Issue Description
During our SharePoint content database migration, we have faced this issue.
Let's say we have migrated the content database from SharePoint's one version to another version (for example, SharePoint 2010 to SharePoint 2013). We have migrated the content database successfully without any error but when we try to access the SharePoint site from the browser, none of the sites gets opened in the browser and we’ll get the below error.
Server error
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink?LinkID=177673
No need to panic; here is the reason for this error and the fix.
What is the reason for this error?
If we go to the “/_admin/FarmServer.aspx” page from the central administration and if we have multi-server farm, we can see one server status shown as “Upgrade Blocked” while another one shows as “Installation Required” as below.
I will explain what are these two statuses are meant for.
Upgrade Blocked
The server is blocked from the upgrade. The current server is installed with latest CU and it will remain blocked until all the SP servers in the farm are installed with the same version.
Installation Required
The server is still not yet installed with the same CU that is already installed on other servers.
If we summarize the above we will get the below:
The latest Windows updates were installed in the first server where the status shows as “Upgrade Blocked” but in another server, the same Windows updates were not installed, so the status was showing as “Installation Required”.
How to fix the above error?
Now, install the Windows updates on all other servers in the farm where the status shows as “Installation Required”. Then browse all the SharePoint sites where you were getting the above-highlighted error – everything will open fine.
Summary
Thus, we have learned the reason for “Server error: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink?LinkID=177673” and its fixes.