SharePoint HRESULT: 0x80131904 list error

Recently a customer of mine had a problem creating new entries in SharePoint lists. Everytime he tried to add a new entry to a list, SharePoint returned an error with HRESULT: 0x80131904

After some research in the windows logs, it became quite clear that the SQL server transaction logs have exhausted the entire disk space on the SQL server. So we cleared the transactions by backup, shrunk the size afterwards and the errors were gone.

Latest release of the SPBestWarmUp Script available

I finished the updates on the latest version of the SPBestWarmUp script and we’re heading version 2.0 (Stockholm). You can get it here on Codeplex.

SPBestWarmUp is a PowerShell script that will load all of your SharePoint web sites. By doing so it helps to populate the IIS and the asp.net caches. This will speed up accessing your server and give your users a better overall experience.

Change log:

• Removed the Internet Explorer to fetch webpages and switched instead to the Invoke-WebRequest Cmdlet. IE will be deprecated in the future anyway.
• Collecting all relevant Urls prior fetching them from the server.
• Temporarily removed the ability to use own Urls. Will be added in the future as a parameter and/or as a file. However, if you look at the code, you’ll find it isn’t hard to write your own little patch if you need to.

The code is marked as beta. To use it, collect a copy from the source repository.

Feedback is welcome. If you find any issue, please use the issues panel on the Codeplex project site.

Change the SQL recovery model in bulk with the PowerShell

Sometimes you need to configure settings on your SQL server in bulk, like e.g. the recovery model. In my case, we needed to change all databases to the Full recovery model, due to the usage of Always-On. Scince SQL 2012 there is a great way to do this with the PowerShell.

First open a Powershell and see if the SQL PowerShell module is loaded.

Get-Module SQLPS

If it isn't loaded, do so by using

Import-Module SQLPS

For scripts you should check if the module is loaded before you import it like this:

if ((Get-Module "SQLPS" -ea silentlycontinue) -eq $null)
{
    Import-Module SQLPS -DisableNameChecking
}

Now you can change to the SQL server by simply entering SQLSERVER:

Use ls or dir to see what options you have

Change the 'directory' with cd SQL. This way you go to the SQL server configuration. Do so as well for the servers host name and the SQL server instance, until you you enter the databases directory. Here you'll find all the databases hosted by the SQl server instance you choose. Now we can run the following script to change the recovery model in bulk.

foreach ($db in ls) {
  if ($db.RecoveryModel -ne "Full") {
    $db.RecoveryModel = "Full"
    $db.Alter()
  }
}

Trickshots: Testing a SQL connection quick and easy

Did you ever need to test a SQL connection? As a SharePoint Pro you probably have. I found a nice little trick on Steve Rachui's Blog today I’d like to share with you.

Create a new text file on the desktop of the machine you will try to connect to the SQL server. Name the file whatever you like, but rename the file into UDL. Double click on the file and a dialog pops up with SQL connection settings. Enter your connection settings and use the Test Connection button in the lower end of the dialog.

If you need to test a different SQL server port (not 1433), simply create a SQL alias on the machine and test against the alias.

Toolbox: SharePoint 2013 Search Tool

Using the SharePoint REST API can be sometime a bit of a pain. Good to have some tools at hand that make life more easy. With the SharePoint 2013 Search Tool you learn how to build an HTTP POST query, and how the different parameters should be formatted.

After running the query, you can view all the different result types returned, e.g. Primary Results, Refinement Results, Query Rules Results, Query Suggestions and the actual raw response received from the Search service.

SharePoint 2013 On-Premise and Office 365 are both supported.

To download visit the project page at Codeplex:
https://sp2013searchtool.codeplex.com

Kerberos and SharePoint

Keeping a SharePoint environment secure is one of the biggest challenges for an IT-Professional. Kerberos is the strongest Integrated Windows authentication protocol available so far. That is why it should always be used in a SharePoint Farm instead of NTLM.

Inferno, Canto VI, 12-35, Cerberus – From William Blake
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cerberus-Blake.jpeg

Kerberos supports advanced security features including Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption and mutual authentication of clients and servers. The protocol allows delegation of client credentials and from all the available secure authentication methods. It also requires the least amount of network traffic to the Active Directory controllers. Kerberos can reduce webpage loading latency in certain scenarios as well.

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Securing SharePoint 2013 connections via TLS - Part 2

Securing your SharePoint servers via TLS is mandatory these days. Learn how to encrypt your Site Collection communication and how to configure automated redirection to a secure connection.

Picture by Ondrej Supitar / unsplash.com

In part 1 I showed you how to secure a Host Named Site Collection with TLS. But a user can still open the site collection without encryption. To force a secure connection we’ll have to create an automated redirect from http to https.

Leave the unsecure binding

You might think it’s a good idea to remove the http binding from the web application in IIS. But this would break your configuration, so don’t do that. Instead the binding is necessary for IIS to know which web application handles the request. From here the URL Rewrite module we are about to configure will take over.

First things first

To create a redirect we need an IIS extention called URL Rewrite which isn’t part of the regular IIS installation and cannot be found in the Windows installation either. Instead you must open a browser and download it from the official IIS support site http://www.iis.net/downloads/microsoft/url-rewrite

This post is

Securing SharePoint 2013 connections via TLS - Part 1

Securing your SharePoint servers via TLS is mandatory these days. Learn how to encrypt your Site Collection communication and how to configure automated redirection to a secure connection.

Picture by Ondrej Supitar / unsplash.com

Using SSL/TLS to secure your webservers has always been a good idea, not only since three letter agencies are eavesdropping on everybody’s Internet communication. Preventing hacking and information lost is also on the IT-Professionals to-do list for a very long time.

Which certificate do we use

There are a few ways to get a new certificate for the Internet Information Server, but all in all in breaks down to the simple question: Do I need a trusted certificate or not.

If you plan to publish your site to the web I’d suggest you get yourself a trusted certificate from a certificate authority. There are a lot of different certification companies out there and all of them are happy to take your money.

If you plan to stay in a local network, you could consider using your own Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). But this however might be shooting a little too high. Especially if you only have a few servers to secure and no other plans to use the PKI.

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