SharePoint 2010 Event ID 6398

Although it shows up as a Crital error which can be a little alarming, there's nothing to worry about here. It's simply the Microsoft Cutomer Experience Improvement Program trying to collect data and send it back to the mother ship. We go ahead and disable the feature at the farm level, and at the web application level.

To disable at the farm level, go to Central Admin - System Settings - Configure privacy options and select "No, I don't wish to participate" and "Ignore errors and don't collect information".

To disable at the web app level, go to Central Admin - Manage Web Applications. Highlight each web app and select General Settings, then scroll to the bottom and say No where it asks if you want to enable the CEIP.

Exchange 2010 Update Process

From time to time, Microsoft release service packs and update rollups for Exchange. There are some things to keep in mind when it comes to applying these updates to your environment:

• Update rollup packages are cumulative. For example, if you apply Update Rollup 4 on a computer that is running Exchange 2010, you receive all the fixes in that specific update package together with all the fixes that were released in all earlier update rollup packages. That is, in Update Rollup 4, you receive all the updates that were released in the previous Update Rollup 1 through Update Rollup 3 packages plus the updates in Update Rollup 4.

• This approach to updating doesn't replace service packs for the product. Additional product fixes and features are released in separately available service packs for Exchange 2010.

• Microsoft releases update rollup packages approximately every six to eight weeks. The rollup packages are available via Microsoft Update and the Microsoft Download Center. In the Search box on the Microsoft Download Center, type "Exchange 2010 update rollup" to find links to the rollup packages.

• For Exchange 2010 configurations, the recommended order in which to apply the update rollup is as follows: Client Access server, Hub Transport server, Mailbox server, and Unified Messaging server.

To find out which version of Exchange 2010 you're running, logon to your server then go to Control Panel - Programs and Features. Highlight Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 and make a note of the Version.
 
 

 
Or run the following Exchange Management Shell command:
 
Get-ExchangeServer | fl name,edition,admindisplayversion
 
To see a list of Exchange versions, follow this link: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh135098.aspx

New eBook for Splitting an Oversized Sub Site into a New Site Collection & Database

Most companies strive to implement solid governance plans and design their site structure accordingly, but reality often gets in the way. What was supposed to be a small site can have a sub site which grows unexpectedly. Next thing you know, your sub site alone has grown to over 100 GB. What do you do? If you don’t care that the URL of the sub site changes, then you can simply copy it to a new site collection with a new content database. This usually isn’t an option when people have links in documents and SharePoint sites that point to the original location. Moving it and trying to put forwarders or links to the new location is simply too painful. This detailed eBook will show you how to split that troublesome sub site off into a new site collection with its own content database using powershell and central administration while maintaining your URL structure. You'll get all the required steps with screen shots for the low price of $9.99 USD. If you're not satisfied, we'll gladly refund your money!

SharePoint 15 - What's Next?

*** UPDATE - July 18th****  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc303422(v=office.15. See also http://imperfectit.blogspot.ca/2012/07/sharepoint-2013.html

So you finally finished migrating all your SharePoint 2007 and WSS 3 sites to SharePoint 2010. Congratulations! The bad news (or good depending on how you look at it) is that the next version of SharePoint is right around the corner. Microsoft are very adept at keeping partners who've seen it quiet, but this is what's known so far. Keep in mind that all of this is based on leaks, and we won't know anything for sure until Microsoft announces it.

• SharePoint 15 (as it's currently called) is scheduled to be Released to Manufacturing (RTM) November 12th. Only people who are involved in the Microsoft Technology Adoption Program (TAP) will have access to the bits before that. There are rumors the Beta will be realesed June 13th. 

• SP 15 will include an application marketplace similar  to what you use with your mobile devices.
• It will be better able to handle multi-tenant installations so hosters can get environments up and available faster and more securely. It will also make it easier to sell apps built on SharePoint to multiple companies.
• It will be built to use an Oracle back-end (just kidding). Make sure you're running the latest version of SQL to speed your migration.
• There are rumors there will be a an education module which allows schools to setup a virtual learning environment. Details here are murky.
• More integration with Silverlight.
• Built-in Information Rights Management.
• Expansion of the cloud SharePoint offering (Office 365) and integration of on premise and cloud based SharePoint. It's clear Microsoft want to remove any objections companies have to moving their SharePoint environments into the cloud.
• Better support and integration for mobile devices.
• Simplified development tools. We would assume this means a new version of SharePoint Designer?
• Tighter integration with the next version of Office (Office 15).
• Expansion of the social networking capabilities. Weather this means a re-vamping of the existing My Sites or a complete overhaul is unclear. Maybe integration with Microsoft's partner Facebook? 
• Minimal Download Strategy (MDS allows websites to take much less bandwidth than with traditional technologies.)
• Site versioning (an extension of the existing document versioning).

So, lots to look forward to, but also a lot to wrap your head around. We'll continue to update this post as more information becomes available. In the meantime, you can subscribe to this twitter feed: http://twitter.com/#!/NextSharePoint and visit the following sites:

http://www.cmswire.com/cms/web-development/sharepoint-15-arriving-early-2013-according-to-leaked-ms-roadmap-015162.php
http://www.cmswire.com/cms/information-management/sharepoint-15-complete-with-app-marketplace-coming-late-2012-014682.php
http://redmondmag.com/articles/2012/04/01/whats-next-for-sharepoint.aspx

Be sure to let us know if you've heard anything we haven't mentioned here.

New eBook for Automating SharePoint Backups with PowerShell

We've had a lot of requests for more details on how to setup automated SharePoint backups with PowerShell, so we've gone ahead and created a detailed ebook which outlines the steps and permissions you need to get your backups up and running. In addition to screen shots, there are also copies of the scripts we use as well as an email notification section that will let you know if your backups failed. Simply click on the Buy Now button below and you can pay with your Paypal account or credit card. At only $9.99 USD, it's thousands cheaper than a 3rd party solution and will let you sleep a little sounder at night. If you're not satisfied, we'll gladly refund your money!

Windows PowerShell Command Builder for SharePoint 2010 Products and Office 365

If you're like us, you're starting to figure out that you can do much more with SharePoint through PowerShell than you can through Central Admin. Microsoft recognize that not everyone is comfortable with PowerShell so they've created an excellent tool to help rookies create scripts they can use for everyday administration tasks.


Windows PowerShell Command Builder for SharePoint 2010 Products and Office 365 is a Silverlight® 4 application that is designed to help IT professionals and power users learn how to use Windows PowerShell for administrative tasks. The Windows PowerShell Command Builder enables IT professionals and power users to visually assemble commands related to SharePoint 2010 Products and Office 365 in the browser and take those commands to their respective products.


You can access the tool here: http://www.microsoft.com/resources/TechNet/en-us/Office/media/WindowsPowerShell/WindowsPowerShellCommandBuilder.html


And the getting started guide is here: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=27588


Here's a screen shot to give you an idea of how the drag and drop interface looks:

If you're interested in learning more about administering SharePoint with PowerShell, have a look at the following:


http://dmitrysotnikov.wordpress.com/2010/04/14/sharepoint-2010-powershell-cheat-sheet/
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/ee518673
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee806878.aspx


Happy scripting!

List of SharePoint 2010 Site and List Templates

The following is a handy list of all the available site templates followed by the list templates in SharePoint 2010:

Disable "Anyone outside my organization" in Outlook/Exchange 2010

We had a requirement in our organization recently to disallow sending auto replies (formerly know as out-of-office messages) to recipients outside our organization who are not in our contacts. The basis for the request was to stop spammers from finding valid email addresses and to prevent SMTP loops. There are also concerns around privacy. You don't want people you don't know being aware you're out of town on vacation for the next two weeks!

To achieve this we run a script which changes the mailbox settings to disable the “Anyone outside my organization” in Outlook:

The following script was setup on our Exchange 2010 server to run as a scheduled task every hour (D:\scripts\lockextooftocontactsonly.ps1):

Get-Mailbox -database "DB01" | Get-MailboxAutoReplyConfiguration | where {($_.AutoReplyState -eq "Enabled") -AND ($_.ExternalAudience -eq "All")} | foreach {Set-MailboxAutoReplyConfiguration $_.Identity -ExternalAudience "Known"}


Note: You need to change DB01 to the name of your mailbox database.

The script does not disable the ability of a user to select the “Anyone outside my organization” option. It simply changes the option to “My Contacts only”. As a result the script needs to be run numerous times throughout the day to update the mailboxes with the proper setting.

Select the credentials you want to use to logon to this SharePoint site

Our users came across the following error when they were trying to login to their My Site (http://mysite/):

We had recently had to restore the My Site from a backup and it appears the restore process had changed the authentication type the extended website http://mysite/ was using from Kerberos to NTLM. We have another version of the site published as http://mysite.domain.com/ which was still set to Kerberos hence the authentication error.

The fix was to go into Central Admin - Manage Web Application (My Site) and then select Authentication Providers. I selected the offending Intranet zone and changed it back to Negotiate (Kerberos) so it matched the other Custom zone:

After an IISRESET, the error stopped appearing.

SharePoint 2010 User Profile Synchronization Error

We recently started to notice the following "ma-extension-error" in ForeFront Identity Manager when we'd run a user profile synchronization with our Active Directory:

System.Reflection.TargetInvocationException: Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation. ---> System.MissingMethodException: Method not found: 'Void Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.ProfileManagerBase.UpdateProfileWithBulkProperties(Int64, System.String, System.String, System.Collections.Hashtable)'.



at Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.ProfileImportExportService.UpdateWithProfileChangeData(Int64 importExportId, ProfileChangeData[] profileChangeData)


--- End of inner exception stack trace ---


at System.RuntimeMethodHandle._InvokeMethodFast(Object target, Object[] arguments, SignatureStruct& sig, MethodAttributes methodAttributes, RuntimeTypeHandle typeOwner)


at System.Reflection.RuntimeMethodInfo.Invoke(Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, Binder binder, Object[] parameters, CultureInfo culture, Boolean skipVisibilityChecks)


at System.Reflection.RuntimeMethodInfo.Invoke(Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, Binder binder, Object[] parameters, CultureInfo culture)


at Microsoft.Office.Server.WebServiceDirectProxy.WebMethodInfo.Invoke(Object webServiceInstance, Object[] args)


at Microsoft.Office.Server.WebServiceDirectProxy.Invoke(String methodName, Object[] args)


at Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.ManagementAgent.ProfileImportExportDirect.UpdateWithProfileChangeData(Int64 importExportId, ProfileChangeData[] profileChangeData)


at Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.ManagementAgent.ProfileImportExportExtension.Microsoft.MetadirectoryServices.IMAExtensibleCallExport.ExportEntry(ModificationType modificationType, String[] changedAttributes, CSEntry csentry)

After checking all the steps under the bible of User Profile configuration found here, we were fairly certain our configuration and accounts hadn't changed. It turns out the error was caused by a SharePoint 2010 security patch that had been applied to our servers as part of our regular patching process. Microsoft support confirmed this to be the case and even have an excellent post on it:
 
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/tehnoonr/archive/2011/09/19/september-security-bulletin-ms11-074-and-sharepoint-2010-issues.aspx
 
Basically we applied KB2560890 without applying several other patches. Simply apply the other patches (KB2494022, KB2560885, KB2566456, KB2566954, KB2566958, KB2566960) listed in the article above, and the error should go away.
 
A couple of notes:

• After you apply the patches to all the servers in the farm, you need to run the SharePoint Configuration wizard on all the servers as well.
• KB2566960 failed when we tried to install it because we don't use Office Web Apps in our farm.
• You can Install SP1 and and the August CU to resolve this problem as well, but simply applying the patches is much less disruptive and less likely to cause new issues.
• http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/bulletin/ms11-074