Troubleshooting SharePoint Issues

SharePoint is arguably one of the more challenging SBS components to troubleshoot when problems arise. Fortunately, however, you rarely see issues with SharePointit usually just works. But what do you do when it doesn't?

The first step in troubleshooting SharePoint issues is to determine whether you truly have a SharePoint issue or some other issue that only shows itself when you're accessing your SharePoint site. Examples of other issues that could appear when trying to access your SharePoint site include network connectivity issues, firewall issues, and permissions issues.

Verify that you can reach your server and that DNS is resolving properly. This is accomplished simply by opening a command prompt and pinging Companyweb. You should receive a response from the IP address of your server. If you don't, you know you have either a network connectivity or DNS issue to troubleshoot.

Firewall issues can be tricky, although they rarely prevent you from completely accessing the Companyweb site. One common issue you may see when Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server is installed is a dialog box prompting for user credentials. This most often occurs because your http request is being routed through ISA's proxy service because it is not recognized as an internal website. In this case, you can open Internet Explorer properties, go to the Security tab, and add http://companyweb to your Local Intranet zone. Additionally, you can go to the Connections tab, LAN Settings and add Companyweb to the list of addresses excluded by the proxy service.

Permissions issues can often appear similarly to firewall issueswith prompts for user credentials. However, unlike firewall issues, entering proper credentials never lets you access the Companyweb site. In this instance, you want to make sure that you are not experiencing an issue with the specific client PC, by having the same user log on to another PC and try to access the Companyweb site. If the user can access the site from another PC, you know you do not have a permissions issue within the Companyweb; otherwise, the user would not be able to access the site from any location.

If the user cannot access the site from another PC, a Companyweb site administrator needs to verify that the problem user has the proper permissions to access the Companyweb site. If site permissions appear okay, you will want to log on to the server to check the user's AD account and verify that it is not locked out or disabled.

Although network connectivity and firewall issues are the most common, it is possible that you may encounter an issue with WSS itself. If you have eliminated client-side issues, such as network connectivity and firewalls, and have verified that you do not have a permissions problem, you want to begin looking at your server. Check the obvious items first by verifying that your necessary services are started. These include the MSSQL$SHAREPOINT service and the SPTimer service. If both of these services are started, verify that the Companyweb web site is started within IIS. If your services and website are started, check the logs. WSS is relatively new technology and as a result is very good about logging errors to the Windows Event logs. Open your Event Viewer and access the Application log. Check for any errors relating to WSS. If you find a related error, open the error and note the Event ID and description. Open a web browser and navigate to http://www.eventid.net. Enter the Event ID from your error and review the results. Additionally, don't be afraid to consult the many resources that the SBS community has to offer, which are outlined in Appendix A, "SBS Resources."

The Definitive Remove and Reinstall Companyweb How-To Guide

Under most deployment scenarios, you should not need to remove or reinstall your Companyweb site. However, if you find yourself in this position it is important to know how to perform this level of maintenance.

With any reinstallation process, there is a chance for data loss. As a result, if you have any documents or content from your current Companyweb site that you want to save, be sure to either extract these items from your Companyweb site and save them to disk or make sure that you have a valid SharePoint backup as discussed earlier in this chapter so that you can perform item-level restores into the new site if necessary.

A true benefit of SBS is the work that Microsoft has done for you in terms of providing comprehensive wizards to streamline installation and maintenance tasks. As with most aspects of SBS maintenance, Companyweb removal and reinstallation are best handled via the SBS wizards, specifically the SBS integrated installation wizard. Reinstalling Companyweb via the SBS integrated installation wizard does not reinstall the Companyweb content database if it already exists.

To access the SBS Integrated Installation Wizard, follow these steps:

1.	On your SBS server, open Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs.
2.	In the Currently Installed Programs list, locate Windows Small Business Server 2003 and click Change/Remove.
3.	Click Next to start the Windows Small Business Server 2003 Installation Wizard. Click Next again.
4.	As shown in Figure 14.11, select Maintenance next to Server Tools. You then can select your desired action (Remove or Reinstall) for the Intranet component (Companyweb). Click Next. Figure 14.11. The SBS Installation Wizard Component Selection screen.
5.	Select to manually enter password and click Next.
6.	Click Next to begin maintenance actions. Insert SBS CD3 when prompted and click OK.
7.	Click Finish to complete the installation wizard.

If the integrated reinstallation process does not solve your problem, or if you want to start over with a blank, default Companyweb site, a complete manual removal and installation of Companyweb will be required, which can be accomplished by using the following steps. More information is also available via Microsoft knowledge base article 829114: How to Remove and How to Install the Windows Small Business Server 2003 SharePoint Services Companyweb Web Site.

1.	Follow the preceding steps to remove the intranet component from SBS.
2.	Open Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs and remove Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine (SHAREPOINT).
3.	Delete the following registry keys: [View full width] HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SmallBusinessServer\Intranet HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\SHAREPOINT HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extenstions \Ports\Port /LM /W3SVC/4: (Do not delete /LM/W3SVC/1: If any other /LM/W3SVC/x: keys are present, back them up and then delete them.)
4.	Open Internet Information Services Administration console.
5.	Expand Web Sites and delete both the Companyweb site and the SharePoint Central Administration site. Do not delete the Microsoft SharePoint Administration site.
6.	Expand Application Pools. You want to keep the following four application pools: DefaultAppPool, ExchangeApplicationPool, ExchangeMobileBrowseApplicationPool, and MSSharePointAppPool. Delete all other application pools.
7.	Rename C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL$SHAREPOINT directory (if present).
8.	Rename the C:\Intepub\Companyweb directory (if present).
9.	Follow preceding set of steps to complete integrated installation of intranet component.
10.	When reinstalling the intranet component via SBS Integrated Setup, the setup process prompts for SBS CD3. If your SBS media does not include SBS SP1, when you insert SBS CD3 you receive the error "The drive contains a disk for Windows Small Business Server 2003 with no Service Packs. When the prompt appears, insert a disk for Windows Small Business Server 2003 with Service Pack 1." To complete the installation, you need to point SBS setup to the updated intranet installation files. If you receive this error, follow steps 11-14 to provide setup with the updated files. If you do not receive this error, skip to step 15.
11.	Start a command prompt and change the working directory to the folder where you downloaded SBS SP1, or your CD drive if you have SBS SP1 on CD. (Note that you will want SBS SP1 CD2 inserted.)
12.	Type the following command and press Enter: SBS2003-KB885918-SP1-X86-ENU.exe /x
13.	When you are prompted for a location to place the extracted files, create a temporary folder such as C:\SBSSP1.
14.	Run the SBS Integrated Setup to reinstall the intranet component. When setup prompts for SBS CD3, point setup to the temp folder where you extracted the updated setup files in the previous step.
15.	After the integrated installation completes, reapply WSS SP1 from SBS SP1 CD 1 or from your download location.
16.	After installing WSS SP1, reapply SBS SP1 from SBS SP1 CD 2 or your download location.
17.	If your previous Companyweb installation was using full SQL server, you will need to upgrade the recently reinstalled SharePoint WMSDE instance to full SQL server by following the instructions found on the SBS Premium Technologies CD. Note that after upgrading the SharePoint database to full SQL, you must install SQL SP 4 from the SBS SP1 CD 3.