User Groups
User Group Information
I will be delivering two security seminars in SoCal next week.
Jun 20 at the Edwards Mira Mesa Theater in NE San Diego and repeating the same seminar on Jun 22 in Garden Grove.
I will be discussing three primary topics:
Session One deals with Wireless Security. The differences between PEAP, PAP, CHAP, WPE, WPA, etc. We will also discuss using certificates for securing your wireless network.
Session Two revolves around what to do *if* you are compromised. How you respond to an attack while it is happening and after can have a tremendous impact on your business.
Session Three discusses the future of security. I will be showing off Windows Vista and some of the new security technologies that it will bring to the table such as Windows Defender and BitLocker.
We will also have Connections, TS2 and MSDN at these seminars to provide a full day of access to Microsoft representatives for Consumers, Small Businesses, Partners, Developers and ITPros.
Come on out to see us!
Cheers!
….is officially my longest and geekiest subject….wow.
I am delivering a webcast on the afformentioned geek topic today at 11am. Two things make this web cast special. 1) The webcast content is good, 2) this will be the first webcast I deliver using Vista as my host platform. I have been running Vista Beta 2 as my primary machine for a few days now and slowly working through issues. If I can pull off the webcast, I will consider dumping my much loved XP Pro Image.
Come see how things go!
Cheers!
Presentations and WebCasts –
Deploying SharePoint Products and Technologies for Enterprise Collaboration – Detailed discussion about the design and deployment of the Microsoft IT hosted collaboration platform. The platform supports personal storage, team Web sites, group and division portals, and enterprise services. With server farms centralized in three regional data centers, Microsoft saves both hardware and support costs.
Moving to SQL Server 2005 at Microsoft – Discussion on how Microsoft IT moved its line-of-business applications to SQL Server 2005. Additionally, this paper also discusses a number of details and best practices that Microsoft adopted to move its applications on SQL Server 2005 that may help other organizations successfully plan and roll out SQL Server 2005.
Hotfixes, Patches, Updates, Service Packs —
Update for Windows XP x64 Edition – KB903651 – See Below
Update for Windows Server 2003 – KB903651 – See Below
Update for Windows 2003 for Itanium-based Systems – KB903651– See Below
Update for Windows Server x64 Edition – KB903651 – Install this update to allow more than one domain-based DFS namespace to be created on a computer that is running Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.
Australian Daylight Savings changes for Microsoft products for the Year 2006 – The Commonwealth Games are scheduled to be held during March 2006 in Melbourne Australia. Several Australian states including New South Wales, Victoria, Australian Capital Territory, South Australia and Tasmania, have changed the Daylight Savings transition end dates to the first Sunday of April 2006.
Update for Software Update Services – Run this script and follow the instructions in KB912307 to resolve an issue in Software Update Services (SUS) 1.0 Service Pack 1 (SP1) in which all previously approved updates may revert to an unapproved state and the status appears as "updated". This script will reset your approval settings to their previous state. SUS 1.0 SP1 servers that were deployed on or after December 13, 2005 will not encounter this issue.
Tools and Apps –
SQL Server 2005 System View Map – The Microsoft SQL Server 2005 System View Map shows the key system views included in SQL Server 2005, and the relationships between them.
Active Directory Migration Tool v2.0 – The Active Directory Migration Tool (ADMT) version 2.0 provides an easy, secure, and fast way to either upgrade from Windows NT Server 4.0 to Windows Server Active Directory service or restructure Windows Server Active Directory domains between forests or within a forest. The tool migrates users, groups, and computers between domains in a way that allows users to have access to their resources and applications at all times. Version 2.0 includes new features, such as password migration, a scripting interface, and a command line interface, that make migrations easier.
Also available is the Active Directory Migration Tool v3.0, which provides an integrated toolset to facilitate migration and restructuring tasks in an Active Directory infrastructure.
BizTalk Server 2004 Load Generation Tool – This tool is intended for developers and IT professionals to simulate load on a BizTalk Server. Using this tool, you can simulate load to instrument performance and stress against a BizTalk deployment. In addition, this tool may also be extended by developers to simulate load for custom transports. This tool should be used in a test environment only, and should not be used in a production environment. This tool is provided "as-is" and is not supported.
Case Studies, Guides and Whitepapers –
Microsoft CRM 3.0 Implementation Guide – This Implementation Guide provides the information required for a successful Microsoft CRM implementation into your business. This guide addresses the planning, installing (both hardware and software), pre-deployment testing, and operating tasks for the maintenance of the Microsoft CRM system.
This guide is written for the computer system administrator. This guide also assumes that any organization implementing Microsoft CRM software will have the services of an independent software vendor (ISV) or value-added reseller who is partnered with Microsoft and will help you with the entire process of implementing and maintaining your Microsoft CRM installation. Because of this assumption, there are references in this guide to these "partners" who are expected to provide various services to you.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 Virtual PC Demonstration – Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 release Virtual PC Demonstration. This demo is a one computer setup with Microsoft CRM 3.0 server and Microsoft CRM 3.0 client for Outlook. This demonstartion also contains Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, Microsoft SQL Server 2005, and Microsoft Visual Studio 2005.
Microsoft File Server Resource Manager – The Microsoft Corporation Information Technology group uses Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 File Server Resource Manager as a centralized tool for managing file servers located in branch offices around the world. File Server Resource Manager is a suite of tools that allows administrators to understand, control, and manage the quantity and types of data stored on their servers.
Live Communications Server 2005 Document: Configuring Certificates – This document explains how Live Communications Server 2005 uses certificates and how to configure certificates for each server role using your existing certificate infrastructure.
Terminal Services Scaling and Performance on X64-based versions of Windows Server 2003 – Microsoft Windows Server™ 2003 Terminal Server lets users run Microsoft Windows®-based applications on a remote computer that is running one of the Windows Server 2003 family of operating systems. This white paper contains results, analyses, and sizing guidelines for Terminal Services on x64-based versions of Windows Server 2003. Hewlett Packard worked in cooperation with Microsoft to perform the initial sizing tests and data collection in the Microsoft Enterprise Engineering Center in Redmond, Washington. The tests were performed using Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Enterprise x64 Edition and Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition with Service Pack 1 (SP1).
DirectX End-User Runtime – Microsoft DirectX is a group of technologies designed to make Windows-based computers an ideal platform for running and displaying applications rich in multimedia elements such as full-color graphics, video, 3D animation, and rich audio. DirectX includes security and performance updates, along with many new features across all technologies, which can be accessed by applications using the DirectX APIs.
DFS Operations Guide: Using the DFSRAdmin Command-line Tool – The Dfsradmin.exe command line tool is new for the Distributed File System (DFS) in Microsoft® Windows Server™ 2003 R2. Use this tool to administer DFS replication, including creation of replication groups and replicated folders, adding members to replication groups, and managing the location of staging folders. This guide offers step-by-step instructions for performing these common tasks by using DFSRAdmin.
SQL Server 2005 Business Intelligence Metadata Whitepaper – This white paper covers several interesting and unique methods for managing metadata in SQL Server Integration Services, Analysis Services and Reporting Services using built-in features including data lineage, business and technical metadata and impact analysis.
Related Download: The SQL Server 2005 Metadata Samples Toolkit can be downloaded from:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=11DAA4D1-196D-4F2A-B18F-891579C364F4&displaylang=en
Security –
Improving Security at Microsoft through Deployment of Windows XP SP2 – Overview of why and how Microsoft IT proactively deployed Windows XP Service Pack 2. Windows XP Service Pack 2 is a critical security release that addresses Internet-based security threats.
Windows Server 2003 PKI Operations Guide – How to configure and operate a Windows certificate authority, with operational scenarios, custom configuration information, sample commands, and best practices.
MBSA 2.0 Scripting Examples – Sample scripts that illustrate how to extend MBSA 2.0 for greater scalability during scanning and report rollup.
Cheers!
For those of you that attended the SFNTUG meeting this evening, it is now almost 1am and I am at a wall. I have been fiddling with the demo I tried to deliver for about an hour now and I am no closer to getting it working.
I am crashing out for the evening, but rest assured I will be looking at it more tomorrow…..scratch that…..TODAY…..(just later)
Cheers!
For the 20+ in attendance at last night San Diego NPA session….thank you!
Here are the slides from the session. In the slides are links to some of the items discussed. Please let me know if there is a link missing or if you need more info.
Some great questions emailed to me (during the session!) –
Can the dictionary used by OWA be updated/swapped/modifed?
No. At least not a method that Microsoft provides or supports. However, I did some searching and found a commercial product that extends OWA Functionality. One piece of it is managing the OWA Dictionary. It isn’t the only one either. Link 2 Link 3
Is there a quick and dirty means of telling what version of a .PST you have (ANSI or Unicode)?
Yes. I literally just figured it out too!
To figure out the version you have, view the properties of the PST in question, click advanced, and then check the “Format:“ field. The one shown clearly states (97–2002) which is the ANSI version with the 2 gig limit. If it simply reads “Personal Folders File” it is the Unicode format that will hold 20 gigs or more.
This is also the screen where you can rename your PST file from “Personal Folders” to something more intuitive if you have multiple PST files.
Cheers!
I am delivering two Rock Solid SQL 2005 sessions next week in SoCal….
September 13th — Irvine, Ca – 8am-12noon
September 15th — San Diego (Mira Mesa), Ca – 8am-12noon
Rock Solid SQL: Strengthen your SQL Servers with SQL Server 2005
SQL Server databases provide the foundation for your business solutions, so don’t you want to build the finest groundwork possible? The new SQL Server 2005 will enhance security, reliability, and performance to give you a solid, dependable base. Think about your current SQL system: Can you still access your database if the server goes down? How fast can you failover? What is your Maintenance Plan? Who is Locking and who is Blocking? In this session, we’ll upgrade an existing SQL Server database to SQL Server 2005 and show you how to maintain a more secure, reliable database solution for your business.
We will look at:
- How to exploit the new security features to tighten controls on your existing systems.
- How the new Database Mirroring technology can provide faster, automatic failover.
- How simple and easy it is to configure automatic maintenance plans and alerts.
- How the new Dynamic Management Views provide greater insight into your database performance with simple, yet powerful reports.
- How to quickly tune the database with the Database Tuning Advisor.
- How you can reduce locking contention with new optimistic concurrency controls.
- How to enhance performance and reliability by partitioning tables on the disk.
Cheers!
Channel 9 MSDN Videos – August 22, 2005 — Channel 9 videos about internships and ASP.NET testing
Channel 9 MSDN Videos – August 23, 2005 — Channel 9 videos about the .NET CLR with lead program manager on the CLR team, Brad Abrams. He also talks about his talk at the PDC.
Channel 9 MSDN Videos – August 25, 2005 — Channel 9 talks with Jeff Richter about C#, Bill Staples about IIS 7, Arik Cohen about Windows Presentation Foundation (aka Avalon), gets a tour of the .NET CLR team, and discusses a Channel 9 site redesign.
MSDN TV: Reliable Messaging in Windows Communication Foundation (Indigo) — In this episode, Shy Cohen reviews and demonstrates direct and queued reliable messaging in Windows Communication Foundation (formerly code-named "Indigo").
Group Alerts for Microsoft Office Live Meeting Server 2005 — The group alerts sample application provides a simple user interface for sending instant messages to the online members of an Active Directory group or distribution list and its subgroups. The names of available groups for alerting are stored in a configuration file between application sessions. The user may also type the name of a group to add an existing Active Directory group to the list. The sample application uses Active Directory as its catalog, but application developers can easily modify the application to use any catalog that suits their organization.
ADMHost Sample Application — This sample demonstrates how to use the managed hosting infrastructure in the .NET Framework 2.0. It is split into two portions, the unmanaged host (ADMHost.exe) and the managed host contained in ManagedHost.dll. The unmanaged host binds to the CLR, and loads it into the process. It then relies on services provided by the managed host to actually perform its work.
Windows CE .NET 4.2 Platform Builder Update – KB900092 — Fixes made in this update:
Component: COMM
Description: Winsock connections may get blocked after 256 connect/shutdown cycles.
Windows CE .NET 4.2 Platform Builder Update – KB901021 — Fixes made in this update:
Component: MSHTML
Description: An exception may occur when browsing certain web sites.
Windows CE .NET 4.2 Platform Builder Update – KB905202 — Fixes made in this update:
Component: Software Mixer
Description: When two or more threads use the mixer system resources, one may get blocked by others and time out. This may result in software mixer deadlock.
Windows CE 5.0 Platform Builder Update – KB904242 — Fixes made in this update:
Component: DirectX
Description: When a video is paused, pressing and holding FF/REW button may cause the display to go black.
Windows CE 5.0 Platform Builder Update – KB905405 — Fixes made in this update:
Component: DirectX
Description: Windows Media Player may not be able to play ASX files.
Update for Windows Embedded for Point of Service – KB903896 — This update resolves an issue where crash dumps and the hibernation functionality are not working when Windows Embedded for Point of Service is running on some SCSI or SATA drives.
BizTalk Server 2004 Load Generation Tool — This tool is intended for developers and IT professionals to simulate load on a BizTalk Server. Using this tool, you can simulate load to instrument performance and stress against a BizTalk deployment. In addition, this tool may also be extended by developers to simulate load for custom transports. This tool should be used in a test environment only, and should not be used in a production environment. This tool is provided "as-is" and is not supported.
Windows Media Player Code Samples – The two Windows Media Player Mobile code samples included in this package demonstrate how to embed Windows Media Player 10 Mobile in an HTML page and in a C++ application. The samples are named Web App and CEWMPHostML.
The purpose of the Web App sample is to show you what events are being fired when a media item is played back by displaying WMPPlayState enumeration values in a text box. These enumeration values correspond to various states such as buffering, stopping, playing, and so on. For more information about these enumeration values, see the Windows Media Player 10 SDK.
AVICode .NET Mgmt Pack for MOM 2005 — Targeted to systems’ operators responsible for monitoring system health, AVIcode’s .NET management pack operations edition for Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 provides a consolidated view of all applications featuring simple health status indicators with MOM 2005 Operator Console.
It also provides quick identification of faulty application components and performance hotspots, as well as manual and automatic routing of alert notifications to the appropriate application support team. Performance hotspots are identified by resource type for monitoring response times. Exception and performance events are consolidated by root cause facilitating quick resolution.
Developer’s Introduction to Web Parts: Sample Code — This is a sample Microsoft® Visual Studio® .NET solution containing two custom Web Parts, written in C#. The first Web Part enables users to select a customer and see configurable information about the customer. The second Web Part displays the orders for a single customer. A user can add these Web Parts to a Web Part Page and connect them to each other, so that the second Web Part displays orders for the customer selected in the first Web Part.
Web Services Enhancements (WSE) 3.0 Beta for Microsoft .NET — WSE 3.0 simplifies the development and deployment of secure Web services. It enables developers and administrators to apply security policies to Web services running on the .NET Framework 2.0. Using WSE, Web services communication can be signed and encrypted using Kerberos tickets, X.509 certificates and other custom binary and XML-based security tokens. In addition username/password credentials can be used for authentication purposes. An enhanced security model provides a policy-driven foundation for securing Web services. WSE also supports the ability to establish a trust-issuing service for retrieval and validation of security tokens, as well as the ability to establish more efficient long-running secure communication via secure conversations.
Web Services Enhancements (WSE) 3.0 Beta for Microsoft .NET Redistributable Runtime MSI — This is the redistributable package for WSE 3.0. For an overview of WSE 3.0 see the Web Services Enhancements page.
IronPython 0.9.1 — IronPython is the codename for an alpha release of the Python programming language for the .NET platform.
It supports an interactive interpreter with fully dynamic compilation. It is well integrated with the rest of the framework and makes all .NET libraries easily available to Python programmers.
ILMerge — ILMerge is a utility that can be used to merge multiple .NET assemblies into a single assembly. ILMerge takes a set of input assemblies and merges them into one target assembly. The first assembly in the list of input assemblies is the primary assembly. When the primary assembly is an executable, then the target assembly is created as an executable with the same entry point as the primary assembly. Also, if the primary assembly has a strong name, and a .snk file is provided, then the target assembly is re-signed with the specified key so that it also has a strong name.
Money Partner Tools and Documents — This page contains specs, training, and tools for financial instituions or OFX solution providers who want to connect with MSN Money OFX clients.
Cheers!
Storage Manager for SANS Quick Start Guide — The Storage Manager for SANs component of the Microsoft Windows Server™ 2003 R2 operating system enables you to provision storage on one or more storage subsystems on a storage area network (SAN). Based on Microsoft Virtual Disk Service (VDS) technology, Storage Manager for SANs allows provisioning on Fibre Channel and Internet SCSI (iSCSI) storage subsystems.
Print Management Step-by-Step Guide — Print Management provides up-to-the-minute details about the status of printers and print servers on the network. You can use Print Management to install printer connections to a group of client computers simultaneously. Print Management can help you find printers that have an error condition by using filters. It can also send e-mail notifications or run scripts when a printer or print server needs attention. On printer models that provide a printer Web page, Print Management has access to more data, such as toner and paper levels, which you can manage from remote locations, if needed.
Overview of DFS Solution in Windows Server 2003 R2 — As organizations expand to include more users and servers—whether they are located in one site or in geographically distributed sites—administrators find it increasingly difficult to provide users with intuitive, fast access to the files they need. Administrators who manage remote or branch offices face additional challenges, such as limiting network traffic over slow WAN connections, ensuring the availability of files during WAN outages or server failures, and ensuring that branch servers are backed up correctly. To help administrators address these challenges, the Distributed File System solution in Microsoft® Windows Server™ 2003 R2 provides two technologies, DFS Namespaces and DFS Replication, which, when used together, offer simplified, fault-tolerant access to files and WAN-friendly replication.
Step-by-Step Guide to Deploying AD Federation Services for Windows Server 2003 R2 Beta 2 — This guide provides step-by-step instructions for deploying Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) on servers running the Microsoft® Windows Server™ 2003 R2 operating system. The current version of this document for Windows Server 2003 R2 Beta 2 provides instructions for deploying ADFS in a Federated Web single sign on (SSO) scenario. Future versions of this document will provide instructions for deploying ADFS in additional scenarios.
Cheers!
<first…….go grab yourself a 6 pack….this is a long one>
<beer 1>
I admit it…..I am a SQL n00b…..So I am taking a SQL 2072 course next week in Oklahoma City.
Go ahead…..I know you want to…..have your chuckle about how Oklahoma sucks and you know it does cuz that is the only thing that keeps Texas from falling into the Gulf of Mexico.
I like that joke btw…..BUT!
The fact is, I will be learning more about SQL in one week…..in Oklahoma…...than I have in the past 10 years.
<beer 2…..you know you chugged the first one right after you saw “Oklahoma” and “Texas”>
On a personal level, I have had zero use for SQL. For that matter I have had zero use for databases of any kind for the last 10 years or so. I used to have an Access (95) DB years ago. The only reason I had that one was to make an attempt at moving my fantasy football league over from AppleWorks and my Apple //gs to my brand spanking new AMD 486–120 (I still have that machine and I still use it now and then….it posts and boots to a Win95 OSR2 desktop faster than most of my gHz boxes get to WinXP) ((I also have my Apple //gs still which comes in handy for playing Wizardry!))
Wow…..I feel like I just jumped into the way-back machine with my pet boy, Sherman…..but I digress….
I tried to port my fantasy football league over from AppleWorks (which I loved) to Access (which I hated). I didn’t know I hated it until after trying to figure it out. I never did get comfortable with Access but I blame the simplicity of using AppleWorks on that.
Now I find myself in the position of having to learn SQL for my job….which isn’t a bad thing. It’s not like I haven’t been in a similar position about every two weeks for the last 8 years with the monstrous number of products and technologies we churn out. I believe anyone at Microsoft will tell you “If you don’t like learning new stuff, you work at the wrong company”.
I have just never had a use for or had to learn SQL…..till now.
In 1994, I never imagined that a database application – one that could essentially run on a home PC – would be capable of storing and querying the massive amounts of data that SQL can today. Of course, in 1994 I never imagined that I would need more than 200 megs of hard drive space or that my 5 1/4 floppy would be useless in just a couple of years. Back then, it would take my Apple //gs (which had an Applied Engineering TransWarp GS Accelerator) 30 minutes to parse the AppleWorks database and create the scoring report for my 10 team fantasy football league. It took well over an hour if I turned the TransWarp “off”. That database only held a few hundred players with weekly – not cumulative – stats in it. Today www.fanball.com supports hundreds of individual leagues, each determining their own scoring method, players rosters, play off schedules and ALL with the ability to provide immediate scoring information.
And that is just the football portion of their site. They also do baseball.
All that accessibility……all of those stats…….all of that FOOTBALL!!!!!….because of a database….
<beer 3…..come on…..we have a football related topic here>
*Note* – I don’t know what database Fanball uses…..for all I know they have linked a couple thousand TransWarped Apple //gs machines together and have Wozniak on the payroll….The point I am trying to make it how far we have come……
Now…..I was semi–advanced back then. On my Apple //gs I actually had two 5 1/4 floppies AND two 3.5 floppies. I even had two SCSI hard drives but I used most of the hard drive space for my BBS. The fantasy football stuff was pretty small and I wanted to make use of the 5 1/4’s as long as I could so I ran AppleWorks from the 3.5’s and stored the football stats on the 5 1/4’s. I learned a few tricks in those days…..you could notch the floppy disks with a $5 disk notcher (or a pocket knife if you were lazy) and use both sides. This allowed me to use both sides of the floppy – doubling storage capacity – AND it saved me money which I desperately needed for beer. But it always seemed to reduce the reliability of the floppy disks. It certainly shortened their life spans. But even on an un-notched disk, sneeze the wrong way and those old floppies would scramble data faster than a Waffle House cook does eggs. That meant manually backing up data to another floppy. I usually made yet another copy just in case (I almost always sneeze in pairs…) THAT was how I backed up my data and guaranteed it was accessible when I needed it.
Now, with SQL 2005, we have things like log shipping and peer-to-peer replication. Magical, wondrous, computer voodoo to someone who manually made 3 copies of their data just in case it was allergy season.
But my favorite way to guarantee that SQL 2005 guarantees data is protected (and ALWAYS available!) is - mirroring with automatic failover.
If, like me, you are new to SQL/Databases (or just haven’t been exposed to SQL 2005 yet), let me offer a very simplified explanation of what is involved.
For database mirroring with automatic failover to work, you need….take a deep breathe…..relax……<grab your beer so you don’t commit alcohol abuse>…….three (3) SQL Servers……
<finish beer 4, grab beer 5 but don’t open yet…..>
….I know you winced. You may have blown beer out your nose. Some of you may have even decided to quit your job as a SQL DBA and (gasp!) become a SQL Developer…..
Let me finish and then I will tell you a little secret that may save you some beer money…..
….breathe……relax…..
<bathroom break>
<beer 5……nurse it>
Server 1 is the “primary” or “principal” database server. It is the machine you want up 24/7. It is the “all the eggs in one basket” machine. It is online and active and is the DB server that all of your applications are writing to and reading from. The apps have no concept of any additional servers in the mix.
Server 2 is the “backup” or “mirror” database server. It *must* start off with an exact copy of the primary database data. Simplest thing is to just restore a backup of the primary to this machine. There is some planning involved here to make sure this DB has the exact same data as the primary….but I only had you grab a 6 pack. For the 12 pack version come to a Live Technet briefing or find a local SQL 2005 Roadshow or SQL Launch Event or read this.
As our applications are reading and writing data on Server 1, we will commit the transactions at both servers at the same time (technically we don’t commit to the primary until we can commit to both at the same time). This can introduce some latency so monitor your network especially if you have bandwidth concerns. The trade off is availability and redundancy.
Server 3 is called a “witness” server. The witness server is essentially the innocent by-stander at the scene of the server failure crime. It’s purpose is to just keep an eye on both servers and determine if one or the other goes offline. if one goes off line it notifies the other that it is now the primary. If the original primary comes back it notifies the servers and we can switch roles again after data is back in sync.
So you decide to implement this solution. You go purchase a SQL 2005 Enterprise license. Cough of the same amount for the Backup server license, Then you grab SQL 2005 Express edition as a witness server.
<waitadamnminute….. beer muffs must have distorted my hearing>
Did I just say you could use SQL 2005 Express Edition as the witness server to a SQL 2005 Enterprise mirror?
Yes I did.
No need to have an Enterprise class server twiddling it’s thumbs and keeping an eye on two other servers. Use it’s little brother to do that job…..you can even fudge things a little and have a second instance on the primary or backup server act as a witness but if that dual-role server goes offline you won’t be failing over automagically. Just so ya know….ANY version of SQL 2005 can act as a witness.
How far have we come in just 10 years…..
<beer 6>
Enjoy at your leisure……
Cheers!
The SQL 2005 Roadshow hits LA on Sept 8th.
$99 if you register online now……$150 if you walk-in.
Get the facts about migrating to SQL Server™ 2005 in one information-packed day in a city near you! SQL Server experts from Scalability Experts, Solid Quality Learning, and Hitachi Consulting will present practical, real-world information in three tracks—administration, development, and business intelligence. You can find answers to specific questions in the Ask the Experts session. You'll come away from the Get Ready for SQL Server 2005 Roadshow with a clear understanding of how to implement a best-practices migration to SQL Server 2005 and how to use SQL Server 2005's new capabilities to improve your database computing environment.
Cheers!
Management Pack Notifier for MOM 2005 — The Microsoft® Management Pack Notifier Management Pack enables the generation of Informational alerts as updated management pack are released. Once installed this Management Pack will periodically contact Microsoft to determine if updates to previously installed management packs are available for download. When an update is detected an Informational alert will be generated indicating which management pack(s) and version(s) are available.
MOM 2005 SP1 — Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Service Pack 1 (SP1) enables customers to leverage the latest Windows Server System software, utilize the latest hardware based on the x64 platform, better understand their OML license utilization, and includes many customer requested enhancements.
Cheers!
Read Me for Windows Server Updates Services — This document contains release notes for Microsoft® Software Update Services (SUS) to Windows Server™ Update Services (WSUS).
Cheers!
Scenarios and Procedures for SMS 2003: Security — Securing your Microsoft® Systems Management Server (SMS) environment is not a task you can complete once and forget about. You get secure, either by planning a secure implementation or securing an existing implementation. You stay secure by reviewing your security configuration, policies, and procedures. Whether you have already deployed SMS or are in the planning stages, follow these established best practices to create the most secure SMS environment possible, and then follow the guidance to maintain the most secure environment possible.
SMS 2003 Inventory Tool for Microsoft Updates — SMS 2003 Inventory Tool for Microsoft Updates, the latest security updates inventory tool for Systems Management Server, provides a flexible and reliable security update, update rollup and service pack management system built on Windows Server Update Services technology. This version includes a full installation of the inventory tool as well as the redistribution of the Windows Update Agent for detection and deployment of the latest security updates, update rollups, and service packs from Microsoft for a variety of products including Windows, Office, SQL, and Exchange.
SMS 2003 SP1 Updated Advanced Client — This SMS Advanced Client.MSI has been released for the Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 Service Pack (SP) 1 Advanced Client. This software update adds support for the SMS 2003 Inventory Tool for Microsoft Updates.
This MSI also includes individual SMS 2003 SP1 Advanced Client Windows Installer update packages (.msp). This MSI can be used to update existing SMS 2003 Advanced clients or can be deployed to install new SMS Advanced Client systems in an SMS 2003 SP1 environment. The individual Windows Installer package can be used to update existing SMS 2003 Advanced Clients.
Cheers!
The .NET Show: Windows XP Media Center Edition — In this episode John Canning, Charlie Owen, and Michael Creasy share with us some details about Windows XP Media Center Edition and how it provides an integrated home audio and video experience.
Cheers!
Exchange Server 2003 Domain Rename Fixup (XDR-Fixup) — Fixes Exchange attributes in Active Directory after using the Microsoft® Windows Server™ 2003 domain rename tool.
Exchange Server 2003 Load Simulator (LoadSim) — Use Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Load Simulator (LoadSim) as a benchmarking tool to simulate the performance load of MAPI clients. LoadSim allows you to test how a server running Exchange 2003 responds to e-mail loads. To simulate the delivery of these messaging requests, you run LoadSim tests on client computers. These tests send multiple messaging requests to the Exchange server, thereby causing a mail load. LoadSim is a useful tool for administrators who are sizing servers and validating a deployment plan. Specifically, LoadSim helps you determine if each of your servers can handle the load to which they are intended to carry. Another use for LoadSim is to help validate the overall solution.
Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer Tool (BPA) v2.1a — The Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer programmatically collects settings and values from data repositories such as Active Directory, registry, metabase and performance monitor. Once collected, a set of comprehensive ‘best practice’ rules are applied to the topology. Administrators running this tool will get a detailed report listing the recommendations that can be made to the environment to achieve greater performance, scalability and uptime.
Cheers!
MSXML Parser 3.0 SDK — The MSXML 3 SDK includes documentation for server-safe HTTP access, XSLT (Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations)/XPath (XML Path Language), and SAX2 (Simple API for XML).
MSXML 3.0 SP7 – The Microsoft® XML Parser (MSXML) 3.0 SP7 release offers a number of bug fixes and security fixes over the previous MSXML 3.0 SP releases. All MSXML 3.0 releases provide:
- Server-safe HTTP access
- Complete implementation of XSL Transformations (XSLT) and XML Path Language (XPath)
- Changes to the Simple API for XML (SAX2) implementation, including new SAX2 helper classes with even higher conformance with World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards and the OASIS Test Suite.
Channel 9 MSDN Videos – Channel 9 videos about SQL Server, VS Core, Hospital Tech, Tablet PC Education Pack
Windows CE Platform Builder Update – KB904937 — Fixes made in this update:
Component: Automation
Description: OLEAUT32 may create a hidden window which is unable to receive or process messages. This may result in a hang of the broadcast messages sent directly to OLEAUT32.
Windows CE Platform Builder Update — KB904770 — Fixes made in this update:
Component: pIE
Description: An error may occur when pIE window is closed after viewing certain web sites.
Windows CE.NET 4.2 Platform Builder Update – KB900465 — Fixes made in this update:
Component: DHCP
Description: DHCP client may overwrite DhcpSendOptions value set in the registry.
This update corrects the issue and preserves user specified registry option.
Windows CE.NET 4.2 Platfrom Builder Update – KB904558 – Fixes made in this update:
Component: RDP
Description: A memory leak may occur when redirecting a serial device via RDP.
Windows CE 5.0 Platform Builder Update – KB904255 – Fixes made in this update:
Component: FilySys
Description: This update allows Windows CE 5.0 to access certain storage media configured with non-standard FAT formatting tools.
Money Partner Tools and Documents — This page contains specs, training, and tools for financial instituions or OFX solution providers who want to connect with MSN Money OFX clients.
WinFX SDK for Longhorn Beta 1 – Web Setup — The Microsoft® WinFX™ SDK contains documentation, samples and tools designed to help you develop managed applications and libraries using WinFX, which is the set of next-generation managed APIs provided by Microsoft. This release includes documentation about using the .NET Framework 2.0, the Windows Presentation Foundation (formerly code named “Avalon”), and the Windows Communications Foundation (formerly code named “Indigo”).
WinFX SDH for Longhorn Beta 1 – Image Version
CLR Managed Debugger (mdbg) Sample — The CLR Managed Debugger sample illustrates how to build a managed debugger.
Visual Studio Tools for Office Beta 2 Sample – Learn how to use Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Tools for the Microsoft Office System to turn a Microsoft Office Excel 2003 spreadsheet into a complex capital budgeting application. The associated MSDN article discusses the process used to transform an Excel 2003 spreadsheet into an powerful application that becomes part of a complex business process extending far beyond the functionality of the original workbook. The associated code sample is provided in Microsoft Visual Basic and C#.
New Video & Audio based information for developers is located at these links:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdntv/archive.aspx
http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=14
http://msdn.microsoft.com/theshow/
http://msdn.microsoft.com/dotnetrocks/
Cheers!
Press announcement on Xbox 360 pricing……
There is also a list of features including a bundle pack that will be available.
Also check out Doom co-creator John Carmack at QuakeCon giving Microsoft and the Xbox 360 a thumbs up….
The Holidays are going to rock……
Update -- Also check out Doom co-creator John Carmack at QuakeCon giving Microsoft and the Xbox 360 a thumbs up….
Okay. I admit it. I like Karaoke. I have been going to Karaoke bars/clubs/places for 12 years now. I started gong with some acquaintances from a BBS I used to run in the Dallas area. For 5 years I only sang one song ever – Wicked Game by Chris Isaak. One drunken evening I decided to sing a different song….I think it was a country song…..and botched it terribly.
Or so I was told the next day. I, of course, thought it sounded perfectly awesome with my beer muffs on.
It didn’t matter to me. I enjoy singing and always have. I became a regular. I even went so far as to set up and host the web site for my favorite KJ and friend Glenn Lukin at On Stage Entertainment (site is now run by MJK Media). If you are ever in Dallas, Tx and have a free night, go by and see him. He is one of the nicest people you will ever meet. Not to mention one of the best song selections I have seen anywhere.
All this brings me to The Challenge. When I first started doing live presentations, I challenged my audience to a Karaoke Duel. I would be willing to go the night AFTER a presentation to a karaoke bar in the local area where I would sing a song and the challenger would sing a song. If the audience liked the challengers song better I would get them a copy of some piece of software from Microsoft.
In 2 years no one ever took me up on it.
Well….. I am re-instating the Challenge. Same “rules”. Just get a hold of me before I come into town for a presentation and we will make arrangements.
And I will up the ante….. challenger gets a copy of Windows 2003 Standard – Full Retail (no time bomb crap) *if* the audience likes their song better. No stacking the audience. But feel free to buy drinks if you think that might help.
To give you a heads up…..here was my set list from last night…
- Chris Isaak – Wicked Game
- Journey – Send Her My Love
- Billy Joel – She’s Got a Way
- Simon and Garfunkel – Bridge over Troubled Water
I also sang as part a quadrunket (a name I made up for a duet that is sung by 4 intoxicated people…) that was utterly abysmal. I wish I could blame the other parties involved but to be honest….we all sucked. In all fairness the KJ told us the version of “Cruisin’” we were to be singing was the Huey Lewis/Gwenyth Paltrow version from the movie “Duets”. Turned out to be the Smokey Robinson version which I have never even heard before…..
I had a blast…
Karaoke Challenge………….Activated!!
Cheers!
ugh…….
Demonstrating a product can be a love/hate relationship. BillG knows this first hand from the famous and quite public Comdex 1998 USB Crash.
I like demos. In fact I prefer demos to all of the slides because, when they work, they seem to communicate MUCH better than a PowerPoint slide ever could. I am pretty darn good at cutting slides in favor of demos and that is the way I like it.
But when demos fail, they just leave you feeling blah….
I have had 3 webcasts in the past week and at least one demo failed in each one. In my most recent webcast, EVERY demo failed. I tried to recover but I realized pretty quickly that it wasn’t going to happen so I pressed on. I have committed to posting a video of the working demo so everyone can see what it is supposed to do.
I am going to cheat a little…..
I have done the ISA session from this morning after least dozen times either as a webcast or a live Technet Briefing. So I am going to point you to a version of this I did in JANUARY where the demos didn’t fail.
Now…..here is WHY they failed.
We use a product called Virtual PC for hosting mulitple Operating Systems on a single piece of hardware. It is a truly amazing product. But it does have to be configured properly. In particular, if the virtual machines have to talk to each other via networking. You see….my laptop has 2 interfaces, my local ethernet and my wirless adapter. For those of you that watched the ISA webcast, I was supposed to first publish a web site, secure it with SSL and then view it.
That Failed…..
I was then supposed to publish OWA, secure it with SSL and view it…..
That failed….
Why?????? My VM’s were not connected. In retrospect I should have realized this when I pinged from my client machine and the name resolved but the ping timed out. But when you are flustered and in a crunch for time, those details sometimes get missed. My “client” machine was on the wireless adapter while my ISA and Web servers were connected to the local LAN adapter. To put it another way – if the networks aren’t connected they don’t talk to each other.
So needless to say, as soon as the session was over I found the issue, tested, and the demos went off without a hitch. I still don’t know WHY I was configured that considering I ran through the demos several times just this morning and don’t recall switching networks….
So there ya go…..check out the good version of the webcast and let me know what ya think and if you have any questions……
Cheers….
ps…..I also promised some information on SONAR and Secure-NAT…..those posts will be later today or over the weekend. Right now……lunch.
This nice little titbit regarding virtulization came across the wire today……
-----------------------------------
Microsoft President, Steve Ballmer, stated publicly at the Microsoft Management Summit in Las Vegas on April 20th, 2005 that we see virtualization as a core enabling technology. To that end, Microsoft will provide Windows virtualization in the Longhorn Server wave.
This is not a secret. Virtualization technology is going into the OS.
Rather than try to paraphrase, I’m going to point you to the URL so you can see and hear Steve yourself as well as obtain a transcript and copy of his PowerPoint deck. If you don’t believe the Microsoft commitment to virtualization after this, listen to it again. If you want to skip to the part on Microsoft virtualization, fast forward about 50 minutes into the demo. Since this is public information, you should feel free to forward this link to your customers as well.
Keynote:
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/mgmtsummit/keynotes.asp
On a more detailed level, we have a publicly available slide deck delivered by Mike Neil, Windows Virtualization Product Unit Manager at WinHec. This deck explains our roadmap from Virtual Server 2005 RTM to Windows Virtualization. This deck details some of the key features we are considering and discusses the new architecture that will be employed in Windows virtualization. This deck is publicly available at:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/9/8/f/98f3fe47-dfc3-4e74-92a3-088782200fe7/TWSE05008_WinHEC05.ppt
Some of the key points in this deck are:
- Virtualization is going into the OS in the Longhorn Server wave.
- Windows virtualization will be hypervisor based and take full advantage of hardware innovations from Intel and AMD in the forms of VT and Pacifica, respectively.
- Windows virtualization will provide 32-bit and 64-bit guests.
- We will have a smooth migration from path from Virtual Server to Windows virtualization. We want our valued customers know that their Virtual Server investment will be safe with a migration path to Windows virtualization.
- …and plenty more so check out the deck…
I am delivering some Live Technet Briefings next week in Santa Barbara, CA on 8/16 and Burbank, CA on 8/18.
I am delivering the same sessions in Irvine, Ca on 9/13 and San Diego, Ca on 9/15.
The subject will be SQL 2005 and will be a little different from Technet Sessions you may have attended in the last couple of years.
We have traditionally done 2 or even 3 sessions in the 4 hour window we have. With the SQL 2005 Launch coming up in November, we are focusing all of our attention on SQL 2005 for the entire 4 hours. We also normally swap content every three months or so. Again, with the SQL 2005 Launch on the horizon, we are going to maintain this same content from August through basically Dec 1st. There will likely not be any Live Technet Briefings during the month of November as our presenters will be supporting our local Districts with the SQL Launch.
Here is a summary of SOME of what I will be discussing -
Upgrading/Migrating from previous versions of SQL to SQL 2005 and the SQL Upgrade Advisor
SQL 2005 Security / Surface Area Configuration Tool / User Schema Seperation / SQL Server Agent Proxies
Database Tuning Advisor and the SQL Profiler Tool (<- SQL 7!! article....couldn't find a more recent one!)
SQL Management Tools / Dynamic Management Views
Pessimistic and Optimistic Concurrency Controls
Snapshot Isolation
Peer-to-Peer Replication
Database Mirroring
Now you see why we are spending 4 hours on this session....
Cheers!
ps....Note that we are starting our Technet Briefings at 8am and end at 12 noon. NOT 8:30 - 12:30 anymore!
I went to an NPA mixer this evening and met some interesting folks. Going to remember as many names as possible....Phil, Jeffrey, Jay, Richard, Marc, Daniel, and Elisa. And thanks to Chris for inviting me out.
This particular mixer was for the San Diego group. They are looking to start a chapter in Orange County though.
Cheers!