Uninstall a MOSS SP1 failed upgrade and re-install MOSS RTM on the server (without wiping the whole OS! ;-)

Microsoft gave the following steps to manually remove MOSS SP1 as described thereafter we encountered further problems which proved that some additional elements needs to be removed or updated. The uninstall may "appear" to be successful but more errors may show when re-installing MOSS RTM. Below are some of the scenarios I encountered and resolution, it might be useful to some users who, like me, could not find an exhaustive un-installation steps list.

 

• Disable and Stop the following services
  

-Microsoft Single Sign-on Service

-Office SharePoint Server Search

-Windows SharePoint Services Administration

-Windows SharePoint Services Search

-Windows SharePoint Services Timer

-Windows SharePoint Services Tracing

-Windows SharePoint Services VSS Writer

 

• Note the following registry keys:
  

From HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office Server\12.0

-InstallPath (default is C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Servers\12)

From HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\12.0

-Location (default is C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server

Extensions\12)

 

• Delete the following registry hives:
  

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office Server\12.0

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\12.0

[x32] - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\OSERVER

[x64] - HKLM

\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\OSERVER

 

• Delete the following folders:
  

The value of the InstallPath key

The value of the Location key

C:\%CommonProgramFiles%\Microsoft Shared\SERVER12

 

Uninstall using Windows Installer Cleanup utility

• Download the tool msicuu2.exe from the link http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301
  
• Install the tool on MOSS server and run the program from Start > All Programs >
  
• Windows Install Clean up
  
• Select the entries that start with "Microsoft Office SharePoint *.*" and "Microsoft SharePoint Service *.*" and select remove
  

 

Reinstalled MOSS

NFR : At this stage Microsoft says it's enough to configure MOSS but I found that it's not the case, so do not try and carry on to next steps (in the table below is the experience why)

MOSS Installation failed on a previous uninstalled MOSS SP1 Following the manual uninstall steps, I bumped into the following problems and here are some possible solutions, at least that worked for me and successfully let me re-install MOSS from scratch without having to rebuild the machine.   1- run MOSS RTM setup   Language pack error during install 2- error on language pack 3- a fix is offered on this blog too but was not enough for me http://www.sharepointforums.com/Blogs/tabid/147/EntryID/51/Default.aspx (even though you don't have Language Pack installed (typical Microsoft, no !)

 

use MS uninstall tool to remove all Office softs starting with v. 12.0.6219.* in addition to one Microsoft recommended

• run Sharepoint wizard to connect to restored Config DB
  
• failed with no crash error, dialog box just disappeared L
  
• reboot server
  
• run Sharepoint wizard to create new farm/Config DB
  
• failed with error on Step 2 : creating config db. Error is about Language Pack1
  

add Language pack in Registry

• reinstall MOSS RTM
  
• Pass step 2, config DB created.
  
  • now re-create Web App and connect appropriate content DBs.
    

 
 

osrchwfe.msi could not be found by installation program

• error on "MS Search Front End cannot be found" osrchwfe.msi
  
• run "osrchwfe.msi" from /global/search install cd (http://blogs.msdn.com/brsmith/archive/2009/01/29/sharepoint-uninstall-the-product-installation-has-been-corrupted-run-setup-from-original-source.aspx)
  
• run MOSS RTM installation
  
• success, ready for Sharepoint config
  

 

Files Locked by Process

1. folder C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\BIN cannot be deleted as DLL still in use
   
2. stop task K2HostServer, folder removed ok. manual uninstall done. (K2 workflow server is on that server too)
   

• run MOSS RTM installation
  
• success, ready for Sharepoint config
  

Off bug : Export a MOSS2007 list to Excel 2003 error - now fixed

Found the answer in a post on EggHeadCafe.com.
the problem was a column Date/Time format that must have got corrupted, once I change the type one by one to TEXT it then exports OK, and the type can be changed again to Date/Time and exported fine.
Don't we love these kind of bugs.. grrr....
Is there a KB article for this ?

Sharepoint general Cannot get the list schema column property from the SharePoint list: "Cannot get the list schema column property from the SharePoint list"

Technical VISIO Sharepoint diagrams

OK, I might be a bit behind the train as this was released a long time ago.
Nevertheless, quite useful VISIO Sample diagram of MOSS/WSS3 Architecture to re-use.
I actually found out that the wonderful architecture diagram that the supposably-Sharepoint-Architect did of MOSS 2 years actually was just coming from one of this Visio chart with the name of servers and farm changed ;-)

Architecture Design Example: Twynham School (U.K.)

Technical diagrams and other supplemental documentation

SharePoint Kings: Run SQL Queries and Fetch List Data from SharePoint Database (WSS_Content) Part-2

For once, short and simple steps showing how-to query Sharepoint lists directly from SQL.

SharePoint Kings: Run SQL Queries and Fetch List Data from SharePoint Database (WSS_Content) Part-2

How to apply Site Quotas and Lock to multi site collections

Site quotas and locking can be applied via Central Admin but this will quickly prove to be time consumming in number of clicks if you have more than 5 Site Collections in each Web Applications, so use the custom STSADM command from Gary Lapointe so do so.

SharePoint Automation: Synchronizing Quota Settings via STSADM: "Synchronizing Quota Settings via STSADM"

Vicious circle : How to disconnect MOSS connections to SQL database without shutting whole Sharepoint down

Today I woke up to discover that 2 of my 30 Sharepoint content databases on SQL2005 were locked in a "single-user mode" process, and did not get back into multi-users mode as expected every night after the backup ran.
The user were experiencing on the sites using these DB a "An unexpected error has occurred" message, as I didn't display more explicit custom error in web.config (not to scared users).

I called the SQL Admin guys for process and they confirmed that they only need to unlock it and switch back the status to Multi-users mode.
As even though the sites are not accessible the Front end and Index servers are still making lots of request to the database, and killing the connected users from SQL will not solve it as they will reconnect as soon as they are killed :-(

Problem was :
I have another 28 databases with users connected which meant 8 web apps, 28 sites collections and about 40 to 60 sub-sites.
So for only 2 site collections connecting to these 2 databases I was going to stop access to the other 26, even if only for a few minutes it was not really my idea.

So I decided to only take these 2 site collections and see if I can stop the access to their associated databases only, without touching the rest on Sharepoint.
The solution is simple :

1. from the Sharepoint server : detach the content database from the site collection
2. from the SQL box: fix the DB (back in multi-users mode in my case)
3. form the Sharepoint box: re-attach the content db to its site collection.

Voila.

Just make sure that prior to detaching the DB at step 1, you also do a "prepare move" so that the database "doesn't get too scared" when you detach it ;-)


STSADM steps are below :

1- preparetomove (tell server to be cool)
stsadm -o preparetomove -contentdb SQDB-Server1:WSS_Content_DB1 -site http://webapp.mysharepoint.com/sites/sitecoll1

2- detach db ("deletecontentdb")
stsadm -o deletecontentdb -url http://webapp.mysharepoint.com/sites/sitecoll1 -databaseserver SQDB-Server1 -databasename WSS_Content_DB1

3-attach db ("addcontentdb)
stsadm -o addcontentdb -url http://webapp.mysharepoint.com/sites/sitecoll1 -databasename WSS_Content_DB1 -databaseserver SQDB-Server1

Should this be Best Practice in Enterprise: Connecting the CQWP without changing ItemStyle.xsl

I was always amazed that my power users would need editor level to the itemStyle.xsl on their site collection so that they can customise the QCWP.
Thanks to this tip we should now stop this non sense and give them the ability to have their own XSL file, sepearate form the shared ItemStyle.xls one.

Connecting the CQWP without changing ItemStyle.xsl : Brendon Schwartz Collaborating on SharePoint: "Connecting the CQWP without changing ItemStyle.xsl"

Add a Site Approval Workflow to your environment

Phil Wicklund created a pretty simple yet useful workflow to let users create sites but locking it until approved. All on CodePlex so can be easily improved too.

Home - Site Approval Workflow: "Site Creation and Approval Workflow"

Finding my way between programming in Visual Studio and using what I did into Sharepoint (ie Publishing/Deploying)

OK, so may be I am dumb, but having work in the past in Lotus Domino environment, the release of code into Test and Live environment is a piece of cake and yes .. still allows roll-back with not much risk.
Oh.. and I forgot to mention : Domino would offer 1, 2 way may be to do a change in its code but not err... more like Microsoft does.

Anyhow : Having a background in development I can still program some tricky code to make things better on my software and pages in VB or C# but could not figure (or took the time to ) how to place my code onto my Sharepoint server/ site/ page or Webpart.

I followed the article from Greg Galipeau on http://sharepointmagazine.net (exact link here) and below is my summary as I was doing the steps (and as always it is here so that I can refer to it in the future... as I will NOT remember anything ;-)

Click the Mind Map below and the link on the two method for viewing my notes.

Want an AJAX RSS Feed on your Sharepoint page that updates itself every 30 seconds or so?

SharePoint AJAX RSS Aggregator WebPart - Zlatan's Blog [MVP SharePoint]

Great HOW-TO article: Deploying a Custom Master Page to Sharepoint site(s)

Deploying the Master Page (Master Pages and SharePoint part 4 of 6) | SharePoint Magazine: "Deploying the Master Page"

Installing Jan Tielens' Silverlight graphs to a MOSS Server

I read Jan 's blog quite often, and last week he came up with this great (free) Webpart (here) to display a graph of any list in your Sharepoint site.
After a few problems I finally got around it so below are the steps to follow.

Silverlight Graph taking data from a Sharepoint list.

STEP 1)
run the SETUP.EXE to deploy the Webpart


STEP 2)
open (each ) Site collection where to use the WP, and activate the Site Features under site settings

STEP 3)
Configuring IIS for Silverlight Applications (following http://learn.iis.net/page.aspx/262/silverlight/)

3a) create a VBS file containing
----------------------------------------------
Const ADS_PROPERTY_UPDATE = 2
'
if WScript.Arguments.Count < mimemapobj =" GetObject(" amimemap =" MimeMapObj.GetEx(" i =" UBound(aMimeMap)" extension =" WScript.Arguments(0)" mimetype =" WScript.Arguments(1)" style="font-weight: bold;"> 3b) execute
ADDMIMETYPE.VBS .xap application/x-silverlight-app
ADDMIMETYPE.VBS .xaml application/xaml+xml
ADDMIMETYPE.VBS .xbap application/x-ms-xbap

SharePoint 2007 Permissions Matrix

Useful list of Permissions level in MOSS

Mark Arend : SharePoint 2007 Permissions Matrix: "SharePoint 2007 Permissions Matrix"

PeoplePicker Filtering - Active Directory configuration on MOSS

This morning while having a "normal" second line support call with a user, she just mentioned something that she thought was a temporary or minor problem on her site :
- when adding a user to a site, she would click the Address Book icon to search for a name, and all name would just come up twice.

Obviously this translated in my language to be a more important problem as it meant that another domain has been added to Active Directory where all members of domain1 where also created in domain2, and Sharepoint just displayed the additional domain if there is a two-way trust between my Sharepoint domain.
Within just a few hours I could have dozens of people who would be added to a newly released site and who would call 1st line support asking why they can't access the site although they are listed as user :-(

Bugger I thought! because any user who is added to a site using the additional AD Domain will not be recognised by the site SSO like that, the user will never know how to log in with a different AD domain and why would should they anyway.

My Active Directory obviously rejected the fault on Sharepoint that should "know what it's doing" ..
Sharepoint can indeed add some rules to the display of users in the list, using STSADM commands (see links to "ninja"'s blog). It all sounds good as I can do something like :

stsadm -o setproperty -pn peoplepicker-searchadcustomfilter -pv "(dc=mydomaintoinclude)" -url http://mywebapp

Only problem in my case is that this property "-searchadcustomfilter" is only available from Sharepoint 2007 SP1 onward. Well... . in a way I am glad as it will give more pressure to push management to approve an upgrade to SP1 and Infrastructure Update for WSS3 and MOSS2007. We should really on the upgrade wagon by now !
Come on, with all the pre-requisites steps, backups and testings that will be done and Microsoft Premier to support us if problem, why wait ?
Is there many organisation like mine who are still waiting for the train to pass ?


READ MORE ABOUT PeoplePicker Customisation with STSADM:
Have fun and knowledge with me.: Active Directory configuration on Sharepoint Server: "Peoplepicker: Stsadm property (Office SharePoint Server)"

Thanks Heather: How to Activate the Drop Down Menu in MOSS Sites

I always thought that I 've seen a MOSS site using cascading roll-over menu on the Top Navig bar, Heather explains how to activate it.

Just one thing to add: the site has to be with the Publishing Feature activated so that the "Show Pages" can be ticked.

Great tip ! (as long as you don't fast-reast like I did as the first site REALLY needs a page to be created , even if not used)


SharePoint Tip: How to Activate the Drop Down Menu in MOSS Sites: "SharePoint Tip: How to Activate the Drop Down Menu in MOSS Sites"