Fixing Sharepoint 2010 List Threshold Issue

One of the major reasons that Sharepoint 2010 came up with the LVT (List View Threshold) feature was to improve the performance of Sharepoint. In MOSS 2007, there was no way to restrict the number of items in a list .Though Microsoft had recommended a maximum of 2000 for better performance, I don’t think that anybody would have taken it seriously.

In Sharepoint 2010, they have come up with a solution for this by making this a web application level change from Central administration. By default the value is set to 5000.

At the same time we need to make sure that the users don’t have a difficult time when their Sharepoint site is migrated to Sharepoint 2010.Here is how to change this.

1.  Browse to Central Administration

2.  Application Management -> Manage Web Applications

3.  Select the Web application for which you want to change the LVT.

4.  On the ribbon at the top, click General Settings -> Resource Throttling.

5.  A new pop up window comes up.Change the LVT to a different value and press OK.

This is how you change it. But let us be responsible Farm Administrators.

Make sure that the number is a reasonable one. If the number is on a higher side it will take a toll on your farm performance. Educate your Sharepoint users to create views, so that they can have different views of the list.

Moving SQL Database to a different drive

This situation usually arises when we might have to move SQL DB files to other drives at times due to space crunch. We can follow this activity to move these types of databases.

• Configuration database
• Central Administration content database
• Content databases
• Service application databases

This activity was carried out in MOSS 2007 with SQL 2005

P.S.

i) Make sure that a backup of the database is already taken before you start with this activity.

ii) Also check the DB owners remain the same before and after this activity.

iii) You might have to do a full crawl after completion of activity if results are not showing up in search

1) Quiesce the Farm

This is done to ensure that no new user sessions are initiated. Browse to Central Administration -> Operations -> Global Configuration -> Quiesce farm. Click "Start Quiescing".

2) Stop the below SharePoint Services

Type services.msc in Run.

1. Office SharePoint Server Search (alternatively net stop OSearch from command prompt)

2. Windows SharePoint Services Search (alternatively net stop SPSearch from command prompt)

3. Windows SharePoint Services Timer (alternatively net stop SPTimerV3 from command prompt)

4. Windows SharePoint Services Administration service (alternatively net stop SPAdmin from command prompt)

 5. Windows SharePoint Services Tracing service (alternatively net stop SPTrace from command prompt)

6. Windows SharePoint Services VSS Writer service (alternatively net stop SPWriter from command prompt)

 

3) Detach Database

Login to SQL Server. Run the below query:

use master

go

exec sp_detach_db @dbname = N ‘DBName', @keepfulltextindexfile='true';

go

Where DBName = content db /search ssp db you want to move

4) Move files to target location

Move the data and log files from the current drive location (F:\) to the target drive location (D:\).

Include the .mdf files and .ldf files

5) Attach Database

Login to SQL Server. Run the below query:

use master

go

exec sp_attach_db @dbName = N'DBName',

@filename1 = N'LocalPathToFile\DBName.mdf',

 @filename2 =N 'LocalPathToFile\DBName.ldf'

go

Where DBName = content db /search ssp db you moved

                    LocalPathToFile = file location

6) Start the below SharePoint Services

Type services.msc in Run

1. Office SharePoint Server Search (alternatively net start OSearch from command prompt)

2. Windows SharePoint Services Search (alternatively net start SPSearch from command prompt)

3. Windows SharePoint Services Timer (alternatively net start SPTimerV3 from command prompt)

4. Windows SharePoint Services Administration service (alternatively net start SPAdmin from command prompt) 

5. Windows SharePoint Services Tracing service (alternatively net start SPTrace from command prompt)

6. Windows SharePoint Services VSS Writer service (alternatively net start SPWriter from command prompt)

7) UnQuiesce the farm

Browse to Central Administration -> Operations -> Global Configuration -> Quiesce farm. Click "Reset Farm".

8) Try testing your application now.(access the sites, test search and ensure search settings are intact)

Configuring Replicating Directory Changes

While provisioning the User Profile Service (UPS), we can synchronize user profile information using the User Profile Synchronization Service. Synchronization between AD and SharePoint should be done using a domain account, called the synchronization account, i.e. DOMAIN\SPFarmAccount. This synchronization account requires Replicate Directory Change permissions in the domain.

Below are the steps on how you do this.

1. Open Active Directory Users and Groups with local machine Administrator permissions.

2. Right click the domain and select Delegate Control.

3. Click Next on the Delegation Control Wizard welcome page.

4. On the Users or Groups page, add the domain\account of your SharePoint farm admin account and click Next.

5. On the Tasks to delegate page, select “Create a custom task to delegate” and click Next.

6. On the Active Directory Object Type page, keep the default options and click Next.

7. On the Permissions page, check the “Replicating Directory Changes” and click Next

8. Click Finish to complete the Delegation of Control Wizard.

Zone Creation and Host Entries in ActiveDirectory

In this blog entry, I am creating a new zone in the DNS namely dev.com.

Below steps will help you in that.

1) Go to Start -> Administrative Tools ->DNS 

2) Right click on ServerName -> New Zone

3) The New Zone wizard opens and click Next.

4) Select Primary zone and click Next.

5) Select To all DNS servers running on domain controllers in this domain : DEV.NET and click Next.

6) Create a Forward lookup zone and click Next.

7) Give the zone name as dev.com. Click Next.

8) Select Allow only secure dynamic updates and click Next.

9) Click Finish on zone creation completion.

10) Creation of a new host is the next step.Right click on the newly created zone and select New Host(A or AAAA).

11) Enter the Host name and IP address and click Add Host.

12) Host creation successful message is shown.

13) I am creating 4 host records with same IP address 

a)    collaboration

b)    social

c)    community

d)    partner

14) The following screen shows the four host records.

Publishing Nintex Workflows

1) Browse to the document library/list of your Sharepoint Site/Subsite where the Nintex workflow is present.

2) Go to List Settings -> Workflow Settings ->Manage Workflows with Nintex Workflow

3) This takes you to the list of workflows associated with this document library/list

4) Select the appropriate workflow from the Unpublished Workflows list.

  

 

  

5) This takes you to the workflow design page.

 

  

6) On the Nintex Workflow 2010 ribbon, there is an option to publish.

7) Select the Publish Workflow option and the Nintex workflow is published to the document library/list.

Bulk Check-In of Documents in Sharepoint

1) Browse to the Sharepoint site. Site Actions -> Site Settings -> Modify All Site Settings

  

  

2) On the site settings page , Site Administration -> Content and structure

3) On this page, change the view from Default View to Checked Out To Me

4) Go to, select all the documents -> Actions -> Check In

Reset Sharepoint 2010 Farm Passphrase

Farm Passphrase 

Farm passphrase is a new security feature in SharePoint 2010. Similar to a password, it is created as part of the initial creation of a SharePoint farm. The passphrase is created during psconfig step of SharePoint installation. It is required when we have to add additional servers to the farm. There are times when farm administrators misplace or forget the passphrase.

Resetting Farm Passphrase for Sharepoint 2010

1) Login to the Sharepoint server with your Farm Account(should have permission to Sharepoint Config DB). Start the Sharepoint 2010 Management Shell and Run As Administrator

2) $passphrase = ConvertTo-SecureString -asPlainText –Force

3) On the prompt, enter your new Passphrase(Please make sure you write it down, else you wouldn’t be reading this now  :-))

4) Set-SPPassPhrase -PassPhrase $passphrase –Confirm

5) You have to confirm your new passphrase by entering it again

6) Press “Y” .Now your passphrase have been reset

STSADM Overview

        Sharepoint includes the STSADM tool for command-line administration of sites. STSADM is located at the following path on the drive where SharePoint Products and Technologies is installed: %COMMONPROGRAMFILES%\microsoft shared\web server extensions\12\bin. You need to be an administrator on the local computer to use STSADM.When you invoke STSADM, you supply an operation and a set of command-line parameters in the form:

                 -operation OperationName -parameter value

eg: stsadm -o enumgroups -url http://abc.xyz.com/ 

STSADM provides a method for performing the Sharepoint administration tasks at the command line or by using batch files or scripts. STSADM provides access to operations not available by using the Central Administration site, such as changing the administration port. The command-line tool has a more streamlined interface than Central Administration, and it allows you to perform the same tasks. There are certain operations and certain parameters that are only available by using the STSADM command-line tool.

STSADM.exe is available with the below versions of SharePoint : 

SPS2003 | MOSS2007 | Sharepoint 2010 | Sharepoint 2013 |

Since the release of Sharepoint 2010, Powershell is being used for the Sharepoint administrator operations. The use of the STSADM command has NOT gone away with SharePoint 2010 and 2013 – interesting to note that it’s still called STSADM – as in SharePoint Team Services(2001)

Related Post: STSADM Commands - Reference

Hiding SharePoint Ribbon Control from users

Add this to the head section on master page.

<style type="text/css">
div#s4-ribbonrow {
display:none;
}
</style>

<Sharepoint:SPSecurityTrimmedControl runat="server"
Permissions="AddAndCustomizePages">
<style type="text/css">
div#s4-ribbonrow {
display:block;
}
</style>
</Sharepoint:SPSecurityTrimmedControl>

This should hide the ribbon control.

Problem with uploading multiple documents. Cannot run Microsoft SharePoint Foundation on this page

Sometimes while you try to upload multiple documents into Sharepoint the below error comes

Problem with uploading multiple documents. Cannot run Microsoft SharePoint Foundation on this page: "http://sitename/documents/Forms/Upload.aspx" 

Usually this error comes up when Upload.aspx file is modified. Perform the below steps to fix it : 

1) Make a copy of Upload.aspx (just to be on the safer side,it is always good to have a copy before you start modifying a file ;-))

2) Open the upload.aspx file and search for

<input TYPE="hidden" NAME="_charset_" VALUE="utf-8"><!--webbot bot="FileUpload" endspan i-checksum="45034" -->

3) Update the following string as follows

<input TYPE="hidden" NAME="Cmd" VALUE="Save"><!--webbot bot="FileUpload" endspan  -->

4) Save your file.

5) Reset IIS

Hope this helped...

Sharepoint Ghosting and Unghosting

Ghosted page - A page which has its contents not stored in the content database but are read from a site definition file (File System). (Default/Uncustomized page)

Un-ghosted page - A page that has been modified from the site definition file, has its contents stored in the content database. (Customized pages)

Any ghosted page modified/edited is considered unghosted.

As a Sharepoint user, I am going to assume all of us know everything in Sharepoint is stored in the database (SQL Server).So for each document there is a row in docs table. The actual file is stored in Content Column. This applies for all files. But there is an exception. Not all .aspx page content is stored in the database. These pages refer files that exist on the servers' file system. These pages are called as ghosted pages.

From a technical standpoint, ghosted pages are those rows in the docs table which have null values for the Content column and a non-null value for the SetupPath column which points to a file on the file system .The referenced file in actual serves as a template and content source. The default home page is a ghosted page. Any web part pages created using the New Web Part Page user interface is also ghosted.

If a document doesn't refer a template on the file system or the Content column actually contains data, those pages are unghosted.

Disabling Sharepoint Designer 2007/Front Page 2003

MOSS 2007 and Sharepoint Designer 2007

To disallow users from editing WSS3.0/MOSS2007, we will have to disable the authoring feature in SharePoint Designer 2007 by editing the Onet.xml file.

Drive:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extentsions\12\Template\ SiteTemplates\XML

Locate the Project Title tag, and then add the following line: DisableWebDesignFeatures=wdfopensite

After the change it look like this :

<Project Title="Team Web Site" ListDir="Lists" xmlns:ows="Microsoft SharePoint" DisableWebDesignFeatures=wdfopensite>

Save the ONET.XML and do an IIS reset

If a user tries to edit using Designer after that he gets the below message: 

This web site has been configured to disallow editing with FrontPage. Contact your web site administrator for more information

Warning:  Editing WSS 3.0/MOSS 2007 site by using Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003 has a major risk of corrupting the site. Instead, always use SharePoint Designer 2007 to edit the site.

SPS2003 and Front Page Editor 2003

To disable users from editing Sharepoint sites using Front Page Editor/, add the wdfopensite value to the DisableWebDesignFeatures attribute in the Onet.xml file of each SharePoint Portal Server 2003 site template. The DisableWebDesignFeatures attribute is located in the Project Title tag in the Onet.xml file.

Site templates are located in the following folder on the serverDrive:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\60\Template\LangID\SPS*\XML

Microsoft Sharepoint Designer Overview

Sharepoint Designer is an HTML editor and web design freeware for creating/editing Microsoft Sharepoint sites and web pages. It belongs to the Sharepoint products family.

When I worked with Sharepoint 2003 we were using Microsoft Front Page for editing Sharepoint sites and pages. Since the release of MOSS 2007, Front Page had its successor in Sharepoint Designer. This editor has a design view, split view (design and code), code view and preview page view

The list of designers that Sharepoint had since Sharepoint 2003

• Microsoft Front Page 2003
• Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007
• Sharepoint Designer 2010
• Sharepoint Designer 2013

Sharepoint Designer Usage can be disabled by farm administrators from Central Administration (since the release of Sharepoint 2010)

Trivia:

• The Front Page 2003 was designed specifically for editing WSS 2.0.There are some SPS 2003 features that cannot be edited with Front Page.
• While installing SPS2003 we had to uninstall Front Page extension server to complete the set up successfully.
• To disable users from editing Sharepoint sites using Front Page Editor/, add the wdfopensite value to the DisableWebDesignFeatures attribute in the Onet.xml file of each SharePoint Portal Server 2003 site template. The DisableWebDesignFeatures attribute is located in the Project Title tag in the Onet.xml file.Site templates are located in the following folder on the serverDrive:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\60\Template\LangID\SPS*\XML

Related Post Disabling Sharepoint Designer 2007/Front Page 2003

Sharepoint Zone Implementation

Continued from Sharepoint Web Application Zones

To implement Sharepoint Zones, we need to extend an existing web application.

1) Browse to Central Administration -> Manage Web Applications.

2) Now select the web application where you want to implement a different zone click on Extend on the ribbon.In our case I am selecting the web application on port 1000(the screenshot shows port 80,ignore it)

3) Enter the values for your new extended web application. Select a zone for your web application.

4) The zones available for a default web application are shown below.

5) In our case, I am clicking Intranet and click OK.

6) Now Browse to Central Administration -> Configure Alternate Access Mappings.

 7) You get to see that your Web application is created in a new zone (Intranet).From now on, you would be able to access your site collections from both ports 1000 and 1001.(Alternate Access Mappings)

8) Go to the IIS manager now You will see a new IIS website created for your extended web application (in the new zone).