Rajiv and Michael's SharePoint discoveries and musings...

TIP: Report Server "User cannot be found" error Fix

RChakravarti — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 19:30:00 GMT

When a SharePoint site is restored from a box on one domain to another, the users from
the old domain get carried over to the new domain, even though the new machine does not know
these users from the previous domain.

When Report Server is involved, sometimes, this can result in an error as follows:

Report Server has encountered a SharePoint error. (rsSharePointError) Get Online Help

User cannot be found.

The solution (copied from TechNet forums - and which worked for us a couple of times as well is as follows:

Open SQL Profiler and set up a trace on the target SharePoint Content DB (you can set a filter for DatabaseName)
Start SQL Profiler trace.
Open the ReportServer Site in a browser.
Go back to the SQL Profiler Trace. You should see, somewhere, a string which looks like the following
proc_SecGetPrincipalById <GUID>,<INT_1>,<INT_2>,<INT_3>

where:
<GUID> of your Sharepoint site.
<INT_1> user id in UserInfo table that cannot be found and has to be "really" deleted
Run the following SQL against the SharePoint Content DB in question:
SELECT * FROM UserInfo WHERE tp_SiteID = <GUID> AND tp_ID = <INT_1>
If tp_Deleted = 1 you can set it to 0 with an UPDATE command:
UPDATE UserInfo SET tp_Deleted = 0 where TP_Id = <INT_1> AND tp_SiteID = <GUID>
If the error persists, repeat steps 3 through 6 as there may be more than one old user carried across

Posted on SharePoint Blogs

TIP - How to rename a SharePoint Server machine name.

RChakravarti — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 12:28:00 GMT

When you change the machine name of a Sharepoint server in the wrong manner, Sharepoint gets very unhappy and becomes non-functional. The following steps are some I have used to get Sharepoint back on-line with the new server name. It can probably be streamlined as well - this is a decent starting point in my opinion.

Best Option

Assumes you can rename SharePoint BEFORE renaming the server.

rename the SharePoint server using STSADM. (-o renameserver)
rename the machine to match
reboot
users / logins will refer to old machine name. You can't change the account, so add the equivalent users back and set permissions. When I added the new one, it wired into the old name and updated that users info instead of actually adding New.
In SCA (SharePoint Central Administration) update administrators where necessary.

Typical Option

Since site admins will often rename the server without checking with anyone, you have a bigger problem. Some or all of the following may be necessary.

Servers renamed after SharePoint was installed will mean that SP probably won't even come up.
Run STSADM using:
Stsadm.exe -o renameserver -oldservername <oldServerName> -newservername <newServerName>
(STSADM should have run ok, but SP will still not be happy.)
Now fix the Alternate Access Mappings (AAM) for the site in Central Administration with STSADM:

stsadm -o addalternatedomain -url :http://<oldservername>:<CAport> -urlzone extranet -incomingurl :http://<newservername>:<CAport>

You should be now able to get into CA to finish fixing the AAMs and correct the zone (setting the new name as default instead of extranet). Messed up site AAMs will prevent you from being able to log in.
Once in SCA and update all admin and secondary admin logins to make sure they are all referring to the new box.
Next bring up the root SP site. Should work ok now.
The Index server may not be running, so start it. Give it a while and search. If you get results, you're ok.
Check pages in site and nagivation links at top with / refs using default.aspx and not explicitly typing in the default.aspx page name. If these work, the AAMs are good.
In the site, you may need to fix the logins that refer to the old machine name.
SharePoint should be working again and you should be done.

---
Notes courtesy of D. Vineyard @ CSC, Fort Worth, Texas

Posted on SharePoint Blogs

TIP: Creation of Lists with Hidden Columns via code:

RChakravarti — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 14:12:00 GMT

Just thought I would share a tip that I found on the usenet group: microsoft.public.sharepoint.windowsservices.development
and in particular a post made by Colin Byrne colinb@>flexnetconsult.co.uk

I am summarizing the tip below in brief with thanks to Colin for the very useful information:

nbsp;

-------------------

Question: How does one create a list field that is hidden from users, but can be accessed for use in WorkFlows, etc?

Answer:Apparently, the hidden property of a list field (SPField) cannot be changed because it is blocked by the internal property CanToggleHidden being false. You can't adjust this though the public object model.

There are two work arounds, via code.

1. Add the field as XML

list.Fields.AddFieldAsXml("<Field DisplayName=\"NewField5\"
Type=\"Boolean\" Required=\"FALSE\" Name=\"NewField5\"
CanToggleHidden=\"TRUE\" Hidden=\"TRUE\"/>");

2. Set the internal CanToggleHidden property via reflection

string id=list.Fields.Add("NewField5",SPFieldType.Boolean,false);
SPField spfield=(SPField)list.Fields.GetField(id);

Type type = spfield.GetType();
MethodInfo mi= type.GetMethod("SetFieldBoolValue",
BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Instance);
mi.Invoke(spfield,new object[]{"CanToggleHidden", true});

spfield.Hidden=true;
spfield.Update();

Posted on SharePoint Blogs

TIP: Using code blocks in master pages throws error

mhcello — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 14:00:00 GMT

If you want to use script tags for dynamic content in a master page, for example:

<%= DateTime.Now %>

and you recieve the following error:

Include the following in your web.config file to resolve this issue:

Posted on SharePoint Blogs

SSRS in SharePoint 2007 site using Forms Based Authentication (SharePoint Integrated Mode)

RChakravarti — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 15:32:00 GMT

This is just a post to inform all the people out there who may be struggling to implement Sql Server Reporting Services 2005 (SSRS) in a SharePoint 2007 site using Forms Based Authentication (FBA), when configured in the new SharePoint Integrated Mode (SP2).

After months of trying to get this working and dealing with Microsoft and getting bounced back between the Sql and the SharePoint teams, we finally have an admission that this is a Microsoft bug on the SQL side. Believe me guys, this is not an easy thing to come by...

So, for the people who have been struggling on this issue like us, we suggest simply waiting for a while, as there is nothing you can really do about this currently. Microsoft has informed us that this is targeted for a Sql Server SP3, although they do not have a date for the SP3 release. In the meantime, we are targeting them to give us a hotfix that will hopefully get us over this major hurdle.

Here's a portion of the actual e-mail we got from MS (dated June 04, 2007)

Hi Michael, Rajiv –

After further research and consultation within my team, it turns out that this issue is related to a BUG in SQL Server 2005 reporting services and is currently scheduled to be fixed in the SQL Server 2005 Sp3. And at this point we don’t have any date for SQL Server 2005 Sp3.

If the issue is urgent and important for you and you would like to have a hotfix/QFE before the release of the service pack, please let me know. The final decision on whether a hotfix request will be accepted comes from our escalation team and product team – but if I clearly understand the ‘business Impact’ of this issue for you, I can convey your request to our Escalation and Product Team.

...... rest edited ...

Just wanted to get the word out to the SharePoint community. I am not sure if we will get the hotfix for our business use yet, but will update this item on any progress.

Perhaps if the SharePoint community complains a lot, this will get more exposure in Microsoft?

-- Rajiv

===================

Update as of June 25, 2007:

Microsoft has reported they have been able to reproduce this issue with FBA identities not working with SSRS in a local environment, and have fully understood the source of the issue. It turns out that a piece of code they have "wipes out" the forms identity cookie that is correctly being passed from SharePoint to the SQL engine, and therefore returns a "user not found" message, which then throws an exception within SharePoint.

They have started working on a fix for this currently, and will be promoting it to the public in the next cumulative build, release date still TBD.

(Good news for us though, is that we have been promised to be part of a test team for a "private build", to ensure this bug has been resolved to our satisfaction and won't have to wait for the SP3 release. Fantastic news!)

More updates as we get them.

- RC

===================

Update as of July 16, 2007:

MS gave us a "hotfix" (along with 6 other priority customers, they say - who probably reported the issue with SSRS and FBA like us) on July 12, 2007. A couple of things to note here:

i) The hotfix is for the file "SharePointRS.msi" (new file size: 37,458KB), which is a replacement for the SSRS Add-In for SharePoint 2007.
ii) When I specifically asked the MS rep for which file(s) within it were new, he told me that the only replacement was for : "Microsoft.ReportingServices.SharePoint.UI.WebParts.dll"

In any case, I had the opportunity to test this new hotfix this morning and the following are my findings:

i) The install can simply be made over the older Add-In install without un-installing. Seems to go smoothly. I would ensure, however, that all the web.configs on the web Server do have write-access.

ii) Though the MS rep claimed that the "Microsoft.ReportingServices.SharePoint.UI.WebParts.dll" was replaced, it seems as if the version on the dll was not updated, since the web.config still pointed to the version prior to the hotfix.
<SafeControl Assembly="Microsoft.ReportingServices.SharePoint.UI.WebParts, Version=9.0.242.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=89845dcd8080cc91" Namespace="Microsoft.ReportingServices.SharePoint.UI.WebParts" TypeName="*" Safe="True" />

I thought this was interesting.

---
It turns out that the SSRS reports can only be deployed to a DEFAULT zone (not any extended zone in a SharePoint app). So I had to flip my Authentication Provider for my default zone in my SharePoint Application to my custom FBA provider, and was able to deploy the SSRS reports from the BI Studio 2005 (after getting a prompt for FBA credentials).

The reports deployed without issues, and I was able to pull them up in the FBA zone of my SharePoint application, which is great news. Do note, however, that if you have extended zones, reports will still only be accessible through the DEFAULT zone. This has not been addressed with this hotfix.

--
For all the other people out there trying to resolve this issue, the MS rep mentioned to me that this hotfix will be part of a "cumulative update" to SQL Server 2005, that will be released in August 2007, and you will not have to wait for a release of SP3! Also, according to the rep I talked with, all of the initial testers of the hotfixes (including us) have not reported any major issues with the fix issued.

I hope that this brings some closure to all those who have encountered a similar issue with SSRS and FBA.

Thanks,
Rajiv

===================

Posted on SharePoint Blogs

TIP: Easily get to the WebPart Maintenance page for any Sharepoint Site Url

RChakravarti — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 23:04:00 GMT

Symptom:

Often times, developers in WSS3.0/MOSS2007 probably run across the issue where a web part is dropped on to a page
and then Sharepoint errors out for one reason or the other. Sometimes, the user is directed to a Web Part Maintenance page,
which helps the developer remove the offending web part from the page.

However, there is no way to get to this page from any easily available link.

Resolution:

In order to get to the Web Part Maintenance page for ANY sharepoint url, try the following trick.

a) Append the querystring ?contents=1 to the url in the browser as shown below.

b) The Web Part Maintenance page for the desired url can then be accessed, as seen here:

This tip can also be found at: http://weblogs.asp.net/wkriebel/archive/2004/04/12/111776.aspx,
but is repeated here, since I think this can save a lot of developers some time.

Hope this helps other developers.

- Rajiv

Posted on SharePoint Blogs

HOW-TO: Microsoft Office Developer Center

RChakravarti — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 20:43:00 GMT

I just ran across the link for the Microsoft Office Developer Center, which boasts small how-to videos and links to common development/deployment tasks.

This seems like a place that will prove useful to many WSS3.0/MOSS2007 developers in general. I thought it would be a good idea to share with as many developers as possible, to spread the knowledge around

- Nathan and Rajiv

Posted on SharePoint Blogs

TIP: DLL in GAC, but cannot be accessed through Sharepoint site ("Could not load type") ? Try this fix...

RChakravarti — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 01:51:00 GMT

Symptom:

We ran into a strange issue recently. We had deployed a signed DLL to the Global Assembly Cache (GAC), and assumed that it would be available to all applications on the web server.

For some reason, it turned out that one of these DLLs in the GAC was not being resolved by our SharePoint application unless the dll was copied into the \bin folder of the application as well.

The above shows the error that the Sharepoint Application was throwing if the DLL was in the GAC only, but not copied over to the \bin folder of the virtual.

Resolution:

After some research, we determined that we had to add a line to the web.config of our SharePoint web application, as follows:

The copy of the DLL could then be removed from the \bin folder leaving only the one copy in the GAC.

Hope this helps other developers.

- Rajiv

Posted on SharePoint Blogs

PDF IFilter Working with WSS 3.0 RTM - with proper highlighting, too.

RChakravarti — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 00:02:00 GMT

If you need PDF files in your search results, the steps listed by Stan Spotts in his post WSS 3.0BetaTR PDF search configuration and setup have been confirmed to work under WSS 3.0 RTM.

As an added bonus, WSS 3.0 RTM will actually show lines that contain your search term and highlight the term!

S.S. Ahmed has a detailed article that specifically for MOSS, but it is useful as well, especially for the instructions on getting the PDF icon to display: http://www.sharepointblogs.com/ssa/archive/2006/10/13/13812.aspx.

Nathan

Posted on SharePoint Blogs

Clean B2TR removal and RTM install for Office 2007 and WSS

RChakravarti — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 22:21:00 GMT

Want to uninstall, then perform a clean installation of Office 2007 and WSS B2TR? Think you can get away with running SharePoint.exe and have a perfectly working WSS? Not so fast... After a wasted day of failed installs, a broken WSS Search Indexer, bluescreens, and yelling, we offer these tips to keep in mind when migrating, as well as our step-by-step process for a clean reinstallation.

Tips for installing:

If you want WSS Search to work, you need the .NET v3 Framework RTM installed
If you can't install the .NET v3 Framework on Windows 2003 Server or you get a "cryptographic services" error, try running regedit and set HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Policies \ Microsoft \ SystemCertificates \ TrustedPublisher \ Safer to 0. The Sharepoint Configuration Wizard likes to set it back to 2.
If you are running Sonic RecordNow to burn your ISOs, make sure you remove it from your startup or uninstall it, or you'll get a neverending bluescreen loop at startup!
To remove startup items, I highly recommend Mike Lin's Startup Control Panel, found here: http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml.
Even after a WSS reinstall, it is possible for Web Applications to persist which will raise an error if you try to recreate the application. Be sure you delete them in Central Admin -> Application Management -> Delete Web Application.

Steps for B2TR to RTM migration for Office 2007 and WSS 3.0:

Uninstall all Office 2007 applications, including Sharepoint Designer via Control Panel -> Add/Remove programs
Uninstall WSS B2TR via Control Panel -> Add/Remove programs.
Delete all Content Databases from your SQL server
Ensure the SAFER key in your registry is set to 0 (see tip above)
Install Office 2007
Install SharePoint Designer 2007
Install Visio 2007
Install Project 2007
Ensure the SAFER key in your registry is set to 0 (see tip above)
Remove .NET Framework v3 via Control Panel -> Add/Remove programs
Run the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 Uninstall Tool to clean up any other .NET Framework remnants. Click YES or OK if you get any warnings during the uninstall- all the files you are being warned about (MSXML 6 for example) will be replaced when you install the latest .NET Framework.
Ensure the SAFER key in your registry is set to 0 (see tip above)
Install the .NET Framework 3.0 Redistributable (available at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=10CC340B-F857-4A14-83F5-25634C3BF043&displaylang=en).
Update the SAFER key in your registry (see tip above)

Hope this saves you some headaches.

Nathan

Posted on SharePoint Blogs

.NET Provider Toolkit - Sample code from Microsoft

RChakravarti — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 01:04:00 GMT

This is just a heads up to provide a very useful link about .NET provider models and some actual sample code from Microsoft that could be used not just in Sharepoint but in any .NET application.

Here's the link to the page on Microsoft MSDN where you can download sample code from.

ScottGu's blog entry here is also very helpful.

Hope that helps.

-Rajiv

Posted on SharePoint Blogs

Feed Me! 8 Great Sharepoint WSS/MOSS V3 RSS Feeds

RChakravarti — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 21:32:00 GMT

I've finally setup a newsreader in the form of the Google custom homepage, and found the following feeds to be the most useful for keeping up with the Sharepoint community. Below are direct links to the RSS URL's for your convenience. Are there any WSS/MOSS v3 specific feeds you can't live without?

Please note: all links below go directly to RSS/XML feeds!

#1. Sharepoint Blogs, all Posts
maybe that's how you found this post!
http://www.sharepointblogs.com/MainFeed.aspx?GroupID=3

#2. Sharepoint Blogs, posts by Sharepoint Experts
in case your newsreader is filled with "Hallo, Hier is meine neue bloggen" posts
http://www.sharepointblogs.com/MainFeed.aspx?GroupID=2

#3. Microsoft official Sharepoint Blog
why not go to the source for the latest?
http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/rss.xml

#4. Sharepoint University Forums WSS/MOSS v3 Setup/Admin/Deployment forum
one complaint, the link doesn't actually go to the forum, but since this is a feed of posts, it is frequently updated.
http://www.sharepointu.com/backend2.asp?fid=75

#5. Sharepoint University Forums (Programming and Customization)
http://www.sharepointu.com/backend2.asp?fid=76

#6. Andrew Connell [MVP]
probably has some of the best, detailed articles about WSS and MOSS v3
http://feeds.feedburner.com/AndrewConnell

#7. Shane Perran's Blog [MVP]
great for the creative sharepoint developer/designer
http://feeds.feedburner.com/SharePointCustomizationBlog

#8. Andrew May's Weblog
MS developer writing in great technical detail about Sharepoint topics
http://blogs.msdn.com/andrew_may/rss.xml

- Nathan

Posted on SharePoint Blogs

Links to the WSS3 and MOSS 2007 SDK files

RChakravarti — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 20:24:00 GMT

Thought this may be useful. Here are the links to the WSS3 and MOSS2007 SDK Files.

WSS 3 SDK:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=05E0DD12-8394-402B-8936-A07FE8AFAFFD&displaylang=en

MOSS 2007 SDK:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=6D94E307-67D9-41AC-B2D6-0074D6286FA9&displaylang=en

- Rajiv

Posted on SharePoint Blogs

Setup Guide: Search under Forms Authentication WSS 2007 B2TR

RChakravarti — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 18:29:00 GMT

Thanks to Sage Kitamorn (the Sharepoint Search Program Manager) promptly responding to our call for help with search under forms authentication, and a response to our previous blog post from his colleague Avi, we have made some progress implementing WSS Search on a site using Forms Authentication.

Search now returns results and performs UI Trimming as we will show below, but we have one outstanding issue. Anonymous search under forms authentication raises the following error:

"Your search cannot be completed because of a service error. Try your search again or contact your administrator for more information."

While we have not found a workaround to fixing search for the anonymous user, below is a step-by-step guide for setting up a site with both anonymous and secure content and a functional search for authenticated users. This guide assumes that you already have a search server configured correctly.

Note: Our custom provider is called "PassportMembershipProvider", not to be confused with other Microsoft authentication providers with the same name.

Create a new Web Application in Central Admin and select your Search Server. We use port 12000.
Create a new Site Collection for the newly created Application.
Configure your site to support forms authentication. This must be set correctly in the web.config of the application. The web.config file in your application should contain the following entries:


<connectionStrings>
<add name="MembershipProviderDBConn" connectionString="Data Source=servername;
   Initial Catalog=dbname; User Id=userid; Password=userpassword;" />
</connectionStrings>


<membership defaultProvider="PassportMembershipProvider">
   <providers>
     <remove name="PassportMembershipProvider" />
     <add name="PassportMembershipProvider" type="MyAssembly.PassporMembershipProvider, MyNamespace" applicationName="TestSite" enablePasswordRetrieval="false" enablePasswordReset="true" requiresQuestionAndAnswer="true" passwordFormat="Hashed" connectionStringName="MembershipProviderDBConn" commandTimeout="45" />
</providers>
</membership>

<roleManager defaultProvider="PassportRoleProvider" enabled="true">
   <providers>
      <remove name="PassportRoleProvider" />
      <add name="PassportRoleProvider" type="MyAssembly.PassporRoleProvider, MyNamespace, AppliedPassportMembershipProvider" applicationName="TestSite" connectionStringName="MembershipProviderDBConn" commandTimeout="45" />
   </providers>
</roleManager>
Note: Since our web application is setup to use Forms Authentication, we have to also set up Site Collection Administrators based on users from our custom data store. In order to do so, you would have to include the above entries in the web.config file of your Central Admin Application as well (Do not include the <roleManager...> node in your Central Admin web.config, or else you will get errors when saving )
We were interested in supporting anonymous content in addition to secure content. In order to support anonymous content, be sure to go to Site Actions > Site Settings > Advanced Permissions > Settings > Anonymous Access, then select "Entire Web Site" for your site.
At this point, a second zone is needed with NTLM authentication for the search service to index correctly. To create an extended zone, use the Central Admin > Application Management > Create or extend Web Application, then select "Extend an existing Web application". When extending your Web Application, you may select any open port and any available zone. We selected the Custom zone, port 12001, and Allow Anonymous for our test site.

At this point, our settings were as follows:

Web Application with Default (forms) and Custom (NTLM) Zone

The Default (forms) zone

The Custom (NTLM) Zone
Confirm that the Search Crawling Account has Full Read policy for your application.
Since the search crawler only seems to index applications set up with NTLM authentication, you can also confirm that the search Database contains a Crawl Host List entry in the dbo.MSSCrawlHostList table for the extended zone (12001, in our case). Sharepoint by design does not seem to index zones/sites with Forms authentication (note that there is no entry in the table for port 12000, which was our DEFAULT zone setup with our custom membership provider).

You should now get search results when logged in to your Forms authenticated site as seen in the image on the right, below.

Note: Our attempt at creating the site in the reverse order (i.e. using NTLM in the Default zone) did not work for us.

- Rajiv

Posted on SharePoint Blogs

Search not working in WSS 2007 B2TR with Forms Authentication

RChakravarti — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 18:20:00 GMT

After creating a Sharepoint site using Forms Authentication (CustomMembershipProvider), search no longer appeared to work. Running some analysis yielded the following discoveries:

Search was confirmed to work as expected for our site with NTLM authentication mode enabled. In the WSS_Search database, an entry was added to the dbo.MSSCrawlHostList matching the site's HostName, as expected. After the service indexed the site, the SuccessCount column reported a nonzero value, and the ErrorCount column reported 0. Entries were added to the dbo.MSSCrawlUrl table with accurate DisplayURL values.
However, after switching the site authentication mode to Forms Authentication using our CustomMembershipProvider and CustomRoleProvider in Central Admin, searches no longer returned results. After investigating, we noticed that all the entries in the dbo.MSSCrawlUrl table were immediately removed. The HostName entry remained in the dbo.MSSCrawlHostList table, but the SuccessCount column reported 0, while ErrorCount was positive.

Based on these findings, it seems as though search is not available for any site that is not authenticated with Windows authentication.

We have not been able to find any other articles with a clear resolution to this issue, and feel that it has something to do with the service account used by the Search Service.

If anyone has had success with enabling search for sites using Forms Authentication, please let us know which solutions you have found to get around this issue.

- Nathan and Rajiv

Posted on SharePoint Blogs

Forms Authentication, Search, and Anonymous in WSS/MOSS 2007

RChakravarti — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 04:08:00 GMT

We have encountered several issues while trying to incorporate CustomMembershipProvider and CustomRoleProvider in WSS 2007 B2TR under Forms Authentication. Most notably:

Search does not work with forms authentication (separate post with more detail here)
Forms authentication causes issues in Central Admin
Anonymous Access is very difficult to set up for forms authentication.

Many similar concerns are discussed in the comments for the MSDN Blogs article "Configuring Multiple Authentication Providers" article so we've made a comment there, and hopefully someone will respond with some answers on the search issue. In the meantime, these tips may help you with Forms Authentication providers:

ISSUE #1: Unknown Error in Central Admin working with Forms Authentication
If you have created a role provider, make SURE the <roleManager...> node is NOT in your Central Admin web.config. This will work in a web.config for a Sharepoint site, but not for the Central Administration site. Central Admin will only use your authentication provider to verify usernames when you select site administrators, so the role provider would never be used anyway.

ISSUE #2: WSS/MOSS throws an Unknown Error when creating a new Web Application or Site Collection under Forms Authentication
For creating ANY new website (forms or windows auth), you need to remove the <membership...> node from the Central Admin web.config. To create a new Forms website, follow these steps:

Remove the <membership...> node from the Central Admin web.config.

Create your new web application and site collection in Central Admin, and set it to use Windows Authentication.
Replace your Forms Provider's <membership...> node in the Central Admin web.config.
Now go back into Central Admin and set the Authentication Provider (Central Administration > Application > Authentication Providers) to Forms on your new site.
Your site should now work with your provider.

ISSUE #3: Unable to allow Anonymous Users under Forms Authentication
Actually, you can, it is just not easy or fun. Here are all the steps you need to allow anonymous users on your site WITH Forms Authentication.

In Central Administration > Application > Authentication Providers, check the "Enable Anonymous Access" checkbox for your site.
Make sure the anonymous user (or Everyone if you're lazy) has read and script access to your site's folder using Windows security (the files are usually in inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\[port number]). Be sure to set those permissions on all the child folders as well.
Now for the fun part. In Central admin, switch your site back to using Windows authentication. Then, make sure your NTLM user is the site owner.
Log in to your site, and select Site Actions > Site Settings > Advanced Permissions > Settings > Anonymous Access. If this is on Nothing, change it to "Entire Web Site".
Save this setting, then switch your site back to forms authentication in Central Admin. You can not change the Anonymous Access radio buttons while in Forms authentication mode!

Hope this helps. Good luck!

-Nathan and Rajiv

Posted on SharePoint Blogs