SharePoint: Move Site Collection / Database Resizing

In SharePoint world, content databases can grow to huge numbers, which in-turn result in multiple (performance, archival, consolidation of Sites, etc...) issues. Solution is either to bring automation in place which is smart enough to allocate content db's for Sites, based on the mapped logical architecture or another way would be to re-size your content databases as per your needs on regular bases. I will not be talking on methods to bring automation in place, I'll leave that for some othe day. Today I will talk on how to resize your content db's using a simple stsadm approach fused with some XSL transformations.
To explaining in detail, let me layout a scenario I executed on my local vm's recently. Scenario executed was more of a POC for our production enviornment. I have a solution which contained nearly 200 site collections where few content databases were munning over 100GB's in size which is not recommended by Microsoft(http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc298801.aspx). Also, there were other resons like, specific site collections which needed to be archived and backed up regularly where as some site collections needed to be backed up once in six months or so. All the site collections we categorised by defining multiple manage path(http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/blogs/zach/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=30). Lets name the managed paths:
1) Root :- /
2) Backup (Managed Path) :- /backup
3) Collaboration (Managed Path):- /collaboration
Let's name the databases as well:
1) WSS_Content_MyDB_1
2) WSS_Content_MyDB_2
3) WSS_Content_MyDB_3
4) WSS_Content_MyDB_4
Site collections were speard across and mixed up. Root site collection was mapped correct with WSS_Content_MyDB_1, but site connections under managed paths spread across all databases. Which made impossible to segregate content and define backup schedules based on logical categorization.
I used STSADM.EXE to help resolve the situation. Following are the steps:
1) Use following command to generate details of all sites in XML format:
==================================================
stsadm -o enumsites -url http://webapp_host_header > c:\sites.xml
==================================================
this command would generate xml as shown below:
[code]
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Sites Count="7">

<Site Url="http://webapp_host_header" Owner="SANDEEP\srohilla" SecondaryOwner="SANDEEP\fadmin" ContentDatabase="WSS_Content_MyDB_1" StorageUsedMB="118.6" StorageWarningMB="0" StorageMaxMB="0" />

<Site Url="http://webapp_host_header/Collaboration/site1" Owner="SANDEEP\srohilla" SecondaryOwner="SANDEEP\fadmin" ContentDatabase="WSS_Content_MyDB_2" StorageUsedMB="0.5" StorageWarningMB="0" StorageMaxMB="0" />

<Site Url="http://webapp_host_header/Backup/site2" Owner="SANDEEP\srohilla" SecondaryOwner="SANDEEP\fadmin" ContentDatabase="WSS_Content_MyDB_3" StorageUsedMB="0.5" StorageWarningMB="0" StorageMaxMB="0" />

<Site Url="http://webapp_host_header/Collaboration/site3" Owner="SANDEEP\srohilla" SecondaryOwner="SANDEEP\fadmin" ContentDatabase="WSS_Content_MyDB_4" StorageUsedMB="0.5" StorageWarningMB="0" StorageMaxMB="0" />

<Site Url="http://webapp_host_header/Backup/site4" Owner="SANDEEP\srohilla" SecondaryOwner="SANDEEP\fadmin" ContentDatabase="WSS_Content_MyDB_2" StorageUsedMB="0.5" StorageWarningMB="0" StorageMaxMB="0" />

<Site Url="http://webapp_host_header/Collaboration/site5" Owner="SANDEEP\srohilla" SecondaryOwner="SANDEEP\fadmin" ContentDatabase="WSS_Content_MyDB_3" StorageUsedMB="0.5" StorageWarningMB="0" StorageMaxMB="0" />

<Site Url="http://webapp_host_header/Backup/site6" Owner="SANDEEP\srohilla" SecondaryOwner="SANDEEP\fadmin" ContentDatabase="WSS_Content_MyDB_4" StorageUsedMB="0.5" StorageWarningMB="0" StorageMaxMB="0" />

</Sites>
[/code]
With the help of following command we are going to move sitecollections to different database:

====================================
"stsadm -o mergecontentdbs -url http://webapp_host_header -sourcedatabasename WSS_Content_MyDB_3 -destinationdatabasename WSS_Content_MyDB_2 -operation 3 -filename c:\output.xml"
================================

There are couple things to note here:
1) Multiple Sites(I mean site collections) can be moved from one content database to another content database. Cannot moves sites from multiple DB's to one DB in one go. It hase to be 1 DB at a time.
2) c:\output.xml is generated from c:\sites.xml (created as explained above) by using XSLT. Take a look at the xslt code below:

[code]
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version="1.0">
<xsl:strip-space elements="*"/>

<xsl:template match="Sites">
<xsl:copy><xsl:copy-of select="@*"/>
<xsl:apply-templates/>
</xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="Site[@ContentDatabase='WSS_Content_MyDB_3']">
<xsl:if test="contains(@Url,'Collaboration')">
<xsl:copy>
<xsl:copy-of select="@*"/>
<xsl:apply-templates/>
</xsl:copy>
</xsl:if>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
[/code]

STSADM - Object reference not set to an instance of an object

Its been nearly 2 days am struggling to deploy a wsp solution in my farm by not using system account credentials. Am running a small farm locally on my system comprising of DC, SQL, Indexer and WFE. It all started with a issue where I was not able to activate a feature on my site using System Account, as activating feature would trigger a functionality in the code where it will check the user and send out a mail after fetching the details from DC. Now you wont find "System Account" in your DC would ya....

NOTE : If you log on to MOSS as an account that is used anywhere else in MOSS say for example an application pool in IIS being used by MOSS then it instantly associates your logged on account as a System Account or in a case where your have gone to Central Administration > Application Management > Policy for Web Application (i.e. /_admin/policy.aspx) and checked the option
"Account operates as System"
by Editing user under seleted WebApp. "You should therefore create unique accounts for managing he Application pools and web applications and create accounts as MOSS administrators.

This meant I had to use a different account other than system account to achieve my objective. I created a new account (fadmin) in my DC and added it to Domain Admins. When I logged to Central Admin Box (i.e. Indexer) using fadmin credentials and tried to add wsp solution using STSADM it threw following error:

stsadm -o addsolution -filename testWSP.wsp
Object reference not set to an instance of an object.testWSP.wsp:
The Solution installation failed.

Now this just did not stop here,I began googling.... after reading some blogs it seemed that issue is related to access rights. I it drove me nutts when, even after giving Farm Admin rights to fadmin account it threw the same error.
I began comparing System Account (i.e. domain\srohilla) access privileges with fadmin access privledges.

Comes out System Account has access to SharePoint_AdminContent_<GUID> DB in SQL,where as fadmin did not. So went ahead and gave appropriate rights to fadmin. This did the trick. Yippeeee!!!!!!!!! Now am able to add solution files successfully via STSADM and activate features.

Event ID : 6398 - WSS (IndexingScheduleJobDefinition - Access Denied)

It’s been three days I have been struggling with rectifying an insane error which keeps popping up in Windows Event Viewer under application category. I checked everything starting from permission settings on DCOM Component Services (OSearch) to recreating entire index and resetting all crawl rules and scopes, even creating new SSP. Steps as suggested in some Microsoft TechNet Posts are specified in my previous post, which did not help in full resolution of the issue. Following were the two errors which were giving me lot pain while setting up the environment. 

 Event ID 10016 and Event ID 6398

For resolution steps for Event 10016 click here.

Event ID 6398: Windows SharePoint Services 3    Error  Timer  6398   N/A   WIN2K3R2EE    "The Execute method of job definition Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Administration.IndexingScheduleJobDefinition (ID b991a523-c9a3-402d-878c-31e7fa8b04b2) threw an exception. More information is included below.

Access is denied. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070005 (E_ACCESSDENIED))"

Root Cause Analysis:

Upon visiting following path: Central Administration > Operations > Timer Job Status I saw one of the job was failing each time. 

Indexing Schedule Manager on WIN2K3R2EE Failed 2/20/2009 6:00 PM  

Once Indexing Schedule Manager Timer Job was deactivated, alerts stopped coming. Upon reactivating, alerts appeared again. This seemed to be the culprit.

Next, I checked Central Administration > Operations > Services on Server > Windows SharePoint Services Search Service Settings where I found Service Account was running under predefined "Network Service".

Under service account comments it said: "The search service account must not be a built-in account in order to access the database. Examples of built-in accounts are Local Service and Network Service."

Final point to take note of it, error states it’s a Windows SharePoint Services 3 Timer Error. I went ahead WSS Timer Service at Start > Administrative Tools > Services

As one can see in the the above figure Windows SharePoint Service Timer is running as Network Service and error showed as "Access is denied. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070005 (E_ACCESSDENIED))"

Solution:

Following are the steps which helped me in resolving this issue.

1) Create new user account "X" (ensure accounts X have admin level privledges)

2) Associate account "X" with

i)  Central Administration > Operations > Services on Server > Windows SharePoint Services Search Service

ii )Start > Administrative Tools > Services > Windows SharePoint Service Timer

This did the trick. Am not seeing any 6398 alerts any more.

Cheers

Event ID 10016 and Event ID 6398

Recently, I am working on to build a SharePoint environment for my team. This is a brand new environment. So I created the AD accounts and did all those steps, account delegation stuff. Created the sites/site collections following our build docs. Everything was working out fine to a point where things started falling apart. I narrowed down the problem to following errors, which I dug up from windows application event viewer.

• Event ID 10016 : Local Activation permission for the COM Server application with CLSID {61738644-F196-11D0-9953-00C04FD919C1}
• Event ID 6398: The Execute method of job definition Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Administration.IndexingScheduleJobDefinition

Solutions -

Event ID 10016 :

To prevent the event ID error messages from being logged in the System log, use the Component Services snap-in to enable the Local Activation permission to the IIS Wamreg Admin Service for the domain user account that you specified as the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 service account. To do this, follow these steps:
1. Click Start, click Run, type dcomcnfg in the Open box, and then click OK.
2. Expand Component Services, expand Computers, expand My Computer, and then click DCOM Config.
3. Right-click IIS WAMREG admin Service, and then click Properties.
4. Click the Security tab.
5. Under Launch and Activation Permissions, click Edit.
6. In the Launch Permission dialog box, click Add.
7. In the Select Users, Computers, or Groups dialog box, type the domain user account that you specified as the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 service account, click Check Names, and then click OK.
8. In the Permissions for UserName list, click to select the Allow check box that is next to Local Activation, and then click OK two times.

Event ID 6398: Still working on Solution (Following steps solved partial problem):

1. Open Start Menu > Administrative Tools > Component Services Tool
2. Drill Down and Expand DCOM Config
3. Navigate to the OSearch, Right Click Properties
4. Select the Security Tab
5. Add the Network Service Account to Local and Activation Permissions
6. Add the Network Service Account to Access Permissions
7. Restart the Office SharePoint Server Search Service from Start Menu > Administrative Tools > Services Tool
-------------------------------

I have found the solution to Error 6398. Please refer to my post here.

Requirements for SharePoint VPC or VM

Hi All,

My apologies for being away so long, did not get much time to update my blog regularly. Anyhow, now as am back, I will keep you updated on stuff happening at my end in SharePoint World.

Let's talk a little about what can get us up and running to do development on SharePoint 2007. There are two possible options.

1.     Use a common development environment.

2.     Use a personal development environment as a VM.

1. In scenario where a common development environment is used, it raises more problems than solving (purely based on my experience, others may differ). Many issues come in when one is debugging the code. By default Windows Server 2003 allow three people to log in at same time.

• In a scenario, Developer 1 had enabled debugging on WebApp1 and other connected people are also accessing same WebApp (i.e. WebApp1), their request will not be executed untill Developer 1 terminates the debugging process. 
• Another scenario will be, as Developers mostly put DLL's in GAC which are either required by a webpart or feature, if in a case multiple developers are working on same DLL then there might be a conflict.

Personally, I prefer the second option i.e. use personal VM for development later on for builds/WSP's common development environment can be used.

2. Lets discuss what we need to get ourselves up and running for development by creating a personal VM.

• Create a Virtual Image for dedicated SharePoint development purposes

• Install and Configure Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (WSS)/Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS) on a server operating system (Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008) for development purposes

To develop SharePoint solutions it is recommended to create a virtual machine image with the following minimum software and hardware requirements.

Hardware Requirements

·                 PC with a processor speed of at least 2.5 GHz

·                 RAM capacity of 2 GB minimum

·                 4 GB recommended

·                 Disk space up to 2 GB for installation minimum, 5 GB or more minimum for data

·                 Network connectivity and Internet access

Software Requirements

Licensed

•  Windows Server 2003 R2 or Windows Server 2008
  
• SQL Server 2005 SP2 or SQL Server Express 2005 (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=31711d5d-725c-4afa-9d65-e4465cdff1e7&displaylang=en) with Management Tools SP2 (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6053c6f8-82c8-479c-b25b-9aca13141c9e&displaylang=en)
  
• Visual Studio 2005 with SP 1
  
• Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 with SP1 (MOSS)
  

Free

·                 Virtual PC 2007 (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=04D26402-3199-48A3-AFA2-2DC0B40A73B6) or Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-nz/bb738033(en-us).aspx) or Hyper-V

·                 Microsoft .Net Framework 2.0

·                 Microsoft .Net Framework 3.0

·                 Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for Windows SharePoint Services 1.1 (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=3E1DCCCD-1CCA-433A-BB4D-97B96BF7AB63&displaylang=en)

·                 Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 with SP1

·                 MOSS SDK (http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=7934513)

·                 WSS SDK (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/library/ms441339)

·                 Additional information is available at the WSS Developer Centre (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/default.aspx)

Cheers,

SharePoint: Best Practices

"Several of the Windows SharePoint Services objects, primarily the SPSite class and SPWeb class objects, are created as managed objects. However, these objects use unmanaged code and memory to perform the majority of their work. The managed part of the object is small; the unmanaged part of the object is much larger. Because the smaller managed part of the object does not put memory pressure on the garbage collector, the garbage collector does not release the object from memory in a timely manner. The object's use of a large amount of unmanaged memory can cause some of the unusual behaviors described earlier. Calling applications that work with IDisposable objects in Windows SharePoint Services must dispose of the objects when the applications finish using them. You should not rely on the garbage collector to release them from memory automatically." - MSDN [Scott Harris - Microsoft Corporation, Mike Ammerlaan - Microsoft Corporation : November 2006]

Best techniques:

- Dispose method

- using clause

- try, catch, and finally blocks

The SPSite.RootWeb property and SPWeb.ParentWeb property create new objects and assign them to a local member variable. So don't forget to dispose them to.

[code]

String str; using(SPSite oSPSite = new SPSite("http://server")) {    using(SPWeb oRootWeb = oSPSite.RootWeb)    {       str = oRootWeb.Title;       str = oRootWeb.Url;    … additional processing on RootWeb …     } }

[/code]

SPSiteCollection Class

This section describes the methods, properties, or operators in the SPSiteCollection object that require the returned SPSite object to be closed after access.

SPSiteCollection.Add Method

The SPSiteCollection.Add method creates and returns a new SPSite object. You should dispose of any SPSite object returned from the SPSiteCollection.Addmethod.

Must visit URL's:

• Using Disposable Windows SharePoint Services Objects
  
• Common Coding Issues When Using the SharePoint Object Model
  
• SharePoint 2007 and WSS 3.0 Dispose Patterns
  

Hope this helps.

cheers

SharePoint: Creating Timer Jobs

Its been quiet some time since my last post. Been hectic at work lately, finally some relief. Today, I want to discuss how to create timer jobs in SharePoint.  A timer job is a schedule of when to run a service by using the SharePoint Timer service.

SharePoint Service Timer service is a service that runs other services according to schedules specified in timer jobs. Many features in MOSS/Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 rely on timer jobs to run services according to a schedule.

Lets break down entire process into simpler steps. 

Step 1. Timer Job Development

Step 2. Timer Job Deployement Methodology

Step 3. Enable Timer Job

Step 1. Timer Job Development

The first thing you need to do is create a class that inherits from the Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPJobDefinition class.

Let's look into WSS object model.  [Click on the image to enlarge]

To implement this class, one needs to create a few constructors and override the Execute() method. 

[code]

namespace sandeep {

 public class MyJob: SPJobDefinition{

public MyJob(): base(){

}

public MyJob(string jobName, SPService service, SPServer server, SPJobLockType targetType)

: base (jobName, service, server, targetType) {

}

public MyJob(string jobName, SPWebApplication webApplication)

: base (jobName, webApplication, null, SPJobLockType.ContentDatabase) {

this.Title = "My SharePoint Task Job";

}

public override void Execute () {

// your business logic goes here

}

}

}

[/code]

Step 2. Timer Job Deployement Methodology

MSDN suggests, that the best way to deploy a timer job is to wrap it as a feature. On feature activated and deactivating events we can write code to add/delete timer job in context of current web/site.

Take a look at the code below:-

[code]

namespace sandeep {

class FeatureToEnableJob: SPFeatureReceiver {

const string TASK_LOGGER_JOB_NAME = "My Custom Job Name";

public override void FeatureInstalled (SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties) {

}

 

public override void FeatureUninstalling (SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties) {

}

public override void FeatureActivated (SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties) {

SPSite site = properties.Feature.Parent as SPSite;

// make sure the job isn't already registered

foreach (SPJobDefinition job in site.WebApplication.JobDefinitions) {

if (job.Name == TASK_LOGGER_JOB_NAME)

job.Delete();

}

// install the job

MyJob job = new MyJob(TASK_LOGGER_JOB_NAME, site.WebApplication);

SPMinuteSchedule schedule = new SPMinuteSchedule();

schedule.BeginSecond = 0;

schedule.EndSecond = 120;

schedule.Interval = 5;

job.Schedule = schedule;

job.Update();

}

public override void FeatureDeactivating (SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties) {

SPSite site = properties.Feature.Parent as SPSite;

// delete the job

foreach (SPJobDefinition job in site.WebApplication.JobDefinitions) {

if (job.Name == TASK_LOGGER_JOB_NAME)

job.Delete();

}

}

}

}

[/code]

Step 3. Enable Timer Job

Once we have timer job wrapped as feature, either one can go for manual feature deployement process or go the WSP way (better approach)

Manual Way:

• Deploy the strongly named assembly to the GAC.
  
• Reset IIS (required for SharePoint to "see" the new timer job in the GAC).
  
• Specify the receiver class and assembly in feature.xml that contains the event receivers.
  
• Install the feature using stsadm.
  
• Activate the feature using stsadm or settings.aspx.
  

WSP Way:

Please refer to my past post for this. 

Post: SharePoint: Deploying WebPart/Feature as SharePoint Solution Package (.wsp file)

cheers,

SharePoint: Creating a Web Part with a Custom Tool Part

Today, I want to talk on, how to add multiple toolparts in a webpart property window. In one of my earlier post, I did mention a quick and dirty way as how one can add simple textbox in webpart property window without needing any toolparts for that matter. But when it comes to implementing reusable/pluggable collection of controls, using toolparts is best possible option. 

Now, the question is, how can one easily implement toolparts in custom or default SharePoint Webparts. I think, the best way to approach this problem is to dig into SharePoint object model. Please refer the image below:

WebPart class exposes an overridable method "GetToolParts" which returns an array of references to the new ToolPart objects that will be displayed in the property pane of the Web Part. The ToolPart objects are rendered by the tool pane in the order listed in the array. 

Following is a sample code for creating a toolpart:

[code]

  public class SampleToolPart : Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.ToolPart

    {

        // First, override the CreateChildControls method. This is where we create the controls. 

        protected override void CreateChildControls()

        {

            // create a panel that will hold all of our controls 

            Panel toolPartPanel = new Panel();            

           

            // create the actual control 

            DropDownList sampleDropDown1 = new DropDownList();

            sampleDropDown1.ID = "sampleDropDown1";

            sampleDropDown1.Items.Add("Item 1");

            sampleDropDown1.Items.Add("Item 2");

            sampleDropDown1.Items.Add("Item 3");

            toolPartPanel.Controls.Add(sampleDropDown1);            

            // finally add the panel to the controls collection of the tool part 

            Controls.Add(toolPartPanel);

            base.CreateChildControls();

        }

        // Next, override the ApplyChanges method. 

        // This method is where we will persist the values that the user selects. 

        public override void ApplyChanges()

        {

            // get the parent webpart 

            SampleWebPart parentWebPart = (SampleWebPart)this.ParentToolPane.SelectedWebPart;

            // loop thru this control's controls until we find the ones that we need to persist. 

            RetrievePropertyValues(this.Controls, parentWebPart);

        }

        // Recursive function that tries to locate the values set in the toolpart 

        private void RetrievePropertyValues(ControlCollection controls, SampleWebPart parentWebPart)

        {

            foreach (Control ctl in controls)

            {

                RetrievePropertyValue(ctl, parentWebPart);

                if (ctl.HasControls())

                {

                    RetrievePropertyValues(ctl.Controls, parentWebPart);

                }

            }

        }

        // Method for retrieving the values set by the user. 

        private void RetrievePropertyValue(Control ctl, SampleWebPart parentWebPart)

        {

            if (ctl is DropDownList)

            {

                if (ctl.ID.Equals("sampleDropDown1"))

                {

                    DropDownList drp = (DropDownList)ctl;

                    if (drp.SelectedItem.Value != "")

                    {

                        parentWebPart.myProperty = drp.SelectedItem.Value;

                    }

                }

            }

        }

    }

[/code]

All this toolpart would do is:

• add dropdown box in webpart properties window
• on applying changes, it assigns selected value from dropdown box to public property of base webpart class

Lets see out to add this custom toolpart in webpart's toolpart collection. To do this, we override the GetToolParts() method and place our new tool part in the ToolPart array. Take a look at the code below:

[code]

      public class SampleWebPart : Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.WebPart

    {

        private string _property1 = "Default Value";

        public SampleWebPart()

        {

            this.ExportMode = WebPartExportMode.All;

        }

        protected override void OnLoad(EventArgs e)

        {

            base.OnLoad(e);

            Label lbl = new Label();

            lbl.ID = "toolpart_webpart_lbl1";

            lbl.Text = _property1;

            Controls.Add(lbl);

        }

        public string myProperty

        {

            get

            {

                return _property1;

            }

            set

            {

                _property1 = value;

            }

        }        

        public override ToolPart[] GetToolParts()

        {

            // resize the tool part array 

            ToolPart[] toolparts = new ToolPart[3];

            // instantiate the standard SharePopint tool part 

            WebPartToolPart wptp = new WebPartToolPart();

            // instantiate the custom property toolpart if needed. 

            // this object is what renders our regular properties. 

            CustomPropertyToolPart custom = new CustomPropertyToolPart();

            // instantiate and add our tool part to the array. 

            // tool parts will render in the order they are added to this array. 

            toolparts[0] = new SampleToolPart();

            toolparts[1] = custom;

            toolparts[2] = wptp;

            return toolparts;

        }

    }

[/code]

WebPart Added On Page:

[before updation]

[after updation]

Hope this helped.

cheers