07 August, 2013

Operation is not valid due to the current state of the object

Every day we face some strange issues in SharePoint, if it’s working before then why it suddenly stops working! Big question-hmm??

Today we are going to discuss one similar scenario and I am pretty much sure you will comes up with different resolution’s because this issue might vary from environment to environment so resolutions might be different.

Problem description:
One of our content database has already reached the 100GB mark so as per Microsoft recommendations, it’s better to move the site collections to new database as it might create some problems while doing backup and restore. So the plan to move some site collections from existing database to new database. For this purpose, we have created a new database by means of central administration.

One thing I wanted to clear that we are doing backup-restore activity, we are moving some heavy site collections between databases only.
In SharePoint 2010, we have an inbuilt command to move the site collections between databases, please refer the following:

Move-SPSite <http://ServerName/Sites/SiteName> -DestinationDatabase <DestinationContentDb>

So we make modifications as per our databases i.e. URL of the site collection and name of the destination database.

As soon as we hit enter, the PowerShell command throws an exception as mentioned below.

Error message:
Move-SPSite: Operation is not valid due to the current state of the object

Troubleshooting done:
-Checked the status of site collection-whether it’s set to lock/read only?

-Checked the status of the database-whether it’s online/offline?

-Tried detaching the source and destination databases and reattached again but still no results

-Tried moving site collections to existing databases- this one works!

-Tried creating a site collection in newly created database- works!

-The site that we have just moved to existing DB- tried moving to the destination database (where we are facing to problem)- Failed!

-Tried creating a new database for different web application and performed the same operation- Failed!

-checked the health analyser again to verify for any new errors

-Found this error which we have neglected-Databases running in compatibility range, upgrade recommended.

<This is the main culprit>

Resolution:
We ran this command on the source database from which we were trying to move the site collections to destination database.

upgrade-contentdatabase -Name <> -Webapplication <>

Operation completed successfully.

Tried running the move-spsite command and executed successfully without any issues…

By this way we have overcome this error message but as I mentioned in the beginning resolution might vary from environment to environment so request you to please share if you have different resolution part from the above mentioned so that it would be beneficial to others as well.

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 resolves your issues, Thank you.

Product Applies To:
SharePoint Server 2010
SharePoint Foundation 2010
SharePoint Server 2013

06 August, 2013

Unexpected error occurred while running macro in projects Web Database Site

So here it comes another issue that we faced as well as resolved it by taking some proper configuration steps as per recommendations from Microsoft. It was not a trickiest one but still took some time to drill down to resolution.

What was the exact issue? / Problem description?
User was trying to add new projects on SharePoint 2010 “Projects Web Database” site.

Error Message:
Unexpected error occurred while running macro.

Here are some links that i have read before starting troubleshooting on this issue. Following links will help you to understand the detail background of project web database as well as role of access services.



Troubleshooting steps:
-Issue was restricted to project web database site.
-checked the access services are activated or not.
-If they are activated then on which servers they are a part of i.e. are they activated on the app server or front end server.
-checked the SP logs to find out the root cause.
-checked the event logs to look out for any specific event id’s

Resolution:
As per the Microsoft recommendations, whichever the server is- access services and foundation web application services should be running on the same server.

When we checked the status of access services, they were activated on the APP server but if it’s an app server then Foundation web application service should be in stopped state, so we can’t start the foundation web application services on the app server. If we do this then we are converting the app server into another WFE which is totally wrong and not required.- This is a wrong configuration!

What we did?
We have stopped the access services on the app server and started them on the front ends where the foundation web application service is already running…
That’s it- after this issue has been resolved and we are able to add new projects in a project web database site in SharePoint 2010.

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.

If you have some different resolution apart from the above mentioned then request you to share the same so that it would be beneficial to others as well. Thank you…

Product Applies To:
-SharePoint Server 2010
-SharePoint Foundation 2010
-SharePoint Server 2013

05 August, 2013

Unable to display this webpart + navigation add link not working in SharePoint 2010

One of our users has opened a ticket that some default functionality is not working as expected. If somebody mentioned as ‘default functionality’ then it means out of box and no customizations at all. Furthermore, probed the user and gathered the details.

-Issue was farm wide i.e. across all web applications / all site collections

Problem description:
User was trying to add one of the existing list/libraries link by means of navigation,

here are the complete details to reproduce the issue:
-Open the site
-site actions
-site settings
-Look and Feel
-Navigation
- Select either global navigation or current navigation
-Add link
-Click on Browse
-Two panes will be reflected i.e. left pane and right pane
-if you select any entity from the left side then it has to show in the right side but you will get the following error in the right side.

Error Message:
Unable to display this Web Part. To troubleshoot the problem, open this Web page in a Microsoft SharePoint Foundation-compatible HTML editor such as Microsoft SharePoint Designer. If the problem persists, contact your Web server administrator.
Correlation ID: xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxx

Resolution:
We have opened a ticket with Microsoft and got to know this is known issue and happening because of recently installed windows update: KB2844286

As per the information conveyed from them- "Both the SharePoint and .NET product groups are aware of the issue and they are in the process of fixing the patch"

Removing windows update: KB2844286 is the only solution at this time.

Once you remove the update then please restart the server. Thank you.

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.


If you have any other resolution apart from the above mentioned then request you to please share so that it would be beneficial for others as well.

Security token service is not available- SP2010

Security token plays an important role with respect to authentication purpose, if this stops functioning then you will start getting so many tickets regarding access as well as critical tickets which are dependent on the same as few other services are also dependent on this service i.e. security token.

Here is the Microsoft link which talks about in details on security token:

While doing the sanity check across all front ends, we have noticed the security token service exception in the event viewer logs with respect to one of the server.

Here are the details:
Error message: Security token service is not available.

Checked the IIS status and found all the application pools and websites were in stopped status.

Started all the SharePoint entities which were in stopped status.

Checked the rule again and it was not there in the HA (Health Analyzer) list anymore.

Issue resolved, we are good now. Thank you.

Few IMP points which are essential while troubleshooting this issue:

In our case, the security token service was working initially without any issues and the farm was already built properly. But in your case, if it’s a newly built farm then it might be a hotfix issue as per this Microsoft article:


If you have any queries 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.


Also-if you have a different resolution regarding the same issue then request you to share the same so that it would be useful to other as well. Thank you.

02 August, 2013

Expired sessions are not being deleted, Health Analyzer Error in SharePoint 2010

Today we are going to discuss one of the errors that we have noticed in SharePoint Health Analyzer. as per that exception, here is the reflected information.

Exact Exception: Expired sessions are not being deleted from the ASP.NET Session State database.

Mentioned explanation: If expired sessions are not deleted, the server that hosts the ASP.NET Session State database may run out of disk space and the SharePoint farm may cease to function.

Remedy reflected: Connect to the server that hosts the ASP.NET Session State database, start the SQL Server Agent service, and verify that a DeleteExpiredSessions job is registered for the database. If you are using SQL Server Express, the SQL Server Agent service is not available. For more information about this rule, http://technet.microsoft.com/library/ff805085.aspx

Troubleshooting done:

Checked the timer job status named ‘State Service Delete Expired Sessions’
How we have checked this:
-Open SharePoint 2010 central administration
-Monitoring
-Timer Jobs
-Review Job definitions
-Check the job ‘State Service Delete Expired Sessions’
-By default it runs on hourly basis, so we have executed ‘Run now’ but that didn’t result any output.

Checked the stored procedure named ‘DeleteExpiredSessions’ is exist or not.
How we have checked this:
-Login to the SQL SERVER BOX by using farm account
-expand the list of databases
-look out for Session State database
-Expand the same database
-expand programmability
-expand stored procedures and you will find that above mentioned stored procedure name in that list.
-if it’s not listed there then we need to create that stored procedure.

Once you find that stored procedure then simply right click on it and execute it.

After this, simply go to the central administration-health analyser- click on that warning and select ‘reanalyse now’ option. That’s it.

Issue Resolved.

If you have any inputs regarding the above mentioned information then please share so that it would be useful for the whole SharePoint community.

In case of any queries/questions then please let me know, I would be more than happy to help you as well as resolves your issues, Thank you.

Product applies to:
SharePoint Server 2010
SharePoint Foundation 2010