Sushant's Blog

Reverse DNS for Azure Cloud Services

Sushant Rao — Thu, 28 Jan 2016 06:58:36 GMT

Set-AzureService –ServiceName "savilltech101" –Description "savilltech101 with Reverse DNS" –ReverseDnsFqdn "savilltech101.cloudapp.net."

You can also add the reverse lookup when creating a cloud service by adding -ReverseDnsFqdn as part of the New-AzureService cmdlet.

The reverse FQDN can also point to a vanity domain (your domain—e.g., sush.ddns.net), provided that sush.ddns.net is an alias (CNAME) on your DNS server that resolves to the cloud service DNS name (e.g., prajcloud8.cloudapp.net). Basically this check is done by Azure to ensure you actually own the DNS name for which you're trying to configure reverse DNS.

Additional Information: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/blog/announcing-reverse-dns-for-azure-cloud-services

I went ahead and tested this by signing up on Dynamic DNS (which is free) https://my.noip.com

Note: This is only to test and to demonstrate how to enable reverse DNS. You can use any Public DNS provider.

Added a CNAME alias mapping sush.ddns.net à prajcloud8.cloudapp.net

Once this was done. Login to Azure PowerShell

Executed following command Adding reverse DNS to existing Cloud Services

Set-AzureService –ServiceName “prajcloud8” –Description “App1 with Reverse DNS” –ReverseDnsFqdn “sush.ddns.net"

Output:

nslookup
Non-authoritative answer:
Name: prajcloud8.cloudapp.net
Address: 168.61.147.225
Aliases: sush.ddns.net

ping -a sush.ddns.net
Pinging prajcloud8.cloudapp.net [168.61.147.225] with 32 bytes of data

Adding Multiple Network Interfaces to an existing ARM based Virtual machine

Sushant Rao — Thu, 28 Jan 2016 05:37:32 GMT

At this point, there is no way of adding \ associating additional Network Interfaces via the portal to an existing Virtual machine. We can add additional Network Interfaces during the time we create \ provision a new virtual machine or by deleting the existing virtual machine (keeping the disk) and re-provisioning the Virtual machine using the same OS VHD with associating multiple Network interfaces.

Before we begin, I suggest that you go through following article which to refer the requirements and constraints only.

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/documentation/articles/virtual-networks-multiple-nics/#requirements-and-constraints

You can also refer following article which helps describes in details on how to deploy a new virtual machine with multiple network interface in Azure Resource manager

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/documentation/articles/virtual-network-deploy-multinic-arm-ps/

As our goal is to add multiple Network Interface to an existing Virtual Machine we will have to delete the existing virtual machine and then re-create \ re-provision the Virtual Machine using following script

Note: The below script creates a Virtual Machine in an Availability Set and adds 2 network interfaces with one Public and Private IP on the Primary NIC and a Private IP on the secondary NIC.

As this virtual machine is going to be a part of Availability Set, at later stage we can even create an Azure Load balancer and add another Public IP.

###Update the below Environment details #####
$VirtualMachineName = "sushrao1"
$AvailabilitySet="sushraoavail"
$vmSize="Standard_A6"
$adminUsername="sushrao"
$adminPassword="xxxxxxx"
$PrivateIPforNIC1="192.168.1.23"
$PrivateIPforNIC2="192.168.1.24"

## Existing OS VHD of the deleted Virtual Machine ##
$sourceImageUri = "https://teststoragesushrao.blob.core.windows.net/vhds/testvm.vhd"
$diskName= $VirtualMachineName + "OS-Disk"

$ResourceGroupName="test”
$LocationName="east us"
$saName="teststoragesushrao"
$vnetName="TestVNet"
$subnetIndex=0
$cred = New-Object PSCredential $adminUsername, ($adminPassword | ConvertTo-SecureString -AsPlainText -Force)

## Get the existing virtual network ##
$vnet=Get-AzureRMvirtualNetwork -Name $vnetName -ResourceGroupName $ResourceGroupName

## Create the NIC1 ##

$nicName="Primary"
$pipName= $VirtualMachineName + "_pip"
$domName= $VirtualMachineName
$pip=New-AzureRmPublicIpAddress -Name $pipName -ResourceGroupName $ResourceGroupName -DomainNameLabel $domName -Location $LocationName -AllocationMethod Dynamic
$nic=New-AzureRmNetworkInterface -Name $nicName -ResourceGroupName $ResourceGroupName -Location $LocationName -SubnetId $vnet.Subnets[$subnetIndex].Id -PublicIpAddressId $pip.Id -PrivateIpAddress $PrivateIPforNIC1

## Create the NIC2 ##

$nicName2="Secondary"
$nic2=New-AzureRmNetworkInterface -Name $nicName2 -ResourceGroupName $ResourceGroupName -Location $LocationName -SubnetId $vnet.Subnets[$subnetIndex].Id -PrivateIpAddress $PrivateIPforNIC2

## Create the availability group (if it does not exist) ##

New-AzureRmAvailabilitySet –Name $AvailabilitySet –ResourceGroupName $ResourceGroupName -Location $LocationName

## Specify the name, size & associate the Network Interface to the virtual machine ##

$vmName= $VirtualMachineName
$avSet=Get-AzureRmAvailabilitySet –Name $AvailabilitySet –ResourceGroupName $ResourceGroupName
$vm=New-AzureRMVMConfig -VMName $vmName -VMSize $vmSize -AvailabilitySetId $avset.Id
$vm=Add-AzureRMVMNetworkInterface -VM $vm -Id $nic.Id -Primary
$vm=Add-AzureRMVMNetworkInterface -VM $vm -Id $nic2.Id

## Specify the OS disk name

$storageAcc=Get-AzureRMStorageAccount -ResourceGroupName $ResourceGroupName -Name $saName

# Create VM from the existing OS disk

$vm=Set-AzureRmVMOSDisk -VM $vm -Name $diskName -VhdUri $sourceImageUri -CreateOption attach -Windows
New-AzureRmVM -ResourceGroupName $ResourceGroupName -Location $LocationName -VM $vm

I strongly recommend that you perform the above actions on a test virtual machine and confirm if this suits your requirement before making any changes to the actual virtual machine.

Configure Point to Site on ARM based Virtual Network

Sushant Rao — Thu, 14 Jan 2016 01:25:43 GMT

For the Classic Virtual network we could enable the Point to Site via the Old Portal (https://manage.windowsazure.com) however I’m afraid as of now, we don’t have a way to create the Point to Site connection via the new Portal (https://portal.azure.com) for ARM. Though we can make use of PowerShell command let to achieve the same.

First Method

1. Delete the existing Gateway connection and the Virtual Network Gateway & Gateway PIP.

Note: You can make use of https://resources.azure.com to delete the gateway connection and then the Virtual Network Gateway & Gateway Public IP.

2. Delete the existing Gateway Subnet from the Virtual network

Note: You can achieve this by Navigating to https://portal.azure.com à Virtual Networks à Subnets à Right Click on Gateway Subnet and Delete.

3. You can make use of following script which will help us in creating the Gateway Subnet, Gateway Public IP and the Virtual Network Gateway along with Point to Site.

Note: You need to specify CIDR /28 for Gateway subnet and the Name would be “GatewaySubnet” with Quotes and NO SPACES.

$RGname = "TEST"
$Location = "EAST US"
$VNETname = "TESTVNET"
$GWname = "TESTGateWay"
$GWSubnet = "192.168.1.65/28"

# Incase VNET is not available
New-AzureRMVirtualNetwork -Name $VNETname -ResourceGroupName $RGname -Location $Location -AddressPrefix 10.0.0.0/16 -Subnet $Subnet1

#Get VNET and add Gateway subnet there:
$vnet = Get-AzureRMVirtualNetwork -Name $VNETname -ResourceGroupName $RGname
Add-AzureRMVirtualNetworkSubnetConfig -Name GatewaySubnet -AddressPrefix 10.0.3.0/28 -VirtualNetwork $vnet
Set-AzureRMVirtualNetwork -VirtualNetwork $vnet

#Create public IP for gateway
$gwpip= New-AzureRmPublicIpAddress -Name gwpip -ResourceGroupName $RGname -Location $location -AllocationMethod Dynamic

#Create GW IP Config
$vnet = Get-AzureRMVirtualNetwork -Name $VNETname -ResourceGroupName $RGname
$subnet = Get-AzureRmVirtualNetworkSubnetConfig -Name 'GatewaySubnet' -VirtualNetwork $vnet
$gwipconfig = New-AzureRmVirtualNetworkGatewayIpConfig -Name gwipconfig1 -SubnetId $subnet.Id -PublicIpAddressId $gwpip.Id

#Create Gateway
New-AzureRmVirtualNetworkGateway -Name $GWname -ResourceGroupName $RGname -Location $location -IpConfigurations $gwipconfig -GatewayType Vpn -GatewaySku Standard -VpnType RouteBased -VpnClientAddressPool "192.168.1.0/24"

#Add root certificate
#You need to export your root cert in cer format with base64 encoding. Then open resulting file in notepad and make single long string from text between -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- and -----END CERTIFICATE-----
#I have truncated it in this example

$cert = "MIIDETCCAf2gAwIBAgIQPTApmVXmK...dWoNHTdid6aWSSBf21rfas8"
Add-AzureRmVpnClientRootCertificate -VpnClientRootCertificateName "ARMcert" -VirtualNetworkGatewayName $GWname -ResourceGroupName $RGname -PublicCertData $cert

# After that you can download VPN client package. ProcessorArchitecture can be Amd64 or X86
Get-AzureRmVpnClientPackage -ResourceGroupName $RGname -VirtualNetworkGatewayName $GWname -ProcessorArchitecture Amd64

SECOND METHOD:

If you decide not to delete the Gateway Connection, Virtual Network Gateway or the Gateway PIP then you can make use of https://resources.azure.com à Subscription à Resource Group à (Resource Group Name) à Microsoft.Network à VirtualNetworkGateway à (Gateway)

Click On Read/Write and then Click on Edit on the Gateway.

We then have to add following tag right below “enableBgp”:false

"vpnClientConfiguration": {
"vpnClientAddressPool": {
    "addressPrefixes": [
      "192.168.2.0/24"
    ]
},
"vpnClientRootCertificates": [],
"vpnClientRevokedCertificates": []
}

Note: Update the Appropriate Point to Site Address Space which should not overlap with you On Premise or Azure Virtual network Address Range.

Click on Put and then wait for few minutes. Approx. 10 minutes for the gateway to update.

Once the update is complete you can make use of PowerShell and Upload the Root Certificate and also download the Package.

#Add root certificate

#You need to export your root cert in cer format with base64 encoding. Then open resulting file in notepad and make single long string from text between -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- and -----END CERTIFICATE-----
#I have truncated it in this example

I would also suggest that you may want to try this on a test Virtual network before making changes to the Production VNET.

Creating Azure Virtual Network with ARM PowerShell cmdlets

Sushant Rao — Wed, 19 Aug 2015 12:08:30 GMT

Azure Resource Manager

The AzureResourceManager module, introduced in Azure PowerShell version 0.8.0, lets you manage your resources in an entirely new way. Instead of creating individual resources and trying to use them together, begin by imagining the service you want to create, such as a web portal, a blog, a photo gallery, a commerce site, or a wiki.

Select a resource group template for the service, including one of dozens in the Azure template gallery, or create your own. Each template provides a model of a complex service, complete with the resources that you need to support the service. Then use the template to create a resource group and its resources, and deploy and manage the related resources as a unit.

When you use the Azure PowerShell cmdlets, the Azure module is imported into the session by default. To remove the Azure module from the session and import the AzureResourceManager and AzureProfile modules, use the Switch-AzureMode cmdlet.

Switch-AzureMode -Name AzureResourceManager

And, to switch back to the Azure module, just use Switch-AzureMode again

Switch-AzureMode -Name AzureServiceManagement

Below Script will help in creating a Resource Group, Virtual Network based on Azure Resource Manager and eventually associate a Subnet to it.

Note:

New-AzureResourceGroup = This command let is used for creation of a new Resource Group.

New-AzureVirtualNetwork = This command let is used for creation of a Virtual Network.

Add-AzureVirtualNetworkSubnetConfig = This command let is used for adding a Subnet with conjunction with Set-AzureVirtualNetwork to update the Virtual Network’s Configuration.

Switch-AzureMode -Name AzureResourceManager

$VerbosePreference = "continue"

Write-verbose "Setting Environment Variables"

$ResourceGroup = "sushraolab"

$Location = "East US"

$VNETName = "sushraolab_VNET"

$AddressPrefix = "10.0.0.0/16"

$SubnetName = "Subnet-1"

$SubnetPrefix = "10.0.0.0/24"

Write-Verbose "Creating a New Azure Resource Group $ResourceGroup"

New-AzureResourceGroup -Name $resourcegroup -Location $Location

Write-Verbose "Creating a ARM based Virtual Network $VNETNAME within the Resource Group $ResourceGroup"

$VNET = New-AzureVirtualNetwork -ResourceGroupName $ResourceGroup -Location $Location -Name $VNETName -AddressPrefix $AddressPrefix

Write-Verbose "Adding a $SubnetName to the ARM based Virtual Network $VNETNAME"

$VNET | Add-AzureVirtualNetworkSubnetConfig -Name $subnetName -AddressPrefix $subnetPrefix | Set-AzureVirtualNetwork

Write-verbose "Output of the Subnet's Associated with the ARM based Virtual Network $VNETName"

$VNET1 = Get-AzureVirtualNetwork -ResourceGroupName $ResourceGroup -Name $VNETName

$Subnet = Get-AzureVirtualNetworkSubnetConfig -Name $SubnetName -VirtualNetwork $VNET1

$subnet

Write-Verbose "Successfully Executed the Script"

Note: You can copy the above Script to notepad and after updating the Environment Variables save it as AzureVnetCreation.ps1 and execute it via Azure PowerShell

Below Script will help in adding a Subnet to an existing Virtual Network based on Azure Resource Manager

$VerbosePreference = "continue"

Write-verbose "Setting Environment Variables"

$ResourceGroup = "sushraolab"

$VNETName = "sushraolab_VNET"

$SubnetName = "Subnet-2"

$SubnetPrefix = "10.0.1.0/24"

Write-verbose "Adding a New Subnet to an Existing ARM based Virtual Network"

$vnet = Get-AzureVirtualNetwork -ResourceGroupName $ResourceGroup -Name $VNETName

$vnet | Add-AzureVirtualNetworkSubnetConfig -Name $SubnetName -AddressPrefix $SubnetPrefix | Set-AzureVirtualNetwork

Write-verbose "Output of the Subnet's Associated with the ARM based Virtual Network $VNETName"

$VNET1 = Get-AzureVirtualNetwork -ResourceGroupName $ResourceGroup -Name $VNETName

$VNET1

Write-Verbose "Successfully Executed the Script"

Note: You can copy the above Script to notepad and after updating the Environment Variables save it as AzureSubnetCreation.ps1 and execute it via Azure PowerShell

Unable to Install FIM 2010 R2 with Sp1 – Services and Portal

Sushant Rao — Thu, 04 Sep 2014 21:02:47 GMT

When you attempt to Install FIM 2010 R2 with SP1 You receive following error “To install FIM portal, the setup needs to run under SharePoint Farm administrator account with at least Open permission that allows users to open a Web site, list, or folder in order to access items inside that container. Please make sure you are a SharePoint Farm administrator with Open permission and then click "Retry". Click "Cancel" to abort setup.”

In my environment, I have following accounts
1. Fim Management Agent Account : Domain\fimma
2. Fim Service Account : Domain\fimservice
3. FIM Sync Account : Domain\fimsync
4. SharePoint Application Pool : Domain\spsapppool
5. SharePoint Admin Account : Domian\spsadmin

From the error message, it was evident that the account needed at least Read Permission to Open a Web site but, the question was which account?
At that moment, I thought maybe that FIM Service Account needs access to the SharePoint site and during the creation of SharePoint Site Collection, I had only added SharePoint Admin Account to the Primary Site Collection Administrator.

I started off with adding the above accounts to the Secondary site collection administrator (one-at-a-time) and running the install however, had no luck.

That's when I realized that, I had not logged on to the server with any of the above account.

To resolve the above error:
1. Open Command Prompt
2. Run "whoami"

3. Navigate to SharePoint Central Administration –> Application Management –> Change Site Collection Administrator and add the account which you see in Step 2 to Secondary Site collection Administrator.

Updating Secondary Site Collection Administrator via PowerShell
$Site = Get-SPSite ""
Note: is the URL of the site collection to which you want to add a site collection administrator.
Set-SPSite $site -SecondaryOwnerAlias "user"
Note: is name of the user whom you want to add in the format \.

Example:
Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.Powershell
$Site = Get-SPSite "https://fimportal.sushrao.com"
Set-SPSite $site -SecondaryOwnerAlias "sushrao\administrator"

Now, when you re-run the setup the install would succeed.

Unable to Install FIM 2010 R2 – Services and Portal on SharePoint Foundation 2013

Sushant Rao — Fri, 29 Aug 2014 19:05:03 GMT

When you attempt to Install Forefront Identity Manager 2010 R2 - Services and Portal on SharePoint Foundation 2013, You encounter following error “The features you have the following prerequisites, Refer to the installation guide for more information. Please update your machine and retry the installation. – SharePoint.”

Prerequisites and Verification Steps:
=====================================
1. The SharePoint 2013 site collection runs in 2010 experience mode.

To verify, in the SharePoint 2013 Management command-line shell, enter the following commands and verify that the return value is 14:

$spSite = SpSite("https://fimportal");
$spSite.CompatibilityLevel

2. Server-side viewstate needs to be disabled.

To disable server-side viewstate, perform the following steps in the SharePoint 2013 Management command-line shell:

$contentService = [Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPWebService]::ContentService;
$contentService.ViewStateOnServer = $false;
$contentService.Update();

3. Self-service upgrades on SharePoint Foundation 2013 from SharePoint 2010 experience mode to 2013 experience mode are disallowed.

To disallow, perform the following steps in the SharePoint 2013 Management command-line shell:

$spSite = SpSite("https://fimportal");
$spSite.AllowSelfServiceUpgrade = $false

4. Claims-based authentication needs to be off.

To verify, in the SharePoint 2013 Management command-line shell, enter the following commands:

$webapp = Get-SPWebApplication " https://fimportal"
$webapp.UseClaimsAuthentication

If claims-based authentication is on, you need to delete the existing default SharePoint web application (running on https://fimportal/) and create a new one with classic-mode Windows authentication.

In SharePoint 2013, creating a new SharePoint web application with classic-mode Windows Authentication can be only accomplished through PowerShell by entering the following commands:

$adminCredentials = get-credential domain\AppPoolAccount
$adminManagedAccount = New-SPManagedAccount -Credential $adminCredentials

New-SpWebApplication -Name "FIM Portal" -ApplicationPool "FIMAppPool" -AuthenticationMethod "Kerberos" -ApplicationPoolAccount $adminManagedAccount -Port 80 -URL https://FIMPORTAL

=========================

Note: Only Forefront Identity Manager 2010 R2 with Sp1 and above can detect SharePoint 2013. All older version will continue to error despite setting up SharePoint as per the above steps.

SharePoint 2013 – Office Communicator 2007 R2 Presence Indicator

Sushant Rao — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 09:20:28 GMT

Recently I was being asked if the presence indicator would still function within SharePoint 2013 sites along with Office Communicator 2007 R2

How SharePoint Presence works:

SharePoint presence status is displayed through a client-side setting by using a dynamic link library called name.dll. This file is installed with Microsoft Office 2010, Office 2007 and Office 2003 and is located within the Office installation directory for e.g., (C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office 14). The name.dll file is an ActiveX® control which gets loaded within the Internet Explorer that calls the Lync \ Office Communicator API directly to request and display presence status within SharePoint site collections.

Example of Add-on which gets loaded on Internet Explorer

Name : NameCtrl Class

Publisher : Microsoft Corporation

Status : Enabled

File date : Thursday, October 26, 2006, 8:12 PM

Version : 12.0.4518.1014

Function: Display presence information for people, integrating with Outlook (mail, calendar) and Communicator (instant messaging)

Reference: https://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms455335.aspx

Non-IE behavior: Presence information will not show.

===========================================================================================================================

Presence is enabled in SharePoint by default; there are no configuration steps for the SharePoint administrator to perform. Each SharePoint page includes Microsoft JScript® code, which enables presence for that site. JScript uses name.dll to call the Lync \ Office Communicator API and pull presence for users names who appear on the site. JScript uses the users’ SIP URI to pull presence for names that are listed on the site.

The following JScript code is an example of presence being pulled for a user named Bob Kelly, whose SIP URI is administrator@topgear.com. The SIP URI is added by using variables to the JScript when the script is loaded and presence is being pulled.

sip='administrator@topgear.com' id='imn_74,type=smtp'/>

Conclusion:

The Presence Indicator works within SharePoint 2013 along with Office Communicator 2007 R2 however, To get the Presence Indicator working we have to ensure that Office is installed as it deploys Name.DLL which is present under (C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office 12) and the SIP Address is updated for the user on the site.

Incase the SIP Address is not updated for the user within the SharePoint Site, we can make use of the following script to update the same.

$web = Get-SPWeb https://sush13
## get the user information list
$list =$web.Lists | where { $_.Title -eq "User Information List" }
## Get the system account item
$item = $list.Items | where { $_["Account"] -eq " i:0#.w|topgear\administrator" }
$item["Title"] = "UserName"
$item["SIP Address"] = “Adminsitrator@topgear.com”
$item.Update()

SharePoint 2013 - Machine decryption key is invalid.

Sushant Rao — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 13:16:48 GMT

When we browse SharePoint Central Administration we get following error

An unexpected error has occurred.

Once we successfully are able to browse the SharePoint Central Administration site we will consider the case as resolved.

Hopefully information below may help a few of us.

Open IIS manager –> Expand Sites --> Right Click on the appropriate Site and Explore

Note: In our case SharePoint Central Administration Web Application

Within the Web.config file set following

true"/>

Off"/>

Note: After Saving the changes to the web.config file we don't require an IISRESET

Browse the Central Administration Site again we see following error

Server Error in '/' Application

Description: An error occurred during the processing of a configuration file required to service this request. Please review the specific error details below and modify your configuration file appropriately.

Parser Error Message: Machine decryption key is invalid. It should be either "AutoGenerate", or 16 (for DES) or 48 (for 3DES and AES) Hex chars long, and may be followed by ",IsolateApps". Exception message from the underlying layer: Specified key is not a valid size for this algorithm.

Line 609:

Line 610:

Line 611:

Line 612:

Line 613:

Workaround:

Comment the following line in Web.Config file

After which we browsed the SharePoint Central Administration site and it works fine.

Root Cause:

This is because SharePoint configures MachineKey in the web.config for its sites which is HMACSHA256 requires a 256 bit key (64 hexadecimal characters, 32 bytes) , but is not explicitly setting the decryption value. Also assuming that MachineKey is not configured at a higher level (and is using the defaults).

Our issue is that our site's configuration uses the validationKey, decryptionKey, and validation value from site's web.config, instead of the decryption value from the machine.config. Since the Machine.Config's decryption value is 3DES which requires a 192 bit key (48 hexadecimal characters, 24 bytes), instead of HMACSHA256 requires a 256 bit key (64 hexadecimal characters, 32 bytes) , hence we get an error.

When then SharePoint Web Application within 2013 is getting provisioned it compiles the web.config file referring the machine.config file located under

C:\windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\Config

Open the Machine.Config file and search for machineKey validationKey and you would find following

Note: Often when using pre built framework web applications they have hard coded the validationKey and decryptionKey values. The main reason for this is to add support for web farms as the forms authentication, view state and out of process session state all use these settings for security.

Solution:

As SharePoint 2013 uses .net framework 4.0 navigate to C:\windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\Config and comment the following line

Select ServerName in Features views --> Click on Machine Key and set following (The Default Setting)

SharePoint 2007 – Upgrade Object Too New

Sushant Rao — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 06:37:06 GMT

After applying a cumulative update\ service pack on SharePoint 2007 Servers when we run PSConfig wizard which fails on step 8 of 9 or psconfig.exe -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b –wait -force it fails on step 3 with the error message

From Upgrade Log:

[SharedServiceDatabaseSequence] [DEBUG] [10/9/2012 4:11:06 PM]: Calling get SchemaVersion on Database SharedServices1_SSPDB, Status = Upgrading.

[SharedServiceDatabaseSequence] [ERROR] [10/9/2012 4:11:06 PM]: Upgrade object too new (build version = 12.0.6612.1000, schema version = 12.0.1.0). Current server (build version = 12.0.6425.1000, schema version = 12.0.1.0).

[SPManager] [ERROR] [10/9/2012 4:11:06 PM]: CanUpgrade [SharedDatabase Name=SharedServices1_SSPDB Parent=SPDatabaseServiceInstance Name=SQL] failed.

[SPManager] [ERROR] [10/9/2012 4:11:06 PM]: The specified SharedDatabase Name=SharedServices1_SSPDB Parent=SPDatabaseServiceInstance Name=SQL has been upgraded to a newer version of SharePoint. Please upgrade this SharePoint application server before attempting to access this object.

[SPManager] [ERROR] [10/9/2012 4:11:06 PM]: at Microsoft.SharePoint.Upgrade.SPSequence.get_CanUpgrade()

at Microsoft.SharePoint.Upgrade.SPManager.CanUpgrade(Object o)

[SPManager] [ERROR] [10/9/2012 4:11:06 PM]: ReflexiveCanUpgrade [SharedDatabase Name=SharedServices1_SSPDB Parent=SPDatabaseServiceInstance Name=SQL] failed.

[SPManager] [ERROR] [10/9/2012 4:11:06 PM]: The specified SharedDatabase Name=SharedServices1 Parent=SPDatabaseServiceInstance Name=SQL has been upgraded to a newer version of SharePoint. Please upgrade this SharePoint application server before attempting to access this object.

Resolution:

Now from the above error: Current server (build version = 12.0.6425.1000, schema version = 12.0.1.0) indicates the current server built, whereas Upgrade object too new (build version = 12.0.6612.1000, schema version = 12.0.1.0) is what is expected.

On the SharePoint Server where the upgrade is failing with above error message

Click on Start –> Run –> Type “Regedit” and then navigate to following node.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office Server\12.0

Double click on BuildVersion and then update it from 12.0.6425.1000 to 12.0.6612.1000

Now, run the PSConfig wizard or psconfig.exe -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b –wait -force and it should succeed.

SharePoint - Extract WSP file from Configuration Database

Sushant Rao — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 10:10:40 GMT

Many a times we come across situation where we are building a Development \ Test environment replicating the Production Server, however we don’t have the solution which were deployed on production.

Hopefully information below may help a few of us.

In SharePoint 2010 :

To Extract the Solution from SharePoint Configuration database, run SharePoint management Shell as Administrator

$farm = Get-SPFarm

$wsp = $farm.Solutions.Item("Solution.wsp").SolutionFile

$wsp.SaveAs("c:\SP2010.wsp")

Add Solution

Add-SPSolution -LiteralPath

Deploy Solution

Install-SPSolution -Identity -WebApplication

Ref: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262995.aspx

In SharePoint 2007:

PowerShell on MOSS 2007

Install : https://support.microsoft.com/kb/968930 (No Restart Required)

To Extract the Solution from SharePoint Configuration database, run Windows PowerShell as Administrator

Set-ExecutionPolicy UnRestricted

Press Y

Before programming against the SharePoint and/or MOSS 2007 object model the appropriate assemblies must be loaded. The following commands do this:

[System.Reflection.Assembly]::Load(“Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c”)

[System.Reflection.Assembly]::Load(“Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c”)

$farm = [microsoft.sharepoint.administration.spfarm]::Local

$wsp = $farm.Solutions.Item("ApplicationTemplateCore.wsp").SolutionFile

$wsp.SaveAs("c:\SP2007.wsp")

Install Solution

stsadm.exe -o addsolution -filename

Ref: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263162(v=office.12).aspx

Deploy Solution

stsadm.exe -o deploysolution -name

Ref: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262459(v=office.12).aspx