Recover a deleted site collection from SQL Backup

Solution from Mauro Cardarelli's blog: http://blogs.officezealot.com/mauro/archive/2007/12/12/20674.aspx


In this scenario, let's assume that you have NOT been doing site collection backups but you do have SQL backups. You notice that last night's content database backup is considerably smaller than the night before (yes, you have been saving multiple days of backups). Phew! Your data is all there; we just need to reconnect it. Here's how:
1. Create a new database and restore (through SQL Server) the last good database into it
2. At the command prompt, use stsadm command to add the content database to your site
stsadm.exe -o addcontentdb -url -databasename -databaseserver
3. Run an IISRESET
4. Go to Central Administration and look at the list of content databases for your web application (under Application Management). There should be two (the old one - with zero sites - and the new one just attached). Delete the old database.
5. Done! Go to your URL... all should be good again.

File Not Found Error

I have once again encountered the dreaded File Not Found error. The annoying thing about SharePoint is you don't get a clue where the problem is coming from.

The error was thrown just after we had performed a restore, so my guess was that something had not been restored. Turns out that in the Master Page settings there was a reference to CSS file which was in a different Site Collection which hadn't been migrated, and this was causing the error. Luckily, even though you might think that you're screwed once you get the File Not Found error, you can still access the settings. Just paste _layouts/settings.aspx to the end of the Site Collection URL and you can play around in the settings to find what might be wrong.

IIS / App Pool Performance Tuning for SharePoint

Joel Oleson has a great blog about tuning IIS 6 settings for optimal SharePoint performance:

http://blogs.msdn.com/joelo/archive/2007/10/29/sharepoint-app-pool-settings.aspx

Very good read.

Emulating Windows Mobile 6 for SharePoint Demo

Setting up an Windows Mobile emulator has not been straight forward at all. Possibly because it is the first time I am doing this. After trying over and over to install Windows Mobile 5, I went to Windows Mobile 6, because 5 refuses to live without a VS2005.

The following articles explains how to connect the emulator to Active Sync.

http://www.lancelhoff.com/2008/03/20/how-to-emulate-windows-mobile-6/

http://blogs.msdn.com/vsdteam/archive/2005/10/07/478295.aspx