SharePoint Administration

Microsoft Flow | SharePoint Online | Delete all Subsites using REST API

2018-04-09T10:58:00.000+02:00

Scenario: You want to Delete all the Subsites within a Site Collection. if you are not a Java script/CSom coder or Powershell scriptor this may help you.

Solution: I will show you a simple Microsoft Flow logic to delete the subsites further you can add conditions for specific subsites and or start approval flows as well for the same and perform your actions as per your requirement.

Overall Successfully running Flow

1. First Step will be to get the Access Token for HTTP Request to run REST API calls. I have written a blog on this. If you need me to write an article on Getting Access Token, please leave it in the comments below.

2. from the HTTP POST call, we need to store only the Access Token, so using Compose action, enter [ "@outputs('HTTP').body.access_token" ] (without box brackets)

3. I am initializing a Global Variable as Array to Store the URL of the subsite, which we will need in the last step of Deleting the subsite.

4. Now you need to again call HTTP method GET for the site collection and obtain all the subsites under it "/_api/web/webs"

5. Set the Global Array variable to have the results of all subsites obtained in array. [ "@outputs('HTTP_2').body.d.results" ] (without box brackets)

6. Add 'Apply to Each' and insert the global variable (as the input)

7. Add 3rd HTTP action to finally delete the subsites. Use "Delete" as Method. URI will be as an expression item()?['URL'] and without adding any space append ' /_api/web '

Pls. Note:- This will delete the subsites permanently, they will NOT go to 1st stage Recycle Bin or 2nd stage or Recycle Bin.

This is the basic logic of deleting the subsites, you can further customize it as per your requirement if you need to send an approval mail to the owner of the subsite or check if there are nested subsites etc...

Microsoft Flow | Outlook 365 | Get Attachment File size

2018-03-29T13:53:00.000+02:00

Scenario: This is a very basic end user requirement that you may want to have a condition to check against the File Size of attachment(s) received in your inbox and then accordingly take next actions.

As per this discussion, there is currently no OOB method to get the size of the attachment via Dynamic content nor there is any expression or function to get you the results.

however, Exchange does check/have restrictions set for every company that we can send or receive mail attachments to specified limit at the server level. so Mail has to have a value where the size is mentioned for the attachment. Fortunately that is available in Flow output as well.

Solution:
Very Simple steps. below is design and output of the flow.

In below output you will see in 'Compose 2' action only the Size is stored. Basically you can complete avoid the 'Compose' Action and keep only 'compose 2' action, but I have just added it to show how the output of a single attachment look like.

Microsoft Flow | SharePoint Online Alerts | Delete multiple user Out of the box Alerts

2018-03-19T08:59:00.004+01:00

Scenario: SharePoint Administrators would love to delete User alerts subscribed to a list/library in one go. But unfortunately there is no way in User Interface that is allowed, you have to do it one by one for every user which is not efficient and very time consuming.

In my Previous blog "Get list of Users Subscribed to OOB Alerts", you can get all Alerts which is also not possible via User Interface.

In this blog I will show how to Delete Alerts for a specific List and the task can be achieved in few seconds.

Solution:
Below is how the Overall uncollapsed version of the Flow looks like. I will break it up further.

1. First we need to connect to the site. so HTTP REST API call to get the Alerts .

Compose data operation "Access Token' enter ' "@outputs('HTTP').body.access_token" ' (with double quotes which is in Bold

Compose data operation "Compose" enter ' "@outputs('HTTP_2').body.d.results" ' (with double quotes which is in Bold

2. I am initializing a global variable and at the same time setting its output to "Compose" results, which will be the body of Alerts REST API from "HTTP 2" step.

3. Next, adding an 'Apply for each' from the Array results, we will obtain only 'List title' and 'Alert ID' from the results. both are store in Compose action.

To get List Title " item()?['Title'] " (enter without the quotes, only text in bold)

To get Alert ID " item()?['ID'] " (enter without the quotes, only text in bold)

4. Next we are checking for a specific List from which we want to delete all the OOB Alerts. Add a Condition where 'Output of ListTitle' is equal to the List.

5. Last step of Alert deletion. If condition is met, we run another HTTP REST API method "DELETE". The syntax for delete is " /_api/web/alerts/deletealert('Alert ID') " . So we need to replace the 'Alert ID' with the output of the compose action where Alert ID of the current item is stored. ( Pls. Note: REST API Method call will be "DELETE" )

On a Successful Deletion once the Condition of List Title is met, HTTP Call for Delete Method will look like below.

Microsoft Flow | SharePoint Online Alerts | Get list of users subscribed to Out of the box SharePoint Alerts

2018-03-16T10:18:00.000+01:00

Sceanrio: Get the list of Users subscribed for Out of the box SharePoint Online Alerts per site/subsite.

It has been a long waited requirement from SharePoint users and Admin globally and an ask to Microsoft to provide a way to get a list of all users who have subscribed alerts on lists/libraries or any object in a SharePoint Site or a subsite. After what feels like a lifetime, Microsoft released Rest API methods for SharePoint Alerts and very recently I had to use them to Get and Delete user alerts using REST API call for a project.

Today, I will be showing How to Get the list of All Users subscribed to alerts for a Site or a Subsite and next blog will be to How to Delete alerts for a specific List or a Library using REST API method in Microsoft Flow.

Solution:

1. You need to get Access Token for the SharePoint site. I have listed to very commonly browsed articles for same in this Article. Same steps in My MS Flow looks like below.

2. Initialize the Variable. The Output generated from REST API is in Array form. so we need to get only the Results body from "/_api/web/alerts?$expand=user" and store it in a Global Array variable.

3. Now it gets a bit tricky. I am retrieving only "User Email", "User Display Name" (which comes as Title in REST API results and the "List Title" to which the alert is subscribed to.

This is Uncollapsed screenshot, below I will break it up for better understanding.

Here, from the Original Array results of HTTP REST API call, we will store the values in variables.

In "Create HTML Table" I had kept "Include Headers" as "No", but there is a bug I reported to Microsoft HERE.

Final Step is sending mail to yourself with the output of the HTML table created.

Microsoft Flow | Get Access Denied for REST API SharePoint call

2018-03-16T09:11:00.000+01:00

Scenario: Using Microsoft Flow you need to call HTTP Rest API methods and for that it needs Access Token authorization. You get "Access Denied" permissions error.

Error:
"Access denied. You do not have permission to perform this action or access this resource"

To Get Access Token for Authorization
There are many articles online regarding this topic and mostly viewed are below one, from where I got most of the knowledge too.

http://sharepointscribblings.blogspot.cz/2017/07/call-any-sharepoint-rest-api-from.html

http://www.ktskumar.com/2017/01/access-sharepoint-online-using-postman/

However, while creating my own Flow and trying to get access tokens, I have faced some issues even after following above 2 articles. one of them I have created an article on "Invalid Client Secret" key error.

Another issue I encountered was when working for subsites or O365 group sites. It would just give me "Access denied" permissions in response body even in POSTMAN. it would not work. Below is what I had to do to fix that.

Even if you are Site Collection Administrator, you will get this issue. Even if you have Trusted the APP with below code, you will get the "Access Denied" error.

After spending many hours and almost giving up, I modified the Trust App code to below and Wow! It worked. It worked for a Subsite and for O365 group site.

So, it is chance you can either use the first code or the second code while Trusting the APP. you cannot use both. Either of one should work. You do not need to create a new Trusted APP. for an existing APP also you can re-trust it with other 'AppPermissionRequest' tag and it will take the new one that you enter.

For more details on SharePoint App Permission Scope, please read this Microsoft Article

Microsoft Flow | HTTP Rest API | Invalid Client Secret error

2018-02-24T16:55:00.002+01:00

Issue: You Get "Invalid Client Secret" error even if the same secret key works fine in Postman.

Scenario: You are using HTTP action to call REST API for SharePoint. you successfully get the Access Token however, the same does not work in GET or POST method and errors out with "Invalid Client Secret". Even though the same client secret works perfectly fine in Postman tool.

I have mostly got this error when the Client Secret key has some plus (+) sign or equal (=) sign in the secret. otherwise it does not give me error.

Resolution:

You need to Encode the special characters.

For Example:- This is the Original client secret key. where we have + sign and = sign.

"r4QenWWBrPvUw4DCiWIYJpVXWrSXL45FO8ABX6OD++4="

Encode the client secret as below. Replace + by %2B and = by %3D

r4QenWWBrPvUw4DCiWIYJpVXWrSXL45FO8ABX6OD%2B %2B 4%3D

Now if you run the flow it should work without any errors.

More Information on special characters

The reserved character "/", for example, if used in the "path" component of a URI, has the special meaning of being a delimiter between path segments. If, according to a given URI scheme, "/" needs to be in a path segment, then the three characters "%2F" or "%2f" must be used in the segment instead of a raw "/".

(

)

;

[

]

%21

%23

%24

%26

%27

%28

%29

%2A

%2B

%2C

%2F

%3A

%3B

%3D

%3F

%40

%5B

%5D

Reserved characters after percent-encoding

newline

space

{

}

%0A or %0D or %0D%0A

%20

%22

%25

%2D

%2E

%3C

%3E

%5C

%5E

%5F

%60

%7B

%7C

%7D

%7E

Common characters after percent-encoding (ASCII or UTF-8 based)

Arbitrary character data is sometimes percent-encoded and used in non-URI situations, such as for password obfuscation programs, or other system-specific translation protocols.

Microsoft Flow | Send mail to Multiple recipients from SharePoint Person Or Group field.

2018-02-24T14:59:00.000+01:00

Scenario: you have a SharePoint List where a field with 'Person or Group' having multiple entries is selected. you want to send a mail to all the people entered in that field. However, currently that field is not supported in Microsoft Flow.

Steps on How to get multiple Entries from 'Person or Group' field in SharePoint List and send a single mail to them.

In This example, I have a simple SharePoint List for Training Registration. Where in the Attendees field multiple people can be selected based on the Nominations. So below we have a field 'Attendees' as 'Person or Group' where 'Allow Multiple Selections:' is selected as "Yes"

I am Triggering MS Flow when a new item is created in the Training Registration SPO List.
Next Step adding 'Get Item' action and fetching the item created via its 'ID'
Next Step adding 'Data operations - Select' action. (this will take only an Array value as input)

as the output of 'Get Item' will be an array, but I need only the attendees from that New Item created, in 'Select' Action 'From' (input for select) will be the 'Attendees' Field.
Map Key 'Attendees' to Value 'Attendees Email' (as only email can be used to send a mail.)

Next we will use 'Initialize Variable' action. I named it as 'OriginalArrayAttendees'. Type as 'Array' and Value will be the Output from previous 'Select' action, we get only the Attendees Mail address in the array variable.
Next we will again use 'Initialize Variable' action. I name it as 'FinalStringAttendees'. Type as 'String' and Value as blank at this stage.

Now we need to put all the Email addresses into a single variable separated by semi-colon (;)

Next Step -> Add 'Apply to each' where the output of variable 'OriginalArrayAttendees' is entered.
from that array, we need to concat all the email addresses with a semi-colon, so we add a 'Data operations - Compose' action and in expression enter "concat(item()?['Attendees'],';')". Pls. Note: Attendees in the concate is the 'Map Key' you gave in the above 'Select' action.
Next step, we need to append the values in a single String variable which is 'FinalStringAttendees'. Pls. Note: If you do not see the variable in 'Dynamic Content', select 'Expression' and type " variables('FinalstringArray') " [ without double quotes]
Finally use 'Set Variable' action to get the concatenated string of all email addresses in variable so that it can be used out of the 'Apply to each' loop. Value of 'FinalStringAttendees' will be Output of 'Compose 2' action where we are appending all the values.

Final step is send a Mail. using 'Send an email' action of O365 account. In the "TO" field it will be the 'FinalStringAttendees' variable. Rest of the body you can enter the way you want.

Microsoft Flow | How to send Single mail with Multiple SharePoint List Items.

2018-02-24T13:19:00.000+01:00

What is achieved in this Flow?

Run the Flow periodically on a schedule or on some other Trigger as per your choice.
Query a SharePoint List and GetItems (multiple rows)
Create an HTML Table format with specific fields to be sent in a mail.
If the Output is Empty, Do not send mail, else send mail to specific recipients.

Steps

I am triggering this Flow on 'Recurrence Schedule' Trigger.
Getting Items from a SPO List only where the column 'Status' eq 'Request Placed' [ So I am doing OData Filter Query and getting only specific rows from a possibly large SPO List ]
Next step is the 'Data Operations Select' Action. [ This will take input Only from an Array Output ]

As the 'Get Items' Output is in Array, 'Select' action works great. The output 'Value' from 'Get Items' will be the Input of 'Select'
'Map' I am entering the headings of the Table and their values from output of previous steps which will be only those items where 'Status' field value is 'Request Placed'

Next step is put the output of 'Select' Action to String, coz HTML Table action will not take an Array value as Input. so we need to use 'Data operations - compose' Action and put the output of 'Select' in Compose action
Next Add 'Create HTML Table' Action -> Output will be from the 'Compose' step. (by default headers are created in HTML table action Advanced options)
Next I am checking a Condition output is blank (this can be done for any step, it was just easy for me to enter the select output), I wanted to send separate emails if blank and if not blank. So instead of "@empty(body('Select'))" it could also be "@empty(body('Compose')) or "@empty(body('Get_Items'))"

After checking the Condition, I am sending different mails when the condition is True and False. If the condition is False, the output from 'Create HTML table' will be sent in body of the Mail.

Get Task ID from Microsoft Planner Task

2017-11-28T15:43:00.001+01:00

Requirement
How to get the Task ID or Plan ID or even Group ID if you are creating a Plan in O365 groups?

I was trying to get this for Microsoft Flow and searched internet, but did not get any clue. Suddenly it clicked me that everything is URL based.

Solution:
1. you Click on the Plan/Task for which you want to get the Task ID.
2. From the Browser copy entire URL to Notepad

You will see all the ID's in the URL

/Planner#/plantaskboard?groupId=0d52bddf-1e68-4d4f-9b8e-5fa71807118a&planId=yAERHCrmZUOYLBkFt3p-vZYAFf9Z&taskId=bfdr71NIqkqrDdXxrerNTJYAEL81

so in this case the taskID I needed to use in my MS Flows was "bfdr71NIqkqrDdXxrerNTJYAEL81"

I enter just that string and my Flow was accepting the value and working fine.

Certificate error for Federated Domains on O365

2013-03-21T23:35:00.002+01:00

Error:
One of your on-premises Federation Service certificates is expiring. Failure to renew the certificate and update trust properties within 13 days will result in a loss of access to all Office 365 services for all users. Update now

Resolution:
Follow the articles below in that order.

1. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2383983 - On the On-Prem ADFS server, Resolution 2, only PS Commands

 Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.Adfs.Powershell

 Update-ADFSCertificate -CertificateType: Token-Signing

2. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2647048 - Run the commands in this article.

Map Network Drive / WebDav with SharePoint Online O365

2013-03-20T16:53:00.002+01:00

WebDav with SharePoint Online O365

Issue: While Mapping a Drive to SharePoint Online it fails with below error.

Error:

The Mapped Network Drive could not be created because the following error has occurred.'Access Denied'. Before opening files in this location, you must first add the web site to your trusted sites list, browse to the web site and select the option to login Automatically.

Resolution:

Open IE -> Go to ‘Internet Options’
Select ‘Security’ tab -> Select ‘Internet’ Zone.
UnCheck the box for ‘Enable Protected Mode’

Issue: You are using SharePoint workspace and when you try to save the file opened from Workspace. The Save location changes to local machines Temp folder instead of SharePoint Online Library from where the file was accessed. While Saving or ‘Save As’, the location should default to the SharePoint Online library itself and not the local machines temp folder.

Check / Troubleshoot:

Make sure the ‘Web Client’ service is started on the client machine.
Open the SPO site -> go to the Document Library
Select ‘Open with Explorer’ [ Make sure this is working fine ]
Delete IE Cache.
In IE ‘Trusted Sites’ zone add ‘https://*.sharepoint.com’

Note: This is basically working on the WebDav functionality to work which is related to “Open in Explorer” mode from a SharePoint Document library. If you notice that the library does not open in Explorer Window from the site directly, your Save As option will redirect you to temp folder instead of the Site URL.

Note: Some users may complain that after certain period of time the mapped drive disconnects or they are asked to enter the credentials again for O365. This will happen if the time period has extended over 8 hours. This is default behavior by Design. They will need to refresh the credentials. This may also occur if users have not selected “Keep me signed in” checkbox while they sign in through Microsoft Online sign-in assistant.

Users can't sign out of Office 365 web services
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2507767

Note: This is a known issue with Office 2013 64bit version. it will not work.

Step by Step configuration to Add custom Refiners in the Refinement Panel of Search Results page for SharePoint Online

2013-03-20T00:21:00.001+01:00

Scenario:

You may have custom Library/List columns created which you would like to show them in the Refinement Panel on the Search Results.

Step 1: Creating a Document
Library / List with Customer Columns

Create a New Document library -> go to Library Settings
Create a new Column “Product Type” – Choice Field is what I selected.
Upload some documents to the library and give different Choice options.

4. Go to Library Settings -> Advanced Settings -> Click on ‘ReIndex Document library’ Button.

Step 2: Creating a New SiteCollection or Sub Site using “Enterprise Search Center” template. (Note: the reason we need to do this is due to the fact that we
cannot modify the OOB ‘osssearchresults.aspx’ page)
I created a Subsite under my site collection using the ‘Enterprise Search Center’ template. Make sure that you are able to search the documents uploaded.

Step 3: Configuring Managed
Properties for Search

Logon to Microsoft Online Portal (MOP)
Go to SharePoint Online Administration Center page.
On the Left Panel -> Select ‘Search’
Click ‘Manage Search Schema’
Search for Existing Managed property ‘RefineableString00’ -> Edit the property and set it up as per below. -> Click 'OK'

Note: By Default in SharePoint Online you cannot create a new Managed Property as ‘Refineable’, due to which we need to use the existing ones and give an Alias for that.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/office365-sharepoint-online-enterprise-help/manage-the-search-schema-in-sharepoint-online-HA103628856.aspx#_Toc351360838

Note: List of Default Existing Refineable Property list.http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj219667(v=office.15).aspx#DefaultUnusedMPs

Step 4:Adding the Managed Property to Refinement Panel on the Search Results Page

Go to the Subsite Search Center site created in Step 2.
Type in any keyword to go to the ‘Results.aspx’ page. -> ‘Edit’ that page.
Edit the Refinement Panel web Part. -> Click on ‘Choose Refiners…’ button.
From the list of ‘Available Refiners’ -> Select ‘RefineableString00’ -> Click ‘Add’ button.
Change the ‘Display Name’ for it (Initially it may not show the Sample Values, wait for around 5-10 mins to take effect )
Click ‘Ok’ -> Save and Close the Page -> Check-In and Publish the Page

Now when you perform the Search for documents in that library, on left Refinement Panel you will see the new Refiner “Product Type”

New Learning Roadmaps for SharePoint 2013

2013-03-02T02:09:00.001+01:00

A learning roadmap is a way of organizing content (articles, white papers, videos, blog posts, etc.) to provide a customized and optimized learning path for a technology, feature, product, or solution. Starting with prerequisites and then moving on to introductory, intermediate, and advanced learning goals, learning roadmaps enables a novice to ramp up quickly and an experienced technology person to build more expertise in a particular area.

My colleagues on the SharePoint IT pro writing team have been very busy publishing the following additional learning roadmaps:

· Upgrade for SharePoint 2013

· Virtualize SharePoint 2013

· Windows PowerShell for SharePoint 2013

If you need to technically ramp up in any of these areas, take a look at these articles to understand the prerequisite knowledge and then dive in.

See Learning roadmaps for SharePoint 2013 for the complete list for SharePoint 2013.

See Learning Roadmaps Portal for the complete list across Microsoft products. To create your own learning roadmap, see the Learning Roadmap Template.

Reference: http://blogs.technet.com/b/tothesharepoint/archive/2013/02/25/new-learning-roadmaps-for-sharepoint-2013.aspx

Migrate data from On Premise SharePoint Server to SharePoint Online

2013-02-03T23:12:00.001+01:00

Third-party tools:

• SharePoint 2010 Bulk Document Importer tool - http://spbulkdocumentimport.codeplex.com

• Bamboo Solutions List Bulk Importer - http://store.bamboosolutions.com/pc-36-1-list-bulk-import-release-15.aspx

• Tzunami Deployer 2.5 - http://www.tzunami.com/products/Pages/TDSharePoint2010Migration.aspx

• Metalogix SharePoint-site Migration Manager 2010 - http://www.metalogix.net/products/sharepoint-site-migration-manager-2010/

• MetaVis Migrator for SharePoint - http://www.metavistech.com/Migrator

• Files to go for Office 365 - http://www.thinkscape.com/SharePoint-Online-File-Migration-Tool

• Sharegate - http://www.share-gate.com

• SharePoint 2010 Bulk Document Importer tool - http://spbulkdocumentimport.codeplex.com

Microsoft Tool:

• W2K8 R2 File Classification Infrastructure - http://blogs.technet.com/b/filecab/archive/2009/12/14/automatically-upload-files-from-file-server-to-sharepoint-using-the-file-classification-infrastructure-fci.aspx

Not able to access OWA after O365 tenant upgrade to Wave15 - EXO

2013-02-03T23:09:00.000+01:00

Issue
Your Exchange Online (O365) tenant was recently upgraded to the new release of Wave 15. After which Users are not able to access their mail via OWA.
Once you sign-in to the MOP -> Click Outlook. It goes Blank, does not show anything and Inbox is not accessed.

Resolution
This issue will occur if you are using IE8 on the machine. Mostly you will face with XP machines who are still on IE8 and not upgraded to IE9. As of now this is a known issue with IE8 performance and Wave15 O365

Workaround
Upgrade to IE9 or above for better use of latest Wave15 features and Functionalities.

Note:- If you are not facing this issue and there are other issues with your O365 tenant after upgrading to Wave15, please contact Microsoft Support.

Excel opens in Read-Only after upgrading to Windows 8 with Office 2010

2013-02-03T23:06:00.001+01:00

Issue:
--------------
After upgrading your Client machine to Windows 8 OS with Office 2010 + SP1. Excel Sheets from SharePoint sites which open on Client Application for editing, open up as 'Read-Only' Mode.

Workaround:
-----------------------
On the Windows 8 Client machine create the below registry key. This is Client machine issue, NOT SharePoint Server related.

1. Open regedit.exe

2. Naviagate to following key:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Common\Internet]
"FSSHTTPOff" = dword:0000001

3. Click Edit Menu -> New -> DWORD with name of "FSSHTTPOff" (without quotes)

4. Click on "FSSHTTPOff" and enter value of 1

5. Close any Office Applications and browser sessions

6. Try to repro the problem

Only 1 user Calendar (free/busy) information is not correct. [ Exchange Online ]

2012-10-29T21:19:00.001+01:00

Issue:
========
There is a Recurring Calendar Event which keeps sending Reminders to Users Outlook Client and OWA as well. Even if we "Dismiss all" reminders, it keeps poping up. Even if you Remove the User from the "Attendees" list, the free/busy information does not sync up and it not updated either in OWA or Outlook Client.

Resolution
===========
Follow article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2522226. Usually the '/cleanfreebusy' switch with Outlook client does not solve the issue. We need to follow the 2nd step, as per the Outlook client version of that problematic User.

"Proof of domain ownership has failed" Exchange Hybrid Configuration Wizard Failure

2012-10-29T21:18:00.000+01:00

Issue:-
=========
While running the Exchange 2010 SP2 Hybrid Configuration Wizard, it fails with below error.

Proof of domain ownership has failed. Make sure that the TXT record for the specified domain is available in DNS. The format of the TXT
record should be "example.com IN TXT hash-value" where "example.com" is the domain you want to configure for Federation and "hash-value"
is the proof value generated with "Get-FederatedDomainProof -DomainName example.com". at
Microsoft.Exchange.Management.Hybrid.RemotePowershellSession.RunCommand(String cmdlet, Dictionary`2 parameters, Boolean ignoreNotFoundErrors).

Steps to Check and Rsolve.
===========================
1. Make sure your External DNS server has the proper TXT records for the "Proof" and you can query it successfully. [ Get-FederatedDomainProof -DomainName example.com ] Will give you the proof.

2. Open Exchange Console Management (On PREM) -> "Organization Configuration" -> Select "Federation Trust"
You should find an existing 'Microsoft Federation Gateway' Trust created by the wizard. Manually Try to run it and check if it fails. Alternatively you can run PS cmd as below in verbose mode to get the error as well.

Set-FederatedOrganizationIdentifier -DelegationFederationTrust 'Microsoft Federation Gateway' -AccountNamespace 'yourdomain.com' -Enabled $True -verbose

3. If it is pointing to FYDIBOHF25SPDLT.yourdomain.com, That GUID is Default, so dont worry. This means that still your TXT record is not fetched from External DNS to verify the 'Proof' record.

4. If you Manaully Delete the Federeation Trust and Create a new one, you will get a new Proof as well for the domain. "Get-FederatedDomainProof -DomainName example.com", will give you the new Proof, which you will need to again change in the External DNS, but mostly likely this will be the issue, if there is a stale entry in AD which can be checked through ADSIEDIT.msc

5. Main thing to check is from Command Prompt, basic 'nslookup' query. below are the commands.
>nslookup
>set q=ns
>yourdomain.com [ Here you will get multiple NS records if there are more than 1, precendence will take place during query. You need to individually Query the NS servers starting from the 1st one, usually if the first server fails to process the query, Hybrid Configuration Wizard will fail with same error. ]
>ns1.yourdomain.com < IP Address >
ns2.yourdomain.com < IP Address >

>nslookup-querytype=txt yourdomain.com ns1.yourdomain.com [ Here if the 1server fails, then that server is the issue, you need to change he precedence of the servers to the one which is responding with your Domain TXT record for the Proof. ]

Note:- This error is purely due to the Proof TXT record query is not getting processed. Even if you check in any online DNS Query tools or sites, you will see the TXT record, but it can come from multiple tries to other DNS servers as well, if the primary server fails. So usually we miss that point to check

SharePoint Server 2013 and SharePoint Foundation 2013 Released

2012-08-09T01:29:00.001+02:00

SharePoint Foundation 2013 Preview
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30345

Language Packs for SharePoint Foundation 2013 Preview – English, Japanese, and Spanish
SharePointFoundationLP_en-us_x64.exe
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30343

Download Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013 Preview
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/hh973397.aspx?wt.mc_id=TEC_121_1_33

Language Packs for SharePoint Server 2013 Preview – English, Japanese, and Spanish
Serverlanguagepack_en-us_x64.exe
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30347

SharePoint Designer 2013
SharePointDesigner_en-us_x64.exe
SharePointDesigner_en-us_x86.exe
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30346

SharePoint 2013: presentation: IT pro training
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30361

Search Crawl Time Out or Proxy Issue.

2012-07-04T17:02:00.002+02:00

Issue:-
SharePoint 2007 (MOSS) Search crawl is not working for any web application.

Error:-
This item could not be crawled because the repository did not respond within the specified timeout period. Try to crawl the repository at a later time, or increase the timeout value on the Proxy and Timeout page in search administration. You might also want to crawl this repository during off-peak usage times.

Resolution:-

Apart from all the basic troubleshooting of checking if the site opens up using the search service account on the server or not and application pool settings and Shared Services settings, below was the resolution for me.

In Command prompt run "netsh winhttp show proxy". You should get no proxy server, something like below.

If you see there is a proxy server, which can be old or not working, we need to reset this setting.

Run the command "netsh winhttp reset proxy" to Reset the proxy and again do a Show command, you should get "No Proxy Server" screen as above.

In Order these are the steps.

1. netsh winhttp show proxy
2. netsh winhttp reset proxy
3. Net stop Osearch
4. Net start Osearch

You can also check if there are any Proxy Settings in IE Configuration.

Before you Upgrade to SQL 2012 where SharePoint databases reside.

2012-06-19T14:04:00.002+02:00

Please make sure to go through these articles before you upgrade to SQL 2012 where SharePoint databases are hosted.

SQL server 2012 is supported and works with SharePoint 2010 only if the SharePoint environment is on SP1 or higher
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh231665(v=sql.110).aspx

Upgrade to SQL Server 2012

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb677622.aspx

Supported Version and Edition Upgrades

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms143393.aspx

Upgrade PowerPivot for SharePoint

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee210646(SQL.110).aspx

Upgrade and Migrate Reporting Services

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms143747.aspx

Upgrade Analysis Services

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms143686.aspx

Site Slowness due to Certificate CRL Checking.

2012-06-19T12:46:00.000+02:00

Issue:- You can have ADFS sites or Kerberos or basic configuration sites using hardware appliances for NLB e.g. F5 or Big IP or you can also be using SiteMinder. You may experience slowness while loading the site.

Troubleshooting:-

If you collect Fiddler trace you will see CRL checking to Microsoft site.

GET http://crl.microsoft.com/pki/crl/products/CSPCA.crl

GET http://crl.microsoft.com/pki/crl/products/microsoftrootcert.crl

Resolution:-

1. Disabled Certification Revocation checking.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2625048

1. netsh http show sslcert (* check if 'Verify Client Certificate Revocation : Enabled' *)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\HTTP\Parameters\SslBindingInfo\0.0.0.0:443 -> DefaultSslCertCheckMode = 1

2. reboot server

3. netsh http show sslcert (* check if 'Verify Client Certificate Revocation : Disabled' *)

Consideration to Improve Performance for SharePoint 2010 Servers.

2012-06-19T12:36:00.001+02:00

Performance of SharePoint 2010 Servers.

Performance is always a big topic of Discussion in Any Organization. No matter how much CPU or RAM you add to the Servers, most of the time Users will complain that the sites are slow, or sudden fluctuations in CPU going consistently high, or Customization issues, SQL Deadlock errors etc... etc.. the list goes on.

Here are some of the very Important things to look at Configuration settings and Troubleshoot certain things, which you may face in various different SharePoint Environments.

Many of the known performance issues like UPA sync is slow from Active Directory or Search crawling has suddenly become slow can be caused due to some SQL or OS related configurations not done correctly or they are not in place at all.

Here are some of the STRONGLY recommended articles that should be followed.

SQL Maxdop setting should NOT be 0
========================================
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh292622.aspx
Set max degree of parallelism (MAXDOP) to 1 for SQL Server instances that host SharePoint Server 2010 databases to ensure that each request is served by a single SQL Server process

Anti-Virus check.
====================
Certain folders may have to be excluded from antivirus scanning when you use a file-level antivirus program in SharePoint
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/952167

SQL TempDB configuration and Optimization.
===================================================
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms175527.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/joaquint/archive/2011/02/08/sharepoint-and-the-importance-of-tempdb.aspx

Database maintenance for SharePoint 2010 Products
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262731.aspx

Disable Certification Revocation checking.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2625048

SQL Deadlock errors. Event ID 10016 in logs.
We need to disable following settings on ALL the SharePoint Servers and also SQL Servers. If SQL Server is in Cluster, all the nodes in the cluster also needs to be changed. After making the Changes, Reboot of all the Servers including SQL servers is Mandatory.

1. TCP Chimney Offload http://support.microsoft.com/kb/951037. by Default in Wind 2008 Servers, this setting is "Automatic", we need to Disable it. "netsh int tcp set global chimney=disabled"

2. IP Task Offload. by Default in Wind 2008 Servers, this setting is "Enabled", we need to disable it. "netsh int ip set global taskoffload=disabled". This is also applicable for Fast for SharePoint Server issues. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2570111

3. NIC settings should be Disabled.

IPv4 Checksum Offload”, “Large Send Offload” and “TCP Checksum offload” [ note: this may require a hard reboot of the servers ]

Why to Disable TCP Chimney on SQL Servers?
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/psssql/archive/2008/10/01/windows-scalable-networking-pack-possible-performance-and-concurrency-impacts-to-sql-server-workloads.aspx

Other Tool you are use to Troubleshoot.

Use Developer Dashboard.
==================================
http://blogs.technet.com/b/patrick_heyde/archive/2009/11/16/sharepoint-2010-enable-using-developer-dashboard.aspx
stsadm -o setproperty -pn developer-dashboard -pv ondemand

SharePoint 2010 Search Query component is not responding. Synchronizing state.

2012-06-19T12:03:00.000+02:00

Issue:- Search Topology has multiple Query components and after some Server reboots or patch updates or network connectivity issues, we get below error in the Logs.

Error:-

The following conditions are currently affecting index propagation to this server for search service application 'Enterprise Search':   1. Query 3, catalog Main: failing to copy index files from crawl component 2 for 105737 minutes. The network path was not found.   0x80070035 2. Query 3 is not being automatically disabled because the minimum number of ready query components per partition is 2.
01-14-2012 12:00:12.48 OWSTIMER.EXE (0x0958) 0x09B8 SharePoint Server Search Administration f6ql Warning The following conditions are currently affecting index propagation to this server for search service application 'Partitioned Search':   1. Query 1, catalog Main: failing to copy index files from crawl component 1 for 105658 minutes. The network path was not found.   0x80070035 2. Query 1 is not being automatically disabled because the minimum number of ready query components per partition is 2. d39bcb4a-a193-427f-9fcc-f65cd6127a73

01-14-2012 12:10:02.04 OWSTIMER.EXE (0x0958) 0x09CC SharePoint Foundation Topology 8xqz Medium Updating SPPersistedObject SearchQueryAndSiteSettingsServiceInstance. Version: 1489237 Ensure: False, HashCode: 22838785, Id: 4bfc05dd-9ba0-40f0-be26-427f7e05a614, Stack:    at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPPersistedObject.BaseUpdate()     at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPIisWebServiceInstance.Unprovision()     at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPServiceInstanceJobDefinition.Execute(Guid targetInstanceId)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPAdministrationServiceJobDefinition.ExecuteAdminJob(Guid targetInstanceId)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPTimerJobInvokeInternal.Invoke(SPJobDefinition jd, Guid targetInstanceId, Boolean isTimerService, Int32& result)     at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPTimerJobInvoke.Invoke(TimerJobExecuteData& data, Int32& result) 3860aa69-0248-463f-879e-cc473cddfba1

Resolution:-
You will have to create new Query Components and delete the Old ones following below article.

Search query critical error - Event 60 (SharePoint Server 2010)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee513123.aspx

Timer Service keeps Crashing / causes UPA Sync to stop working.

2012-06-19T11:54:00.003+02:00

Issue:- UPA Sync Service will stop functioning intermitently. During troubleshooting, you may not find any errors or Event's logged for this. You may also notice that the Timer Service is crashing every 2-3 mins if you keep an eye on the Services console.

Troubleshooting:- You can use Microsoft Procmon Tool to check if any Service is causing it crash or what might be interrupting the UPA and Timer Services to function properly.

Resolution:- Anti-Virus software is the main cause for such issues. Once you exclude SharePoint folders following the below article you need to restart/re-provision UPA and UPA Sync Service from Central Administration page.

Certain folders may have to be excluded from antivirus scanning when you use a file-level antivirus program in SharePoint
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/952167