Limit the People Picker in SharePoint 2010 to a Specific OU or Domain

STSADM: stsadm -o setsiteuseraccountdirectorypath -path "OU=Sales,DC=ContosoCorp,DC=local" –url http://ServerName

Powershell:
Set-SPSite -Identity http://portal.contoso.com/sites/US -UserAccountDirectoryPath "OU=US,OU=SharePoint,DC=Contoso,DC=com"

User Profile Service got stuck on Starting

I have installed the Dec 2011 CU and User Profile Service was stopped working (Known issue) after the upgrade, I have followed the below steps to enable the User profile service back

1. Restarted the timer service
2. added the farm admin account to local administrators on windows server
3. started the User profile Synchronization service from the Central Admin
4. Once it started then deleted the farm admin account from the local administrators group on windows server
5. IISRESET

The above steps fixed the problem for me.

PostSetupConfigurationTaskException - Failed to upgrade SharePoint Products

I just applied a SharePoint 2010 Dec 2011 CU . Running the Products Configuration Wizard (psconfig) ended with the following error:


Task upgrade has failed with a PostSetupConfigurationTaskException An exception of type Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.PostSetupConfigurationTaskException was thrown.  Additional exception information: Failed to upgrade SharePoint Products.


Solution: Run the Configuration Wizard as administrator again and it worked.

SharePoint WarmUp Solution

SharePoint.WarmUp (by Sogeti) is a SharePoint 2010 feature deploying a job in charge to keep all SharePoint sites (and additional URL if needed) awake.

http://sharepointwarmup.codeplex.com/

Nintex Workflow: This task is currently locked by a running workflow and cannot be edited.

Check this post for the below error message:

This task is currently locked by a running workflow and cannot be edited

http://connect.nintex.com/forums/thread/6503.aspx

AD user in SharePoint people picker

SharePoint People Picker: Values are pulled from Active Directory each and every time the control is loaded   ALSO shows accounts that are on the site collection, no matter their status, enabled, disabled, or deleted.

For the accounts loaded from AD, by default only shows enabled accounts.  If you want it to show both enabled and disabled accounts, we have to set an AD custom filter on each site collection where you want to show disabled users.  The filter string will be similar to:   (&(objectCategory=person)(objectClass=user)(|(userAccountControl:1.2.840.113556.‌​1.4.803:=2)(!userAccountControl:1.2.840.113556.1.4.803:=2)))

or this might also work: (&(objectCategory=person)(objectClass=user)

It can be set with:  stsadm -o setproperty -url http://url -pn peoplepicker-searchadcustomfilter -pv

There is no way to show accounts that are no longer in AD.

SharePoint User Profiles: Values are synchronized each evening from Active Directory

No filters currently on this, will import both enabled and disabled, but we can set a filter.

Deleted users and sites are cleaned up periodically

See this article for more details: 

http://www.harbar.net/archive/2011/02/10/account-deletion-and-sharepoint-2010-user-profile-synchronization.aspx

Error saving site as template

I have been getting error saving as template after migrating from MOSS 2007 tp SharePoint 2010 with database upgrade approach.

Error message:

Error exporting the site field named "Asset"
Error exporting the site field named "Category"

Finally I was able to save site as template after running the below command

stsadm -o activatefeature -name TSATypes -url http://sitecollection URL -force

stsadm -o deactivatefeature -name TSATypes -url http://sitecollection URL -force

That's it..Problem solved.

Features and their GUID’s in SP2010

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mcsnoiwb/archive/2010/01/07/features-and-their-guid-s-in-sp2010.aspx

SharePoint Designer 2010: Business data connectivity metadata store is unavailable

If you see Business data connectivity metadata store is unavailable error in SP Designer 2010 then try to run the below powershell command. It got resolved the problem for me.

$bcsServiceApp = Get-SPServiceApplication | where {$_ -match "Business Data Connectivity Service"}
$bcsServiceApp.RevertToSelfAllowed = $true;
$bcsServiceApp.Update();

Command to activate site collection publishing feature

stsadm -o activatefeature -name publishingsite -url http://sitecollection -force

Finding the Id (Guid) for a SharePoint List

There are times when you need to find the Id (a Guid) of a list – for example, when setting the Task list to be used with SharePoint Designer Workflows (see my blog post here). Here’s a simple way of doing this:

Navigate to the SharePoint list using the browser.
Select the Settings + List Settings menu command.
Copy the Url from the browser address bar into Notepad. It will look something like:
http://moss2007/ProjectX/_layouts/listedit.aspx?List=%7B26534EF9%2DAB3A%2D46E0%2DAE56%2DEFF168BE562F%7D

Delete everying before and including “List=”.
Change “%7B” to “{”
Change all “%2D” to “-“
Chnage “%7D” to “}”
You are now left with the Id:

{26534EF9-AB3A-46E0-AE56-EFF168BE562F}

How To Change The maximum file size Upload in SharePoint 2010

This morning I tried to upload a large file to our SharePoint 2010 and then realised that the default 50mb file size limit was still set so while I was changing the settings to allow larger files I thought I would do a quick post on how/where the setting is and what to change.

First of all login to Central Admin and navigate to
Central Administration -> Application Management -> Manage Web Applications
Once there highlight the web application that you want to change and then click on general settings

Once in general settings scroll to the bottom of the list and you will see the maximum upload size the default setting is 50mb and change maximum size of 100mb or more.

Business Connectivity Services security operations (SharePoint Foundation 2010)

Below technet article explains more about the Security settings for BCS

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff973113.aspx#store

BCS Authentication issues Login failed for user NT Authority\ANONYMOUS LOGON or access denied by Business Data Connectivity

http://niranjanrao.wordpress.com/2012/01/12/bcs-authentication-issues-login-failed-for-user-nt-authorityanonymous-logon-or-access-denied-by-bcs/

Poweshell Script to enable Revert To Self on Server

$bdc = Get-SPServiceApplication | where {$_ -match “Business Data Connectivity Service”};
$bdc.RevertToSelfAllowed = $true;
$bdc.Update();

SharePoint V3: Error: Failed to activate feature 'PublishingPrerequisites'

Description:

Receiving error when attempting to activate the Office SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure, site collection feature:

Error: Failed to activate feature 'PublishingPrerequisites'


Solution:

- Run IISReset on the front end web servers
Start > Run > CMD > iisreset /noforce

- Activate the feature
Site Actions > Site Settings > Site Collection Features > Office SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure > Activate

SharePoint 2010 Enable Visual Upgrade on Sites with PowerShell

To enable the look and feel choice back to enabled on every site within a site collection, use the script below. Replace SiteCollection with the actual URL for your site collection.

$SiteCollection=Get-SPsite http://SiteCollection
foreach($SPWeb in $SiteCollection.AllWebs){$SPWeb.UIversionConfigurationEnabled=$true;$SPWeb.update();}

To enable the look and feel choice back to enabled on a single site use the following command. Replace Site with the actual URL for your site/web.

$Site=Get-SPWeb http://Site
$Site.UIversionConfigurationEnabled=$true;$Site.update();

Next tip I will show you how you can go back and forth between look and feel versions even on a brand new 2010 site. So if you just love the WSS 3.0 site look you can get that too right in SharePoint 2010.