The detection failed, this can be due to a corrupted installation database (Sharepoint 2007)

If for some reason, you get this error, be afraid, very afraid :-)

In my case it was installing SP3 for Sharepoint 2007.

It means, probably that someone deleted files from C:\windows\Installer to save some space. Some places will tell you that you need to remove the server from the farm and reinstall the OS, or some other way to solve this, well the following is a much better solution, that at least for me it worked fine.

The post isn't avaliable in the blog already, but way back machine was able to find it, and you can download the VBS, etc.

http://web.archive.org/web/20111010084932/http://moss2007.kbnk.info/Patching/solved-the-detection-failed-this-can-be-due-to-a-corrupted-installation-database.html

Basically you will get all packages from c:\windows\Installer folder from another server, and copy them to a repository. After that, you will run a script that will get all missing packages from that repository and put them back on the \Installer  folder.

All script files and info on the link above.

1st Iberian SharePoint Conference

Just came from the first Iberian SharePoint Conference and I'm really happy to say that it was a great conference, with a lot of very good sessions. Met a lot of new people, everyone with a deep knowledge on Sharepoint in common and it was really good to exchange ideas and experience on Sharepoint. All this geekness talk makes me want to put my hands on and start doing more stuff! Everyone should do this once in a while to get them motivated. See you all next time hopefully :)

These were the sessions I enjoyed the most:

• Gustavo Velez​ - OAuth y OData para valientes (Spanish session)
• A good simplification of OAuth in order to understand the core concepts mixed with more advanced stuff on tokens etc.
• Andre Lage - What should be aware with upgrade migration to SharePoint 2013 (English session)
• Great stuff, you can see it all comes from someone who is in deep on massive SP deployments.
• David Martos - DEV - ALM y SharePoint´- BEEZY session(Spanish session)
• Very entertaining and informative talk, not in detail but still a lot of insight.
• Jose Quinto - Búsqueda empresarial en detalle con SharePoint 2013 (Spanish session)
• Probably one of the most useful talks, with a lot of hand's on Search.
• ​Rodrigo Pinto - SharePoint Development Toolbelt Session (English session)
• Great talk, serious tools showed up here, really helpful gems when working on SP.

Check it all out @ http://www.iberiansharepointconference.com/en and wait for the slides and videos.

The Cloud & Sharepoint

Wow,

Realized recently that you can run Sharepoint on AWS (Amazon Web Services), Amazon Cloud Services, and also in your own and free cloud solution, OpenStack.

This can be very interesting news for someone looking for cutting back on costs... And OpenStack should grow for a finner product, since ebay and paypal have decided to move from VMware to OpenStack!!

If this is news to you, just check out amazon page, or this post about a SharePoint Eng. talking on how to setup a Windows Server on OpenStack. If you already knew about this please tell me what you think about it and if you have tried any of these services.

I'm still alive!

It's been a while since my last post, I just looked and it's from September 2011, wow, that's along time...

Hopefully that's going to change, let's see ;-)

For now, I just want to highlight this great service from the guys at CloudShare, I just found out that they are offering a trial of a full Sharepoint 2013 environment, with 3 machines, AD+SQL+MOSS2013. And also 2010 if you want a quick access to a 2010 server.

The remote access is done via java applet, it's a bit slow and weird but it does the job, and if you don't have access to a 2013 RTM ISO, this is a nice way to get to know the platform.

I found about CloudShare, by the great SP guru Andrew Connell, and Critical Path Training. The post is from March 2012 so this isn't fresh news, but the 2013 part should be 'kinda' fresh :)

I haven't seen this type of service, at least for free (even for this small amount of time, 14 days for 2010 and 2 days for 2013) anywhere, and if there are more around, please do share!

If you do not care for the 2010 trial, just go to CloudShare site and create a trial account and fire up Sharepoint 2013, have fun!