[Server Name or IP Address],[Port] is an invalid or loopback access. Specify a valid server address.

Recently I was installing SharePoint 2010 and the Configuration wizard failed giving me the below error

Failed to create the configuration database.

An exception of type System.ArgumentException was thrown. Additional exception information: [Server Name or IP Address], [Port] is an invalid or loopback access. Specify a valid server address.

We had a hardened environment where only a specific SQL port was made available.

On the Specify Configuration Database Settings screen, I entered the Database server in the below format (Database Server Name followed by a coma and the port number that was made available)

Database server: DATABASE-SERVERNAME,1581

Database name: SharePoint_Config_test

The fix

Enter in the below format(if there is only one instance of SQL in the database server) (append '\MSSQLSERVER' after the Database Server Name followed by the coma and the port number)

Database server: DATABASE-SERVERNAME\MSSQLSERVER,1581

Database name: SharePoint_Config_test

PivotTable Operation Failed: We cannot locate a server to load the workbook Data Model

While creating a demo with PowerPivot (Excel Services) on SharePoint 2013, I came across this error.

PivotTable Operation Failed: We cannot locate a server to load the workbook Data Model

Cause

The Analysis Services instance has not been configured in the Central Administration site or Analysis Services needs to be restarted

Resolution

Solution 1

You can also make sure that the steps displayed here are followed. In my case this was already done. But I am still listing it down.To work around this issue, configure the Excel Services service application on the SharePoint server. To do this, follow these steps:

1. In the Application Management section of the Central Administration home page, click Manage service applications.

2. On the Manage Service Applications page, click the Excel Services service application that you want to configure.

3. On the Manage Excel Services page, click Data Model.

4. Click Add Server.

5. In the Server Name box, type the name of the Analysis Services instance that you want to add.

6. Click Ok.

Solution 2

I restarted the SQL Server Analysis Services (POWERPIVOT) service on SQL Server Configuration Manager. That fixed the issue for me. If that didn’t help try an IISRESET.

SQL Server Configuration Manager - Connection to target machine could not be made in a timely fashion

Yesterday I had to stop the SQL Server Analysis Services (POWERPIVOT) service on SQL Server Configuration Manager (the idea was to restart the service). After this, I was getting the below error when I tried to open the SQL Server Configuration Manager.

---------------------------

SQL Server Configuration Manager

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Connection to target machine could not be made in a timely fashion.

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OK  

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I waited for 30 minutes and the error was not going off. After 30 minutes, the status showed Stopped (Pending Changes) in SQL Server Configuration Manager. But when I opened Service page (services.msc) ,the same service SQL Server Analysis Services (POWERPIVOT) was still in Stopping state

Resolution

I restarted the server and things changed back to normal

Error 0x800700DF: The file size exceeds the limit allowed and cannot be saved.

Problem Description

I was trying to copy items from SharePoint Windows explorer view to my local drive and I got this error message. All files were pretty big. (More than 50 MB).

Copy Folder

An unexpected error is keeping you from copying the folder. If you continue to receive this error, you can use the error code to search for help with this problem.

Error 0x800700DF: The file size exceeds the limit allowed and cannot be saved.

<file name>

Try again Cancel

Cause

You receive a folder copy error message when you try to download a file that is larger than 50000000 bytes from a Web folder. I was using Windows 7 Operating System

Resolution

Follow this KB article and run the Fix IT by downloading and running the executable.

P.S.: When you run the Fix it wizard, you need to enter a FileSizeLimitInBytes (I changed it to 500MB by adding an additional zero) value that is larger than the size of the file that you want to download.

SharePoint 2007 compatibility with SQLServer

Office SharePoint Server 2007 is compatible with

- SQL Server 2000 with the latest service pack (which is SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 4)

- Microsoft SQL Server 2005 SP1 or later

Office SharePoint Server 2007 SP1 is compatible with

- SQL Server 2008

Office SharePoint Server 2007 SP2 is compatible with

- SQL Server 2008 R2

 But Office SharePoint Server 2007 is not compatible with SQL Server 2012. 

Key Excerpts

Office SharePoint Server 2007 also supports SQL Server 2008 R2. Ensure that you have installed Office SharePoint Server 2007 with Service Pack 2 (SP2) or later.

Office SharePoint Server 2007 does not support SQL Server 2012 or later versions of SQL Server.

Reference

Maximum request length exceeded error while uploading files of size more than 50MB

Recently one of our SharePoint users came up with an issue that they were not able to upload files to SharePoint. It was giving him an access denied message. I checked for the permission for the user and the user had contribute permissions. The access denied message appeared only when the file size was more than 50 MB. The user was able to upload files of size lesser than 50 MB.

I checked in Central Administration ->Application Management-> Manage web application- >Select web application -> General Settings ->Maximum Upload Size .It was 200 MB

I checked the event viewer on the SharePoint server and saw the below error.

Request Url : 'https://servername/sites/sitename/_layouts/UploadEx.aspx?List={0CB029E1-5FA0-427D-A871-652E1748D8FD}&RootFolder=&IsDlg=1'

Maximum request length exceeded.

Exception Type: System.Web.HttpException

Exception Source: System.Web @ GetEntireRawContent

Resolution

I checked the web.config file of the associated web application and I noticed this.

<system.web>

<securityPolicy>

<trustLevel name="WSS_Medium" policyFile="C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\config\wss_mediumtrust.config"/>

<trustLevel name="WSS_Minimal" policyFile="C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\config\wss_minimaltrust.config"/>

</securityPolicy>

<httpHandlers/>

<customErrors mode="On"/>

<httpRuntime maxRequestLength="51200"/>

If you see this the maxRequestLength parameter for httpRuntime was set to 50 MB. Please note that the value listed here is in kB. I changed this to a higher value (204800 to match the 200 MB in Central Administration).

<httpRuntime maxRequestLength="204800"/>

Error while restoring a site collection in the same content database

I wanted 2 sites to be the exact same. So I was performing a backup of a site collection http://sharepoint.fahad.com/sites/siteA and was trying to restore it as http://sharepoint.fahad.com/sites/siteB .

Backup-SPSite -Identity "http://sharepoint.fahad.com/sites/siteA" -Path "C:\ Backups\siteA.bak” -force -verbose

Restore-SPSite -Identity "http://sharepoint.fahad.com/sites/siteB" –Path "C:\ Backups\siteA.bak" -force -verbose

The restore operation failed and gave me the below error:

Restore-SPSite: The operation that you are attempting to perform cannot be completed successfully.  No content databases in the web application were available to store your site collection.  The existing content databases may have reached the maximum number of site collections, or be set to read-only, or be offline, or may already contain a copy of this site collection.  Create another content database for the Web application and then try the operation again.

Reason

Both these site collections were in the same web application and it had only one content database. Microsoft uses the source site collection GUIDs during the installation. Though you delete the site collection from the web application, it leaves the GUIDs behind, and if you try to restore same site collection (same GUID) into same web application and content database, it would throw an error.

To resolve the issue, new content database needs to be created in the web application to restore the site collection.

Resolution

1.Create a new content database WSS_Content_siteB from Central Administration for your web application where your site collection is going to reside. Reference

2.Restore-SPSite -Identity "http://sharepoint.fahad.com/sites/siteB" -Path "C:\ Backups\siteA.bak" -force -verbose -ContentDatabase WSS_Content_siteB

SharePoint 2010 Convert farm license type greyed out

I was trying to upgrade the license of SharePoint 2010 from Standard to Enterprise from Central Administration 

-> Upgrade and Migration -> Convert farm license type. The column to enter the Product key to upgrade was greyed.

How to fix this

Browse to Central Administration -> Upgrade and Migration -> Enable Enterprise Features ->Choose Enterprise. 

If the upgrade to Enterprise did not work from Central Administration, follow this post

Error upgrading Sharepoint 2010 Standard License to Enterprise License

I was working with SharePoint 2010 Standalone version and trying to upgrade the license of SharePoint 2010 from Standard to Enterprise from Central Administration GUI. .I followed the steps here to do the upgrade from Central Administration.

This was giving me the below error

An error occurred while enabling Enterprise features. Refer to the event logs on your server machines for more details. For more information on how to fix this error, refer to help.

Click OK to return to the SharePoint Central Administration Operations page.

Resolution

1. Open command prompt. Browse to “C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\Web Server Extensions\14\bin”. Run the below command [It takes a while to finish running this command]

PSCONFIG.EXE -cmd services -install -cmd installfeatures

2. Open SharePoint 2010 Management Shell. Run as administrator. Run the below command

Set-SPFarmConfig -InstalledProductsRefresh

3. Now browse to Central Administration -> Upgrade and Migration -> Enable Enterprise Features -> Choose Enterprise.

4. Next enable Enterprise features on all existing web applications and site collection.

You will get the below message:

SharePoint Server Enterprise Features are now being enabled on each site in your SharePoint installation. The operation will take some time to complete. The page will be periodically updated with current status. Processing will continue even if you close the page.

On completion:

Sharepoint Server Enterprise Features are now available on all sites in your SharePoint installation

5. Now browse to Central Administration -> Upgrade and Migration -> Convert farm license type.

It will show that the license has changed to Enterprise. Reference

Dependency feature 'PPSSiteCollectionMaster' for feature 'PPSSiteMaster' is not activated at this scope.

Issue

I was trying to create a new sub site under my site collection while working with Sharepoint 2010 and I got the below error message.

Dependency feature 'PPSSiteCollectionMaster' (id: a1cb5b7f-e5e9-421b-915f-bf519b0760ef) for feature

'PPSSiteMaster' (id: 0b07a7f4-8bb8-4ec0-a31b-115732b9584d) is not activated at this scope.

[Cannot provision site: http://servername/sites/site1]

Resolution

1. Go Site Actions -> Site Settings ->Site Collection Administration ->Site collection features -> PerformancePoint Services Site Collection Features -> Activate

2. Go Site Actions -> Site Settings ->Site Actions ->Manage site features -> PerformancePoint Services Site Features -> Activate

Display Name	ID	Scope
PPSSiteCollectionMaster PerformancePoint Services Site Collection Features	a1cb5b7f-e5e9-421b-915f-bf519b0760ef	Site
PPSSiteMaster PerformancePoint Services Site Features	0b07a7f4-8bb8-4ec0-a31b-115732b9584d	Web

SharePoint 2010 Error: Failed to call GetTypes on assembly Microsoft.Office.InfoPath.Server

I had installed Microsoft Office 2013 on top of SharePoint 2010 standalone version. I was trying to create a new web application and the operation failed all the time giving 404 errors and the ULS logs had errors as below : 

“ Failed to call GetTypes on assembly Microsoft.Office.InfoPath.Server, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c. Could not load file or assembly ‘Microsoft.Office.InfoPath, Version=15.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c’ or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified. “

This left me nuts for couple of hours. We were working as a group and my idea was to reinstall Sharepoint and check if the problem existed before Office 2013 installation also. Because this made no sense to me. But a colleague of mine did some googling and suggested the below fix referring to here

Resolution

Uninstall Microsoft InfoPath from the Office 2013 Suite. It looks more like a compatibility issue of Sharepoint 2010 with Microsoft Office InfoPath 2013.

We did this and that helped. I was able to create new web applications :-)

Redirecting an IIS (7.0) Website

1. Go to IIS Manager (inetmgr). Select the server name-> Expand the servername -> Expand Sites -> Select the IIS website

2. Click on the Features View (on the right hand side)

3. Below IIS ->double click on HTTP Redirect

4. Check Redirect requests to this destination. Enter the URL to where you want to redirect the users

5. Check Redirect all requests to exact destination (instead of relative to destination)

6. On the Actions tab ->click Apply and save the changes.