Deploying SSL in multiple web application in same Server

I keep getting question on how to deploy SSL to multiple web application in same server. Found this great article to achieve the same

https://www.digicert.com/ssl-support/ssl-host-headers-iis-7.htm

Error while crawling MySite users wherein MySite Web application is set up with SSL

Error Message:

sps3s://www.domain.com/site$$$people/bucketid=1/itemid=539

An unrecognized HTTP response was received when attempting to crawl this item. Verify whether the item can be accessed using your browser. ( WebExceptionStatus: TrustFailure The underlying connection was closed: Could not establish trust relationship for the SSL/TLS secure channel.; SearchID = 22908598-2E57-4053-96F5-FBB55B029959 )


Solution:

Ensure the SSL cert is registered under "Manage trust" in SharePoint central Admin


Step 1: Export the SSL Certificate

•  Open the cert from browser. Click on the lock  in address bar 
• Go to the tab called “Certification Path”, select the root CA certificate and click “View Certificate”
• Select the “Details” tab and click on “Copy to file”
• Save the file in your machine

Step 1: Import it in SP Central Admin

• Go to SP Central Administration  / Security / Manage Trust. Click on “New”, add the root CA certificate from the local machine 

This should do the trick

User Profile not showing up with proper domain name: User profile sync issues

User are showing up with  different domain name after full profile sync.

For e.g . I have all the users defined in ABC domain but after sync some users are showing up as different domain.

expected users in User Profile : ABC\user1
but showing up as : DEF\user1

Note: There is no domain with name DEF but it still shows up that way.

One of the possible reason is Domain netbios name is different than the FQDN of the domain

Check out article below , section Permission requirements: Domain netbios name is different than the FQDN of the domain

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/russmax/archive/2010/03/20/sharepoint-2010-provisioning-user-profile-synchronization.aspx

New-SPTrustedIdentityTokenIssuer Exception of type 'System.ArgumentException' was thrown

Error Message 

New-SPTrustedIdentityTokenIssuer: Exception of type 'System.ArgumentException' was thrown.

Solutions

Ensure:

• The name of the SPTrustedLoginProvider is not been using
• The length of the name is less than 50
• The certificate is not been using

Missing on {ServerName} Error even after patch is Installed

Are you getting an error "Missing on  {Servername}" even after installing the patch?

Something like this ?

Try running the powershell command  Get-SPProduct –local  in the server where the patch is showing up as missing  and if are having good day, it will take care of the issue and on refresh the message will go away


If running the command gives you Goose bumps, than dont worry its just a get operation. More here :
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff607885(v=office.15).aspx

User Profile Service Synchronization Service Stuck in "Stopping" State

1.  stsadm -o enumservices > c:\services.txt - This will provide list of services

2.  stsadm -o provisionservice  -action stop -servicetype "Microsoft.Office.Server.Administration.ProfileSynchronizationService, Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" -servicename FIMSynchronizationService

User Profile Synchronization Service not Starting - SharePoint 2010

Started my task with lot of excitement to try out cross farm service publishing. Plan was to try  publishing the User profile service, so started configuration for user profile. 

---Tried to add new connection 

Boom...Errorr...User Profile Synchronization Service is not started. Ok. So that's not a big pain right. 

---browsed to services page and clicked on "Start" for user profile synchronization service....

Boom...service stopped. 

---Scratching my head for next hour , google google google ...bing bing bing....

At last one suggestion found , try restarting SharePoint Timer Services

--- Restarted timer services 

Boom ...service started :-)

 

SharePoint 2010 Site Inventory

If you keep on hearing the question

How can we get inventory of all the site collection/ subsites in a web application including the created and last modified date of these sites.

well you don't have to look for third party tool. Simple old fashioned powershell is  a saviour

Get-SPWebApplication  http://.contoso.com | Get-SPSite -Limit All | Get-SPWeb -Limit All | Select Title, URL, lastitemmodifieddate , created | Export-CSV C:\Inventory.csv -NoTypeInformation


Enjoy!!!

 

Object Expected JavaScript error in Start Page (start.aspx) - SharePoint 2013

Issue:

After creating new site collection when the user tries to browse main page, following error throws up and screen is stuck in "Working on it ....."  for eternity.....................

Resolution :
Browse to "Site feature" - > Look for "Minimal Download Strategy" - > [Deactivate the feature]


Browse to home page and the scripting error should have gone.....

Test host process exited unexpectedly - Failed to queue test run: Unable to start the agent process

Today i was taking session of developer group and talking about the Visual Studio 2013 Test tools. Well it seems they did tried using it and bumped into error("Test host process exited unexpectedly - Failed to queue test run: Unable to start the agent process")  on first trial. 

Well It was a easy fix. As the user was running 64 bit processor based VM, he was geeting an error as Test project setting were set to 32 bit. Just change the test project settings. 

Test-> Test Settings->Default processor Architecture ->Select x64

MVC / MVP / MVVM design pattern. What's the difference?

Classic discussion very much prevalent  in architecture community. Though the concepts are quite old now and there are numerous applications build using design patterns, i hear the confusion of these patterns even today.

It's much easier to do white boarding and explain but for some of my readers, i keep getting an email to share an article. Well found one really good webcast from Joe homnick wherein a sample is converted to explain multiple patterns:

Check this out :
http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/NorthAmerica/2011/DPR305 [ Its a old tech end presentation but am sure my readers will appreciate this one]

By the way it also explains the scenario to use such patterns and to my SharePoint geek frds, i hope you are following the MVP.

Let me know your thoughts after listening to this one.

SharePoint 2013 Apps vs SharePoint 2013 Solution

For readers looking for MS article , here is the link. Don't want to take spend your time with my thoughts:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn268593.aspx

For readers who are interested and have to time to read my thoughts and provide there 2 cent, read below.....

A lot of organizations are now looking forward to migrate their SharePoint Farm from previous version to SharePoint 2013. But as soon as they start the analysis they bump into multiple new terms, methodology and implementation practices.

One of them which is introduced in SharePoint 2013 in App Model. Well a similar a lean model was tested as "Sandbox Solution" in 2010 version but with least success. It had it's own pain points and developers ended up creating server side controls(Webparts/ User controls).

As word is moving towards cloud platform and concept of applications, SharePoint 2013 took similar route and is now offering App model. Actually it's a pretty smart move. Such framework aligns SharePoint technology in line with open technology which is very much prevalent in today's world wherein there are multiple ways of displaying data(well mobile phone are game changer in today's world) and secondly this approach also takes care of pain of maintenance by SharePoint admin team who were having hard time explaining why the infrastructure is not holding up and tends to break down frequently( Thanks to badly written code by development teams..).

So going to back to question of " do we really need to go app way or should be stick to the old way of coding and deploying in server" .


My take " Though it will take time to learn and implement apps for all the existing customization, it's still worth looking into and converting the most complex ones to SharePoint App, mainly the apps which have longer shelf life in organization"

Read and let me know your thoughts. I understand its not as straightforward and quick for make these changes.

I would like to know the apps you are working which might be a good contender. I am always open for discussion..


Enjoy ..the changing landscape of technology..

Windows Azure Websites / Cloud Services and VM's Confusion

I keep getting same query from my technology friends and clients on the main difference between  the Windows Azure Website/ Cloud Service and VM's. 

Which one should be considered while rolling out a cloud solution. I understand it can be quite confusing  for a non techie or even for IT management who are not into technology jargons. 

I generally tend to provide the below MS links to understand the difference but the article is still too technical.

http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/manage/services/web-sites/choose-web-app-service/

So below are my take in simple terms. (Hopefully!!!)

Website Option is for you if :

• Are you looking for hosting websites with good UI  with simple data transaction which does not deal with high transaction data and probably won't require complex engine in backend business tier.
• If you don't want want to worry about maintenance of infrastructure(patches..)
• Would like to have websites which can load balance as per traffic 
• Provides templates to create websites using wordpress, joompla , droopal .....

Cloud Service (Platform as Service)

• You can dealing with applications which involves high transaction and required scaled up business tier
• You need remote access to servers to perform additional configuration e.g.
• Scripting IIS
• custom deployment of framework and configuration etc.
• If you don't want want to worry about maintenance of infrastructure(patches..)
• Would prefer to have staging and production environment

Virtual Machines ( Infrastructure as service)

• This option is similar to the server management today done on -Premise. The only difference is that the server is hosted by Microsoft but management of infrastructure and application is your responsibility.
• This option is good when you are moving your current application as-in in the cloud. The advantage of having VM in azure is that you will get servers on demand up and running in any part of world and won't have to worry about scaling your own datacenters

Now the most important part. COSTING!!!!

Well MS have a neat tool for calculating price. Give it a shot:

http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/pricing/calculator/?scenario=web

Hope this gets your understanding better than when you started reading this article..(I HOPE :-))

Rags

Datasource Menu disabled in Dashboard Designer

Are you trying to create a new performance point report but "Datasource" menu is disabled?

The reason of this behavior of absence of App "Dataconnection Library for Performancepoint" 

In order to create this app, Click on Site contents - > Add an App - > "DataConnections Library for PerformancePoint"

Once the App is added, "Datasource" menu will be available.

Unable to connect to SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services from Dashboard Designer (SharePoint 2013)

Are you trying to connect to SQL Server 2012 Analysis Cube using Performance point designer? Are you getting any errors? or it seems as if nothing is happening.

Probably your mind will having multiple thoughts  "What's the problem with this, i hate performance point , What should i even search in google without any error message" ............goes on and on and on

Well i had similar thoughts , till i came across an below article..( Thanks to Omicron)
http://omicron-llama.co.uk/2012/07/18/connecting-to-analysis-services-on-sql-server-2012-from-performancepoint-on-sharepoint-2013-preview/#comment-3864


Cause:
PerformancePoint here isn’t using ADOMD.NET 11, the SQL Server 2012 version

Fix:
Download and install  version 10 of ADOMD.NET installer which comes with the SQL Server 2008 R2

Direct Link for ADOMD.NET10 for x64

Microsoft Download Centre page for SQL Server 2008 R2 Feature Pack

How To's SharePoint 2013 ( Apps)

Good samples for all the developers planning to start apps development in SharePoint 2013.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj901636.aspx


It probably might feel too much initially but taken a step at a time, makes it much easier to understand and fun to implement.

:-)

Apps are disabled on this site

Created an app and while  deploying the app to portal, visual studio threw and error with failed deployment.

Error:
Apps are disabled on this site

Good thing is there is lots of article our there to resolve this issue. In my case it was lack of basic configuration which needs to be performed before deploying the Apps.


Follow steps, mentioned in link below to avoid this error.

How to: Set up an on-premises development environment for apps for SharePoint



Enjoy Apps.

-Rags

Sharepoint 2012 Conference Video - Channel9

Came across collection of SharePoint 2013 conference videos in Channel9

http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/SharePoint-Conference/2012?sort=status&direction=asc&t%5B0%5D=2013&t%5B1%5D=apps&t%5B2%5D=claims-authentication&t%5B3%5D=mobile#tab_sortBy_status

Expand VHD - Increase Capacity of Virtual Hard disk

well, i was stuck with 25 GB of in my virtual hard disk and started my favorite computer operation "Google" to find solution and surprisingly  found one pretty quickly

Here is goes.

Run below command sequentially in command prompt

diskpart                                    [open command prompt and type  this command]
Select vdisk file="Path of VHD"
list vdisk
expand vdisk maximum=40000                    [Size in MB]
attach vdisk
list disk
Online Disk
list volume
select volume                         [Select disk volume to be exteded]
extend
List Volume
detach vdisk
exit

SPHierarchyDataSourceControl changes is not reflecting in tree view control

You get a simple requirement
Hide some of the components from Tree view control of SharePoint 2010. ( Though hiding specific items is still not supported out of box and you probably will have to use custom tree view control)

Solution:
Make changes to master page specifically to node "SPHierarchyDataSourceControl "

You can add following properties:
IncludeDiscussionFolders="false"
ShowDocLibChildren="false"
ShowFolderChildren="false"
ShowListChildren="false"


You make changes and refresh page to see the change and to your surprise tree view doesn't change at all and still showing all components. Now you feel changes in your blood pressure and probably thinking what shoud i do next ....


Well probably if you find this article you will save some some of artery damage due to high pressure :-).

Details are give in below link
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2558891

In nutshell, SharePoint 2010 feature(Metadata Navigation and Filtering Feature)  generally overrides your master page settings, To get this working change the ControlId of Delegate Control that wraps the SPHierarchyDataSourceControl from TreeViewAndDataSource to    TreeViewAndDataSourceCustom.


Relief!!!