Chris Hernandez's Blog : SSP

Database Attach Shared Services Provider (SSP)

chrishe — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 09:17:00 GMT

Performing a database attach using STSADM.exe is useful for migrating or upgrading existing data. Here is an example of how to use the STSADM.exe commands to be able to perform a db attach for the Shared Services Provider (SSP):

Create the web application and associate the Shared Services Content database with the restored database by first creating a web application for the Shared Services Provider and specifying the content database that was restored.

For example:

stsadm.exe -o extendvs -url http://intranet:8080 -ownerlogin redmond\user -owneremail

a@b.com -exclusivelyusentlm -databaseserver SQLServer -databasename SharedServices1_Content -apcreatenew -apidname SSP_Apppool -apidtype configurableid -apidlogin redmond\user -apidpwd MyPassword

Note that the databasename parameter is the Shared Services Content database that was restored.

To create the SSP we use the restoressp command with the sspdatabasename and searchdatabasename parameters set as the databases that were restored.

For example:

STSADM.EXE -o restoressp -title Migrated_SSP -url http://intranet:8080 -ssplogin redmond\user -ssppassword MyPassword -mysiteurl http://intranet/MySite -indexserver intranet -indexlocation "D:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Servers\12.0\Data\Applications" -sspdatabaseserver intranet -sspdatabasename SharedServices1 -searchdatabaseserver intranet -searchdatabasename SharedServices1_Search

Again note that the sspdatabasename and searchdatabasename parameters are the databases that were restored as these will now be attached to the Shared Services Provider for the installation.

Updating the SharePoint Admin Password on an existing Farm

chrishe — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 21:35:00 GMT

The security policy for many IT departments within organizations requires that passwords be changed after a certain time period. This would require that the accounts associated with a SharePoint Server Farm install be updated.

Here are some steps to do this:

If you are fortunately enough to know the new password before the change has occurred you can:

stsadm -o updatefarmcredentials -userlogin "domain user" -password "newPassword"
iisreset
stsadm -o updateaccountpassword -userlogin "domain user" -password "newpassword" -noadmin

To change the password after the change has been rolled out:

Update all service accounts passwords for the SQL server if the service is running as a domain account
Under the Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager update the password for each Application Pool by going to the properties and clicking on the Identity tab
At this point you should be able to view the Central Admin Site, where you will update the password for the SSP Service credentials by either method:

SharePoint Central Admin -> Click on the left nav Shared Services Administration link -> use the drop down on the SSP you need to change and click on Edit Properties -> Update the values for the SSP Service Credentials
STSADM.exe -o editssp -title <SSP name> -ssplogin <username> -ssppassword <password>

Update the Search Service credentials: Central Admin -> Operations -> Services on Server -> Office SharePoint Server Search -> update the credentials for the Service Account
Profile Import credentials: SSP Admin -> User Profile and Properties -> Configure Profile Import -> Set the access account credentials

Creating Audience Rules via the Object Model

chrishe — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 01:04:00 GMT

SharePoint Server (MOSS) was designed as a platform for building applications upon. Using the SharePoint Server Object Model (OM) exposes many different and often more complicated operations than what can be done with the UI only.

An example of this is with Audience creation. Audiences are an organizational type concept that is associated with the Shared Service Provider (SSP). Audiences can be built up using rules that are exposed within the Admin UI for such properties as Account Name or Title. In this way you may be able to create audiences that comprise of user profiles that all have a property in common and can then use this compiled audience for such things as targeting content.

The Audience OM allows the creation of audiences that can be more complicated in their evaluation. For example, the Audience OM allows the groupings of audience rules which will result in compiled audiences based on a combination of AND/OR clauses.

                // Create thet test audience.
                this.testAudience = this.audienceManager.Audiences.Create(
                    TestStringGenerator.GetString(MaxAudienceNameLength),
                    TestStringGenerator.GetString(
                        MaxAudienceDescriptionLength));
                this.testAudience.GroupOperation =
                    AudienceGroupOperation.AUDIENCE_OR_OPERATION;

// Add the desired rule to the test audience.
ArrayList audienceRules = new ArrayList();

AudienceRuleComponent r1 = new AudienceRuleComponent("AccountName", "Contains", this.DLTestAccountName1);
audienceRules.Add(r1);

AudienceRuleComponent r2 = new AudienceRuleComponent(null, "OR", null);
audienceRules.Add(r2);

AudienceRuleComponent r3 = new AudienceRuleComponent("AccountName", "Contains", this.DLTestAccountName2);
audienceRules.Add(r3);

this.testAudience.AudienceRules = audienceRules;
this.testAudience.Commit();

From the code above you can see that:

this.testAudience.GroupOperation =
AudienceGroupOperation.AUDIENCE_OR_OPERATION;

Sets the group operation for the audience similar to the Audience Admin UI where you can select

Include users who:

Satisfy all of the rules

Satisfy any of the rules

But with via OM you can specify groupings by using parentheses () with this:

new AudienceRuleComponent(null, "(", null);

new AudienceRuleComponent(null, ")", null);

so that now you can represent an expression like this:

(AccountName contains DLTestAccountName1 OR AccountName contains DLTestAccountName1)

AND

(Title contains TestTitle1 OR Title contains TestTitle2)

Creating Shared Service Provider (SSP) via command-line options

chrishe — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 00:37:00 GMT

Using the SharePoint Admin UI there can often be quite a delay to perform administrative actions compared to doing the same actions via the powerful command-line tools. One of the tools that should be very familiar to SharePoint Admins is STSADM.exe.

The STSADM.exe admin tool is available in the default location: c:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\web server extensions\12\bin. To see what actions are available with the tool you can run STSADM.exe –help which will output the operations that can be performed and STSADM.exe –help <operation name> to get more detailed documentation about a particular operation.

Creating the Shared Service Provider (SSP) is one admin task that can be done via the command-line:

The recommended procedure for creating an SSP is to create a web application for the MySite host and a separate web application for the SSP. To create a new web application for both the MySite host and SSP run this STSADM.exe command for each new web application:

stsadm.exe -o extendvs -url <URL> -ownerlogin <domain/username> -owneremail <emailed> -exclusivelyusentlm -databaseserver <DBservername> -databasename <NewcontentDBname> -donotcreatesite -apcreatenew -apidname <Apppoolname> -apidtype configurableid -apidlogin <domain/username> -apidpwd <Password>

For example:

stsadm.exe -o extendvs -url http://intranet:8080 -ownerlogin Redmond\username -owneremail user@ms.com -exclusivelyusentlm -databaseserver SQLServer -databasename MySiteContentDB -donotcreatesite -apcreatenew -apidname MySiteAppPool -apidtype configurableid -apidlogin Redmond\username -apidpwd MyPassword

will create a web application with the URL http://intranet:8080 that can be used to host the MySite sites. Similarly, you can create another web application to host the SSP:

stsadm.exe -o extendvs -url http://intranet:8090 -ownerlogin Redmond\username -owneremail user@ms.com -exclusivelyusentlm -databaseserver SQLServer -databasename SSPContentDB -donotcreatesite -apcreatenew -apidname SSPAppPool -apidtype configurableid -apidlogin Redmond\username -apidpwd MyPassword

At this point, you can create the SSP by running this STSADM.exe command:

stsadm.exe –o createssp –title <SSP name> -url <Web application url> -mysiteurl <MySite Web application url> -ssplogin <username> -indexserver <index server> -indexlocation <index file path> -ssppassword <password> -sspdatabaseserver <SSP database server> -sspdatabasename <SSP database name>