Increase list attachment size limit

For document library, to increase the maximum upload size, the following change should be sufficient:

Central Admin > Application Management > Web Application General Settings, select the web application, set the Maximum Upload Size to the new value then hit OK.

In order to upload attachment with size greater than 50 MB, in addition to changes above, we also need to modify the web.config file. In the web.config file, replace with

There are other factors to consider when adjusting the maximum upload size, such as disk space, site quota, execution timeout, etc.

User Profile between SharePoint and AD out of synch

There are many reasons that user profile information displayed in SharePoint may be out of synch with the information in AD. One such reason is name change because of marriage.

If the Account Name is changed, you can use the "stsadm -o migrateuser -oldlogin xxx\abc -newlogin xxx\xyz -ignoresidhistory" command to migrate the old user to the new user.

For display name change, deleting the user from the site collection user information list should fix the problem. You can access this hidden list by going to http://xxx/_catalogs/users/simple.aspx page.

To delete the user, go to: http://xxx/_layouts/userdisp.aspx?Force=True&ID=xyz make sure id is correct for the user, then click "Delete User from Site collection".

You may also want to delete the user from the user profile of the central 

administration too. 

This post from Todd Klindt explains above stsadm command really well. 

See also http://blogs.c5insight.com/Home/tabid/40/entryid/181/How-to-Remove-a-User-from-a-SharePoint-2010-Site-Collection.aspx on how to remove a user from a SharePoint 2010 site collection.

Here is the basic steps from above post:

1. As a site collection administrator, click Site Actions –> Site Permissions
2. Click into any existing group (like site Owners).  The URL will be something like http://server/_layouts/people.aspx?MembershipGroupID=28.
3. Change the 28 to a 0.  The list should now show you All People. 
4. Find the user, click the checkbox by their name.  Click Actions, Delete Users from Site Collection.
5. Now add the user back to the appropriate group.

The following powershell commands may be handy too:

Set-SPUser -Identity ‘Domain\username’ -DisplayName ‘Last, First’ –Web http://SharePointSe rver*
This forces a manual sync of properties from AD

Set-SPUser -Identity ‘Domain\username’ –Web http://SharePointServer –SyncFromAD*

To force Sync of all users,
Get-SPUser –Web http://SharePointServer | Set-SPUser –SyncFromAD*

Best Practices to Change App Pool Account for SharePoint Web Application

Basically, you should make the change via Central Admin/Security/Configure service accounts. After you make the change on that page (Credential Management), you need to do "iisreset /noforce" on all SharePoint servers.

SharePoint makes lots of changes behind the scene after you make the change on the Credential Management page. This link gives a very good rundown.

Reset FAST Search Server for SharePoint (FS4SP) Index

First, need to reset the index in Central Administration / Application Management / Manage Service Applications, then click your FAST Search content SSA, then click Index Reset.

We are not done yet, we also need to manually clear the content from the content collection that our FAST Search Content Search Service Application feeds to. The default collection name is sp.

To clear a FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint content collection, log onto the server that hosts FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint and follow this procedure.

Clear the content collection

1. Verify that you meet the following minimum requirements: You are a member of the FASTSearchAdministrators local group on the computer where FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint is installed.
   
2. On the Start menu, click All Programs.
   
3. Click Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint.
   
4. Click the Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint shell.
   
5. At the Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint shell command prompt, type the following command:
   Clear-FASTSearchContentCollection -Name
   Where:
   
   • is the content collection you are about to clear.
     
6. Wait for the command to finish. This may take some time.
   
   After all of above is finished, then we can start new crawls.
   

SharePoint 2010 Stretched Farm

Very good information.

 

Killing two birds with one stone: SharePoint HA and DR with stretch farm, and everything you want to know about it

Setting-up SharePoint 2010 stretched farm

It looks like that SharePoint 2013 does not support stretched farm, see http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262485%28v=office.15%29.aspx#hwLocServers

All servers that belong to a server farm, including database servers, must physically reside in the same datacenter. Redundancy and failover between closely located data centers that are configured as a single farm ("stretched farm”) is not supported in SharePoint 2013. 

But as this the comments from this blog shows, it depends and it is often case by case.

 

 

Update-SPSolution limitations

According to TechNet, The Update-SPSolution cmdlet upgrades a deployed SharePoint solution in the farm. Use this cmdlet only if a new solution contains the same set of files and features as the deployed solution. If files and features are different, the solution must be retracted and redeployed by using the Uninstall-SPSolution and Install-SPSolution cmdlets, respectively.

SharePoint 2010 boundaries, thresholds and supported limits

From Jeremy Taylor's Blog:

http://www.jeremytaylor.net/2010/10/03/sharepoint-2010-boundaries-thresholds-and-supported-limits/

SharePoint Solution Deployment Stuck at Deploying Status

While trying to upgrade a SharePoint 2010 solution using the following command, received the error message saying "A deployment or retraction is already underway for the solution blah, and only one deployment or retraction at a time is supported".

 update-spsolution -identity blah.wsp -literalpath "blah" -gacdeployment

 The status also shows "Deploying" at Central Administration / System Settings / Manage farm solutions under Farm Management section.

The fix: Go to Central Administration / Monitoring / Check job status under Timer Jobs, Under Running section, locate the entry for the solution deployment job, the job should be named as "Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Solution Deployment for %SolutionName.wsp%. Click on the job title, then click the Delete button to delete the job on the next page. Afterwards, you can try to deploy the solution again.

The old stsadm comand, for example, see below, does not work anymore.
stsadm -o canceldeployment -id "job guid"

The "job guid" can be retrieved by issuing the following command:
stsadm -o enumdeployments

SharePoint Configuration Database Too Big

Ever wondering why is the SharePoint configuration database so large?  The database is over 35 GB and its transaction log file grows up to 90 GB. There are potentially 2 issues.

1. the log file is too big: the log file can be shrank easily by using Management Studio, for example. Setting the database to simple mode can help too, but evaluate the pros and cons before making the change.
2. the database is still too big after shrinking the log file. After some research, I found out that there is a TimerJobHistory table in the configuration database and this table uses huge amount of space. There is a job "Delete jobs history" under Central Administration->Monitoring->Timer Jobs, which runs weekly by default, and that job is supposed to delete old entries from the timer job history table. In my situation, the table has entries more than one month old and default number of days to keep is 7, I believe. The timer job is enabled and there is no error messages. So what happened?

Long story short, the timer job runs weekly as expected, but it fails because during the execution, the transaction log runs out of space. To fix the problem, I need to reduce the amount of data being deleted by the timer job during each run, so I need to modify the daystokeephistory value of the timer job. However, there is no UI to modify the retention days, the only way is to use PowerShell. See below:

$test = Get-SPTimerJob | Where-Object {$_.name -eq "job-delete-job-history"}
$test.daystokeephistory

Above would display the current value.You can set the proper value for daystokeephistory then use either Central Administration or Power Shell to kick off the timer job, see below.

$test.daystokeephistory = 25
$test.update()
$test.runnow()

After multiple runs, at the end I set the timer job schedule to daily and daystokeephistory to 2 days.

So far so good.

Provision the Web Analytics Service Application on Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010

Good information from Bill Baer's Blog:


http://blogs.technet.com/b/wbaer/archive/2009/11/21/step-by-step-provisioning-the-web-analytics-service-application-on-microsoft-sharepoint-server-2010-beta.aspx

Also usage reporting functionality is not available in SharePoint Designer 2010. SharePoint Designer 2007 has the reporting functionality.

After  Web Analytics Service Application is provisioned, users with proper permissions can go to Site Actions/Site Settings page to view usage reports. The reports are under Site Actions heading.

SharePoint 2010 can't open xlsx file in the browser

Received message "Unable to process the request. Wait a few minutes and try performing this operation again".

Fix:
1. Ensure that Excel Service Application is created and running under "Manage service applications"
2. Ensure that Under "Manage services on server", the Excel Calculation Services is started and running on the web front end(s) of the farm
3. Ensure that the Excel Service Application is associated with the proper web applications under "Configure service application associations"

Update: Excel file can't be edited in browser without Office Web Apps. 

How to remove "Edit in sharePoint Designer" from Site Actions menu

Suggested by this thread: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepoint2010general/thread/46c9b89b-bec8-4335-9096-d7bf7a8114f4/

Hide Edit in SharePoint Designer:

• In Central Administration you can disable SharePoint Designer at the Web application level - Manage Web Applications > Select your web app > In the ribbon click on the General Settings Dropdown > Select SharePoint Designer. When the settings page appears, deselect the "Enable SharePoint Designer" checkbox then click OK. You'll obviously need Central Admin access to use this method.
• At the site collection level, in Site Collections Administration section of "Site Actions > Site Settings" at the site root, click on the "SharePoint Designer Settings" link. Same options as Central Admin appear - Uncheck the "Enable SharePoint Designer" checkbox then click Ok. You'll need to be a Site Collection Administrator to use this method.
• Note - Site Collection administrators will always be able to edit in SharePoint Designer 

Above does not work, after I made above suggested changed in CA, the option is still available. However, the capability of editing in SharePoint Designer is disabled.

SharePoint 2007 Crawl / Index extremely slow

If a list does not have a default view, it can cause severe indexing / crawling problem.

Please see: crawl taking indefinitely to complete

Another good post about SharePoint 2007 crawling and how to improve indexing performance:
moss 2007 long running search crawls

stsadm import error: Exception from HRESULT: 0x80040E14

Progress: Importing List Project Document Library.
[2/27/2012 3:55:14 PM]: FatalError: Exception from HRESULT: 0x80040E14
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Library.SPRequest.CreateListOnImport(String bstrUrl, Guid& pguidListId, String bstrTitle, String bstrDescription, Int32 lTemplateID, String bstrFeatureId, Guid guidRootFolderId, Int64 llFlags, Int32 iVersion, Int32 iAuthor, String bstrFields, String bstrContentTypes, String bstrImageUrl, String bstrEventSinkAssembly, String bstrEventSinkClass, String bstrEventSinkData, Guid guidDocTemplateId, String bstrViews, String bstrForms, Boolean bCompressedSchema)
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment.ListSerializer.CreateList(SPWeb parentWeb, Dictionary`2 listMetaData, Boolean usingPublicSchema)
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment.ListSerializer.SetObjectData(Object obj, SerializationInfo info, StreamingContext context, ISurrogateSelector selector)
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment.XmlFormatter.ParseObject(Type objectType, Boolean isChildObject)
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment.XmlFormatter.DeserializeObject(Type objectType, Boolean isChildObject, DeploymentObject envelope)
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment.XmlFormatter.Deserialize(Stream serializationStream)
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment.ObjectSerializer.Deserialize(Stream serializationStream)
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment.ImportObjectManager.ProcessObject(XmlReader xmlReader)
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment.SPImport.DeserializeObjects()
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Deployment.SPImport.Run()

Problem: the document library (Project Document) has way too many views. After most of the views are deleted, then stsadm import worked fine (do an export again, of course). However, I don't know what the maximum number of views a document library can have without causing import error.

Also make sure that there is no space issue.

List Attachments over 50MB need more than an increase in Maximum Upload Size... - Brett's SharePoint Blog - Site Home - MSDN Blogs

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/bgeoffro/archive/2008/03/19/list-attachments-over-50mb-need-more-than-an-increase-in-maximum-upload-size.aspx

Basically there's a setting maxRequestLength in web.config file at the IIS level that will block list attachment uploads above 50MB. maxRequestLength="204800" would allow list attachment up to 200 MB.

Create a Search Scope for FAST Search for SharePoint 2010

Please see "Creating a Scope in FAST Search for SharePoint 2010"

Basically, you can't use SharePoint CA to accomplish this task, you have to use PowerShell scripts.

Expiration Policy Timer job does not seem to run

Copied from this post: http://ithinksharepoint.blogspot.com/2009/03/expiration-policy-timer-job-does-not.html

beginning-of-copy

The policy is run once a day, however fortunately you can start it manually. Using Central Admin->Operations->Information Management Policy Configuration, I clicked on the Expiration policy link. Then within there clicked "Process Expired Items Now". Looked at the Timer Job Status (Central Admin->Operations->Timer Job Status) and there was no reference of the Expiration Policy.

Looked within Timer Job Definitions (just under the Timer Job Status link) and a timer job had been created called "Expiration Policy (manually initiated)" but it had never been run. Actually neither had the daily "Expiration Policy". I went back to the Information Management Policy Configuration and into the Expiration policy. The "Process Expired Items Now" button was greyed out, to clear this I ended up deleting the "Expiration Policy (manual initiated)" timer job. This enabled the "Process Expired Items Now" button... however nothing.

Other things that I tried included stsadm -o execadmsvcjobs - though nanda.

Then I thought about the fact that the job had never been run and I found this article
http://www.sharepointblogs.com/teameli/archive/2008/10/13/record-center-information-management-policy-jobs-not-running.aspx

Following the instructions sorted the problem...

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Service Account Suggestions for SharePoint 2010 from Todd Klindt

Service Account Suggestions for SharePoint 2010

Getting the GUID out of the AdminContent database in SharePoint 2010

Another fine blog post from Todd Klindt. Thanks for sharing.

URL path length restrictions (SharePoint Server 2010)

URL path length restrictions (SharePoint Server 2010)

Guide on resolving url length problem from the article:

• Upgrade all the end-user browsers to Internet Explorer 8, which has a longer URL length limit.
  
  
• Use shorter names for sites, folders, and documents and control the depth of the site and folder structures to reduce the lengths of URLs.
  
  
• If possible or allowed, use ASCII names for sites, folders, and documents. This will avoid situations where the URL will be lengthened by being encoded.
  
  
• To reduce the risk that the SharePoint Server 2010 end-users will encounter problems because of URL length limitations, we recommend that you apply the following effective limits in the deployment:
  
  
  • 256 Unicode (UTF-16) Code units - the effective file path length limitation, including a domain/server name
    
    
  • 128 Unicode (UTF-16) Code units - the path component length limitation