Software requirements for installing SharePoint 2010

The Software requirements for installing SharePoint 2010 are:

Web Server (IIS) role
• Application Server role
• Microsoft .NET Framework version 3.5 SP1
• SQL Server 2008 Express with SP1
• Microsoft Sync Framework Run time v1.0 (x64)
• Microsoft Filter Pack 2.0
• Microsoft Chart Controls for the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5
• Windows PowerShell 2.0
• SQL Server 2008 Native Client
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services ADOMD.NET
• ADO.NET Data Services Update for .NET Framework 3.5 SP1
• Windows Identity Foundation (WIF)

Installing software prerequisites links:

• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 SP1
• Cumulative update package 2 for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1
• Microsoft SQL Server 2005 SP3
• Cumulative update package 3 for SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 3
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Standard SP2
• Windows Server 2008 with SP 2 FIX: A hotfix that provides a method to support the token authentication without transport security or message encryption in WCF is available for the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1
• Windows Server 2008 R2 FIX: A hotfix that provides a method to support the token authentication without transport security or message encryption in WCF is available for the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1
• Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express Edition Service Pack 1
• Windows Identity Framework for Windows Server 2008
• Windows Identity Framework for Windows Server 2008 R2
• Microsoft Sync Framework v1.0
• Microsoft Office 2010 Filter Packs
• Microsoft Chart Controls for Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5
• Windows PowerShell 2.0
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Native Client
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services ADOMD.NET
• Microsoft Silverlight 3
• ADO.NET Data Services Update for .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 for Windows Server 2008 SP2
• ADO.NET Data Services Update for .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 for Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows 7
• SQL Server 2008 R2 November CTP Reporting Services Add-in for Microsoft SharePoint Technologies 2010
• Microsoft Server Speech Platform
• Speech recognition language for English

SharePoint Services Accounts

Account	Purpose	Requirements
SQL Server service accountsys_sp_moss2010_sql	The SQL Server service account is used to run SQL Server. It is the service account for the following SQL Server services:- MSSQLSERVER- SQLSERVERAGENT	Use either a Local System account or a domain user account.
Setup user accountsys_sp_moss2010_moss	The Setup user account is used to run the following:- Setup- SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard	- Domain user account.- Member of the Administrators group on each server on which Setup is run. - SQL Server login on the computer that runs SQL Server. - Member of the following SQL Server security roles: - securityadmin fixed server role - dbcreator fixed server role If you run Windows PowerShell cmdlets that affect a database, this account must be a member of the db_owner fixed database role for the database.
Server farm accountsys_sp_moss2010_farm	The server farm account is used to perform the following tasks:- Configure and manage the server farm.- Act as the application pool identity for the SharePoint Central Administration Web site. - Run the Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Workflow Timer Service.	- Domain user account.Additional permissions are automatically granted for the server farm account on Web servers and application servers that are joined to a server farm. The server farm account is automatically added as a SQL Server login on the computer that runs SQL Server. The account is added to the following SQL Server security roles: - dbcreator fixed server role - securityadmin fixed server role - db_owner fixed database role for all SharePoint databases in the server farm

SharePoint 2010 Service Applications:

Service applications	Description	SharePoint Foundation 2010	SharePoint Server 2010 Standard	SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise
Access Services	Lets users view, edit, and interact with Access 2010 databases in a Web browser.			X
Business Data Connectivity	Gives access to line-of-business data systems.	X	X	X
Excel Services Application	Lets users view and interact withExcel 2010 files in a Web browser.			X
Managed Metadata service	Manages taxonomy hierarchies, keywords and social tagging infrastructure, and publish content types across site collections.		X	X
Search service	Crawls content, produces index partitions, and serves search queries.		X	X
Secure Store Service	Provides single sign-on authentication to access multiple applications or services.		X	X
State service	Provides temporary storage of user session data for SharePoint Server components.		X	X
Usage and Health Data Collection	Collects farm wide usage and health data, and provides the ability to view various usage and health reports.	X	X	X
User Profile service	Adds support for My Site Web sites, profile pages, social tagging and other social computing features.		X	X
Visio Graphics Service	Lets users view and refresh published Visio 2010 diagrams in a Web browser.			X
Web Analytics service	Provides Web service interfaces.		X	X
Word Automation	Performs automated bulk document conversions.		X	X
SharePoint Foundation Subscription Settings Service	Provides multi-tenant functionality for service applications. Tracks subscription IDs and settings for services that are deployed in partitioned mode. Deployed through Windows PowerShell only.	X	X	X

The search request was unable to connect to the Search Service

After configuring the Search application in SharePoint 2010 I recieved the following error:

The search request was unable to connect to the Search Service.

To resolve this issue we need to associate the Search application with the Web Application in which this site collection is created. This need to be done from Central Administration:

How to remove the GUIDs from the SharePoint search service application databases

For this post I created a Search service application call Blog Search Service App using Central Administration. After it completed I was stuck with the following three databases with those unnecessary GUIDs stapled on the end.

Renaming the Crawl Store database

1. In Central Admin go to manage service applications
2. Click on your Search service application
3. Scroll down the page and click on modify under Search Application Topology
4. Under Databases click on your Crawl Database and from the drop down click Edit properties
5. Find the database name and simply highlight the GUID and hit delete
6. Click OK

When you return to the manage topology screen you will see pending update. The change will not be committed until you click the Apply Topology Changes button at the bottom of the screen. Don't do it yet though, lets rescue another GUID first.

Renaming the Property database

1. Assuming you are still on the same page from the last step
2. Under Databases click on your Property Database and from the drop down click Edit properties
3. Find the database name and simply highlight the GUID and hit delete
4. Click OK

Now all that is left is to scroll to the bottom of the page and click Apply Topology Changes. This will probably take a couple of minutes to run. So just kick back for a moment and think of what better planet you left for the children by saving these two GUIDs. It may take a while to run depending on the state of your databases. Mine took about 6 minutes on empty database for my VM.

Here is a screen shot of the results. That was really pretty painless too bad the next one is not.

Renaming the Admin database

Put on your big boy pants because this one is going to require some ninja like SQL and PowerShell skills. (Or I guess you can just cut and paste what I have here.)

1. On your SQL Server open SQL Server Management Studio
2. Find your Search admin database. From the screen shot mine was named Blog_Search_Service_App_DB_fe289c49b61344b48952a546e48e0135. Right click on it on the database and select Tasks > back up…
3. Back the database up. If you are unsure how to do this the defaults should work fine so click OK.
4. At the backup successful message click OK
5. Scroll up to Databases, right click and select Restore Database…

   

6. Click the radio button for From device: and the click the … button to the right.

   

7. Click Add
8. Now select the backup file you just created. If you just clicked OK on the backup screen SQL should open right to the file for you. Once you find it click OK.
9. Click OK on Specify Backup
10. Check the box under Restore next to your backup
11. Now look toward the top of the window and enter your new database name in the To database field. For the example I entered Blog_Search_Service_App_DB. Double check yourself in the screen shot below.

    

12. Click OK
13. At the successful screen click OK

The SQL hard work is over but don't close management studio quite yet. You will need to come back to delete the old database in a little bit.

1. Now go back over to your SharePoint server
2. Open the SharePoint Management Shell by clicking Start > All Programs > Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products > SharePoint 2010 Management Shell
3. Now enter the following line of PowerShell remembering to change the identity to your service application name:

   $searchapp = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceApplication -identity "Blog Search Service App"

4. Now enter the following line of PowerShell (it might take a minute to run):

   $searchapp.Pause()

5. Now enter the following line of PowerShell remembering to update your database name and database server:

   $searchapp | Set-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceApplication -DatabaseName "Blog_Search_Service_App_DB" –DatabaseServer "2010server"

6. Now enter the following line of PowerShell:

   $searchapp.Resume()

7. Double check yourself in the screenshot below.

   

8. Now before you continue you need to make sure the database change is complete. The best way to do this I believe is to use this PowerShell:

   Do {write-host -NoNewline .;Sleep 10; $searchInstance = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance -Local} while ($searchInstance.Status -ne "Online")

This will display a . every 10 seconds until all of the search components return to an online state. It might take a few minutes but be patient.

Now jump back over to the SQL Server to delete that final database with a GUID and restore peace and order to society.

1. In SQL Management Studio find the database with the GUID, right click on the name, and click Delete. (If you are the nervous type backing it up first isn't the worst idea you have had today.)
2. Check the box at the bottom for Close existing connections and click OK.

Finally! No more GUID's.

SharePoint 2010 File Downloads

One of the new features I ran into with SharePoint 2010 is that when you try to open a file such as a PDF (or other file types), you will have the option to open to read/edit but then be immediately prompted to save the file.

If you want to turn off this behavior do the following:

1. Open Central Administration.
2. Navigate to Application Management, Manage Web Applications.
3. Click the General Settings button.
   
4. Set the Browser File Handling setting to Permissive.
   

NOTE: This is a per Web application setting, so you would need to be sure to configure it for each Web application.

SharePoint 2010 Template Codes

Each SharePoint site is based on one of the templates provided with the technology. The templates have specific options of SharePoint turned on or off by default. So, sometimes when you inherit a site it is nice to know which template you are using to determine what the site can and cannot do out of the box.

Note: To quickly get a list of SharePoint templates you can even use the Get-SPWebTemplate CMDLet.

Also few of the templates are marked as obsolete i.e the old Records Center template (OFFILE#0) I would suggest you to use the new template if possible when creating a Records center which is (OFFILE#1).

Check the table below for the list of Template & their respective Codes with a brief description.

Name	Title	Description
GLOBAL#0	Global template	This template is used for initializing a new site.
STS#0	Team Site	A site for teams to quickly organize, author, and share information. It provides a document library, and lists for managing announcements, calendar items, tasks, and discussions.
STS#1	Blank Site	A blank site for you to customize based on your requirements.
STS#2	Document Workspace	A site for colleagues to work together on a document. It provides a document library for storing the primary document and supporting files, a tasks list for assigning to-do items, and a links list for resources related to the document.
MPS#0	Basic Meeting Workspace	A site to plan, organize, and capture the results of a meeting. It provides lists for managing the agenda, meeting attendees, and documents.
MPS#1	Blank Meeting Workspace	A blank meeting site for you to customize based on your requirements.
MPS#2	Decision Meeting Workspace	A site for meetings that track status or make decisions. It provides lists for creating tasks, storing documents, and recording decisions.
MPS#3	Social Meeting Workspace	A site to plan social occasions. It provides lists for tracking attendees, providing directions, and storing pictures of the event.
MPS#4	Multipage Meeting Workspace	A site to plan, organize, and capture the results of a meeting. It provides lists for managing the agenda and meeting attendees in addition to two blank pages for you to customize based on your requirements.
CENTRALADMIN#0	Central Admin Site	A site for central administration. It provides Web pages and links for application and operations management.
WIKI#0	Wiki Site	A site for a community to brainstorm and share ideas. It providesWeb pages that can be quickly edited to record information and then linked together through keywords.
BLOG#0	Blog	A site for a person or team to post ideas, observations, and expertise that site visitors can comment on.
SGS#0	Group Work Site	This template provides a groupware solution that enables teams to create, organize, and share information quickly and easily. It includes Group Calendar, Circulation, Phone-Call Memo, the Document Library and the other basic lists.
TENANTADMIN#0	Tenant Admin Site	A site for tenant administration. It provides Web pages and links for self-serve administration.
ACCSRV#0	Access Services Site	Microsoft Access Server
ACCSRV#1	Assets Web Database	Create an assets database to keep track of assets, including asset details and owners.
ACCSRV#3	Charitable Contributions Web Database	Create a database to track information about fundraising campaigns including donations made by contributors, campaign related events, and pending tasks.
ACCSRV#4	Contacts Web Database	Create a contacts database to manage information about people that your team works with, such as customers and partners.
ACCSRV#6	Issues Web Database	Create an issues database to manage a set of issues or problems. You can assign, prioritize, and follow the progress of issues from start to finish.
ACCSRV#5	Projects Web Database	Create a project tracking database to track multiple projects, and assign tasks to different people.
BDR#0	Document Center	A site to centrally manage documents in your enterprise.
OFFILE#0	(obsolete) Records Center	(obsolete) This template creates a site designed for records management. Records managers can configure the routing table to direct incoming files to specific locations. The site also lets you manage whether records can be deleted or modified after they are added to the repository.
OFFILE#1	Records Center	This template creates a site designed for records management. Records managers can configure the routing table to direct incoming files to specific locations. The site also lets you manage whether records can be deleted or modified after they are added to the repository.
OSRV#0	Shared Services Administration Site	This template creates a site for administering shared services.
PPSMASite#0	PerformancePoint	A site for presenting PerformancePoint dashboards and scorecards. The site also includes links to PerformancePoint Dashboard Designer and storage for dashboard content such as analytic charts, reports, KPIs, and strategy maps.
BICenterSite#0	Business Intelligence Center	A site for presenting Business Intelligence Center.
SPS#0	SharePoint Portal Server Site	This template is obsolete.
SPSPERS#0	SharePoint Portal Server Personal Space	This web template defines a Personal Space for an individual participating on a SharePoint Portal.
SPSMSITE#0	Personalization Site	A site for delivering personalized views, data, and navigation from this site collection into My Site. It includes personalization specific Web Parts and navigation that is optimized for My Site sites.
SPSTOC#0	Contents area Template	This template is obsolete.
SPSTOPIC#0	Topic area template	This template is obsolete.
SPSNEWS#0	News Site	This template is obsolete.
CMSPUBLISHING#0	Publishing Site	A blank site for expanding your Web site and quickly publishing Web pages. Contributors can work on draft versions of pages and publish them to make them visible to readers. The site includes document and image libraries for storing Web publishing assets.
BLANKINTERNET#0	Publishing Site	This template creates a site for publishing Web pages on a schedule, with workflow features enabled. By default, only Publishing subsites can be created under this site. A Document and Picture Library are included for storing Web publishing assets.
BLANKINTERNET#1	Press Releases Site	This template creates the Press Releases subsite for an Internet-facing corporate presence website.
BLANKINTERNET#2	Publishing Site with Workflow	A site for publishing Web pages on a schedule by using approval workflows. It includes document and image libraries for storing Web publishing assets. By default, only sites with this template can be created under this site.
SPSNHOME#0	News Site	A site for publishing news articles and links to news articles. It includes a sample news page and an archive for storing older news items.
SPSSITES#0	Site Directory	A site for listing and categorizing important sites in your organization. It includes different views for categorized sites, top sites, and a site map.
SPSCOMMU#0	Community area template	This template is obsolete.
SPSREPORTCENTER#0	Report Center	A site for creating, managing, and delivering Web pages, dashboards, and key performance indicators that communicate metrics, goals, and business intelligence information.
SPSPORTAL#0	Collaboration Portal	A starter site hierarchy for an intranet divisional portal. It includes a home page, a News site, a Site Directory, a Document Center, and a Search Center with Tabs. Typically, this site has nearly as many contributors as readers and is used to host team sites.
SRCHCEN#0	Enterprise Search Center	A site for delivering the search experience. The welcome page includes a search box with two tabs: one for general searches, and another for searches for information about people. You can add and customize tabs to focus on other search scopes or result types.
PROFILES#0	Profiles	This template creates a profile site that includes page layout with zones.
BLANKINTERNETCONTAINER#0	Publishing Portal	A starter site hierarchy for an Internet-facing site or a large intranet portal. This site can be customized easily with distinctive branding. It includes a home page, a sample press releases subsite, a Search Center, and a login page. Typically, this site has many more readers than contributors, and it is used to publish Web pages with approval workflows.
SPSMSITEHOST#0	My Site Host	A site used for hosting personal sites (My Sites) and the public People Profile page. This template needs to be provisioned only once per User Profile Service Application, please consult the documentation for details.
ENTERWIKI#0	Enterprise Wiki	A site for publishing knowledge that you capture and want to share across the enterprise. It provides an easy content editing experience in a single location for co-authoring content, discussions, and project management.
SRCHCENTERLITE#0	Basic Search Center	A site for delivering the search experience. The site includes pages for search results and advanced searches.
SRCHCENTERLITE#1	Basic Search Center	The Search Center template creates pages dedicated to search. The main welcome page features a simple search box in the center of the page. The template includes a search results and an advanced search page. This Search Center will not appear in navigation.
SRCHCENTERFAST#0	FAST Search Center	A site for delivering the FAST search experience. The welcome page includes a search box with two tabs: one for general searches, and another for searches for information about people. You can add and customize tabs to focus on other search scopes or result types.
visprus#0	Visio Process Repository	A site for teams to quickly view, share, and store Visio process diagrams. It provides a versioned document library for storing process diagrams, and lists for managing announcements, tasks, and review discussions.

Also you can check Todd Baginski blog, which is a great reference for Site Templates and also what sub sites are available and what lists are available with SharePoint 2010.

Service Unavailable when accessing SharePoint Central Administration

There can be many, many issues to troubleshoot in a SharePoint server environment. Recently one of my clients was receiving a Service Unavailable error while trying to access the Web pages or any service provided by a Web application. If the Web application pool is unable to start you will receive this error.

One of the ways we can fix it is to reset the password for the Central Administration Web application pool identity and the Windows SharePoint Services Timer service. You can use the stsadm.exe utility to reset the password by following these steps. You should ensure the password has been changed on the domain controller because the credentials are matched with the domain controller. If the password has not been changed on the domain controller before you perform these steps, an error will occur and the changes will not take place.

1. Open the command line and navigate to the Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\BIN folder.
2. Type the stsadm -o updatefarmcredentials -userlogin -password
3. Reset IIS by typing iisreset /noforce to restart the Web application pool.

After you complete these steps on the computer running Central Administration, you should perform the following steps on every server in the farm:

1. Open the command line and navigate to the Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\BIN folder.
2. Type stsadm -o updatefarmcredentials -userlogin -password -local

SharePoint Central Administration – Service Unavailable HTTP Error 503

Today when I after installing the active directory on my SharePoint box, I found that all of a sudden my Central Administration site stopped working. And keep on giving error message

Error: Service Unavailable HTTP Error 503. The service is unavailable.

In IIS console I noticed that App Pool for the central administration site was stopped. I restarted it, but again when I tried to open the site. App pool stopped again. And this happen again and again. After spending some time. I realized that because I installed active directory, I need to refresh credentials attached to App pool.

To change the identity account attached to app pool, select app pool and right click on it. Select the ‘Advanced Settings’.

One thing to notice is that previously if you defined the user like servername\administrator, then it won’t work now. If you use this way it will give message that username doesn’t exist. Because now you have set up the Active Directory.

Just use administrator and password and it will work or use domain/username and password.

I hope it will help.