Here are some of the other errors that I received while creating my SharePoint 2010 environment in Windows 7.

New-SPConfigurationDatabase: Could not load file or assembly ‘Microsoft.IdentityModel, Version 3.5.0.0. The Power Shell looks like the following when you’re running New-SPConfigurationDatabase to configure your SP database for the first time:

The fix: Install Microsoft Identity Framework to address this problem.

New-SPConfigurationDatabase: The user does not exist or is not unique. You get to the point in the New-SPConfigurationDatabase command-let that asks you for the Farm Credentials. You didn’t fully qualify the username with the domain or computer name.

 

To fix this, simply make sure that the user account you are specifying for the Farm Credentials is fully-qualified with the domain-name or, if using local accounts, the computer name. Example: “macbookpro\gabe”.

New-SPConfigurationDatabase :  Unknown error (0×80005000) At line: 1 char:20. + New-SPConfigurationDatabase <<<< + CategoryInfo    : InvalidData

 

This one frustrated the heck out of me. I configured my Macbook Pro already but I was installing SharePoint 2010 on another PC(has Intel Core i7 processor) in my office when I got this message. I thought the second pass-through would be easier. I already know I must follow every-step of the SharePoint 2010 on Windows 7 Development Workstation Guide.  So, how can I possibly still mess it up?? You see, I’d get past the Passphrase question and it would process the command for a while and spit out the error message only at the very end. When I look at my SQL Server, the Config database is created but the “SharePoint Admin Content” database has not been created yet. I manually added the user-account to sysadmin group in SQL. I made the  Windows login Local Admin. I serviced-pack the SQL instance at least twice. Still the InvalidData error message like above. I uninstalled SharePoint 2010 and re-installed it. When I uninstalled the entire SharePoint 2010 (remember, I was aiming for the “Complete” installation option), I reinstalled the second time just using the “Stand-Alone” install. I was thinking, this sucks, having to use SQL Express because I’m going for Stand-Alone install. I finished the Stand-Alone installation. I go ahead and try to configure it and the psconfigui.exe (SP Product Configuration Wizard) and bam—STILL an error! But this time, the error message was more helpful—it told me that IIS 6 is not installed. I look at my installed Windows 7 features and sure enough, IIS 6 wasn’t installed yet! I was pretty sure I ran everything on the checklist and I couldn’t have missed anything. Obviously, I missed something, and this something was the required Windows Features that must be turned on. So I installed II 6 feature on my Windows 7 and the Stand-Alone configuration worked and I saw the Central Admin. If you get this Unknown error (0×80005000), check your installed Windows Features and make sure you have IIS 6 Management Console installed.

 

Okay, after going through the stand-alone install and was made to enable IIS6, I uninstalled SharePoint 2010, again! Why did I uninstall it? Because it was installed using Stand-Alone install which uses SQL Server Express.  This final time, I was determined to make the Complete installation (can add servers to farm) work. I installed the SharePoint 2010. I ran Power Shell and ran the New-SPConfigurationDatabase command-let and was able to create the configuration database. Yay!!!

I was viewing my blog today and noticed the tag cloud on my sidebar. The most prominent tags are “SharePoint”, “Developers”, and “Administrators”. SharePoint. Developers. Administrators.

From time to time, I will meet SharePoint professionals in networking events or when interviewing job applicants at a customer site and I will ask what their SharePoint experience is like. “Oh I am a SharePoint Developer“. Then I find out that the extent of their development experience revolves around master-page and page-layout design, style/CSS customizations, and graphical/logo design. Basically, branding tasks. And then there is the “SharePoint Administrator“. “Oh, I am the site collection administrator and manage user-permissions, site-collection features, and sometimes recycle items for end-users from the Recycling Bin.”

I think people are calling themselves SharePoint Developer more than they should. In my opinion, a SharePoint developer is someone who can develop Web parts, workflows, user-controls, Web controls, ASPX pages, client-side scripting, and complete SharePoint solutions. In addition, they also understand deployment options such as creating solution packages. If your experience around SharePoint is limited to CSS, branding, and design stuff, you’re a designer, buddy; not a developer, but a designer.

Now, let’s talk about the “SharePoint Administrator”. Yes, to a point, the site-collection administrator is an administrator. But to me, and again, this is just my opinion, farm admins are the real SharePoint administrators. To call yourself a SharePoint administrator, especially on job interviews, you better know your SharePoint deployment scenarios, Central Admin, SharePoint disaster/recovery procedures, IIS, SQL Server, Windows Server OS, and the beloved “stsadm” command.

Sometimes I will encounter resumes where the job applicant puts “SharePoint Developer” or “SharePoint Administrator” in their work history but nothing in the roles and responsibilities indicate the degree of technical expertise required to be called a “real SharePoint Developer” or a “real SharePoint Administrator”! 

The point I’m trying to make is please, please, please–do not inflate your work experience, especially when applying for jobs. You might fool the recruiters but you’re not going to fool the technical leads. Please be honest in your resumes because people will catch you if you think the inflated titles will make you a better candidate for a job.

Honesty people!

When Windows 7 came out last week, I decided to go ahead and install it on my laptop. I like what I see so far–everything seems to run faster in Windows 7! Same hardware; the apps just launch faster. For example, SharePoint Designer used to take 5-10 seconds to launch when it was Vista. Now, I can get SharePoint Designer to run in 2 seconds. Visual Studio 2008 used to be 5-10 seconds to launch as well. Now Visual Studio 2008 opens up like I’m opening Internet Explorer! Now, I’ve always ran SharePoint in a Windows Server 2003 virtual machine. And it was decent performance. But now that I’m seeing Windows 7 to be more efficient, I thought, what if I just ran SharePoint (MOSS) in Windows 7, forget about running it in a virtual machine?

I found this walkthrough from Bamboo Solutions on how to install SharePoint on Windows 7. It worked and all I can say is wow! Now, there were two issues that I ran into when I tried to follow the walkthrough. First issue I ran into was is making the boot-strapper launch the MOSS installer. I have the original media from 2007 and no matter how many times I tried to make Bamboo Solution’s setup-helper launch that setup.exe, it wouldn’t launch it. The error message that I got was:

I tried renaming the setup.exe file to SharePoint.exe, thinking maybe, just maybe the setup-helper is file-name dependent. It didn’t work. Finally, I decided to just go ahead and download the trial version of  MOSS (if you have proper license):

• x86 MOSS 2007 Trial
• x64 MOSS 2007 Trial
• x86 WSS 3.0
• x64 WSS 3.0

If you don’t have MOSS license, just download WSS 3.0. If you have MOSS license, you can enter your key during the installation to make the installation permanent. I tried x64 MOSS 2007 trial with the Bamboo helper and it worked.

One more issue I ran into was when I ran the SharePoint Configuration Wizard for the first time. It said that I don’t have IIS installed. Well, I already had IIS running–IIS 7. When I picked the Windows feature to install, I did not select the IIS 6 Management Compatibility:

The moment I turned on IIS 6 Management Compatibility, the SharePoint Configuration Wizard was able to proceed.

I’m very happy with my laptop setup now. I have MOSS running on it and I don’t even need a virtual machine anymore. Do I think it’s risky to install MOSS on my base OS? I don’t think so; I’ve been installing and running SharePoint since 2007 and I have yet to see it mess up the operability of an application or service in Windows. But then again, I’ve always used Windows 2003 Server. Who knows what kind of issue I will run into running MOSS on top of Windows 7.

As much as I recommend you guys trying MOSS/SharePoint on Windows 7, I highly recommend you run the upcoming SharePoint 2010 beta on a virtual machine only! When SharePoint 2010 Beta comes out next month, I will be running that inside a virtual Windows 2008 Server.