Problem: Forgot the SharePoint 2010 Passphrase

Problem

You forgot or misplaced the passphrase for your SharePoint 2010 farm.  The passphrase is needed when connecting to a farm in order to run the configuration wizard.  Additionally, managed account credentials are encyrpted based upon the passphrase.

You cannot recover the passphrase but you can configure a new one.  The following procedure shows you how.

Solution

1) On the SharePoint 2010 Server, open the SharePoint 2010 Management Shell as an administrator.

2) Enter the following, and then press Enter: $passphrase = ConvertTo-SecureString -asPlainText -Force

3) Enter your desired passphrase, and then press Enter.

4) Enter the following script, and then press Enter: Set-SPPassPhrase -PassPhrase $passphrase -Confirm

5) You'll be prompted to confirm the passphrase.

6) Enter the passphrase again

7) Press Enter.  You'll be prompted to confirm that you want to reset the passphrase.

8) Just press Enter once again.

9) Once the shell prompt returns, you've successfully reset the passphrase.

References

• Account permissions and security settings (SharePoint Server 2010)
• Updating passwords on SharePoint 2010
• Reset the Farm Passphrase in SharePoint 2010

Problem: Job History Timezone Inconsistent with Server

Problem

You view the Job History (CA > Check Job Status > Job History) and observe that the job history times are inconsistent with your server time.  You then view usage reports (Site > Site Actions > Site Web Analytics reports) and observe that the Date Range presents a timezone different than that of your server.

To resolve this, you go to the General Settings of the web application (CA > Manage web applications > [select web app] > General Settings), and modify the timezone there, but this doesn't resolve the problem.

You need to modify the timezone of the site collection itself.  The following procedure shows you how.

Solution

1) Go to the site collection

2) Go Site Actions > Site Settings > Site Administration > Regional settings (../_layouts/regionalsetng.aspx)

3) Make the appropriate changes, and then click OK.

4) Restart the server.

References

• Regional settings (SharePoint Server 2010)

TIP: Add Quicklaunch to a New Page

Introduction

When creating a new Web Part page in SharePoint 2007 or 2010, the Quick launch will not appear.  It's actually still there, but hidden in different ways, depending on the SharePoint version you are using. To get it back, just follow the procedure below, as appropriate to your SharePoint version.

Procedure

1. SharePoint 2007
1. Open the page in any text editor or Designer 2007.
2. Search for these two lines:

<asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderId="PlaceHolderNavSpacer"
 runat="server"></asp:Content>
<asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderId="PlaceHolderLeftNavBar" 
runat="server"></asp:Content>

3. Delete them both.
4. Save the page.
2. SharePoint 2010
1. Open the page in any text editor or Designer 2010.
2. If using Designer, use Advanced Mode.
3. Remove the following code/css:

<sharepoint:uiversionedcontent id="WebPartPageHideQLStyles"
  runat="server" uiversion="4">
  <contenttemplate>
    <style type="text/css">
      body #s4-leftpanel {
        display:none;
        }
      .s4-ca {
        margin-left:0px;
        }
    </style>
  </contenttemplate>
</sharepoint:uiversionedcontent>

4. Remove the following ASP.NET placeholder:

<asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderId="PlaceHolderLeftNavBar"
 runat="server"></asp:Content>

5. Save the page.

References

• Adding Quick Launch to Web parts in SharePoint 2007
• Four Ways to Add or Remove the Quick Launch Menu Control
• SharePoint 2010: How to add back QuickLaunch to the web part page