[MOSS/WSSv3] MOSS and WSSv3 Service Pack 1 released!

Yesterday Microsoft released Service Pack 1 for MOSS and WSSv3.

"For information on what's included in the service pack view the Announcing WSS 3.0 and MOSS SP1 article from TechNet. This information will be important from both a business and technical perspective to support installing SP1. The KB "Description of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Service Pack 1 and of Windows SharePoint Services Language Pack 3.0 Service Pack 1" in addition is a must read. It includes a link to a list of fixes included in WSS SP1. For Office SharePoint Server 2007 SP1 another KB has been posted with a downloadable Office Servers list of fixes."

Note: For SharePoint Server 2007 environments, WSS 3.0 SP1 should be installed before SharePoint Server 2007 SP1.

Download WSS 3.0 SP1
SP1 existing deployments:
Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP1, 32-bit edition and 64-bit edition
Windows SharePoint Services Language Pack 3.0 SP1, 32-bit edition, 64-bit edition

Download Office SharePoint Server 2007 SP1 (includes SP1 for Project Server, Forms Server, and Groove)
Office SharePoint Server 2007 SP1 32-bit edition and 64-bit edition
Office SharePoint Server 2007 Language Pack 3.0 SP1 32-bit edition, 64-bit edition

Download SharePoint Designer 2007 SP1
SharePoint Designer SP1
SharePoint Designer Language Pack SP1

Source: http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/12/11/announcing-the-release-of-wss-3-0-sp1-and-office-sharepoint-server-2007-sp1.aspx

[MOSS/WSSv3] Antivirus exclusions in SharePoint 2007

A few weeks ago I installed two SharePoint 2007 (MOSS) environments at a customer. Both environments were create in VMware ESX and had one database server and one SharePoint 2007 server. The ESX administrator noticed that the CPU of both SharePoint 2007 servers used a lot of performance for about 15-20 seconds each minute. Process Explorer to the rescue!!

The System process on the server was using this CPU time and using Process Explorer I was able to track the usage to the tmxpflt.sys thread. This file was part of the TrendMicro OfficeScan product, so the CPU usage was an AV issue. I searched the Internet for antivirus exclusions for SharePoint 2007, but wasn't able to find any exclusion information for SharePoint 2007. This ment I had to do the troubleshooting myself.

After some more troubleshooting I found out that:

• The Windows SharePoint Services Timer service started a job every minute which caused the issue. When I stopped this service, the CPU didn't spike at all.
• The Windows SharePoint Services Administration service was running the job. When I stopped this service when the CPU was high, the usage immediately dropped.
• The Windows SharePoint Services Administration service was writing some logging in the file WSS_AdminService.log, which was located in the directory C:\Documents and Settings\Default User\Local Settings\Temp.
• The WSS_AdminService.log file was about 65MB. TrendMicro OfficeScan scanned the file before the Administration service was able to write in it. With 65MB, this took some time and processing power.

After deleting the log file, the CPU usage didn't spike at all, so I excluded the C:\Documents and Settings\Default User\Local Settings\Temp directory which solved all issues!

So one exclusion for your Antivirus software when using SharePoint 2007: C:\Documents and Settings\Default User\Local Settings\Temp

[MOSS/WSSv3] Moving sites between content databases

With the release of the Public Hotfix of October 9th (WSSv3 KB934525/MOSS2007 KB937832), StsAdm has gotten a new operation, the Mergedbs operation. A very cool operation, with which administrators are able to move sites from one content database to another!!

On his blog, Todd Klindt describes how to use the operation:
"On multiple occasions as a SharePoint administrator I have needed to move a Site Collection from one Content Database to another one. In the past this process was very painful and very manual. In this blog post I will show you how to move Site Collections between Content Databases with a single STSADM command using the "mergedbs" operation that was introduced in KB934525."

[MOSS/WSSv3] WSS Logs grow fast after installing patch

After installing some MOSS environments I got some messages about the logs in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\LOGS which grew enormously. In one occasion the logs became 250+ MB in half an hour, filling up the C drive rappidly.

On the Microsoft site I ran into article KB941789 which described a solution. After performing the steps, the log stops growing fast.