Shaepoint 2016 Server Error in '/' Application.

This happened to us when we rebuilt our SQL server. SharePoint was using a SQL Alias and we forgot to add it to the new server. I would check there and also make sure the SPN for the new SQL server is correct.

how do I check the spn??

On the SQL server, from command line, SETSPN -L <servername>

Jeff

Thank you

is the servername the name of the SQL server or the SharePoint Farm server?

Do i need to add both nodes?

SQL server.

do I need to add the cluster name or the server name I tried both and still getting same error

Also I have three instances on my SQL Server Do I need to add them all?

I don't work with instances at this time but no each instance should have a SPN like this: MSSQLSvc/sqlbox1.mydomain.org/instance2. There may be more. Since I am not sure how you rebuilt the SQL box(es), are you using the exact same names as before? Server and instance names? If not, you may have to re-run the SharePoint config wizard to find the Configuration database again.

Jeff

Yes I used the exact same names as before.

C:\Windows\system32>setspn -l tgcs014-n1-sqlc
Registered ServicePrincipalNames for CN=TGCS014-N1-SQLC,OU=TGCSNET-Clusters,DC=o
ur,DC=network,DC=tgcsnet,DC=com:
        MSServerClusterMgmtAPI/TGCS014-N1-SQLC.our.network.tgcsnet.com
        MSServerClusterMgmtAPI/TGCS014-N1-SQLC
        MSClusterVirtualServer/TGCS014-N1-SQLC.our.network.tgcsnet.com
        MSClusterVirtualServer/TGCS014-N1-SQLC
        HOST/TGCS014-N1-SQLC.our.network.tgcsnet.com
        HOST/TGCS014-N1-SQLC

C:\Windows\system32>setspn -l tgcs014-n1
Registered ServicePrincipalNames for CN=TGCS014-N1,OU=TGCSNET-Member-Servers,DC=
our,DC=network,DC=tgcsnet,DC=com:
        MSServerClusterMgmtAPI/TGCS014-N1
        MSServerClusterMgmtAPI/TGCS014-N1.our.network.tgcsnet.com
        WSMAN/TGCS014-N1
        WSMAN/TGCS014-N1.our.network.tgcsnet.com
        RestrictedKrbHost/TGCS014-N1
        HOST/TGCS014-N1
        RestrictedKrbHost/TGCS014-N1.our.network.tgcsnet.com
        HOST/TGCS014-N1.our.network.tgcsnet.com

C:\Windows\system32>setspn -l tgcs014-n1-sqls
Registered ServicePrincipalNames for CN=TGCS014-N1-SQLS,OU=TGCSNET-Clusters,DC=o
ur,DC=network,DC=tgcsnet,DC=com:
        MSServerClusterMgmtAPI/TGCS014-N1-SQLS.our.network.tgcsnet.com
        MSServerClusterMgmtAPI/TGCS014-N1-SQLS
        MSClusterVirtualServer/TGCS014-N1-SQLS.our.network.tgcsnet.com
        MSClusterVirtualServer/TGCS014-N1-SQLS
        HOST/TGCS014-N1-SQLS.our.network.tgcsnet.com
        HOST/TGCS014-N1-SQLS

C:\Windows\system32>setspn -l tgcs014-n1-sqlw
Registered ServicePrincipalNames for CN=TGCS014-N1-SQLW,OU=TGCSNET-Clusters,DC=o
ur,DC=network,DC=tgcsnet,DC=com:
        MSServerClusterMgmtAPI/TGCS014-N1-SQLW.our.network.tgcsnet.com
        MSServerClusterMgmtAPI/TGCS014-N1-SQLW
        MSClusterVirtualServer/TGCS014-N1-SQLW.our.network.tgcsnet.com
        MSClusterVirtualServer/TGCS014-N1-SQLW
        HOST/TGCS014-N1-SQLW.our.network.tgcsnet.com
        HOST/TGCS014-N1-SQLW

Not sure what to tell you. You can run the SharePoint Products Configuration wizard to see the SQL server you are connected to. (if it sees SQL, it will be in the first few screens. You can always exit out without doing anything. If it does not see the SQL server, you should be able to use it to reconnect the farm to the SQL instance

Jeff

I tried to launch the SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard and it takes a long time as does the Central Administration site.


The utilization on the server CPU and memory is very low

Do not understand why the applications take so long to present themselves.

Trying on both nodes.

If it talks a long time, it may be timing out trying to find the SQL server. I would look in your DNS. Sort by IP and find the IP of your old SQL server. See if it has multiple entries. if so, one may be the SQL alias used by SharePoint. I only say this because what you are seeing is exactly what we saw when we replaced our SQL server and Our new SQL admin didn't know about the alias. We added it, rebooted SQL and all came back up.

Jeff

Checked my DNs and yes I had two entries for the server listed. I remove the inactive one.

checked my nslookup and it was gone on the sharepoint server.

Still does not work.

PSCDiagnostics_10_2_2019_20_9_52_266.log

Hi,

Did you check your settings in the web.config files in the IIS folder and the LAYOUTS folder?

Cheers

Short of a reinstall any other ideas?

Great information in this thread. Here are just a few other points, maybe will help, maybe not.

It is mentioned that the SQL Servers were rebuilt. Also mentioned that accounts added back in SQL. Can you access SQL from the SharePoint server. There are various ways to check for connectivity to SQL and importantly that the SQL ports are open.

I use the executable that should be on your server named SQLTest.UDL it is an executable that you can click on. This will help you test connectivity to your SQL servers as well as SQL alias. If it fails, it is not smart enough to tell you why. It could be the port (TCP/1433) is not open or could be that the user account is invalid for some reason, be it a password problem or a problem with the account in SQL.

Once it has been confirmed that you have access to SQL, try the configuration wizard again.

Hope that helps...

Guys

Yes when I rebuilt the SQL server I had to add back the security logins i do not remember which ones I had this time I need to document them
I use mixed mode authentication.

I added back SPFarm  SPAdmin SPADBA  account  they are all domain accounts should I make them local accounts?

I do not remember which accounts I used during the install   any way to find out?

You SPFarm and SPAdmin accounts should have  dbCreator and Security Admin roles. Once you are back on line with SharePoint you can clean up account permissions as needed. I am not sure what your account SPADBA is for, but maybe grant that account the same access.

One thing you can check to maybe determine which account is your farm account is to check on one of your SharePoint servers the membership of a local machine user group named WSS_RESTRICTED_WPG_V4. Members of that group should be SP Farm administrators and will need access to SQL. Just guessing, but the accounts you list above may be in that group.

Good luck...

Walter,

I gave the accounts those roles still no good.

So i tried the sqltest.udl



Any ideas.

Is the SharePoint instance the default one or are you using a named instance for SharePoint?

it is the named instance

Guys

Just thought of something

In my instances the default use 1433
my second instance uses 2433

An my sharepoint instance I thought was 3433  

But not sure.

Any why I can check in reg or some config file that might help this?

Here is some information about configuring your SQL server ports. This article explains it much better than I could;

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/database-engine/configure-windows/configure-a-server-to-listen-on-a-specific-tcp-port?view=sql-server-2017

Two other points:

You mention that you have two SQL nodes. Make sure you set the ports the same on each server.
Also, when using the test tool, you might want to test each server directly before testing using the SQL Alias or cluster name.

Hope that helps -

Guys

First thank you for all the helpful information.

I believe that before My SQL instance name was in lower case letters now I made it all upper case.

I discovered this when using the sqltest.udl tool

So where in the config is the SQL instance name kept?  Need to modify that is my guess

You mention that there are three instances on the SQL server.

I don't have an answer for you. I have not installed SharePoint on a multiple instance SQL server recently. If I recall, when you run the set up wizard or the psconfig tool, you can enter in the instance. If you can do that, make sure your use this syntax; servername\instancename

Hope that helps...

I got DNS all setup correctly now my cluster servers had two ip address for the sql instance.

setup wizard takes forever to load

What pscoonfig commands can I run to shcange the SQL server information on this configuration?

After restarting servers several times it still does not launch the SharePoint products configurator.
Both Nodes it fails every time.

Update after several tries the SharePoint Product Configurator came up

But on the screen where the SQL Server name is it will not let me change it.

The advance button is also greyed out.

I am now at the point to uninstall this sharepoint and try again unless someone has a better idea please let me know.

Sorry to say, I doubt it. When you do see the SQL server name, is it the name of the instance you have SharePoint using? I never use different ports for SharePoint (never need to) but you can at least see what SQL server name you are using by going to the registry of your SharePoint server. the Key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\16.0\Secure\ConfigDb will have a String called DSN. The DataSource part of the string should tell you what SQL name you were using.
  Otherwise, if you plan to blow away what you have and start over, remember to back up all your Content DBs. You can restore them after to the new farm and save some time.

Agree with Jeff

Jeff/Walter.

I made a change to the registry and now the SharePoint Product Configurator comes up almost instantly now.

But now it fails because of the login name.



I was using local spfarm account on the SQL server after running this I saw the error as it was looking for our\spfarm.

So I deleted the spfarm local account and created the windows authenticated account from my AD

This is the same account I logon to the SharePoint server with.

In SQL I have both Local Account and Authenticated accounts selected.

I used the SQLTest.udl program an it fails also to connect.

My password is simple 8 characters  6 letters and 2 numbers all lower case.

But I think I used the domain account when installing not sure

Should I change the password to more complex?

Does sharepoint remember the password I used?

Any ideas?

So, yes, SharePoint remembers the accounts. the passwords are used in services. The registry setting I told you about was just to know what SQL you were looking at. Not to change it. This way, you could make sure you could resolve the name. At this point, since you have changed accounts (not sure why you would ever use a local account for anything with SharePoint but...). My recommendation is to backup your content databases. Normally they will start with wss_content_. Once you have them backed up, I would make a new SharePoint server, clean installation. Once you have all the services setup, then restore the databases. Then you can use the SharePoint Powershell to mount them to sharepoint. Perhaps Walter has a better idea but given what you have said, this is the route I would take.

Jeff/Walter

It took awhile but after I changed the account to a domain account using the sqltest.udl tools I am now able to connect

The SharePoint Product Configurator now runs longer but it still fails this time with different error.


Any ideas?

Thomas - you are doing good. But I agree with Jeff. Backup the content databases. On your first or primary SharePoint server make sure you are logged in with your install account or farm account. (They may be different accounts, they may be the same.) Run setup.exe from the SharePoint installation source. One of a few things may happen:

• A windows comes and says SharePoint is already installed and the process stops.
• The install process will go through with no error. If that is the case run the configuration wizard and it should ask you which configuration database to use, it may ask which farm do you want to join. (Should only be one selection.) Will probably ask for the server name too, use the servername\instance format.
• If that doesn't work well, you can try the repair option from 'Program and Features' found in the control panel.
• If you receive errors that can't be overcome, Jeff has the best idea. Fresh install after doing a full backup of content. You may have to use control panel to uninstall SharePoint before you do a new install.

Hang in there, you are doing good!

Walter

I ran the REPAIR option first   and it went thru successfully

I checked all services and they were all started except for one
SharePoint User Code Host service so I started that one also.

Next I tried to bring up central administration and it failed  with same error as my first posting above

I will try the first too options later today.

This is puzzling

Thanks

Thanks for the update. Hope it starts working for you soon.

Walter,

I had to restart the computer after the repair

I was thinking that would help but I was wrong.

Still getting the '/' application error starting SharePoint Administration

So I decided to go to your option 1 and ran setup from the iso image.

It brings me to the repair or remove screen.

The repair already worked this leaves me with remove only.

I guess that's my only option now.

Thoughts?

Every situation is different. A new install requires a lot of effort, but you should keep moving forward. I repair may never successful. Neither one is fun to be honest.

Good luck ...

this sucks  

Will not even uninstall WTF

After second uninstall attempt it ran successfully

Now need to see what else it left behind

should I delete the application pools and sites from IIS?

I just restarted server after uninstall

I was doing the uninstall wrong was doing it from the setup iso

I ran it from the control panel and that worked

Removing it from node 2 now.

Hoping once removed there the IIS will clean up  other wise need to manually delete the app pool and sites?

It will not uninstall at all from Node 2

This is crazy

I have had good luck with SharePoint uninstalls in the past. The uninstaller should remove IIS sites under normal circumstances. In this case I am not sure. That is why Jeff's advice about starting from a clean OS is very good advice. I realize the extra time it adds to the process however.

I agree, SharePoint can be very crazy sometimes. I had a four hour outage this morning thanks for Windows Updates for SharePoint servers.

Any luck?

Walter,

Just got out of Hospital had surgery.

Before I went in I built two new Windows 2019 Servers Almost done with them.

I need to test on the new servers access to my sql server prior to next step

Next step is to install SharePoint.

Before I do that I need to remove all the SharePoint databases from my sql server.

I gave up on trying to uninstall on NODE 2 those two machines will shutdown or repurpose later.

Will post results soon

Hope all is well with your health. Good luck on the health of your SharePoint!

Walter

Thank you for the well wishes.

I am stuck on the preinstaller  for sharepoint 2016


The Windows Server AppFric gives download Error

Actually all of them did  I manually downloaded all the files  using this link

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/32950.sharepoint-server-2016-prerequisites-installation-and-deployment.aspx

After I installed several they showed in the preinstaller as installed.

After I installed Windows Server AppFabric  it does not show

This is a Windows 2019 Server wondering if that has anything to do with it?

Any ideas?

Thank you

Tom

Update

got past the error I had to add to IE Trusted Sites https://download.microsoft.com

Then I uninstalled all the prereqs that I manually installed and ran the preinstaller again

This time it downloaded all the prereqs and installed

Now on to SharePoint configuration

Very good! Good find on the fix for the error.

After building two new windows 2019 Data Center servers I have installed SharePoint 2016 Farm

Now to fix the Review problems and solutions section

3 down and 3 to go.

Thanks for all the help

Glad it is moving forward for you....