Firewall settings for SharePoint Farm

Some times in SharePoint when we access web sites, search and configure alerts we see network related errors even though we configured everything is good. There could be so many reasons for that. One could be Firewall. In this article I am providing the steps how and where to check for the firewall issue.

On each SharePoint 2013 Server, we will need to set a firewall rule to allow SharePoint intra-farm traffic and HTTP/HTTPS traffic. Alternatively, you can disable the Windows Firewall if you choose and if you have another firewall solution.

You can set the Windows Firewall rules by navigating to the Control Panel, then click System and Security, then click Windows Firewall, and finally click Advanced settings. In the Inbound Rules area, ensure that the server allows connections on port 80 (HTTP) and port 443 (HTTPS). Add the ports listed in the table below for the SharePoint 2013 inter-farm communication by following these steps: 

   

1.    In the Windows Firewall with Advanced Security window, click Inbound Rules.

2.    In the Actions panel, click New rule…

3.    In the New Inbound Rule Wizard window, select Ports as the Rule Type and click Next.

4.    Select the appropriate choice between TCP and UDP, and enter the desired port(s) for the Specific local ports. Click Next.

5.    Click Next. On the Profile screen, click Next.

6.    On the Name screen, enter the desired name and click Finish.

                    

                      

Rule Name	TCP or UDP	Ports
SharePoint Web Traffic	TCP	80,443
SharePoint Search Index	TCP	16500-16519
SharePoint Farm Communication	TCP	32843,32844,32845
SharePoint Profile Synchronizing (TCP)	TCP	5725,389,88,53
SharePoint Profile Synchronizing (UDP)	UDP	389,88,53,464
SharePoint User Code Service	TCP	32846
SharePoint SMTP Service	TCP	25

SharePoint Server Search  Administration Medium Could not find or connect to host controller on server

Issue: After we configure everything in related to search, when we try to find the search we see the error “A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond”

Event:

0x0BD8        SharePoint Server Search   Administration   Medium   Could not find or connect to host controller on server SERVER. Exception: Could not connect to net.tcp://SERVER/ceres/hostcontroller/nettcp. The connection attempt lasted for a time span of 00:00:21.0369864. TCP error code 10060: A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond 10.181.14.21:808.    Server stack trace:      at System.ServiceModel.Channels.SocketConnectionInitiator.Connect(Uri uri, TimeSpan timeout)     at System.ServiceModel.Channels.BufferedConnectionInitiator.Connect(Uri uri, TimeSpan timeout)     at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ConnectionPoolHelper.EstablishConnection(TimeSpan timeout)     at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ClientFramingDupl…        ff78fc9b-4b6c-b08b-52a2-ff7745f71f1f

Resolution: After I go through the Events and run the traces I come to know that the issue is related to network. I deep on diving the issue I could identify that something is blocking to search.

1.   Ensure to check the Fire wall settings.

2.   Check to stop the firewall and search. This will work but not recommended in production servers.

3.   Ensure that to create a new rule allowing Inbound traffic on TCP Port 808 on all SharePoint Servers

Go to->Windows firewall with advanced security->click on Inbound->create new rule to allow                                

                                   
                                     
              
                                           

Issue: After we configure everything in related to search, when we try to find the search we see the error “A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond”

Event:

0x0BD8        SharePoint Server Search   Administration   Medium   Could not find or connect to host controller on server SERVER. Exception: Could not connect to net.tcp://SERVER/ceres/hostcontroller/nettcp. The connection attempt lasted for a time span of 00:00:21.0369864. TCP error code 10060: A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond 10.181.14.21:808.    Server stack trace:      at System.ServiceModel.Channels.SocketConnectionInitiator.Connect(Uri uri, TimeSpan timeout)     at System.ServiceModel.Channels.BufferedConnectionInitiator.Connect(Uri uri, TimeSpan timeout)     at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ConnectionPoolHelper.EstablishConnection(TimeSpan timeout)     at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ClientFramingDupl…        ff78fc9b-4b6c-b08b-52a2-ff7745f71f1f

Resolution: After I go through the Events and run the traces I come to know that the issue is related to network. I deep on diving the issue I could identify that something is blocking to search.

1.   Ensure to check the Fire wall settings.

2.   Check to stop the firewall and search. This will work but not recommended in production servers.

3.   Ensure that to create a new rule allowing Inbound traffic on TCP Port 808 on all SharePoint Servers

Go to->Windows firewall with advanced security->click on Inbound->create new rule to allow                                

                                   
                                 
              
                                           

Database is in compatibility range and upgrade is recommended for Service Application or Content Databases Fixes

1) To correct the content database issue, just run the command as below from SharePoint PowerShell as Administrator:

$db = Get-SpDatabase

Upgrade-SPContentDatabase $db

After it has done, check the status again on Central Administration;

1) To correct the upgrade necessary on BDC database, below from SharePoint PowerShell as Administrator:

$db = Get-SpDatabase

$db.Type

$db.NeedsUpgrade

(Get-SPDatabase | ?{$_.type -eq “Microsoft.SharePoint.BusinessData.SharedService.BdcServiceDatabase”}).Provision()

After it has done, check the status again on Central Administration;

Queue Job Status shows “Waiting to be processed” and then never completes

To resolve this problem, set the SQL Retry Limit value to the default value of 5 and then restart the Microsoft Office Project Server Queue Service. 

To do this, follow these steps:

1. Set the SQL Retry Limit value to the default value of 5. 

To do this, follow these steps:

• a. On the Microsoft Office Project Web Access home page, click Server Settings.
• b. On the Server Settings page, under Queue click Queue Settings.
• c. On the Queue Settings page, change the SQL retry limit to 5.
• d. Click Save.

2. Restart the Microsoft Office Project Server Queue Service. 

To do this, follow these steps:

• a. From the server that is hosting Microsoft Office Project Server 2007, click Start, and then click Run.
• b. In the Run dialog box that appears, type “services.msc” without the quotation marks and then click OK.
• c. In the Services window, right-click Microsoft Office Project Server Queue Service and then click Stop. After the service has stopped, right-click it again and then click Start.