Does Operating System edition matters with powershell ?

Yes, it does matters when accessing Sharepoint Object Model through powershell.

Make sure that you use PowerShell 64 bit when you trying to manipulate the SharePoint object model from a script on a 64 bit OS machine.

If you try run a script that accesses the SharePoint object model in a 32 bit PowerShell window from a 64 bit OS, you will run into errors that are rather hard and confusing to diagnose: The error you will receieve will be as below which is totally misleading.

Error: “The Web application at http://servername could not be found. Verify that you have typed the URL correctly. If the URL should be serving existing content, the system administrator may need to add a new request URL mapping to the intended application.”At line:1 char:38+ $spsite=[Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite]( <<<< “http://servername”)

I hope this post saves some time for someone in sharepoint world !

SharePoint Service Pack 2 released on April 28, 2009

I'm sure many of us stay on top of this, but thought I'd post in the event someone had missed it. Instructions on installing are included in this post.

Service Pack 2 is a cumulative update, and includes all major updates since the release of WSS3 & SharePoint 2007, and includes the hotfixes and improvements by Microsoft.

Updates Included in SP2: February 2009

Cumulative Update December 2008

Cumulative Update October 2008

Cumulative Update Infrastructure Update Service Pack 1

Instructions for applying Service Pack 2:

Please read the entire contents before proceeding to apply any service packs :

1. Install WSS3 SP2

http://www.linkedin.com/redirect?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Emicrosoft%2Ecom%2Fdownloads%2Fdetails%2Easpx%3FFamilyID%3D79bada82-c13f-44c1-bdc1-d0447337051b&urlhash=XSi8&_t=disc_detail_link

This will run the automated SharePoint Products & Technologies Configuration Wizard (PSConfig).

For organizations running SharePoint Server 2007 (Standard & Enterprise), continue:

2. Install SharePoint Server 2007 SP2 .

http://www.linkedin.com/redirect?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Emicrosoft%2Ecom%2Fdownloads%2Fdetails%2Easpx%3FFamilyID%3Db7816d90-5fc6-4347-89b0-a80deb27a082&urlhash=dPCu&_t=disc_detail_link

This will run the automated SharePoint Products & Technologies Configuration Wizard (PSConfig) a second time, and will run a bit longer than the first.

If Language Packs are used within your organization, install the respective Language Packs Start with the correct version of the WSS3 Language Pack SP2. If you have a MOSS Environment, install the WSS3 Language Pack SP2 first, followed by the Office SharePoint Server 2007 Language Pack SP2 WSS3 Language Pack SP2:

32 Bit:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=085e5ac8-58f6-4cf9-8012-33b95ee36c0f

64 Bit:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=2c2b6caf-b46d-45eb-ac4d-deaaa48c3a2c

Office SharePoint Server Language Pack SP2:

32 bit -

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=01c6a3e8-e110-4956-903a-ad16284bf223

64 bit -

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=66c5026f-9f47-4642-8378-2526918009fa

The Service Packs must be installed on all SharePoint servers in the farm, and remember to plan accordingly, as the update process will create approximately 1 hour of downtime per server. The patch created an issue in one of my farms. The Search Service Provider Database was missing stored procedures, and I was unable to open Search Admin). A new SSP was created successfully, and after changing default SSP and changing the associations I was in. Unfortunately this method meant losing settings such as crawl schedules & sources, and any other customizations to the SSP site.