How to get the build version of SharePoint 2010

Keeping track on SharePoint 2010 upgrades are critical for maintenance and development using SharePoint.
There are three methods from which the build version of SharePoint 2010 can be checked.

• From the SharePoint 2010 Central Administration

Go to SharePoint 2010 Central Administration -> Upgrade and Migration -> Check Product and patch Installation Status

• From PowerShell (registry entry)

 Go to SharePoint 2010 Management Shell and enter the following script to get the SharePoint 2010 version registered in the Windows registry

(Get-item "hklm:software\microsoft\shared tools\web server extensions\14.0").Getvalue("version")

• From PowerShell (farm build version)

 Go to SharePoint 2010 Management Shell and enter the following script to get the SharePoint 2010 farm build version

(get-spfarm).buildversion

The newest updates on SharePoint 2010 Server can be checked from the following reference location.

References: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/ff800847

Errors while running Pre-Upgrade Checker

Last week I was doing another test migration using the database - attach method. This time we were trying to simulate a multi-server farm environment.
Before upgrading, as usual :) , I ran the pre-upgrade checker on the SharePoint 2007 test farm we had created. But it returned several unfamiliar errors!

We found out by checking many things regarding permissions the following two were the reasons for causing erroneous reports.

• Additional inactive server in the farm
• insufficient permissions to continue

 This was later resolved by,

• removing the additional inactive server from farm
• re-running the pre-upgrade checker using a more privileged account

These errors occur due to misplacement of simple issues. But these things happen when we are thinking only about the big things and not concentrating on small details. Hope this will help a wanderer :)

Attaching DB error while performing Attach-DB Upgrade from SP 2007 to 2010

While performing the database-attach upgrading method I came across many errors yesterday. Some were silly errors like typing errors ;) . But there were some serious errors too like the one I describes in my previous post yesterday.
The last error I logged in to my previous blog post was an error in SQL authentication while trying to run the DB attach command in powershell.
The command was like this,

PS C:\Users\sgunasena> Mount-SPContentDatabase -Name WSS_Content_4455 -DatabaseServer local -WebApplication http://cd-sgunasena:7788

And I tried several ways changing commands and changing databases. But it did not work out. It seems like I was having an issue with SQL authentication. Since this is a work environment I'm not provided with unlimited access to machines, yet I am in the machine admin group. And also in SQL server settings I have given the user all the rights necessary. I'm still looking into the authentication issue.
So the Powershell command didNOT work out for me.
So I consulted a friend of mine and discussed about this. Friend came up with a different command using the command prompt or the old fashioned way!
And of course it worked out fine.
You have to first move into the 14hive in order to perform it using the following command.

C:\Program Files>cd C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Ex
tensions\14\BIN

And then you need to execute the following command in order to get it done the correct way.

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\BIN>stsa
dm -o addcontentdb -url http://cd-sgunasena:7788 -databasename WSS_Content_4455