Connect.Collaborate.SharePoint
Apr
29

Has it been a while since you installed SharePoint and you read something that talks about the "Farm Account" but you can't find where this is defined in SharePoint?

It is really just the Database Access Account you specified during the initial psconfig (2nd step in the setup process) for the configuration database.

Because there is only one configuration database for a farm, the account you specify to access the db is used as the identity for the IIS Central Admin Application Pool. (this is not the account creating the db, that is done under the credentials who you are logged in as when running psconfig.exe)

This account doesn't need any special Windows privileges. So long as you have been logged in as a domain administrator when running setup, everything should work fine.

PSConfig will also create the following local security groups :

  • WSS_ADMIN_WPG (Farm account, Account you are running psconfig under and Builtin\Administrators Group added)
  • WSS_RESTRICTED_WPG (only the farm account is added)
  • WSS_WPG

These groups are used to secure things on the files system and in the registry

The farm account will also be granted dbcreator and securityadmin SQL Server rights.

Note: some people think these are the rights required for SQL Server when running setup. It must be because SharePoint is often not "owned" by the IT department that they make it hard for a consultant to be able to run setup under a domain admin account. I just ask them if they would run the setup for an Exchange server without being logged in as a domain admin ;-). Fortunately, once setup is completed, you will probably never need to use a domain admin account again.

Anyway, I think understanding this help during setup and troubleshooting. You should never change IIS settings like the app pool identity manually because the central admin application uses timer jobs to keep all servers in the farm synchronised.

If you do want to change the Farm Account, do it from the Central Admin/Operations/Service accounts or from the stsadm command line utility. In either case you will need to do an IIS reset which is when you hold your breath and hope that you don't get the dreaded "Can't access the configuration Database" message.

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Apr
27
Have you ever wanted to host another web application within the SharePoint chrome using the Page Viewer Web Part but been frustrated by the dual scroll bars?
 
My solution is an aspx page that has an iFrame that uses a css style to set the height of the iFrame based on the current browser height. The src attribute for the iFrame is taken from the url.
This means that you can create standard SharePoint menu items that call this page and specify the url to be loaded in the iFrame.
 
Just copy this code into Notepad and save into a SharePoint library as an aspx file.
 
<%@ Page masterpagefile="~masterurl/default.master" language="C#" title="Untitled 1" inherits="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.WebPartPage, Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" meta:progid="SharePoint.WebPartPage.Document" %>
<%@ Register tagprefix="WebPartPages" namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages" assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>
<asp:Content id="Content1" runat="server" contentplaceholderid="PlaceHolderMain">
<style type="text/css">
.Myframe
 {width:100%; height:expression(document.body.clientHeight-160);}
</style>
<script type="text/jscript" language="javascript">
 function getParameter(szName)
 {
  // Get value out of supplied parameter
  var szUrl = window.location.search;
  szUrl = szUrl.toLowerCase();
  szName = szName.toLowerCase();
  var szValue = "";
  var nBegin = szUrl.indexOf(szName);
  if (nBegin != -1)
  {
   szValue = szUrl.substring(nBegin + (szName.length + 1));
  }
  var nEnd = szValue.indexOf("&");
  if (szValue != "" && nEnd != -1)
  {
   szValue = szValue.substring(0, nEnd);
  }
  return szValue;
 }
</script>
<iframe id="I1" name="I1" class="Myframe" width="100%" frameborder="0" >
Your browser does not support inline frames or is currently configured not to display inline frames.
</iframe>
<script type="text/jscript" language="javascript">
 I1.location.href= getParameter('url');
</script>
</asp:Content>
 
If you want to use this for something like hosting Reporting Services pages which have very long url's, you could change the parameter to "report" and prefix the I1.location.href value with the consitant part of the applications url.
e.g.  I1.location.href= '/Reports/_layouts/ReportServer/RSViewerPageNoHeader.aspx?RelativeReportUrl=/reports/reportslibrary/' + getParameter('report');
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Apr
22

I was. Turns out there is a bug with nForce motherboard chipsets.

I installed http://support.microsoft.com/kb/930261, even though my error blue screen was happening at crcdisk.dll loading, and now I can upgrade to 4 GB.

This is a long overdue upgrade that I have put off for the last 2 years. There is no personal reason why I need such a grunty personal computer, I need it for my job. Seems that many of my colleagues have also had to purchase personal hardware just to get their jobs done. Kind of sucks, but I need to keep up with technology to do my job.

Virtual server is about the only application I need to run so Vista will be replaced with Longhorn server very shortly. I just wanted to see what Vista looked like on some decent hardware compared to my Toshiba M4 laptop which is sub-optimal for the work I do.

Speaking of work, the biggest challenge I'm finding at the moment is working on SPS 2003 and MOSS 2007 projects at the same time.

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Apr
18
This sounds HOT (I'll leave it up to MikeG to find the inside scoop).
First I have heard of it.
We nearly had a Digital Media Office Solution Accelerator for SPS 2003 but that never saw the light of day (long story).
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Apr
15

You can see the Administrative Assistant template here.

http://www.wssdemo.com/application/admin If you get a login prompt, use "demouser" with password "Templates".

It has a good example of using the BDC and Filter web parts.

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Apr
12

If you are installing them on a MOSS server with the publishing feature enabled (even if the site collection is based on a team site) then don't forget to check in the files and approve them for publishing (like I forgot to do ;-). Links on my previous post are now working.

I was going to share some IE shortcuts that I use to perform site admin functions. They were cleaver in that they would work on the current site, but I just found out how dangerous that can be if you don't pay attention to the current URL. You might be in a sub site but some pages use the portal's _layouts page. Needless to say, a shortcut to the delete site page is not a good idea. Luckily I did this on the dev server; unluckily I still have to restore it :-(

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Apr
11

Microsoft has made available a package of sample master pages compatible with the Application Templates for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 to showcase some of the customization options master pages provide. The master pages were built using new CSS and Master Page editing tools within Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007.

I have created demo pages using each of the master pages (there are also 5 colour versions of each master page).

Block http://www.wssdemo.com/pages/master%20block.aspx

Clarity http://www.wssdemo.com/pages/master%20clarity.aspx

Horizon http://www.wssdemo.com/pages/master%20horizon.aspx

Reverse http://www.wssdemo.com/pages/master%20reverse.aspx

You can download them from http://www.wssdemo.com/redir.aspx?ID=1020

Enjoy …

 

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Apr
9

You can define a custom error page for SharePoint (see Jingmei Li's Blog) for instructions.

Here are the PowerShell caommands I used instead of having to compile a console app (step 5 in Jingmei's blog).

PS C:\> [System.Reflection.Assembly]::Load("Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c")
PS C:\> $webapp = [Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPWebApplication]::Lookup("http://www.wssdemo.com")
PS C:\> $webapp.FileNotFoundPage = "wssdemo404.html"
PS C:\> $webapp.Update()

Now try a page that doesn't exists like http://www.wssdemo.com/pages/deletedpage.aspx

 

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Apr
4

Now that I have looked at every stsadm command, I have noticed a few inconsistencies.

---
This one seems to be a bug

Stsadm –help forcedeletelist

Results in

stsadm.exe -o forcedeleteweb
-url <url>

But stsadm –help forcedeleteweb indicated no such command exists

---
In all but one of the following, zone comes before url

addzoneurl
deletezoneurl
enumzoneurls
geturlzone

---
blockedfilelist had an add and remove parameter, unlike all other operations that would have suggested that, this should have been 2 seperate operations, addblockedfilelist and deleteblockedfilelist.

---
Where is the enumblockedfilelist?

---
I have most of the commands documented now.
http://www.wssdemo.com/Lists/stsadm/AllItems.aspx
Some refinement of the categories still to come though.

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Apr
2

If you use the WSS 3.0 embedded SQL engine (standalone install) you will have noticed there is no database admin tool except for the stsadm back/restore command line utility. Even if you have a full copy of SQL server on another server, you can't connect to the WSS database remotely because network connectivity is disabled.

There is a free SQL management tool called Management Studio Express which you can download from http://www.wssdemo.com/redir.aspx?ID=1008

And using the magic connection string \\.\pipe\mssql$microsoft##ssee\sql\query you can connect to the Microsoft##SSEE instance.

Management Studio Express

http://www.wssdemo.com/v3Images/_w/sqlconnection_jpg.jpg

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