SharePoint, Host Headers and Loopback Checking

Doing a SharePoint deployment for a test and staging server on the clients machine, since this is a T & S server it’s a single-server farm deployment on a Windows Server 2003 SP2 box with all the latest updates. The SharePoint installation media is a slipstreamed MOSS with SP2.

I’ve created DNS (CNAME) aliases for the main intranet, SSP and My sites web applications which all point to the SharePoint server, and I’ll be using host headers on port 80 for the respective Web Applications.

It all goes well, I’ve created the main intranet Web Application and root site collection site directory. I go to update the Master Site Directory settings in Central Administration and it barfs at the URL I’ve put in. I try and browse to it from the SharePoint machine and I get the Authentication nag prompt, eventually IE shows me the HTTP 401.1 page.  The URL I’m using is the host header URL of the main intranet web application.

This is curious, I try the root site collection URL from another machine and it works fine. The clue here is that the only machine I can’t browse to the root site collection from, is the local machine itself.  So a couple of Google hours later I found the answer which is explained in knowledge base article 896861.

To quote the article;

When you use the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) or a custom host header to browse a local Web site that is hosted on a computer that is running Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 5.1 or IIS 6, you may receive an error message that resembles the following:

HTTP 401.1 – Unauthorized: Logon Failed

 

This is a by design feature which occurs on Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1) which includes a loopback check which causes authentication to fail when the custom host header used does not match the local computer name.

Although the knowledge base article states that it affects IIS6 when used with Windows Server 2003 SP1, I’m using IIS6 with Windows Server 2003 SP2.

The fix involves making 1 of 2 small changes in the registry, I opted for disabling the loopback check entirely.

In addition to the fix in the article I also added the following registry entry (thanks to this post here):

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters [DisableStrictNameChecking (DWORD) = 0x01]

Create a SharePoint Slipstreamed Installation Source

Creating a slipstreamed installation source for SharePoint and MOSS is quite straightforward, and in this post we’ll create a slipstreamed installation source for MOSS with SP2;

Choose a folder in which to create the installation source: F:\Sources\SharePoint Server 2007\SP2slipinst

Copy or extract your base (standard installation media without any other slipstreamed updates) WSS or MOSS installation media to that folder as shown below. If your installation media is compressed, you can extract it using this command (using the MOSS installation as an example):

OfficeServer.exe /extract:F:\Sources\SharePoint Server 2007\SP2slipinst

The service pack updates, and any other cumulative updates you want to slipstream into the installation source, will be extracted and copied into the \Updates folder as shown below.

The order in which you extract and copy these updates to the \Updates folder is important. The order goes something like this;

1. Extract and Copy WSS Service Pack Updates
2. Extract and Copy MOSS Service Pack Updates
3. Extract and Copy WSS Cumulative/Hotfix Updates
4. Extract and Copy MOSS Cumulative/Hotfix Updates

Extract and copy the WSS SP2 updates to your SP2 slipstream installation source by entering this command;

wssv3sp2-kb953338-x86-fullfile-en-us.exe /extract:"F:\Sources\SharePoint Server 2007\SP2slipinst\Updates"

After this has completed, take a look at the \Updates folder, it will contain the WSS SP2 updates.

Now do the same for the MOSS SP2 updates;

officeserver2007sp2-kb953334-x86-fullfile-en-us.exe /extract:"F:\Sources\SharePoint Server 2007\SP2slipinst\Updates"

After this has completed, take a look at the \Updates folder, it will contain the MOSS SP2 updates.

Perform the same procedures for cumulative/hotfix updates you want to apply to your slipstream installation, taking care of the extract/copy ordering for WSS then MOSS. 

Your SP2 slipstreamed installation source is nearly ready. Notice above the 2 files highlighted, if your installation source is for MOSS, delete the wsssetup.dll file.

The slipstreamed installation source is now ready to use or burn to a DVD.

SharePoint (WSS) KPI Dashboards without SharePoint (MOSS) Enterprise

Demonstrates how to create KPI (like) dashboards without requiring MOSS Enterprise, obviously it doesn’t support all the features and flexibility that MOSS Enterprise KPI does but, even so, it’s a great solution. Read the article here, and another one here that applies the technique to create more advanced (WSS) KPI Dashboards using Content-Types.

SharePoint Contacts List Search with Auto Suggest – No Code Required

Demonstrates how to provide Auto Suggest Search capability of a List using a Content Editor Web Part and jQuery, read the article here.

No-Code SharePoint Menus

A great post from Bill Simser describing how to create SharePoint menus without code, just drop the HTML into a Content Editor Web Part or your own Web Part.