Month: October 2017

SharePoint Server Trail period reinstall fix

Today, I was hit with a SharePoint error on a developers VM when I tried to create a new Site Collection in Central Admin:

Sorry, something went wrong

The trial period for this product has expired.

When I tried to view a teamsite homepage, I received this error:

Sorry, something went wrong

The “SiteFeedWebPart” Web Part appears to be causing a problem. Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

Web Parts Maintenance Page: If you have permission, you can use this page to temporarily close Web Parts or remove personal settings. For more information, contact your site administrator.

Obviously, things were not looking good for me.

I tried rebooting, IIS resets, PSConfig, dismounting my content DB and creating a new one, all with no luck.

I thought perhaps it was because I reset my service account passwords (back to the same password due to a time crunch recently) and maybe that was causing the service accounts to have issues, but I didn’t think that was the problem.

Credit to other bloggers

Luckily, I found a few blogs that reminded me I used a SharePoint Trial media to install these developer VMs. AAH HA! But, I cringed thinking I would have to dismount my farm db, reinstall my binaries, and face any challenges from that potential nightmare process. I WAS ABLE TO SOLVE IT!

First, this blog post showed me where to upgrade the SharePoint product key. I went on MSDN, got my key, and updated my version. They key I had previously was giving an error, so try a few different versions of your keys. https://blog.devoworx.net/2017/02/25/extend-sharepoint-trial-period/

Second, this blog post had me run PSCONFIG with a better flag to reset security, http://alstechtips.blogspot.com/2014/01/error-trial-period-for-this-product-has.html

How to fix these errors

First, go to Central Admin > Upgrade and Migration > Convert Farm license type.

Enter your SharePoint Server 2013 product key from MSDN. In my case, I used SharePoint Server 2013 with Service Pack 1- Enterprise key from MSDN.

Note: If you try downgrading Enterprise to Standard, you get this error, so use an Enterprise Key:

This product key cannot be used to convert SharePoint Server Trial with Enterprise Client Access License to SharePoint Server with Enterprise Client Access License.

Once it takes, you will get a success message:

Part 2-

Now that the key is set, you need to run PSConfig, but with a parameter.

Launch command prompt (or PowerShell) as administrator, change your directory to where PSCONFIG.exe is located, mine is in “C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\Web Server Extensions\15\BIN”

Run the following command:

.\psconfig -cmd secureresources

It takes about 10 minutes or so.

Finally, kick off an IISReset:

DONE! Now you can create a site collection in Central Admin:

You SharePoint farm is no longer in trial.

Please post any comments below.

SharePoint Server- Renewing SSL certificates quickly

A week ago, my wildcard SSL certificate expired on GoDaddy. It was automatically purchased, but I still had to validate my domain and download a new IIS CER certificate request file.

My old post from a few years ago has some good info on certs, the file types, etc. https://eschrader.com/2014/09/23/sharepoint-2013-iis7-nlb-ssl-certificates-and-godaddy/

This is a quick guide.

The only issue I have with this quick renewal is that I could not export the certs as a PFX, but I was able to get them installed on the server in IIS by completing a CSR

Here are the steps:

GoDaddy automatically renews SSL certificate

GoDaddy has renewed your SSL certificate, but you have to verify your domain using a TXT record they give you (@ is the host field).

Once you verify, you can download the certificate. Note, this is a CER which is a certificate request that has to be completed in IIS.

Download the certificate for IIS

Copy and extract the zip to the server

I chose to delete my old certificates from my computers Personal certificate store.

Once removed, I go into IIS and go to Server Certificated under the machine:

Once in Server Certificates in IIS, click on Complete Certificate Request:

Change the file type to *.* (All files) and find your CER file you copied over:

Enter your certificates friendly name (mine is a wildcard, so I use *.mydomain.com):

Next, go to your SharePoint IIS web apps that use this host header (could be more than one) and edit the bindings and select the new certificate. If you see multiple, this is why I deleted them in my step above. If you get an error saying change this will leave behind an old certificate of the same name, just double check the other web applications in IIS to make sure they are set correctly. Updating one should update them all, but I always check each site in IIS.

That’s it! The certificate is update.

The bad thing is I have to repeat the IIS complete CSR steps on each machine. I would rather export the first one and import PFX certificate files to my other machines, but hey, this is how I got it to work.

Leave any comments below, thanks!