Why can't I create site collections in some CDBs?

Question

I currently have my SharePoint 2010 server set up with twelve content databases. In each is or should be one site collection at the moment, but as I went through to set up each one five of them gave me the following error:

Error

The URL 'Reporting Templates/audit.xlsx' is invalid. It may refer to a nonexistent file or folder, or refer to a valid file or folder that is not in the current Web.

Troubleshoot issues with Microsoft SharePoint Foundation.

Correlation ID: 20185930-c5b1-4abc-84b5-e5709e1d2241

Date and Time: 11/22/2011 11:02:40 AM

I've checked in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\TEMPLATE\FEATURES\Reporting\Templates and confirmed that Audit.xlsx does exist.

Here's my method that I've been using to set up these site collections in these CDBs:

1. Stop all content databases.
2. Start only the content database I want to create a site collection in.
3. Using Central Administration go to Application Management -> Create Site Collections.
4. Enter the appropriate information. (I'm using the managed path [with Wildcard inclusion] http://servername/departments/ for all of these initial site collections. The only things that change are the title and the URL of each site collection.)
5. Hit OK.

There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to why those five specific CDBs wouldn't accept a site collection. While the other seven worked just fine.

Why can't I create site collections in those five CDBs?

Edit: I've tried creating a directory in ...\FEATURES called "Reporting Templates" and copying the contents of ...\Reporting\Templates into it in an effort to match the directory that the error says it's trying to reach. When I go to create a site collection I get the exact same error, though.

Edit 2: Using the SharePoint 2010 Management Shell and the following command I get the exact same error.

New-SPSite http://***/departments/clientservices -OwnerAlias ***\*** -ContentDatabase WSS_Content_Client-Services -SecondaryOwnerAlias ***\*** -Template STS#0 -Name "Client Services"

Edit 3 - 1/5/2012: If I remove RBS from one of the misfit CDBs and try to add a site collection using the command from Edit 2 it installs correctly! We've narrowed it down to an RBS issue, ladies and gentlemen! Additionally after creating that site collection and then reinstalling RBS trying to create another site collection returns the original error.

RBS breaks things. Great.

Answer 1

You might be able to get a bit more information about the events that lead up to the error by checking the log files in

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\LOGS

ULS Viewer is a utility that can be used to view, sort, filter etc the log entries based on, for example the correlation id that you are given by the erorr page.

http://archive.msdn.microsoft.com/ULSViewer

Answer 2

I may have an answer for you. If my answer is correct, please answer the couple of questions at the end just for my reference.

Check your configuration database for GUIDs with null values. We had the same error and discovered a GUID with null values. Once you have that GUID, you can execute this script to delete the reference to the GUID with null values from your configuration database.

Please be aware that this will modify your configuration database, so you should take every step to back it up and ensure that you have a valid restore point prior to executing this:

$wa = get-spwebapplication | ? {$_.displayname -eq "YOURWEBAPPLICATION"}
$wa.contentdatabases.delete('INSERTYOURGUIDHERE')

If this works, could you let me know:

1. What was the GUID for your null value content DB?
2. What patch level are you running?

We saw the exact same error, but site collection creation failing maybe 20% of the time. As it ends up, we have many content databases per web app, so it was only failing periodically because of the 1 content database that didn't exist.

Hope this helps!

Edit: I don't find any "official" sources on this. We developed this solution with Microsoft's support. If you wish, you can contact them directly to verify the solution. I'm wondering if this is a SP1 or August CU issue, however, so it may be rare, new or not previously known.

Posting the SQL command here for clarity:

select * from dbo.Objects (nolock) 
WHERE Properties LIKE '%<fld type="null" />%'
and Name = 'OFFENDINGWEBAPP'

Answer 3

In cases where I am creating new site collections and I need them to be in a specific content databases I typically script it with PowerShell. The New-SPSite command will create a site collection, and gives you an option to identify the content database that it uses.

That doesn't appear to be the error though. Looking at your error, it looks to me that you are not using a standard SharePoint site definition/template. Is this something you previously exported, and if so are all of the dependencies installed? Looks like there is a feature or something referencing an excel file.

Answer 4

Did you check this post where a solution was implemented for a similar problem?

The issue was said to be resolved by recreating the existing SharePoint farm. Though I don't have a clear idea how this is accomplished, I would advice to take all kinds of backup possible, before trying this solution.

Answer 5

What worked for me was to simply disable RBS, then create the site collection, then re-enable RBS (after this, I could create new site collections normally):

$cdb=Get-SPContentDatabase <ContentDbName>
$rbs=$cdb.RemoteBlobStorageSettings
$rbs.Disable()