Tag: PSConfig

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 2013 – Common Installation Issues

With SharePoint 2013, I have had a lot of installation issues. I will cover the latest issues I have ran into. This post does not enforce the Least Privlages security practice, but it can easily be adapted to for other environments. This post was for standing up a development environment. After a long battle of getting SharePoint 2013 to work without any issues, I wanted to share my experience in one place.

I have documented our company’s current development environment setup in this post. Your environment does not have to match mine 100%. Feel free to use Windows Server 2012, etc.

Installation Media Requirements (MSDN):

  • en_windows_server_2008_r2_standard_enterprise_datacenter_and_web_with_sp1_x64_dvd_617601.iso
  • en_office_professional_plus_2013_x64_dvd_1123674.iso
  • en_sharepoint_designer_2013_x64_1134649.exe
  • en_sharepoint_server_2013_x64_dvd_1121447.iso
  • en_sql_server_2012_enterprise_edition_with_sp1_x64_dvd_1227976.iso
  • en_visio_professional_2013_x64_1123802.exe
  • en_visual_studio_premium_2012_x86_dvd_920758.iso and update en_visual_studio_2012_x86_update_1_1203928.exe

One common issue I found is that I had to run Windows Update before installing SQL 2012. There were 96 Windows updates on a clean server install and it took 2 hours. At about an hour and a half Internet Explorer has a hidden install prompt in the background that you have to click “Next” on, etc. The patch process is as follows: Install, reboot, install security update, reboot one last time.

Before installing SQL Server 2012, I had to go to my Windows Server 2008 R2 Roles/Features and add the .NET Framework 3.5.1 Features.

.net 3.5

Next I installed SQL Server 2012. I let the installer check for updates. If this installer fails, you probably did not finish the Windows Updates.

I installed the following features for SQL:

  • Database engine
  •  Full text Search
  •  SSAS
  •  SSRS Integrated
  •  SSRS addin tool
  •  Management tools basic and complete (for SSRS)

SQL 2012 features

You don’t need Full Text, but we are using it in our development environment for custom SQL applications outside of SharePoint.

Install Visual Studio 2012 and the update listed in the beginning of this post.

Then Install SharePoint 2013 Prerequisites. You will need to reboot and continue, then reboot again (I see a pattern here…)

For configuing SharePoint, MAKE SURE YOU ARE LOGGED IN AS A DOMAIN USER ACCOUNT – SPSetup for example! I tried using local admin and my service account created the SQL database, but got an error on the products and configuration wizard:

03/26/2013 23:07:06  6  ERR                        Failed to create the configuration database.

An exception of type System.InvalidOperationException was thrown.  Additional exception information: An error occurred while getting information about the user SPFarm at server Domain.local: Access is denied

System.InvalidOperationException: An error occurred while getting information about the user SPFarm at server Domain.local: Access is denied

Configuration Failed

Configuration failed. One or more configuration settings failed. Failed to create the configuration database.

Basically SharePoint is trying to get information about this service account and access is denied. This is because you are running the Windows session and Products and Configuration Wizard as a local user that does not have access to the AD OU to verify the SPFarm domain account. Log out, Log in as SPSetup (or any domain user if you don’t have one) and re-launch the SharePoint Products and Configuration Wizard. Specify the SPFarm account to connect to the SQL Database. Dont forget, you might have to log in to SQL Management Studio and remove the partially created farm database SharePoint_Config or use a different name the second time.

Then Install SharePoint 2013. I use Complete instead of Stand-alone.

Specify your domain Database Access account (Domain\SPFarm). This account has to be DBOwner and Security Admin in the SQL instance (or sysadmin if you are lazy and frustrated).

Launch the Farm Configuration Wizard.

Specify a new managed account for the service applications (For Dev I ended up using the same SPFarm account).

I noticed the SharePoint 2013 Farm Configuration Wizard said “Working on it…” Sorry to keep you waiting. for over 6 hours. I read a blog post from Todd that once the W3WP.exe and OWSTimer.exe processes die down, you can kill the IE window and re-open Central Admin. Give it a good 15 minutes or so. More time the better.

Once you bring up Central Admin, then create the root site collection. My Sites is configured on the root web application under /my site collection. Go to About Me on your username above the ribbon to verify everything works.

Boom, SharePoint 2013 is up and running.