Different drive letters on farm WFEs causing problem

Question

Dear all!
I have a farm with two members that drive letters are different(C,D on Backend; E,F on FE). When I create a Web application and ... on BE, it's OK. But when I create web app. on the WFE, after creating site collection, the page has error or loads with errors on the web parts.
Please help! 

Answer 1

It's not easy to follow what you're writing here.

I would look at the 12 hive log file and see what messages are being displayed there.  It might give you a clue.

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--Paul Galvin, Arcovis
  Microsoft MVP - SharePoint
  Blogging @ http://feeds.feedburner.com/PaulGalvinsSharePointSpace
  Twitter @ http://www.twitter.com/pagalvin

Answer 2

Can you tell us the error messages being displayed, and in the logs?

In general, the answer is: ALL WFE's must be identical... versions, service packs, patches, drive mappings. I think what you are saying is that your have separate dedicated web servers for inside and outside of a firewall? If that's the case, they are still WFE's and SharePoint does not know the difference.

Tell us more...

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Mike Smith TechTrainingNotes.blogspot.com

Answer 3

To Paul's point... Sorry very hard to follow but take a look at Central Administration, then look at Diagnostic Logging and tell us what the drive letter is "C"  in the path... That same path much exist on all servers SharePoint is installed on.  Also if you changed the path at anytime from the default then you must make sure permissions are set on that folder for the SharePoint farm admin trying to access the folder.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc288649.aspx <- Check this technet link out too.

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Kris Wagner, MCITP, MCTS Twitter @sharepointkris Blog: http://sharepointkris.com

Answer 4

Thanks to all of you for answering:

There are only empty folders created in ..\12\LOGS . On MOSS server the only event error generated (every 30 minutes)is :"Tracing Service failed to create the trace log file directory 'e:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\Logs'.  Error 3: The system cannot find the path specified."

Besides, I've mapped the other two missing drives on each server and I've not installed any patches or SPs for SharePoint yet.

Answer 5

This has to be either premissions or space issue...

Take a look at the following, http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc561020.aspx and report back on the permissions / space issue but make sure the do ensure the WSS_ADMIN_WPG Windows group has Full Control and the WSS_WPG Windows group has Read & Execute, List Folder Contents, and Read permissions or higher on the folder containing the trace log. To perform this procedure, you must be a member of the Administrators group on the local computer.

Event ID 5400 (Windows SharePoint Services health model)

The Windows SharePoint Services Tracing (SPTrace) service is used by Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 to manage trace output of the call stack. When trace logging is enabled, administrators can specify the path used to store the trace logs. This log file is reused by many applications that are built on top of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.

Event Details

Product:	Windows SharePoint Services
ID:	5400
Source:	Windows SharePoint Services 3
Version:	12.0
Symbolic Name:	ULSEvtTag_5400
Message:	Tracing Service failed to create the trace log file directory '%1'. Error %2: %3

Diagnose

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 could not create, or write to, the trace log. This trace log contains information that is useful in troubleshooting issues.

This error might be caused by one of the following conditions:

• The account that Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is using does not have sufficient rights to the trace log.

• The hard disk or partition does not have enough room.

To find the location of the log file folder

1. In Central Administration, on the left navigation pane, click Operations.

2. In the Logging and Reporting section, click Diagnostic Logging.

3. On the Diagnostic Logging page, in the Trace Log section, the path to the log file is displayed in the Path box.

The account that Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is using does not have sufficient rights to the trace log

To check the permissions assigned to the log file folder

1. If you do not know the location of the folder, see the "To find the location of the log file folder" procedure. By default, the location is "Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web extensions\12\LOGS" but the location can be changed in Central Administration.

2. Navigate to the folder, right-click the folder, and then click Properties.

3. On the Security tab, the WSS_ADMIN_WPG Windows group should have Full Control and the WSS_WPG Windows group should have Read & Execute, List Folder Contents, and Read permissions or higher on the folder. If they do not, assign these permissions by using the procedure in the "Assign sufficient permissions" section.

The hard disk or partition does not have sufficient room

To check the space on the disk or partition

1. If you do not know the location of the folder, see the "To find the location of the log file folder" procedure. By default, the location is "Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web extensions\12\LOGS" but the location can be changed in Central Administration.

2. Navigate to the disk or partition, right-click it, and then click Properties.

3. On the General tab, check the free space. The drive or partition should have at least 500 MB for the log files. Note: the space required for the log files depends upon the diagnostic logging settings. To see these settings, use the "To find the location of the log file folder" procedure.

Resolve

To resolve this issue, use the resolution that corresponds to the cause you identified in the Diagnose section. After performing the resolution, see the "Verify" section to confirm that the feature is operating properly.

Cause	Resolution
The account that Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is using does not have sufficient rights to the trace log	Assign sufficient permissions to the trace log
The hard disk or partition does not have enough room	Free up disk space or relocate the trace log

Assign sufficient permissions to the trace log

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 could not write to the trace log because the account that Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is using does not have sufficient permissions to the trace log or its parent directory. This trace log contains information that is useful in troubleshooting issues.

Ensure that the WSS_ADMIN_WPG Windows group has Full Control and the WSS_WPG Windows group has Read & Execute, List Folder Contents, and Read permissions or higher on the folder containing the trace log. To perform this procedure, you must be a member of the Administrators group on the local computer.

Free up disk space or relocate the trace log

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 could not write to the trace log. This trace log contains information that is useful in troubleshooting issues.

You can free up space on the drive containing the trace log by removing unneeded files. To perform this procedure, you must be a member of the Administrators group on the local computer.

You can change the location of the trace log to a partition that has more drive space.

To change the location of the trace log file

1. In Central Administration, on the left navigation pane, click Operations.

2. On the Operations page, in the Logging and Reporting section, click Diagnostic logging.

3. On the Diagnostic Logging page, in the Trace Log section, type the new location for the trace log file in the Path box.

4. Click OK.

Verify

Ensure that Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 can create, and write to, the trace log file.

To check if Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 can create, and write to, the trace log file

1. In the SharePoint Central Administration Web site, on the left navigation pane, click Operations.

2. On the Operations page, in the Logging and Reporting section, click Diagnostic logging.

3. On the Diagnostic Logging page, in the Trace Log section, copy the path to the trace log file from the Path box.

4. In Windows Explorer, navigate to the trace log file by using the copied path and open the file in Notepad, or another text editor.

   You should see log entries in the log file for events after the time that logging failed.

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Kris Wagner, MCITP, MCTS Twitter @sharepointkris Blog: http://sharepointkris.com

Answer 6

Dear Kristopher

Thank you very much for your detailed answer. The permissions were set but didn't. However, I decided to get rid of all problems (there were many): I uninstalled WSS from the WFE then added another Hard disk and it provided the drives C and D. Then installed WSS again and everything is OK now.

Answer 7

No problem and I'm glad it worked out... Good luck and happy SharePointing

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Kris Wagner, MCITP, MCTS Twitter @sharepointkris Blog: http://sharepointkris.com