SharePoint site down, repeat, site down....

Well, more issues concerning Microsoft releasing hotfixes that completely ruin otherwise perfectly fine installations of sharepoint.

And again I say, do not ever install Microsoft Updates for your production servers without first checking to see if you need the update and can survive the consequences (backup, backup, backup, don't forget to backup before you apply it).

So a great many people have had either Central Administration become unaccessible, or all of their sharepoint sites.

There are blogs that have suggestions, one is vlad's http://www.vladville.com/fixing-sharepoint-30-with-kb932091, and one is a "near official" Microsofty's blog entry-- http://blogs.technet.com:80/wbaer/archive/2007/10/15/kb934525-troubleshooting.aspx. Check these out and see if they help.

And if you are wondering why I am not suggesting fixes step by step-- well I usually don't do step by steps if I don't need them. And, I didn't install the hotfix on any of my servers because they didn't need it. So I have not had any problems.... Mind you, if I had needed it, that would be a different story...

Yikes, Oct. 9 WSS 3 .0 update

So there was a big rollup hotfix released for WSS 3.0. And maybe you're thinking you should just install it because, well, it's got to be good.

Before you do, consider this:

• It cannot be uninstalled.
• The hotfix will, somehow, be wiped should a service pack be installed, along with the fixes it applied.
• It has problems with host headered site collections, search, and on SBS, restarting the sites themselves properly.

Don't believe me? Read it yourself (and more) at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/934525/.

Before you install a hotfix/update/service pack always check the known issues to see if it is worth the risk, or if it breaks more than it fixes. Now you know.

If you installed the hotfix that updated WSS so that it stopped secretly sending information to Microsoft about your server without your permission, then it is possible that, after installing the Oct. 9 hotfix, your sharepoint site will completely cease to function. It will look like a database problem, but no database fix will seem to work. If that's the case, you need to uninstall the 932091 update, then reinstall it. See this blog entry http://www.vladville.com:80/fixing-sharepoint-30-with-kb932091 from some guy named Vlad for more details.