Guest Author: Doug Ware

I just got done with a Live Learning Web cast for AppDev on User Profiles and My Sites and it’s hard to imagine how it could possibly have been worse. I had serious machine issues for the first 30 minutes and couldn’t get my profile import configuration to save. I kept getting an error message about connecting to the database on the profile configuration screen. This was very strange as everything else seemed to be working – I’d expect the Shared Services Administration site to fail completely if the database server was borked.

After about 30 of the longest minutes of my life floundering in front of an Internet audience that I couldn’t see, I tried to switch VM’s by simultaneously suspending the problem VM and resuming another one from the same base image. BIG mistake as VMWare Workstation completely hung. I had to reboot my machine and rejoin the meeting whereupon I spent a couple minutes talking into a muted Microphone because Live Meeting naturally has your mic muted by default if you are the presenter. Thoroughly flustered and ashamed I managed to limp through the rest of the presentation on a machine with left over vestiges of a previous presentation with only one minor, but strange, security issue.

As soon as the meeting was over I resumed the problem VM so that I could find out the core issue and slightly redeem myself by sharing it with all of you. As soon as the VM resumed, I got a kernel fault and VMWare shut it down. I started the darn thing back up, went to the Configure Profile Import page and… the problem was gone. It worked like a charm.

So, then I opened up the LOGS folder and, low and behold, the log file for the time period in question was huge! What could possibly have been going on? Well, after running through everything this morning I needed to reboot the VM because I was having an issue with VMWare and mouse tracking after resizing the desktop on the host OS. When I rebooted, in my haste, I clicked “Install Updates and Shut Down”. A quick look at my Windows Update history showed:

That’s right, a simple update to correct the reset license key issue from SP2 apparently was the culprit and a simple reboot fixed the problem!

How many rookie presenter mistakes did I make?

1. Do not install any updates before a Webcast
2. Don’t panic and start clicking around like a fool. Had I just taken a deep breath I might have figured this out.
3. VMWare supports snapshots. I should have taken one before I did the run-through. If I had, I could have easily reverted to a known good state.

So, my lessons learned have nothing to do with SharePoint. I think I need a drink.

–Doug

Guest Author: Doug Ware

Doug Ware is a SharePoint expert, the creator of AppDev’s popular series of SharePoint 2007 courses, and the author of Elumenotion SharePoint Skinner – the ultimate SharePoint branding tool. Doug is the founder of Elumenotion, a SharePoint training and consulting firm located in Atlanta, Georgia and has completed numerous SharePoint implementations cover a wide variety of businesses. Doug is also the leader of the Atlanta .NET User Group and is a frequent speaker at SharePoint Saturday, code camps and other events.