SharePoint is my hammer and everything looks like a nail.

Tagging your SharePoint 2010 Servers for debugging purposes There are times when you'll need to know which server you're connecting to to try to debug an issue.  If you're using load balancing, that can be pretty tricky, but here's an easy way to tell at a glance. Here, the help icon (normally a ?) has been replaced with a number 2.  It still functions as help, but it's an easy way to tell where you are.  To make this change you'll need to edit the FGIMG.PNG file found at: c:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\TEMPLATE\IMAGES on every server.  You'll need a graphic editor that can preserve transparency, or else the blue ball will have a white square around it.  I use paint.net which is free( www.getpaint.net ) I also chose to tag my app servers in black to differentiate them from web servers, because our naming conventions reuse 1,2,3. Below are the graphics you can download.  If you find this useful, let me know. ...

Creating a Second SharePoint Farm There are times when you might want to create a second SharePoint Farm that uses the same content as an existing Farm.   A second URL can be accomplished by creating an alternate access mapping, but that uses the same farm, same search, user database, service applications, etc.   To create new versions of all of that from scratch, you need to create a second SharePoint farm. The Second Farm method is also useful when you want to keep the same SQL server machine and the same content while performing an upgrade of everything else. First, create a second SQL Instance.   You’ll need the SQL Server 2008 R2 install media.   Run through the install as if you’re doing a fresh install, but you’ll create it as a Named Instance.   To access a SQL Server Named Instance, use SERVERNAME\InstanceName. Create a new web front end (WFE) server.     Install SharePoint and f...

Fixing: The workbook cannot be opened in SharePoint 2010 The error "The workbook cannot be opened" is thrown when opening an excel file in the browser or visiting a page with an excel page viewer webpart embedded. This is a failure in Excel services. To check that the service was added, go to Central Administration (CA) and click "Manage Service Applications" In that list you should see Excel Services Application Web Service Application and Excel Services Application Web Service Application Proxy. Then, you need to know that excel services is running on at least 1 server in your farm. Go back to the CA homepage and click "Manage Servers in this Farm" There you should also see "Excel Calculation Services".  If not, click on one of your app or web servers on that page  then click the link to start the service. Next we need to know which service account is running Excel services.  In CA, click "Security" then "Configure Service Accou...