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Enabling Meaningful Errors in SharePoint 2010

Published April 30, 2010

Thanks to Rez’s blog spot for this one. Here’s how to get replace the “Unexpected Error Has Occurred” message with some ASP.NET debug code that you might be able to use to resolve whatever problem you’re having.

Edit the web.config of your SharePoint application – should be found in

drive:inetpubwwwrootwssVirtualDirectories<port>

Set the following values:

  1. Debug=”true” instead of the default of Debug=”false” (do a find on “debug”)
  2. CallStack=”true” instead of the default of CallStack=”false” (do a find on “callstack”)
  3. customErrors=”Off” instead of the default of customErrors=”On” (do a find on “customErrors”)

Finally, open the web.config file found at

drive:Program FilesCommon FilesMicrosoft SharedWeb Server Extensions14TemplateLAYOUTS

And change the value of customErrors to “Off”.

After an IISReset, you should see better errors.

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Confusion When Upgrading from SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint 2010 In Place

Published April 30, 2010

When You install SharePoint 2010 on a server that already has SharePoint 2007 installed on it, it will install all of the 2010 bits on that server in a side-by-side fashion with the 2007 bits. This is a good thing, for all sorts of reasons.  However, it can be the source of some confusion, and at least once already in my case, an opportunity for slip ups.

After you run the new SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard (note the new lack of “And Technologies” in the name), you will have converted your farm, which is all of your databases. However, you still have access to all of the code from the 2007 install. This includes the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration wizard from the 2007 install.

This can be a real problem, particularly if you have always used a shortcut to run it, and you expect the shortcut to be upgraded. It won’t be… Take care that you’re running the right tool. It’s now installed off the start menu in the “Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products” folder, and its name is slightly different,“SharePoint 2010 Products Configuration Wizard”. The chrome around it is slightly different,but not enough to tell, but one visual clue that you’ll get while inside the wizard is that the prompt that warns you about services restarting has “v4” in most of the Service names.

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Required SQL Server Versions and Patch Levels for SharePoint 2010

Published April 28, 2010

Microsoft has been very clear about the requirements for installing SharePoint 2010. The biggest thing in this release is that it’s 64 bit only, not just on the Operating System side, but also in the SQL Server requirements. In addition, it’s also quite fussy about which versions it supports.

On the operating system side, a complete list can be found here. On the SQL Server side, it’s generally thought that it supports only SQL Server 2008 and above. However, this isn’t true – it supports SQL Server 2005 – provided that it’s 64 bit mode. However, the devil is in the details. It’s very specific about the patch level that you’re running. Glenn Berry has a list of the supported versions, with patch levels, and the SQL script for determining your precise version levels. There are only 3, so I’ll repeat them below:

  • SQL Server 2005 SP3 CU3 (Build 4220) or greater
  • SQL Server 2008 SP1 CU2 (Build 2714) or greater
  • SQL Server 2008 R2

The kicker is that neither the SP3 level of 2005, nor the SP1 level of 2008 will cut it,and you will have a failure if you do not conform to these versions. This failure will not appear until you run the SharePoint Products configuration wizard,which is pretty much past the point of commitment. In addition, the stsam.exe –o preupgradecheck command on a 2007 farm does not appear to detect this deficiency (at least it hasn’t yet in my experience).

Do yourself a favour, and patch up your SQL servers before you start your install/upgrade. The most recent cumulative update packages, as of this writing are:

I’ve used CU7 for 2008 on my installs thus far, and can attest that it works. I’m still waiting, hopefully not long now, for 2008 R2…

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How to get SharePoint Designer 2010 and a few gotchas

Published April 26, 2010

Anyone that’s worked with SharePoint 2007 or WSS 3.0 and SharePoint Designer, and is moving to SharePoint 2010 might be a little confused about how to get the new Designer client. Previously, it was (and still is) delivered through MSDN, but after the announcement that it was made free of charge, it was made available for general download.

SharePoint Designer 2010 is ONLY available through public download. You can find the home page for the product here, and download links for both 32 bit and 64 bit are at the bottom of the page.

There are a few important usage notes here. Firstly, SharePoint Designer 2010 works ONLY with SharePoint 2010 sites (not 2007 sites). Designer 2007 works only with 2007 sites, and not at all with 2010. Therefore, if you find yourself like I do in a situation where you need to support both environments, you’ll need to keep both installed side by side.

This however brings up another issue. The bit level of all Office applications need to be the same. SharePoint Designer is an Office application, and Designer 2007 only had a 32 bit version. In this scenario, you are restricted to the 32 bit version of Office 2010. In truth,this isn’t much of a restriction,and Microsoft itself suggests that you use the 32 bit version of office unless you have a compelling need for 64 bit. The 32 bit version is more compatible with add-ins, etc.

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Not Supported Error While Doing A Clean Install of SharePoint 2010 RTM

Published April 23, 2010

I ran into an odd error today while installing the RTM of SharePoint 2010 on a clean server farm. I had built everything up from scratch on current versions, including SQL Server. I had applied SP1 and run all Windows updates. When I got to the point of actually running the Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard, I received an error stating that my SQL Server was running an unsupported version of SQL, version 2007.100.2531.0. Yes, it was 64 bit, as was everything else. I thought that was rather odd, and thought I’d try to find something newer.

Cumulative Update 6 for SQL Server 2008 is available so I thought I’d try applying that. Lo and behold it worked, and I continue to install away.

I just hope that it’ll be just as happy with SQL Server 2008 R2….

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