SP2010 & SP2013: DisableLoopBackCheck Registry Setting

Hi, this is a issue that i had many many time...

Update: There are 2 methods, the prefered method you should use on production servers
http://daniecsp.blogspot.co.za/2013/11/loopback-disable-with-preferred-method.html

Should set it from the start bit was hoping that this would not be an issue on Windows Server 2012 but you still have to add the Reg Entry.

i Have seen many different Symptoms for this issue.
The latest one that now prompted me to add this post, is i type in the SP home site url and get asked for the user name all the time. Even after typing it in correctly.

This happens when the server tries to browse to itself. To test if this is your problem try and browse to your site from a different server.(Remember to open port's on your local firewall if it is enabled)

To fix this you have to add the DisableLoopBackCheck registry entry.

Open your registry by going to run and type regedit. (Dont make changes in regitry if you dont know what you are doing....)

1. In Registry Editor, locate and then click the following registry key:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa
2. Right-click Lsa, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
3. Type DisableLoopbackCheck, and then press ENTER.
4. Right-click DisableLoopbackCheck, and then click Modify.
5. In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.
6. Quit Registry Editor, and then restart your computer.

SP2013: Creating My Sites on SharePoint 2013

Ok, so i need to create mysites manually.

If you use the mySites that gets created with the config wizard it creates it under the default site database and site collection...or something like that. Bottom line is if there are going to be lots of users you dont want that.

So, create a web app and on top of it a site collection with the "My Site host" site template.

Then you need to create a new managed path.
So go to the web app you created, highlight the web app and click on "Managed Path"

Create a
Wildcard inclusion, in my case "my"

Next click on Service Connections below Managed Paths. There you need to make sure that the following is checked:
User Profile Service Application
Managed Metadata Service
Search Service Application

Now setup self service site creation also under the web app options
Here is the settings i used:

Now you need to grant users rights to create a site collection
Still under Web App properties click on Permission policy.
Then on "Add Permission Policy Level"

Call it something like Mysite Creation.
Grant Full Rights to "Create SubSites" and click on Ok.

Now you need to click on the user policy and then on add users.
Choose All Zones
On the next screen add the users you want to be able to create mysites. i Will use "Everyone"
Then check mySite Creation

Now you need to setup the MySite Creation
In Central Admin go to Manage Service Applications -> Then on User Profile Service Applications.
Then on "Setup My Sites"
Enter a preferred search center, MySite Host Location and personal Site Location ("My")

Now you need to setup a timer job for activity feed.
From Central admin goto timer jobs. Find the "User Profile Service Application - Activity Feed Job" and run this. Not sure if this is really needed but it is scheduled for every 10 Minues anyway.

Ok, your done.
Click on Sites and you should get this

SP2013: This SQL Server Instance does not have the required maxdegree of parellism setting of 1

Hi, At a client today installing SP2013 and getting this error now for the second time.

Quick and simple to fix, just need to remember to do it before i run the farm wizard...

Dont have a SQL 2012 now to get some screenshots.

You can run this script in SQL

sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1;

GO

RECONFIGURE WITH OVERRIDE;

GO

sp_configure 'max degree of parallelism', 8;

GO

RECONFIGURE WITH OVERRIDE;

GO

Or via the SQL Gui:

Open SQL Management Studio

Right Click on the server and go to properties.

Click on advanced and if i remember corectly you have to go down about halfway where you must set this value to 1.

You dont need to restart SQL server after ding this so no down time.

SP2010: Opening PDF from SharePoint in IE8 Browser

Hi,

We have got one user who cant open a PDF in her browser. IE8

As far as we are aware all other users have got no issues.

iFilters for PDF is configured (Will add a post for this) and there is a icon uploaded to SharePoint.

The possible causes according to a quick search:

• Acrobat or Reader can't read the PDF file.
• The web browser isn't configured correctly with the Adobe PDF Browser plug-in.
• The web server on which the PDF file is stored can't serve the PDF file.
• You are using a 64-bit version of the Internet Explorer browser. 

So i recommended that they try the 32Bit version of IE and that did the job

PS: This is apparently not needed in SharePoint 2013 anymore.. Still need to test it.

SP2013: Service Unavailable HTTP Error 503 when opening Central Admin

Hi, Got this at the same client today as the SQL Error in the previous post...
This is on SharePoint 2013 RTM

In your browser you get the following:

Quite a simple fix for this error

First go to IIS and try and start your App Pool Where you are getting the error, If you refresh and it stopped again then you need to confirm the identity settings(In IIS on the App Pool that does not want to start goto advance settings Scroll Down to Identity and make sure the details is correct)

 If that dont work you need to give your SP_Farm and SP_ServiceApps accounts "Log on as a Batch Job" Rights

If it is a local security policy then you need to do the following:
Open Administrative Tools, Local Security Policy
Browser to the following: (If this is greyed out goto your Domain Controller and edit your Group Policy as described below)

If it is via group policy then do the following:
Open your Group Policy on your DC
Browse to the following:

Add the above usernames here(Sp_Farm and SP_ServiceApps)

SP2010: Installing PDF iFilter and uploading Icon and enable search

Hi, this is a quick and easy process so not going to go into much detail:

First Download your iFilter

(http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=4025)

Then you need to download the Icon (http://www.adobe.com/misc/linking.html#producticons)

Copy the PDF icon here:
\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\TEMPLATE\IMAGES\

Browse to "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\TEMPLATE\XML." and edit the docicon.xml file

Add this line: <Mapping Key="pdf" Value="pdf16.gif"/>

Then you need to make sure that pdf's are included in your search

Browse to: \\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office Server\14.0\Search\Setup\ContentIndexCommon\Filters\Extension

Right Click on Extension and click new “Key” Call it .pdf

Under the newly create item there will be a default Reg_SZ value. Open it and paste the value below into the "value Data":

{E8978DA6-047F-4E3D-9C78-CDBE46041603}

Restart the Sharepoint Server Search Service 14 Service.




Now you will be able to search for PDF's(After a new/incremental crawl)

It wil display the pdf icon.



Update: You have to set your Browser File Handling to Permissive to be able to view the pdf in your browser. You do this under the web application general settings.

SP2013: How to Sign in as Different user

Hi,

Was quite simple in SharePoint 2010 but the "Log on as Different User" the has been removed in SP2013.
I Used it quite often.

SP2010:

This menu is not available on SP2013.
Work arounds:
1:
Hold down shift and right click Internet Explorer, choose Run as different user

 Here is can supply the details of the user you want to log in as.

2:
You can acces the site with the following url:
http://<site url>/_layouts/closeConnection.aspx?loginasanotheruser=true

You can enter the details here.

Cant imagine why they would remove the link...

SP2010 Health Analyser Warning: Verify that the Activity Feed Timer Job is enabled

This is also a common warning on SP2010 farms.

"Verify that the Activity Feed Timer Job is enabled"

You can first try the resolve it Automatically under the Health Analyser. If that fails start it manually by following these steps:

• Go to Central admin
• Click on Monitoring
• Review Job Definitions
• Click on: User Profile Service Application - Activity Feed Job
• Choose how often you want to run it and click on Enable

Run the Re-analyse now and refresh your screen. Should be resolved. 

Quick and Easy!

SP2010: The Unattended Service Account Application ID is not specified or has an invalid value.

Hi, 

I Have been getting this warning on the "SharePoint Health Analyser" forever on many farms but never get around to resolving it.

Error:

The Unattended Service Account Application ID is not specified or has an invalid value.

The Unattended Service Account is a single, low-privileged account that Visio Graphics Service impersonates when it connects to data sources external to Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, such as Microsoft SQL Server. This account is required to connect to these external data sources.

Solution:

In Central Admin, goto "Manage Service Application"

Scroll down to Secure Store Service and click on it

If you have not done this you will get his message:

"Before creating a new Secure Store Target Application, you must first generate a new key for this Secure Store Service Application from the ribbon."

Enter your Pass Phrase here

You will now be able to click on "New"

You have have to complete the following:

• Target Application ID: This must be a Unique Identifier (This cannot be changed)
• Enter a name
• Enter a valid e-mail address.
• Target Application Type: Choose a group here (This allows me to bind a group to one user account)

Note: (As per: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee806866.aspx)

There are two primary types for creating a target application:

•        Group, for mapping all the members of one or more groups to a single set of credentials on the external data source.
•        Individual, for mapping each user to a unique set of credentials on the external data source

If this error is displayed: 

The given key was not present in the dictionary.

Solution: (Source http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2463865)

• Open Active Directory Users and Computers
• Find your installation account (SP_Admin)
• Select "Advanced Features" from the View Menu
• Open the properties of the desired account
• Select the "Security" tab
•  Find your farm service account (the one running the central admin app pool and the timer service) and give them the “Read Account Restrictions” permission on the user object.

Once you retry this task you should get the following screen:

Click Next

On the membership screen you need to add you installation account:

After creating the new application, you can add credential mappings by using the "Set Credentials" button for the selected application. You can edit the settings of this application later at the Manage Target Applications page

For the error i am experiencing i am not going to set the credentials for the user but you do it by click on drop down next to the Target Application ID you created.

Now to resolve the error

• Go back to "Manage Service Applications"
• Scroll down to "Visio Graphics Service" and click on it
• Click on global settings
• Enter the TargetApplicationID you just created at the bottom of this page

Well that is it. 

You can go to your Health Analyser and re-analyse the warning. It can take some time before the warning goes away.

SP2010: Scanners not Scanning to Drop Of Library

The idea of this blog is to share the SharePoint issues i have. 

So let’s start with my issue today...

SP2010 

At a client who uses HP scanners (HP ScanJet N9120) to scan to a Drop of Library via the HP Smart Scan Software.

Using the HP software you get the error "Internal Server Error" in a message box with the name "SharePoint Link" 

This happens with a scanner user. Using the admin/Install user it works...

So must be a rights issue... I Guess

Given the Scanner user the farm admin rights, and every right I can find and no luck...

Solved!

Resource throttling. Showed up in the uls logs. Should have looked in there much sooner.
Set the resource throttling to 10.

Dont change this if you dont need to. This is there for a reason.

More details:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262813.aspx