Infrastructure Specialist (System Engineering, Service Delivery, Project Management)

Lost all contacts on iPhone after iOS 5.0 upgrade

2011-10-13T02:35:00.003-04:00

If you lost all your contacts after iOS 5 upgrade on iPhone - check out iCloud sync. Once my iPhone came up after the upgrade, I had to go to Settings - Mail, Contacts, Calendar - iCloud.

Turn off Contacts sync - select Delete from my iPhone. Wait few seconds and turn Contacts on again.

Now go to Contacts - it will start polulating from iCloud now and you should have all your contacts back.

Note:

When iTune starts restore on iPhone after the upgrade, let that process run - it takes hours to finish.

Also ensure that you made backup before starting the upgrade.

Troubleshooting steps for SharePoint and Search- displaying real Error

2010-03-18T00:27:00.004-04:00

Here are two way to troubleshoot issues with SharePoint environment. It's really very basic steps and known for a while in SharePoint community, I am describing them here for quick access and also if this helps even one person searching on Inet, my effort is worth. First one will be useful when you recieve error on any site and second one will be useful when you are trying to work with faulty web part.

Displaying real Error message in Sharepoint site :

If you have encountered generic error message, where SharePoint tells you that it encountered error without giving you any detail,
following steps will display real error.

First make a backup copy of your web.config of specific web application.
Open web.config and look for SafeMode tag. Change callstack to true :
After changing, your SafeMode node should be similar to following line :

SafeMode MaxControls="200″ CallStack="true" DirectFileDependencies="10″ TotalFileDependencies="50″ AllowPageLevelTrace="false"
Set customErrors mode="Off"
Now refresh your page and you should see some descriptive error message - happy debugging.

Displaying Web Part Maintenance Page:

In case you start having issue on any page where faulty webpart is stoping you from editing page to remove it, remove that webpart by opening web part maintenance page.

You will need to append "?contents=1" at the end of URL of page, this will cause SharePoint to open Web Part Maintenance Page. On this page you will be able to remove web part in question.

For example, if the URL of your page is

http://YOUR.GREAT.SITE/Saajan/default.aspx

then Web Part Maintenance Page url will be

http://YOUR.GREAT.SITE/Saajan/default.aspx?contents=1

#############################################################

Following two links are for SharePoint Search Services:

New content for SharePoint 2010

2010-02-16T14:01:00.004-05:00

Microsoft has posted some new training for SharePoint 2010 - both for developers and administrators.

It's free 2-hour e-learning courses:
- Clinic : What's New in Microsoft SharePoint 2010 for IT Professionals
- Clinic : What's New in Microsoft SharePoint 2010 for Developers

And in case you want to get your hands on actual SharePoint - download virtual machine here (it's huge download and you will need Windows 2008 server R2 with hyper-v).

In case you want to get information on SharePoint 2010 ECM (Document Management, Records Management, Content Management) - check out MS Enterprise Content Management Team blog.

Some useful SharePoint resources/links

2010-02-08T21:35:00.007-05:00

Following are some of resources/links I came across - which should be very helpful for any SharePoint specialist. I will keep adding pointers here.

Useful and free SharePoint tools
Optimizing SharePoint sites
How to determine which server is used in Load Balancing configuration
SharePoint build numbers <== find out which update/SP is installed
Nice info on SharePoint Setup/Service accounts
PowerShell lists

I am working on migrating several large sites from webapp to host header based site collections, and coming across some interesting topics, will write about them soon in new post. But in mean time, check out "Understanding SharePoint SQL databases".

Content Deployment in SharePoint

2010-01-13T13:51:00.004-05:00

If you need to move content from one environment to another - say from development to test or from intranet to extranet, you can utilize built-in capacity of SharePoint 2007. With content deployment, you can configure deployment jobs to copy content from one farm to another farm. As content can be deployed from site collection to site collection, you can even utilize it within same farm.

You have option to deploy full site or only changed site (to save time and bandwidth). You will also have flexibility in scheduling. If you are migrating to Extranet/Internet, you will also need to enable "Require Encryption" on destination farm.

For detailed description of deployment technology with SharePoint 20007, check out Microsoft SharePoint team's blog.

Setting up deployment jobs is pretty straight forward steps (Content Deployment - step by step tutorial by Jackie Bodine ), but here are some checklists to save you time from troubleshooting. You will be able to see messages on central Admin Content Deployment Paths and Jobs page, in Windows Application Event logs and SPTrace log).

Checklist:

Make sure destination farm is accepting incoming content deployment jobs (CA - Operations - Content Deployment Settings )
If no SSL used, disable secure connection (CA - Operations - Content Deployment Settings - Connection security - Do not require encryption)
Add permissions for timer job service identity on deployment folders (CA - Operations - Content Deployment Settings - Temporary Files - Path)
Make sure that empty site collection exists on destination farm.
Both farms must have on same hotfix levels.
If there is any feature activated on source farm, it should also present on destination farm (Otherwise you will receive error with event ID 4958 :Publishing: Content deployment job failed. Error: 'Microsoft.SharePoint.SPException: Could not find Feature xyz ...")
Add any user needing quick deploy capability into "Quick Deploy Users" group - for site collection with Publishing resources feature enabled, there will be "Quick Deply" job - which can run every few minutes and can deploy contents from special list (which gets populated when site owner utilizes "Quick Deploy" from Page Editing toolbar (as long as they have quick deploy rights).

Also checkout blog by Stefan Gobner - who has very detailed description of inner workings of deployment. He has also listed requirements for deployment to work.

References:

SharePoint Team blog on Content Deployment
Content Deployment - step by step tutorial by Jackie Bodine

Problem uploading large files onto SharePoint site

2009-11-25T13:20:00.002-05:00

We had complaints from several users about their problem with uploading large documents on SharePoint 2007 site. As first check, we asked for size, and they ranged from 35 to 45 Mb in size. Now these sizes are well below default upload limit of 50 Mb.

Users were receiving either “Error 404 – File not found” or “An error occurred copying some or all of the selected files”.

This environment is – MOSS 2007/WSS 3.0 on Windows 2008 server.

So as a first response, we checked upload limit in SharePoint – which is 50 Mb by default. You can check this under ==> Central Admin – Application Management – Web Application General Settings. For each application, you can see maximum upload size of 50 Mb (default).
There were two additional settings – but both are mainly to deal with time-out values : IIS time-out values (default is 120 seconds) and execution timeout in application’s web.config (add entry for timeout for upload.aspx). In our case, this doesn’t seem to be issue as error was occurring long before timeouts. {check out MS KB article 925083 for more details on these values – which needs to be modified if you have remote users}

Came upon this article by Shane Young - which touches upon similar issue with uploading files larger than 28 Mb on Windows 2008 platform.

This article pointed us to MS KB944981, which has suggestion to modify web.config file. And after following steps, we were able to resolve our upload issue.

• Open the web application web.config file.

• Add following code to the <configuration> section :
<security>
<requestFiltering>
<requestLimits maxAllowedContentLength="52428800"/>
</requestFiltering>
</security>
</system.webServer>

As Shane pointed out, make sure to add above lines between </configSections> and the <SharePoint> tag.

• Save this file. And change will take effect immediately.

• If you have large farm settings, this change needs to be applied on all Web Front End servers.

• Uploading file of size 42 Mb is now successful.

Note: This change will allow upload of files upto size of 50 Mb. If you need larger file upload, you will need to change maxAllowesContentLength in web.config as well as in Central Admin – Web Application General Settings.

Installing Windows 2008 R2 server on Windows 7 (vhdboot)

2009-11-07T17:56:00.008-05:00

I just upgraded laptop to Windows 7 Ultimate (64 bit) - and wanted to make it ready for SharePoint 2010. Now as you know, next version of SharePoint will be 64 bit only, so will need this OS. But to get full performance, I wanted to install Windows 2008 R2 server.

With 64 bit Windows 7, you have to rely on either Virtualbox or VMWare to host W2008 (as Virtaul PC is not able to host it). But a friend pointed me to new option available now - vhd boot. Basically with Windows 7 (and Windows 2008) you can directly boot from vhd file, getting full hardware capacity available to host OS (and actually with vhdboot, there is no host OS - you are running only one OS at a time).

I already had Windows 7 runnig, so just have to add vhd for Windows 2008 and install there. If you already have vhd for OS, you can just sysprep it and then add boot option thru' diskpart (with description below). Following steps can be also taken to boot from Windows 7 vhd.

Download full iso from Microsoft for Windows 2008 R2 server (trial version runs for 180 days - no product key required). Burn it to DVD and follow steps from this article.

I followed above article and able to have dual boot system. Here are my steps :

Boot from Windows 2008 R2 Server DVD.
On install screen, press "Shift+F10" to go into command line tool.
Type "Diskpart" to start diskpart program.
Create a new vhd - "create vdisk file=”D:\Dir\YourVhd.vhd” type=expandable maximum=maxsizeInMegabyte"
Note: When you boot from install DVD, it will assign D drive to your original C drive of Windows 7, so you have to select correct path on D drive.
With expandable option, vhd size will be only up-to size of existing data, but will grow up-to maxsize as you add data.
Select this new VHD and attach it :
select vdisk file=”D:\Dir\YourVhd.vhd”
attach vdisk
Switch back to setup window (ALT+TAB) and continue install.
Select correct disk for install - should be last one in list (check size), ignoring warnig "Windows cannot install to this disk"
Upon comletion, you will have options in boot menu for both Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2. Use bcdedit to view and change boot menu.

Once you have Windows 2008 server running, it should install drivers for most of devices, if not, you can update them from your windows 7 "windows\system32" directory - as you will see them as D or E drive under server. This way you will also able to copy files between both. If you are not able to connect to wireless network, activate Wireless Wan feature.

Main reference - Knom's MSDN Article (all steps are from this article - visit it for detailed info and screenshots also).

Here is another article showing same steps - only difference is step 4 done withing Windows 7 GUI.

So now I have Windows 2008 R2 server ready, will install SQL DB server before SharePoint 2010 beta comes out.

Other userful articles - A very detailed description of vhd boot process, Add a native-boot Virtual hard Disk to the boot menu, BCDEdit options.

Technet article on Deploying Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 on USB Flash Drive

Seven Forum has several tutorials on vhd and boot options.
Compilation of blog entries on beta install (nice work from Kanwal Khipple)

On side note, check out this article from Bhargav Shukla to boot from USB drive (when you don't have DVD drive/disk). Use that method in first step above.

IIS 7 Web Server Administration

2009-11-02T23:03:00.006-05:00

With trend to migrate SharePoint to 64 bit platform (for performance as well as upgrade readiness to 2010), there will be increasing need to understand IIS 7 running on Windows server 2008. Here are some links to jump-start learning :

The Official Microsoft IIS site
Management and Administration - includes info on deployment, performance tuning, diagnostics & troubleshooting and security
Toubleshooting web server error
Understanding HTTP Error Messages - nicely written article on HTTP Status codes
While this module is not specifically for IIS, it covers configuring caching, IIS Compression and other options for SharePoint
Measure IIS Page/File performance by parsing log files (script from Microsoft)

Getting ready for SharePoint 2010

2009-10-20T15:52:00.015-04:00

As Microsoft had unveiled SharePoint 2010 in Las Vegas this week, there are multiple sites coming online with information on Microsoft's new platform. It seems like a very interesting upgrade for this wildly adopted platform. I will try to put together some useful links here on SharePoint 2010. Some links will take you to individual blogger who are busy writing up after NDA has been lifted.

Public beta is now available (Nov 18, 2009). Check out this article from Jie Li on some very good points to consider for beta install.

- Your first stop should be Official blog of Microsoft SharePoint group and SharePoint2010 product page - expect to see detailed information posted here.
- Blog of Arpan Shah (a director on the Microsoft SharePoint team), links to SP Conference keynote speeches
- SharePoint 2010 forum- for SharePoint 2010 questions, expect to see lot more activity in coming days here.

- SharePoint 2010 Developer Center - for developer info
- SharePoint 2010 for IT Pro - place for IT Professionals, takes you to TechNet center, with info on plan, deploy and operate (bookmark this page as info is constantly updated).
- Microsoft Business Connectivity Services(BCS) Team blog
- Some very good diagrams and tech documents (Resource Center) on sharePoint 2010 (from Microsoft)

- Video training courses from Microsoft - covering Office 2010, SharePoinr 2010 Development, Windows 7.

- Very good compilation of SharePoint training from Arpan Shah

- Preparing today for SharePoint 2010 - Q & A from Joel Oleson, slide deck from his presentation. Also check out his blog on top 10 features + lot of good links.
- Clayton Cobb - blogger
- Alpesh Nakar - blogger
- Andrew Connell - MVP blogger, watch out for their training

- SharePoint 2010 Videos - on Designer and Infopath 2010
- Get Started SharePoint YouTube channel from SP EndUser Content team at Microsoft

I will keep updating this list as more information becomes available.

Deploying Windows 7 Essential Guidance eBook

2009-10-17T01:43:00.004-04:00

If you are looking for resources to help you with Windows 7 deployment, check out this free ebook from Microsoft -
Deploying Windows® 7 Essential Guidance from the Windows 7 Resource Kit and TechNet Magazine.

It has selected chapters from the Windows 7 Resource Kit on Deployment Platforms, Planning, Testing Application Compatibility, written by Mitch Tulloch, Tony Northrup, Jerry Honeycutt, Ed Wilson, and the Windows 7 Team & also select articles from TechNet Magazine.

Here is another Microsoft site containing resources for IT Managers and technical team.

Setting up multiple web sites with SSL certificate on IIS 7.0

2009-10-05T21:40:00.002-04:00

Came across nice article on configuring multiple websites with SSL certificate on IIS 7.0. I haven't tried this steps yet, so not sure whether it will work witout wildcard certificate.

I am coming across some posts, which advises to get SAN (Subject Alternate Name) certificate - which allows you to have multiple domain names in once SSL certificate.

Main post referenced: Configuring Multiple SSL Certificates in IIS7.0
Post 2 - SSL certificates on Sites with Host Headers

Here is Technet article showing command syntax in detail

Restoring SharePoint Application with SQL DB backup

2009-10-02T16:33:00.006-04:00

If you are like most of implementer and don’t have third party application for granular restore of SharePoint, sooner or later you will be faced with restoring full application from SQL database backup.

Follow this procedure to restore content Db from backup and then use with same name on same SQL server. Here we will take backup of previous day and restore with same name. On SharePoint site, it gets interesting as you will need to detach this db before restore and then attach it to correct application.

Detach the content db from application (run following two commands on one of SharePoint web server)

stsadm -o preparetomove -ContentDB content_db_name

stsadm -o deletecontentdb -url http://Site_URL -databasename Content_db_name -databaseserver DBServer_Name

(even when you are using deletecontentdb switch, you are just detaching the db, content remains on db until you restore and overwrite)

Perform Database restore on SQL DB server, overwriting existing Database.

Now attach this database back to web application

stsadm –o addcontentdb –url http://Site_URL -databaseserver DBServer_Name -databasename Content_db_name

This procedure will be also helpful if you ever wanted to move content database to new SQL server.

Ref: Very god Microsoft article on SharePoint Backup and Recovery

Some interesting seminars taking place in NYC

2009-09-17T17:26:00.004-04:00

Here are some interesting seminars taking place in New York city. If you are around town, will be good chance to learn from pros.

EMC Forum 2009 (Oct 8, 2009)- is the premier one-day opportunity to learn how EMC/partners can help your organization build and refine your information infrastructure to reduce risk, eliminate costs, and maximize the value of your information. There will be several breakout sessions on - Virtualization,Consolidation, Backup and Data Deduplication, Data Protection and Compliance. {Follow on Twitter}

CSO magazine's Security Seminar on The Current State of the Fraud Landscape (Oct 20, 2009) - sponsored by RSA. Leading industry experts and veteran practitioners will share their tips and tactics for dealing with online fraud.

Intranet Portal Governance paper is now online

2009-09-17T17:13:00.003-04:00

This paper provides a sample governance plan for an intranet portal deployment in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. The plan is designed to help you outline the administration, maintenance, and support of a Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 deployment in an enterprise.

Available on Technet.

Authored by Joel Oleson - this paper is in addition to other plan available for Internet presence. Check out Joel's blog - he has included many useful pointers to get you started.

MOSS 2007 Search topics

2009-09-14T20:59:00.003-04:00

Some of Search relates issues:

Issue 1: When you go to Search Settings from SSP Administration page:

Error: An indexer is not assigned to the Shared Service Provider "MySharedService". Configure an indexer and a search database for this Share Service Provider.

To resolve this error, first make sure Office SharePoint Search Service is started on Index server. Now go to SSP settings to assign the indexer.

From CA - Click on Shared Services Administration. Click to edit properties of your Share Service. At the bottom of settings page, there will be a section for Indexer - select your Index server from drop down. (If no server is listed, make sure Search Service is started with Index role).

Issue 2: When you open Search Settings from SSP :

Error: The search service is currently offline. Visit the Services on Server page in SharePoint Central Administration to verify whether the service is enabled. This might also be because an indexer move is in progress.

Sometimes it takes time for indexer to be ready. If error is still displayed after long time, there might be issue with running service. Try to stop and start Office SharePoint Search Service (Never stop it from Central Admin - Operations - Services On Server).

From Cmd line :
stsadm -o osearch -action stop
then
stsadm -o osearch -action start

Issue 3: If your search crawl suddenly stops - and you see error about "Access denied" from crawl, this may be caused by Microsft Security Patch came out during 1st qtr 2009. Check out Microsoft link -http://support.microsoft.com/kb/926642/.

Quickest way to resolve this issue will be to apply registry workaround to disable loopback check.

Learning:
Training videos for enterprise search (from Microsoft): 14 recorded presentations are based on training modules from three-day, in-person training sessions.

"http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc505994.aspx"

Video demos and training for Office SharePoint Server 2007:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262880.aspx

Multiple errors for Output Caching - portal runs normal

2009-09-14T16:27:00.005-04:00

Just noticed following errors started to show up on one of web server - all errors for images from path "/_layouts/images/...". Portal application was running fine and no issues from user perspective were reported.

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Office SharePoint Server
Event Category: Publishing Cache
Event ID: 5785
Date: xx/xx/2009
Time: 12:12:12 PM
User: N/A
Computer: Server_SVShah

Description:
Unable to connect publishing custom string handler for output caching. IIS Instance Id is '962404070', Url is 'http://MySiteURL/_layouts/images/xyz.gif'.

There were couple of pointers found - most advising to remove PublishingHTTPModule from config file.

So after modifying web.config (for main web app) :

Open Web.config file for web app
Look for "<location path="''_layouts/images>" section. Add following lines to the section right before </system.web> :
<httpmodules>
<remove name="PublishingHttpModule">
</httpmodules>
No need to restart IIS - try to visit your web app. If your web server is behind load balancer, use direct hit to server (if you have AAM settings for such settings).

This error is logged by SharePoint as it tried to cache the file and it's not able to do it as "_layouts/images" folder is not considered SharePoint managed path.

Ref: Share-Point blog & Technet Forum

STSADM restore fails - Another site already exists at '/...'

2009-08-31T16:09:00.005-04:00

When trying to restore site to new web application (as migrating site collection), I came across this strange error.

I backed up site collection to cab file, but when tried to restore this file on new site, received error:

Another site already exists at '/......'. Choose a new URL, or specify the -overwrite flag to overwrite the existing site.

Now I checked everywhere and there wasn't any site existed. As this site collection will be managed separately and we needed it's own DB, I even created "Explicit Inclusion" managed path for this site.

Running this command with overwrite flag wouldn't help - as it just overwritten on existing site on root. So I started searching for similar issues and came across posting by Michael Lotter, and just for test I deleted manged path from central Admin and created same path with STSADM command -

stsadm -o addpath -url http://MySite/NewSiteCollection -type explicitinclusion

Now tried to restore site with same command (stsadm -o restore -url http://MySite/NewSiteCollection -filename Backup.cab) without overwrite flag, and it ran successfully.

So my guess - even when this explicit managed path was present in Central Admin, system wasn't able to detect it.

All databases utilized by SharePoint - creating list for reference

2009-08-31T11:49:00.003-04:00

Have you ever wondered how to list all Databases utilized by SharePoint. I was creating this list and had really difficulty to find all configuration, content and search DB - tried from Centeral Admin console as well as tried various STSADM commands. I was able to find all DB names - but had to look in many places.

So in search of central place to list all these databases, came across this page on Central Admin, where all farm configuration (config, content, SSP - search and content, web app content) was listed with corresponding database.

This list is available with Backup option. From Central Admin - Operations - Perform a Backup (under Backup and Restore).

On this page, you will see list of all farm settings and related database names. Creating list for your reference will be really easy from this page.

Edit (11/5/2009) - another easy way to get this list of SharePoint DB will be use STSADM command with showtree switch :

From 12\bin directory, run following command - it will give you same list as shown by backup option from CA :

stsadm -o backup -showtree

You can re-direct this output to text file which can help you to list this databases for reference.

For more detailed information on these databases - refer to this Microsoft article on Back-end Protocols - really detailed info on all back-end application (including for SharePoint 2010).

SharePoint DB Maintenance article

2009-08-08T23:19:00.003-04:00

Just came across very useful article on DB maintenance for SharePoint - by Kimberly L. Tripp. Although there is a detailed Microsoft whitepaper on this topic - but as Kimberly pointed out, there is a real danger to implementing it incorrectly if some of DB concepts are not clear.

Should be very helpful info for all SharePoint specialists...

Applying SharePoint Cumulative Update - config wizard hangs

2009-07-13T15:33:00.005-04:00

During applying Cumulative Update for SharePoint (both WSS and MOSS update), as running Config Wizard, it took very long time on task 8 of 9.

Waited for a while and then got restless - so checked "Upgrade.log" (in
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\LOGS)

Following line repeats for hours :
[SPManager] [DEBUG] [7/xx/2009 x:xx:xx PM]: SyncUpgradeTimerJob: sleeping for 10 seconds

So started looking for this issues with TimerJob, came across this blog. So restarted SP Timer Service and SP Admin Service. Config Wizard proceeded to complete successfully.

Interesting story developing on hacker - why insiders are greatest threat to security

2009-07-06T12:49:00.003-04:00

Check out these blog entries by Security professional Wesley McGrew (@McGrewSecurity).

Interesting reading for anyone involved with Computer Security showing importance on protecting your system from insiders also. There are video posted by hacker and also FBI complaint.

http://www.mcgrewsecurity.com/2009/06/30/ghostexodus-the-eta-and-a-control-systems-incident-at-carrell-clinic-part-1/

Also check out remaining parts of this story on his blog.

Webinar: How and Why to Apply Strategy and Governance to Social Computing Initiatives

2009-06-15T11:43:00.001-04:00

Live Webinar - June 30, 2009 at 2 pm ET

Using social technologies for the sake of coolness is out – using them in support of business strategy and to drive culture change is in. Stacy Wilson, Accredited Business Communicator(ABC) and president of Eloquor Consulting, Inc., focuses her 22-years of experience on leveraging internal communication to deliver business results.

Register here.

SharePoint Governance and Information Architecture

2009-06-12T00:03:00.004-04:00

You always here about importance of SharePoint Governance including Information Architecture - but really, what is governance and how can you start one ?
Check out this blog posted by Joel Oleson - he has put together comprehensive information on SharePoint governance . It's followup to webcast on same topic at Quest Virtual Expo.

Joel Oleson's Blog

Another good starting point will be at CodePlex.

You will also find links to some ueful TechNet articles at above two sites.

There are also updated sample Governance plans available from Microsoft - including collaboration and Internet presence.

Webinar - Microsoft CRM and Sharepoint - better together

2009-06-10T16:46:00.004-04:00

In case you are interested in SP and CRM integration, be sure to check out this webinar :

Better Together: Microsoft CRM and SharePoint

Date: 6/18/2009
Time: 10:15AM - 11:30AM EST
Event Type: Webinar

Attendees will learn how CRM and SharePoint deliver a flexible platform of development tools that can be uses to meet 90% of the requirements for virtually any IT project – significantly reducing the costs to develop and maintain custom applications. In addition, you will learn how the search, document management, business intelligence and Web 2.0 capabilities of SharePoint can combine with the activity management, customer tracking, marketing campaign and workflow capabilities of CRM to enhance employee, vendor, distributor, partner and supplier relationships.

Good reading on SharePoint Best Practices Conference

2009-06-06T21:59:00.008-04:00

Following posts are linked to Mike Herrity’s Blog about SharePoint in Education - these are their notes from European SharePoint Best Practices Conference in London (taken place on Apr 6 , 09): good reading :

Thanks to Mike Herrity and team for sharing these notes with community. Be sure to visit
Mike Herrity’s Blog for updated information. He is also on Twitter.

Cool Utilities

2009-06-06T12:19:00.007-04:00

List of cool utilities (mostly for PC, and available free). Some are really useful to keep handy for troubleshooting problems.

PING (Partimage Is Not Ghost) -- Backup and Restore Disk Partitions :
It is a live Linux ISO, can be burnt on a CD and booted. Perfect choice to backup and restore whole partitions. It sounds like Symantec Ghost(tm), but has even better features, and is totally free.

ImgBurn : The ultimate image burner
ImgBurn is a lightweight CD / DVD / HD DVD / Blu-ray burning application that everyone should have in their toolkit! (Guide)

NTFS Undelete: Recover deleted files NTFS Undelete is free and open source software that allows you to recover deleted files. It recovers files directly from hard drive, and it will work even if you empty Recycle Bin.

Blocking Unwanted Parasites with a Hosts File : makes your Internet connection safer as well as faster
You can use a HOSTS file to block ads, banners, 3rd party Cookies, 3rd party page counters, web bugs, and even most hijackers. This is accomplished by blocking the connection(s) that supplies these little gems.

Virus Detection/Removal : HiJackThis, SpyBot Search & Destroy, AVG, Virus removal tools (this will be useful if your computer is infected with any virus listed on their site) from Kaspersky, McAfee, Symantec, BitDefender, Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool.

If your compute is infected with Virus - follow these steps for cleaning (warning - some of steps are technically involved - but it helped me couple of times to recover infected PC).
[Note: After encountering virus infection issues multiple times, I have decided to use hard disk restore option with backup software (Symantec BackupExec). For free alternative, use PING listed above.

How to protect your PC (from Microsoft - comprehensive info)

Some more utilities listed at Windows IT Pro (cool & free tools for Windows Admin)

- from Internet.com

How you get started with Twitter

2009-06-06T11:17:00.006-04:00

How you get started with Twitter (from Kristian Kalsing's blog)

Posted using ShareThis

Here is list of many Twitter apps (and list is growing)

But before you start using Twitter in hope of advancing your career, read following article.

Think before you Twit - 3 mistakes to avoid when trying to juice your career with social media (applies to all social networks)

Twitter is down and it gives me time to read Time story

2009-06-05T23:33:00.003-04:00

New Time magazine just came out- and surprise - cover story is on Twitter. Check it out - How Twitter will change the way we live.

I expect to see rush to sign up for Twitter as story spreads. Some will remain, while some will not have much activity in couple of weeks. But surely this story will help tome bring business executive's attention to this new medium.

I have signed up just couple of days ago and I am already hooked up. It's addictive and keeps you wanting to come back. I will try to keep this blog updated along with my twit.

We have seen explosion of online community devoted to SharePoint - but now it's becoming too much and many sites are being used for marketing only. Hopefully Twitter still have exponential growth remaining before it becomes mainstream. Most of media outlet are on Twitter, but many don't know how to use it. (I just un-followed AndersonCooper - updates were too frequent with no interesting content).

Let's enjoy this technology and try to use it in innovative way. I am still waiting to see one great use of this tool for business, and sure we will see them soon.

Free TechTalk - SharePoint: What could possibly go wrong?

2009-06-05T18:04:00.006-04:00

Nice technical talk - in this TechTalk, Shane and Todd talk about some of the things done wrong in SharePoint installations they've seen. They also talk about how to fix those things." Available for a free viewing - link from Shane Young's blog :

http://www.msteched.com/online/view.aspx?tid=8d46ef7a-7455-4854-a66d-0fd692766b58

MOSS 2007 - Runtime exception : Access to the path "...\BlobCache\.....bin" is denied

2009-06-05T15:08:00.009-04:00

During deployment of some solutions file, we start seeing following error on WEE server’s System events. At the same time many of images stopped appearing in SharePoint site. If we refresh page, images were loading, but upon another IIS restart, same pattern occurred.

###############################################################
Event Type: Error
Event Source: Office SharePoint Server
Event Category: Office Server General
Event ID: 7888
Date: x/x/2009
Time: 5:05:05 PM
User: N/A
Computer: xxxxxx
Description:
A runtime exception was detected. Details follow.
Message: Access to the path 'xxxx\BlobCache\1067410666\b2e7f537-4777-48a8-a5c5-1d6bdd5f8a43.bin' is denied.

Techinal Details:
System.UnauthorizedAccessException: Access to the path 'xxxx\BlobCache\1067410666\b2e7f537-4777-48a8-a5c5-1d6bdd5f8a43.bin' is denied.
at System.IO.__Error.WinIOError(Int32 errorCode, String maybeFullPath)
at System.IO.FileStream.Init(String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access, Int32 rights, Boolean useRights, FileShare share, Int32 bufferSize, FileOptions options, SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES secAttrs, String msgPath, Boolean bFromProxy)
at System.IO.FileStream..ctor(String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access, FileShare share)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.BlobCache.WriteIndex(Boolean tokensOnly)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.BlobCache.<>c__DisplayClasse.<CheckSiteChanges>b__a()
at Microsoft.Office.Server.Diagnostics.FirstChanceHandler.ExceptionFilter(Boolean fRethrowException, TryBlock tryBlock, FilterBlock filter, CatchBlock catchBlock, FinallyBlock finallyBlock)
###############################################################

Now that’s some what strange error to happen – as we didn’t made any changes in user accounts or permissions. First instinct was to add our application pool account with modify permissions on BlobCache folder. It didn’t helped.

Next tried running FileMon and RegMon – there were multiple “Access Denied” events, but changing permissions didn’t help.

Now started looking on Internet for possible issues with IIS and BlobCache – came across various sites where solutions ranged from permissions for IIS_WPG group to adding Authenticated user permissions for site.

As a last resort, decided to rename old BlobCache folder and restarted IIS. Voila....

Solution : Rename BlobCache folder. Upon IIS restart and site access, system will create new folder with the same name. And all images started appearing normally on site.

Sometimes strange SharePoint errors are resolved with simple solution - challenge is to differentiate such errors.

Interesting list for bloggers

2009-06-05T00:50:00.001-04:00

25 Best blogs 2009 - as per Time Magazine -

list includes Google Blog and LifeHacker

Starting a new journey with blogging

2009-06-04T11:54:00.001-04:00

So at last signed up for blogging - wasn't sure if I will get my desired name, but may be there aren't many sarvesshah out there (or at least not interested in blogging).

Stay tuned, I will be trying to keep page updated on my dealing with SharePoint and other web technologies.

In mean time - check out these SharePoint events - offered on-line and free registration - should be good learning experience.

Quest Virtual Expo for SharePoint - June 10, 2009 : from 8 AM to 4 PM (EST)

SharePoint From Chaos to Success - June 17, 2009 : from 11 AM to 4 PM (EST)

And thanks for visiting this blog :-)