SharePoint 2007 SP2 Resources

I might be involve in a SP2 deployment. Guess I better get myself ready for it. Following are stuff that I need to crunch through first:

 

Announcement of MOSS 2007 SP2 and WSSv3 SP2

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2009/04/28/announcing-service-pack-2-for-office-sharepoint-server-2007-and-windows-sharepoint-services-3-0.aspx

 

Immediate Issue after deploying SP2

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2009/05/21/attention-important-information-on-service-pack-2.aspx

Step to re-enter license key - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971620

 

April Cumulative Update (CU) (with timeline diagram of update schedule)

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2009/05/13/april-cumulative-update-packages-ready-for-download.aspx

 

Updates Resource Center @ SharePoint Server TechCenter

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/sharepointserver/bb735839.aspx

 

Deploy software updates for Office SharePoint Server 2007

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263467.aspx

 

How the upgrade process works

These article explains In-place and Gradual upgrade approches

WSSv3 - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc288775.aspx
MOSS 2007 - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262483.aspx

Running VPCs with different date/time

I have plenty of VPC images that were built on trial version for testing and demo purpose. So when these images lives longer than it’s trial period, you’ll need to trick it by changing the host machine’s time. That’s no good since it’ll affect your applications on the host machine.

 

There’s a quick method to either disable the time synchronization between the VPC and the host machine, or  hardcode a specific date/time for the VPC. Both can be done via modification on the vmc file.

1. Disable the time synchronization:

 

Under the following mouse configuration:
<mouse>
<allow type="boolean">true</allow>
</mouse>

Add this:
<components>
<host_time_sync>
<enabled type="boolean">false</enabled>
</host_time_sync>
</components>


2. Set the desired date/time:

You have to find the time_bytes value inside the .vmc file, which looks like this one:

<time_bytes type="bytes">27003200110001201008</time_bytes>

After finding it, set the desired date/time value according to the following specification:
Digits 1 - 2 contain the seconds value.
Digits 5 - 6 contain the minutes value.
Digits 9 - 10 contain the hours value.
Digits 15 - 16 contain the day value.
Digits 17 - 18 contain the month value.
Digits 19 - 20 contain the year value.

In the above example, the date/time value is 11:32:27, 20/10/2008

After making the above 2 changes, save the .vmc file, and the guest operating system will start in the same date/time that you set in the time_bytes value.

 

Reference: http://www.nirsoft.net/blog/2008_12_01_archive.html

Unable to browse sharepoint from within the server itself

If you ever have problem browsing your SharePoint portal from within the WFEs itself, and running on Windows Server 2003 SP1 or above, it could be due to a loopback check security. I noticed that this does not happen to site that does not use host header (e.g. does not happen to http://servername:port, but happen to http://host.header.name.com/).

Take a look at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896861. By modifying some registry, you can either exclude your specific URL from this security check, or disable the feature. The following is a direct copy from the KB article for reference.

Method 1: Specify host names

Note We recommend that you use this method. To specify the host names that are mapped to the loopback address and can connect to Web sites on your computer, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
2. In Registry Editor, locate and then click the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\MSV1_0

3. Right-click MSV1_0, point to New, and then click Multi-String Value.

4. Type BackConnectionHostNames, and then press ENTER.

5. Right-click BackConnectionHostNames, and then click Modify.

6. In the Value data box, type the host name or the host names for the sites that are on the local computer, and then click OK.

7. Quit Registry Editor, and then restart the IISAdmin service.

Method 2: Disable the loopback check

Follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
2. In Registry Editor, locate and then click the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa

3. Right-click Lsa, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.

4. Type DisableLoopbackCheck, and then press ENTER.

5. Right-click DisableLoopbackCheck, and then click Modify.

6. In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.

7. Quit Registry Editor, and then restart your computer.

Resources on Configuring SharePoint Form Authentication

Here’s some of the best resource for setting up form based authentication.

 

From the SharePoint Team Blog (Configuring Multiple Authentication Providers for SharePoint 2007):

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2006/08/16/702010.aspx

 

From the TechNet (Configure forms-based authentication for WSSv3):

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc288043.aspx

 

From Andrew Connell’s blog (very detailed step by step):

http://www.andrewconnell.com/blog/articles/HowToConfigPublishingSiteWithDualAuthProvidersAndAnonAccess.aspx