Restoring an MOSS site

Given an MOSS bak file which looks something like blahblah.DAT. You will need to do the  following to install it on your MOSS installation.

First you will need to go to your MOSS Central Administration Page and create a site collection. For example

http://localhost/sites/test_site_collection

of you could simply go to

C:\program files\common files\microsoft\shared\web server extensions\12\bin

and type the following

STSADM.EXE -o createsite -url <url-to-site-collection> -ownerlogin domain\user -owneremail <email-address>

Next you will need to navigate to the following location using command prompt

C:\program files\common files\microsoft\shared\web server extensions\12\bin

Once you are here type in the following command

explorer .

This command will open this location and you can copy your blahblah.DAT file here via copy and paste.

Next go back to your command prompt you can type in the following command

stsadmin -o restore – url http://localhost/sites/test_site_collection -filename blahblah.DAT -overwrite

Click enter when you are done.

To see the restored sitetype

iexplore http://localhost/sites/test_site_collection

Upgrading MOSS server to use Active Directory

I recently upgraded one of my Virtual PC windows 2003 servers to use Active Directory. The very first thing that happened after the upgrading was done was that I encountered tons of errors. Apparently the Active Directory installation process by windows did not automatically update the logon details to services. Hence as a result MOSS which relies on quite a lot of these services to funciton properly was pretty crippled. The first thing I did was to open the service dialogue box and change the logon details for the following services

  1. Windows Sharepoint services administration
  2. Windows SharePoint Services Search
  3. Windows SharePoint Services Timer
  4. Windows SharePoint Services Tracing
  5. Windows SharePoint Services VSS Writer
  6. SQL Server 2005 Embedded Edition (Microsoft##SSEE)
  7. SQL Server VSS Writer

Apparently MOSS uses an embedded SQL server to store all its configuration as well as Web instances

Next I had to do some configuration at the following location

Start > Administration Tools > Component Services > Double Click to Open

Console Root > Component Services > My Computer > Right Click to Open Dialogue Box > Open Properties

Navigate to Tab > MSDTC and then click on the Security Configuration button

Basically in that view click on all checkboxs and then indicate No Authentication Required

Once you click  ok the MSDTC service will restart itself.

With that done, there is only one last thing to do.

Go To Location C:\Windows\ right click on the Temp folder, click properties and then navigate to the Security Tab

Even thought I have added Administrator and ASP.Net as the users with full control of this folder it seems it is still causing problems with some MOSS services, so I have instead given full control to Authenticated Users as well.

Please note while all these configurations ensure that your sharepoint services gets up and running, it is not all together secured because of the lax security rules. If you really need help please hire a MOSS professional

Finally deploying my first Hello World Share point – Merry Christmas

It took me a 12 hours to setup a Windows 2003 VPC with sharepoint installed.

I was face with quite a few detours along the way.

One of the main issues I encoutered was the order in which I tried to install the pre-requisites.

Point to note : The  order in which you install the pre-requisites is VERY IMPORTANT.

This was the order I took that finally worked.

  1. Install Windows 2003 Server
  2. Install Windows 2003 Server Service Pack 2
  3. Install Application Server with IIS, ASP.net, Email Server
  4. Install ASP.NET framework Version 2.0
  5. Install ASP.NET framework Version 3.5
  6. Install Sharepoint

Please try out this order to avoid painfull time wasting detours

So with my sharepoint server finally up. I navigated to http://localhost:80/ using firefox

This translates into my computer at port 80.

I saw my sharepoint landing page.

Next, i thought to try my hands on deploying a ready made sharepoint webpart. To do this I went to amrein.com

This site has tonns of web parts available for download. Being an idiot for holiday seasons, I downloaded the Merry Christmas web part and followed the instructions there.

Eureka. It worked nicely! Haha.

Next thing I should do it perhaps to write my own. 😛

Installation of Sharepoint

After talking with Satheesh for a while, i have decided that I should install Microsoft Sharepoint and attempt to play around with the technology to familiarize myself with it for future hacks.

Sadly my laptop could not support it. Ouch! The minimal requirement is a IIS 6.0 which means a Windows XP 64bit. Mines a Windows XP 32bit. I prefer this versus the Windows Vista which is currently in the market.

Meanwhile I guess I will be either shopping for a laptop or a desktop.

Am looking at something like the below

  • Minimum 2 Ghz
  • 4 GB RAM
  • 320 GB HDD

Once acquired this should be a good developement environment powerhouse to deal with this mamoth microsoft technology.