Using SharePoint Configuration Analyzer

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SharePoint Configuration Analyzer is a tool that you can download from the Microsoft Download Center to analyze and report on your Microsoft installation and content. SharePoint Configuration Analyzer reports on a wide range of configuration errors and also copies a set of log files, configuration files, and other data to a results folder for further analysis or archiving.

SharePoint Configuration Analyzer is particularly useful for analyzing and troubleshooting Web Parts on your servers. For example, you can configure SharePoint Configuration Analyzer to list each Web Part installed on a virtual server and to report on all of the pages that contain an instance of each Web Part. This is useful when upgrading a Web Part to a newer version or when deleting a Web Part. Before upgrading or deleting the Web Part, run SharePoint Configuration Analyzer with these options selected. Then, by using the usage data, contact all owners of pages containing the Web Part you are about to upgrade or remove, giving them notice of the impending change.

Note: SharePoint Configuration Analyzer is not supported, and is available as is. It does not change the state of your nor does it repair errors that it reports. SharePoint Configurration Analyzer only copies its analysis results, along with any configuration files, log files, or other data that you requested, to its results folder, as described in this topic and in the SharePoint Configuration Analyzer Help.

What is SharePoint Configuration Analyzer?

SharePoint Configuration Analyzer is a diagnostic tool that verifies settings on your server that are critical to running Microsoft or Microsoft and to hosting Web Parts on your server. SharePoint Configuration Analyzer also reports on Web Part usage on your server and retrieves a set of log files, configuration files, and Web Part packages used by Windows SharePoint Services and Internet Information Services (IIS). In a server farm configuration, running SharePoint Configuration Analyzer on each front-end server is a useful way to find and repair inconsistencies in server configurations and to ensure that all Web Part assemblies are deployed on all front-end servers.

When you run SharePoint Configuration Analyzer, you choose from a set of verification and information retrieval options. Verification options analyze aspects of each virtual server's configuration and report on error conditions. Information retrieval options gather information you request without verifying the data.

SharePoint Configuration Analyzer verifies the following and reports any errors it finds:

  • Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) settings match requirements.

  • Web Part and Web Control assemblies are installed in a way that is compatible with IIS.

  • All virtual directories for a virtual server share the same application pool.

  • Web Part and Web Control assemblies listed in the SafeControls list exist.

  • Web Part instances on pages are associated with Web Part assemblies.

  • Policy files listed in Web.config files exist.

  • A copy of Microsoft.sharepoint.dll is not installed in the \bin directory.

In addition to verifying the above information, SharePoint Configuration Analyzer can retrieve the following:

  • List of all application pools for the virtual server.

  • Web.config files found in the following folders:

/<wssroot>/

  - 
    
    <pre IsFakePre="true" xmlns="https://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

/<wssroot>/_vti_bin

  - 
    
    <pre IsFakePre="true" xmlns="https://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

/<wssroot>/_layouts

  - 
    
    <pre IsFakePre="true" xmlns="https://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

/<wssroot>/

  - 
    
    <pre IsFakePre="true" xmlns="https://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

/<wssroot>/wpresources

  - 
    
    <pre IsFakePre="true" xmlns="https://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

/<wssroot>/_wpresources

  • All security policy files that are referred to from the root Web.config file.

  • All IIS and log files.

  • The application and server event logs, which are copied to a tab-delimited file.

  • List of all Web Parts and Web Controls listed in the SafeControls list.

  • For each Web Part type found in the database, a list of the pages that contain an instance of that Web Part.

  • List of all Web Part packages installed in the Global Assembly Cache (GAC) and \bin directories.

  • List of all files contained within the main application root.

Note: SharePoint Configuration Analyzer also lists general information about the Web server and SQL databases used by . Some of this information is sensitive. Because of this, you should view the output results of SharePoint Configuration Analyzer by using the administrator's account used to run SharePoint Configuration Analyzer.

Installing SharePoint Configuration Analyzer

You must install SharePoint Configuration Analyzer on the server running . In a server farm configuration, install SharePoint Configuration Analyzer on every front-end Web server.

To install SharePoint Configuration Analyzer:

  1. Run the installation program from the Microsoft Download Center .

  2. In the Unzip to folder field, enter a folder in which to install SharePoint Configuration Analyzer, such as C:\Program Files\SharePoint Configuration Analyzer, or click Browse and point to a folder.

  3. Click Unzip to complete the installation.

Using SharePoint Configuration Analyzer

Note: To use SharePoint Configuration Analyzer, you must be a member of the local Administrator group on the server or servers running and on the server running Microsoft SQL Server 2000 or Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine (Windows) (WMSDE). For best results, run SharePoint Configuration Analyzer by using the same account that was used to install Windows SharePoint Services.

Start SharePoint Configuration Analyzer

  1. On your server, use Windows Explorer to locate the SharePoint Configuration Analyzer program, Sca.exe .

  2. From Windows Explorer, double-click Sca.exe .

Specify general parameters

  1. In the Server address field, type the URL of the virtual server or, if your server is configured in scalable hosting mode, type the fully-qualified host name of the server that you want to analyze.

    To analyze only the single site collection at the virtual server's address, clear the Include all site collections check box. Include all site collections is selected by default, specifying that all site collections on the virtual server should be analyzed.

  2. To start the analysis at the top-level Web site of a specific site collection, rather than analyzing the entire virtual server, in the Site collection path field, type the path to a Web site collection.

    If you choose this option, SharePoint Configuration Analyzer will limit its analysis to the database used by the specified site collection.

  3. To package the SharePoint Configuration Analyzer results in a Microsoft cabinet (.cab) file, click Package results into .cab file .

    When you select this option, SharePoint Configuration Analyzer creates a .cab file named "VirtualServerName_PortNumber_AnalyzerPackage_time.cab" and stores it in the SharePoint Configuration Analyzer's results folder. The CAB file includes copies of the log files, configuration files, and other data that you specified.

    Note: Along with optionally creating a .cab file, SharePoint Configuration Analyzer always creates a folder, named "VirtualServerName_PortNumber_AnalyzerPackage_time, that contains the set of data it finds.

  4. Click Explore results to view the expanded results folder when SharePoint Configuration Analyzer finishes.

    Note: If you don't select Explore results , you can view the expanded results by clicking the message "Last analysis folder: MyServerName_PortNumber_AnalyzerPackage_time" in the status bar at the bottom of the SharePoint Configuration Analyzer window after you run SharePoint Configuration Analyzer.

Specify analysis options

SharePoint Configuration Analyzer has a set of verification options and options that specify which log files and configuration files to include in the results.

  • Choose one or more of the following analysis options:

Option

Description

Verify IIS settings

Verifies that the IP address bindings in Internet Information Services (IIS) match Windows SharePoint Services requirements. SharePoint Configuration Analyzer flags the following IIS configurations because they are not supported by Windows SharePoint Services:

  • Static IP address binding.

  • IIS is configured so that multiple host header names are assigned to a single IP address, and Web Part DLLs are installed outside of the global assembly cache (GAC).

This option also lists all application pools and associated virtual servers.

Retrieve web.config files

Retrieves web.config files for the application root (usually located at \inetpub\wwwroot), _vti_bin, _layouts, _wpresources, and wpresources virtual directories. This option also retrieves any security policy files referenced by the application root web.config file.

Retrieve IIS and SharePoint Services log files

Retrieves all log files generated by IIS and all files with .log and .txt extensions generated by Windows SharePoint Services.

Retrieve server event logs

Retrieves the application and server event logs and stores them in tab-delimited files for easy viewing in a spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Excel.

Note: Depending on the size of the server event log files, this operation could take SharePoint Configuration Analyzer a long time to complete.

Verify SafeControl assemblies

Verifies all Web Parts and Web Controls assemblies found in the SafeControls list (taken from the application root's web.config file). Verification includes:

  • Making sure the assemblies exist.

  • Determining the location of each assembly (the GAC or the Local_drive:\inetpub\wwwroot\bin directory).

  • Listing all public Web Part and Web Control types contained in these assemblies.

  • Reporting any conflicts between the assembly location and the Web server configuration (such as installing DLLS in the \bin directory in some IIS configurations).

After the assemblies have been verified, SharePoint Configuration Analyzer performs additional steps to find discrepancies between the use of Web Parts, as reflected in the database, and the Web Part assemblies listed in the web.config file. SharePoint Configuration Analyzer lists all pages with one of these database errors:

  • Web Part instances on pages that are not accounted for in the assemblies listed in the SafeControls list.

  • Uncompressed Web Parts. An uncompressed Web Part is one in which the properties of the Web Part are written directly in a Web page, rather than referenced from a .dwp file. When a page with an uncompressed Web Part is saved, Windows SharePoint Services removes the Web Part properties and other markup from the page and saves that data. Although uncompressed Web Parts are not errors, if a user gets an error when trying to view a Web Part, but the Web Part assembly is properly installed and configured, this could indicate an uncompressed Web Part for which the markup is insufficient to initialize the Web Part.

Note: The scope of the database scan is dependent on the value of the Site collection path field.

Create Web Part usage report

If you select Verify SafeControl assemblies , you can select Create Web Part usage report to generate, for each Web Part installed on the virtual server, a list of the pages that contain an instance of that Web Part. For example, it is useful to generate this list before upgrading a Web Part to a newer version so that you can contact all users of the Web Part before upgrading it. This option is deselected by default because it may take a long time to complete.

The Web Part usage report is displayed in the Analysis Results pane and is also stored in an XML file named WebPartUsageReport.xml.

Note: If you are running SharePoint Configuration Analyzer on a server farm, select this option on only one of the front-end Web servers. This will generate a complete usage report covering all sites on the server farm. Because the Create Web Part usage report option is the most resource-intensive task, generating this report on multiple front-end servers will slow down your server farm environment needlessly.

Save state information

Web Parts have a type name, such as Microsoft.SharePoint.Sample.WebPart, along with a globally unique identifier (GUID) value. Some configuration errors, such as a missing assemblies, make it difficult for SharePoint Configuration Analyzer to associate a GUID with its related type name. When you select Save state information , SharePoint Configuration Analyzer creates a reference XML file, named VirtualServerName_PortNumber_VirtualServerStateData.xml. In subsequent sessions, SharePoint Configuration Analyzer uses this file to reconstruct the mappings between GUIDs and type names, and reports the more readable type names in error messages and Web Part usage reports.

For best results, run SharePoint Configuration Analyzer with Save state information selected after installing Windows SharePoint Services to create a "snapshot" of the installed Web Parts, and repeat this each time that you install or update Web Parts packages to keep the state information up to date.

Note: When using SharePoint Configuration Analyzer in a server farm environment, you should run SharePoint Configuration Analyzer with Save state information selected on every virtual server.

List Web Part packages

Lists all Web Part packages installed in the GAC or Local_drive:\inetpub\wwwroot\bin directory. To also retrieve the packages, click Retrieve packages , and they will be added to the results folder and CAB file. Note that Retrieve packages is cleared by default because this option can be time-consuming.

List application files

Lists all files contained within the main application root (for example, c:\inetpub\wwwroot).

Start the analysis

  • After specifying general and analysis options, click Go .

Exit SharePoint Configuration Analyzer

  • To exit SharePoint Configuration Analyzer, on the File menu, click Exit .

SharePoint Configuration Analyzer Results

By default, SharePoint Configuration Analyzer packages its results in four ways:

  • In a folder, named VirtualServerName _ PortNumber _AnalyzerPackage_ time , in the folder in which SharePoint Configuration Analyzer is installed.

  • In the SharePoint Configuration Analyzer's Analysis results pane.

  • In an optional Microsoft cabinet (.cab) file, named VirtualServerName _ PortNumber _AnalyzerPackage_ time .cab.

  • In the XML file, Analyzer.log, which is stored in the results folder.

For a full description of the results returned by SharePoint Configuration Analyzer, see the SharePoint Configuation Analyzer Help.