Creating SharePoint Sites using Web Databases template

I was trying to provision a site under Web Databases categories (Assets Web Database, Charitable Contribution Web, Contacts Web Database, Issue Web Database, and Project Database) and every time I got the following message:

Preparing Site ...
Someone has recently made changes to this site and the site is being updates. If the site  remains offline for an extended period if time, contact a site owner.

Wait a moment and refresh your browser.

I have tried the steps provided in the following Blog and it kinda worked, however, when I provisioned the site I got the following error in the middle of the newly provisioned site:

"Access Service is unable to process the request. click here to try again"

In my scenario I used the manual way to provision the Access Services using a dedicated application pool. I have tried different account and even used farm service account to no avail. Finally, I got it to work by using the configuration wizard.

Not sure why by running the configuration wizard resolved the issue, but I will need to investigate the issue further once I have the time.

"Add document" link is missing after migrating document libraries from SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint 2010

After we had migrated from SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint 2010 we noticed that some document libraries didn't have the Add document" link and the small tick box. The following screen shots show comparison between a working and non-working document library:

Working Document Library:

Non-working Document Library:

At this point, the quick fox was to create a new standard view and make it as the default view. I will try to investigate the issue and update the post.

A single user gets "Access Denied" on SharePoint Site

I came across permission issue, were only a single user gets "Access Denied" on SharePoint site. The user was able to access the site (his was added to the Visitors group) for one day, then all of a sudden he cannot access the site. I checked his permission and I could not see any reason for this user to get the error. I even tried to give him full control and that didn't work. I have created a new site collection and added him as a Visitor and he could access the newly created site collection. Since troubleshooting permission issues are difficult, I did download third party tool (i got the 14 days trial version) and installed it on a development machine, then moved the site to the development farm and the user still got the access denied error. I ran the tool and could not see any special permissions. So after further trials and errors, I came to the following resolution:

1. Added the user to the Site Collection Administrator (SCA) group, and now the user is able to access the site without issues.
2. Removed the user from the SCA group and that removed all his permissions, and he got the access denied error.
3. Added the user back to the Visitors group and now he could access without issues.

Not sure why the above steps fixed the issue, but I suspect by adding him to the SCA group and removing him, which remove the user's permissions from all SharePoint objects, and by adding the user again is like adding him for the first time. I guess at this point we will have to wait and see if the user runs into this issue again.

Outlook Issues after upgrading to Exchange 2010

After we had upgraded to Exchange 2010, two users could not open Outlook since it kept on crashing every time whether they were using Outlook 2007 or Outlook 2010. Checking the application log after the crash reveled the following error:

HelloEvent Type: Error
Event Source: Microsoft Office 12
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1000
Date:  8/13/2010
Time:  8:53:47 AM
User:  N/A
Computer: Computer Name
Description:
Faulting application outlook.exe, version 12.0.4518.1014, stamp 4542840f, faulting module emsmdb32.dll, version 12.0.4518.1014, stamp 45428079, debug? 0, fault address 0x000524b7.
For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Searched the net and found Matt Parkinson's Blog, that describes the fix for the issue. However, even after we checked for msExchQueryBaseDN, users still had the issue, so all we did to remedy the issue is to remove the Outlook profile and re-created using the following steps (this was done on Windows 7 machine, but the steps are the same for other Windows OS like Vista and XP):

1. Go to Control Panel and look for the Mail icon and double click on it.

2. Click on Show Profiles

3. Highlight the profile and select Remove, then click on Apply

4. Once the profile removed, click on Add and type in the profile name, then click on OK

5. Launch Outlook and it should open without crashing.

Desktop Authority and Firewall issues

We have installed ScriptLogic Desktop Authority on a server and needed to install a short cut on our workstation so that we don't have to log in to the server each time we need to work on the application. After we create the shot cut and tried to launch the Desktop Authority Console we got the following message:
"The Desktop Authority Manager requires that the 'Desktop Authority OpsMaster Service' is running."

Checked the service on the server and it was running and we were able to launch the application on the server, so we turned-off Windows Firewall on the server and launched the application without any issues. So, we used TCPView tool to find which port we need to open on the firewall. The output from the tool showed the following:

It shows the remote port 8017 on the server is blocked. So, we went back to the server and created an exception for port 8017 and enabled the firewall again, and we were able to launch Desktop Authority from the workstation.

ScriptLogic "A connection to the database could not be created. would you like to select s different database?"

I was assigned a task to install and configure ScriptLogic Enterprise Security Reporter 3. Everything seemed to go well until we launched the Discovery Console from the start menu. Every time we launch the console we get the following dialog box:

If we click on Yes then a new dialog box open for us to select the database in order to connect to it:

This becomes annoying, and it seems that something is blocking the connection. So, in the process of troubleshooting, we disabled the firewall on the SQL box and  everything worked fine and we no longer got the dialog box that we need to connect manually to the database. However, disabling firewall is not recommended and we determined to find which port needs to be opened on the SQL machine, so we downloaded Sysinternal Suite from Microsoft site and used TCPView and got the following output:

As we see from the previous screen shot that we need to open port 50972 on SQL firewall, and once we did that everything worked fine and we no longer get the dialog box.

Here is a good TCPView output:

You gotta love Systinternals Suite

That's all

PDF documents won't open in web browser even after changing Browser File Handling to permissive in SharePoint 2010 Central Admin

Today I have opened a case with Microsoft SharePoint Support Team in regard to an issue where clicking on a PDF document would not open in a web browser instead it will give the following options:

Before calling Microsoft, I have tried iisreset, rebooted the servers, ran the configuration wizard, and dismounted and re-mounted the database to no avail.

To make the long story short the support technician informed me that  since the document libraries got created via a template my only option is to re-create the document libraries. Also, he informed me that there might be a fix either via Service Pack or SharePoint updates.

404 Error after detaching and reattaching database content in SharePoint 2010

I was troubleshooting view pdf document via a web browser, and one of the steps I took to troubleshoot the issue was to detach and reattach the content database. I did this via the UI from central administration page and when I tried to open SharePoint site, I got 404 error.... So, I went to Central Admin site and verified that it show the correct number of sites, I even created a new site and the number of sites increased, but I could not browse to the newly created site (Note: the content is about 5 GB, which is fairly small).

What I did to fix the issue was to run PowerShell command to detach and reattach the content database as describe im MS technet article:

To detach content database: 

Dismount-SPContentDatabase ""

To attach content database: 

Mount-SPContentDatabase "" -DatabaseServer "" -WebApplication http://SiteName

I am not sure why doing this action from Central Administration page created the issue in the first place, but from now on, I will start using PowerShell to administer SharePoint 2010.

HTTP 404 Not Found when opening a file that has "+" in its name in Internet Explorer from SharePoint Document Library

A user came to me complaining that she is getting HTTP 404 Not Found in Internet Explorer when clicking a pdf document in a SharePoint Document Library to view it, as shown below:

Note: SharePoint won't allow you to upload any documents that have the following special characters as shown in the screen shot below:

After further investigation and testing, I came to the following conclusion. Although you can upload a document to a SharePoint Document Library that has "+" sign in its name (ex. filename+). However, when you try to view or open the document in a web browser we get the HTTP 404 error. I believe this is "By Design" and the workaround would be to rename the file by removing the "+" sign and users would be able to view the document in a web browser.

Deleting site collection from User Interface (UI) in SharePoint 2010

I was doing some tests concerning backup/restore a site collection and came across this issue. But before showing the issue, I did the following steps:

1. Took a backup of the site collection using stsadm command:

stsadm -o backup -URL -filename


2. Deleted the site collection from Central Administration site.

When I tried to restore the site collection using stsadm command (MS is trying to deprecate stsadm) stsadm -o backup -URL -filename   I got the following message:






Trired the same thing using Powershell command:

Restore-SPSite -Identity  -Path 

Note that when you try to delete the site collection either from Central Admin or the site's site action menu you get the following message:

So, it looks like by deleting the site via the UI it uses the gradualdelete parameter. So, if we you stsadm command without the gradual delete option
stsadm -o deletesite -URL
Or Powershell command:
Remove-SPSite -Identity 


The site collection will be deleted instantly without waiting for the timer job (Technet has a good article describing the gradual deleting timer job) to gradually deleting the site.

In my scenario it took a lot of time for the timer job to delete the site (deleting the site from the UI) in my case it took hours for OOTB site restoration (i left the site overnight and I was able to restore the site the next morning)


In short, if you are trying to delete the site from the UI and restore it again to the same farm and same content database, it will take a lot of time since UI by default will use the gradualdelete parameter or you could create/add a new content database and restore the site to the newly created/added database (Note: make sure to take the database offline before restoring the site to the newly created/added database).

Error 7043 on SharePoint 2010 RTM "Load control template file /_controltemplates/TaxonomyPicker.ascx failed"

So, I am getting this error on my SharePoint servers (Running Windows 2008 SP2).

After doing some search I did find Blogs ( Blog 1, and Blog 2) that describe "fix" by doing the following:

1. Navigate to /14/ControlTemplates/TaxonomyPicker.ascx user control

2. Open the user control in a text editor and locate the first line
3. Find the character string , and replace with a comma ‘,’ (without quotes).
4. Save the user control and you have completed fixing this bug

I am not sure I want to do this at this point, since this action seems a hack to me and Microsoft my release an update to fix the issue.

In short, I can live with this error till Microsoft release either a KB article or an update for this issue.

SharePoint 2010 installation and adding the farm account to the local administrator group

I was watching on demand web called by Dan Holme titled "SharePoint 2010 installation and administration jump start" and one of the thing that stood up was adding the SharePoint Farm Account to the local Administrator group. Now, this is not mentioned in any MS technet articles. I would like to point out that Dan Holme did a great job documenting it in SharePointPro Blog  and his article is much better than MS technet article Administrative and service account required for initial deployment.

I would strongly recommend reading Dan Holme's Blog for Least Privilege Service Accounts mentioned above.

SharePoint 2010 RTM User Profile Synchronization

I have been struggling with starting the User Profile Synchronization Service on SharePoint 2010 RTM build. I am using a virtual machines for my test:

- Server 1: AD and SQL 2008 role on Windows 2008 R2
- Server 2: IIS and SharePoint 2010 on Windows 2008 R2

The first test was to run the configuration wizard to configure all services and see if I can start the User Profile Synchronization Service. To my surprise I managed to start the service successfully. I have used a Farm Account to provision all services. So, to double check I went and clicked on User Profile Service Application under  Managed Service Applications

and I got the following error:

Checking the application log found errors related to Forefront Identity Manager Service indicating it cannot connect to SQL:

Log Name:      Application
Source:        Microsoft.ResourceManagement.ServiceHealthSource
Date:          5/11/2010 10:12:31 AM
Event ID:      22
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      sp2010.domain.local
Description:
The Forefront Identity Manager Service cannot connect to the SQL Database Server.

The SQL Server could not be contacted. The connection failure may be due to a network failure, firewall configuration error, or other connection issue. Additionally, the SQL Server connection information could be configured incorrectly.

Verify that the SQL Server is reachable from the Forefront Identity Manager Service computer. Ensure that SQL Server is running, that the network connection is active, and that the firewall is configured properly. Last, verify the connection information has been configured properly. This configuration is stored in the Windows Registry.

But this was not the only error related to Forefront Manger  I got other errors:

Log Name:      Application
Source:        Forefront Identity Manager
Date:          5/11/2010 10:13:03 AM
Event ID:      3
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      sp2010.domain.local
Description:
.Net SqlClient Data Provider: System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: Transaction count after EXECUTE indicates a mismatching number of BEGIN and COMMIT statements. Previous count = 1, current count = 2.
   at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection.OnError(SqlException exception, Boolean breakConnection)
   at System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParser.ThrowExceptionAndWarning(TdsParserStateObject stateObj)
   at System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParser.Run(RunBehavior runBehavior, SqlCommand cmdHandler, SqlDataReader dataStream, BulkCopySimpleResultSet bulkCopyHandler, TdsParserStateObject stateObj)
   at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataReader.ConsumeMetaData()
   at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataReader.get_MetaData()
   at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.FinishExecuteReader(SqlDataReader ds, RunBehavior runBehavior, String resetOptionsString)
   at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.RunExecuteReaderTds(CommandBehavior cmdBehavior, RunBehavior runBehavior, Boolean returnStream, Boolean async)
   at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.RunExecuteReader(CommandBehavior cmdBehavior, RunBehavior runBehavior, Boolean returnStream, String method, DbAsyncResult result)
   at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.RunExecuteReader(CommandBehavior cmdBehavior, RunBehavior runBehavior, Boolean returnStream, String method)
   at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.ExecuteReader(CommandBehavior behavior, String method)
   at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.ExecuteReader()
   at Microsoft.ResourceManagement.Data.DataAccess.UpdateRequest(RequestType request, IEnumerable`1 updates)

So, I went ahead and disabled the Windows Firewall (just in case) and rebooted my server (I don't think I reboot is required, but you never know). After the server had rebooted, I opened the Central Administration page and clicked on User Profile Service and viola it worked, I was able to get to the page:

 I clicked on Configure Synchronization Connections to create a new connection and that worked fine and I was able to configure the server. In order to complete the test I had to Start Profile Synchronization  and I got the following error in the application log:

 Log Name:      Application
Source:        FIMSynchronizationService
Date:          5/11/2010 12:10:02 PM
Event ID:      6050
Task Category: Management Agent Run Profile
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      sp2010.domain.local
Description:
The management agent "MOSSAD-ADAccount" failed on run profile "DS_FULLIMPORT" because of connectivity issues.
 
 Additional Information
 Discovery Errors       : "0"
 Synchronization Errors : "0"
 Metaverse Retry Errors : "0"
 Export Errors          : "0"
 Warnings               : "0"

Ok, I went ahead and disabled firewall on my domain controller, since I am not sure if it's a firewall or something had to do with the account I am using (I am using my farm service account). Also, I had to stop the sync process and started a full .profile sync and that failed. So, I tried a different account (Administrator account) and that worked by clicking on the Synchronization link:

I did get a great deal of useful information from this Blog, I would highly recommend reading this Blog, it does contain a great information. I have used the previously mentioned Blog to configure my SharePoint account to run the User Profile Synchronization and that worked fine. Note that I got the following warning in my applicattion log:

Log Name:      Application
Source:        FIMSynchronizationService
Date:          5/11/2010 12:28:10 PM
Event ID:      6126
Task Category: Management Agent Run Profile
Level:         Warning
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      sp2010.domain.local
Description:
The management agent "MOSS-5d867c01-cc0d-40cb-be0d-37b4739c97aa" completed run profile "MOSS_DELTAIMPORT_469b85e3-5b1a-4015-82b9-a438c1ca4aed" with a delta import or delta synchronization step type. The rules configuration has changed since the last full import or full synchronization.
 
 User Action
 To ensure the updated rules are applied to all objects, a run with step type of full import and full synchronization should be completed.


However, the real test is to use the manual configuration method where we can use the Microsoft best practices on using the least privilege administration. So, I uninstalled SharePoint 2010 RTM and re-installed it again, but this time the plan is to use Least Privileged Administration method instead of using a single account.

Here are the steps I took to install and configure the farm:

1. Installed and ran SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard.
2. Manually provisioned search.
3. Created a new web application and create a site collection based on Team Template.
4. Started Managed Metadata Web Service and created Managed Metadata Service Application.
5. Defined an explicit inclusion managed path for My Site and site collection that used My Site  Host template.
6. Create User Profile Service Application and started  User Profile Service.
7. Tried to start the User Profile Synchronization Service and it remained on Starting

I had to stop the service by using PowerShell Command:

1. Launched  SharePoint Management Shell
2. Typed the Get-SPServiceInstance to get the Id of User Profile Synchronization 
3. Typed Stop-SPServiceInstance to unprovision the service.

Tried to start the service one more time to no avail (note: I am logged to the server using my farm admin account). I had to stop the service one more time, then I went ahead and deleted the  User Profile Service Application, ran IISRESET,  then ran the Farm Configuration Wizard and selected farm admin account as the service account to provision User Profile Service Application. After the wizard had completed the configuration, I tried to start the User Profile Synchronization Service and that worked.

Now, I am thinking it could be the account. I had used a different account to manually provision  User Profile Service Application. So, the next logical path was to stop the User Profile Synchronization Service and delete User Profile Service Application and then use the farm service account to create User Profile Service Application  and then see if we can start User Profile Synchronization Service

1. Stopped  User Profile Synchronization Service.
2.  Deleted User Profile Service Application.
3.  Manually created User Profile Synchronization Service using Farm Service Account (Note: this account is used by default for User Profile Synchronization Service).
4.  Started User Profile Synchronization Service and it worked.

I did the following test:

1. Uninstalled SharePoint 2010 and rebooted the machine.
2. Deleted all SharePoint databases from SQL 2008.
3. Deleted unused site (SITE_2) from IIS.
4. Installed SharePoint 2010 RTM
5. Added the service account that is used for User Profile to the local Administrators group (in my case I created SPUserProfile_svc account)
6. Manually provisioned: search, managed metadata, and create site collection for My Sites and Team site.
7. Manually provisioned User Profile Service Application (Note: used a different account from the farm service account as mentioned in step 5).
8. Started User Profile Service. (Note: you might need to restart the SharePoint Timer service to get to the User Profile page)
9.  Started the User Profile Synchronization Service this time it worked.
10. Clicked on Configured Synchronization Connection to create a new connection. (Note: if you get any errors, restart the SharePoint Timer Service) 
11. Started a full profile synchronization and it worked.

At the end of this post, I have learned that in order to successfully start the User Profile Synchronization Service using Least Privilege Administration method, the account used to provision the User Profile Service Application must be in local Administrators group on the server. Maybe it is mentioned in Microsoft documentation somewhere. I hope Microsoft will start updating their SharePoint 2010 soon.

That's it for now.

IIS SITE_2 and SharePoint 2010

I had SharePoint 2010 Beta2 installed on a single virtual machine and decided to remove to to install SharePoint 2010 RTM version. So, I followed the following steps to remove SharePoint Beta 2:


1. Ran the configuration wizard and disconnected from the farm.
2. Uninstalled SharePoint from Control Panel
3. Uninstalled the SharePoint 2010 Beta prerequisites software.
4. Rebooted the machine.

After removing/uninstalling SharePoint 2010 Beta2, I went ahead and installed SharePoint 2010 RTM and after the SharePoint Configuration Wizard Completed successfully, I launched Central Administration site and to my surprise the icons looked strange, it looked like a combination of Beta and RTM.

Here is a screen shot of the ribbon after SharePoint 2010 RTM installation:

Here is a screen shot of the ribbon from a machine that DID NOT have SharePoint Beta previously installed:

So, I disconnected from the farm and looked at IIS and found the following:

There is SITE_2. However, if you click on it from the left pane you get the following error:

In order to remove it you need to click on Sites on the left pane and then click on SITE_2 to highlight it and then right click on it and select Remove or click on Remove from the right pane:

After removing SITE_2, I ran the configuration wizard one more time and created a new farm and got the same issue. So, I went to control panel and repaired my installtion and that worked for me.

I cannot say for sure that SITE_2 was the culprit, but I have learned my lesson by checking IIS to see if there are any leftover from previous SharePoint installation.

SharePoint Event ID 2138

We have installed SharePoint 2010 RTM on three serevrs:
- Two servers acting as a Web Servers (10 GB RAM, 40 GB for C drive and 80 GB on D drive)
- One server acting as an Application Server ( 10 GB RAM, 40 GB for C drive and 80 GB on D drive)
- One SQL 2008 server.

After configuring the farm, now we are getting the following even ID on all servers:

 Log Name:      Application
Source:        Microsoft-SharePoint Products-SharePoint Foundation
Date:          5/6/2010 10:00:01 AM
Event ID:      2138
Task Category: Health
Level:         Warning
Keywords:    
User:         Domain\ServiceAccount
Computer:      FQDN of Computer name
Description:
The SharePoint Health Analyzer detected a condition requiring your attention.  Drives are at risk of running out of free space.
Available drive space is less than five times the value of physical memory. This is dangerous because it does not provide enough room for a full memory dump with continued operation. It also could cause problems with the Virtual Memory swap file:  (ComputerName - C:\).
Examine the failing servers and delete old logs or free space on the drives. For more information about this rule, see "http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=142688".


The previous error indicate that we need to increase the space on C drive. Now, I have installed SharePoint on D drive since I wanted to dedicate the whole drive to SharePoint. Just a reminder this is the RTM installation and since there are no SharePoint 2010 RTM documents, I have used the Beta documents which states " Maintain twice as much free space as you have RAM for production environment"

I am not sure if I can safely ignore the warning since my SharePoint resides on a separate drive. For now I think I will wait and see....I hope Microsoft will start revising their documents before the official release date for SharePoint 2010.

KB 949516 and SharePoint 2010 Deployment

I was reading SharePoint Deployment Scenario and came across Public updates and hotfixes packages section, it states the following:

"After you install the prerequisites on each farm server, you will need to install Error message when you use the "IMSAdminBase::CopyKey" method as a part of the IIS 6.0 Compatibility components in IIS 7.0: "Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070003" on the application server first, and then on the two Web servers."

The previous statement is confusing, since it indicates that this update needs to be installed on Application Server first, then to other Web Servers. Since we have not installed SharePoint server, order is not relevant. Another crucial thing is the fact that when I tried to apply this update to my server (Windows 2008 SP2) I got the following error:

The official release for SharePoint 2010 is May 12, and I think it's very important that Microsoft should start reviewing their documentation.

At this point I am not sure if this update is essential for SharePoint Deployment, my guess is not, and I will start deployment/testing SharePoint without the previously mentioned update.

Windows 2008 UAC and SharPoint tool instllation

I was trying to run SharePoint Used Information Space on my development environment and every time I ran the application it crashes on Windows 2008 SP2 server.

Here is a screen shot of the crash/error:

Part of troubleshooting was to uncheck the box "Use User Account Control (UAC) to help protect your computer"

Note: reboot is required in order for changes to take affect.
After the reboot, I was able to run the application. This issue affect other applications, I remember we had to do the same thing for a backup software. So, if you UAC is enabled on Windows 2008 and you have an issue running the application, the first thing is to tun off UAC feature.

SharePoint 2007 Upgrade to SharePoint 2010 Beta

I was testing SharePoint upgrade from MOSS 2007 to SharePoint 2010 Beta. Since, I am using Virtual Machine (VM) it's a good practice to take a snap shot before performing any upgrade. The following is a screen shot of the c:\windows\assembly that shows the polices before installing MOSS SP2:

 

As we notice no SharePoint policies available. After installing MOSS 2007 the polices were still the same and the installation added SharePoint DLL as shown below: 

 

After running the SharePoint Configuration Wizard and configured the farm no changes were made to the assembly folder. So, I created a new site collection I ran the preupgradecheck command: stsadm -o preupgradecheck 

  

 I was expecting the above result since everything is OOB. So, I continued and installed the pre-requisites for SharePoint 2010 Beta and after that ran the configuration wizardry to upgrade from MOSS 2007 to SharePoint 2010

  

After clicking Install Now button, the installation process kicked in and installed the SharePoint 2010 binaries. I checked the c:\windows\assembly after I had installed the binaries and found the following new folders: 

  

The previous list is only SharePoint specific (Installation would include other folders for office and PerformancePoint). After I had installed the binaries, I ran the configuration wizard:  

Selected Preserve the look and feel of existing SharePoint sites, and allowed users to update their sites' users experience and clicked on Next

  

So, the configuration wizard completed successfully, and as usual checked the assembly folder:  

 

So the configuration wizard added policy folders as shown above. I went to Central Administration site to check on the status of the upgrade and it failed: 

   

Checking the log and I believe the source of the errors is the SSP since they point to users profiles (I believe I didn't import users profile and maybe that's why I got the following error) :

[OWSTIMER] [UserProfileSharedResourceProvider12Sequence] [ERROR] [4/22/2010 4:40:43 PM]: Action 14.0.1.0 of Microsoft.Office.Server.Upgrade.UserProfileSharedResourceProvider12Sequence failed. [OWSTIMER] [UserProfileSharedResourceProvider12Sequence] [ERROR] [4/22/2010 4:40:43 PM]: Inner Exception: There are no online service instances for this application. [OWSTIMER] [UserProfileSharedResourceProvider12Sequence] [ERROR] [4/22/2010 4:40:43 PM]: at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPConnectedServiceApplication.get_ApplicationAddresses() at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPServiceLoadBalancer.<get_EndpointAddresses>d__0.MoveNext() at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPRoundRobinServiceLoadBalancer.GetEndpoints(IEnumerable`1 applicationAddresses) at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPRoundRobinServiceLoadBalancer.BeginOperation() at Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.MossClientBase`1.get_Channel() at Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.MossClientBase`1.ExecuteOnChannel(String operationName, CodeBlock codeBlock) at Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.ProfilePropertyServiceClient.ExecuteOnChannel(String operationName, CodeBlock codeBlock) [OWSTIMER] [UserProfileSharedResourceProvider12Sequence] [ERROR] [4/22/2010 4:40:43 PM]: Exception: There are no online service instances for this application. [OWSTIMER] [UserProfileSharedResourceProvider12Sequence] [ERROR] [4/22/2010 4:40:43 PM]: at Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.ProfilePropertyServiceClient.ExecuteOnChannel(String operationName, CodeBlock codeBlock) at Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.ProfilePropertyServiceClient.GetProfileProperties() at Microsoft.Office.Server.Administration.UserProfileApplicationProxy.RefreshProperties(Guid applicationID) 

I needed to revert back to MOSS 2007, so I though by un-installing SharePoint 2010 Beta and repairing MOSS 2007 I would be able to create a new farm and configure users profile before running the upgrade. I did un-install SharePoint, during the removal process the following message box popped up and I selected No option:

  

From control panel I went ahead and repaired MOSS 2007

  

The wizard completed without issues as shown below:

   

So, I hit Close and launch the configuration wizard and got the following error:  

Description: Stopped working Problem signature: Problem Event Name:        CLR20r3 Problem Signature 01:        psconfigui.exe Problem Signature 02:        12.0.6413.1000 Problem Signature 03:        4902dc1f Problem Signature 04:        psconfigUI Problem Signature 05:        12.0.0.0 Problem Signature 06:        4902dc1f Problem Signature 07:        15 Problem Signature 08:        14 Problem Signature 09:        System.IO.FileNotFoundException OS Version:        6.1.7600.2.0.0.274.10 Locale ID:        1033 Read our privacy statement online: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=104288&clcid=0x0409 If the online privacy statement is not available, please read our privacy statement offline: C:\Windows\system32\en-US\erofflps.txt  

Tried to reboot the server and that didn't fix the issue, I even tried to remove the MOSS 2007 and got the same error as shown below:
 
I searched for the error and found MS forum. I followed the suggesting that deal with assembly folders: " remove spserver2010beta. install wss3.0sp2 or moss2007sp2. If you try to run psconfigui/psconfig (configuration wizard) at this point, u get the clr20r3 error. now log on to your server with local administrative rights. go to c:\windows\assembly\gac_msil.  Find all sharepoint 12.0.0 policy folders (four of them).  cd inside, open the config files and remove the redirect binding tags.  psconfig/psconfgui should run now." In my scenario:
1. SharePoint 2010 was already un-installed
2. Had to follow the following instructions to get to c:\Windows\assembly\gac_msil
   
   
   
   
   
   

   i. start >  run > cmd
   ii.cd\windows\assembly
   iii.Type: attrib -r -h -s desktop.ini
   iv.Type: ren desktop.ini desktop.bak

           3.  Browsed to c:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL and looked for the SharePoint Policies as shown 
                below:

         4.  Opened the config file for each of the SharePoint Policies and removed tag

         5.  Opened the IIS Manager and deleted Application Pool and SharePoint sites that got created by
               MOSS before running the configuration wizard for MOSS 2007.    

         6.  Did an IIS reset and launched the configuration wizard for MOSS 2007
         7.  The configuration wizard ran without any issues.
         8.  Tried to create a new site collection based on Team template got the following error:

Feature '6c09612b-46af-4b2f-8dfc-59185c962a29' could not be installed because the loading of event receiver assembly "Microsoft.Office.Workflow.Feature, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" failed: System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.Office.Workflow.Feature, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified. File name: 'Microsoft.Office.Workflow.Feature, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c' ---> System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.Office.Workflow.Feature, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified. File name: 'Microsoft.Office.Workflow.Feature, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c' WRN: Assembly binding logging is turned OFF. To enable assembly bind failure logging, set the registry value [HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion!EnableLog] (DWORD) to 1. Note: There is some performance penalty associated with assembly bind failure logging. To turn this feature off, remove the registry value [HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion!EnableLog].    at System.Reflection.Assembly._nLoad(AssemblyName fileName, String codeBase, Evidence assemblySecurity, Assembly locationHint, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, Boolean throwOnFileNotFound, Boolean forIntrospection)    at System.Reflection.Assembly.InternalLoad(AssemblyName assemblyRef, Evidence assemblySecurity, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, Boolean forIntrospection)    at System.Reflection.Assembly.InternalLoad(String assemblyString, Evidence assemblySecurity, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, Boolean forIntrospection)    at System.Reflection.Assembly.Load(String assemblyString)    at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPFeatureDefinition.get_ReceiverObject()

           9.  Ran the configuration wizard and disconnected from the farm, and then completely removed     
                MOSS 2007, rebooted the machine and re-installed it again, and got the same error.
          10.  I had to go back to the c:\windows\assembly folder and removed tag
                 from the following folders:

         11.  Did an iisreset and went back to Central Admin page and created a new site collection…Viola!!!
                It worked…mmmmm..
          12.  Completely configured the SharePoint farm and imported users profiles this time, and thoroughly
                  tested all the main features and could not find any outstanding issues. Everything seems to be
                  working as expected and the application log was clean.
          13.  This time I did install the latest CU for MOSS 2007 (downloaded and installed February CU),
                 ran the preupgradecheck and read MS Technet Upgrade in place to SharePoint Server 2010.

       14.  Before performing the upgrade, I took a snap shot of my VM, just in case I need to do the upgrade
              again without configuring SSP on MOSS 2007 farm.
       15.  Installed SharePoint 2010 Beta and did in-place upgrade again, then ran the configuration wizard
              again and the upgrade failed again with the same errors as mentioned previously.
       16.  Reverted back MOSS 2007 and created a new SharePoint farm without an SSP, ran
              preupgradecheck, and then upgraded to SharePoint 2010 Beta. This time the upgrade worked.

Lessons learned:
1. Use Microsoft articles on SharePoint upgrade best practices which are posted on MS site.
2. Always backup your databases, and if you are running SharePoint on Virtual Environment take a snap shot.
3. I would strongly advise against using the "hacked" way of modifying features files/folders in c:\windows\assembly . If something goes wrong then start over again.
I will see if I can do an in-place upgrade to MOSS farm that has SSP. At this point, I have tried it several times and it failed with the same errors. I guess that's all for now.   Update: ====== I have just installed the SharePoint 2010 RTM (not the Beta edition) and the upgrade completed successfully.... Hurray.