SharePoint Portal Server is a Pain In the Ass

Jan 9, 2008

I hate SharePoint. It could be so wonderful, so useful, but it’s such a huge goddamned hacked-together piece of junk. It’s like one of these high-performance sports cars with a reputation for unreliability and high maintenance costs (say, a Jaguar). On the outside, from a user perspective, it’s pretty neat, even if search sucks, copy and paste are nonexistent, etc. etc. But on the whole it’s a very compelling package — from the outside. From the inside looking out, however, it’s the proverbial sausage factory — you really don’t want to know what the hell is going on down there.

My current gripe? Trying to change the configuration database to connect to a different server, where I’ve restored the db. The specific exception I get? “Unexpected Error Occured.” HELPFUL. And the worst part is I’m not surprised at all. I think I saw this software running a robotic arm in the movie Brazil, it’s that much of a nightmare.

No wonder I get recruiters calling me every week looking for SharePoint administrators. The servers keep breaking, and the previous contractors have all gone insane.

6 Comments

SharePoint, SharePoint Portal Server, SPS, Unexpected Error Occured

5 Comments

Victor Shamanovsky • Jan 10, 2008 @6:37 am

Don’t blame a nice car for your poor driving skills. Cut and paste does exist. Search, when setup correctly, beats anything else offered to enterprise. To quote you “you really don’t want to know what the hell is going on down there” with that attitude and obviously poor skill set no wonder your stuff is breaking.

Now post something useful.
Anthony Stevens • Jan 10, 2008 @8:09 am

Victor — thank you for the ad-hominem blather about my driving and technical skills. Show me how to cut and paste a document or list item within the browser and I’ll give you a brownie. As far as search goes, you obviously don’t know what you’re talking about.

Despite your post, SharePoint remains, in the words of Bill Simser, “a hydra with heads growing out of places you wouldn’t believe. Every time you cut one off (or even consider doing it) 3 more grow in it’s place.” Ugly.

Was that useful?
no, your right • Feb 13, 2008 @5:58 pm

The only people who say anything nice about Sharepoint are Microsoft employees, consultants, or people who are not responsible for doing work and keeping servers working correctly.

Sharepoint sucks big hairy balls. And while bits and pieces of it are actually useful, microsoft has tangled it all up into an unfathomable ball of CRAP.
Steve • Mar 20, 2008 @5:33 am

OK- I have been developing full-time for SharePoint2007 (both MOSS and WSS) since its beta, and have to agree: it’s a kludge. If one is an experienced developer who understands and appreciates important concepts such as database normalization, transactional APIs, and cross-browser compatibility, you’ll detest SharePoint. “Sausage factory” definitely applies here.

SharePoint’s backend is so grossly inefficient one’s organization may need a cluster of servers just to run the damn thing. You’ll need a team of competent admins and developers, too. Good luck with that. Need your existing dev staff to learn SharePoint? Hope they enjoy reading blogs! Even formal training will only get them so far.

Many of the people who champion this product have built lucrative careers around it. Let’s be clear, this product *is* good for expanding the IT dept., but you’re a fool if you think its maintainability and licensing costs are worth it for business.
Dave • Sep 25, 2009 @9:05 am

Agreed Sharepoint is a pain in the ass, i am an Admin for the piss poor product, M$ Jipe about its the biggest growing product in the world (aint they all including Vista). Microsoft should concentrate on making at least one of there products work efficiently instead of telling us they do. As for Victor i found this page by searching for “SharePoint Portal Server is a Pain In the Ass” what where you searching for.