Recovered: Upgrading Virtual Servers With STSADM.EXE

Upgrading Virtual Servers with STSADM.EXE

They Never Tell You What Can Go Wrong.

I did not build the portal I'm working on now.  And I say "working on" but I really mean "cussing at."

Web parts cannot be installed because of some complication with the portal's name or url or something.  For example, maybe you've heard of Codeplex; it a kind of open community for .Net development.  Well our buddy Bil Simser dropped a great Forum Web Part out there and it is really cool.  It's completly self contained and he's written all the install overhead into an .msi that runs in about five seconds.

I've installed it four times without a hitch… except in production.

You see, my production portal has this problem.  When I run the install it errors saying Setup has encountered an error, see the log.  It creates a log in my user folder and the log says:

========= WPPackager install log started 8/28/2006 9:16:33 AM                                   =========                                                                                                                 
8/28/2006 9:17:00 AM: Error: Error message: 'The server instance specified was not found.  Please specify the server's address and port.' while installing Web Part                                package.                                                                                                                       
8/28/2006 9:17:00 AM: Critical Error: Error while installing 'SharePointForums-1.2.0.0' to     server.                                                                                                 

Okay.  Something's wrong with my server instance name and that sucks because it's a really cool web part and I was able to demonstrate it on a test portal and my personal site and everywhere, except production.

So then, I've found this great little subsite indexer, a web part that will list all the subsites under a site.  It's available in a CAB file here:

http://www.microsoft.com/sharepoint/downloads/components/results.asp?p=4&s=C&c=24

So I download it and unzip it and head into STSADM.exe

C:Program FilesCommon FilesMicrosoft Sharedweb server extensions60BIN>stsadm.exe -o addwppack -filename C:SubSitesWebPart.CAB -url http://MyServer:12345 -globalinstall

Works like a dream.  THe Web part ends up in the Virtual Server Gallery and you click and drag it onto the page.  Way cool!

However, when I try run this command:

C:Program FilesCommon FilesMicrosoft Sharedweb server extensions60BIN>stsadm.exe -o addwppack -filename C:SubSitesWebPart.CAB -url http://MyServer -globalinstall

I get this back:

The server instance specified was not found.  Please specify the server's address and port.

So, like I said earleir, it would appear I have a problem with my server's name.

So I dig into IIS.  My production portal runs on Default Web Site.  My demo site runs WSS Only on a second IIS Virtual Server that responds on port 12345.

Now, here's the funny part.  When I go Site Settings | Go To SharePoint Central Administration | Configure virtual server settings from the Virtual Server List page, I see my demo site called "MyDemoWSSSite" and it's url is http://web.archive.org/web/20061108002138/http://myserver:12345/ and it's version is 6.0.2.6568.  When I click on MyDemoWSSSite I get the Virtual Server Settings page, a WSS Admin page.

However, in the list, I also see my production portal called "Default Web Site" and it's url is NOT http://web.archive.org/web/20061108002138/http://myserver/.  It's http://web.archive.org/web/20061108002138/http://192.168.100.240/. Furthermore, its version is 6.0.2.6361 and it's got this little Upgrade link in the far right.  When I click on the Default Web Site link, instead of thevirtual server settings, I get this cute little help window that tells me I need to Upgrade a server or virtual server.  It says I can run stssetup.exe to upgrade the server and the default web site to SharePoint or I can run stsadm.exe to upgrade a single virtual server to SharePoint.

Finally, if I click on Create a Portal Site the virtual server defaults to Default Web Site but I get this text at the top of the page in red:

SharePoint Portal Server has detected SharePoint Team Services or FrontPage Server Extensions 2002 on this virtual server and cannot extend a virtual server over existing data. To proceed, migrate your data if necessary and uninstall SharePoint Team Services or FrontPage Server Extensions 2002 from this virtual server.

So it seems that SPS and IIS know I have a portal but they disagree on what the virtual server name is and WSS thinks I need to migrate the data and remove STS or FrontPage Server Extensions.

Gads this is complicated.

Good thing Microsoft explains it all here:

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=823378

Isn't that better, now?  Thanks for reading!
-robot

Published Thursday, September 07, 2006 4:22 PM by SPRobot