Installing SharePoint on Windows Server 2008 R2

With Windows Server 2008 R2 available as a release candidate, you may have tried installing MOSS on it already without success and received an error similar to this: "The program is blocked due to compatibility issues".
SharePoint SP2 enables compatibility with Server 2008 R2, so first you've got to make a slipstream install -- then you can install without any problem.


The steps for making a slipstreamed installation of MOSS are pretty simple.

•  Download a MOSS image, and extract it (or copy the contents) to a folder.
• Download WSS and MOSS SP2 patches
• Run each patch with /extract:<\mymossimage>\Updates
• Delete Wsssetup.dll from the updates folder.
• Keep in mind that if you have the combined x86/64 MOSS ISO, your updates folder will be in \x64\Updates or \x86\Updates.

For more details, follow the technet article:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc261890.aspx

Once you have your slipstream image ready, you'll need to enable a few roles on your Server 2008 R2 box.

 

SharePoint 2007 Outgoing E-mail Troubleshooting Tips

Tip #1

Talk to your networking/mail team and get the SMTP server address and port

Tip #2
Go to the index server and open a command prompt and use the basic old school dos command “telnet”.
telnet smtp.server.com 25
(Typically SMTP operates over port 25, but your company may be different.)
What will happen with this command is one of two things:
If it opens up and basically looks like a blank screen, that means that the SharePoint server can talk to the SMTP server fine.
If it tells you something along the lines of “connect failed”, you know that your SharePoint server can’t talk to the SMTP server. What you should then do is talk to your networking team and make sure that your SMTP server allows connections from your SharePoint server. Once that is done, retest your telnet command.

Tip #3
If your networking team says that you have the server correct, port correct and that there is no reason your server can’t connect to the SMTP, then check your SharePoint server and see if its running any antivirus. The past few clients have been running McAFee antivirus. In its Access Prevention Task, "Prevent mass mailing worms from sending mail" has been enabled and that was blocking the server from connecting to the SMTP server over port 25. As soon as I disabled that I was able to telnet in without issues and then I was able to send email from SharePoint without issue.
I am not sure about the other antivirus vendors but I am sure they have something similar, so check the settings to see if they block port 25.

Tip #4
Check to make sure that Windows Firewall is not blocking port 25, if it is, make sure that you add 25 as an exception.

How to move a SharePoint Content Database

Here are step by step instructions for moving your MOSS content database to a new server, followed by the things to watch out for.


You have two initial options, doing a backup and restore within MOSS to move the data, or doing it at the SQL/STSADM level. I prefer the latter, as it isn't nearly as inclined to fail and leaves you with more flexibility.

1) Find the content Database,
These are listed under Central Admin->Application Management->Site Collection List
2) Backup the content database,
You could alternatively detach it, and copy it. Just doing a backup in SQL Server Management studio is easier.

3) Restore content database to new server
Copy the BAK file to new server. Create an empty DB in Management Studio, restore from backup, you may need to change an option in the "options" tab of the restore dialog to get it to work. (Overwrite db).
4) Create Web App on new Server
Central Admin->Application Management->Create or extend Web App->Create New Web App.
5) Associate restored DB with new Web App
Central Admin->Application Management->
SharePoint Web Application Management->Content Databases->
Remove Content Database from your new web app.
Now use STSADM to add restored DB to this web app
c:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\web server extentions\12\bin on new server is where you can find the STSADM.
run this command from there.
stsadm -o addcontentdb -url http://yourwebapp:port -databasename yourcontentdb -databaseserver yoursqlserver
6) Run ISSRESET from command prompt

Important :

• Make sure your running the same service pack level on both source and destination sharepoint if possible.
• Make sure you install all webparts, solutions, features, etc on new server before you restore the content database, so that it can find all the features it's looking for
• Make sure you copy any files that may be living in the file system that you need, sometimes people have css/javascript here. (This refers to files in the hive)
• Leave your old site and contentDB intact until you get the backup running on the new server, this way your ok if there is a problem
• DON'T try this with your config database! It won't work

Configure SharePoint list to receive incoming emails from external senders

I found the following post and it was very helpful
https://exchange.readyexchange.net/support/kb/default.asp?id=1558

Enabling SSL on IIS 7.0 Using Self-Signed Certificates

for Tip and Trick how to Enabling SSL on IIS 7.0 Using Self-Signed Certificates
http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2007/04/06/tip-trick-enabling-ssl-on-iis7-using-self-signed-certificates.aspx