User Profile Service Redundancy in SharePoint 2010

For those looking to implement load balancing of the User Profile Service on two application servers within the same SharePoint 2010 farm, while providing failover in case one server goes down or needs to go offline, it’s a fairly easy thing to configure. Simply start the User Profile Service on a second application server in the farm. If the first application server goes down, or if you manually stop the User Profile Service on the first application server, the second application server will assume hosting operations for the User Profile Service. The User Profile Synchronization Service, however, can only be started on one application server within a farm at any given time. Therefore, in the case of a failover to the second application server, the User Profile Synchronization Service must be manually started on the second application server to continue profile synchronization. No biggie really.

"Excel Services is unable to process the request. Wait a few minutes and try performing this operation again."

On a SharePoint 2010 site, when attempting to open Excel files with a .xlsx or .xlsm extension, you receive the following error message:

You will also notice that legacy Excel files with a .xls extension open just fine.

Resolution

1. Ensure you have an Excel Services service application established.
2. Ensure that your web application is associated with the Excel Services service application. In Central Administration, go to Application Management, Configure service applications associations. Ensure Web Applications is selected from the View drop-down menu. Click on the appropriate Application Proxy Group (more than likely default), ensure the Excel Services service application is checked, and select OK.