SharePoint 2013 Password out of sync with Active Directory Password error

This works for SP 2010 and SP 2013 - let's say someone reset your SharePoint service account password in Active Directory and you are not letting SP 2013 manage your passwords as Managed Accounts. Let's say they also changed your Search service account and SQL service account passwords as well. Yeah, this happened to me. So you ask them for the new password. Then type it in as follows in Powershell:

PS C:\Users\Administrator> stsadm.exe -o updatefarmcredentials -userlogin DC07\SQLSvc -password mycoolpassword23!
Operation completed successfully.
PS C:\Users\Administrator> stsadm.exe -o updatefarmcredentials -userlogin DC07\SPFarm -password mycoolpassword23!
Operation completed successfully.
PS C:\Users\Administrator> stsadm.exe -o updatefarmcredentials -userlogin DC07\SPSearch -password mycoolpassword23!
Operation completed successfully.
PS C:\Users\Administrator>

Powershell Daily Automated backup of SP 2013 Site Collections

Need to backup your SharePoint 2013 Site collections daily into named.bak files?

Well the script is not elegant or pretty and does not scale well if you have thousands of site collections (but you can slightly modify this script and simply get the sp web top level farm root then iterate in a for loop aka: "for each site in sites"... - just google how to do that in sharepoint powershell if needed and you are too lazy to add in each site collection url by hand - I have done 4 below and each time I need a new one backed up I just add it manually to the script file - 3 lines)

Login to SharePoint Web Server node as SP farm admin.

Step 1: Copy the following to text file save as c:\projects\transfer\backupdaily.ps1 (rename the backup dir, site collection names, and site collection urls according your site collection needs):

Add-PSSnapin "Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell"
Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy "Unrestricted" -Force

$backupdir = "C:\projects\transfer\"

$mm = (Get-Date).Month
$dd = (Get-Date).Day
$yyyy = (Get-Date).Year
$hh = (Get-Date).Hour
$min = (Get-Date).Minute
$ss = (Get-Date).Second
$backupdatetime = "$mm" + "$dd" + "$yyyy" + "_" + "$hh" + "$min" + "$ss"
$backupdatetime

$backupfile = "$backupdir" + "root_" + "$backupdatetime" + ".bak"
$backupfile
Backup-SPSite -Identity "http://sdspweb01/" -Path "$backupfile" -Force -Verbose

$backupfile = "$backupdir" + "change_" + "$backupdatetime" + ".bak"
$backupfile
Backup-SPSite -Identity "http://sdspweb01/sites/change" -Path "$backupfile" -Force -Verbose

$backupfile = "$backupdir" + "assets_" + "$backupdatetime" + ".bak"
$backupfile
Backup-SPSite -Identity "http://sdspweb01/sites/assets" -Path "$backupfile" -Force -Verbose

$backupfile = "$backupdir" + "standards_" + "$backupdatetime" + ".bak"
$backupfile
Backup-SPSite -Identity "http://sdspweb01/sites/standards" -Path "$backupfile" -Force -Verbose

Step 2: You can use Windows Task Scheduler to run this powershell task on a scheduled basis: Open Administrative Tools on the SharePoint web server (any SharePoint web server node) Open Task Scheduler Create new basic task Set it daily at a certain time always (for example) For Action select Run a program For program type in: powershell -file c:\projects\transfer\backupdaily.ps1 (change to your filename and path where the powershell script is saved) If prompted a question about arguments, just click yes. Click run with highest privilege in the checkbox. Save it.

What it will do:
At the certain time each day it will create 4 (however many site collections you have) new files in the backup directory you selected.
Files will be named like "root_9302013_15451.bak" and "change_9302013_15451.bak" next day could be like: "root_10012013_15452.bak" and "change_10012013_15451.bak" (assuming I set them to fire at 3:45pm each day)

NetFx3 error on Windows Server 2012 installing SQL Server 2012

So I got a NetFx3 error on SQL Server 2012 installation saying that one or more windows features was not enabled. It was missing .net3.5 Windows Server 2012 comes with .net 4.5 but the SQL Server 2012 amazingly requires .net 3.5 (weird, cmon MSFT!). Anyway when I go to server manager in windows 2012 and try to add the legacy .net 3.5 feature, it failed. Therefor you have to run a command prompt as administrator and have access to the install files for your windows server 2012 and run this command (see screenshots below): The error during SQL Server install: Try to install from Windows Server 2012 Server Manager Console and still no dice: Try to install from command prompt (note the /all switch - it is needed because it will fail if you do not include this switch) - SUCCESS!!: Even though the feature was installed with success, it is a pain, because when you return to SQL Server install and click ok, it does not give you option of retrying the SQL Server install now that you fixed the failed feature. You have to let the entire rest of the install complete, with MANY errors (apparently MSFT makes a LOT of pieces of SQL Server 2012 dependent on .net 3.5!!!). Then once the orig install completes you will see something like this with many partial installed SQL Server 2012 features. You will then have to RERUN the SQL Server 2012 installer to pick up the bad things that were missed. Hopefully you wrote down the settings you used before! Good luck.

SharePoint 2013 Editions Comparison

This guy has a nice post on comparing the editions of SP 2013: http://blog.blksthl.com/2013/01/14/sharepoint-2013-feature-comparison-chart-all-editions/

Shredded Storage DeDuplication and RBS in SharePoint 2013

My take on all of this (and I used to be a SQL DBA) The jury is out on Shredded Storage vs RBS or in conjunction with RBS. My feeling is <1mb configure for RBS. Use RBS in conjunction with Shredded Storage in SP 2013. Maybe you will find that if you increase from 1mb to 3mb or 5mb it performs better and reduces the size of the content db. Key facts: • You cannot disable shredded storage in SP 2013, you can only modify the “chunk” size of the shreds • Shredded Storage can be used with or without RBS • Shredded Storage works best for Office documents, in SharePoint Document Libraries with Versioning enabled, and many subsequent edits (versions) to the document • Shredded Storage worsens file upload and file download times in most cases (some cases Significantly slower in SP 2013) – so Microsoft solved one problem but created another. o Ask yourself, what is the usage pattern of your particular sharepoint application – take Workspace for example, compare and contrast this against tatxech internal Collaboration aka the new SP 2013 my.corptax.com o The key takeaway from one of the links explains this best: o Link quote – “For me, the decision to disable shredding is a bit nearsighted. Not all organizations use SharePoint for document collaboration where content is being updated/edited in large quantities. I would even argue that while some organizations do have collaboration sites where lots of editing occurs, they almost certainly have other sites where documents are simply uploaded and downloaded without edits or new versions being created.” o I personally believe like with all Microsoft technologies, they will continue to evolve Shredded Storage, and I feel fine grained control will be provided in future releases and CUs of SP 2013:  Link quote - “Unfortunately you are relegated to living with Shredded Storage in hopes that Microsoft will provide, at a minimum the ability to disable the feature. An even better would be an option to control Shredded Storage at the site or site collection level for added flexibility.” • Shredded Storage reduces network IO and CPU Utilization in most cases Start From here: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepointgeneral/thread/18cfac66-1ed8-4a96-814b-25319b0f1686 Note that Shredded Storage is not deduplication. If there are two copies of the same document located on the same content database, it will store two copies of that document. Shredded is used for versioning of a single document (Office documents), storing only the differences between the versions, unlike in previous versions of SharePoint where it stores a complete document for every version. If you want deduplication, you're going to have to look for a 3rd party RBS provider, like Metalogix's StoragePoint, which will only store a single copy in the RBS data store no matter how many times the item is referenced in SharePoint, given it is identical. http://sharepointpromag.com/blog/sharepoint-2013-shredded-storage-and-end-world http://blogs.technet.com/b/wbaer/archive/2012/11/12/introduction-to-shredded-storage-in-sharepoint-2013.aspx The Impact of Shredded Storage on SP 2013: https://www.nothingbutsharepoint.com/sites/itpro/Pages/The-Impact-of-Shredded-Storage-on-SharePoint-2013.aspx Detailed performance test results of shredded storage (SP 2013) vs non shredded SP 2010: http://www.metalogix.com/blog/blog-article/13-02-19/The_Impact_of_Shredded_Storage_on_SharePoint_2013 The table below compares SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint 2013 upload and download times on the same document set. Our lab testing confirms that SharePoint 2013 uploads and downloads are slower — and in some cases significantly slower — than SharePoint 2010. This is a direct result of Shredded Storage. The overhead involved in determining how to split a document into smaller pieces and store those smaller pieces definitely has an impact on the performance for uploads and downloads. Upload (speed in milliseconds) Download (speed in milliseconds) Scenarios File Name File Type File Size (KB) SP2010 (A) SP2013 (B) Difference (A-B) SP2010 ( C) SP 2013 (D) Delta (C-D) 1 AA_Small TIF TIF 60 0.58 0.25 0.33 0.02 0.03 -0.01 2 AB_PDF Sample PDF 625 0.11 0.39 -0.29 0.02 0.05 -0.03 3 AC_SharePoint Training PPTX 669 0.15 0.72 -0.57 0.02 0.12 -0.10 4 AD_Drawing1 VSD 759 0.16 0.47 -0.31 0.02 0.05 -0.03 5 AE_1 MB Word Doc 2010 DOCX 1,082 0.35 0.66 -0.30 0.03 0.10 -0.07 6 AF_LV111-01-10 DWG 1,208 0.15 0.55 -0.41 0.03 0.07 -0.03 7 AG_1 mb image JPG 1,210 0.20 0.64 -0.43 0.03 0.07 -0.04 8 AH_Drawing2 VSD 1,659 0.24 0.78 -0.54 0.04 0.09 -0.05 9 AI_Customer 2009 PPT 2,192 0.34 0.93 -0.59 0.05 0.10 -0.06 10 AJ_2mb TIF Image TIF 2,579 0.32 1.01 -0.69 0.05 0.12 -0.07 11 AK_2mb Image JPG 2,725 0.34 1.06 -0.72 0.06 0.14 -0.08 12 AL_LV111-02-10 DXF 2,783 0.33 1.10 -0.77 0.06 0.16 -0.10 13 AM_3_6mb PDF Sample PDF 3,690 0.49 1.47 -0.98 0.07 0.21 -0.13 14 AN_4 MB PDF PDF 4,078 0.50 1.60 -1.10 0.08 0.19 -0.11 15 AO_Corporate Presentation 2007 PPT 4,248 0.49 1.69 -1.21 0.08 0.20 -0.11 16 AP_Analyst Briefing - 2008 PPT 4,434 0.54 1.68 -1.15 0.08 0.18 -0.10 17 AQ_4_5 mb Video MOV 4,627 0.46 1.77 -1.31 0.10 0.19 -0.09 18 AR_4_5 mb wmv video WMV 4,680 0.51 1.81 -1.30 0.24 0.18 0.06 19 AS_Internet Safety Presentation PPT 4,839 0.42 1.84 -1.42 0.24 0.20 0.05 20 AT_5mb Image JPG 5,267 0.50 2.15 -1.66 0.21 0.23 -0.02 21 AU_LV111-01-10 DXF 5,425 0.42 2.02 -1.60 0.28 0.25 0.03 22 AV_5_3 JPG JPG 5,457 0.55 2.08 -1.53 0.19 0.23 -0.04 23 AW_LV111-02-FL DXF 5,866 0.48 2.11 -1.63 0.24 0.22 0.02 24 AX_Corporate Slide Deck_April 2009 PPT 5,936 0.53 2.29 -1.76 0.18 0.27 -0.09 25 AY_LV111-01-FL DXF 5,972 0.44 2.22 -1.78 0.13 0.27 -0.14 26 AZ_7mb Excel File XLSX 7,415 0.68 0.89 -0.22 0.33 0.28 0.05 27 BA_SPC14_348_WhatsNewDevs PPTX 8,935 0.76 1.55 -0.80 0.30 0.95 -0.65 28 BB_SPC 2009 PPT 9,255 0.89 3.33 -2.45 0.39 0.34 0.04 29 BC_11_7mb Excel File XLSX 11,974 0.92 1.25 -0.33 0.73 0.32 0.41 30 BD_14_5 MB PDF PDF 14,861 1.24 5.08 -3.85 0.73 1.10 -0.38 31 BE_26 MB XLSX XLSX 26,557 2.24 2.79 -0.54 1.31 2.29 -0.97 32 BF_28MB_txt_TestFile TXT 28,787 2.05 8.58 -6.53 0.82 2.32 -1.49 33 BG_33_1 MB WORD 2010 Doc DOCX 33,947 2.53 3.24 -0.71 0.62 3.02 -2.40 34 BH_50MB_txt_TestFile TXT 54,265 3.69 15.92 -12.23 0.83 3.73 -2.90 35 BI_55 MB XLSX XLSX 56,356 4.18 4.90 -0.72 2.29 5.48 -3.19 36 BJ_70 MB WORD 2010 Doc DOCX 71,694 5.39 5.99 -0.59 6.55 6.36 0.19 37 BK_100 MB XLSX XLSX 103,108 8.85 8.16 0.69 5.83 7.86 -2.03 38 BL_103 MB WORD 2010 Doc DOCX 105,411 7.78 7.91 -0.13 4.84 7.20 -2.36 39 BM_180MB_txt_TestFile TXT 184,288 13.52 10.53 2.98 13.55 5.82 7.72 40 BN_190 mb Word Doc 2003 DOC 195,899 14.65 12.01 2.63 14.30 8.22 6.08 41 BO_250 mb Movie MOV 255,454 20.30 15.70 4.60 20.35 10.22 10.14 42 BP_382 mb Word Doc 2003 DOC 391,739 29.25 26.70 2.55 12.22 16.76 -4.55 43 BQ_540MB_txt_TestFile TXT 552,862 45.21 42.21 3.00 31.71 17.36 14.35 One Size Does Not Fit All The test results above led us to examine the configuration options for Shredded Storage to determine if we could mitigate the negative impact on uploads and downloads. Unfortunately your options are limited. Contrary to other blog posts on the topic, Shredded Storage cannot be disabled. You actually had the option to disable shredding in the SharePoint 2013 beta but that option was eliminated in the RTM build. The only remaining option is changing the default shred or "chunk" size that files will split into when they are stored. For me the decision to disable shredding is a bit nearsighted. Not all organizations use SharePoint for document collaboration where content is being updated/edited in large quantities. I would even argue that while some organizations do have collaboration sites where lots of editing occurs, they almost certainly have other sites where documents are simply uploaded and downloaded without edits or new versions being created. A common example is document imaging where PDF/TIFF images are stored within SharePoint. Those images never change. Or, how about a document center that contains tens of thousands of published documents that are being read rather than updated? What's more, Shredded Storage provides little value for these scenarios. It is true that even with versioning disabled the I/O between the client, SharePoint Server, and database Server will be optimized. However you will not reduce overall storage requirements. Unfortunately you are relegated to living with Shredded Storage in hopes that Microsoft will provide, at a minimum the ability to disable the feature. An even better would be an option to control Shredded Storage at the site or site collection level for added flexibility. Solving one problem by introducing another significant problem is going to make for some unhappy campers who are already struggling to keep up with the explosive growth of their SharePoint content. In part 2, we will address using RBS with Shredded Storage, including debunking myths, reviewing how RBS functions with Shredding Storage, and discussing best practices for optimizing RBS. Lastly another article by Metalogix CO-CTO: https://www.nothingbutsharepoint.com/sites/itpro/Pages/Dispelling-the-Myths-of-Shredded-Storage-in-SharePoint-2013.aspx

Remote Blob Storage (RBS) - to blob or not to blob

A great article about Remote Blob Storage can be found here: TO BLOB OR NOT TO BLOB.pdf By Avepoint. Enjoy!

Find size of all sites and subsites in SharePoint

A great tool to find the size of all sites and subsites in SharePoint: http://spusedspaceinfo.codeplex.com/

SharePoint 2010: Error 7043 "Load control template file /_controltemplates/TaxonomyPicker.ascx failed"

SharePoint 2010: Error 7043 "Load control template file /_controltemplates/TaxonomyPicker.ascx failed" I see this in many SP 2010 error logs. Here is how to fix this annoying message: This is not causing any issues except for a wrong ULS log message a single time in a web application process life time, the exception is caught and that template file is skipped. This message should be treated as log noise and can be ignored. To change this behavior: Navigate to /14/TEMPLATE/ControlTemplates/TaxonomyPicker.ascx user control Open the user control in a text editor and locate the first line Find the character string ,(ampersand#44;) and replace with a comma ‘,’ (without quotes). Save the user control See the Microsoft kb here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2481844

SharePoint 2010 add Site Pages to your site

Ever wondered why some sites have a Site Pages library and a Site Assets library some don't?

The answer lies in a feature called Wiki Page Home Page, which is enabled by default for Team Sites in SharePoint 2010. However, other types of site templates may not activate that feature by default, and if that’s the case, those libraries won’t be there.

If you need them, you have a few options:

EASIEST BUT CHANGES YOUR HOME PAGE: Activate the “Wiki Page Home Page” feature. The feature will create those libraries and will also create a wiki page and set it as the home (welcome) page for your site.

BETTER WAY: If you only need the libraries and don’t want your home page changed, you can have SharePoint Designer 2010 create the libraries for you: Open SharePoint Designer. In the “Site Objects” pane on the left, click “Site Pages.” SP Designer will load the contents of the Site Pages library and tell you it’s empty. However, it also creates the Site Pages library for you in the process. Do the same thing for “Site Assets” (also in the Site Objects pane).

PROGRAMMATIC CHECKS: If you have code that depends on the existence of these libraries (such as a feature receiver), you can use two methods on the SPListCollection class to ensure the libraries are there: EnsureSitePagesLibrary() EnsureSiteAssetsLibrary()