SharePoint 2013 Invalid URI: The URI is empty

I had a task to create a proof of concept environment for SharePoint 2013 for a presentation to a top level exec. Installed and Configured a SharePoint 2013 farm on couple of VM's with dedicated WFE/APP and SQL Server boxes, as this will be used as a POF and the requirements were not clear how long the boxes will be used. MS has released the deployment guide for 2013 must read before thinking of creating a new farm.

Created a new web application on the new farm and a  root level Site Collection based on Team Site Template. Till this moment everything was looking good. On accessing the Site got the following error   :

SharePoint returned the following error: Invalid URI: The URI is empty. Contact your system administrator for help in resolving this problem.

My  first encounter with an issue on 2013 on a vanilla environment, thought it would be good to have this as a reference.

To resolve this, I had to create and configure my site i.e.

• Created a new web app for my site
• Created the my site host site collection as the root
• Provisioned the User Profile Service App
• Configured the My Site URL in Setup My Site in User Profile Service App
• IISRESET

On accessing the Team Site didn't find the error. 

Each environment is different and unique, ULS Log viewer was the key to identify and troubleshoot this.

Create and Configure User Profile Service Application in SharePoint 2013

In this article, we will go through the steps of creating and configuring the User Profile Service Application and will setup a synchronization connection in SharePoint 2013.

Navigate to Central Administration page, Click on Manage Service Application

Click on New from the Ribbon bar and Select User Profile Service Application

Provide the following details:

• Name
• Application Pool Name
• Service Account: farm but change it to a service account later after creation
• Database Server Name: 
• My Site Host URL:
• My Site Managed path:
• Site Naming Format:

Click on Ok  to Provision the Service Application

Start the following Service

• User Profile Service
• User Profile Synchronization Service

Run an  IISRESET

To configure a synchronization connection, Click on Configure Synchronization Connections

Click on Create New Connection 

Enter the Sync Connection Name
Select Active Directory
Enter the Domain Controller Name
Select the Authentication Provider as Windows Authentication
Enter the Service Account details
Note: This account should have Read Delegation rights on Active Directory Domain Controller

Click on Populate Containers
Select the Containers where you have got users.

Click Ok

Now run a Full Synchronization

 It has imported around 2567 user accounts

Configuring Project Server 2013

This article contains  the steps to configure the Project Server  2013 Service Application and Project Web App site.

Click Here to view the Installation steps for Project Server 2013

Launch the SharePoint Central Administration page
Under Service Application, Click on Manage Service Application

Click on New from the Ribbon Bar, You'll see Project Server Service Application three
Clcik on Project Server Service Application


Enter the Project Services Application Name

Select Create new application pool and give a name to it

Select the defined project server service account

Select the Proxy

Click Ok

Note: There is a timer job called Project Server Provisioning which will run in the background to provision the Service Application

 Click on Create Project Web App Instance

Select the Web Application where you want to provision the Project Web App Instance
Give a Project Web App Path
Specify Administrator Account for managing the Project Web App Instance
Specify the Database Server and Database Name
Specify the Quoata Limit if you have any policies around the same.
Also, restrict the Content Database so no other site collections get created in Project Database
by chaning the Minimum and Mixumum Site collection creation valua to 0 and 1 respectively.

Note: In this scenerio I've not installed Analysis Service for creating OLAP cubes , this can be done afterwards for reporting purpose

It starts the process, firstly does Creating project Web App Site

 Then Provisions the Database

 Configures the new Project Web App Site

 Finally, it's provisioned.

 This is how it looks

 The following Site Collection features are activated on Project Web App site collection.

 These are the Site Features which I've manually actiavted

This one is interesting, Project Server 2013 creates only one Database unlike Project Server 2010 which creates 4 Databases huge improvement.

I would suggest to seggregate Analysis Service on to a dedicated server if you want to leverage the OLAP Cubes for reporting purposes. I haven't yet tried that but will do in mere future.

Thanks for reading this post and I hope it was helpful.

Installing and Creating a SharePoint 2013 Server Farm

Please check this link for to understand the Hardware and Software requirements for SharePoint 2013 preview

Check this link to install SQL Server 2012

And, this to Install and Create a new SharePoint 2013  preview Server Farm

To Join SharePoint 2013 into a farm , check this

Below is the spec of what and where we will be installing Project Server.

Server Name	Roles
ls-devps13-01.contoso.com	Project 2013 Server
ls-devsp13-01.contoso.com	SharePoint 2013 Server
ls-devsql12-01.contoso.com	SQL Server 2012 Server
Service Accounts	Roles
contoso\svc-spfarm	SP Fram
contoso\svc-sqladmin	SQL Admin
contoso\svc-projectapp	Project Server

To Install Project Server in the farm, Click Here

Installing Project Server 2013 in SharePoint 2013 farm on Windodws 2012

Please refer to this technet article to understand the Hardware and Software requirements before proceeding with Installing Project Server 2013 Preview

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee683978(v=office.15).aspx

Please check this link for to understand the Hardware and Software requirements for SharePoint 2013 preview

Check this link to install SQL Server 2012

And, this to Install and Create a new SharePoint 2013  preview Server Farm

To Join SharePoint 2013 into a farm , check this

Below is the spec of what and where we will be installing Project Server.

Server Name	Roles
ls-devps13-01.contoso.com	Project 2013 Server
ls-devsp13-01.contoso.com	SharePoint 2013 Server
ls-devsql12-01.contoso.com	SQL Server 2012 Server
Service Accounts	Roles
contoso\svc-spfarm	SP Fram
contoso\svc-sqladmin	SQL Admin
contoso\svc-projectapp	Project Server

We have got 2 servrs which ls-devps13-01.contoso.com and ls-devsp13-01.contoso.com where we will be installing Project Server 2013.

Starting with Installing on ls-devps13-01.contoso.com

Launch the splash from Project Server 2013 Media
Click on Install Software Pre-requisites

  Starts the Prepartion tool and displays the list of pre-requisites
Click Next

Accept the License Agreement and Click Next

This one was quick as most of the pre-requisites were installed are same as for SharePoint 2013.
Click Finish

Click Install Project Server

Enter the Product Key and Click Continue

Accept the License Agreement and Click Next

Click on Install Now, to start the installation of Project Server 2013 Preview

Click on Finish

Note: You'll have to perform the above steps i.e. to

Install Pre-requistes
Install Project Server software

on the other servers (WFE/APP Servers) in your farm before starting the Products Configuration Wizard or else you will see some error setup mising files

Starts the Products Configuration Wizard , Click Next

 Displays some services will be started or reset, Click Yes and Next

Here you go, you get this as I wanted to explain what happens if you don't install Pre-req and Project Server software before running the Products Configuration Wizard

Installed Pre-requisites and Project Server on ls-devsp13-01.contoso.com
Now, Click on Refresh it will take you to the next stage

Confirms the Database Server and Name, Click Next 

Starts the Configuration wizard, may consume up to 30 minutes.


 Configuration successfull, Great, Click on Finish

Note: You need to run the Configuration Wizard on other WFE's and APP Servers one at a time. You shouldn't run Configuration Wizard at the same time on all WFE and APP Servers as it will conflict and may corrupt the configuration.

After this, I executed the SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard on ls-devsp13-01.contoso.com server


Click on Cancel as I'll configure the Project Server at a later stage.

Click Here to view the steps to Configure Project Server 2013 web app.