Portal Creation fails at 52%

In case you ever run into an issue where Portal Creation fails at 52%

In the Portal Creation logs, It fails with this exception in the logs just after Exit InitCategories()

Portal creation job exception. (status=PortalAdminJobStatusFailed)

System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

at Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.Install.i.a(PortalContext A_0, SPSite A_1, PortalXmlTemplate A_2, String A_3, Boolean A_4)

at Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.Install.i.a(PortalContext A_0, SPSite A_1, String A_2, String A_3, Boolean A_4)

at Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.Install.i.a(IDictionary A_0)

at System.Configuration.Install.Installer.Install(IDictionary stateSaver)

at System.Configuration.Install.TransactedInstaller.Install(IDictionary savedState)<br>

Do we support using Portal Server 2003 against SQL Server configured to listen on a TCP/IP port other than the standard port 1433?

Yes, the one requirement, is must chante the TCP/IP settings on the sharepoint servers, to match the same port as the SQL Server.
- The easiest way to do this is to use the %SystemRoot%\System32\CliConfg.exe util (it's installed with the base OS.)
You can also install the SQL “Client Network Utility” on each server in which Portal Server 2003 is installed
- This utility is installed using SQL Setup , it is the third option on the configuration dialog.

Ok, I did that and it still fails

It’s possible that UDP Port 1434 is blocked on the SQL Server. If so, there is a problem in MSSearch in which it does not honor the Port settings configured for the SQL Alias. An official hotfix was produced for this part, see https://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;885263

Problems creating Portal Sites on Named Instances

1. Creating/Connecting to a config DB on the default instance first

2. Creating a portal site

3. Deleting the Portal Site

4. Disconnecting from the ConfigDB

5. Creating/Connecting to a config DB on the named instance and attempting to create a portal site (At this point it fails)

The reason is as follows:

When the config db connection string changes, all SPS services need to be restarted and IIS app pools need to be recycled. The reason is that the unmanaged version of resource manager (resmgru.dll) will only read the config db connection string from the registry once on initialization. It happens that "Creating Portal Areas" is the first time that resmgru.dll is invoked during site creation, which explains why it fails there.

To resolve the issue perform the following steps:
1. Once the Config DB is created into the named instance restart all portal services
2. Recycle IIS
3. Create the Portal Site

Recommended Reading

Description of the SharePoint Portal Server 2003 post-Service Pack 1 Hotfix Package: September 30, 2004

How to change the TCP port that SharePoint Portal Server 2003 uses to connect to SQL Server 2000

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