SBS 2008 and SharePoint Errors 3760 and 27745

We have spent the better part of the day troubleshooting an SBS 2008 Companyweb that went offline this morning without any real indication of _why_ that happened.

The server has been up for about 30 days with no SharePoint updates applied for at least a couple of update cycles.

• Error 1: 3760 (A few of these just before things went offline)
  • SQL Database ‘ShareWebDb’ on SQL server instance ‘…’ not found.
• Error 2: 27745 (happens every second or more)

  Log Name:      Application
  Source:        Windows SharePoint Services 3
  Date:          09/06/2011 12:02:30
  Event ID:      27745
  Task Category: General
  Level:         Error
  Keywords:      Classic
  User:          N/A
  Computer:      xxxxxxxx.local
  Description:
  The description for Event ID 27745 from source Windows SharePoint Services 3 cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.

  #50071: Unable to connect to the database SharePoint_Config_xxx-xxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx on xxxxxx\Microsoft##SSEE.  Check the database connection information and make sure that the database server is running.

We went through a very long process of trying to figure out the source of the problem.

Both Companyweb and the SharePoint Administration sites were offline.

Ultimately, the steps we took are to be found in this Experts Exchange Question:

• Experts Exchange: Sharepoint Sites Down /  Event ID 27745  Windows SharePoint Services 3 cannot be found error / SBS 2008

About two thirds of the way down is a transcript of the process Microsoft Product Support Services took to figure out what the problem was. The lines below are the ones relevant to our own situation with the lines starting with an asterisk (*) being steps we did on our own.

• Tried to browse companyweb, came up with error:  HTTP 404   The webpage cannot be found
• Tried to browse Sharepoint central Administration, get the error: HTTP 404   The webpage cannot be found
• Ran the PSconfig and gave the error: Unhandled exception has occurred in your application
• Checked if the database were attached in SQL and found them there.
• Ran PSconfig and failed again.
• We checked CLICONFG and found that TCP/IP was listed on enabled protocols.
• On a working machine, it was (sic) a disabled protocol.
• 
• Left = Bad | Right = Good
• We moved it to disabled protocol.
• * We restarted the Microsoft##SSEE service and SP Timer service.
• Ran psconfig and this time it was successful.
• Browsed to Sharepoint central admin and it was working.
• * Ran the Credential Management step in SP Operations.
• 
• * Restarted IIS: IISReset /Noforce
• NOTE: We had to manually shut IIS down and restart as it hung at “Stopping”.
• * Refreshed SP Admin site and all was good.
• Browsed companyweb and that was successful.

It is very important to note that an out-of-band management module such as the iDRAC Enterprise, HP iLO Advanced, Intel RMM, or other KVM over IP should be used.

The RD Gateway service consistently stopped and stayed down during our troubleshooting processes. An IP restricted direct to SBS RDP rule in the firewall would be a good second option though not perfect if the OS stops in its tracks!

While we tried to outline every step we took troubleshooting this process, there may be a few steps that we missed documenting in the process.

As always, have a backup of that server before making any changes!

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.