Recently published content for SharePoint 2013

Published the week of February 25, 2013

New articles

Refreshing Excel workbooks with embedded PowerPivot models from SharePoint Online (white paper)   Download this white paper to learn how to perform scheduled data refresh of workbooks that contain PowerPivot models published to SharePoint Online.

Configure server-to-server authentication between publishing and consuming farms   Learn how to configure server-to-server authentication when you share service applications across SharePoint 2013 publishing and consuming farms.

Blog posts: An introduction to cross-site publishing, Stage 1: Create site collections for cross-site publishing, Stage 2: Import list content into the Product Catalog Site Collection   Posts in a series that describes how you can use SharePoint 2013 to set up a website that is based on product catalog data.

Updated articles

Configure an environment for apps for SharePoint (SharePoint 2013)   Updated information about the account used to set up the Subscription Settings and the App Management service applications from the farm account to a managed account. The farm account is not recommended.

Getting started with SharePoint Server 2013 workflow   Added a video overview of workflow in SharePoint Server 2013.

Published the week of February 18, 2013

New articles

Virtualize SharePoint 2013 learning roadmap   Use this learning roadmap to build expertise about how to install and configure SharePoint 2013 in a Microsoft virtual environment.

Backup and restore best practices in SharePoint 2013   Learn how to implement best practices before you back up and restore a SharePoint 2013 farm.

View an Excel Services dashboard by using a Windows 8 tablet   Watch this video to learn how to explore data in an Excel Services dashboard using a Windows 8 tablet.

Overview of Excel Services reports displayed in PerformancePoint Web Parts   Learn about how to display Excel Services reports in Dashboard Designer.

Overview of PerformancePoint analytic charts and grids   Learn about analytic charts and grids in Dashboard Designer.

Overview of PerformancePoint KPI Details reports   Learn about PerformancePoint KPI Details reports.

Overview of PerformancePoint reports and scorecards   Learn about reports and scorecards within PerformancePoint Services Dashboard Designer.

Overview of PerformancePoint scorecards   Learn about PerformancePoint scorecards.

Overview of Reporting Services reports displayed in PerformancePoint Web Parts   Learn about how to include Reporting Services reports in a PerformancePoint web part.

Overview of the PerformancePoint Decomposition Tree   Learn about PerformancePoint decomposition trees.

Overview of Web Page reports in Dashboard Designer   Learn about web page reports in Dashboard Designer.

How to build a social media-sharing site in SharePoint 2013 (white paper)   Learn how to build a social media-sharing site in SharePoint 2013.

Fundamental site planning in SharePoint 2013   View links to resources about site planning concepts such as how to structure sites and how to plan site navigation in SharePoint 2013.

Overview of site collections and sites in SharePoint 2013   Learn about site collections, sites, and site templates in SharePoint 2013.

Blog post: How to set up a product-centric website in SharePoint 2013   First in a series of posts that describes how you can use SharePoint 2013 to set up a website that is based on product catalog data.

Blog post: Get the new Office Visio stencil with the cool icons   

Updated articles

Manage Feed Cache and Last Modified Time Cache repopulation in SharePoint Server 2013   Added new section: "Feed Cache settings on the User Profile Service application."

Manage the Distributed Cache service in SharePoint Server 2013   Added an optional step to reconfigure the memory allocation of the Distributed Cache service, added a note about Inbound ICMP (ICMPv4) traffic, and added a new section: "Repair a cache host."

Plan for feeds and the Distributed Cache service in SharePoint Server 2013   Added two new sections: "Capacity planning for the Distributed Cache service" and "Firewall configuration considerations."

Reference: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262043.aspx

Available drive space is less than twice the value of physical memory. This is dangerous because it does not provide enough room for a full memory dump with continued operation

SharePoint Health Analyzer is a good feature or we call it as a revolution for SharePoint administrators as it helps you to detect the issues in your farm and keep the SharePoint up and working without any worries :)

It’s very important to take an immediate action in reference to the critical errors which are reflecting in the health analyzer.

Overview of SharePoint Health Analyzer

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee534957(v=office.14).aspx

SharePoint Health Analyzer rules reference (SharePoint Foundation 2010)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff686788(v=office.14).aspx

SharePoint Health Analyzer rules reference (SharePoint Server 2010)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff686816(v=office.14).aspx

As per the error message, make sure that the mention drive is having enough space as per the Microsoft recommendations. If you are pretty sure that space is already there and still you are getting that error in the health analyzer then you need to follow the following theory which has been explained by MVP-PAUL STORK

This theory suggest- “the threshold is built into the code and can't be changed.  You can go into the configuration for the Health Analyzer and turn off that particular rule.  To do this go to Central Administration and navigate to Monitoring > Health Analyzer > Review Rule Definitions.  Then find the specific rule, edit it and disable it.  It will stop telling you that the disks are running out of space.  I'm also not sure that this rule only pertains to the drive where you have your log files, but the only thing you can do is disable the rule.  There is no way to edit it.”

What you can check to free up the space:

-       Check the log files which are stored on the drive – this consumes most of the space

-       Check the backup files which are present over there

-       Check the old deployment files which are present on the same drive

-       Check the software’s which has been used long way back and still using the same space

-       Check the misc stuff which we kept during any critical situations (example: any files, tools etc)

As per Microsoft MSFT- Rock Wang—“This rule checks disk space as a proportion of the RAM on the computer. When disk space is less than twice the RAM on the computer, the health rule triggers an error. When disk space is less than five times the RAM on the computer, the health rule triggers a warning. Accordingly, server computers with lots of RAM are more likely to experience a failure of this rule.”

Once you remove the unnecessary stuff or irrelevant data from the mention drive then click on “Reanalyze now” so that it will verify the error and shows the results immediately.

If you have any queries/questions regarding the above mentioned information then please let me know, Thank you…

You can’t delete a site that has subsites

Cannot Delete Subsite

Error deleting a website “/Teamsite/SP2010”. You can’t delete a site that has subsites

If you are facing this error message then there are multiple ways to delete it. Let’s look at those details and let me know in case of any queries/doubts based on the same.

-Subsite console

-Site collection console

-SPD 2010

-STSADM utility

-PowerShell utility

-Content and structure

Imp Note:

-You need to make sure that which subsite you are trying to delete and

-How many nested subsites are present underneath?

-Logged in account that you are using to delete that subsite

-Make sure you don't have any meeting workspaces on your site

Let’s look into each category by exploring thoroughly:

Subsite Console:

-Login to SharePoint site with administrator account.

-Click "Team Site" on the top of the "Admin" Page.

-Navigate to the subsite you prefer to delete.

-Click "Site Actions", and then click "Site Settings".

-Click “Delete this site” under "Site Actions".

-Click "Delete" Button, and then click "OK" to confirm.

Site Collection Console:

-Login to the SharePoint site collection with admin account

-Site actions

-Site settings

-Site administration

-Sites and workspaces

-You will see a list of subsites which are present underneath the site collection

-In the right hand side, you will find the option of delete

-Click on delete and it will ask you to confirm the details

-Click OK

-That’s it and you are done.

SharePoint Designer 2010 Console:

-Click start

-All programs

-Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2010

-File

-Open site

-Enter the site collection URL

-Once the site will be open then you will see the complete hierarchy

-You will see a separate section named as “Subsites”

-Click on it and you will see the number of subsites in the right hand side

-Right click on the subsite that you want to delete

-Click OK and you are done.

Content and structure:

-Site Actions -> Site Settings

-Site Administration: Content and Structure

-In the left column, move to the parent of the main site to be deleted

-In the right column, choose the site to be deleted (Your Site in our example)

-Menu: Actions -> Delete

-Note: Deleting the selected sites will permanently delete all content and user information. All subsites in this site will also be permanently lost. Do you want to continue? Click OK.

STSADM Utility:

stsadm -o deleteweb

   -url <URL name>

For deleting a site within an orphaned site collection or an orphaned site within a site collection:

   -force

   -webid <Web ID>

   -databasename <database name>

   -databaseserver <database server name>

POWERSHELL Utility:

Remove-SPWeb "http://ursite/" -Confirm:$false

Reference:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262877(v=office.12).aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc288016(office.12).aspx

 

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 issues…

Thank you.

Cannot Publish Access Database to Sharepoint 2010 Server

Happy Friday to all of you :)

Worked for almost 10 hours to resolve this issue that I am going to explained in detail manner.

Okay, here we go…

Problem Description: We have published an Access 2010 database to SharePoint 2010 site. The publish was successful but received an error

Error Messages:

Message#1:

Exception message: Exception from HRESULT: 0x80131904

Message#2:

The server was unable to process the request due to an internal error. For more information about the error, either turns on IncludeExceptionDetailInFaults (either from ServiceBehaviorAttribute or from the <serviceDebug> configuration behavior) on the server in order to send the exception information back to the client, or turn on tracing as per the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 SDK documentation and inspect the server trace logs.

Message#3:

I get this error in the event viewer:

Log Name:      Application

Source:        Microsoft-SharePoint Products-Access Services

Date:          22/2/2013 10:03:43 AM

Event ID:      3

Task Category: Data Layer

Message#4:

An error has occurred. Please try again.

If I review the series of error message then it’s not completely clear where its dragging out and in which direction.

Troubleshooting done on this issue:

1.    Manage Services on Server – Access Database Service is started

2.    Manage Services Applications – Review the access Settings

3.    Manage Web Applications – Make sure application is associated with the Access Service

4.    Make sure all the features are activated

o   Central Admin --- System Settings --- Manage Farm Features --- Access Services Farm Feature

o   Central Admin --- Manage Web Applications --- Select Web Application hosting the Access Services Site --- Manage Web Application Features --- SharePoint Server Enterprise Web application features

o   Site Collection --- Site Settings -> SharePoint Server Enterprise Site Collection features

o   Site Collection --- manage Site Settings --- SharePoint Server Enterprise Site features

Microsoft Theory:

If Access Services is activated on an Application Server, then you will also need to turn on the Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Web application Service, thus turning that machine into a WFE/APP server. Problem with this approach is that it could affect your licensing agreement because licensing depends on the number of WFE’s your farm has. Hence, the workaround for this issue is to enable the Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Web Application service on the server running Access Database Services.

As per this, we have made the changes and started the access service on the same server where Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Web application Service is running.

5.    Make the changes in web.config file so that the error should be more clear and accurate one.  Changes includes: callstack=True and customerror=off

6.    Re-provision the access, session state, security token service applications

Resolution:

We have provided access to the account associated with Access Services the dbo permission for the content database in SQL Server for the particular site collection for which I was trying to add a Web Database.

If you have any queries/questions regarding the above mentioned information then please let me know.

Thank you.

Upgrade Best Practices SharePoint Server 2010

I was in a process of giving the details about migration to a organisation from 2007 to 2010 and found this useful article on Technet .

http://technet.microsoft.com/library/cc261992(office.14).aspx

To ensure a smooth upgrade from Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 to Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, follow these best practices

• Update your servers to Service Pack 2 (SP2) of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 or later.

Your environment must be updated to Service Pack 2 of Office SharePoint Server 2007 to run the upgrade process, either for an in-place or database attach upgrade. We recommend that you install the October 2009 Cumulative Update because it includes improvements to the pre-upgrade checker tool. Ensure that the environment is fully functioning before you perform an upgrade.

•  An upgrade does not solve any problems that might already exist in your environment. Therefore, ensure that the environment is fully functioning before you perform an upgrade. For example, if you have Web applications that are no longer being used, unextend them before you upgrade. If you want to delete a Web application in Internet Information Services (IIS), unextend the Web application before you delete it; otherwise, SharePoint Server 2010 will try to upgrade the Web application even though it does not exist, and the upgrade will fail. If you find and solve problems beforehand, you are more likely to meet the upgrade schedule that you have estimated.

• Before you try an in-place upgrade, migrate to 64-bit servers. Upgrade your operating system to a 64-bit version of Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows Server 2008 with Service Pack 2 (SP2). If you are using SQL Server, upgrade or migrate to a 64-bit version of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2008 with Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Cumulative Update 2, or SQL Server 2005 with SP3 and Cumulative Update 3.

• Do not try to combine these operations with your upgrade process. You cannot perform an in-place upgrade unless your system already runs on a supported operating system and platform.

For more information, see What's new in upgrade (SharePoint Server 2010).

• Run the pre-upgrade checker to look for potential issues.

The pre-upgrade checker reports missing customizations and issues with orphaned sites, and more, so that you can address these issues before you perform your upgrade.

 For more information, see Run the pre-upgrade checker (SharePoint Server 2010).

• Perform a trial upgrade on a test farm first.

Back up the live farm, restore to test servers, and then perform the upgrade. Examine the results to set expectations for what the live upgraded sites will look like, to determine how much post-upgrade customization will have to be done, and to estimate how long the upgrade will take. Try a full search indexing crawl. For more information, see Use a trial upgrade to find potential issues (SharePoint Server 2010).

• Plan for capacity.

Ensure that you have disk, processor, and memory capacity sufficient to handle upgrade requirements. For more information about system requirements, see Review system requirements for upgrade (SharePoint Server 2010). For more information about how to plan the disk space that is required for upgrade, see Estimate how long the upgrade process will take and the space that you need (SharePoint Server 2010). For more information about how to plan for capacity, see Performance and capacity management (SharePoint Server 2010).

• Back up your environment.

Perform a full backup of your environment before upgrading. That way, you can recover your environment if you must roll back from an upgrade. For more information, see Back up environment before an in-place upgrade (SharePoint Server 2010).

• Optimize your environment before upgrade.

A few key limits have changed in SharePoint Server 2010, such as query throttling on large lists and lower limits on the number of site collections allowed per content database (from 5,000 warning and 15,000 limit to 2,000 warning and 5,000 limit). Be sure to optimize your Office SharePoint Server 2007 environment to meet these limits or restrictions before upgrade to mitigate errors during the upgrade process or broken lists or sites after upgrade. For more information about the site collection limit, see SharePoint Server 2010 capacity management: Software boundaries and limits. For more information about large lists and addressing the lower limit on site collections, see Clean up an environment before upgrade (SharePoint Server 2010).

• (Optional) If you are using the database attach upgrade method, set the original databases to read-only.

If you expect a long outage window while you perform a database attach upgrade, you can set the databases in the original environment to be read-only so that users can continue to access their data without changing it. For more information, see Attach databases and upgrade to SharePoint Server 2010.

• Do not add any servers to your server farm after you begin the upgrade process.

Running the SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard upgrades the configuration database. The configuration database contains the list of servers in the farm. Servers added to the farm after the configuration wizard has been run are not included in the database. Therefore, servers added after the wizard runs do not appear in the upgraded version topology. If you need to add servers to your farm, do so either before you start the upgrade or after you have completed the upgrade process.

• After upgrade, review the Upgrade Status page and upgrade logs to determine whether there are issues that must be addressed. Then review the upgraded sites.

The Upgrade Status page reports on the upgrade progress, and the upgrade logs list any errors or warnings that occurred during the upgrade process. You should verify all of the sites and test them before you consider the upgrade complete. For more information, see Verify upgrade and review upgraded sites (SharePoint Server 2010).