Office Sharepoint Server search not appearing in services list

The issues pertains to search which was missing from the "services on server" display (via Central Admin -> Operations -> Services on Server). Also the server roles list was disabled.
As the search service isn't present, SSP will not be created as there are no indexers.
This issue comes up because of configuration issue. While installing MOSS 2007, if WFE option is selected and not Complete installation, this issue will come up. It is mandatory to select "Complete installation" rather than doing a "Web front End" installation.
We can confirm if the MOSS installation is a complete or WFE one by going to the PSC diagnostics logs present in "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\LOGS". Search for the entry "Setting server role to WFE". This shall confirm if the installation is a WFE one.

Hope this helps.

AcquireConnection method call to the connection manager "Excel Connection Manager" failed with error code 0xC0202009 when exporting data from excel

When we are exporting data from excel sheet to a table in a SQL 2005/2008 database. we come across an error "the AcquireConnection method call to the connection manager "Excel Connection Manager" failed with error code 0xC0202009". This error comes up when the run64bitruntime is in True State.
The state can be changed to false by following the below steps.
1> go to soution explorer. Right click on the SSIS project and then click on properties.
2> Then in the property box, select debugging in the left pane.
3> Then in the right pane, we can see Run64bitRuntime is set as True. Please change it False. This shall resolve the issue.

Connect to SQL EXPRESS remotely

There has always been issues connecting to SQLEXPRESS instance using the SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS).

Steps to connect to SQL EXPRESS from other machine SSMS.

1> Enable TCP/IP
a> Launch the SQL Server Configuration Manager from the "Microsoft SQL Server 2005 CTP" Program menu
b> Click on the "Protocols for SQLEXPRESS" node,
c> Right click on "TCP/IP" in the list of Protocols and choose, "Enable"

2> Go to Surface area configuration of SQL Server. Click on Surface Area Configuration for Services and Connections.Check that Services are running. Then click on remote connection and check if Local and remote connections are selected with using both TCP\IP and named pipes option selected.

3> Providing a Port Entry
a>Go to the TCP/IP in the Protocols for SQL Express section in the configuration Manager.
b> Right Click on TCP/IP and select Properties.
c> Then select the IP Addresses tab in the Property box. Then scroll down to a entry on the right panel for "IPAll".
d> Clean up the TCP Dynamic Port option and in the TCP Port option provide a port number for example, 2301.
e> Then click OK. Restart the SQL Services.

4> A way to check the connection is using SQLCMD from a remote machine and connect like this:
SQLCMD -E -S YourServer\SQLEXPRESS,2301
The "," in the server name tells SQCMD it's a port.

5> Enabling the Firewall
a> Click on Start --> Administrative tools --> Windows Firewall with advanced Security.
b> Then right click on Inbound Rules and select New Rule. Select Rule type as Port. Click on Next. Then in Protocol and Ports, Select TCP, in the specific local Port provide the port number 2301. Then click on Next.
c> Then select the default as present and then click on Next. In the End provide the Name and click on Finish.

Once this is done, Check the connection using the SSMS from a remote machine.

STSADM find

There is an option in STSADM command line to find out the list of stsadm commands related to feature or solution or contentdb etc. Its something like, for example you want to find out what are the stsamd commands used for features...like activatefeature, installfeature etc....

Go to the path where you can run the stsadm command...i.e. in the BIN folder.

type

stsadm | find "feature"

You will get all the stsadm commands related to feature.... as shown in the screenshot below.

To determine the version of MOSS installed

There are few ways in which you can check the verison of the MOSS installed on the machine. They are -

1> Go to Central Administration Page. Click on Operations tab. Then click on "Servers in the farm" link. There the version should be available.
2> Its also visible in the site settings page of the Central Administration i.e. http://centraladminURL:portnumber/_layouts/settings.aspx.
3> Also you can run the below query on the Config database.
SELECT [VersionId],[Version],[Id],[UserName],[TimeStamp],
[FinalizeTimeStamp],[Mode],[ModeStack],[Updates],[Notes]
FROM
[SharePoint_Config].[dbo].[Versions]
WHERE VersionId = '00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000'
ORDER BY [Id]
DESC

Hosting Sharepoint Central Admin page on all the WFEs

Hosting a Central Admin (CA) page on all theWFEs, gives you advantage of accessing it even though if one of the WFE is down or switched off.

Steps to be taken for hosting CA on all WFEs.

1> While configuring MOSS, the configuration wizard asks whether to host the CA page on the WFE. Please go ahead and provide the port number. It will mention in the end, the URL of the CA page. Let's suppose the URL of the CA page when there is one WFE server (\\wfeserver1 ) and database server (\\dbserver ) on a port 8888 be http://wfeserver1:8888 . Verify if this URL comes up properly.
2> Go to the other WFE (\\wfeserver2 ). Again, while configuring the wizard, select "connect to existing farm" and finally would ask if the CA will be hosted on this machine. Select to proceed creating the CA page on the WFE. Finally the URL of the CA page would be http://wfeserver2:8888 . Please note that we select the same port on both the cases. Also check if the CA URL http://wfeserver2:8888 is accessible or not.

*** If we do select "This machine will not host the CA page" , then whenever we type http://wfeserver2:8888 it will automatically redirect to http://wfeserver1:8888 . So it depends on how you want to access your CA page.
3> Now once the CA page is up, Go to Operations Tab. In Global Configuraton section Click on the Alternate Access Mappings. Now Click on alternate access mapping collection and select the Central Administration. Then click on Edit Public URLs. Lets suppose you want to access the CA page with a common URL like http://wfeserver:8888 and not with http://wfeserver1:8888 or http://wfeserver2:8888 . Then in default, add http://wfeserver:8888 , in intranet you can add http://wfeserver1:8888 and in custom you provide http://wfeserver2:8888 .

This also does the load balancing for the CA page. Also if any of the WFE goes down, then you can directly access the CA URL of the server which is not down.

Learn Powershell !! The Next Big Thing.......

Powershell is basically a scripting language. It is an Object Oriented Programming language and interactive command line shell for Microsoft Windows. This scripting language can be used for various tasks like -
1> System administration
2> Automation of tasks.
3> allows you to work on Active Directory, Exchange Server, Windows Servers, SQL servers, Sharepoint Servers and other Microsoft Office Suites.
It involves and integrates with .NET environment and can also embed into other applications with ease.
Below are the few links which you should try if you want to learn powershell.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/technologies/management/powershell/default.mspx
http://powershell.com/cs/blogs/ebook/
http://powergui.org/

PowerGUI.org gives you a UI based powershell scripting environment with Intellisense that makes scripting more enjoiable rather than seeing a broing blue screen command prompt.

I started using powershell recently and have adapted to it very quickly provided my very less exposure to hard core coding.
I had installed the Powershell Script Editor from PowerGUI.org and wnet through the ebook present in http://powershell.com/ .

With these two in your hand, you are ready to rock and roll POWERSHELL.. Happy Learning... :)