The protocol handler cannot be found. Check that the handler has been installed.

After restoring databases from the production servers, I started a crawl. Instead of seeing "Green Messages", I just saw one error message:
The protocol handler cannot be found. Check that the handler has been installed.
I usually restore databases on the dev machine without using the preparetomove command. But today, I was really into the right mood and wanted to follow all the rules religiously. So, before detaching the database, I ran the following command:
stsadm -o preparetomove -contentdb sqlserver:dbname -site http://mymosssite
Then I detached the database using the Central Admin and started the database restoration process. Once done, I added the content database back. I was really happy that everything went smooth without any issues. It was now time to crawl the site and there for I started a full crawl on my site.But as mentioned before the crawl bombed out with the above error message. I went into the eventviewer and saw the following error messages:
The update cannot be started because the content sources cannot be accessed. Fix the errors and try the update again.
The protocol handler cannot be found. Check that the handler has been installed. (0x80040d1a)
I did not understand what was happening and so I started thinking about the changes I made. Before restoring the databases, I stopped the wss help search as I was not using it. Also, I was more inclined towards the sync between the content databases and the ssp. So, I took the following steps expecting to fix the issue:

• Restarted the wss help search


• Restarted the office search - net stop osearch


• Ran the command: stsadm -o synch -deleteolddatabases 0

After this, I started the crawl again and now it worked ! Though I do not know exactly, which of the above steps fixed my issue, I am delighted that it was working again. If anyone knows the exact reason for this issue, please let me know.
Also, if you see the error "Error in the Site Data Web Service. (Specified argument was out of the range of valid values. Parameter name: databaseId)", run the synch -deleteolddatabases command and it should fix the error.

Output cache not used. Reason: User can view an unpublished version of the current page

I was trying to enable output caching on an authenticated MOSS site and followed the below steps:

• Site Actions -> Modify Site Settings -> Modify All Site Settings
• Site Collection Administration -> Site Collection Output Cache
• In here, I enabled the cache profile, disabled anonymous cache profile, set the authenticated cache profile to Extranet(Published Site)
• I also enabled the "Enable debug cache information on Pages" to check if the caching was working as expected
• Now, I logged in as the site administrator and checked the html source of the page. Instead of seeing the following message: "Rendered using cache profile:Extranet (Published Site) at: 2008- 02-24T10:08:03", this message came up : "8 Output cache not used. Reason: User can view an unpublished version of the current page".
• The above was expected because, I was logged in as a site collection administrator. I logged off and logged in as a different user(reader access) and still was seeing the same message : "8 Output cache not used. Reason: User can view an unpublished version of the current page. "
• I tried using different user id's but was still the same error message.
• So, I went back to the site collection output cache profiles page and modified the Extranet(Published Site) property as shown below:
  

• After this is done, I logged in as a reader and behold ! It works as expected spitting out a cached version of the page.
• But the downside to the above setting is that the writers will be seeing a cached version of the page. I still need to figure out why the readers were able to see a unpublished version of the page.

MOSS 2007 on Windows 2008

Recently I tried to install MOSS 2007 on Windows Server 2008. This blog post describes the sequence of events experienced by me.

Initially, I tried to upgrade the Windows 2003 server (enterprise) to Windows 2008 server(standard) but this is not possible. Migration seems to possible from standard 2003 -> standard 2008, standard 2003 -> enterprise 2008, enterprise 2003 -> enterprise 2008. You will not be able to upgrade from enterprise 2003 -> standard 2008.
After this, I did a fresh install of Windows 2008 server (both web and database, though database upgrade was not needed) and configured the required Roles(Web Server) for the web front end server. I was not able to directly install .NET 3.0 framework on 2008 as in Windows 2003. .NET 3.0 framework needs to be installed using the 'features' feature in Windows 2008. Also, I enabled other features like Load Balancing and WindowsActivation. Activating these features is quite easy in Windows 2008 compared to Windows 2003.
Having done the basic steps, I inserted the MOSS 2007 installation DVD and ran the exe. I did not record the exact error, but it was something simillar to this one: 'product id was not found'.
MOSS installation was blocked on Windows 2008 and it required MOSS SP1 to continue. But the problem is you have seperated files/exe's for MOSS 2007 and MOSS 2007 SP1. On Windows 2003 you need to install MOSS 2007 first and then later do an upgrade. I found a few blogposts on MOSS - Windows 2008 installation and they all pointed out to slipstream installation of MOSS 2007. Slipstream installation refers to the integration of updates, patches with the installation files of a product. I copied all the installation files from the MOSS 2007 DVD onto the c:\MOSS 2007 and then dowloaded the sp1 files from here:

WSS 3.0 sp1:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=4191A531-A2E9-45E4-B71E-5B0B17108BD2

MOSS 2007 sp1:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=AD59175C-AD6A-4027-8C2F-DB25322F791B&displaylang=en

Using winzip, I extracted the installation files to the directories like c:\MOSS-sp1 and c:\WSS-sp1. Then copy the files from these directories into the upgrades folder in c:\MOSS 2007 . I clicked on 'yes' for replace files prompts. Running the setup.exe after copying the sp1 files should directly take you to the MOSS setup console. From here onwards, it should be the same one as on Windows 2003.

Reference urls:

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/12/11/announcing-the-release-of-wss-3-0-sp1-and-office-sharepoint-server-2007-sp1.aspx

http://mindsharpblogs.com/ben/archive/2007/12/16/3837.aspx

MCTS (70-630) - Configuring MOSS 2007

I took the 70-630 exam yesterday and passed with a decent score. It was an easy one and should not be really difficult if you have already worked with MOSS 2007. It covers most of the administration stuff and it is sufficient to know the basics of MOSS 2007. I used Patrick Tisseghem's 'Inside Office Sharepoint Server 2007' and went through the articles on technet. Bill English's Administrator's companion is also supposed to be a good one but probably is not needed to get through this exam.