Warm up your SharePoint Web Applications on Windows 2008 R2 using the IIS 7.5 Application Warm-Up module

I have just recently built a new SharePoint 2007 farm on a complete Windows 2008 R2 server platform and part of my standard build procedure is to implement a warm up routine, usually in the form of a script that is scheduled every morning to launch my SharePoint Web Applications.  Most of you will most likely know what I am referring to here, the slowness that end users experience when loading a SharePoint site for the first time in the morning!?

By default IIS will recycle its worker processes during the night, in my case IIS 7.5 tells me this happens at 1:04 AM.  You can locate this information in IIS Manager / Application Pools / Highlight your application pool in question and select Recycling under Actions / Edit Application Pool.

So what is recycling all about?  Here is a brief primer;

Recycling is all about stopping any current w3wp.exe processes that are running for a particular Web Application Pool and starting a new one.  The purpose of this maintenance routine is to clear the cache and start afresh! This routine obviously causes SharePoint to be quite slow when accessed for the first time after the recycling process.  This is because when accessing a SharePoint Site/Page for the first time, that information needs to be re-compiled and loaded into memory again.

So what can we do about this first time slowness that occurs every morning?  Wake SharePoint up!

There are arrays of scripts that have been developed by 3rd party developers that can be scheduled to run straight after the recycle occurs.  These scripts are usually required to be modified for your Web applications in question.

With the introduction of IIS 7.5 and Windows 2008 R2 however, there is an actual module developed by the IIS team that will integrate directly with IIS allowing you to seamlessly enable your application pools to load your web applications after a recycle occurs.  You can download the extension here; http://www.iis.net/expand/ApplicationWarmUp At the time of this writing, the Application Warm-Up module is still in beta, but I have been using it on our production servers for over a month without any hiccups.

So let’s begin our step by step guide.  Download and launch the executable from the above site.

Click Install and then click Finish.  As you can see, the installation process is quite simple.

Launch IIS Manager and click on one of your SharePoint Sites.  In the middle pane, you will notice a new item listed under IIS titled, Application Warm-Up.

Double Click on Application Warm-Up.

Under Actions located on the far right pane, select Settings

Ensure that both options available are selected and ticked.

We also now need to add a request which is usually the main page of your SharePoint Site.  This is achieved under Actions, Select Add Request and enters the URL of your SharePoint Site.

The last area that you will need to venture into is also located under Actions / Edit User Context.  Here you will need to specify your Authentication settings, otherwise the module will not work and you will receive the below warning message in your Windows Application Even Log.

Log Name:      Application
Source:        IIS Application Warmup Module
Date:          8/03/2010 7:31:43 AM
Event ID:      1003
Task Category: None
Level:         Warning
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      SERVERNAME

Description:
The description for Event ID 1003 from source IIS Application Warmup Module cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.

If the event originated on another computer, the display information had to be saved with the event.

The following information was included with the event:

/default.aspx
MACHINE/WEBROOT/APPHOST/SharePoint Central Administration v3/
Unauthorized

Here I have specified “Set Username and Type only” for the mode and “Windows” for the Type.  Lastly, specify an account that has access to load the SharePoint Web Application

That’s all that is to it.  All you need to do now is replicate this for each SharePoint Web application on each of your SharePoint Web Front Ends.

This neat little module has a number of advantages over scheduled scripts as it seamlessly warms up your SharePoint Web applications regardless of when the Application Pool is recycled including when you re-start your servers or re-start IIS.  Please note, this little module also works with all ASP.Net applications!

Before I let you go, if you are after a neat utility for IIS7, Spencer Harbar has developed an Application Pool Recycle Utility which also incorporates a Warm Up tool  You can download it here; http://www.harbar.net/articles/apm.aspx

Resources

IIS.Net – Application Warm up http://www.iis.net/expand/ApplicationWarmUp

IIS.Net – Using the IIS Application Warm-Up Module http://learn.iis.net/page.aspx/688/using-the-iis-application-warm-up-module/

Error: Cannot complete this action.

Error:  Cannot complete this action.
          Please try again.
          Troubleshoot issues with Windows SharePoint Services. 

      

What is the cause of this error? 

The short answer is that the page is trying to access something that doesn’t exist, or thinks does not exist.

Resolution:

1). To check which webpart is having the issue, open the site with SharePoint Designer  and double click on the page. The webpart which shows the ‘server error’ is the culprit one.

2). Right click on the webpart to visit its properties and to find its name.

3). Go to web part maintenance page by using http://xyz.com/sites/default.aspx?contents=1  and

4). Closed the offending web part.

If you have any queries/questions regarding the above mentioned information then please let me know. I would be more than happy to help you as well as resolves your issue. Thank you

The Managed Metadata Service or Connection is currently not available

A managed metadata service publishes a term store and, optionally, content types; a managed metadata connection consumes these. When you enable managed metadata in your SharePoint Server 2010 application, a managed metadata service and connection are created automatically. The service identifies the database to be used as the term store, and the connection provides access to the service.

I've been trying to create new Managed Metadata services but get this error when trying to manage them:

The Managed Metadata Service or Connection is currently not available. The Application Pool or Managed Metadata Web Service may not have been started. Please Contact your Administrator.

Here are the detailed steps that i followed to resolve this issue:

Resolution:

1)  Open Central Administration by going Start--All Programs--Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products--SharePoint 2010 Central Administration.

2)   Click on Manage Service Application which is available in Application Management section.

3)   When you click on Managed Metadata Service application, sometimes you may get the following error:

The Managed Metadata Service or Connection is currently not available

4)   Go and check whether the Managed Metadata Service has been started.

5)   Click on Application Management in the quick launch.

6)   Click on Manage services on server under Service Applications section.

7)  Check whether the Managed Metadata Web Service is started; if not then click on Start

8)   Do an IISRESET

Now you could be able to see the Managed Metadata Service properties

If you still face the same issue, go to IIS and check whether the Application pool for the metadata service is started

Note: Check the account in which the application pool for the metadata service is running. Sometimes if the password for the account is changed, you will get the same issue

If you have any queries/questions regarding the above mentioned information then please let me know. I would be more than happy to help you as well as resolves your issue. Thank you :)

How to Create a New Document Library in SharePoint 2010

A library is a container for creating, organizing and managing different types of documents. It allows us to store files and Meta information about the files, so that it can be used among different team members. You can create, store and manage almost every type of file in different kinds of libraries (i.e. Word documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms etc.)

By default a Shared Library is created when you create a site and additionally you can create as many types of libraries as you want.

1.   Select 'Site Actions', then 'View All Site Content'.

2.   Click 'Create'.

3.   The Popup will ask for Name, Description, Versioning and Template settings. Fill the fields as desired.

SharePoint ULS Log Viewer

Functionalities:

·         Parse and open multiple SharePoint ULS logs (will concatenate them if you select multiple)

·         Reorder and resize columns, sort on any column

·         Filter by Severity, Category, and Process or a custom text filter/search

·         Group multi-line stack traces into single log entries for easy viewing and copy/paste

·         View message easily in separate pane (No more scrolling in notepad)

Complete credit goes to Keir Gordon who is the creator of this utility

·         Great features

·         The interface is very intuitive, simple, and powerful.

·         Very handy to view the complex log files

·         Great tool, much easier to read the logs than Notepad or Text pad