November 2007 - Posts

• Microsoft Search Server 2008 On-Demand Screen Casts

  I have been messing around with Search Server since MS has released it and I think that overall it will fill a great need in the market for lower (notice I did say low) cost Enterprise search solutions.  Companies evaluating search solutions can download Search Server 2008 express and use it for free!  For those who are evaluating Arpan Shah has pointed the search world to some screen casts that Richard Riley has put together.  So I usually don't like to duplicate what is already out there but it doesn't seem like these links are readily available so I thought I would pass the word along!  These are some very nice and simplistic demos which go into the many facets of standing up your Search Server to some actual configurations and explanations.  So go check them out off of Arpans Blog: Installation & Configuration: http://www.microsoft.com/winme/0711/31250/Installation_and_Config/Default.html End User Experience: http://www.microsoft.com/winme/0711/31250/End_User_Experience/Default.html Federation: http://www.microsoft.com/winme/0711/31250/Federation/Default.html Cheers  Jason Medero Posted Nov 30 2007, 02:49 PM by jmedero with 4 comment(s) Filed under: MOSS 2007

• NYCSPUG meeting December 5 "Introduction to Developing & Deploying Custom Site Definitions"

  Josh Carlisle the awesome SharePoint/.NET developer will be speaking at the NYC SharePoint User Group on Dec. 5.  I am sure he will have his presentation packed with some great information/code demos for all you hardcore developers looking to learn more about the perils of SharePoint development should attend!  Same goes for all you IT PRO types who are looking to understand more of the development side so that you can look cool in front of all the dev types :).  Plain and simple Josh's topic on site definitions is a hot one because I guarantee in any medium to large deployment you will inevitably run into site/list/content type definitions. I look forward to the event and hope to see you there!  The event details can be found below:12/5/2007  5:30 PM – Microsoft Office – 1290 6th Ave. (51st/52nd) NEXT NYC SHAREPOINT USER GROUP: Wednesday, December 5   "Introduction to Developing & Deploying Custom Site Definitions"  will be presented by Josh Carlisle, Principal Consultant of Viewfusion Solutions Site Definitions have existed since WSS 2.0 but have been simplified with the introduction of Features in SharePoint 2007 (WSS 3 & MOSS). In this presentation he will be discussing the basics of Site Definitions and Feature creation along with some tips & tricks on how to simplify the process. Along the way we'll touch on some of the advantages of developing Site Definitions over site customization. Finally we'll discuss how to use the Solution Framework to distribute your Site Definitions to your SharePoint Farm.   The meeting will start at 5:30 p.m. with an opportunity to network with your colleagues in other companies and free food compliments of echoTechnology.   For immediate registration: http://www.clicktoattend.com/invitation.aspx?code=122720   For additional information, directions & other details, visit the NYC SPUG website: http://www.sharepointusergroup.org/newyork/default.aspx   Each month follows the format below.  Here’s the agenda for this month: 5:30 PM Eat & Greet Networking Free Food & Drink Courtesy of this month’s sponsor: echoTechnology 6:00 PM The News Breaking SharePoint News NYC SPUG Advisors deliver the latest SPUG & SharePoint news 6:15 PM Tip Talk Fast ideas for getting more out of SharePoint “Introduction to Developing & Deploying Custom Site Definitions” Josh Carlisle, Principal Consultant Viewfusion Solutions 7:15 PM Wrap Up Announcements/Giveaways Door Prizes courtesy of: B&R Business Solutions and mindSHIFT   The sponsors for the December 5 meeting include: Networking/Food:    echoTechnology Speaker Gift:            Infonic Door Prizes:             B&R Business Solutions and mindSHIFT After Meeting Social: echoTechnology    Cheers!  Jason Medero Posted Nov 29 2007, 11:40 AM by jmedero with 2 comment(s) Filed under: MOSS 2007

• The database schema is too old to perform this operation in this SharePoint cluster, please upgrade the database and try again. Whats up with DST and SharePoint??

  This blog entry is going to first talk about how to get around the error message shown in the title of this blog entry.  Next it is going to talk about the DST patch and why you should patch up your SharePoint servers (WSS 2.0/3.0, SPS 2003, and MOSS 2007).  If you are interested in the later then skip to the bottom of this post J (but I think you should still read through the rest of the blog entry).  You ever get this error when restoring your SharePoint installation?  I bet you have and I am hoping this blog will enable you to solve this error when you come across it in a quick manner.  Today I was tasked with another upgrade from SharePoint Portal Server 2003 (SPS 2003) to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS 2007).  The first thing I do is backup the production environment and restore everything (custom web parts, content DB, IIS metabase, IIS virtual directories, 60 hive).  Throughout my days of backing up and restoring SPS 2003 I would say that I can successfully restore my portal about 30% of the time!    Yeah I know that is a very low percentage and with the amount of restores that I have done in the past years, this alone is a great reason why organizations should have what I like to call SharePoint DR fire drills.  This drill should consist of restoring a current backup of your production environment into a test environment to ensure the integrity of your backups.  I personally think that this should be done on a bi-monthly basis.  Trust me a guy who has probably done well over 250 restores just because the backup is successful DOES NOT mean that the restore is going to be.  I remember I once had a time where the client had run successful SQL backups but when I went to perform the restore it failed.  I quickly checked the event viewer and in the application log was an error which stated that there was a SQL DB consistency error and a new backup had to be taken.  So it just goes to show you that the backup and restore process should be planned for and practiced!  Anyways I digress from the adventures of backup and restore and will now get to the topic at hand J.  I was performing a restore when the restore would fail.  I quickly checked the diagnostic log and it stated some gibberish exceptions followed by “The database schema is too old to perform this operation in this SharePoint cluster, please upgrade the database and try again.”So I have run into this issue in the past and usually am frantically looking at the version numbers for the SPS/MOSS/WSS installation within Add-remove programs click on “more information” to find the version number.  I then match the test environment version number to the production environment version number.    But what happens if they match but the restore keeps failing?! J  This occurs when post service pack hot fixes have been applied.  Sometimes unbeknown to the client you may be working with, a hot fix may have been applied automatically through MS updates.In order to find out the real version number you must look to the configuration database of your SharePoint farm.  The following steps will demonstrate how I was able to find the version number in the GLOBAL table within the configuration DB to figure out exactly what post service pack hot fixes have been applied. 1.      Open up SQL server 2005 management studio 2.      Navigate to the configuration DB 3.      Expand the configuration DB tables Navigate to the Globals DB as shown below in SQL server management studio    Th                The schema version shows what version number your virtual server (IIS website) is running at.  The version number you see in the image above shows the version that was on the production server.  The version that was shown on my test server was:              I needed to get from the 6.0.2.6568 version number to the 6.0.2.8117.  In this case the security hot fix that I was missing was the DST patch.  This was a post SP2 hot fix which you can download here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=D002054E-1ECC-4DA5-8E5E-73A5C4FF2998&displaylang=en The KB article that goes into detail about this security fix can be found here:  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/924881  Once I applied the hot fix above the restore was successful.  But man this definitely took me some time to do the research and let’s just say I have a few less hairs on my head.  While we are talking about DST hot fixes I would like to point to a great blog entry by the man Joel O about all questions you may have with updating your WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 servers.  The October 9 public update for WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 includes a fix for security vulnerability (cross site scripting).  The public update also includes the DST patch which will influence your SharePoint environment.  Especially the one time timer jobs will be effected such as solution package deployments/updates, backup and restores, feature deployments, and form services InfoPath forms upgrades or deletions.  I would recommend taking a look at Joel O’s blog entry titled SharePoint FAQ on DST and October 9th Public Update. This will be extremely helpful for organizations wondering what exactly these hot fixes will fix and what it protects them against.  My suggestion is to apply the public update ASAP before you begin experiencing the DST issues which affect all aspects of your WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 environments.  Cheers! Jason Medero Posted Nov 02 2007, 01:17 AM by jmedero with 8 comment(s) Filed under: MOSS 2007 DR