Troubleshooting Problems with the SharePoint Connector using TCPTrace (v 1.9)

Owned by Almuth Boehme [Communardo]
Last updated: Feb 13, 2017
4 min read

This guide provides instructions on how to use a third-party debugging tool called "TCPTrace" to help diagnose problems with the SharePoint Connector. 

Using TCPTrace will not work systems secured with SSL. In this situation, you could consider temporarily removing the SSL protection on your site or contact Atlassian support for troubleshooting assistance.

Downloading TCPTrace

 TCPTrace is a third-party software application and is not written, supported or endorsed by Atlassian. Atlassian offers no guarantee or certification that it will not blow up your SharePoint server and create a black hole if you use it.

We strongly recommend that you run this application on a test or staging environment, rather then running this application on a production system.

You can download TCPTrace from pocketsoap.com.  Once downloaded, you can unzip the TcpTrace.exe file and place it somewhere on your local computer where you can run it.

Configuring Confluence to use TCPTrace

If you are diagnosing a problem where Confluence is having problems communicating with SharePoint, follow these instructions.

TCPTrace is a Windows application. You will not be able to run it on your Confluence server if it is running a different Operating System. In this case, you can run TCPTrace on your SharePoint server or consider using an alternative debugging tool such as Wireshark. See our guide to How to capturing HTTP traffic using Wireshark or Fiddler.

  1. Copy tcptrace.exe to your Confluence server
  2. Double-click tcptrace.exe to run it. You will be asked to configure the following values:
    1. 'Listen on Port #': Set this to an un-used TCP Port on your Confluence server (eg. "7070")
    2. 'Destination Server': Set this to the IP address or server name of your SharePoint server
    3. 'Destination Port #': Set this to the port used by your SharePoint site (the default is '80')
    4. 'Create Log File': Ensure this option is selected
    5. 'Log Filename': Enter in a location where a log file can be created
    6. 'Use XML logfile format': Ensure this option is selected
       
  3.  Click the 'OK' button to start TCPTrace.
  4. Log in to your Confluence server and go to the 'SharePoint Admin' page in the Admin Console (eg. http://confluence-server/admin/sharepoint-admin/sharepoint-admin.action)
  5. Edit the details of your SharePoint integration here and replace the 'SharePoint URL' with a URL that points to TCPTrace. For example, if your SharePoint URL was "http://sharepoint.mydomain.com/sites/testing" then you would change it to "http://localhost:7070/sites/testing"
  6. Click 'Update Settings' to save your changes to the configuration.
  7. Click 'Test Connection' and ensure that the TCPTrace window begins to capture traffic. If the TCPTrace window remains blank, it has not been configured correctly.
     
  8. Now perform your test. For example, if there was a problem with the SharePoint List (sp-list) macro, you would now go to a Confluence page and use the sp-list macro and demonstrate the problem. If the problem you are experiencing is in the 'Test Connection' step, then you can skip this.
  9. In TCPTrace, select 'Stop Trace' from the 'File' menu.
  10. Go to the 'Log Filename' location you configured in Step 2 and ensure that the log file has been created and contains some output from TCPTrace.
  11. Examine the log file for problems, or attach the log file to a support ticket so that Atlassian Support Engineers can investigate the log file for problems.
  12. Don't forget to revert your changes to the Confluence configuration when finished.

Configuring SharePoint to use TCPTrace

If you are diagnosing a problem where SharePoint is having problems communicating with Confluence, follow these instructions.

  1. Copy tcptrace.exe to your SharePoint server
  2. Double-click tcptrace.exe to run it. You will be asked to configure the following values:
    1. 'Listen on Port #': Set this to an un-used TCP Port on your SharePoint server (eg. "7070")
    2. 'Destination Server': Set this to the IP address or server name of your Confluence server
    3. 'Destination Port #': Set this to the port used by your Confluence site (the default is '8080', but is commonly re-configured to be '80')
    4. 'Create Log File': Ensure this option is selected
    5. 'Log Filename': Enter in a location where a log file can be created
    6. 'Use XML logfile format': Ensure this option is selected
       
  3.  Click the 'OK' button to start TCPTrace.
  4. Log in to your SharePoint server and go to the 'Confluence Settings' administrative page (eg. http://sharepoint.mydomain.com/_layouts/Atlassian/ConfluenceSettings.aspx).
  5. Edit the details of your Confluence integration here and replace the 'Confluence Base URL' with a URL that points to TCPTrace. For example, if your Confluence URL was "http://confluence.mydomain.com:8080/confluence" then you would change it to "http://localhost:7070/confluence"
  6. Click 'Test Connection' and ensure that the TCPTrace window begins to capture traffic. If the TCPTrace window remains blank, it has not been configured correctly.
     
  7. Click on the 'OK' button to save your changes
  8. Now perform your test. For example, if there was a problem with the Confluence Page web part, you would now go to a SharePoint page and use the web part to demonstrate the problem. If the problem you are experiencing is in the 'Test Connection' step, then you can skip this.
  9. In TCPTrace, select 'Stop Trace' from the 'File' menu.
  10. Go to the 'Log Filename' location you configured in Step 2 and ensure that the log file has been created and contains some output from TCPTrace.
  11. Examine the log file for problems, or attach the log file to a support ticket so that Atlassian Support Engineers can investigate the log file for problems.
  12. Don't forget to revert the changes to your SharePoint configuration when finished/