Sorry, we're having trouble reaching the server

I recently set up a SharePoint Server and every time I attempted to use the People Picker, I got the dreaded message "Sorry, we're having trouble reaching the server."

I looked at a wide variety of articles concerning this issue and our particular issue had nothing to do with memory allocated to the server, so I began investigating other solutions.

Since we were using Disjoint Namespaces in our Active Directory domain, I figured there might be a problem with the People Picker due to this.

Fortunately, I came across this SharePoint article:  https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg602075.aspx

Now, I LOVE PowerShell, so I was not about to resort to the command line to execute these commands, so I created my own version of the PowerShell commands:

$STSADMPath = @"

"C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\Web Server Extensions\15\BIN\STSADM.EXE"

"@

$SPPassword = "P@ssw0rd"

$STSSetPasswordCmd = "cmd /c $STSADMPath -o setapppassword -password $SPPassword"

Write-Host $STSSetPasswordCmd

Invoke-Expression -Command $STSSetPasswordCmd

$STSADMPath = @"

"C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\Web Server Extensions\15\BIN\STSADM.EXE"

"@

$SharePointUrl = "https://sharepointdev.mycompany.com"

$DomainName = "dev.mycompany.com"

$LoginName = "mycompanydev\shareptadmin"

$LoginPwd = "P@ssw0rd"

$STSSetPeoplePickerCmd = @"

cmd /c $STSADMPath -o setproperty -url $SharePointUrl -pn peoplepicker-searchadforests -pv "domain:$DomainName,$LoginName,$LoginPwd"

"@

Clear-Host

Write-Host $STSSetPeoplePickerCmd

Invoke-Expression -Command $STSSetPeoplePickerCmd

Once I ran the STSADM People Picker command, my People Picker issue was resolved!!

SharePoint Web Services Application Pool stopped by default

When you initially set up your SharePoint Server, you might not notice that even though the SharePoint Web Services web site is running, the SharePoint Web Service Application Pool is actually in a stopped state!!

As you can probably guess, this leads to an incorrect conclusion thinking that the SharePoint Web Services website is actually running when it is factually stopped due to the Application Pool.

As you can probably guess, starting the "SharePoint Web Services Root" Application Pool will get your SharePoint Web Services website up and running properly.

Fixing the SharePoint User Profile Sync service

I recently encountered a situation where an Active Directory domain was set up using non-standard conventions.

The AD domain was named dev.mycompany.com but the NetBIOS name for the domain was called mycompanydev!

Unfortunately, because Windows (and SharePoint) generally expects the NetBIOS name to be the same as the first part of the FQDN, this was causing the User Profile Service to fail when attempting to distinguish user accounts for importing.

Microsoft Support then pointed me to these articles:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/sykhad-msft/archive/2013/04/30/sharepoint-2010-user-profile-synchronization-service-decoded-part-2.aspx

http://blogs.technet.com/b/steve_chen/archive/2010/09/20/user-profile-sync-sharepoint-2010.aspx#How%20to%20grant%20the%20Replicate%20Directory%20Change%20on%20the%20domain%20configuration%20partition

It basically involved changing the setting for the User Profile Synchronization Service to support NetBIOS names through a PowerShell script as well as some manual settings for Active Directory.

Clearing the SharePoint Configuration Cache

I recently had to run an upgrade for a SharePoint 2013 Farm and each time I ran the SharePoint Product Configuration Wizard, the wizard would fail regarding a Configuration directory.

Well, Microsoft support then pointed me to this article to clear the SharePoint configuration cache: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/josrod/archive/2007/12/12/clear-the-sharepoint-configuration-cache-for-timer-job-and-psconfig-errors.aspx

Even though the article was very old, the steps are still relevant for SharePoint 2013.  After clearing out the configuration directory, I was able to successfully run the SharePoint Product Configuration Wizard!

Unable to process Put message

I recently set up a brand new installation of SharePoint 2013 using AutoSPInstaller when I discovered that my User Profile Synchronization Service was NOT WORKING!

When I tried to update my Synchronization Connection, I got the following error message:

No matter what I tried, I could not get the User Profile Synchronization Service working again!

Well, fortunately, I found this article: http://www.techtask.com/sharepoint/setup/user-profile-synchronization-unable-to-process-put-message/

As it turns out, AutoSPInstaller automatically created the Synchronization Connection name with a length of more than 15 characters.

Unfortunately, you CANNOT rename a Synchronization Connection once it is created, so I was forced to delete and recreate it with a shorter length name.

Of course, as you can probably already guess, once I did that, I was able to successfully synchronize my User Profiles!!

Preparing for the SharePoint 2013 70-331 Exam

I recently began studying for the SharePoint 2013 70-331 Exam and I quickly realized that I needed to remember how various screens looked like in Central Administration as well as Site Settings.  Not only did I have to remember what the screens were supposed to look like, but I also had to remember what they actually did!!

Well, for all those also studying for the 70-331 Exam, I decided to include screenshots to help you along with your studying:

By and large, most of the questions are going to be about Central Administration, so I will start there:

When you go into Manage Web Applications, you have to be very familiar with the various Ribbon menu items there:

User Policy

Anonymous Policy

Permission Policy

Authentication Providers

User Permissions

Blocked File Types

Managed Paths

You will also have to know several other areas of Central Administration such as Alternate Access Mappings:

 Then there is the User Profile Service Application:

Of course, don't forget about Managing Service Applications:

For the Managed Metadata Service, these are important to remember:

Administrators

Properties

Properties

Permissions

Of course, the Monitoring areas are very important for any SharePoint implementation:

Configure diagnostic logging

Configure diagnostic logging

Configure diagnostic logging

Configure diagnostic logging

Configure usage and health data collection

Configure usage and health data collection

View health reports

Review rule definitions

 Of course, we cannot forget about the all important Search Service:

When you go into Site Settings, there are several important screens to remember as well:

HTML Field Security

Site Permissions

Finally, we still have the Site Contents area!!