[MOSS2007] License has expired error

ISSUE:
Users got the error message "Your licence for Office Server Search has expired" when performing a search or when opening a page which contained a web part that used the search.

CAUSE:
The other day I had to install some language pack on a MOSS2007 environment. After installing a language pack, you need to run the Configuration Wizard. But because people were working on the environment and the Configuration Wizard stops some services, I waited until a more suitable time to run the wizard.

While troubleshooting the issue I noticed that permissions on the registry were gone. So MOSS2007 wasn't able to read the license information and therefore reverts to expired mode, presenting the users with the error mentioned above.

Putting two and two together: Installing a language pack resets some permissions on the file system and/or registry. This is corrected when you run the Configuration Wizard.

RESOLUTION:
After running the Configuration Wizard, all problems were solved.

LESSON LEARNED:
Do not install language packs when you cannot run the Configuration Wizard immediately afterwards.

[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).

Language Packs and Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server 2007

MOSS Language packs enable site owners and site collection administrators to create SharePoint sites and site collections in multiple languages without requiring separate installations of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. You install language packs, which contain language-specific site templates, on your front-end Web servers. When an administrator creates a site or a site collection based on a language-specific site template, the text that appears on the site or the site collection is displayed in the site template's language. Language Packs are typically used in multinational deployments where a single server farm supports people in different locations or in situations where sites and Web pages must be duplicated in one or more languages. Application of a Language Pack will not change the language of the installed Office server product SKU.

- What’s the difference between WSS Language Packs and MOSS language Packs?

• WSS Language Packs are for WSS stand-alone installations and enable the creation of SharePoint sites in different languages; multiple language packs can be installed on the same server.
• MOSS Language Packs are for MOSS, MOSS for Search, Forms Server, and Project Server installations and enable the creation of SharePoint sites in different languages; multiple language packs can be installed on the same server.

What’s the difference between a MOSS Language Pack and a fully localized version of MOSS?

Microsoft’s 2007 Office server products are localized into languages in two different ways:

1. fully translated SKUs and
2. Language Packs.

A language-specific SKU delivers the respective Office server product localized into a given language. A Language Pack may be applied to an installed Office server product to create sites or site collections in other languages. Application of a Language Pack will not change the language of the installed Office server product SKU, or the language of the admin features.

How does a customer license them?

MOSS Language Packs can be downloaded and installed on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 servers free of charge. If the Language Packs deployed fall within your “listed languages” then your Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Standard and Enterprise CALs license your desktops/devices for those Language Packs. If Language Packs deployed fall outside of your “listed languages” then you will need to consider modifying your CAL to a multi-language option (for Select/Open agreements) or an “all languages” option (for Enterprise Agreements).

What’s the pricing?

There is no cost for MOSS Language Packs; however, there may be additional CAL costs associated with licensing for languages outside your listed languages.

More information about deploying MOSS Language Packs can be found at the Microsoft TechNet site. The following TechNet articles relate to MOSS Language Pack deployment:

• Deploy language packs
• Install available language template packs
• Plan for multilingual sites

I heard that there are issues related to specific server language packs. What is this about?

For certain languages (Arabic, Hindi and Thai), spellers were not included in either the fully localized version of MOSS or the MOSS Language Pack. (Spellers for Basque and Galician are also absent from the Spanish MOSS and Spanish MOSS Language Pack). These spellers, as well as instructions for installing them, will be made available to customers via the MOSS Server Multi-Language Pack (SMLP). The SMLP will be downloadable from the Microsoft Download Center and MVLS/eOpen web sites. The SMLP is expected to be available towards the end of May 2007. Note: while a customer can obtain any MOSS Language Pack or the SMLP free of charge, they are not necessarily licensed to use all of the languages. They should consult their listed languages for more clarification on which languages they are licensed to use.

More information about language pack availability: Estimated release timeframes for SharePoint 2007 Language Packs

(Source: Additional information about WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 Language Packs)