But this time I had a horrible time doing it. I don’t know if these factors had anything to do with it but my situation included the following noteworthy factors:

• Brand new SQL 2008 R2 CU7 Active/Passive clustered SQL environment with a named instance
• SQL is configured to use dynamic ports only on TCP/IP
• My SharePoint 2010 hosts is configured to connect to use SQL client aliases to connect
• SharePoint 2010 was installed with media that was slipstreamed with service pack 1 and the June 2011 CU

Here is the command I was trying to use:

psconfig.exe -cmd configdb -create -server MYSQLAliasName -database FancyPrefix_SharePoint_Config -dbuser Domain\SPfarm -dbpassword SomePassword -user Domain\spadmin -password SomePassword -admincontentdatabase SP_FTIAP_Admin_Content –passphrase MY_passphrase

The error I got in command-prompt window was:

The configdb command is invalid or a failure has been encountered.
Cannot connect to database master at SQL server at MYSQLAliasName. The database might not
exist, or the current user does not have permission to connect to it.

Not helpful. After verifying that I was able to connect I turned to look at the database server. But on the SQL server there was a more descriptive error in the SQL Logs:

Error: 18456, Severity: 14, State: 6.

Message
Login failed for user ‘Domain\SPfarm’. Reason: Attempting to use an NT account name with SQL Server Authentication.

So at first, I tried to configure SQL to accept Windows Authentication only. That didn’t help, after restarting the services, future attempt got me this error:

Error: 18456, Severity: 14, State: 58.

Message
Login failed for user ‘Domain\SPfarm’. Reason: An attempt to login using SQL authentication failed. Server is configured for Windows authentication only.

So no dice. I kept searching and trying variations. Including altering my syntax to use the “username@domain.local” style but nothing worked.

I never did figure out how to get past the problem. I ran out of time and decided to go around the issue. I created the farm using the configuration wizard and then followed Cuban Pete’s instructions to change the name of the Admin Content database, which is simply the PowerShell commands needed to change the name in SharePoint and then when to go into SQL Server Managment Studio and change the actual database name.

Technorati Tags: command-line, psconfig, SharePoint

Create a new shortcut and make the destination:
%windir%\system32\rundll32.exe dsquery.dll,OpenQueryWindow

Give it a memorable name like “Active Directory Search” and consider changing it to a snappier icon and boom, there ya go. Now you can search through all of the users, contacts, groups and even containers if you use the advanced tab.

Technorati Tags: Active Directory, command-line, Search

Follow these steps to make the change manually:

1. Back up your registry (outside link)
2. Disable SSL 2.0:
   1. Browse to the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\SSL 2.0" key. 
   2. There is probably a key there called "Client".  If there is not also a key under there called "Server", create it.
   3. Create a DWORD for the "SSL 2.0\Client" sub-key called "Enabled" and set it to "0".
   4. Create a DWORD value for the "SSL 2.0\Server" subkey and set it to "0", too.  (This will disable SSL version 2.0)
3. Enable SSL 3.0:
   1. Browse to the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\" key. 
   2. If there is not a key under there called "SSL 3.0", create it.
   3. Under "SSL 3.0", create a key called "Client" and a key called "Server".
   4. For both "Client" and "Server", add a DWORD value to each called "Enabled" and set it to "1" (This will enable SSL 3.0).
4. Enable TLS 1.0:
   1. Browse to the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\" key. 
   2. If there is not a key under there called "TLS 1.0", create it.
   3. Under "TLS 1.0", create a key called "Client" and a key called "Server".
   4. For both "Client" and "Server", add a DWORD value to each called "Enabled" and set it to "1" (This will enable  TLS 1.0).
5. Add support for the RC2, RC4, and 3DES ciphers:
   1. Browse to this key: "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Ciphers"
   2. Under "Ciphers" you will add three keys.  The first is called "RC2 128/128".  The second is called "RC4 128/128".  The third is called "Triple DES 168/168".
   3. Do not add any values or keys under the three new keys.
6. Restart the server.

Or you could just run these commands from an administrative command-line:

REG ADD "HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SChannel\Protocols\SSL 2.0\Server" /v Enabled /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f
REG ADD "HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SChannel\Protocols\SSL 2.0\Client" /v Enabled /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f
REG ADD "HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SChannel\Protocols\SSL 3.0\Server" /v Enabled /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
REG ADD "HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SChannel\Protocols\SSL 3.0\Client" /v Enabled /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
REG ADD "HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SChannel\Protocols\TLS 1.0\Server" /v Enabled /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
REG ADD "HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SChannel\Protocols\TLS 1.0\Client" /v Enabled /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
REG ADD "HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SChannel\Ciphers\RC2 128/128"
REG ADD "HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SChannel\Ciphers\RC4 128/128"
REG ADD "HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SChannel\Ciphers\Triple DES 168/168"

Further Reference:

• How to Restrict the Use of Certain Cryptographic Algorithms and Protocols in Schannel.dll (Microsoft Support)
• How to disable PCT 1.0, SSL 2.0, SSL 3.0, or TLS 1.0 in Internet Information Services (Microsoft Support)

Technorati Tags: command-line, IIS, security

Someone needed to move a Document Library from one site collection to another one.  The only viable way to do this is to go to the library settings for that doc library and export it as a list template with content.  When I did that I received the in-SharePoint error saying:

“The list is too large to save as a template. The size of a template cannot exceed 10485760 bytes.” 

This poses a problem because the only other (non third-party tool) way to do this would involve exporting a copy of the original site and then importing it into the destination site collection so that I would be able to use Site Manager to move the list.

Well it turns out there is an undocumented property that can be modified to change this.  Run the following command to see what your farm is currently set to:

stsadm.exe –o getproperty -propertyname max-template-document-size

Chances are the reply will be “<Property Exist=No" />”, which means that you are using the default setting of 10 MB as your limit.  You can set the limit to something higher by using the “setproperty” switch.  For example:

stsadm -o setproperty -propertyname max-template-document-size –propertyvalue 500000000

would increase the limit to about 60 MB.

In my case this was really a one-time thing so, after I had created the copy of the document library, I set the size back to the original 10485760 byte value.

Technorati Tags: command-line, SharePoint, stsadm

Out of the box, MOSS is set to run the profile sync timer job once every hour.  So I ran the following command to show me which content DBs haven’t been synced in the last day:

stsadm.exe -o sync -listolddatabases 1

On my vpc, it looks like this:

This looks helpful except for the fact that nobody knows what the GUID of their content DBs are.  On the client farm there some DBs with very old dates and I could tell something was wrong.  I needed to figure out what the names of the DBs with the old GUIDs are.  The easiest way to do that is to browse to Central Administration and mouse-over your content DBs.  Then you can eyeball the DB GUIDs in the status bar of your browser as it shows you the URL of the hyperlink.  It looks like this:

The GUID of the content DB you are pointing to starts after the “DatabaseID=%7B” in your status bar. Also take note that the “%2D” in the status bar refers to the hyphen character.  Now you know the GUID of that SharePoint Content Database.

I tried going back to the command-line to use stsadm to force it to sync.  To do that I just typed in:

stsadm.exe –o sync

I waited a while and even checked the timer job status in Central Admin and waited for it to say the Profile Sync job had completed successfully.  It turns out that this sync command only forces the “quick” version which does not go through the same job that that is scheduled for every hour.  I was disappointed to see that my content database did not get updated so now I used stsadm to wipe out my profile sync info for the databases with old data.  The following command will delete the profile sync data for databases that haven’t been synced in the last day:

stsadm.exe –o sync –deleteolddatabases

I was feeling good about myself at this point but after double-checking my work I learned that it STILL had not synced.  There was no getting around it, I had to look at the ULS logs.  When I poked around I found a line that kept showing up that alarmed me.  Referring to “SharePoint Portal Server User Profiles” the description portion of the error said something like “Aborting sweepsynch for guid instance {SomeGUID} due to null or non-online content database”.

This sounded familiar to me because I knew we had left some content databases in “offline” mode to prevent them from getting new site collections created in them (they’re already too big).  So when I looked back in Central Administration to see which databases were offline, it turned out to be every one of the ones that weren’t syncing the profiles.

This isn’t documented anywhere but it looks like content databases that are marked as “offline” in central administration will not get synced with profile sync jobs.  Once I turned them all back to “ready”, I had a very looooong running profile sync job after that and it was all clear from there on out.

Technorati Tags: command-line, MOSS, SharePoint, stsadm, WSS

Purpose:

The reason this is important is that some people are convinced that they have to uninstall SharePoint or even completely rebuild their box in order to start from scratch.  This is not so.

NOTE:: 

• This assumes you’ve backed up and kept everything you want to keep.
• The psconfig.exe command is located in the “%WINDIR%\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\bin” folder.
• this does not remove any custom code or other types of files from the 12 hive
• this procedure will keep the SharePoint patch and service pack level of the host so there’s no need to rerun hotfixes or anything

Procedure:

1. From the host that runs Central Admionistration, run this command psconfig.exe -cmd configdb -disconnect to disconnect Central Admin from your database.
2. Run this command: psconfig.exe -cmd adminvs -unprovision to unprovision the Central Administration site.
3. Delete all application pools and web sites from affected IIS servers.
4. Delete any SQL user databases related to SharePoint e.g. SharedServices*,SharePoint_AdminContent*,SharePoint_Config,WSS_Search

Edit: One thing this process does not account for is if there were any direct changes to existing files in the 12 hive of the SharePoint server. If built-in files (like images or templates) were modified from their original, they will stay the same after you’ve done the above process. In order to restore those modified files, you will need to either copy originals from another installation (risky and unwise) or uninstall/reinstall the SharePoint media from scratch.

Now you’re ready to run the Configuration Wizard just as if you had never set up a farm.

TechNet info on psconfig.exe

“I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit…  It’s the only way to be sure.“

  – Aliens

Technorati Tags: command-line, MOSS, psconfig, SharePoint, stsadm, WSS