28 August, 2013

Windows Server, VDI, Big Data, IT Security Bulletin: August 2013

SharePoint 2010- New Document requires a Windows SharePoint Services-compatible application and Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or greater. To add a document to this document library click the Upload Document button

Problem description:
If I try to use the drop-down for a document to select "Edit in Microsoft Word" I get a "'New Document requires a Windows SharePoint Services-compatible application and Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or greater. To add a document to this document library click the Upload Document button" error.

Platform entities:
Windows 7 64 bit
Office 2010 64 bit
IE 8 64 bit
SharePoint Server 2010

Error message:
New Document requires a Windows SharePoint Services-compatible application and Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or greater. To add a document to this document library click the Upload Document button.

Troubleshooting done:
-Tried unregistering and re-registering the "owssupp.dll" file  but no results and faced the same error.
-Confirmed SharePoint Open Documents Add-on is enabled or not but no results
-Tried to add the SharePoint component by means of add/remove programs but faced the same error.
-Checked the compatibility mode of the browser but no results.

Resolution:
-Uninstall the current IE version i.e. 64 bit
-Install the IE with 32 bit version.

Note: if you do not have rights to download and install the IE software then please contact your IT support and get it install.


If you have any queries/questions regarding the above mentioned information then please let me know. I would be more than happy to help you as well as resolves your issues, Thank you.

If you have any other resolution apart from above mentioned then request you to share so that it would be useful for the entire SharePoint communities. Thank you.

Applies to:
-SharePoint Server 2010.

-SharePoint Foundation 2010.

Download Internet Explorer 10 + Download Internet Explorer 9 + Download Internet Explorer 8 + Download Internet Explorer 7

IE10

IE9

IE8

IE7

Repair IE10 in windows 7
1.   Close all Internet Explorer and Explorer windows that are currently open.
2.   Start Internet Explorer.
3.   On the Tools menu, tap or click Internet options. If you don't see the Tools menu, press Alt.
4.   In the Internet Options window, tap or click the Advanced tab.
5.   Tap or click Reset. If you're using Windows Internet Explorer 6, click Restore Default.
6.   In the Reset Internet Explorer Settings dialog box, tap or click Reset.
7.   Select the Delete personal settings check box if you also want to remove browsing history, search providers, Accelerators, home pages, Tracking Protection, and ActiveX Filtering data.
8.   When Internet Explorer finishes applying default settings, tap or click Close, and then tap or click OK.
9.   Exit and then start Internet Explorer.


If you have any queries/questions regarding the above mentioned information then please let me know, Thank you.

27 August, 2013

What is the VMware vSphere Storage Appliance

A: Not every IT environment is large enough to need a SAN. Some businesses don't have the budget to afford one or the in-house experience to use one effectively. However, almost every environment that plans a move to virtualization also desires that move to include high availability for VMs.
 
This use case is one of the primary reasons for the release of VMware's vSphere Storage Appliance. This appliance is intended to be a collection of either two or three ESXi hosts that store their VMs within locally attached storage. Using built-in replication, VMs created atop one host are automatically available atop other hosts as well. This replication enables VMware's high availability functionality to migrate VMs from a failed host to a working host, without the need for shared storage on a SAN.
 
 
Q: What are the important limitations in the VMware vSphere Storage Appliance?
A: With the release of vSphere 5.0, VMware also quietly released a product called the vSphere Storage Appliance (VSA). This product intends to provide failover capabilities for VMs, but without requiring shared SAN storage. It's intended for use by smaller IT environments that either can't afford a SAN or lack the experience to use one effectively.
 
Although the VSA can indeed enable a high availability-like experience atop locally attached storage via its built-in replication, it does so with some significant costs. Consider the following limitations carefully:
 
·         The VSA doesn't support memory overcommit.
·         The VSA, once installed, prohibits adding additional storage to a VSA cluster.
·         The VSA creates a useable partition that's equivalent to the amount of disk space in the server that contains the least quantity of disk space.
·         The VSA isn't intended to be installed onto existing ESXi hosts; it prefers a "green field" installation onto essentially unconfigured hardware. ESXi hosts can't run VMs before creating the VSA cluster.
·         The VSA, in combination with VMware's RAID requirements for locally attached storage, requires a 75 percent storage overhead for redundancy. This requirement means only 25 percent of deployed storage is actually available for use.
·         The VSA can be configured in a two- or three-server configuration that, once installed, can't be altered.
·         VMware suggests you don't run vCenter Server within VSA as a VM because the loss of a datastore could prevent access to the VSA Manager. As a result, an additional and separate physical computer or VM is required to run vCenter Server and the VSA Manager.
·         The VSA reserves 33 percent of CPU and memory resources on a three-host cluster and 50 percent of CPU and memory resources on a two-host cluster for high availability admission control.
 
 
Q: Can I install VMware vSphere Storage Appliance without EVC Enabled?
 
A: VMware's vSphere Storage Appliance (VSA) is a new product, released at the same time as vSphere 5.0, that's intended to provide an alternative virtual infrastructure for IT environments that don't have a SAN. As an appliance, VMware recommends installing this product onto hosts that are essentially unconfigured.
 
One component of the VSA's installation checks to see if each host can be a part of the same cluster that has VMware Enhanced vMotion Compatibility (EVC) turned on. Although this verification is extremely important for production environments, EVC isn't supported when evaluating the VSA's software atop VMware Workstation. As a result, a slight hack is required to disable the EVC verification.
 
To disable the EVC check, navigate to C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\tomcat\webapps\VSAManager\WEB-INF\classes and open the file titled dev.properties. Modify the line evc.config=true to evc.config=false.
 
 
Q: Can I migrate services from my Windows Server x cluster to a Windows Server 2012 R2 cluster?
 
A: Microsoft provides an n-2 cluster migration support. This means the migration of clustered services is supported from two versions back.
 
This means that for a Windows Server 2012 R2 target, cluster then services can be migrated from Windows Server 2012 clusters (n-1) and from Windows Server 2008 R2 clusters (n-2). It's important to note that migrating cluster services doesn't copy storage--when migrating services, the cluster storage is moved from one cluster to another. Only the resource configurations, which are effectively registry values, are moved from the source to the target cluster.
 
If you have an older cluster, for example Windows Server 2003 R2, and want to move to Windows Server 2012 R2, then one option is to stand up a temporary Windows Server 2008 R2 cluster and use that as an interim hop for the migration of services to Windows Server 2012 R2.
 

Backup Restore in sharepoint 2013 + Backup and Recovery Tools for SharePoint

A good backup is an excellent approach to prevent data loss & repair database in most of the data corruption cases.

If your backup is not well structured then it will not help you to recover your data at any cost.

Back up a site collection by using Windows PowerShell
Backup-SPSite -Identity <SiteCollectionGUIDorURL> -Path <BackupFile> [-Force]

Example: Backup-SPSite -Identity http://sharepointamol/sites/planet -Path D:\planet.bak -force

Along with this, we can use the following parameters with respect to our requirements:

-Force: overwrite a previously used backup file

-NoSiteLock: keep the read-only lock from being set on the site collection while it is being backed up

Restore site collection by using windows PowerShell
Restore-SPSite -Identity <SiteCollectionURL> -Path <BackupFile>  -Force

Back up a Farm in SharePoint 2013 by using windows PowerShell
Backup-SPFarm -Directory <BackupFolder> -BackupMethod {Full | Differential} [-Verbose]

<BackupFolder> is the path of a folder on the local computer

Backing up sites, lists, and libraries
Export-SPWeb –Identity “http://SharePointamol/Planets/SharePoint2013” –Path “E:\Backups\SharePointPlanetSite.cmp”

Import List: Using Powershell
Import-SPWeb http://sharepointamol.com -path E:\backup\planets.cmp -updateversions overwrite

Backup and Recovery Tools for SharePoint

DocAve Backup and Restore for Microsoft® SharePoint Backup

A Simple Way to Restore Individual SharePoint Documents

Performance best practices for SharePoint backup and restore operations

If you have any queries/questions regarding the above mentioned information then please let me know, I would be more than happy to help you as well as resolves your issues, Thank you.