SP 2013: Help links in Central Admin not working: there is a compatibility range mismatch betwwn the web server and database "CentralAdmin_Content"
Problem: When clicking on the Help links in Central Ad,min
” There is a compatibility range mismatch between the Web server and database "CentralAdmin_Content", and connections to the data have been blocked to due to this incompatibility. This can happen when a content database has not been upgraded to be within the compatibility range of the Web server, or if the database has been upgraded to a higher level than the web server. The Web server and the database must be upgraded to the same version and build level to return to compatibility range.”
Cause: Probably from manually manipulating the WSS_Content_Application_Pools and SharePoint_Shell_Access Database Roles. In this case they were missing
Resolution:
1) create a new SharePoint farm because we are going to need to take a clean, new Central Admin Content database that contains the WSS_Content_Application_Pools and SharePoint_Shell_Access Database Roles
2) Run these scripts:
1. New-SPContentDatabase -Name SP2013_Content_CentralAdmin -WebApplication https://servername:portnumber/
2. Get-SPWebApplication -Identity https://servername:portnumber | Get-SPContentDatabase
3. Get-SPSite -ContentDatabase | Move-SPSite -DestinationDatabase
4. Do an IIS Reset
5. Open the Central Administration web site and navigate to the content databases page to confirm the new database now houses the two site collections (this can be verified too via PowerShell by running command on step 2)
6. Remove-SPContentDatabase -Identity
Steps:
1. Using your documented PowerShell Steps create a new Content Database for the Central Admin Web Application in the new farm and move the existing Central Admin Site Collections to this new Database. Stop at the step where you delete the old Central Admin Content DB.
2. Run the following stsadm command to clean up a couple of orphaned web records left after step 1 (use the Central Admin URL and old Central Admin database name where necessary):
stsadm -o databaserepair -databasename -url -deletecorruption
3. In SQL Management Studio expand the Security section of the original Admin Content database. Remove all Domain\User accounts from Security.
4. Back up the Empty Central Administration Database.
Section2: Move the Resource to the affected Farms
We need to now restore the Empty Central Admin Database from Section1 in all affected farms. During the restore process you can give the database a new name. If you wish to rename the mdf and ldf you may also do this, but will need to take the database offline first.
Steps:
1. Restore the Empty Central Administration Database to one of the affected farms. Complete all renaming of the DB and Database Files at this point.
2. Attach the newly restored database to the Central Administration Web Application (you can use either PowerShell or the UI for this step)
3. Using your documented PowerShell Steps move the Central Administration Site Collection to the database you restored and attached in steps 1 and 2 of this section. Again, do not delete the original Central Admin Content Database. You may also skip the step of creating a new Database as well.
4. From within SQL Management Studio manually add all users from the "old" Central Admin Content Database to the newly restored Central Admin Content Database. Be mindful of the user roles and who the DBO is for the new Central Admin Database.