Recently in SharePoint Groovies Category

Ok, this week alone, I've run into two different scenarios, where I've gotten Application Event ID 2424 errors, when WSS Search is attempting to perform a search/catalog update.

Symptoms:

• Search returns no results, but no errors either, in WSS - simply that no results were found, when there definitely should be something there.


• Event ID 2424 and the error (along the lines of) "The update cannot be started because the content sources cannot be accessed. Fix the errors and try the update again. Context: Application 'Search', Catalog 'index file on the search server search'

Solutions (for me (this week, 2 different issues/2 different fixes)

1. On one install, it was a brand new WSS site. All configured, all tuned, everything cool but missing SP1. Soon as I applied it and rebooted, my search started working - Whoopee! Happy.


2. On the other install, it was a little more complicated but ultimately made perfect sense. My WSS server was on a private IP network (192.168.5.x). The URL I assigned it, instead of setting up a local web application and extending it (what I really should have done), actually resolved to the public IP of the site (67.44.44.x). Therefore, when search attempted to run, it itself was unable to *visit* the website, in order to search it. The quick fix was to resolve the IP's internally by modifying the local hosts file. The real solution will be to rebuild the sites (backup/restore collection) to local web applications, that are extended for public access.

I'll add more solutions, when/if I come across them. Hope this helps someone, somewhere.

Well, I helped solve this by accident, but mostly Zac came to this conclusion.

Problem:

You have a SharePoint list/form that you want to control the order of data entry into. No matter what way you order the columns in the list or view, it doesn't show them the way you'd expect.

Answer:

The column ordering is based on the content type's ordering, and then list settings ordering is applied after. I think the rules are that it applies the content type's ordering first, and then orders any additional columns that you have added later.

To change the ordering of the content type, you need to first enable the management of content types on that list (Advanced settings), then select the content type (Issue, in my case), and re-order the columns there.

Zac wrote and discovered it first, so it would be rude not to point out the reference :)
http://www.sharepointu.com/forums/p/1494/4056.aspx

Nice to be the boss. I gave my man Dougie my requirements and the skeleton for a script and he produced the rest. Download it if you want...

It provides an automated mechanism (that can be scheduled via your task scheduler) for WSS Site Collection Backups (multiple sites, via CSV selection list)

Download the script here - NOTE: you use this at your own risk. I'm just being a nice guy here. http://www.itgroove.net/central/Scripts/WSS.zip

Simply copy the script to your server, fill out the few required variables and modify the CSV file to suit. CSV format is as following:

ClientName,PortalURL,friendlyname

E.g.

itgroove,https://portal.itgroove.net:443,itgroovePortal

This dude has prepared a lovely and simple detail/method for hiding (don't remove!) the TITLE field in a SharePoint list, so why write it myself? :)

http://dlocc.com/sharepoint/35-customization/46-how-to-remove-the-qtitleq-column-from-a-sharepoint-list.html

Don't mind me, just bookmarking...

http://planetwilson.blogspot.com/2008/02/version-2-of-colour-calendar-released.html

Ok, so this drove me bonkers. I'm not loving the workaround (basic authentication) but I'm happy enough, as I have an SSL cert protecting the site anyways, thus auth is secured.

But even after blowing away the web application and site collection, creating a new web application and restoring the site collection from backup, this problem would just reappear (errors below):

You are not authorized to view this page

HTTP Error 401.2 - Unauthorized: Access is denied due to server configuration.
Internet Information Services (IIS)

For me, what worked was this...

This was the article that got me thinking about the problem:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/832769

And then I did this...

Configure Basic authentication (I disabled NTLM/Integrated, to get mine to work) on the Web application from SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration.

1. Click Start, Administrative Tools, and then double-click SharePoint Central Administration.
2. Click the Application Management tab, and then click Authentication Providers.
3. In the Web Application list, select the Web application that you have to update.
4. Click the Zone that you want.
5. On the Edit Authentication page for the IIS Authentication Settings, Integrated Windows authentication, click Basic authentication (and uncheck or try/alternate with Integrated Windows Authentication turned off).
6. To apply the change, click Save.

This from Zac Mullett today, blog ready, I just needed to cut and paste. Nice :)

I resolved the problem I was having where I would create a DataViewWebPart for one of our lists and get this:

The server returned a non-specific error when trying to get data from the data source. Check the format and content of your query and try again. If the problem persists, contact the server administrator.

It turns out that amongst the 100 fields the list has there was one that was tripping it up. That field just so happened to be a look-up to that list itself (self-referential). Whether or not it was because of the nature of the reference or some other spurious mal-formatted data is yet to be assessed.

Well this came in handy the other day…

Use this path, to connect to your local SharePoint Windows Internal Database (WIB) using SQL Server Management Studio Express (2005).

.\pipe\MSSQL$MICROSOFT##SSEE\sql\query

(note: there are two backslashes at the front of that syntax that aren’t shown via HTML, so don’t forget those)

Looking to run VMware server in your environment and want to have 64bit guests? This keeps cropping up so it was time to catalog the information a little bit so I don't have to keep looking for it.

VMware knowledge base regarding having 64bit support:
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1901

A nice breakdown of the issue and how to check your existing server if you've already bought it :)
http://www.petri.co.il/virtual_run_a_64_bit_guest_operating_system_in_vmware.htm

Well, this is getting more and more interesting...

Nevermind the SNP feature pack in SP2 for Windows Server 2003 sucks and that this patch helps reverse it...

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=948496

But better still, after applying the patch (and in general, these symptoms occur), applying a reboot to a server that has just been patched, using a Remote Desktop connection (RDP), the server goes into a state where:

• connectivity is slow
• RDP is no longer available
• it appears it has shutdown but doesn't come back up

The harsh reality is that its only partly down, and the reboot has not occurred properly. The good news, assuming you have at least one other Windows machine on the same network that you can access remotely, is that you can use the shutdown.exe /i command to launch the remote shutdown command and push a reboot to the server. After applying http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=948496, assuming you did during this issue, reboots following it will be better.

Yahoo!

This fella blogged this too... so its good to know I'm not alone.

http://theessentialexchange.com/blogs/michael/archive/2008/02/14/windows-2003-sbs-2003-restart-problems.aspx

Colligo Contributor is awesome

• Offline access to your SharePoint data
• Very useful as a public folder to SharePoint library migration tool
• Adds missing SharePoint functionality in Outlook

Download Upgrade to Contributor

Well what'dya know. This keeps cropping up its ugly little head. Since the advent of SP2 for Windows Server 2003, the Network Salability Pack (and TCP Chimney size, etc.) seems to be causing more and more 'intermittent network problems', for Windows Server, SBS and I've seen it with SQL as well.

Sure enough, Microsoft patch 948496 'disables' this and is part of the critical patch set (yeesh, I thought it was learned through service pack 2 of Windows NT that introducing new features in a service pack was a bad idea, yet here we are again). You can download the patch here (with caution, see below re: MOSS).

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936594

Lots of symptoms (but be cautious, there are several reports that this breaks MOSS 2007, although I've yet to personally verify/experience this):

- When you try to connect to the server by using a VPN connection, you receive the following error message: Error 800: Unable to establish connection.
- You cannot create a Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) connection to the server.
- You cannot connect to shares on the server from a computer on the local area network.
- You cannot join a client computer to the domain.
- You cannot connect to Microsoft Exchange Server from a computer that is running Microsoft Outlook.
- You can only connect to Web sites that are hosted on the server or on the Internet by using a secure sockets layer (SSL) connection. In this scenario, you cannot connect to a Web site that does not use SSL encryption.
- You experience slow network performance.
- You cannot create an outgoing FTP connection from the server.
- The DHCP Server service crashes.
- Clients experience slow domain logons.
- Network Address Translation (NAT) clients that are located behind Windows SBS 2003 experience intermittent connection failures.
- You experience intermittent RPC communications failures.
- Clients that are configured as SecureNat clients may be unable to connect to the Internet.
- Some Outlook clients may be unable to connect to Exchange.
- You cannot run the Configure E-mail and Internet Connection Wizard successfully.
- Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server blocks RPC communications.
- Clients cannot visit the http://companyweb Web site.
- You cannot browse Internet Information Services (IIS) Virtual Directories.

SharePoint Dataviews - ROCK!

The BDC may be cool but it's also expensive (it's not in WSS, and in MOSS, it is only in the Enterprise product which is BIG $$).

Learned a bunch about them this week, and then learned more, by reviewing some articles presented on Microsoft's website. These were worthy of a bookmark.

More on Data View in Sharepoint Designer:

• http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointdesigner/HA101009081033.aspx


• http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointdesigner/HA100948041033.aspx

And here's a link to a filter on 'Data View' posts on the Office website.

• http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointdesigner/results.aspx?qu=%22data+view%22&av=SDR120

Ok, so I've never found this information outlined clearly in one place, so I've done it.

If you want to enable incoming e-mail in SharePoint, you need to know the following:

1. You need to be running MOSS 2007 (Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007) - the $$ version, not WSS 3.0 (Windows SharePoint Services 3.0)
2. You will own be able to email enable the following list types

• Discussion Boards
• Calendars
• Document Libraries
• Announcements

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I've seen quite a bit of chatter around people having difficulties importing Excel spreadsheets into WSS 3.0 (or MOSS 2007 utilizing WSS 3.0 of course). Particularly, it seems more prevalent when using Excel 2007 over Excel 2003.

There are many posts about modifying Excel macro files, etc. However, I found the solution was pretty simple, at least for me.

• Add the site you trying to import to, into your Local Intranet Sites' list
• Clear your IE cache (after/following any attempted imports and after adding to your Intranet sites list
• Be sure to use a named range in Excel (my preference anyways)

Hope that helps.

Just starting to build out this list but some good entries to start:

• http://movielibrary.lynda.com/html/modPage.asp?ID=503
• http://www.wssdemo.com/Pages/Training.aspx

itgroove announces a new focus.

It was time for a change, and while we used to label ourselves 'Your Trusted IT Advisor' (and we still are), that slogan just simply did not do our abilities and service offering justice. We are now itgroove, 'Business Technology Solutions'.

With solutions like CMS, itGuardian (we watch your technology for you) and our laser beam focus on the coolest platform ever, Microsoft SharePoint, it was time to revamp our corporate message and website. Using our new CMS (Content Management System) we have rebuilt our website to reflect our new focus. Please check out our new website at your convenience @ www.itgroove.net.

I'm starting to put a listing of tools together:

SharePoint Portal Server Support Report Tool (SPSReport)

This is a information gathering tool that collects logs and reports that we need to troubleshoot the issue. It will create a cab file at following location: c:\windows\spsreports\portal\rpt\cab

http://www.codeplex.com/spsreport/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=5706

Microsoft Best Practices Analyzer for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and the 2007 Microsoft Office System

The Microsoft Best Practices Analyzer for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and the 2007 Microsoft Office System Best Practices Analyzer programmatically collects settings and values from data repositories such as MS SQL, registry, metabase and performance monitor. Once collected, a set of comprehensive 'best practice' rules are applied to the topology.

Administrators running this tool will get a detailed report listing the recommendations that can be made to the environment to achieve greater performance, scalability and uptime.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=cb944b27-9d6b-4a1f-b3e1-778efda07df8&displaylang=en

Pretty smooth and simple really...

Reference:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc288716.aspx

All I had to do was...

Backup:
cd %COMMONPROGRAMFILES%\Microsoft shared\Web server extensions\12\Bin

stsadm -o backup -url http://sourceserver:port -filename backupfilename

Restore:
cd %COMMONPROGRAMFILES%\Microsoft shared\Web server extensions\12\Bin

stsadm -o restore -url http://destinationserver:port -filename c:\temp\backupfilename

Notes:

• In my case, I moved the site collection from one farm in one domain, to another farm in another domain. So, the Site Collection Administrators defined were bogus and I had to change them, in order to gain access to the site, but that was easily done in Central Administration (Site Collection Administrators)


• As well, I needed to install a feature that was in one MOSS install to the other and had a really clearly defined error about the feature 'missing' but that was easily fixed by deploying that solution to the new MOSS installed too

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Ran into this today, with a few variances on the fixes, so thought I'd bookmark them.

Basically, we've been getting this error (or variations) when trying to do a full crawl (or incrementals):

this crawl has been paused by the search system

Appears as though, SQL Database Maintenance Plans are to blame, as is outlined below:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/930887/en-us

and...

http://www.21apps.com/2007/07/sql-maintenance-plans-and-moss-give-100.html

and here...

http://blogs.vertigo.com/personal/michael/Blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=4

The last one is the most informative...

Also, this popup occurred around the same time "This crawl has been paused by the search system while a new query server is added. After the new query service is online, the crawl will be resumed" when trying to start a full crawl, but this seems to be related to the Search/Indexing Share being turned off (someone configured Office Search incorrectly).

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I needed to restore a site collection, so I found this resource and felt the need to book mark it.

Restore Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 by using the Stsadm command-line tool

Migrate Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 by using the Stsadm command-line tool

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SharePoint vs. the File Server

SharePoint offers...

1. Web based access to your files from anywhere (work, home, the airport and from anything (PC, MAC, mobile devices) - in a Web browser or familiar Explorer view
2. SharePoint offers a "Two Stage" recycle bin - if you delete a file in SharePoint, you can restore it from the sites recycle bin, if you delete it from the site, the administrator can still restore it for you, with the click of a button
3. SharePoint provides Check-In/Check-Out abilities - when a file is checked out, others that try to edit the file will be informed that you have it, and it will prevent them from overwriting your work
4. SharePoint provides Revision History (and backups). If you edit a document and don't like the changes since the last time you saved, simply revert to a previously saved version
5. SharePoint saves money (and storage) by storing only one copy of your document. If you want others to edit or review a document, you simply send them a link to the document, instead of the document itself. This means you always know where the original document is, and this prevents the common scenario of the document being spread around and stored on PC's and in users inboxes (and ultimately, backed up repeatedly as well)
6. SharePoint allows you to view and find your documents in whatever manner you wish - RSS feeds, customized views, Metadata/sorting filtering, whatever. And users can define their own individual preferences for finding their data
7. SharePoint provides Workflow capabilities - your documents are the Payload, and SharePoint provides the following workflows *out of the box* (with more that can be programmed) to manage them; Three State, Approval, Collect Feedback, Collect Signatures and Records Management Disposition Approval
8. You can email directly to a SharePoint document library (just imagine, being able to 'CC' your file server to store copies of documents (or better yet scanned receipts that are searchable!)
9. SharePoint document libraries can be moderated. Designate someone to manage the documents in each library, to ensure only the documents that have been approved, are available for viewing
10. SharePoint libraries can be RSS enabled - Cool. Not sure what RSS is? Click here to find out... (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rss)
11. SharePoint can notify you (by email) when a document has been added, modified or deleted. You can be alerted whenever you prefer; Immediately, or via a daily or weekly summary (digest)
12. When using Outlook, you can take a SharePoint document to work with *offline* (such as at 10,000 feet in Business Class) and it will synchronize it for you once you reconnect
13. SharePoint Search - find your data whether it be the name of the document or the text inside the document, in less than a second - 'Nuff Said!

Take that you lame-o file server! Go back to 1986! Tell Mr. T I said 'I pity you fool!'

...special thanks to Jess who pointed out I'm an idiot and I hadn't linked the wikipedia article. It's fixed Mr. Ribs.


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My resume was horribly out of date. It still is less than I would like, but nonetheless, it was time to update it to at least a reasonable accuracy, so here it is... :)

In PDF: Sean_Wallbridge_Resume.pdf

Check out the Major_Change_Datasheet.pdf, now available for download and review.

Exerpt:

Uncontrolled changes are the single largest cause of unplanned outages and major IT issues. Change Management is the proven, industry standard method for reducing these risks to your business. MajorChange.com is a web-based application designed to allow your business to easily and efficiently coordinate and control the change
management process within your IT environment.

MajorChange.com will assist you in introducing and maintaining effective change controls for all changes affecting to your IT systems and services. These controls will help to ensure successful change implementation and minimize the occurrence and severity of unexpected service issues or outages.

• Minimize the risk from changes to your IT systems and services
• Suitable for all businesses, large and small
• Customizable to reflect your business and IT environment
• Fast, intuitive and easy to master user interface
• Secure and accessible from virtually anywhere
• Keep up to date with automated e-mail alerts

I've been asked this enough times, it makes sense to blog my response.

SharePoint vs Joomla

A small subset of SharePoint is about publishing, however SharePoint is much more than just a CMS (though it does incorporate Microsoft's first foray into CMS, the now-defunct Content Management Server).

SharePoint is an application framework, Joomla is a website CMS (website with a database backend that is skinned = easy/consistent and non-technical website management). Although there is some slight overlap in what can be done, they are completely different animals.

In general (mostly due to expense and overhead), I'd prefer having Joomla as my CMS. There are thousands of components allowing me to create a fully fledged website without having to code much of anything. Out of the box, SharePoint (web publishing feature) is quite limited, and the licence costs to expose it to the Internet are astronomical, whilst with Joomla most stuff is free, or otherwise, very good value.

I work with both (SharePoint fulltime, Joomla part-time - www.itgroove.net), both have their strengths and weaknesses, however they are for completely different markets. I'd say SharePoint's strength is good for Intranets, Internal Portals, knowledge sharing, document management and ideal for business seeking a remote access, collaborative, file server replacing platform - Joomla's strength is purely a good CMS.

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Presence Information / Online Status won't show unless ...

You have MSN Messenger (or Office Communicator) installed on the machine where you are accessing SharePoint.

Other settings which might need your attention:

1. You have setup Person Name Smart Tag and Presence Settings in Web Application General Settings in Central Administration


2. Site being accessed is in Trusted Site list


3. You need office installed on the machine you are visiting the SharePoint website from

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Ran into this tonight and solved it in the only way I could sort out how.

Issue:
I imported/created a new master page that worked fine on all sites that inherited permissions from the top site collection (publishing collaboration portal).

However, subsites with unique permissions would not display the master page properly (however, it would display the existing master pages included in SharePoint). It was screwy, warped, messed up, whatever - it looked damn ugly.

Resolution:
Anyways, after some frustration and realizing the time (going to go have some beers with friends, much more important), I finally stumbled across this article (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936908). While it didn't actually help, it did make me think about the problem differently. I had different permissions for this subsite (using it as a pseudo extranet setup) and thus figured it was going to look different anyways. So, I just imported the master pages again (yes, chain broken but problem solved) into this site collection (thus they end up in _catalogs\masterpage) and then set the one I wanted at that point, to be the default master page.

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I couldn't find this information in one place, so decided to do it myself.

Workflows built into MOSS (Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007/$$$) and WSS (Windows SharePoint Services 3.0/free):

WSS 3.0 Only

• Three-state: The Three-state workflow is designed to track the status of a list item through three states (phases). It can be used to manage business processes that require organizations to track a high volume of issues or items, such as customer support issues, sales leads, or project tasks.

  The Three-state workflow supports business processes that require organizations to track the status of an issue or item through three different states and two transitions between the states. With each transition between states, the workflow assigns a task to a person and sends that person an e-mail alert about the task. When this task is completed, the workflow updates the status of the item and progresses to the next state. The Three-state workflow is designed to work with the Issue Tracking list template, but it can be used with any list that is set up to contain a Choice column with three or more values. The values in this Choice column serve as the states that the workflow tracks. More: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointserver/HA101544311033.aspx?pid=CH101760531033

MOSS 2007

• Three-state (see WSS)


• Approval: The Approval workflow routes a document or item that is saved to a list or library to a group of people for approval. By default, the Approval workflow is associated with the Document content type and it is thus automatically available in document libraries.

  The Approval workflow supports business processes that involve sending a document or item to colleagues or managers for approval. The Approval workflow makes an approval business process more efficient by managing and tracking all of the human tasks involved with the process and by providing a record of the process after it is completed. More: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointserver/HA101544251033.aspx



• Collect Feedback: The Collect Feedback workflow routes a document or item that is saved to a list or library to a group of people to collect their review feedback. By default, the Collect Feedback workflow is associated with the Document content type and it is thus automatically available in document libraries.

  The Collect Feedback workflow supports business processes that involve sending a document or item to a group of people to collect review feedback. The Collect Feedback workflow makes a review business process more efficient by managing and tracking all of the human tasks involved with the process. After it is completed, the Collect Feedback workflow consolidates all of the feedback from reviewers for the workflow owner and it provides record of the review process. More: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointserver/HA101544261033.aspx?pid=CH101782961033



• Collect Signatures: The Collect Signatures workflow routes a Microsoft Office document that is saved to a list or library to a group of people to collect their digital signatures. The Collect Signatures workflow works only with Microsoft Office Word 2007 or Microsoft Office Excel 2007 documents that contain one or more Microsoft Office Signature Lines. By default, the Collect Signatures workflow is associated with the Document content type and it is thus automatically available in document libraries for documents or workbooks that contain Microsoft Office Signature Lines.

  The Collect Signatures workflow supports a business process that involves sending a document to a group of people to collect signatures. The Collect Signatures workflow makes the digital signature process more efficient by managing and tracking all of the human tasks involved with the signature process and by providing a record of the signature process after it is complete. More: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointserver/HA101544281033.aspx?pid=CH101782961033



• Disposition Approval: The Disposition Approval workflow is designed to support records management needs within an organization. This workflow manages the document expiration and retention process by allowing participants to decide whether to retain or delete expired documents or items.

  The Disposition Approval workflow supports both records management and document management processes by providing organizations with a way to manage and track the process by which expired or out-of-date content is evaluated and deleted. Users can manually start the Disposition Approval workflow on individual documents or items. For greater consistency in managing expired content, organizations can configure the Disposition Approval workflow to work in conjunction with the Expiration policy feature of an information management policy, so that the workflow starts automatically when documents or items on a site expire. Although the Disposition Approval workflow can be used for any list, library, or content type on a Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 site, it can be used specifically on a Records Center site to support records management needs and an organization's document retention policies. More: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointserver/HA101544291033.aspx?pid=CH101782961033

Ok, so by now, you've come to the realization that you can't just 'save' to your SharePoint portal from Outlook, like you can from Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.

But wait, Colligo has an (expensive) app that will allow this to happen. It's expensive (to me) because this should BE IN Outlook, but thanks to Colligo, at least it's an option. Sure, you can email SharePoint libraries but this offers more than that and is worthy of a bookmark in my blog.

Colligo Contributor Add-In for Outlook

Great resource/reference but assumes single server farm. When you have multiple servers, just make sure you do the Central Admin server first, stop when it tells you to, go to the other servers and run setup and stop at the same place, then go back to the first one and finish, then all the others.

Patching MOSS and WSS to SP1

So far, I haven't seen it laid out nicer, so don't mind me but I'm bookmarking this one...

WSS 3.0 (free) vs MOSS 2007 ($$) comparison

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So far, I haven't seen it laid out nicer, so don't mind me but I'm bookmarking this one...

WSS 3.0 (free) vs MOSS 2007 ($$) comparison

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Not too well documented, but if you have the following scenario, you probably need to specify a UNC path to your backup destination instead of a local drive (i.e. use \\server\share, instead of d:\some_backup_folder).

• You have MOSS 2007 (or WSS 3.0)
• You are doing a backup via the GUI or using STSADM
• SQL Server is on a different server (i.e. you have a farm and not the standalone install)
• You are getting lots of errors about backing up content databases

You'll need to sort out which accounts are trying to backup to the path, but you'll need to a UNC. So there, now you know. I look forward to someone blogging this better than me ;) or providing a Microsoft KB that outlines this better.

How to Install and Run Best Practice Analyzer (BPA)

1. Download the BPA from: Microsoft SharePoint BPA
2. Run the executable and extract to (your folder choice may vary): D:\Top\BPA
3. Then Perform the following:
4. cd top\bpa
5. sharepointbpa.exe -cmd analyze -substitutions SERVER_NAME name_of_your_server

Note: the 'SERVER_NAME' is not *your* server name, that is the syntax telling it you about to specify a server - note that text needs to be in upper case too.

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Download - Preformatted document libraries for SharePoint

SharePoint Templates: Preformatted document libraries for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and SharePoint Server 2007

Add preformatted document libraries to your Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 or Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 site. Each library is configured with a Microsoft Office Word 2007 template that generates a new document and binds data in the library with data in the body of each document.

Get them here...

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Nice and simple... but stored here so I don't forget it.

@ECHO OFF
TITLE Metabase Backup :: %COMPUTERNAME%
REM Created by: Sean Wallbridge
REM Created: 10:51 AM 3/6/2008
ECHO Performing Metabase Backup...
REM These backups can be found in IIS Backup/Restore Configuration, to restore when necessary, in the IIS Console.
C:
cd %Systemroot%\System32
Cscript.exe iisback.vbs /s %COMPUTERNAME% /backup /b MOSS_Metabase_Backup

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This was a really good note and I decided to copy it rather than reference it (sorry Bryant but link to you is still there). I didn't want to risk that site being shutdown and not having this.

Yes, you can run a second Central Administration (CA) website on a second server. I don't care what other people are saying, I have done it, and am doing it now. Here are the steps I followed:

Use the psconfig.exe command to install the first server (so you can name the database yourself. I hate the default name the wizard uses (Sharepoint Admin Content guid guid guid guid guid guid guid guid guid guid, etc). It's too long. If you need the syntax, do a search on psconfig.exe -cmd -create and you should get the help you need. The basic syntax is:

PSCONFIG.EXE -cmd configdb
[-create]
[-disconnect]
[-connect]
[-server ]
[-database ]
[-dbuser ]
[-dbpassword ]
[-user ]
[-password ]
[-addomain ]
[-adorgunit ]
[-admincontentdatabase ]

Now:

1. Run the Sharepoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard on THE FIRST SERVER to finish the installation.
2. Use the psconfig.exe command to connect to the Configuration Database you just created (you don't specify the AdminContentDatabase, you do that later).
3. Again, run the Sharepoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard on THE FIRST SERVER to finish the installation, but on the last step, you will notice an "Advanced" option. Click the "Advanced" Button, and then choose the option for the server to host the Central Administration Website. Let the wizard finish.
4. Once you have finished the installation on both servers, you will notice two things:
Note: When you launch CA from either server, it will only connect to the first server. IIS on both servers shows the Sharepoint Central Administration v3 Site.
5. Now, here is the easy part. Go to Central Administration, Operations Tab, and click on Alternate Access mappings. Click on "Edit Public URLs", then choose the drop-down list for "Alternate Access Mapping Collection:". In the list, select "Change Alternate Access Mapping Collection", and in the resulting window, select Central Administration. Now, the Default should already be set to the first server: port combination. Just add in the "Custom" box the address for your SECOND server: port (by the way, the port will always be the same).
6. Now return to the second server, and open regedit.HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\ Web Server Extensions\12.0\WSS. When you highlight the WSS Key, you will see "CentralAdministraionURL" REG_DWORD with the First Server's URL. Change this value to your second server's URL.
7. I also went back to the First Server to check the regedit location to be sure it was the first server.

Bryant
reference

And then, this was a followup note by someone else, just to keep in mind (although Bryant's experience was different):

I have been running two Central Administration Sites in my farm for over a year now. One per web front end server. That worked out well, up to the point where I wanted to install SP1! Now: If you have more than one Central Admin Site in a farm the update to SP1 will fail! We had to find this out the hard way. We're now back to one CA site.

There are several steps to integrating PDF into SharePoint:

1. Install Adobe iFilter v6.0


2. Configure SharePoint to include PDF files in search


3. Associate the PDF icon with PDF documents

Install Adobe iFilter v6.0

1. Download the iFilter from Adobe (URL: http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=2611)


2. URL: http://www.adobe.