Cannot access WSS 3.0 sites after movind Content and Config DBs

Question

Problem:
No access to internal sites after new Instance of SQL was installed on MS SQL Server

Description:
I've got a WSS 3.0 installed on the W2K3 Sever. Originally, there was only one Instance of MS SQL (MSDE) for Backupexec (bkupexec). Later, we installed WSS 3.0 and instead of installing the new instance of SQL we installed on the same instance (bkupexec). So, at some point all the DBs from Backupexec and DBs from WSS were all together within the same SQL instance.

After we noticed this we wanted to split those two into two separate instances: bcupexec and sharepoint. First, I have done a backup of all DBs within backupexec instance. Then, I installed new SQL Instance and called it Sharepoint and tried to restore all WSS DBs into the new SQL instance. Once that was done I check references in IIS so Content and Config would point into the new instance. But since then no go.

I can access Admin site from within IIS and from the browser. I cannot access any internal WSS sites. It asks for the authentication. All I am using is Windows authentication. Account is in AD.

As I am new to WSS I will be greateful for all suggestions and possible fixes.

Answer 1

Not sure this will help, but give this a try...

1. In central administration make sure you check on the site collection administrator for your site collections and make sure you are using that user.
2. In IIS Manager, check to make sure that user has access to the IIS web site.

Answer 2

If you have changed where the content DB's are located for your site collections you will need to detach and re-attach them using the SharePoint Central Admin.

Navigate to Application Management and switch to the application you're concerned about. Click "Content Databases" under the heading SharePoint Web Application Management. From here you can click "Remove content databse" and hit OK.

This will not remove the physical database from SQL, it will simply disassociate the database with that web application. You can then Add a content database from within the manage content databases screen and type the name of the database you wish to associate the application with.

If the permissions issues persist, ensure that Anonymous access is enabled for the application and that appropriate service account permissions are enabled for the DB's from within SQL and SharePoint.

Answer 3

I have a similar problem, but what is really weird is that I can access the site from client PCs, but not from the server itself, unfortunately this leads to problems when I try to restore a backup on of the WSS sites there (running Server 2008 x64, IIS7, SQL2005Expess and WSS)