SharePoint Server 2016 Project Server Public Update Issue

Starting with the December 2019 Public Update for SharePoint Server 2016, if your content database has Project Server tables (i.e. you’ve enabled Project Server on your farm), you may run into an error upgrading one or more content databases due to a Deny ACL on Project Server tables to the PSDataAccess role. This issue only occurs when you have provisioned your content database via PowerShell under an account other than the farm admin service account (the account running owstimer.exe). If you have provisioned your content databases through Central Administration or PowerShell under the context of the farm admin service account, you should not see this issue during execution of the Config Wizard.

When running the Config Wizard or psconfig, the ULS and Upgrade logs will reflect an error similar to the below.

The SELECT permission was denied on the object 'MSP_PROJECTS', database 'ContentDatabaseName', schema 'pjpub'.

To resolve this, in the database users, verify the user mapped to the dbo user is the farm admin service account, similar to the below screenshot. This may also impact content databases that were upgraded from previous farms if the previous farm used a different service account for the farm admin service account.

Once you have remapped dbo to the farm admin service account, re-run the Config Wizard to complete the upgrade.

This also impacts the January 2020 Public Update if you skipped the December 2019 Public Update.

There is an TechNet thread if you would like to follow along for a potential product-based resolution.

Lights On, Lights Off!

Welcome to a new color theme (have to keep up with SharePoint Online!) and feel free to turn the lights on, or the lights off! I’ve implemented the Google Chrome Labs’ dark-mode-toggle project with some Office UI Fabric icons for that extra SharePoint-y feeling.

The site should follow your system-wide color scheme (for the Windows 10 1909 folks, let me know if it works on modern macOS) – I did verify it works in Safari for iOS. The site will also save your choice, should you want to adjust to a color scheme other than what you use for your system.

If you find any contrast in dark mode difficult to read for any element, let me know so I can look at adjustments!

This also means the (official) end of Internet Explorer 11 support! But modern Firefox, Chrome, and Edge Chromium are fully compatible.

I hope you enjoy :-)

-Trevor

SharePoint Patch Script Major Update

The SharePoint Patch Script is a PowerShell module that assists in installing SharePoint 2013, 2016, and 2019 patches including Cumulative Updates, hotfixes, security updates, and Public Updates.

This version is a fairly extensive re-write, adding new cmdlets: Get-SPPatch, Get-SPPatchInfo, and Invoke-SPConfigWizard. These cmdlets replace the previous MSI module that was provided at SharePoint Updates while continuing to leverage the SharePoint Updates service.

Please give the updated module a run through. You can find it on the SharePoint Patch Script GitHub repository. Installation and usage instructions are provided in the wiki, including full descriptions of each cmdlet.

Let me know your thoughts or what additions or changes you’d like to see in the GitHub Issues section!

SharePoint 2019 January 2020 Updates

The SharePoint 2019 January 2020 Updates have been released.

For all SharePoint updates, visit SharePoint Updates.

SharePoint 2016 January 2020 Updates

The SharePoint 2016 January 2020 Updates have been released.

For all SharePoint updates, visit SharePoint Updates.