[MOSS/WSSv3] Bug in SharePoint Public Hotfix of October 9th

Recently I have installed the MOSS and WSS public hotfix of October 9th (WSS 3.0 - KB934525, MOSS 2007 KB937832) on several environments. After the installation I noticed that DCOM errors were added to the eventlogs. I troubleshooted the issues and it turns out that the WSS and MOSS patches are resetting the permissions on the OSearch and SPSearch DCOM objects.

Before installing the hotfixes the security settings on both objects were:

• Administrators
• <MOSS Configuration Database account>
• <MOSS Search account>
• SYSTEM
• WSS_ADMIN_WPG
• WSS_WPG

All account had "Local Activation" and "Local Launch" permissions.



After installing the WSS patch the security settings on the SPSearch DCOM object were reset to default settings.
After installing the MOSS patch the security settings on the SPSearch DCOM object were reset to default settings.

• Administrators
• LOCAL SERVICE
• SYSTEM

Fortunatelly this was solved easily by adding the WSS_ADMIN_WPG and WSS_WPG groups to the OSearch and SPSearch object and granting them "Local Activation" and "Local Launch" permissions.

How to determine the DCOM settings??

• Start > Run
• dcomcnfg
• Component Services > Computers > My Computer >DCOM Config
• Select object OSearch or SPSearch
• Right click > Properties
• Select tab Security
• Click Edit at "Launch and Activation Permissions"

[iFilter] Adobe released a work around for the PDF iFilter in x64

"Finally Adobe has come up with an interim solution to address the non-availability of a 64 bit ifilter. Now one can use the 32-bit Adobe IFilter on 64-bit platforms after installing a DCOM addin from Adobe. The installation instructions can be found on the Adobe Labs Wiki .

This is a great oppurtunity for folks who have a 64-bit installation of Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server 2007 and want to index pdf documents, but do not want to spend money on a 64-bit FOXIT IFilter."
Source: Filter Central

[MOSS] Do's and don'ts with SharePoint databases

On the Microsoft site I found some articles about what you can do and what you probably might not do with your SharePoint databases.

What to do with SharePoint databases:
- Information about the Maintenance Plan Wizard in SQL Server 2005 and about tasks that administrators can perform against SharePoint databases

What NOT to do with SharePoint databases:
- Support for changes to the databases that are used by Office server products and by Windows SharePoint Services

[MOSS/WSSv3] Solving issues after installing a patch

Last week I installed ForeFront for SharePoint on our SharePoint 2007 servers. Unfortunatelly the version on the CD did not contain SP1, causing some issues which were solved in SP1. So I decided to upgrade to SP1. The ForeFront Security for SharePoint blog had a post which describes how to install ForeFront Security for SharePoint SP1.

Step 1 of this description was installing the SharePoint hotfix package KB936867. After installing this patch, you are required to run the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard, so I did......and here is where the problems all started.

At step 7 of the Config Wizard, the wizard went into an infinite loop. A reboot was the only solution.

After the reboot, running the Config Wizard again resulted in a nice error message "The Configuration Wizard is already running on another server". I kinda was stuck. Fortunately Microsoft knew the answer to my problems. They recommended me to run the following command:

psconfig –cmd upgrade –inplace b2b –wait –force

Afterwards I also installed the public updates, released on October 9th:
Public Update October 9th - WSS3.0
Public Update October 9th - MOSS2007
Everything seemed fine.......

After a few days I noticed that on my second webserver the Status of the "Windows SharePoint Services Web Application" role was stuck on "Upgrading".On the Microsoft Forum I found the following post:
Need Help after applying Hotfix May 8 - MSDN Forums

Unfortunately the answer wasn't posted there yet, but my reply on the post got a real quick answer saying I needed to run the following command:
stsadm -o provisionservice -action start -servicetype SPWebService

This solved the issue and everything was back up and running!!

[SPS2003/WSSv2] Service Pack 3 released

Microsoft has just release Service Pack 3 for SPS2003 and WSSv2.


Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Service Pack 3 (SP3) contains stability improvements and performance improvements. Some fixes that are included with Windows SharePoint Services SP3 were previously released in separate updates. Windows SharePoint Services SP3 combines the previously released fixes into one update.

• More info
• Download here
• Issues that are fixed in WSSv2 SP3

Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Service Pack 3 (SP3) contains significant security improvements. Some fixes that are included in SharePoint Portal Server 2003 SP3 were previously released as separate updates. This service pack combines these updates into one update.

• More info
• Download here
• Issues that are fixed in SPS2003 SP3

List columns in SPS2003/WSSv2 and MOSS2007/WSSv3

In SharePoint 2003/WSSv2 there were some limitations on the number of columns of a certain type:

Lists in Windows SharePoint Services can only contain a certain number of fields or columns. If a list in your site contains too many fields or columns, it are not migrated. You must manually re-create the list. Note that this includes surveys. The maximum numbers for fields and columns are:

• 64 text fields, including the following field types: Single line of text, Choice, Hyperlink, or Picture.
• 16 Lookup fields
• 16 Date and Time fields
• 16 Yes/No fields
• 32 Number and Currency fields
• 32 Multiple lines of text fields

WSSv2 Admin Guide

In MOSS2007/WSSv3 these limitations are gone. The only limitations is the performance of your list: Sharepoint 2007 - Column Limits

[SPS2003] Issue with "Add link to site" option

A colleague of mine ran into an issue with the ‘Add link to site’ option in Site Creation. After clicking the OK button nothing happens. This issue is being discussed in newsgroeps and possibly being caused by hotfix: KB933854

Someone created a solution for this issue, by changing some code in the newform.aspx file. After applying this solution, the issue was solved. More info can be found at: SPS2003 Add Link to Site not working

Changes to newform.aspx:
1. Open this file in a text editor:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server
extensions\60\TEMPLATE\[LCID]\SPSSITES\LISTS\SITESLST\NewForm.aspx
(Replace [LCID] with your locale identifier, 1033 for English)
2. Find this code fragment:

<SPSWC:InputFormButtonSection runat="server">
<SPSWC:InputFormButtonAtBottom ID="ButtonOk" runat="server"
TextLocId="Page_OkButton_Text"/>
<SPSWC:InputFormButtonAtBottom ID="ButtonCancel" runat="server"
TextLocId="Page_CancelButton_Text" visible="false" />
</SPSWC:InputFormButtonSection>

3. Replace it with this code fragment:

<SPSWC:InputFormButtonSection runat="server">
<!-- Workaround for WIN2003SP2 issue: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/934229
-->
<input type="button" value=" OK "
onclick="document.forms[0].submit()" />
<!-- <SPSWC:InputFormButtonAtBottom ID="ButtonOk" runat="server"
TextLocId="Page_OkButton_Text"/> -->
<!-- End workaround -->
<SPSWC:InputFormButtonAtBottom ID="ButtonCancel" runat="server"
TextLocId="Page_CancelButton_Text" visible="false" />
</SPSWC:InputFormButtonSection>

4. That's it!!

MOSS2007 Installation guide

Over the past few weeks I have been working on an installation guide for MOSS2007. I have updated a document I created earlier with new insights and am glad to announce that it is available for download!!

Available here:Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Installation Guide

[UPDATE: A new version has been released. More info, see this post]

Mail Merge and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

In Word 2007 you have the possibility to merge a document template with data from a data source, creating for example a mailing very easily. The data source can be various types of documents, like Excel, Word or Access files. But it turns out that Word 2007 cannot handle data source documents on an http location.

When opening a mail merge template document and you try to connect a source document which is located on a SharePoint site (Mailings > Select Recipients > Use Existing Lists > My Network Places > Select document on SharePoint site), Word 2007 gives the error message “This file could not be found”. A workaround is to download the source document to the local computer (for example the desktop) and connect it there. The downside is that you have to download the document each time you want to do a mail merge.

Hopefully this issue will be fixed in the next Office Service Pack.

[MOSS2007] The inner workings of the MySite functionality in MOSS2007

In SharePoint 2007 users have the possibility to create a personal site called MySite. This site can be used to store and share documents and other data (contacts list, calendar, etc). A MySite has two parts, a personal and a public part. On the personal part of the MySite, users can edit their details, add colleagues, upload and share documents, etc. The public part is available for other users. Here the details of the user are shown and the users can access the shared documents.

The personal part of a MySite is a site collection in a web application. When accessing you personal part for the first time, a site collection is created in the web application which you configured during the configuration of the Shared Services Provider (SSP).

During this SSP configuration, the config wizard also creates a MySite Host. This is a site which redirects you to your very own MySite when you try to access it. It also provides the public part of the MySite and other generic MySite pages.

Why am I talking about this MySite Host?? Because that MySite Host determines in which language parts of you MySite are shown. When creating a MySite (with multiple language packs installed) you are asked in which language you want your MySite to be created. But this is only the private part (the site collection).

On an environment I installed recently, I had installed and configured MOSS2007. After I created a SSP (sharedservices.) and MySite WebApp (mysite.), configured the SSP and created a site collection WebApp (portal.). Then I installed the Dutch language pack and created the first site collection based on the dutch Collaboration Portal template.

During testing of the portal I ran into some issues with some parts of the MySite being in Dutch and some parts being in English. After some testing I found out about the MySite Host (root of the mysite. webapp). Because the language pack hadn’t been installed while configuring the SSP, the MySite host had been installed using the English template. To solve this issue I deleted the MySite Host site collection and recreated the site collection, using the Dutch template and voila….all of the MySite is in Dutch!!

So if you are using language packs for MOSS2007 and notice that some parts of the MySite are in English instead of the language of your language pack, just delete the MySite Host site and recreate it using the localized version of the MySite Host template (can be found under the Enterprise tab).