OWA /Sharepoint on SBS 2003 1

[surfernat]

Hi everyone
I wonder if you can help me please. I am a little concerned. About a year ago we had OWA installed which has proved to be an valuable asset to the company we have had no problems with it at all until recently. About a month ago a project involved me installing Sharepoint Services 3 on the server. The install went without a hitch and a Sharepoint site was created. All of sudden though about a week or so ago Sharepoint and OWA was unavailable. When you entered the https: address of OWA it displayed Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage blah blah blah. When I tried to open the Sharepoint site I got exactly the same page. I tried restaring the IIS Admin service which retarts several associated services which all restarted fine but the problem remained. I eventually resorted to a full server reboot which was a success and everything started working again. I put it down to glitch and a one off, espicially after not finding anything incriminating in Event Viewer.

However this weekend the same problem reocurred. I have no idea what to look for and the IT company we use are also stumped. I am currently awaiting a lunchtime window to reboot which will hopefully resurrect the two services but I am not confident this will permanentlt fix the problem. The only error I have in Event Viewer is a Sharepoint Search Error Event with event id 2424 which appears to be a permission issue do you think this could be the cause!!

Any information or Guidance will be gratefully recieved!
Thanks everyone
SurferNat
(SUFFER NAT would be more appropriate at the moment!!!!!!!!!)

 

[gavm99]

Could it be because the websites are now using a different version of the asp.net component?

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"Nobody cares how it works, as long as it works

 

[surfernat]

Thanks Gav
I will look into that!!

 

[surfernat]

Hi Gav et al

Just a quick update!
I decided to uninstall Sharepoint 3 I read somewhere that sharepoint and OWA dont get on too well!! Anyway the server is now back to its original state but I am getting the same problem!
I get the following page
Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage

Most likely causes:
You are not connected to the Internet.
The website is encountering problems.
There might be a typing error in the address.

What you can try:
Diagnose Connection Problems

More information


I can ping the address and I get 0% loss any ideas why I cant connect and why connection to OWA suddenly becomes unavailable as mention before there is nothing present in event viewer to explain this error!!!

It has me very confused!!

Thanks

 

[gavm99]

Ok, sounds like you have a problem with IIS overall to me.

Can you try this:

1) Start a new Notepad document. Simply type in Hello. Do a file, Save As and save it on the server in C:\inetpub\

http://wwwroot

and call it test.html

2) Now use Windows Explorer to check this location that you definatly have test.html, not test.txt.

3) Now if you go to

http://localhost/test.html

on the server what do you get?

On my server I get a blank webpage with Hello in the top left.

Let me know how you get on.

Thanks.

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"Nobody cares how it works, as long as it works

 

[mofusjtf]

Sharepoint Service 3.0 has issues on SBS2k3 b/c it includes Sharepoint 2.0. You have to do a parrallel install of Sharepoint 3 leaving Sharepoint 2.0 intact. Here is a link on how to do that.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...81-efff-4f5b-a28a-8265f1e99f5b&displaylang=en

It may be worth re-installing Sharepoint 3 following the above instructions.

 

[surfernat]

Hi Gavm
Sorry for the delay
I had to reboot the server to get things up and working again!!

At this precise time OWA works but heres the wierd thing I created the Test.html document under C:\inetpub\

http://wwwroot

and I typed

http://localhost/test.html

I get Internet Explorer cannot display page!! I take It I dint have to edit the

http://localhost/test.html

linein anway localhost should point to the

http://wwwroot

directory yes!!

Sounds like you could be on to something Gav!! Where should I go from here!

Cheers buddy
SN

 

[gavm99]

Ok, on your server what happens if you do the following:

Click on the Start Menu and click on Run
Type in CMD and press OK
At the prompt type: ping localhost
and then press enter, what happens?

It should reply on 127.0.0.1, if it doesn't you have much worse problems than IIS!!

As a further test what happens when you go to the following on the server:

http://SERVERNAME/test.html

http://SERVERIP/test.html

Obviously you substitute the above values in capitals to reflect your server name and IP address.

All these tests will rule out any DNS issue, please report back and we'll move on to the next stage of testing.

Thanks.

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"Nobody cares how it works, as long as it works

 

[surfernat]

Hi Gavm thanks for responding again its much appreciated I am the sole IT presence at work and it can get lonely with no one to discuss faults with so thanks!!

Anyway!!
I pinged the local host and yes the ip address returned is 127.0.0.1 so thats fine

When I try to connect to

http://servername/test.html

and IP address/test.html I get problems.

I get a HTTP error 403.2 - Forbidden : Read access is denied Internet Information Services IIS

Cheers again
SN

 

[gavm99]

No worries, IT game can be a lonley one, hence these forums!

Ok lets try this then:

Go into

http://wwwroot

and create a new folder called testsite.
Inside this folder put in your test.html page

Next head for DNS, go into your Forward Lookup Zone and then click on your domain name. Now in the right hand pane you will see all your host records. Right click in here and select New, Alias (CNAME). In the Alias box type testsite and in the Fully Qualified Domain Name box type in the full domain so something like servername.domain.local. Click on Apply and then OK. You can close DNS now.

Open IIS and right click and select New Website
Call it TEST, click Next
Leave the IP and Port as the defaults but give it a host header name of testsite, click next
Browse to the above path, so C:\Inetpub\

http://wwwroot\testsite

Leave the tick for anonymous access and click Next
Tick the boxes for Read and Run Scripts, click Next
Press Finish

Now on the server using your go to

http://testsite/test.html

What happens? I get my Hello in the top left.

Post your results!


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"Nobody cares how it works, as long as it works

 

[gavm99]

I meant when adding in the Alias in DNS your full server name, not full domain - so enter servername.domainame.local

Sorry, just wanted to be clear!

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"Nobody cares how it works, as long as it works

 

[surfernat]

Hi Gav
okay tried that! if i type

http://testsite/test.html

i get Page cannot be diaplayed however If I paste c:\inetpub\

http://wwwroot\testsite\test.html

it works fine so its having difficulties locating testsite/test.html

In DNS the FQDN is set to domainname.servername.com is this correct syntax. I notice its the same as the companyweb FQDN.

 

[surfernat]

Gav just rebooted the server again and typed

http://testsite/test.html

and it now works!! Something wierd is going on!!

 

[gavm99]

Yes you want to have it the same as company web.

Something strange is indeed going on, definatly your IIS which is at fault here.

Now though it sounds like all is working???

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"Nobody cares how it works, as long as it works

 

[surfernat]

Hi Gav
Thanks for your assistance last night!
I will monitor the situation and if OWA goes down again I will try assessing the Testsite.

Do you know if IIS can be easily reinstalled!!

Thanks again
Surfer Nat

 

[gavm99]

I would definatly monitor it before proceeding further.

IIS can easily be reinstalled BUT doing so may cause you to break other things, for example OWA.

I would advise you assess what is business critical to you and ensure these services are working as they should be as making changes could affect day to day business operations.

Any queries though just shout.

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"Nobody cares how it works, as long as it works