Wednesday, August 26, 2009

SharePoint Synchronous Mirror Script

Scenario

Issue

  • When setting up the SQL script they left out a few details.
Resolution
  • Use C:\Windows\System32\cliconfg.exe to create the aliases on each SharePoint server. SharePoint must point to the alias rather than directly to the SQL instance.
  • The SQL alert should run the Failover job
  • The Failover job should have the 2 steps
    • Failover the remaining databases
    • Run the Regini commands to reset the sql alias
      • The account running the job must have add permissions or you may get an Regini cannot open file error
      • The sql job can only run one cmdexec command per step, so you will need multiple steps or a batch file with all the commands
      • The registry setting should change the alias pointer to the same server that the job is running on
  • Don't Copy from the word doc, as this will take the incorrect - and ' characters.

Crawl Schedule: Access is denied.

Scenario
  • Attempting to add a crawl schedule for a newly created SSP

Issue
  • Access is denied. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070005 (E_ACCESSDENIED))

Resolution

SSP: Could Not Connect To Server

Scenario

  • .Net 3.5 SP1 was installed prior to MOSS 2007 SP2
Issue
  • On the SSP Content Sources screen: "Authentication failed because the remote party has closed the transport stream"
  • Could not connect to server [Index/Query Server Name] for application [SSP name] shows up in the SSP Search Settings/Administration screen
Resolution

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

LdapRoleProvider and Audience Targeting Bug

The MOSS 2007 LdapRoleProvider could be your greatest friend or your worst enemy. Getting it configured correctly is a pain. See the community content I added here for some of my tricks.

There are some limitations on SharePoint role providers:

  • Cannot use the people picker search feature to find partially typed group names
  • You can only have one provider per SharePoint application zone
  • You cannot share a provider across applications/zones
  • The role provider groups cannot be directly accessed via Audience targeting

Today, I spent the day figuring out the following bug and resolution.

Scenario

  • You have configured audience targeting to use SharePoint groups because you cannot directly target Ldap groups
  • The SharePoint groups contain the Ldap groups
  • The SharePoint groups have no inherent permissions defined

Issue

  • The targeted web part does not display even though the user is in the appropriate ldap group

Resolution

  • The SharePoint group must have at least one permission applied to it.
  • I recommend using the Read or Restricted Read permission, since this should be a minimal permission. Alternatively, create your own minimal permission level.

My guess is that the SP group only parses the RoleProviders upon a permission request. This means that if there have been no relavent permission requests against the group, the group will only contain the non-roleprovider entries (individual accounts) and will not return the correct results to the audience targeting request.

Monday, August 3, 2009

Network Load Balanced (NLB) Reporting Services Integrated Installation - Unresolved

Scenario:
  • Installing SSRS on 2 content switch load balanced (NLB) MOSS 2007 front end web servers.
  • Using SharePoint Integrated mode.
  • Separate Database server hosts databases for both SSRS and MOSS
  • SSRS is correctly configured and will run when configured directly to either FEW/SSRS server.

Issue:

  • SSRS will not run via the NLB URL.
  • Error parsing lists shows up in logs.

SiteManager Error

Scenario:

  • Using Site Actions / Manage Content and Structure (this is a Publishing Feature)
  • Recently changed the Application Pool's service account via IIS.
Issue:

  • You are not authorized to view this page.
  • HTTP error 403 - Forbidden

Resolution:

  • Change the application pool account to the MOSS installation user account
  • Make sure to use the SharePoint Central Admin UI to change service accounts in future

Purpose of this blog.

I am creating this blog to document the struggles and (hopefully) solutions I encounter in my day to day experiences with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.

I have been working with this product since the Beta and encounter a new issue/error almost every day I've worked with it.