. SPS32-EN.img – I think this is SharePoint Search.
4. SPD-EN.EXE – I think this is the SharePoint Designer.

I got the WSSv3 Beta 2 Technical Refresh bits here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e1e51280-71f0-4d60-b2b9-3c49df916bc2&DisplayLang=en

I got the Beta2 Technical Refresh bits for the Office Server here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b07a3387-01cf-4bc3-821a-0bb10e7a59fa&DisplayLang=en

I went here and got the documentation for the WSS Beta 2:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=5E4C222A-03A1-435A-A075-E47A28C9D6B8&displaylang=en

That should get me started.

So I run the SharePoint_Setup.exe.

I click RUN at the Execute File dialog box (duh) and then I get this funny little dialog box that says Do you wish to proceed with the installation?

So I click yes and the WSS install splash comes up (Yeah!) but then I get this message:

Setup is unable to process because of the following errors:

This product requires ASP.Net web server extensions to be enabled in Internet Information Services(IIS).  Enable this setting and re-run setup.

Please refer to the readme file for instructions on how to obtain these pre-requisites.  Correct the Issues(s) listed above and re-run setup.

Now, I have to admit, on a previous try, I also got a Windows Workflow Foundation 3.0 error but, based on the advice of a coworker, I installed the MS Web Service Enhancements 3.0 and that error went away. I got the WSE 3.0 install here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=018a09fd-3a74-43c5-8ec1-8d789091255d&DisplayLang=en

That was not quite as bad a a drilled tooth but close.

The ASP.Net thing is alot like a drilled tooth.

So, I guess there's a readme, somewhere.  The WSS Doc download above is a file called WSSBeta2docs.exe. I ran it and it unloaded a bunch of files, none of which are called ReadMe.  There is one is called WSSDeploy.Doc.  About halfway down the first page there's Software Requirements.

I ran through the Part about the .Net framework but all of that was right.  So, I thought it might do to re-ininstall it.

So I uninstalled the .Net Framework 3.0 and that made the WWF error reappear.  Not only that put it wiped out all my web service extension from IIS.  So I uninstalled the .Net 2.0 Framework and then reinstalled it.

Then, rerunning the SharePoint_Setup.exe, I'm left with ony the WWF error:

Setup is unable to process because of the following errors:

This product requires Windows Workflow Foundation Beta 2 (build 3.0.3807 or later).

Please refer to the readme file for instructions on how to obtain these pre-requisites.  Correct the Issues(s) listed above and re-run setup.

So, referring back to the WSSDeploy.doc, I'm directed to download and install the WWF Beta 2 and the Visual Studio extensions from here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=5C080096-F3A0-4CE4-8830-1489D0215877&displaylang=en

So, not that my teeth look like swiss cheese, I run SharePoint_setup.exe for the unteenth time and, Woohoo!

I get the license agreement and then the Basic or Advanced install option.

I recall that in WSS 2003, if you chose Basic, it would drop your DB into SQLExpress.  So I'll choose advanced.

Then I get the Web Front-End or Stand-Alone option.  The stand-alone option says Desktop Engine so, I'll choose web front end.  I'm guessing what I am doing is something like building a farm where all components live on one box.  My objective is to have the SharePoint database NOT live in SQLExpress.

I end up with the option to run the configuration wizard.

I tell it to create a new server farm.

As I suspected, then it asks me for a database server and gives me the default database name.  I change the database name to RobotsRule and I give it a local admin username and password.  I might have to change that later.

I click next through the rest of the wizard and I'm on to tasks 1 through 9.

Which would be good, except for step 2, Create Configuration Database.

I get this error: This access control list is not in canonical form and therefore cannot be modified.

Which I google and find this from my new best friend Bill:

http://blogs.interknowlogy.com/billsheldon/archive/2006/05/22/2705.aspx

Apparently, my problem is the Virtual Image I started with and the NewSID program I ran on it to give the VM a new ID.