Server Error in ‘/’ Application. Description: HTTP 404. The resource you are looking for (or one of its dependencies) could have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.  Please review the following URL and make sure that it is spelled correctly.

Requested URL: /Pages/Default.aspx

The resource cannot be found.

Solution:  Right click the page and select view source.  There should be a file not found exception listed in the source (if not check to make sure detailed errors are turned on in IIS).  Most likely you are missing a control template custom ascx file on the server.  Get the file where it needs to be and your problem should be resolved.

Come join SharePoint users and administrators at the first SharePoint user group meeting for the Charleston SC area.   It will be a great oppurtunity for newcomers and veterans alike to share and learn oppurtunities available in SharePoint.

Here is the official statement…

“We have not set an agenda as of yet.  At each meeting there is ample opportunity to ask questions and get feedback on just about anything.  We spent a good deal of time last meeting talking about learning resources, and also addressing specific problems some of us are dealing with and coming up with solutions or where to get more information.”

 The meeting will be at April 6th at 5:30 PM.  See the link below to register.

http://charlestonspug.eventbrite.com

I ran across a situation and thought I would post some of the time saving management possibilities of feature stapling in SharePoint 2007.  The situation was a typical issue where there needs to be a lot of sites that have the same general features and layouts for default creation when auto provisioning the sites.  In this situation there was a need to automatically provision a SharePoint site for every Account entity that existed in Microsoft CRM.  Therefore, there would be a SharePoint document library, a default number of lists, some custom lists (stapled as features) and a custom homepage that displayed information.  The solution to this is SharePoint Site Definitions (not to be confused with templates).  By using a custom site definition these sites were able to be programatically created and updateable after the point of creation.  The question came in though that certain sites would need additional items and those additional items would be an ever growing number of lists, calendars, custom web parts, etc… that may not apply to all sites in the definition but would apply to more than one.  In comes features… Read more >>

I recently came across the issue where after a fresh and successful install of SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS2007) that the Central Administration Site would give an application error upon loading for the first time.  After changing <customErrors mode=”Off” /> in all the web.config files we are able to see the “Could not write to output file ‘The directory name is invalid.’” error pointing to a folder below the WindowsMicrosoft.Net directory.  This error indicates that something is amiss with the ASPNET user account and it doesn’t have permissions to write to the folders below the Microsoft.Net folder.  To solve this follow these simple steps.

1. Open up Computer Management and verify that the user ASPNET exists.
2. Navigate to the Microsoft.Net directory (typically C:WindowsMicrosoft.Net) and open up it’s security properties.
3. Add the ASPNET user under the sercurity tab and give it read/write/modify rights.
4. Click on advanced and check the box to replace permissions on child folders.

Restart IIS and then navigate back to the Central Administration Site and it should be come right up (after a little compile time).

When attempting to Integrate MOSS 2007 with SQL Server 2005 Reporting Server in SharePoint integrated mode there seems to be a few reasons that the above error can occur.  Most of the solutions out there are permissions related by making sure your SSRS application pools are running as a domain user with adequate rights, If you are using the Kerberos option you mat have to set up the SPN with the SETSPN commands,  Make sure “Trusted Site” is selected in step 1 of the configuration in SharePoint, etc…

Those have been covered alot and more than likely you have already tried some of them.  One option that I found that wasn’t reported on as often but has fixed my problems in a few installations is force IIS to use NTLM as your authentication method.  If you are attempting to use NTLM as your authentication method and you are getting a 401.1 Authentication error or the above error message from SharePoint.  Follow these steps and see if your issue isn’t resolved.  By this time you have beaten your head against the wall for about a day as I have and anything is worth a shot.  This was the magic bullet for me.

1. Open up the command line.
2. Navigate to C:inetpubAdminScripts
3. exceute the following command (and restart IIS afterwards for good measure)

     cscript adsutil.vbs set w3svc/NTAuthenticationProviders “NTLM”

Navigate back to the MOSS Central Administration Site and see if you are still receiving the error.

Good Luck!