Web Part Installation Error During the SharePoint Integration Installation

Symptoms

When installing the SharePoint Integration component, the following error message shows:

Failed to install web part. Current logon user does not have enough permission to access SharePoint configuration database.

OR:

When running SharePoint's stsadm.exe utility, you receive the following message:

The Server instance specified was not found.

Cause

The errors described above can occur if the physical location of the SharePoint Portal Server Web site is located within (i.e. underneath) another web site's physical location.

E.g. Since "c:\inetpub\wwwroot\" is usually the location of the server's default web site, the SharePoint Portal Server Web site should not be physically located in a subfolder such as "c:\inetpub\wwwroot\spsroot\".

NOTE: Other causes and resolutions for the above errors can be found here: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/mjeelani/2005/03/05/top-3-reasons-for-the-the-server-instance-specified-was-not-found-please-specify-the-servers-address-and-port-error/

Resolution

The physical location for the SharePoint Portal Server Web site should never be within any other Web site's physical location (regardless of whether it is also a SharePoint virtual server). Although the end-user functionality of the nested SharePoint Web site will often work fine, much of SharePoint's administrative functionality will not work. This is because most (if not all) of the SharePoint administrative utilities (e.g. stsadm.exe) install to and/or operate on the "top-most site". When running stsadm.exe to perform administrative tasks for the web site, the stsadm utility interprets the existing web Site as the "top-most site", and thinks that the existing web site is a SharePoint web site that has not been properly configured.

Uninstalling SharePoint and then reinstalling it from scratch (to a physical location that does not reside within another web site) should resolve the issue. If uninstalling and reinstalling SharePoint is not an option, the following steps may also resolve the issue:

  1. Use SharePoint to create a new "top level" virtual server Web site with a physical location that does not reside within another Web site's physical location (e.g. "c:\inetpub\NewSpsRoot\").
  2. Move the SharePoint Portal Server root into the new SharePoint "top level" virtual server, and configure everything in the new site as needed.
  3. Install AgilePoint SharePoint Integration to the new virtual server.

This works because stsadm.exe doesn't get "thrown-off" by nested Web site issues when working with the new (un-nested) SharePoint Portal Web site.