Take for example, you install the bits for the service pack 1 upgrade. The first thing, of course, is that you need to finish installing those bits on all of the servers in your farm. But then after that you need to run the SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard (or run psconfig.exe) to upgrade the installation. I recommend running the wizard first on the app server that serves your Central Administration site. But you really need to wait until it’s finished before running the config wizard on your next server. If you do rush ahead, it won’t let you. I tried it just to see what would happen. When I started the second config wizard in the process, the screen stayed just like this until the first server was finished with the wizard.

So it looks like there is a flag that is checked before it starts. And if one server already is locking up the configuration, the next one will not start until the first is finished.

Technorati Tags: Install, psconfig, SharePoint

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

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