Sunday 8 December 2013

Verify SP 2013 Search Installations

This Script runs PowerShell to check the Search on a farm, it shows where components are configured & working.

There are more details scripts on the web, this is a simple check.

 

Saturday 7 December 2013

Restricting SharePoint Designer access

Overview: I dislike SharePoint Designer (SPD).  Depending on your companies/clients SharePoint governance, you can control the use of SPD on you farms.  My default position is turn it completely off.  SPD can be configured at web application (WA) or Site collection level.

My position is turn off SharePoint designer on your production and UAT farms.  If someone needs access they probably should rather do it in dev and package it for deployment or turn on specific access.  SharePoint CA can be used to configure how SPD can work on specific Web Apps.

Controlling SPD at a WA level is can be done via PS or using CA.  Tip: CA > General Settings > SharePoint Designer > Configure SharEPoint Designer Settings > Select the web app to edit and adjust accordingly.

More Info:
http://blog.ciaops.com/2013/06/disabling-sharepoint-designer-access-in.html

Saturday 30 November 2013

Planning Suggestion for SharePoint 2013

Overview:  It is always a good idea to have an exact breakdown of your SharePoint achitecture. I do this using a diagram and a corresponding spreadsheet.  This post has an example of the spreadsheet, I have a tab for each DTAP environment before I build it out. 

Server Name Server Role Logical Group CPU C D RAM Location IP Environment
SVR-PR-WFE1 SharePoint Web Front End SP WFE 4 90 80 16 London 10.189.10.50 Production
SVR-PR-WFE2 SharePoint Web Front End SP WFE 4 90 80 16 London 10.189.10.51 Production
SVR-PR-WFE3 SharePoint Web Front End SP WFE 4 90 80 16 M 10.189.10.52 Production
SVR-PR-WFE4 SharePoint Web Front End SP WFE 4 90 80 16 M 10.189.10.53 Production
SVR-PR-APP1 SharePoint Application Server SP APP 4 90 80 16 London 10.189.10.54 Production
SVR-PR-APP2 SharePoint Application Server SP APP 4 90 80 16 London 10.189.10.55 Production
SVR-PR-APP3 SharePoint Application Server SP APP 4 90 80 16 M 10.189.10.56 Production
SVR-PR-APP4 SharePoint Application Server SP APP 4 90 80 16 M 10.189.10.57 Production
SVR-PR-OWA1 Office Web Applications OWA 8 90 80 16 London 10.189.10.58 Production
SVR-PR-OWA2 Office Web Applications OWA 8 90 80 16 London 10.189.10.59 Production
SVR-PR-OWA3 Office Web Applications OWA 8 90 80 16 M 10.189.10.60 Production
SVR-PR-OWA4 Office Web Applications OWA 8 90 80 16 M 10.189.10.61 Production
SVR-PR-WF1 Workflow Services SP WF 4 90 120 8 London 10.189.10.62 Production
SVR-PR-WF2 Workflow Services SP WF 4 90 120 8 M 10.189.10.63 Production
SVR-PR-SRCH1 SharePoint Search Type A Search 8 134 80 32 London 10.189.10.70 Production
SVR-PR-SRCH2 SharePoint Search Type A Search 8 134 80 32 M 10.189.10.71 Production
SVR-PR-SRCH3 SharePoint Search Type B Search 8 134 300 24 London 10.189.10.72 Production
SVR-PR-SRCH4 SharePoint Search Type B Search 8 134 300 24 M 10.189.10.73 Production
SVR-PR-SRCH5 SharePoint Search Type C Search 8 134 500 24 London 10.189.10.74 Production
SVR-PR-SRCH6 SharePoint Search Type C Search 8 134 500 24 M 10.189.10.75 Production
SVR-PR-SRCH7 SharePoint Search Type D Search 8 134 500 24 London 10.189.10.76 Production
SVR-PR-SRCH8 SharePoint Search Type D Search 8 134 500 24 M 10.189.10.77 Production
SVR-PR-SRCH9 SharePoint Search Type D Search 8 134 500 24 London 10.189.10.78 Production
SVR-PR-SRCH10 SharePoint Search Type D Search 8 134 500 24 M 10.189.10.79 Production
SVR-PR-DBS1 SharePoint Databases SQL 16 134 500 32 London 10.189.10.85 Production
SVR-PR-DBS2 SharePoint Databases SQL 16 134 500 32 M 10.189.10.86 Production
CL-PR-DBS Cluster 10.189.10.87
LS-PR-DBS Listener 10.189.10.88
SVR-PR-DBR1 SSRS & SSAS Databases SQL 8 134 500 32 London 10.189.10.89 Production
SVR-PR-DBR2 SSRS & SSAS Databases SQL 8 134 500 32 M 10.189.10.90 Production
CL-PR-DBR Cluster 10.189.10.91
LS-PF-SP-DBR Listener 10.189.10.92
SVR-PR-DBA1 TDS & K2 Databases SQL 16 134 500 32 London 10.189.10.93 Production
SVR-PR-DBA2 TDS & K2 Databases SQL 16 134 500 32 M 10.189.10.94 Production
CL-PR-DBA Cluster 10.189.10.95
LS-PR-DBA Listener 10.189.10.96

Note: Window "Page File" or "Paging File" is a contentious issue, depending on the recovery.  So the dump logs go to 1 of the drives and I normally make sure they go to the c drive that is over provisioned for the is size.  I don't really know how important this is but I always estimate on the c drive for at least 2 times the maximum ram for my calculations.

Thursday 21 November 2013

Search Host Controller Service in "Starting" state

Problem: On my SharePoint 2013 farm via CA I see my "Search Host Controller Service is stuck in the "Starting" state.

Initial Hypothesis: Check if any services are stuck in a provisioning state using the PS below:
Get-SPServiceInstance | sort TypeName | select TypeName, Status, Server | ? {$_.Status -eq "Provisioning"}  
Resolution:  After identify the Search Host Controller instance/instances that are stuck in the Provisioning state get them to the Online state.  This is quickly achieved using PowerShell.   Tip: I was forced to run my PS on the server that is running the offending service instance.

$inst = Get-SPServiceInstance | ? {$_.TypeName -eq "Search Host Controller Service" } | ? { $_.PrimaryHostController -eq $true }
$sh = Get-SPServiceInstance | ? {$_.SearchServiceInstanceId -eq $inst.SearchServiceInstanceId.ToString()}
$sh.Status
$sh.Unprovision()
$sh.Status
$sh.Provision()
$sh.Status


I also use this script to get a general understanding of the health of my Search Serve Applications.

More Info:
http://mmman.itgroove.net/2012/12/search-host-controller-service-in-starting-state-sharepoint-2013-8/