The Guide is now available as a PDF download from Microsoft Technet Gallery.
Download : The final guide to SharePoint 2010 Site Settings
A preview of the whitepaper:
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Category: Setup
Passphrases in SharePoint- why do we bother?
You all know about the passphrase in SharePoint (2010 and later) right? You name it during farm Creation using Powershell or the Config Wizard. It must be a complicated string of characters and it has to hold a certain length (exact requirements stated below)
Do we really need it?
Since you can replace the passphrase (Change your PassPhrase using PowerShell) without having the old one, all you need is to be a member of the farm administrators SharePoint Group. So…the use of the PassPhrase is what? You don’t need to save it since all you have to do when it is required (join farm) is to change it…and if you have the passphrase, you still have to enter the farm account (Database Access Account) username and password, so you still need the permissions…
The Passphrase in SharePoint 2013 Preview is described as:
(From the ‘Deployment guide for Microsoft SharePoint 2013 Preview’)
Although a passphrase resembles a password, it is usually longer to improve security. It is used to encrypt credentials of accounts that are registered in SharePoint 2013 Preview. For example, the SharePoint 2013 Preview system account that you provide when you run the SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard. Ensure that you remember the passphrase, because you must use it every time that you add a server to the farm.
Ensure that the passphrase meets the following criteria:
- Contains at least eight characters
- Contains at least three of the following four character groups:
- English uppercase characters (from A through Z)
- English lowercase characters (from a through z)
- Numerals (from 0 through 9)
- Nonalphabetic characters (such as !, $, #, %)
So…now that you have read all this, do we really need it? Why bother? Is it one more layer of real security or more more layer of persieved security?
-It’s easily replaced/reset (see Change your PassPhrase using PowerShell)
-You still need the farmaccount credentials to join
-It’s seldom used and thus easily lost (in real life! yes)
-For the encryption purposes, SharePoint could use a random key that you never have to see or know about…
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Create a new ‘State Service’ Service Application using Powershell
I encountered this issue and had some trouble finding the correct info on it, so I thought that I’s share a good guide with all of you.
If you have made the correct choice to not run the configuration wizard to install all of the Service Applications…then you may encounter that you are missing the State Service Application. It can also be from deleting it after it was created by the wizard…
This Service Application is not available for creation in the New dialog in Central Administration, Manage Service Application, so it requires some special treatment.
An example of how it can look when this service Application is missing can look like this (in Health analyzer):
Title : InfoPath Forms Services forms cannot be filled out in a Web browser because no State Service connection is configured.
Severity : 2 – Warning
Category : Configuration
Explanation : InfoPath Forms Services is not functional on the following Web applications because there is no service connection configured for the State Service: SharePoint – 80
Remedy : If a State Service application doesn’t exist, create one by using the new-SPStateServiceApplication Powershell commandlet. For more information on configuring the State Service, see Help. For more information about this rule, see “http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=142645“.
Failing Servers: XXXXXXXX
Failing Services: SPTimerService (SPTimerV4)
The obvious command new-SPStateServiceApplication gives you this:
PS C:\Media\ConfigScript> New-SPStateServiceApplication -Name “State Service Application” -Database “SharePoint_Service _State” New-SPStateServiceApplication : The pipeline has been stopped. At line:1 char:30 + New-SPStateServiceApplication <<<< -Name “State Service Application” -Database “SharePoint_Service_State” + CategoryInfo : InvalidData: (Microsoft.Offic…plicationCmdlet:NewStateServiceApplicationCmdlet) [New-S PStateServiceApplication], PipelineStoppedException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : Microsoft.Office.Server.Administration.NewStateServiceApplicationCmdlet
New-SPStateServiceApplication : The specified object was not found. Parameter name: Database At line:1 char:30 + New-SPStateServiceApplication <<<< -Name “State Service Application” -Database “SharePoint_Service_State” + CategoryInfo : InvalidArgument: (Microsoft.Offic…plicationCmdlet:NewStateServiceApplicationCmdlet) [N ew-SPStateServiceApplication], ArgumentException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : Microsoft.Office.Server.Administration.NewStateServiceApplicationCmdlet
Do not let this put you down, the correct way to create a new State Service Application is a bit different, no thanks to the get-help command…the syntaxt to use is as follows:
1. $serviceApp = New-SPStateServiceApplication -Name “State Service Application”
2. New-SPStateServiceDatabase -Name “SharePoint_Service_State” -ServiceApplication $serviceApp
3. New-SPStateServiceApplicationProxy -Name “State Service Application Proxy” -ServiceApplication $serviceApp -DefaultProxyGroup
Thats it!
Good luck.
I have a site called SITE_2 in IIS, whats this…?
This is just a really short instruction and explaination on the SITE_2 phenomenon.
This site is created for some reason in IIS after you have uninstalled SharePoint from a server.
Delete it by selecting the ‘Sites’ container and then right-clicking in the right pane on SITE_2, Remove.
If you click on it in the leftpane you will get an error…’The application / does not exist’
‘Til next time.
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blksthl 
