Database names with no GUID & Unexpected error

Question

Hi,

2 WFEs (one of which is also an app server) + 1 DB server, SharePoint 2010 standard patched to June 2012 CU. I have used alias for specifying DB name.

Two specific problems in this environment that I am having hard time to troubleshoot:

When I create a new web application, instead of the familiar WSS_Content_GUID, I always get WSS_Content as the default DB name.

When I create a new web application followed by Site Collection and use a service account for the web application pool, I get "An unexpected error has occurred" accessing the site. No correlation id, but just the old fashined "An unexpected error has occurred". However, this does not happen if I create the application pool with the farm service account.

Additional input: I changed the default config database to remove the GUIDs at the end of it.

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Thanks, Soumya | MCITP, SharePoint 2010

Answer 1

Not sure about the second problem.  But the first is the normal behavior.  the first content database you create will always default to WSS_Content.  After you create a database using that name additional databases will default to WSS_Content_GUID.  So if you always change the name to something other than WSS_Content when you create a Web app then it will stay defaulting to that.

For the second problem I would temporarily edit the web.config to set callstack="true" and CustomErrors="Off".  Then try to access the site.  It should give you much more detailed error information.

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Paul Stork SharePoint Server
MVP Senior Solutions Architect: BlueChip Consulting Group
Blog: http://dontpapanic.com/blog
Twitter: Follow @pstork
Please remember to mark your question as "answered" if this solves your problem.

Answer 2

Thanks Paul. So the first problem is a non issue.

callstack="true" and CustomErrors="Off" reveals the following:

The handle is invalid. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070006 (E_HANDLE))

Details:
[COMException (0x80070006): The handle is invalid. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070006 (E_HANDLE))]

[FileLoadException: Could not load file or assembly 'SMDiagnostics, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089' or one of its dependencies. The handle is invalid. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070006 (E_HANDLE))]

Search reveals this solution:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/sharepoint2010setup/thread/af64081d-3f90-4515-80c8-55515447854f

Worth a try? I am not getting this error for the farm account. It's with all other accounts that I am having problem with.

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Thanks, Soumya | MCITP, SharePoint 2010

Answer 3

Looks like a solution to me.

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Paul Stork SharePoint Server
MVP Senior Solutions Architect: BlueChip Consulting Group
Blog: http://dontpapanic.com/blog
Twitter: Follow @pstork
Please remember to mark your question as "answered" if this solves your problem.