No mapping between account names and security ids was done

I came across this error message today when building a virtualised SharePoint/MOSS farm on Windows 2008 with SQL 2008.

When trying to install SQL 2008 and specifying a domain account for the SQL service account,  the installer kept telling me that the credentials were invalid. 

I (temporarily) adding the service account to the local admin group on the SQL server, but the account name did not display.  I tried adding the service account again, only to have windows tell me that the user was already  a member of the group!

I proceeded to spend a couple of hours fiddling with the firewall settings and Kerberos only to have it dawn on me that I had forgotten to SYSPREP the machine before I'd cloned it...

I then went back to the template VM only to find that Sysprep no longer works on Windows 2008.  Apparently, it's been replaced with a new tool which generates the inf via XML.  I downloaded it in haste, discovering that it's designed for Windows images (I'm using Vmware).

Fortunately I remembered that there was another way to "de-identify" the virtual machine....NewSid !  Fortunately it still works on Windows 2008. 

After running it I removed the computer from the Domain and deleted the computer account.  I then rejoined the domain and the SQL installation went smoothly.

Where is Network Places in Vista? I want to create a shortcut to a SharePoint library!

 

My Network Places has been removed in Vista, but you can still create shortcuts to SharePoint libraries and/or document libraries...

1. Open Windows Explorer (Windows Key + E)
2. Right click on any blank space in the right pane (the side which shows you drive(s))
3. Select Add a Network Location

\\SERVER\Share is not accessible. you might not have permission to use this network resource. not enough server storage is available to process....

I've had this nagging problem for a week now on our domain. The shared folder is actually an external USB drive.

Have tried per Microsoft's instructions to increase the IRPStackSize to no avail.
Also tried removing computer from domain and re-adding - no luck.

I then thought back to what I had done to the computer in the past week.

I'd remotely deployed Acronis True Image server and Symantec Corporate Anti-virus.

Out of curiousity, I tired removing the Acronis True Image server and rebooting.

Guess what? The problem went away! Go figure!

Thoughts on backing up ESXi Server

I recently built an ESXi server which hosts a MOSS farm (consisting of SQL, WFE, Indexing Server), a domain controller and various other client and development machines. I've also configured a WinSCP connection into the ESXi server from another Windows Backup server.

The ESXi server is running on a RAID array with one warm disk.

At present, all I've done is taken backups of the VM files, but I want to protect my data in the following ways:

1. Site disaster (eg: fire, theft etc where the physical server and drives are destroyed or stolen)
2. System failure of the ESXi server
3. Corruption or failure of a single ESXi host
4. A MOSS or SQL server becomes corrupt
   

Here are my thoughts for setting up the necessary backups.

ESXi server image backup

• To protect against scenarios 1 and 2, I think the most efficient option is take an entire disk image of the ESXi server. Given that the RAID array is 500GB in size, I'm going to need a 1TB drive. I'll also need to make sure that the backups are PASSWORD ENCRYPTED. I can do this manually, although I should explore how I might install the Acronis agent and Enterprise Backup server for Linux to see if this can be done from a client workstation, rather than at the phyiscal ESXi box.
  

• To protect against scenario 1, I'm actually going to require a second external drive which can be rotated with the first drive OFFSITE. Realistically, the rotation will occur one or twice every month.

• To protect against scenario 3, I'll need to periodically take weekly copies of the VMs to the BACKUP server storage drive. Ideally, I need to find a way to automate this with a script. It probably going to be best if I do this via Putty or Winscp. Post question on EE for assistance..

• To protect against scenario 4, I need to automate daily backups of all SQL databases to the BACKUP server. I also think it would be very useful to get a copy of System Manager to do snapshot backups...I need to play with this technology anyway.

• Finally, I also think it is wise to script weekly site collection backups to the BACKUP server.

Integrating SharePoint 2007 with Commerce Server

In the past 12 months I've had at least two clients who essentially wanted to customise SharePoint with a 'Shopping Cart' functionality. Today I stumbled across Microsoft Commerce Server, which is an e-commerce solution which integrates with SharePoint 2007 and uses similar technologies (eg: web parts etc). I'm yet to try these two out together, but am keep to get my hands on a demo as soon as I can. I will post the results online to share with you once I do.

• Download Commerce Server ISO
• And here's some instructions from Microsoft on how to integrate SharePoint and Commerce Server
• Instructions on how to download the 9GB virtual machine with Commerce Server and SharePoint pre-integrated.

My next step is to convert the vhd to vmware...then I'll be able to comment.

A colleague commented that Microsoft's CRM offering 'Dynamics' also has a built in shopping cart feature - I would like to compare the two products side-by-side