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I am migrating sharepoint 2007 publishing site to sharepoint 2010. For migration process I have followed the steps

1. Backup the content database from the SP2007 machine.
2. Restore that database in sql server 2008 (SP2010 machine).
3. Create a new web application in SP2010 with a site collection type of publishing template.
4. I have run the following stsadm command for PreUpgradeCheck in SP2007

I am getting the error log as follows Error: Missing server file or server configuration issues

Server side files are referenced in the content databases, but are not installed on the server. Without these files, the sites may not function completely or the content may not render correctly. Also, upgrade or post upgrade issues may occur if these files are not available in the new version environment.

The following feature(s) are referenced by the content, but they are not installed on the web server

Name = Unknown, Feature id = f3dc6c9a-ea83-4c22-bdb9-1a3a178717cf, Reference count = 1, Scope = Web, Status = Missing
Name = Unknown, Feature id = a5977882-1fbc-4b94-a345-c9f3dac1b18c, Reference count = 1, Scope = Web, Status = Missing 

The link provided below the error explains the issue but doesn't provide any instruction on how to search through the content to find the reference in order to fix it.

For more information about this rule, see KB article 976218 in the rule article list at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=120257.

Could anyone provide a solution for this issue ?

2 Answers 2

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From what I understood, you have run the preupgrade checker and it had detected faulty feature on the 2007 server, so the issues must exist preupgrade.

I have also checked if the aforementioned feature guids reference any know feature, but to no avail. Google only seems to report your question(s) as a result, so I can only suppose that they are third party / custom features.

If this is the case, your first priority should be to remove the issue before attempting migration.

You have to alternative.

  • You can try to find out which features the two guids referes to, and try to restore the installation from here. In this case you will need to dig on the server and any documentation you may have to see if you can determine the identity of the two feature - and even so you may end empty-handed.
  • You can instead decide to attempt to clean up the faulty feature. In this case you can try and use this tool: Sharepoint Feature Admin / Clean Up. It will allow you to find any faulty feature and perform clean up (remove the invalid reference etc). Try to run it in your environment and see you are able to resolve the issue.

If you must go for the second solution please remember the following:

  • If you must run the tool on a production server please exercise extreme caution. While I didn't experience problems with the tool in the past, you may... so try to keep a backup on hand anytime. As with any codeplex project remember the standard Ms-Pl license "The software is licensed as-is. You bear the risk of using it. The contributors give no express warranties, guarantees or conditions."

  • the tool seems to only scan a subset ot the SharePoint services - from what I remember it will not scan for faulty feature that may be installed on the central admin site. If the need for a full scan arise, you will have to mod the tool.

  • You are actually removing the reference to the faulty feature - while this may work in your case, it will "ingnore" any source of the problem. Why the features were there in the first place? Depending on the situation, this answer may or may not be important to you.


Edit: The tool "Sharepoint Feature Admin" also provides some basic search options that may prove usefull when trying to trace the origin of the faulty feature. In that case, simply load the list of feature installed in the farm, select the feature you wish to track and then click the "Find where activated in farm" button. Remember that this function is pretty basic, so it'isn't guaranted that it will show a faulty feature. In that case you may need to resort to other approach. Doublechecking the registry for references to the faulty feature guids (as suggested by another answer) can be an option. You can also try to explore the farm with some tools such as the SharePoint Manager to see if you can find out the name of the feature that is giving problem. You may even be lucky and find some uninstalled files in the 12/14 folders. Anyway, prepare to do some excavation. Installed third party feature or tools may be also worty to check... someone could have tried some demo solution and then uninstalled it before deactivating...


EDIT 2: Just to be clearer. The issue you are experiencing most of the times is caused from a feature that was installed on the farm/server in the past and then after some time removed without first deactivating it -> SharePoint then complains because it see a feature referenced in his configuration, but it cannot find the files/assemblies/whatever needed for its usage.

If that's the case, as now somewhere in your farm there is a site/web/web application/ecc where a feature is referenced as active but the relative feature isn't installed. Roughly speaking, you would then have two scenario:

  • The feature only performs some action when activated and has no effect after: for example, if the feature just creates a list when activated, there is no need for it after that.
    • the feature performed some change/actions that create dependencies from the solution files: for example if the feature add some webpart defined in the solution assembly, the web part won't work anymore if the solution is removed.

If you can ensure you are in the first case, you can remove the faulty feature reference with almost no worry, in the second case you must decide if you can afford to delete the missbehaving content (in the example above the webpart) or if you need to track down the feature and reinstall it.

Either case, you will need to determine the identity of the feature before you can decide. Your best bet is searching for some feature leftovers: the 12 folder and the registry can be a good place to start. You can also doublecheck with your IT staff to see if anyone has tested some solution in the past and then removed it. The content db should be the last hope - I dubt that it will contain anything usefull to discover the offending feature name.

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  • I have downloaded the SharePoint Feature Admin tool from codeplex featureadmin.codeplex.com I have run the application but I am getting the error reading feature (f3dc6c9a-ea83-4c22-bdb9-1a3a178717cf)referred in the site. But I couldn't able to locate the feature location. If I have removed the feature from the site it will cause any issue or not. So how could I remove it. Could anyone provide a solution for this issue ?
    – Ramalingam
    Commented Jan 3, 2012 at 12:36
  • The aforementioned tool would only help you to clean up a faulty feature remains. In that case you would simply click the button "Find faulty feature in the farm": if the tool finds anything that need clean up, it should prompt you and offer the choice to do so... are you saying that the tool just crash before it can complete it actions? Anyway, if you need to confirm where the feature was activated before performing cleanup, you can try to use the procedure described in the answer above. Just remember that it isn't even guaranted that the feature will be available for search. Commented Jan 3, 2012 at 12:53
  • Just to be on the safe side: as now which is your priority? You want to just clean up the faulty references and forget about it or you are interested (==need) to discover which feature is giving problems? Commented Jan 3, 2012 at 13:09
  • I need to know the faulty feature because if I clean up the faulty feature it will affect my farm or not ? That's why I am looking for the faulty feature location. Could you help me to solve this issue ?
    – Ramalingam
    Commented Jan 4, 2012 at 11:40
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In the past, I have had luck searching the registry on the SharePoint server(s) for the GUID(s) returned by the PreUpgradeCheck. This will often give me an assembly name associated with the orphaned feature reference that gives me some clue about how to proceed.

For instance, one time we recognized the assembly name from some third party web parts that were installed in our environment at one time but were not cleanly removed. We reinstalled them, uninstalled them properly, and they no longer appeared in the PreUpgradeCheck report.

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