SharePoint (and Project Server) Shenanigans

On a recent client site we installed a 4 server SharePoint 2010 farm using normal HTTP and Kerberos authentication, the client wanted to use SSL as well.

For this particular install we had the opportunity to use a CISCO ACE (Application Control Engine) appliance to perform the Load balancing http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/contnetw/ps5719/ps7027/Data_Sheet_Cisco_ACE_4710.html

A couple of the features we used on the ACE were Hardware SSL Termination and Acceleration and HTTP to HTTPS translation. This allow us to run HTTPS traffic to and from the Load Balancer and HTTP from the load balancer to the farm.

This worked out really well we didn’t need to worry about SSL certificates or Ports on the SharePoint servers, the ACE takes care of all that.

The only extra item we needed to configure in SharePoint were the AAM’s for the Web Apps we had created.

Our testing showed the some of the normal SharePoint functions coming from Core.js stopped working, things like the ECB menu for a document stopped appearing on a client over SSL but worked okay on the servers behind the ACE, to resolve this we added some AAMs for the default zone for http to https and https to https.

A good CICSO article is here

As we were wrapping up this project a couple of other little jobs were taken care of

Open PDF’s in the Browser.

By default in SP2010 PDF’s no longer open in the browser, the user is prompted to download the file before opening. To resolve this we added the PDF Application type to the AllowedInlineDownloadMimeType list with a small piece of PowerShell

$webApp = Get-SPWebApplication("http://webappurl")
$webApp.AllowedInlineDownloadedMimeTypes.Add("application/pdf")
$webApp.Update()

As this setting is per webapp you may have to run more than once

An excellent article explaining why you use the method above is here.

The local farm is not accessible. Cmdlets with FeatureDependencyId are not registered

The error above really bugs me!, even if you are a Farm and Server Admin, the SharePoint management shell still wont play nicely due to you not having the SharePoint_Shell_Access role on the config database.

Some folk would have you go and change the permissions directly on the db via SQL Management Studio, but personally I think the best way is to use the Add-SPShellAdmin Cmdlet, you will have to logon as the Farm Account then delegate the permission to yourself or who ever the chosen admin is.

Darrin Bishop has an excellent write up of the steps needed  here

Happy SharePointing.