WSS 3.0 Unable to Connect to Configuration Database

We have an SBS 2003 server with a WSS 3.0 SharePoint site configured on it. As part of preparation for a migration to SBS 2011, a whole bunch of updates have been applied to it. Unfortunately, one of these updates killed SharePoint.

It appears that the SharePoint databases were orginally part of  a server\SharePoint SQL instance but were migrated to MSSQL$Microsoft##SSEE. So, at some time the databases were migrated from the old SQL 2000-based windows Internal DB to SQL 2005 Express Edition. My best guess is that this was done by some of the updates.

There was an error:

SQL Database 'STS_Config' on SQL Server instance 'np:\\.\pipe\MSSQL$Microsoft##SSEE\sql\query' not found. Additional error information from SQL Server is included below.

Looking in the SQL error log at C:\WINDOWS\SYSMSI\SSEE\MSSQL.2005\MSSQL\LOG\Errorlog has further info:

Error: 17207, Severity: 16, State: 1.
FCB::Open: Operating system error 5(Access is denied.) occurred while creating or opening file 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL$SHAREPOINT\Data\STS_Config.mdf

In SQL Server Management Studio Express for SQL 2005, I connected to the MSSQL$Microsoft##SSEE instance to see what was up. The SharePoint config database was not mounted and I couldn't view the properties of it. To connect to the MSSQL$Microsoft##SSEE instance, I had to enter the Server name in Management Studio as \\.\pipe\mssql$microsoft##ssee\sql\query.

After looking, I saw that the MSSQL$Microsoft##SSEE instance was configured to start as NETWORK SERVICE. The older instance of SHAREPOINT was configured to start as LOCAL SYSTEM. The error log was indicating that new instance didn't have the correct permissions. After changing MSSQL$Microsoft##SSEE to run a LOCAL SYSTEM, the permissions issue was resolved and the databases mounted.                                                                                                                                                   
Unfortunately when I tried to connect to SharePoint, I was still getting the error "Unable to connect to the configuration database. Looking at the SQL error log, we now see:

Error: 33002, Severity: 16, State: 1.
Access to module dbo.proc_getObjectsByClass is blocked because the signature is not valid.

It turns out this is caused by upgrades not completing properly. You need to manually force the upgrade to complete by using this command-line from C:\Program Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\bin:

psconfig -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -wait -force

For additional troubleshooting info:

• http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepointgeneral/thread/8b3094a1-31ee-49d7-ab02-72ca0dc440a7/

My iPad Won't Turn On

I am by no means an Apple product expert. However, here's my tip of the day.

Apple devices such as iPods and iPads have a deep sleep mode that they go into when the battery gets very low. When they are in this deep sleep mode, it appears that they can't turn on.

To bring an iPad or iPhone out of deep sleep:

• Hold home button (lower middle) and sleep button (upper right edge) for 10 seconds

To bring an iPod touch out of deep sleep:

• Hold the sleep button (upper right edge) for about 10 seconds

It may also help if the device is plugged into power when this is performed.

We've also seen some of these devices go into this deep sleep mode for no apparent reason. I suspect an odd user button combination, but can't tell for sure. So, even if the batter charge is OK, this may be your issue.

Register ASP.NET 4 on IIS

I'm doing some work with the release candidate of System Center 2012 - Operations Manager. It requires .NET Framework 4 and I made the mistake of installing .NET Framework 4 before installing IIS on the server. As a result, ASP.NET for .NET Framework 4 is not registered in IIS.

Happily it's an easy fix:

• Open a command prompt
• Change to C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319
• Run aspnet_regiis.exe -i

 After registering you still need to enable it in IIS Manager.

• Open IIS Manager and browse to the server
• Double-click ISAPI and CGI Restrictions
• Allow both ASP.NET v.4 instances
• Run iisreset.exe