Not everyone will need this tool, but in case you have a Microsoft SQL Database Server and a lot of disk drives/SAN, you may choose to read on. Let’s assume you are a Database Administrator, and you have a lot of Disk Drives, and you have SQL Databases residing on quite a few of them. You know that a database file increases in size based on a specific setting and it is called, AutoGrow. Some of you would have it as x%, some x MB and some will have it set to different settings for different file... [More]

MOSS 2007 – Step by Step – Table of Content In this post, we’ll install POP3 email and configure Outlook to send/receive email. This will make enable us to test MOSS 2007 email functions.     Switch to the machine AS. Click Start –> Control Panel –> Add/Remove Programs     Click Add/Remove Windows Components.     Select E-mail Services and click Next     You ... [More]

MOSS 2007 – Step by Step – Table of Content In this post, we’ll upgrade our existing farm – MOSS SP1 with April CU to MOSS SP2 with June CU. We’ll also install a patch which fixes the trial issue. Once done with installation, I will show you how to verify if all the patches and Service Packs has been installed correctly.     So let’s first learn how we check the current version of SharePoint.     Open Start &nda... [More]

MOSS 2007 – Step by Step – Table of Content In this post, we’ll create a SharePoint farm. AS will be the Application Server, and it will also double as SQL server. Apart from that, AS will also host Central Administration Tool. As I have already discussed earlier, having SQL on an Application Server is not scalable and it shouldn’t be the case in real production scenario and we must have a separate SQL cluster at least. Anyways, disclaimers aside… let’s have some action.     ... [More]

MOSS 2007 – Step by Step – Table of Content In this post, we’ll create a couple of accounts that are required for SharePoint in order to make it talk to the SQL Server and other Administrative actions. Refer to this article if you want to learn more about different accounts. Two domain accounts that we are going to create and configure are… Moss Administrator’s account name : dotnetscraps\MossAdmin SQL Server service account : dotnetscraps\SQLAdmin     Switch to the mac... [More]

MOSS 2007 – Step by Step – Table of Content In this post, we’ll install MOSS binaries on WFE1, WFE2 and AS. Please keep in mind that there are 3 phases of installing SharePoint. 1. Install the SharePoint Binaries on all the machines which you wish to use (in our case WFE1, WFE2 and AS) 2. Use PSConfig or PSConfigUI to configure the farm (later) 3. Use Central Administration Tool to do the maintenance and “real” work with SharePoint. (later) Bef... [More]

MOSS 2007 – Step by Step – Table of Content In this post, we’ll enable Network Load Balancing between WFE1 and WFE2 and ensure it works for IIS Default Web Site.     Open Local Area Connection properties on both WFE1 and WFE2… and select Network Load Balancing.       Click Properties. Type in the following IP addresses (on both WFE1 and WFE2)… and confirm that Multicast is selected     Switch to Host Parameters tab on WFE1… and ... [More]

MOSS 2007 – Step by Step – Table of Content In this post, we’ll make two more copies of WFE1 called AS and WFE2. After that, we’ll join them in the same domain. This post will cover part 3.      Copy the VHD for WFE1, and paste it in two different folders with name WFE2 and AS.      Create two new Virtual Machines, WFE2 and AS and attach VHD of WFE2 and AS respectively      Next few steps have to be done on both the... [More]

This post will contain links to all the other posts in this series, so that I don’t have to copy/paste them in every post. 1. Start with a Windows 2k3 – R2 – SP2 plain vanilla machine and promote it to a Domain Controller – dotnetscraps.com 2. Create a machine WFE1, join it to dotnetscraps domain. Install IIS, SMTP and .NET 2.0 3. Make two more copies of WFE1 called AS and WFE2. Join them in the same domain 4. Enable Network Load Balancing between WFE1 and WFE2 and ensure it works f... [More]

MOSS 2007 – Step by Step – Table of Content In this post we’ll create a machine WFE1, join it to dotnetscraps domain. Install IIS, SMTP and .NET 2.0     Time to setup up a new machine – WFE1 – (Win 2k3 – R2 – SP2)!!!     Since this is just a copy/paste of the same VHD, we need to change the name of the machine and SID. There is a fix, although unsupported – read through the link carefully and don’t be hasty!! I am following this path, because I don’t ha... [More]