SharePoint 2013: The number of Distributed Cache hosts in the farm exceeds the recommended value

1. Verify that you have the following memberships:
   • securityadmin fixed server role on the SQL Server instance.
   • db_owner fixed database role on all databases that are to be updated.
   • Administrators group on the server on which you are running the Windows PowerShell cmdlets.
   • Farm Administrators group.
   An administrator can use the Add-SPShellAdmin cmdlet to grant permissions to use SharePoint 2013 cmdlets.
   
   
2. Start the SharePoint 2013 Management Shell.
   • For Windows Server 2008 R2:
     • On the Start menu, click All Programs, click Microsoft SharePoint 2013 Products, and then click SharePoint 2013 Management Shell.
   • For Windows Server 2012:
     1. On the Start screen, click SharePoint 2013 Management Shell.
        If SharePoint 2013 Management Shell is not on the Start screen:
     2. Right-click Computer, click All apps, and then click SharePoint 2013 Management Shell.

How SharePoint farm locates its configuration database

Did you ever wonder how SharePoint farm locates its configuration database. It’s not in a web.config or in any other configuration files. It’s actually a lot simpler than it probably should have been. SharePoint actually stores the connection to the configuration database in the registry (see dsn key).

SharePoint 2007: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\12.0\Secure\ConfigDB

SharePoint 2010: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\14.0\Secure\ConfigDB

SharePoint 2013: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\15.0\Secure\ConfigDB (this one I have not actually checked, but I am betting it’s still there)

Scary, isn’t it?

MOSS 2007 An update conflict has occurred, and you must re-try this action

To resolve this issue, clear the file system cache on all servers in the server farm on which the Windows SharePoint Services Timer service is running. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Stop the Timer service. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Services.
   2. Right-click Windows SharePoint Services Timer, and then click Stop.
   3. Close the Services console.
2. On the computer that is running Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and on which the Central Administration site is hosted, click Start, click Run, type explorer, and then press ENTER.
3. In Windows Explorer, locate and then double-click the following folder:
   Drive:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\SharePoint\Config\GUID
   Notes
   • The Drive placeholder specifies the letter of the drive on which Windows is installed. By default, Windows is installed on drive C.
   • The GUID placeholder specifies the GUID folder.
   • The Application Data folder may be hidden. To view the hidden folder, follow these steps:
     1. On the Tools menu, click Folder Options.
     2. Click the View tab.
     3. In the Advanced settings list, click Show hidden files and folders under Hidden files and folders, and then click OK.
   • In Windows Server 2008, the configuration cache is in the following location:
     Drive:\ProgramData\Microsoft\SharePoint\Config\GUID
4. Back up the Cache.ini file.
5. Delete all the XML configuration files in the GUID folder. Do this so that you can verify that the GUID folder is replaced by new XML configuration files when the cache is rebuilt. 
   
   Note When you empty the configuration cache in the GUID folder, make sure that you do not delete the GUID folder and the Cache.ini file that is located in the GUID folder.
6. Double-click the Cache.ini file.
7. On the Edit menu, click Select All.
8. On the Edit menu, click Delete.
9. Type 1, and then click Save on the File menu.
10. On the File menu, click Exit.
11. Start the Timer service. To do this, follow these steps:
    1. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Services.
    2. Right-click Windows SharePoint Services Timer, and then click Start.
    3. Close the Services console.
    Note The file system cache is re-created after you perform this procedure. Make sure that you perform this procedure on all servers in the server farm.
12.  Make sure that the Cache.ini file has been updated. For example it should no longer be 1 if the cache has been updated.
13. Click Start, point to Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration.
14. Click the Operations tab, and then click Timer job status under Global Configuration.
15. In the list of timer jobs, verify that the status of the Config Refresh entry is Succeeded.
16. On the File menu, click Close.

SharePoint Offline and Manual Prerequisite Procedures

Installing the Roles and Features for SharePoint 2013 on Windows Server 2012 Offline with PowerShell

To install the Roles/Features required by SharePoint 2013 on Windows Server 2012 in an offline environment, you need to have access to the Windows Server 2012 installation media.

For the purposes of example, assume you have mounted the Windows Server 2012 installation media (ISO) to the D: drive of the server. Please note that you can also copy the files locally or specify a UNC path where the installation files are stored. You need to specify

Open an elevated PowerShell prompt (i.e. Run as Administrator) and execute the following:

Import-Module ServerManager

Add-WindowsFeature Net-Framework-Features,Web-Server,Web-WebServer,Web-Common-Http,Web-Static-Content,Web-Default-Doc,Web-Dir-Browsing,Web-Http-Errors,Web-App-Dev,Web-Asp-Net,Web-Net-Ext,Web-ISAPI-Ext,Web-ISAPI-Filter,Web-Health,Web-Http-Logging,Web-Log-Libraries,Web-Request-Monitor,Web-Http-Tracing,Web-Security,Web-Basic-Auth,Web-Windows-Auth,Web-Filtering,Web-Digest-Auth,Web-Performance,Web-Stat-Compression,Web-Dyn-Compression,Web-Mgmt-Tools,Web-Mgmt-Console,Web-Mgmt-Compat,Web-Metabase,Application-Server,AS-Web-Support,AS-TCP-Port-Sharing,AS-WAS-Support, AS-HTTP-Activation,AS-TCP-Activation,AS-Named-Pipes,AS-Net-Framework,WAS,WAS-Process-Model,WAS-NET-Environment,WAS-Config-APIs,Web-Lgcy-Scripting,Windows-Identity-Foundation,Server-Media-Foundation,Xps-Viewer –Source D:\sources\sxs


Your server will require a reboot after running this PowerShell code.

Everything is fine, but we had a small problem getting your license.SharePoint 2013 Apps

I was try to Add Apps from SharePoint store, but I am unable to add it. I was getting below error message


“Everything is fine, but we had a small problem getting your license. Please go back to the SharePoint Store to get this app again and you won't be charged for it. "

I am using SharePoint 2013 on my local server. I configure everything correctly I rechecked, but nothing is working for me.



Solution:

I was using system account or farm account. Then I use different account for it, it’s working for me.



The System Account cannot be used to get apps from the app store...

Database is in compatibility range and upgrade is recommended

I had moved the SharePoint content databases from one farm to another recently. After the migration was completed I browsed to Central Adminitration -> Upgrade and Migration -> Review Database Status. The migrated Sharepoint content database had the Status as "Database is in compatibility range and upgrade is recommended".

This indicated I had to manually upgrade these content databases.

This was because I moved the content databases from SharePoint 2010 SP1 to SharePoint 2010 SP2.

This is how it should be solved if I am not wrong:

Test-SPContentDatabase -Name ContentDBName -WebApplication http://webapp/ > c:\result1.txt (to confirm that there are no Upgrade Blocking categories that equal true)

Upgrade-SPContentDatabase -Name ContentDBName (Depending on the size of the database, this process could take long time)

Once completed 100% the database upgrade, browse to Central Administration -> Upgrade and Migration -> Review Database Status. Confirm that the content database now has Status as "No action required".

How to: Change the Distributed Cache Service managed account 2013

When you get the annoying pink marker in CA and one of the issues it warns you about, is that ‘the farm account should not be used for other services’ In my case, the scripted install had set the ‘Distributed Cache Service (Windows Service)’ to use the  farm account as managed account. As the 2013 Central Admin is (or tries to be) helpful, it gives you the direct link to the: ‘Security’ – ‘General Security’ – ‘Configure Service Accounts’ and tells you to change it there.

To fix it, just click the link, find the service in the dropdown and select another Managed account in the lower dropdown. Then click ok…..but nooo…that one wont fly.
Changing the service account on this service cannot be done this way and has to be done using PowerShell…thats what you get back.

Well…after some short researching I found this to work ok: (first load the snapin, add-pssnapin microsoft.sharepoint.powershell)

$farm = Get-SPFarm
$cacheService = $farm.Services | where {$_.Name -eq "AppFabricCachingService"}
$accnt = Get-SPManagedAccount -Identity <domain\user>
$cacheService.ProcessIdentity.CurrentIdentityType = "SpecificUser"
$cacheService.ProcessIdentity.ManagedAccount = $accnt
$cacheService.ProcessIdentity.Update()
$cacheService.ProcessIdentity.Deploy()

(Where <domain\user> is the domain name and user name of the managed account you want to use instead.)

Note: Beware of the doublequotes if you copy the code…