Here’s another quirk for SharePoint Admins & Designers out there. If you ever come across something like “soap:ServerServer was unable to process request” while trying to work with pages in SharePoint Designer, congratulations! Now you can also be a part time DBA. Here’s a description of the problem:
While working with custom SharePoint pages in SharePoint Designer, I would occasionally get an error preventing me from opening the page to edit. The error would say “soap:ServerServer was unable to process request” along with some other not very helpful messages like you need FrontPage Extensions installed and to contact your Administrator. I thought this was just a glitch so I kept opening the file until it actually opened. And this worked for quite a while. But then the last couple of days I couldn’t get the custom page opened no matter how many times I tried. Off to the SharePoint Community I go…
Luckily someone else was having the same exact issue recently and was able to help out with some clues. I’m nowhere near a DBA, and still don’t understand how transaction log files work fully but I was at my wits end so I tried the suggested solutions. My log file was over 50GB’s by the way. So first I tried to shrink the SharePoint_Config Log file using the following SQL Query:
USE SharePoint_Config
GO
DBCC SHRINKFILE (SharePoint_Config_Log, EMPTYFILE)
GO
No good, I get another wonderful error saying that I can not shrink the log file because it’s still in use. Off to the SQL Groups …… Sweet! So now I get to try a different SQL script (In addition to and before the one above):
BACKUP LOG SharePoint_Config WITH TRUNCATE_ONLY
*Checking the Log file size*
Awesome! Now it’s only 500kb.
*Opening the custom page in SharePoint Designer*
Gnarly! Opens no problem. And now I get to go back to doing UI stuff. π
So in summary, here are the SQL scripts you need to do to reduce the size of your transaction log files:
BACKUP LOG SharePoint_Config WITH TRUNCATE_ONLY
USE SharePoint_Config
GO
DBCC SHRINKFILE (SharePoint_Config_Log, EMPTYFILE)
GO
If you know of any pitfalls of doing this feel free to leave us some comments!
The SharePoint Swiss Army Knife 
it’s come back! but this time the log files are nowhere near gigabytes π¦
We are experiencing similar SharePoint file accessing problems and are very interested in any additional findings that you may discover.
…will be checking back frequently. Thanks !!
If youre still experiencing problems try to schedule a job on the sql server wich shrinks does the above actions. I think this will help with your problem. i had the same problem but with a normal c# program
good idea, thanks Paul!
hey, same prob here – any solution so far???
Hi,
I am having the same issue. I tried to shrink the log file. But that didnt help.
has anyone resolved this problem.
Thanks
Suvarna.
Where are these transaction log files located in the file system. I wanted to check the size of it but don’t know where it is.
Thanks,
Mike
If you hadn’t customized your sql installation it should be in the same directory as your database files.
Hi,
I’m getting this same issue and trying to shrink log file doesn’t work… Has anybody found a solution?
Thanks.
Hi,
An alternative solution that works for me is install the free SQL Server Express Management Studio (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=C243A5AE-4BD1-4E3D-94B8-5A0F62BF7796&displaylang=en) on the machine and connect to server name: \\.\pipe\MSSQL$Microsoft##SSEE\sql\query
In SQL Server Express Management Studio, you can shrink and backup the gigantic database files easily.
Remember, you have to install the SQL Server Express Management Studio on the machine itself. By default, SQL Server Express doesn’t allow remote connection.
From
Kenson Goo
http://www.androidcellulars.com
Im having the same issue, i cant open my default.aspx page via the “designer”, but if i take a copy of the default.aspx file, i can nicely open the copy..
im using wss.3.0
my log files are small, … i have a big nose though.
I ran into the same problem where all of a sudden I couldn’t open an ASPX page from SharePoint Design. I tried all the advice posted above and also tried a repair on SPD and rebooted the server….no luck…..then I tried moving the page (drag and drop) to the root level of the site (allow the aspx page to not be in a folder) and suddenly I could open the page. I don’t know why or the logic behind this, but at least I can keep working on the page……I would love some insight if anyone has some!
Thanks
thanks you helped me much.
Having a problem with a customized Vista install and SharePoint won’t allow me to change to Explorer View (so no drag-and-drop moving objects). 2nd problem is checking in when the Local Drafts Folder was on when checking out. Cant find it, and won’t let me check it in. Thanks for your help.
The problem I’m having with SharePoint Designer is the same described here, but only with elements in the _catalog folder. So, I can’t modify any master or design page. Any ideas???
Where is my Car?
SPD sux. It’s crashed no less than a dozen times on me today and I have a demo in an hour. This program blows!
Did you all, tryied to check out the master page related to the aspx pages first and then open the aspx pages??
When trying to open the pages, sharepoint designer shows that master page related can not be opend.
Just had this happen – for me it was one aspx only. When I checked the file size had gone from 200kb to 8500kb!!
Repetitively tried to open it, eventually got in – found on last save 82,000 blank lines had been added to the code.
Deleted them and check out check in then Ok.
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I had the same error
Tried the above with no success.
How i fixed it switched on Developer Dash board in the UI, noticed when attempting to check something out a Crital error was being listed.
It was complaining about the domain name not being correct.
When i built my web application in sharepoint i had entered mydommain.com as the host header
and then later i had only changed this in IIS so it was just http://mydomain as a host header
To fix this i just corrected the setting in central admin so it was http://mydomain matching IIS
Hello! Nice post!
Here is the almost same way to shrink sharepoint database transaction log.
Thanks!
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Will there be a part 2?
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