Summary 

This Knowledgebase article provides information about this specific release of SharePoint plugin v201.5.7.

What's New

• Support for Microsoft SharePoint 2019
• Edit Plug-in - discovery mechanism improvements
• Protected registry set optimization

More Information

The SharePoint plugin provides file and registry filters that replicate critical data and monitor the performance of critical components of the SharePoint server.  

Supported Versions and Platforms

Microsoft SharePoint 2019 Enterprise and Standard on

• Windows Server 2019 Standard or Datacenter
• Windows Server 2016 Standard or Datacenter

Microsoft SharePoint 2016 Enterprise and Standard on

• Windows Server 2016 x64 (Standard and Datacenter)
• Windows Server 2012 R2 x64 (Standard and Datacenter)

Microsoft SharePoint 2013 SP1 Enterprise, Standard and Foundation Edition on

• Windows Server 2012 R2 x64 (Standard and Datacenter)
• Windows Server 2012 x64 (Standard and Datacenter) 
• Windows Server 2008 R2 up to SP1 (Standard and Enterprise)  

Microsoft SharePoint 2013 Enterprise, Standard and Foundation Edition on

• Windows Server 2012 x64 (Standard and Datacenter) 
• Windows Server 2008 R2 up to SP1 (Standard and Enterprise) 

Microsoft SharePoint 2010 up to SP2 and including August 2014 CU Enterprise, Standard and Foundation Edition on 

• Windows Server 2012 R2 x64 (Standard and Datacenter) 
• Windows Server 2012 x64 (Standard and Datacenter) 
• Windows Server 2008 x64 SP2 (Standard and Enterprise)
• Windows Server 2008 R2 (Standard and Enterprise)

Microsoft SharePoint 2007 Sp1, Sp2 Enterprise and Standard, and 

Microsoft SharePoint Services 3.0 SP1, SP2

• Windows Server 2008 x64 SP1, SP2 (Standard and Enterprise)
• Windows Server 2003 x86 and x64 SP1, SP2 (Standard and Enterprise)

Microsoft FASTSearch for SharePoint 2010 Enterprise Edition

• Windows Server 2008 x64 SP2 (Standard and Enterprise)
• Windows Server 2008 R2 (Standard and Enterprise)  

New Features

• Support for Microsoft SharePoint 2019

Fixed Issues

• Changes made to the service account (username or password) used to run SharePoint services after the install of Neverfail, should be made on the Passive server otherwise services will fail to start.
• After a switchover, a warning “SharePoint Cannot connect to the configuration database.” event occurs (EN-679).
• The Search service doesn’t work after switch over (EN-680).

Known Issues

Operational Issues

• Check Exchange connectivity rule triggers with the following warning message: "Cannot connect to the configuration database: Exchange Connectivity rule failed". Workaround: apply the configuration requirements detailed in Configuring Exchange Availability Rule & Auto Deploy of Web Parts section (EN-4068)
• [Optional]: Enable plug-in configuration to protect Search Indexes - ‘Protect Search Index Files’.
• To protect the SharePoint backup data, dedicated user defined file filters should be added using the Engine Management Service web client or the Advanced Management Client.
• The Administrator must close any SharePoint WorkSpaces that are opened on the local SharePoint Server before performing a switch over. Failure to do so will cause an out-of-sync to be reported on some files in the folder C:\USERS\USER.DOMAIN\APPDATA\LOCAL\MICROSOFT\OFFICE\Groove\System\. This does not apply when the WorkSpace is opened from a remote server.
• SharePoint Foundation Search V4 and SharePoint Server Search does not start on the Secondary server after a switchover (Ref-12376).
  Workaround: Re-enter the Username and Password for the services that failed to start. 
• With SharePoint Services 3.0, the default web parts do not display after a switchover (Ref-12338).
  Workaround: Reset the permissions of the folders indicated in Knowledgebase article- After SharePoint Plugin Switchover SharePoint Services Default Web Parts Do Not Display
• Replication may stop when creating a new SharePoint 2010 web Application (Ref-12321).
  Workaround: Restart replication after creating the new SharePoint 2010 web Application or stop Neverfail Heartbeat before creating the new SharePoint 2010 web Application. See Knowledgebase article- Replication Stops When Creating a New SharePoint 2010 Application With SharePoint Plugin Installed.
• After a switchover, SharePoint reports a service has failed when the service is running (Ref-12082).
  Workaround: After performing a switchover, clear the Application Health status. See Knowledgebase article- After a Switchover SharePoint plugin Reports a Service Has Failed to Start When the Service is Running.
• SharePoint replications stops due to the detection of hard links (EN-864).
  Workaround: Should replication stop as a result of detected hard links, attempt to restart replication. Should replication stop again, create an Exclusion Filter for the path stated in the error message.
• If Forefront Identity Manager Synchronization Service protection is enabled via Edit Plug-in, then the service will be added to the protected set only after the SharePoint protection Service Discovery task is executed. To gain immediate protection, the user should execute Protection Discovery Service manually, otherwise the service will be picked up for protection the next time the Protection Service Discovery task is scheduled to execute (EN-899). 

Uninstall /Reinstall

• Uninstalling Neverfail Heartbeat leaves the SharePointNFPlugin key in registry (EN-681).

Plug-in Installation Dependencies and Warnings

The SharePoint plug-in will present the following warnings during install:

• The plug-in: <drive>:\path\sharepoint\SharePointNFPlugin.dll passed its pre-install checks but issued the following warnings: SharePoint: Full protection of SharePoint requires IIS plugin to be installed to protect the IIS components. Please ignore this warning if you have already selected IIS plugin for installation.
• SharePoint: SharePoint is configured to use a local SQL Server database. Please install SQL Server plugin as well. Please ignore this warning if you have already selected SQL Server plugin for installation.

The pre-install check produced some warnings. However, the installation will be allowed to continue. 

Configuring Exchange Availability Rule & Auto Deploy of Web Parts

• Requirements: [applicable to SharePoint Server having its SQL databases hosted on remote server] - SharePoint_Config and WSS_Content databases should be configured with Domain\SharePointServerMachineName$ user login as db_owner, where SharePointServerMachineName is the name of the SharePoint server protected by Neverfail Continuity Engine.

SharePoint Plugin

Protected Services

This is a list of all services protected by this plug-in. Please note that where a plug-in supports multiple vendor versions, some services may not be present in a particular version.

SharePoint Services 2.0 (Plug-in 201.5.2)

• Task Scheduler (Schedule)
• SharePoint Portal Administration (spsadmin)
• SharePoint Portal Alert (spsalert)
• SharePoint Timer Service (sptimer) 
• Microsoft Search (mssearch)

SharePoint Services 3.0 (Plug-in 201.5.2, 201.5.3)

• Windows SharePoint Services Timer (SPTimerV3)
• Windows SharePoint Services Administration (SPAdmin)
• Windows SharePoint Services Search (SPSearch)
• Windows SharePoint Services Tracing (SPTrace)
• Windows SharePoint Services VSS Writer (SPWriter)

Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 (Plug-in 201.5.2)

• Microsoft SharePointPS Search (sharepointpssearch) 
• Microsoft Single Sign-on Service (ssosrv) 

SharePoint 2007 services (Plug-in 201.5.2, 201.5.3, 201.5.4, 201.5.5, 201.5.6, 201.5.7) 

• Office Document Conversions Launcher Service (DCLauncher)
• Office Document Conversions Load Balancer Server (DCLoadBalancer)
• Office SharePoint Server Search (OSearch)
• Microsoft Single Sign-on Service (Ssosrv)

Windows SharePoint Services 4.0 (Plug-in 201.5.3, 201.5.4, 201.5.5, 201.5.6, 201.5.7)

• Windows SharePoint Services Timer V4 (SPTimerV4)
• Windows SharePoint Services Administration V4 (SPAdminV4)
• SharePoint Foundation Search V4 (SPSerach4)
• Windows SharePoint Services Tracing V4 (SPTraceV4)
• Windows SharePoint Services VSS Writer V4 (SPWriterV4)
• Windows SharePoint Services User Code Host V4 (SPUserCodeV4)

Office SharePoint Server 2010 (Plug-in 201.5.3, 201.5.4, 201.5.5, 201.5.6, 201.5.7)

• Document Conversions Launcher for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 (DCLauncher14)
• Document Conversions Load Balancer for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 (DCLoadBalancer14)
• SharePoint Server Search 14 (OSearch14)

Windows SharePoint Server 2013 (Plug-in 201.5.5, 201.5.6, 201.5.7) 

• Document Conversions Launcher for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013 (DCLauncher15)
• Document Conversions Load Balancer for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013 (DCLoadBalancer15)
• SharePoint Server Search 15 (OSearch15)
• SharePoint Search Host Contoller (SPSearchHostController)
• ForeFront Identity Manager Service (FIMService)
• ForeFront Identity Manager Synchronization Service (FIMSynchronizationService) 

SharePoint Server 2016 and 2019 (Plug-in 201.5.6, 201.5.7)

• Document Conversions Launcher for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2016 (DCLauncher16)
• Document Conversions Load Balancer for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2016 (DCLoadBalancer16)
• Microsoft Project Server Calculation Service 2016 (ProjectCalcService16)
• Microsoft Project Server Events Service 2016 (ProjectEventService16)                
• Microsoft Project Server Queue Service 2016 (ProjectQueueService16)
• SharePoint Server Search 16 (OSearch16)

Protected Data

This is a description of the protected data set determined when the plug-in was installed. Please note that exact filters will be based on the configuration of the application of the plug-in during install.

Note: With Neverfail Heartbeat v6.6.0 and later, SQL Server 2008 file streams used for remote BLOB storage are supported.

• Web Server Extensions for SharePoint
  • Office Professional Plus 2010 (Microsoft SharePoint Workspace 2010)
  • Microsoft Office Web Apps Server 2013
  • Microsoft Search Server Express 2010
  • Microsoft Project Server 2010

• Data Path
• Template Path
• Site Definitions
• Code Access Security Policies
• SharePoint Search Data Directory
• SharePoint Default Application Path

Automatic Filter Discovery

This plug-in provides a filter discovery component for the following components:

• New templates
• New web server extensions
• Log files
• Configuration settings

The Automatic Filter Discovery component is configurable and runs every 2 minutes by default.

Unsupported Components or Features

This plug-in does not protect the following application features or components:

Neverfail is unable to replicate the following components to the passive server because they install into the Windows .Net cache, parts of which are in use on the Secondary server.

• Web Parts
• Assemblies
• DoD 5015.2 Add-On Pack

Note: SharePoint will need to have these components installed on both the Primary and Secondary servers.

Solution Packages (WSP) deploy web parts, template files, assemblies, code access security policies and site definitions.    

Install/Uninstall the SharePoint Plugin Via the Neverfail Advanced Management Client

The SharePoint Plugin can be installed either via the Neverfail CE deployment process or by using Application -> Plugins in the Neverfail Advanced Management Client using the procedure below. Neverfail recommends that for initial deployments of SharePoint Plugin, installation should be performed using Engine Management Service.

To manually install the SharePoint Plugin, follow the steps below:

1. Unzip the SharePoint Plugin to the desired location.
2. Launch the Neverfail Advanced Management Client.
3. Navigate to Application -> Plugins.
4. Click on the Install button.
5. Click the Browse button and navigate to the location of the <plug-in name>.dll file.
6. Click OK to complete the installation.
7. Repeat this process for each individual plug-in.

To remove/uninstall the SharePoint Plug-in, follow the steps below:

1. Launch the Neverfail Advanced Management Client.
2. Navigate to Application -> Plugins.
3. Select the desired plug-in to be removed/uninstalled.
4. Click on the Uninstall button in the 'Plugins' pane.
5. When the plug-in is uninstalled, the files are not removed.  This is by design for future functionality and therefore the following workaround is provided:
   1. Copy the contents of the r2\plugins\<sponsor>\<version>folder to a different location (e.g. C:\temp).
   2. Delete the contents of the r2\plugins\<sponsor>\<version>
   3. To reinstall the plug-in, when prompted for the location of the plug-in files, navigate to the new folder location (e.g. C:\temp).

Note: As an alternative, reinstallation can be accomplished by using the downloaded files from the original download location after removing the plug-in.

Applies To

SharePoint Plugin v201.5.7