Distributed Cache and AppFabric Cache

If you are having any issues with the distributed cache or appfabric cache in your farm, do yourself a favor and read/follow this article before ANY others. Much more insight and assistance in repairing either/or/both of these services.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sambetts/archive/2014/03/19/sharepoint-2013-distributed-cache-appfabric-troubleshooting.aspx

Thanks Sam Betts!

Additional noteworthy articles on Distributed/AppFabric Cache:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj219613.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/besidethepoint/archive/2013/03/27/appfabric-caching-and-sharepoint-2.aspx

SharePoint 2013 User Profile Synchronization Timer Schedules

After much research and trials/tribulations I think I now have a grasp on the AD User Profile security and attribute update timing. There are multiple jobs, each of which play a part. In this example, I also list a scheduled task for updating User Profile Pictures. This is a powershell script which forces the photo store to update in scenarios where users' pictures are uploaded to Active Directory as opposed to through SharePoint MySites.

User Profile Synchronization Timer Schedules

With the below profile and user token synchronization settings, when changes are made to user’s  account, there will be a synchronization delay of up to 35 minutes for the change to reflect in the system.  (Security settings update every 10 minutes; profile attribute changes update within 35 minutes; and audiences within 15 minutes)

Job/Service	Description	Run frequency
User Profile to SharePoint Full Synchronization	Syncronizes users’ AD/UME attributes whether those users’ attributes changed or not.	Weekly – Saturdays @3 am cst
User Profile Incremental Synchronization	Synchronizes users’ AD/UME attributes which is listed in “Change log” in AD.	Minutes – every 30 minutes
User Profile to SharePoint Quick Synchronization	Pushes attributes from User Profile Service to SharePoint site	Minutes – every 5 minutes
User Profile Audience Compilation	Updates memberships of defined	Minutes – every 15 minutes
WindowsTokenLifetime (windows based authentication)	Amount of time a user’s token will live before refreshing (thus receiving updated permissions)	Minutes – every 10 minutes
LogonTokenCacheExpirationWindow	Minimum lifetime of a token returned from the logon token cache	Minutes – every 5 minutes
ContentService TokenTimeout	Amount of time before a user token times out	Daily – every 24 hours
Profile Picture Update	Amount of time before a user’s profile picture change is updated (run via task scheduler on primary SharePoint application server)	Minutes – every 30 minutes

Full User Profile Synchronization only needs occur under below scenarios and is therefore only scheduled to run weekly:

1.            Configured property mappings

2.            Change users OU

3.            Change the filter of Sync Connection in SP

Don’t Install SharePoint 2013 Service Pack 1

From Microsoft:

"We have recently uncovered an issue with this Service Pack 1 package that may prevent customers who have Service Pack 1 from deploying future public or cumulative updates. As a precautionary measure, we have deactivated the download page until a new package is published."

Bill Baer has indicated that the MSDN ISO that has SP1 included is not impacted by this issue.

References: 
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2817429
http://www.toddklindt.com/blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=486

SP 2013 Name Profile Property Disappears After Re-provisioning UPSS (Farm backup)

While working on a prject involving a SharePoint Extranet and a custom .net user provisioning application, I came across an issue where the 'Name' profile property was mapped to a custom AD attribute, however, that mapping would disappear after a full farm backup. This caused us to have to manually or programatically (script) remap the mapping after every backup. 

As it turned out the culprit was the de-provisioning/re-provisioning of the UPSS (which happens during SP backup process). Each time the UPSS was re-provisioned, that mapping dropped. After reaching out to a familiar and trusted resource, Trevor Seward, he was able to determine the root cause. Please see his blog-post for explanation/resolution. http://thesharepointfarm.com/2014/04/name-user-profile-property-mapping-blank-reprovisioning 

SPWake Up - SharePoint Warm-up Script

Wake Up Your SharePoint ! - Home



SPSWakeUp is a PowerShell script tool to warm up all site collection in your SharePoint environment.
It's compatible with all supported versions for SharePoint.
This current version supports only NTLM Authentication.

Features

• 1.2 Add User Account in User Policy for Each Web Application
• 1.1 Clear Cache Internet Explorer
• 1.1 Browsing Custom Urls
• 1.1 Input XML File
• Supports SharePoint 2007, SharePoint 2010 and 2013
• Warms Up Central Administration and All site collection by Web Application
• Add Web Application Urls in Internet Options Security
• Use Internet Explorer to download JS, CSS and Pictures files
• Log script results in rtf file

SharePoint 2013 and SharePoint Online solution pack for branding and site provisioning

SharePoint 2013 and SharePoint Online solution pack for branding and site provisioning

The SharePoint 2013 and SharePoint Online solution pack for branding and site provisioning includes modules in Word document format. The modules introduce basic information about SharePoint, its page model, branding tools and packaging, and themes. The documents introduce a new site provisioning pattern called remote provisioning, and describe how to use it to provision branding elements to SharePoint sites.

A sample pack containing nine companion code samples is available for download on Code Gallery. 

Source: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=42030 

Content has expired and can no longer be used error in share point 2013

I intermittently experienced the following error page on SharePoint 2013.



The resolution for this is to simply update your web applications' time zone to match that of your SharePoint servers. (Validate all servers are set to same time zone)
 

To fix this go to Central Administration -> Application Management -> select Web application -> on the ribbon General settings tab -> select General settings -> update the time zone with the share point server(s). Then perform IIS reset (iisreset -noforce) on each server in the farm.

 

Reference: Suresh Pydi > http://sureshpydi.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-content-has-expired-and-can-no.html

SharePoint 2013 with SP1 ("slipstream") is now available for download

You can now download SharePoint 2013 with SP1 from MSDN and VLSC and MPN.

A couple of people already tried to create their own slipstream version using RTM and SP1. Please avoid doing this as this is unsupported due to a change in the package layout which was introduced with March 2013 PU. Due to this change in the package layout it is not guaranteed that the manually created slipstream version will update all modules correctly. Ensure to download the official SharePoint 2013 with SP1 from one of the above listed sites.

SharePoint 2013 with SP1 ("slipstream") is now available for download - Stefan Goßner - Site Home - TechNet Blogs

SharePoint Conference .ORG Dallas 2014

SharePoint Conference .Org Dallas 2014

SharePoint Conference .ORG features workshops and sessions designed for business users, technical users and design professionals. Speakers include Microsoft MVP's, SharePoint experts and clients who have recently implemented innovative solutions on SharePoint -- including intranets, public sites, member communities and business intelligence initiatives.

The 7th annual SharePoint Conference .ORG will be taking place in Reston, Virginia on May 18-20, 2014 and Dallas, Texas on October 19-21, 2014. This year's agenda features a variety of educational sessions from SharePoint 2013 to Responsive Design to User Adoption Strategies.

Who should attend SharePoint Conference .ORG?

Any professional currently using or evaluating the Microsoft SharePoint platform is welcomed to attend SharePoint Conference .ORG.  We’ve created three separate tracks: Business Track, User Experience Track and Technical Track so all our sessions can be specifically geared to provide you with the most relevant, practical information for each SharePoint subject area, whatever your SharePoint role. All attendees have the option to attend sessions in whatever tracks they like and can attend sessions in different tracks.

Backup SharePoint 2013

After building 4 farms, I deployed powershell to backup each farm (full farm backup), I quickly ran out of disk space for backups (250GB) as the backup-spfarm command-let will not overwrite a pre-existing farm backup (spbr0000 directory), therefore, I only had enough disk to retain one backup of each environment.

Enter SharePoint Backup Augmentation Cmdlets from CodePlex (http://sharepointbac.codeplex.com).

SharePointBAC makes it possible to groom backup sets, archive backups, and more. While the version on codeplex supports 2010, I was able to obtain the 2013 source files from Trevor Seward, MVP.

Once the solution is added and deployed, the following 5 new command-lets become available:

1. Get-SPBackupCatalog: Retrieves an SPBackupCatalog object for a selected backup location and exposes properties of the catalog
2. Export-SPBackupCatalog: Generates an export/archive of one or backup sets that is compressed as a zip file by default
3. Remove-SPBackupCatalog: Performs grooming (i.e., cleaning out old backups) on a backup catalog and its associated backup sets
4. Send-SPBackupStatus: E-mails a summary of the last backup operation to selected recipients using the farm's outbound e-mail configuration
5. Set-SPBackupCatalog: Updates properties on an SPBackupCatalog object (more specifically, its underlying spbrtoc.xml catalog file)

Here is a sample .ps1 script utilizing SharePointBAC solution which will backup farm and retain only the most recent backup:

Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell
$cat = Get-SPBackupCatalog \\server\Share
Backup-SPFarm -Directory \\server\Share -BackupMethod Full
$cat.Refresh()
$cat | Remove-SPBackupCatalog -RetainCount 1 -Confirm:$false
$cat.Refresh()
$cat | Send-SPBackupStatus -Recipients "admin@domain.com"

Open PDF's with Adobe instead of Office Web Apps

SharePoint / PDF Default Application

Adobe PDF files can be opened with either Office Web Apps (browser) or one of the Adobe pdf viewers. Powershell will assist.

Change default PDF Application from Office Web Apps to Adobe Viewer

To adjust the binding so that smartphones won’t try to view PDFs in Word Web App (but other devices will continue to), enter the following command and then press Enter:

Get-SPWopiBinding -Action "MobileView" -Application "WordPDF" | Remove-SPWopiBinding -Confirm:$false

To remove the binding altogether so that PDFs open in the default PDF viewer on all devices, use the following:

Get-SPWOPIBinding –Application "WordPDF" | Remove-SPWOPIBinding -Confirm:$false

Change Default PDF Application from Adobe to OWA  

Get-SPWOPIBinding –Application "WordPDF" | Remove-SPWOPIBinding -Confirm:$false

New-SPWOPIBinding –ServerName "<OWAServerName(ex: server.corp.Contoso.com)>" –Application "WordPDF" -AllowHTTP

Source:

https://blogs.technet.com/b/office_resource_kit/archive/2013/07/24/control-whether-pdfs-open-in-word-web-app-or-the-default-pdf-reader.aspx

Clear SharePoint Cache Powershell

Ever need to clear your farms' configuration cache? Kind of a pain huh? Having to hit each server, deleting all those xml files...resetting the config on all of them....well, powershell to the rescue! 

While working an issue with Jeff Tindilier from MS premier support, he sent me the following powershell script which saves soooo much time!

It will discover all servers in your farm, stop sptimer on each, delete the xml's, reset config file, start sptimer, on all servers!

# Clear the SharePoint Timer Cache
#
# 2009 Mickey Kamp Parbst Jervin (mickeyjervin.wordpress.com)
# 2011 Adapted by Nick Hobbs (nickhobbs.wordpress.com) to work with SharePoint 2010,
# display more progress information, restart all timer services in the farm,
# and make reusable functions.
# 2012 Adapted by Dwayne Selsig (www.dwayneselsig.eu) to also work with SharePoint 2013.
# Added loading of SharePoint Snapin for Powershell. Also this script only queries
# the SharePoint servers.
# Output program information
Write-Host -foregroundcolor White ""
Write-Host -foregroundcolor White "Clear SharePoint Timer Cache"
#**************************************************************************************
# Constants
#**************************************************************************************
Set-Variable timerServiceName -option Constant -value "SPTimerV4"
Set-Variable timerServiceInstanceName -option Constant -value "Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Timer"
#**************************************************************************************
# Functions
#**************************************************************************************
#<summary>
# Loads the SharePoint Powershell Snapin.
#</summary>
Function Load-SharePoint-Powershell
{
If ((Get-PsSnapin |?{$_.Name -eq "Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell"})-eq $null)
{
    Write-Host -ForegroundColor White " - Loading SharePoint Powershell Snapin"
Add-PsSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell -ErrorAction Stop
}
}
#<summary>
# Stops the SharePoint Timer Service on each server in the SharePoint Farm.
#</summary>
#<param name="$farm">The SharePoint farm object.</param>
function StopSharePointTimerServicesInFarm($farm)
{
Write-Host ""
# Iterate through each server in the farm, and each service in each server
foreach($server in $farm)
{
foreach($instance in $server.ServiceInstances)
{
# If the server has the timer service then stop the service
if($instance.TypeName -eq $timerServiceInstanceName)
{
[string]$serverName = $server.Name
Write-Host -foregroundcolor DarkGray -NoNewline "Stop '$timerServiceName' service on server: "
Write-Host -foregroundcolor Gray $serverName
$service = Get-WmiObject -ComputerName $serverName Win32_Service -Filter "Name='$timerServiceName'"
sc.exe \\$serverName stop $timerServiceName > $null
# Wait until this service has actually stopped
WaitForServiceState $serverName $timerServiceName "Stopped"
break;
}
}
}
Write-Host ""
}
#<summary>
# Waits for the service on the server to reach the required service state.
# This can be used to wait for the "SharePoint 2010 Timer" service to stop or to start
#</summary>
#<param name="$serverName">The name of the server with the service to monitor.</param>
#<param name="$serviceName">The name of the service to monitor.</param>
#<param name="$serviceState">The service state to wait for, e.g. Stopped, or Running.</param>
function WaitForServiceState([string]$serverName, [string]$serviceName, [string]$serviceState)
{
Write-Host -foregroundcolor DarkGray -NoNewLine "Waiting for service '$serviceName' to change state to $serviceState on server $serverName"
do
{
Start-Sleep 1
Write-Host -foregroundcolor DarkGray -NoNewLine "."
$service = Get-WmiObject -ComputerName $serverName Win32_Service -Filter "Name='$serviceName'"
}
while ($service.State -ne $serviceState)
Write-Host -foregroundcolor DarkGray -NoNewLine " Service is "
Write-Host -foregroundcolor Gray $serviceState
}
#<summary>
# Starts the SharePoint Timer Service on each server in the SharePoint Farm.
#</summary>
#<param name="$farm">The SharePoint farm object.</param>
function StartSharePointTimerServicesInFarm($farm)
{
Write-Host ""
# Iterate through each server in the farm, and each service in each server
foreach($server in $farm)
{
foreach($instance in $server.ServiceInstances)
{
# If the server has the timer service then start the service
if($instance.TypeName -eq $timerServiceInstanceName)
{
[string]$serverName = $server.Name
Write-Host -foregroundcolor DarkGray -NoNewline "Start '$timerServiceName' service on server: "
Write-Host -foregroundcolor Gray $serverName
$service = Get-WmiObject -ComputerName $serverName Win32_Service -Filter "Name='$timerServiceName'"
sc.exe \\$serverName start $timerServiceName > $null
WaitForServiceState $serverName $timerServiceName "Running"
break;
}
}
}
Write-Host ""
}
#<summary>
# Removes all xml files recursive on an UNC path
#</summary>
#<param name="$farm">The SharePoint farm object.</param>
function DeleteXmlFilesFromConfigCache($farm)
{
Write-Host ""
Write-Host -foregroundcolor DarkGray "Delete xml files"
[string] $path = ""
# Iterate through each server in the farm, and each service in each server
foreach($server in $farm)
{
foreach($instance in $server.ServiceInstances)
{
# If the server has the timer service delete the XML files from the config cache
if($instance.TypeName -eq $timerServiceInstanceName)
{
[string]$serverName = $server.Name
Write-Host -foregroundcolor DarkGray -NoNewline "Deleting xml files from config cache on server: "
Write-Host -foregroundcolor Gray $serverName
# Remove all xml files recursive on an UNC path
$path = "\\" + $serverName + "\c$\ProgramData\Microsoft\SharePoint\Config\*-*\*.xml"
Remove-Item -path $path -Force
break
}
}
}
Write-Host ""
}
#<summary>
# Clears the SharePoint cache on an UNC path
#</summary>
#<param name="$farm">The SharePoint farm object.</param>
function ClearTimerCache($farm)
{
Write-Host ""
Write-Host -foregroundcolor DarkGray "Clear the cache"
[string] $path = ""
# Iterate through each server in the farm, and each service in each server
foreach($server in $farm)
{
foreach($instance in $server.ServiceInstances)
{
# If the server has the timer service then force the cache settings to be refreshed
if($instance.TypeName -eq $timerServiceInstanceName)
{
[string]$serverName = $server.Name
Write-Host -foregroundcolor DarkGray -NoNewline "Clearing timer cache on server: "
Write-Host -foregroundcolor Gray $serverName
# Clear the cache on an UNC path
# 1 = refresh all cache settings
$path = "\\" + $serverName + "\c$\ProgramData\Microsoft\SharePoint\Config\*-*\cache.ini"
Set-Content -path $path -Value "1"
break
}
}
}
Write-Host ""
}
#**************************************************************************************
# Main script block
#**************************************************************************************
# Load SharePoint Powershell Snapin
Load-SharePoint-Powershell
# Get the local farm instance
$farm = Get-SPServer | where {$_.Role -match "Application"}
# Stop the SharePoint Timer Service on each server in the farm
StopSharePointTimerServicesInFarm $farm
# Delete all xml files from cache config folder on each server in the farm
DeleteXmlFilesFromConfigCache $farm
# Clear the timer cache on each server in the farm
ClearTimerCache $farm
# Start the SharePoint Timer Service on each server in the farm
StartSharePointTimerServicesInFarm $farm

SharePoint 2013 Search Setup Powershell

The following powershell will setup Search Application Topology via powershell...

This is an example of a 4 server farm (2 wfe, 2 app):

Specify the new servers you want to add search components to, start a search service instance (ssi) on these servers and create references to the search service instances

$hostA = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance -Identity "<server>"

$hostB = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance -Identity "<server>"

$hostC = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance -Identity "<server>"

$hostD = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance -Identity "<server>"

Start-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance -Identity $hostA

Start-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance -Identity $hostB

Start-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance -Identity $hostC

Start-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance -Identity $hostD

Wait until all the search service instances are running. At the Windows PowerShell command prompt, type the following commands until the commands return the state "Online" for each of the search service instances

Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance -Identity $hostA

Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance -Identity $hostB

Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance -Identity $hostC

Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceInstance -Identity $hostD

Create a new search topology and a reference to the new search topology. At the Windows PowerShell command prompt, type the following command(s):

$ssa = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceApplication

$newTopology = New-SPEnterpriseSearchTopology -SearchApplication $ssa

Add all the search components to the new search topology. The following Windows PowerShell commands will create the search components of the new topology and assign them to the new servers. In this small enterprise search topology there is one index partition, index partition 0, to cater for a maximum of ten million items. This is indicated with the parameter -IndexPartition in the command New-SPEnterpriseSearchIndexComponent

New-SPEnterpriseSearchAdminComponent -SearchTopology $newTopology -SearchServiceInstance $hostA

New-SPEnterpriseSearchAdminComponent -SearchTopology $newTopology -SearchServiceInstance $hostB

New-SPEnterpriseSearchCrawlComponent -SearchTopology $newTopology -SearchServiceInstance $hostA

New-SPEnterpriseSearchCrawlComponent -SearchTopology $newTopology -SearchServiceInstance $hostB

New-SPEnterpriseSearchContentProcessingComponent -SearchTopology $newTopology -SearchServiceInstance $hostA

New-SPEnterpriseSearchContentProcessingComponent -SearchTopology $newTopology -SearchServiceInstance $hostB

New-SPEnterpriseSearchAnalyticsProcessingComponent -SearchTopology $newTopology -SearchServiceInstance $hostA

New-SPEnterpriseSearchAnalyticsProcessingComponent -SearchTopology $newTopology -SearchServiceInstance $hostB

New-SPEnterpriseSearchQueryProcessingComponent -SearchTopology $newTopology -SearchServiceInstance $hostC

New-SPEnterpriseSearchQueryProcessingComponent -SearchTopology $newTopology -SearchServiceInstance $hostD

New-SPEnterpriseSearchIndexComponent -SearchTopology $newTopology -SearchServiceInstance $hostA -IndexPartition 0

New-SPEnterpriseSearchIndexComponent -SearchTopology $newTopology -SearchServiceInstance $hostB -IndexPartition 0

Activate the new search topology

Set-SPEnterpriseSearchTopology -Identity $newTopology

Verify that the new search topology is active

Get-SPEnterpriseSearchTopology -SearchApplication $ssa

Verify that all components of the new search topology are running correctly

Get-SPEnterpriseSearchStatus -SearchApplication $ssa -Text

Source: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj862356.aspx

Disable Loop-back Check Powershell

Run the following from PowerShell as administrator on each server:

$regKeyPath = "HKLM:\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa"
$key = "DisableLoopbackCheck"
New-ItemProperty -Path $regKeyPath -Name $key -Value "1" -PropertyType dword

Managing SharePoint Security with Dynamic Active Directory Security Groups

Have you ever needed to create security groups based upon Department, Physical Location (1st floor, 2nd floor, east/west, etc) or any other criteria whose values exist as an AD profile attribute? For example, let's say we have user A who works in Accounting but is now transferring to Marketing. This change in responsibilities probably means user A no longer requires access to shares/data/sites/etc. accountants utilize, however, user A will now require access to Marketing Resources.

Active Directory Groups are as dynamic as their members: they need to change as users switch responsibilities, roles and locations. The problem is that distribution lists and security groups are often manually maintained by the Exchange or Active Directory administrator. This type of access update can be very tedious and time-consuming. Dynamic AD Groups to the rescue!

Dynamically maintain groups based on rules that are applied to your directory data. When user information changes, GroupID Automate automatically updates the appropriate distribution lists and security groups. Your groups will never be out of date again.

Groups are generally managed one of three ways: negligently, IT-centric, or user-centric. This means they either don’t manage groups, have a highly paid administrator manually manage groups, or have end users manage groups. All of these solutions have a cost that far outweighs creating dynamic groups through PowerShell.

By automating these Active Directory groups, you can ensure they will always be accurate. Increase productivity by giving employees access to the right systems and information immediately upon hiring or promotion. Increase security by granting access to only the systems you want and denying access immediately upon any change in status. Use Active Directory’s group structure to your benefit with GroupID Automate.

Luckily, there are a few people who have strung together the PS cmdlets needed to pull this off.
Take a look at Baldwin D's post here:  http://baldwin-ps.blogspot.com/2013/05/dynamic-ad-security-groups.html