The Full Circle Blog

The news, views and skews of The Full Circle

Moving a OneNote notebook to SharePoint 2010

January 26th, 2012 by AshleyL No comments »

A customer was having trouble with moving a OneNote notebook to SharePoint 2010 so they could collaborate on it together so I thought I would do a quick post on the process.

Creating a local notebook

In order to move a notebook to SharePoint you need to have a notebook to move. You probably already have one so I’ll just leave you with a screenshot of creating a new one.

So now you have your local OneNote notebook.

Creating a Document Library on SharePoint

You will need to create document library on SharePoint to hold the notebook. You can either create a new one or using an existing one. From a logical separation point of view you should use it’s own library.

Give it a name and set the document template. The document template choice simply changes what happens when you click on the New Document item in the library, nothing more. You could pick anything you like from the list.

Before leaving the page you need to copy the link to the library. Make sure you only copy up to the the library. Don’t copy the /forms/allitems.aspx bit, it won’t work. If you are having trouble with this part, you can also get the exact link by clicking on the “Email a Link” button and copy it from there.

Moving the local notebook to SharePoint

Back in OneNote, right click on your notebook and on “Properties”.

Click on “Change Location”.

Paste in the link to the new library and click on “Select”.

OneNote will now move your notebook to SharePoint.

Once it’s done you will see a confirmation, click on “OK”.

That is it, simple and quick. You can how invite people to work with you on your notebook and the changes will sync pretty much live between everyone’s machines and also be available offline.

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Posted in 2010, Guide, How do I, Microsoft, Office, SharePoint

Tags: Moving OneNote

Issue while installing SP1 on a SQL 2008 R2 Cluster–Resolved

November 14th, 2011 by AshleyL 1 comment »

Came across this odd issue yesterday while patching a SQL 2008 R2 failover cluster. After moving over all the services to the passive node the service pack failed to install on two out of three instances. The instance that worked was an Analysis Services instance the other two that failed were Database Engine instances.

After a another reboot and further patching attempt I poked around Failover Cluster Manager and wouldn’t you know it, The Cluster Name was offline.

Once I brought it online, Service Pack 1 went on fine. If only the Service Pack Installer spotted that, could have saved me a few worried minutes!

Overall Summary Contents

Instance InstanceName overall summary:

Final result: The patch installer has failed to update the shared features. To determine the reason for failure, review the log files.

Exit code (Decimal): -595541211

Exit facility code: 1152

Exit error code: 49957

Exit message: The patch installer has failed to update the shared features. To determine the reason for failure, review the log files.

Start time: 2011-11-13 12:22:06

End time: 2011-11-13 12:23:12

Requested action: Patch

Log with failure: C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Setup Bootstrap\Log\20111113_121410\InstanceName\Detail.txt

Exception help link: http%3a%2f%2fgo.microsoft.com%2ffwlink%3fLinkId%3d20476%26ProdName%3dMicrosoft%2bSQL%2bServer%26EvtSrc%3dsetup.rll%26EvtID%3d50000%26ProdVer%3d10.50.2500.0%26EvtType%3d0xBF50B949%400xDC80C325

Details.txt Contents

The first error I found was “The RPC server is unavailable”. After that error, several more errors were logged but the RPC server error is where it all started.

2011-11-13 13:42:25 Slp: Sco: Attempting to write hklm registry key SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall to file C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Setup Bootstrap\Log\20111113_133842\InstanceName\Registry_SOFTWARE_Wow6432Node_Microsoft_Windows_CurrentVersion_Uninstall.reg_

2011-11-13 13:42:25 Slp: Sco: Attempting to write hklm registry key SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\MSSQLServer to file C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Setup Bootstrap\Log\20111113_133842\InstanceName\Registry_SOFTWARE_Wow6432Node_Microsoft_MSSQLServer.reg_

2011-11-13 13:42:25 Slp: The RPC server is unavailable

2011-11-13 13:42:26 Slp: Watson bucket for exception based failure has been created

2011-11-13 13:42:26 Slp: Error: Action "SqlEngineConfigAction_patch_configrc_Cpu64" failed during execution.

2011-11-13 13:42:28 Slp: Error result: -595541211

2011-11-13 13:42:28 Slp: Result facility code: 1152

2011-11-13 13:42:28 Slp: Result error code: 49957

2011-11-13 13:42:28 Slp: Sco: Attempting to create base registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, machine

2011-11-13 13:42:28 Slp: Sco: Attempting to open registry subkey

2011-11-13 13:42:28 Slp: Sco: Attempting to open registry subkey Software\Microsoft\PCHealth\ErrorReporting\DW\Installed

2011-11-13 13:42:28 Slp: Sco: Attempting to get registry value DW0201

2011-11-13 13:42:28 Slp: Submitted 1 of 1 failures to the Watson data repository

1 comment »

Posted in SQL Server

Tags: Issue while installing SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1 on a failover cluster The RPC server is unavailable

Installing Search Server 2010 SP1 on Search Server Express 2010 RTM

October 28th, 2011 by AshleyL No comments »

I was on client site today patching a small SharePoint Search Server Express 2010 environment in preparation for installing a third party app on SharePoint. This being Foundation + Search Server Express RTM, I opted to install all the outstanding patches for SharePoint & Search Server. These are my notes. Feel free to comment if you think it could have been done differently.

Preparation

Downloads

SharePoint Foundation SP1: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=26640

SharePoint August 2011 CU: http://hotfixv4.microsoft.com/Microsoft%20SharePoint%20Foundation%202010/sp2/sharepointfoundation2010kb2553050fullfil/14.0000.6109.5005/free/438521_intl_x64_zip.exe

SharePoint Search Server SP1: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=26633

Backups

Of course backing up is critical all through the process so take (or have) a full backup of Windows on your web front ends and backup your SQL server databases before and after.

This being Search Server Express 2010 you might find that you are using SQL Server Express which means your databases should be pretty small so the process shouldn’t take long, not so in my case though… it look at a little while.

Installation Order and process

From this page it links you through to this page which implies you should have all the latest bits installed beforehand… although it’s not super clear as to whether you could install all three in a row without running psconfig until the end.

I’m following a cautious approach: Backup > SharePoint SP1 + Latest CU stuff and run psconfig > validate > Search Server SP1 stuff and run psconfig > validate > backup. Using this approach adds time to overall process but certainly doesn’t hurt. I’ll try to personally validate this “three in one approach” at a later time and/or when my interpretation or understanding changes for certain from someone older and wiser I’ll update this post. Until then, a little too much caution never hurt anyone. Bottom line, it worked just fine. SharePoint is well known for it’s sensitivity to installation order despite the latest advice from Microsoft since the August 2011 CU.

Patching SharePoint 2010 Foundation RTM up to August 2011 CU

Install SharePoint Foundation SP1

Reboot when prompted.

Install SharePoint August 2011 CU

Reboot when prompted.

Run PSConfig (psconfig -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -wait –force) or the GUI version, SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard. I prefer the GUI because I like to watch grass grow but that’s just me. It also helps that I’m just going a single WFE. Otherwise I’d start with my App Server/Central Admin box and work out from there, one at a time and use psconfig.

This process took about 30 minutes with reboots and the time psconfig took to run. Obviously that has got more to do with the size of the databases and the performance of the SQL server but most SSE2010 installs are probably going to be something similar since while this environment is SQL 2K8 R2 it has very little content and still fairly small search databases.

SP1 & August CU 2011 Installation Validation

Central Admin > Upgrade & Migration > Check upgrade status

Central Admin > Upgrade & Migration > Check product and patch installation status

Patching Server Server Express RTM to Search Server Express SP1

Install Search Server 2010 SP1 (no reboot required)
Run PSConfig (psconfig -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -wait –force) or the GUI version, SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard.

Search Server 2010 SP1 Installation Validation

Central Admin > Upgrade & Migration > Check upgrade status

Central Admin > Upgrade & Migration > Check product and patch installation status

Central Administration > Search Service Application > Content Sources

Start an incremental crawl of one of your content sources and make sure it works. You could do more, e.g. a full crawl + search for something if you felt so inclined just to give it a slightly more thorough going over.

References:

Install a software update (SharePoint Server 2010) http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff806338.aspx

SharePoint Foundation SP1: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=26640

SharePoint August 2011 CU: http://hotfixv4.microsoft.com/Microsoft%20SharePoint%20Foundation%202010/sp2/sharepointfoundation2010kb2553050fullfil/14.0000.6109.5005/free/438521_intl_x64_zip.exe

SharePoint Search Server SP1: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=26633

Known issues when you install Office 2010 SP1 and SharePoint 2010 SP1: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2532126

List of all SharePoint 2010 and Office Server 2010 SP1 packages: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2510766

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Posted in Office365, Systems Management

Tags: Install SP1 for Search Server Express 2010 Install SP1 for SharePoint 2010 Search Server Express 2010

Some images from IPEXPO Earl’s Court 2011

October 21st, 2011 by AshleyL 1 comment »

IPEXPO 2011

VIEW SLIDE SHOW

DOWNLOAD ALL

We were at the IPEXPO yesterday to meet with some partners, friends and business associates. As is always the case with these events – you get out what you put in and we made an effort to get to as many of the seminars as possible while touching base with people before and after.

It has reaped some rewards for us already so to anyone who is unsure – IPEXPO continues to a be a valuable networking event and once you’re done you can always pop over the Ski show next door afterwards and get kitted out for the slopes.

1 comment »

Posted in Blogging, Tech

Where has all the content gone?

October 21st, 2011 by admintfcsupport No comments »

Dear Readers,

As you will have noticed all our old posts are not available right now. Fear not, we are working on getting them back. We’ve had some issues with the export from our old blog to this new hosted platform – timeouts and other nastiness.

In the mean time we will continue to post new content and soon the old content should be back with you.

Thanks for you patience,

The Full Circle team

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Posted in Blogging

Removing SBS 2008 – Step 3: remove from domain / DCPROMO

August 29th, 2011 by ReubenC No comments »

The final step in removing your SBS server is to demote it as a domain controller using the DCPROMO tool.

DCPROMO will do a number of things in terms of removing the server’s ability to operate as an Active Directory server, however the main domain functional ‘operation’ (sorry pun!) you will see from other servers in the network is the moving of the ‘Flexible Single Master of Operation’ (FSMO) or now just ‘Operations Masters’ roles to another AD server.

You can control the transfer of the essential FSMO roles to a preferred AD server (if you have multiple) using the a script e.g. to transfer our roles to our UK/GB Infrastructure server GBINF01 the script is:

ntdsutil

roles

conn

connect to server gbinf01 q

Transfer infrastructure master

Transfer naming master

Transfer PDC

Transfer RID master

Transfer schema master

q

And checked with:

netdom /query fsmo

Schema master GBINF01.thefullcircle.local

Domain naming master GBINF01.thefullcircle.local

PDC GBINF01.thefullcircle.local

RID pool manager GBINF01.thefullcircle.local

Infrastructure master GBINF01.thefullcircle.local

The command completed successfully.

Of course if you just have one other AD server (not recommended as best practise but totally feasible and supported by Microsoft) you don’t need to manually control who gets the roles, and DCPROMO will just transfer the roles to the other server.

If you do have multiple servers (with multiple AD sites) then the next available local site server will get the roles.

Move those roles!

Summary review

Remove Active Directory Domain Services from this computer.

When the process is complete, this server will be a member of the domain thefullcircle.local

Remove DNS Delegation: Yes

Good bye domain services!

Checking the FSMO roles to confirm transfer:

C:>netdom query fsmo

Schema master GBINF01.thefullcircle.local

Domain naming master GBINF01.thefullcircle.local

PDC GBINF01.thefullcircle.local

RID pool manager GBINF01.thefullcircle.local

Infrastructure master GBINF01.thefullcircle.local

The command completed successfully.

You can log back onto your SBS server with either the local creds provided earlier, or with a domain account – it is still a domain member server.

Note this machine may no longer be licensed (certainly if an upgrade e.g. to SBS2011).

If the server was an OEM install you can leave what remains (demoted mostly broken SBS server) on the same hardware for whatever use you feel (within license limits – e.g. this is not a 2nd Exchange server!), but the chances are this is now an old and out of warranty bit of kit that is no longer production worthy anyway – reuse, renew, recycle responsibly (see http://blog.thefullcircle.com/2011/05/06/sort-it-out-and-learn-the-3rsreduce-reuse-recycle/).

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Posted in Microsoft, SBS, SBS 2008

Tags: sbs 2008 dcpromo sbs 2008 remove sbs 2008 removing sbs 2008 retire SBS2008 sbs2008 migration

Removing SBS 2008 – Step 2: ADCS

August 29th, 2011 by ReubenC No comments »

Active Directory Certificate Services removal..

Check the FSMO roles are on your SBS server..

(you don’t actually need the forward slash "/" after the netdom command anymore but that’s a personal hangup from the old LANMAN days..

As for any server role just remove the role from within Server Manager

(Note the red crosses – this is from a pretty sick SBS 2008 install that had been replaced by Server 2008 R2, SCE (WSUS), and various other Windows network services over a year prior)

Once you’ve started the role removal (after confirming an informational/reading) – head out for a walk / mow the grass / build a model aeroplane.. Basically – leave it some time as you could be watching the screen below longer than paint drying

Later in the process you should see ‘Verifying removal’ and then ‘Collecting removal results…’ – ours took almost an hour between the major application events:

Information 29/08/2011 08:57:51 CertificationAuthority 38 None

Log Name: Application

Source: Microsoft-Windows-CertificationAuthority

Date: 29/08/2011 08:57:51

Event ID: 38

Task Category: None

Level: Information

Keywords: Classic

User: SYSTEM

Computer: SBSSRV01.thefullcircle.local

Description:

Active Directory Certificate Services for thefullcircle-SBSSRV01-CA was stopped.

And

Warning 29/08/2011 09:43:15 ServerManager 1619 None

Log Name: Setup

Source: Microsoft-Windows-ServerManager

Date: 29/08/2011 09:43:15

Event ID: 1619

Task Category: None

Level: Warning

Keywords:

User: THEFULLCIRCLEAdministrator

Computer: SBSSRV01.thefullcircle.local

Description:

Removal succeeded. A restart is required.

Roles:

Active Directory Certificate Services

Warning: You must restart this server to finish the removal process.

When complete (if successful) you should get:

And once ‘closed’ the only option is to restart..

You do need to log back in again (recommend same account as started this process) for the server to finalise the removal of ADCS and report ‘Resuming Configuration’ per:

Also event

Information 29/08/2011 10:10:47 ServerManager 1618 None

Log Name: Setup

Source: Microsoft-Windows-ServerManager

Date: 29/08/2011 10:10:47

Event ID: 1618

Task Category: None

Level: Information

Keywords:

User: THEFULLCIRCLEAdministrator

Computer: SBSSRV01.thefullcircle.local

Description:

Removal succeeded.

Roles:

Active Directory Certificate Services

The following role services were removed:

Certification Authority

And then next to DCPROMO out of the domain!

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Posted in Microsoft, SBS, SBS 2008

Tags: SBS2008 sbs2008 migration

Removing SBS 2008 – Step 1: Exchange 2007

August 29th, 2011 by ReubenC No comments »

recent migrations as part of SBS 2011 EAP, etc….

Screen clipping taken: 28/08/2011 23:26

Summary: 4 item(s). 0 succeeded, 1 failed.

Elapsed time: 00:01:16

Mailbox Role

Failed

Error:

Object is read only because it was created by a future version of Exchange: 0.10 (14.0.100.0). Current supported version is 0.1 (8.0.535.0).

Elapsed Time: 00:01:16

Client Access Role

Cancelled

Hub Transport Role

Cancelled

Remove Exchange Files

Cancelled

http://forums.msexchange.org/m_1800521706/mpage_1/key_/tm.htm

[PS] C:Windowssystem32>Remove-PublicFolderDatabase -Identity "SBSSRV01Second Storage GroupPublic Folder Database"

Confirm

Are you sure you want to perform this action?

Removing Public Folder Database "SBSSRV01Second Storage GroupPublic Folder

Database".

[Y] Yes [A] Yes to All [N] No [L] No to All [S] Suspend [?] Help

(default is "Y"):A

Confirm

You are attempting to remove the last public folder database in the

organization. If you remove this database, all of its contents will be lost and

only users running Outlook 2007 or later will be able to connect to your

Exchange organization. Are you sure that you want to delete the last public

folder database?

[Y] Yes [A] Yes to All [N] No [L] No to All [S] Suspend [?] Help

(default is "Y"):A

Remove-PublicFolderDatabase : Object is read only because it was created by a f

uture version of Exchange: 0.10 (14.0.100.0). Current supported version is 0.1

(8.0.535.0).

At line:1 char:28

+ Remove-PublicFolderDatabase <<<< -Identity "SBSSRV01Second Storage GroupPu

blic Folder Database"

+ CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (0:Int32) [Remove-PublicFolderData

base], InvalidADObjectOperationException

+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : E2ABE251,Microsoft.Exchange.Management.SystemCon

figurationTasks.RemovePublicFolderDatabase

Summary: 2 item(s). 0 succeeded, 1 failed.

Elapsed time: 00:00:39

Mailbox Role

Failed

Error:

The public folder database "SBSSRV01Second Storage GroupPublic Folder Database" contains folder replicas. Before deleting the public folder database, remove the folders or move the replicas to another public folder database. For detailed instructions about how to remove a public folder database, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=81409.

Elapsed Time: 00:00:39

Remove Exchange Files

Cancelled

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/aa998192(EXCHG.80).aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/aa997893(EXCHG.80).aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb331970(EXCHG.80).aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb201664(EXCHG.140).aspx

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Posted in Microsoft, SBS, SBS 2008

Tags: migrating from sbs Removing SBS 2008 removing sbs exchange

HP Technology Exchange – London

June 21st, 2011 by ReubenC No comments »

HP ISS Technical Exchange

The Full Circle has been an long term HP partner and ProLiant server evangelist since the early 90’s and days of the Compaq Systempro. In 1994 Reuben Cook, Founder and CTO of The Full Circle lead a £.25M project to refresh the server messaging infrastructure of the then SmithKline Beecham (now Glaxo) using Compaq rack-mounted ProLiant servers (codenamed ‘Armada’ – no, not the opal laptops!). The project was under Compaq NDA at the time and so early it was installed and commissioned before Compaq‟s official UK release date for the ProLiant – think back to 1600’s and 1.6” drives!

Today we continue to recommend and deploy ProLiant servers as first and only choice. We have grown to become a trusted partner that participates in vendor supported early adopter programmes for new technologies e.g. when HP developed the C3000 blade enclosure known as the ‘Shorty’ – see HP case-study post we deployed an HP & AMD funded box.

Anyway, less of us and more about the ISS Technical Exchange! – for this event HP are bringing a large section of their Houston design engineers to London for a technology exchange. In a nutshell, this is where the HP guys that make the technology come to disclose how they see the future trending and tell you, in confidence, what they are engineering to address it. In some cases, they will fly in product prototypes for a ‘hands-on’ appraisal.

Event Objectives

The objective of this is for HP to open an interpersonal customer dialog to collect your impressions of the industry direction, their approach, plus the technological innovations they will be releasing. Most importantly they really want your input. They want to validate what they are seeing is consistent with your view plus see how we they can reshape or tailor their products to better meet your needs.

The structure is a large opening session that breaks into subject matter subgroups where you select from a range of technologies in tight workgroup sessions. The objective of this is to enable you to choose the key technologies that are of interest and be able to interact more closely in smaller groups.

The technologies that are likely to be discussed will range from server and blade futures, virtualization futures, workload management, firmware deployment advances, hardware management, power management, network technology futures, storage technology, disk i/o or SSD futures, even down to point product details like iLO 4 demos. You can take it a wide and deep range of technologies are being set up. The lay-up is a full day of sessions and there will be plenty of variety. However it is highly interpersonal and informal; so if you exhaust your key areas of interest you are free to depart any time that suits you.

The session will provide you with a unique IT planning view, but more importantly, the direct engagement to shape the future products HP will make for you hence I though you would like me to register you. Of course as you can imagine, the HP data will be highly sensitive and require an event specific confidentially agreement (CDA) signed to enter.

Agenda

(and this maybe all we’ll be able to talk about… see CDA!)

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Posted in HP, Tech

Tags: C3000 Gen8 HP Technology Exchange London ProLiant ProLiant Gen8 Shorty

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