Mehboob's Blog

Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist – MCTS, MCITP, MCDBA, MCSE & MCP site

Free Private Cloud Training

Posted by Mehboob on 2012/02/14

Free Private Cloud Training! Register Now!

REGISTER NOW

Over 4,000 global IT Professionals registered for the February 21-22, 2012 offering! To accommodate demand, Microsoft is running this course again on April 3-4, 2012. You don’t want to miss it, so register now!

Microsoft Learning and the Microsoft System Center 2012 team are partnering to bring provide IT Professionals an exciting opportunity to learn what they need to know to deploy, manage and maintain Microsoft’s private cloud solution. Leveraging the popular Jump Start virtual classroom approach, the industry’s most gifted cloud experts will show attendees why this new private cloud solution, based on System Center 2012 and Windows Server, has garnered so much attention. Here are the details:

  • Date/Time: April 3-4, 2012 from 9:00am – 5:00pm PST | NEWLY ADDED
    IMPORTANT: The Feb. 21-22, 2012 class is fully booked and closed to new registrations
  • Where: Live virtual classroom (online from wherever you are)
  • Cost: FREE!
  • Target audience: IT Professionals (IT Implementers, managers, decision makers)

COURSE:-

Day 1: Deployment & Configuration
Part 1: Understanding the Microsoft Private Cloud
Part 2: Deploying the Infrastructure Components
Part 3: Deploying the Private Cloud Infrastructure
Part 4: Deploying the Service Layer
Part 5: Deploying the Applications & VMs

Day 2: Management & Operations
Part 6: Managing the Infrastructure Components
Part 7: Managing the Private Cloud Infrastructure
Part 8: Managing the Service Layer
Part 9: Managing the Applications & VMs

INSTRUCTOR:-
Students have the opportunity to learn from and interact with the industry’s best cloud technologists! This high-energy, demo-rich learning experience will help IT Professionals understand why Microsoft private cloud solutions are making a splash in the industry. Here are the instructors for this two-day event!

  • Symon Perriman, Microsoft Technical Evangelist
  • Kenon Owens, Technical Product Manager, System Center Cloud and Datacenter Infrastructure
  • Adam Hall, Senior Technical Product Manager, System Center Application Management
  • Sean Christensen, Senior Technical Product Manager, System Center Service Delivery & Automation
  • Anant Sundaram, Senior Product Manager, System Center Cloud and Datacenter Management

What’s a “Jump Start” Course?
Training specifically designed for experienced technologists whose jobs demand they know how to best leverage new, emerging Microsoft technologies. These advanced courses assume a certain level of expertise and domain knowledge, so they move quickly and cover topics in a fashion that enables teams to effectively map new skills to real-world situations. Check out recordings of the Office 365 Jump Start and the Microsoft Virtualization for VMware Professionals, too!

Register now for the Private Cloud Jump Start

The ten most critical certifications that would assure Americans jobs and advancement in the IT marketplace are:

  1. Project Management Professional (PMP) manages projects to a successful conclusion, on-time, on-budget, and using the resources allocated.
  2. Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP) certifications validate your skills in deploying, designing, and maintaining Microsoft technology such as Windows, SQL, SharePoint and Exchange.
  3. CompTIA’s A+ certification indicates competency to install networks, conduct preventative maintenance, secure them and troubleshoot them.
  4. 4.Cisco Certified Network Associates (CCNA) installs, configures, runs and troubleshoots medium-sized routed and switched networks.
  5. Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) cortication validate your skills on implementing and troubleshooting a particular Microsoft Server technology, such as Windows, SQL, SharePoint and Exchange.
  6. CompTIA’s Network+ certification demonstrates competency to manage, maintain, troubleshoot, install and configure basic network infrastructures.
  7. Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) validates the ability to plan, implement, verify and troubleshoot local and wide-area enterprise networks and work collaboratively with specialists on advanced security, voice, wireless and video solutions.
  8. NetApp Certified Data Management Administrator (NCDA) have proven skills in performing in-depth support, administrative functions, and performance management for NetApp storage appliances running the Data ONTAP operating system in NFS and Windows (CIFS) multiprotocol environments.
  9. IT Infrastructure Library certification (ITIL) demonstrates the expertise of professionals in tech management with a three tiered program of basic, intermediate and advanced certification.
  10. CompTIA’s Security+ certification demonstrates knowledge of system security, network infrastructure, access control and organizational security.

Although the above certifications may not guarantee you a job (extenuating circumstances must be taken into account), they certainly improve your chances of gaining meaningful and stable employment.

Accelerate your path to MCM
The Accelerated Exam Preparation program goal is to provide a low cost and convenient solution (less time away from work) for SQL Server MCM exam
“” preparation for candidates that are looking for “final mile” assistance, or looking for advanced training around MCM topic areas.

SQL MCM Sessions

A scheduled series of 7 weeks of live online sessions with a SQL MCM Certified Master presenter covering review of an exam topic and open Q&A time! There will be 2 sessions of 2 hours delivered weekly, with each week focusing on one of the 7 Exam topic areas. Learn More

SQL MCM Labs Courses

A 2 month subscription for practicing with 20 SQL MCM-level labs in a hosted SQL Server VM environment. The labs will be associated with the weekly exam topics. This is an easy to use, anytime access lab environment to practice the skills you need! Learn More
 

Mehboob

SQL & SharePoint Server Adminstrator – MCITP & MCTS

With this Addarr-Blog, i would like to share knowledge that i have learned.  Any feedback will be warmly welcome because i do believe that we can learn from each other.

Posted in BI-DW, Cloud, MS SQL Server, MS Windows, SharePoint | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Automatic SQL Server backup

Posted by Mehboob on 2012/02/10

Automatic SQL Server backup solution and also how to back it up online with SecureBackup. I am using Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express but you should be able to use these instructions for all versions of Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and Microsoft SQL Server 2008. In my machine, the database files are located in the following directory:

D:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.SQLEXPRESS\MSSQL\DATA

As you may already know, you cannot backup the *.MDF and *.LDF database files directly because they are attached to the SQL Server. You could detach them, back them up, and then re-attach them but then your database will be offline for a period of time.  To solve this problem, we first need to create a SQL file that can be used later to automate our database backup. Here’s how we can do that:

* Create an SQL file here:-
1. Login to Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio.
2. Right click on your database from the “Databases” node.
3. Select “Tasks” -> “Back up…”
4. You are now presented with the “Back up Database” window. In this window you can specify your backup settings. At a minimum, you need to create a destination for your backup. Click the “Add” button and specify a full path name for your database backup in the “File name” field. You will need to use this path name later, so let’s take note of it.
5. You can choose any other backup options that are important to you. Over on the left hand side is “Options”. I would click on that and decide whether you want to use “append to an existing backup set” or “overwrite all existing backup sets”.
6. Once you are finished with your settings, you need to create an SQL file which will be used later for the automated database backup. To create that SQL file, click on the arrow next to “Script” at the top of the window. There will be an option for “Script action to File”. Go ahead and select that option. You will then be able to save your SQL Server Script File. Take note of where you have saved this file as well.

* Create a batch file here:-
Now that we have created the SQL file, we need to create a batch file that can be automatically executed by the Task Scheduler. To create this file, do the following:

1. Now here Open Notepad and enter the following:
sqlcmd -S .\SQLEXPRESS -i “C:\Users\Administrator\Documents\Backup.sql” Of course, substitute the pathname with the pathname of where you saved your SQL file.
2. Save this file and take note of where you saved it.
3. Now, using Windows Explorer, go to the directory of where you created this file and rename it to have a .bat filename extension instead of .txt.

* Set Batch file to run in Windows Task Scheduler:-
We are now ready to add the batch file to the Task Scheduler. Rather than using the Task Scheduler GUI, I prefer to do it on the command line. You can open a command prompt as Administrator or if you are already running as Administrator, you can use Start -> Run. Either way, enter the following:

schtasks /create /sc Daily /st 011:00:00 /tn “Addarr_Task” /tr “cmd /c E:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\Backup.bat”

Again, substitute the pathname above with that of your batch file. Also, set the time specified to something that is desirable for you. In the above example, we run this task at 11:00 AM.

Set SecureBackup to Backup your Database:-

The time specified in the Task Scheduler step above is important because you need have SecureBackup automatically backup the database file after the task is complete. Since the backup took place at 11:00, you can setup SecureBackup to run the backup at say, 3:00 AM. This way you will have the most recent backup.

From within the SecureBackup software, you need to create or edit an existing  Backup Job and include the location of the backup file that you chose in step 4 of “Create and SQL File” above. If the file isn’t listed and you can’t select it from within SecureBackup, it’s because Windows Task Scheduler has not run your batch file yet. To run the batch file, simply double click on it from within Windows Explorer. It may take anywhere from 10-20 seconds to, possibly, a few hours depending on how large your database is. Once complete, you will have your database backup file and can select that file from within SecureBackup. You will also be able to schedule the Backup Job around how long it took for that batch file to complete.

You now have an automated backup solution for your Microsoft SQL database complete with a secure online storage solution.

Note: You can be able to use these instructions for all versions of Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and Microsoft SQL Server 2008.

Mehboob

SQL & SharePoint – MCTS

 

 

Posted in MS SQL Server | Tagged: , , , , , | Comments Off

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 On March 7

Posted by Mehboob on 2012/02/02

Microsoft Partners Platinum:-

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 On March 7th

Microsoft plans to launch SQL Server 2012 in three editions Enterprise, Business Intelligence and Standard. The Business Intelligence version will feature Power-View data discovery tool, data-quality services and many more useful features.

SQL Server is reducing the number of editions from 6 down to 4 (excluding all the different appliances here).  Those editions will be Express, Standard, Business Intelligence (BI), and Enterprise Edition. The express edition will still be a free edition with limited
functionality.

Microsoft rolled much of the SQL Server 2008 R2 Datacenter edition licensing rights into the SQL Server 2012 Enterprise edition, so the old Datacenter edition will disappear as a top product-line offering. Developer, Express and Compact editions will still be available after the SQL Server 2012 product is released, Microsoft indicated.

Enterprise Edition:-

The Enterprise edition is an all-inclusive product in terms of its features, and Enterprise Edition is majorly for for mission critical applications and large scale data warehousing.  This means that the Enterprise Edition will hold all the new features that are being introduced.

The Enterprise Edition of SQL Server 2012 will include all the features of the BI Edition as well as the Standard Edition.

Business Intelligence (BI) Edition:-
The Business Intelligence edition is a new product offering with 2012. It includes BI features while also including all of the features in the Standard edition. The new edition between the

Standard Edition and the Enterprise Edition called the BI Edition.  The BI Edition will include all the features of the Standard edition plus some extras. The licensing for the BI edition will only be available in a Server+CAL model.  There is no CPU core license available for the BI Edition. While the standard edition supports 16 cores for the database engine, the BI edition supports up to 20 cores for the database engine.  All of the BI services (SSAS, SSIS, SSRS) will support up to the OS maximum number of cores.

The BI edition will include the following features:-

•Data Quality Services
•Master Data Services
•Power View
•Power Pivot for SharePoint Services
•Semantic Model
•Advanced Analytics
The BI Edition will not include the following features:
•Advanced Auditing
•Transparent Data Encryption
•Column Store Index
•Data Compression
•Table/Index Partitioning
•Always On

Standard Edition:-
Microsoft recommends the Standard edition for basic database, reporting and analytics capabilities, according to its white-paper.  Standard edition will be available in either a Server + CAL license model or a CPU Core license model.  The costs for a server license or a CPU Core license remain the same as they were under SQL Server 2008 R2. 

There are some things to note about Standard Edition which are changing from prior editions. As for the support for other features in the standard edition of SQL Server 2012 not a lot of the details have been made available yet.  For the complete support features you’ll have to wait until we get closer to the release of the product.

The standard edition will NOT include the following features:-
•Data Quality Services
•Master Data Services
•Power View
•PowerPivot for SharePoint Services
•Semantic Model
•Advanced Auditing
•Transparent Data Encryption
•Column Store Index
•Data Compression
•Table/Index Partitioning
•Always On

Looking forward any comments, will be great.

Mehboob

Posted in MS SQL Server | Comments Off

SQL Error: 9002, Severity: 17, State: 2

Posted by Mehboob on 2012/01/31

Working fine with both SQL Server 2005 & 2008.

Error: 9002, Severity: 17, State: 2
The transaction log for database ‘addarr_wordpress’ is full. To find out why space in the log cannot be reused, see the log_reuse_wait_desc column in sys.databases

The transaction log file will get full in one of the following A & B situations.

A. If the log file has been configured with preset max size limit then the file is full.
B. If the log file has been configured with unlimited size then perhaps the disk is full.

If it is the B situation then first free up some space in the disk by moving some files or deleting some files.

Now lets look why the file got full. First thing that you need to check is the log_reuse_wait_desc column in the sys.databases.

select name, recovery_model_desc, log_reuse_wait_desc from sys.databases

There are 10 or 100 of reasons that could come up in this column and some of them are noted here we go ..
NOTHING
CHECKPOINT
LOG_BACKUP
ACTIVE_BACKUP_OR_RESTORE
ACTIVE_TRANSACTION
DATABASE_MIRRORING
REPLICATION
DATABASE_SNAPSHOT_CREATION
LOG_SCAN
OTHER_TRANSIENT

If the database in question is TEMPDB then the process to resolve it would be different and also the reasons for which TEMPDB gets full are different. But let me tell the most common reason why a user DBs log file gets full.

LOG_BACKUP:-

In most cases you will see the reason noted in ‘log_reuse_wait_desc’ is given as ‘LOG_BACKUP’. This means that the database is in FULL recovery model and is waiting for a log backup to be taken. If you have scheduled a regular log backup job then check its status and wait for it to finish before you shrink the log file. If you check the free space in the log file then you will indeed see a lot of unused space but you can not shrink it. Once the log backup completes you can shrink the file. But if the data file is not as big as the log file then instead of doing a log backup, i will do the following.

A. Change the recovery model to SIMPLE
B. Shrink the log file.
C. Change the recovery model to FULL
D. Take a full backup and subsequently schedule log backups.

Sometimes the above steps take a lot less time to complete than taking a log backup and then shrinking the file. But please keep in mind that when you do this you have essentially broken the log chain and will have to resync the database if it is configured for log shipping. The question of whether to truncate the log or not is dependent on the Database size. If it is not too big then truncate it and take a full backup. Otherwise it is best to take log backups.

ACTIVE_TRANSACTION:-

Other prominent reason that I have seen is ‘ACTIVE_TRANSACTION’. In this case, it would be best if you first add a new log file to the database or extend it. Then run the DBCC OPENTRAN on that database and check the open transactions. This should give you more information about the transaction that is consuming most of the log space and has not yet completed.

If the reason given is ACTIVE_BACKUP_OR_RESTORE then refer to my earlier post to find what is the expected time to finish the current backup or restore.

If the reason is related to either replication or mirroring then first check the status of replication or mirroring to ensure that they are upto speed and don’t have any latency.
This should help in reducing the log re-use wait time. It gives you a rough estimate of the amount of time required to complete it.
SELECT command,
            s.text,
            start_time,
            percent_complete,
            CAST(((DATEDIFF(s,start_time,GetDate()))/3600) as varchar) + ‘ hour(s), ‘
                  + CAST((DATEDIFF(s,start_time,GetDate())%3600)/60 as varchar) + ‘min, ‘
                  + CAST((DATEDIFF(s,start_time,GetDate())%60) as varchar) + ‘ sec’ as running_time,
            CAST((estimated_completion_time/3600000) as varchar) + ‘ hour(s), ‘
                  + CAST((estimated_completion_time %3600000)/60000 as varchar) + ‘min, ‘
                  + CAST((estimated_completion_time %60000)/1000 as varchar) + ‘ sec’ as est_time_to_go,
            dateadd(second,estimated_completion_time/1000, getdate()) as est_completion_time
FROM sys.dm_exec_requests r
CROSS APPLY sys.dm_exec_sql_text(r.sql_handle) s
WHERE r.command in (‘RESTORE DATABASE’, ‘BACKUP DATABASE’, ‘RESTORE LOG’, ‘BACKUP LOG’)

Welcome any comments on this issue.

Mehboob – MCTS – MCITP SQL & SharePoint Admin

Posted in MS SQL Server | Comments Off

Microsoft Training Portals

Posted by Mehboob on 2012/01/30

Microsoft Training Portals

Training Portals

 Find Training by Product or Technology

 

Posted in BI-DW, Cloud, MS SQL Server, MS Windows, SharePoint | Comments Off

Hadoop Tutorial

Posted by Mehboob on 2011/12/15

Tutorial Hadoop or MapReduce can be a task if you get your hand dirty at the start. Most of IT people say it is future tech, let start from very basics .. This tutorial covers the basics of distributed systems design. The pre-requisites are significant programming experience with a language such as C++ or Java, a basic understanding of networking, and data structures & algorithms.

What Is Apache Hadoop?

Start with very basics of MR with http://code.google.com/edu/parallel/dsd-tutorial.html

Then go for the first two lectures in http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/courses/cse490h/08au/lectures.htm

A very good course introduction to MapReduce and Hadoop. Read the seminal paper http://labs.google.com/papers/mapreduce.html

and its improvements in the updated version at
http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/courses/cse490h/08au/readings/communications200801-dl.pdf

Then go for all the other videos in the U.Washington link given above to understand distributed systems in detail (optional).

Try youtubing the terms Map reduce and Hadoop to find videos by ORielly and Google RoundTable for good overview of the future of Hadoop and MapReduce

Then off to the most important videos – Cloudera Videos
http://www.cloudera.com/resources/?media=Video

And Google MiniLecture Series
http://code.google.com/edu/submissions/mapreduce-minilecture/listing.html

Along with all the Multimedia above we need good written material Documents:

Architecture diagrams at hadooper.blogspot.com are good to have on your wall Hadoop: The definitive guide goes more into the nuts and bolts of the whole system where as Hadoop in Action is a good read with lots of teaching examples to learn the concepts of hadoop. Pro Hadoop is not for beginners pdfs of the documentation from Apache Foundation

http://hadoop.apache.org/common/docs/current/

And 

http://hadoop.apache.org/common/docs/stable/

Will help you learn as to how model your problem into a MR solution in order to gain the advantages of Hadoop in total.  HDFS paper by Yahoo! Research is also a good read in order to gain in depth knowledge of hadoop distributed file system Try the http://developer.yahoo.com/hadoop/tutorial/module1.html link for beginners to expert path to Hadoop.

All this for Hadoop lover. Install Hadoop on Ubunto Server through this vedio, no aduio, just hang on with this so you can make it.

Hadoop Part 1 – Install Ubuntu Server 10.04

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

 

 Mehboob

SQL – SPS  DBA – MCTS

Posted in Cloud | 2 Comments »

Microsoft Learning Product

Posted by Mehboob on 2011/12/12

Microsoft Learning Product:  Each course may have two related files: a zipped (.zip) file that contains content in .pdf and .xps formats, and an executable (.exe) file that contains other supplemental content.  Instructions here we go ..

1. In the Course Number field below, enter your course number, and then click Find to find your course.

2. Next to your course, click the related links to download the supplemental course materials.

3. When the Download dialog box appears, click Save and then select a destination on your computer or other storage device where you want to save your supplemental course materials.

 

Course Title Content file Executable file
2124C Programming with C# 2124C-ENU-Companion.zip (17.8 MB) 2124C-ENU-Allfiles.exe (741 KB)
2261C Supporting Users Running the Microsoft Windows XP Operating System 2261C-ENU-Companion.zip (6.66 MB) None
2262B Supporting Users Running Applications on a Microsoft Windows XP Operating System 2007 2262B-ENU-Companion.zip (1.53 MB) 2262B-ENU-Allfiles.exe (69.2 MB)
2272C Implementing and Supporting Microsoft Windows XP Professional 2272C-ENU-Companion.zip (7.44 MB) None
2273B Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment 2273B-ENU-Companion.zip (57.2 MB) 2273B-ENU-Allfiles.exe (39.1 MB)
2274C Managing a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment 2274C-ENU-Companion.zip (30.5 MB) 2274C-ENU-Allfiles.exe (39.1 MB)
2275C Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment 2275C-ENU-Companion.zip (2.76 MB) 2275C-ENU-Allfiles.exe (298 MB)
2276C Implementing a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure: Network Hosts 2276C-ENU-Companion.zip (1.91 MB) 2276C-ENU-Allfiles.exe (62.5 KB)
2277C Implementing, Managing, and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure: Network Services 2277C-ENU-Companion.zip (22.9 MB) 2277C-ENU-Allfiles.exe (77.5 KB)
2285B Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft Windows XP Professional
2310D Developing Web Applications Using Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 SP1 2310D-ENU-Companion.zip (15.2 MB) 2310D-ENU-Allfiles.exe (235 MB)
2349B Programming with the Microsoft .NET Framework (Microsoft Visual C# .NET) 2349B-ENU-Companion.zip (6.45 MB) 2349B-ENU-Allfiles.exe (1.74 MB)
2556A Developing Mobile Applications Using the Microsoft .NET Compact Framework 2556A-ENU-Companion.zip (5.60 MB) 2556A-ENU-Allfiles.exe (2.62 MB)
2559B Introduction to Visual Basic .NET Programming with Microsoft .NET 2559B-ENU-Companion.zip (17.0 MB) 2559B-ENU-Allfiles.exe (1.20 MB)
2609A Introduction to C# Programming with Microsoft .NET 2609A-ENU-Companion.zip (4.93 MB) 2609A-ENU-Allfiles.exe (13.4 MB)
2779B Implementing a Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Database 2779B-ENU-Companion.zip (3.11 MB) 2779B-ENU-Allfiles.exe (882 KB)
2780B Maintaining a Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Database 2780B-ENU-Companion.zip (3.21 MB) 2780B-ENU-Allfiles.exe (24.9 MB)
2791A Implementing and Maintaining Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services 2791A-ENU-Companion.zip (2.44 MB) 2791A-ENU-Allfiles.exe (7.20 MB)
2792A Implementing and Maintaining Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Integration Services 2792A-ENU-Companion.zip (2.60 MB) 2792A-ENU-Allfiles.exe (866 KB)
2793A Implementing and Maintaining Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services 2793A-ENU-Companion.zip (2.92 MB) 2793A-ENU-Allfiles.exe (6.94 MB)
2823B Implementing and Administering Security in a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network 2823B-ENU-Companion.zip (21.7 MB) 2823B-ENU-Allfiles.exe (226 MB)
2830B Designing Security for Microsoft Networks 2830B-ENU-Companion.zip (34.1 MB) 2830B-ENU-Allfiles.exe (40.6 MB)
2933A Developing Business Process and Integration Solutions Using Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006
2956B Core Foundations of Microsoft .NET 2.0 Development
2957B Advanced Foundations of Microsoft .NET 2.0 Development
3938C Updating Your Skills from Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 or Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 to Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 SP1 3938C-ENU-Companion.zip (3.00 MB) 3938C-ENU-Allfiles.exe (186 KB)
4994A Introduction to Programming Microsoft .NET Framework Applications with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 4994A-ENU-Companion.zip (1.54 MB) 4994A-ENU-Allfiles.exe (11.7 MB)
4995A Programming with the Microsoft .NET Framework Using Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 4995A-ENU-Companion.zip (1.54 MB) 4995A-ENU-Allfiles.exe (20.9 MB)
5047B Introduction to Installing and Managing Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 SP1 5047B-ENU-Companion.zip (2.80 MB) 5047B-ENU-Allfiles.exe (98.7 KB)
5049A Managing Message Security Using Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 5049A-ENU-Companion.zip (3.59 MB) None
5050A Recovering Messaging Servers and Databases Using Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 5050A-ENU-Companion.zip (1.88 MB) None
5060A Implementing Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 5060A-ENU-Companion.zip (5.40 MB) None
5061A Implementing Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 5061A-ENU-Companion.zip (93.4 MB) 5061A-ENU-Allfiles.exe (2.55 MB)
5115B Installing, Configuring, and Troubleshooting Windows Vista 5115B-ENU-Companion.zip (41.5 MB) None
5118B Supporting Windows Vista and Applications in the Enterprise None
5927A Microsoft Office Project 2007, Managing Projects 5927A-ENU-Companion.zip (2.83 MB) None
5928A Microsoft Office Project Server 2007, Managing Projects 5928A-ENU-Companion.zip (2.87 MB) 5928A-ENU-Allfiles.exe (345 KB)
6066A Developing Managed Applications for Windows Mobile 6 6066A-ENU-Companion.zip (4.21 MB) 6066A-ENU-Allfiles.exe (11.0 MB)
6067A Developing Native Applications for Windows Mobile 6 6067A-ENU-Companion.zip (4.10 MB) 6067A-ENU-Allfiles.exe (6.62 MB)
6158C Updating Your Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Skills to SQL Server 2008 None
6214A Effective Team Development Using Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2008 6214A-ENU-Companion.zip (3.36 MB) None
6215A Implementing and Administering Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Team Foundation Server 6215A-ENU-Companion.zip (3.95 MB) None
6231A Maintaining a Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Database 6231A-ENU-Companion.zip (4.16 MB) 6231A-ENU-Allfiles.exe (313 KB)
6231B Maintaining a Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Database 6231B-ENU-Companion.zip (4.11 MB) 6231B-ENU-Allfiles.exe (73.0 MB)
6232A Implementing a Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Database 6232A-ENU-Companion.zip (4.21 MB) 6232A-ENU-Allfiles.exe (222 KB)
6232B Implementing a Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Database 6232B-ENU-Companion.zip (3.47 MB) 6232B-ENU-Allfiles.exe (38.1 MB)
6292A Installing and Configuring Windows 7 6292A-ENU-Companion.zip (3.79 MB) None
6293A Troubleshooting and Supporting Windows 7 in the Enterprise 6293A-ENU-Companion.zip (3.51 MB) None
6294A Planning and Managing Windows 7 Desktop Deployments and Environments 6294A-ENU-Companion.zip (4.42 MB) None
6317A Upgrading Your SQL Server 2000 Database Administration (DBA) Skills to SQL Server 2008 DBA Skills
6331A Deploying and Managing System Center Virtual Machine Manager
6367A Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming with Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 6367A-ENU-Companion.zip (4.19 MB) 6367A-ENU-Allfiles.exe (48.9 MB)
6368A Programming with the Microsoft .NET Framework Using Visual Studio 2008 6368A-ENU-Companion.zip (4.06 MB) 6368A-ENU-Allfiles.exe (90.3 MB)
6416C Updating Your Network Infrastructure and Active Directory Technology Skills to Windows Server 2008 6416C-ENU-Companion.zip (4.85 MB) None
6416D Updating Your Windows Server 2003 Technology Skills to Windows Server 2008 None
6417B Updating your Applications Infrastructure Technology Skills to Windows Server 2008 None
6418C Deploying Windows Server 2008 None
6419A Configuring, Managing, and Maintaining Windows Server 2008 Servers 6419A_ENU-Companion.zip (5.73 MB) 6419A-ENU-Allfiles.exe (46.5 MB)
6419B Configuring, Managing and Maintaining Windows Server 2008-based Servers None
6420B Fundamentals of Windows Server 2008 None
6421B Configuring and Troubleshooting a Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure 6421B-ENU-Companion.zip (4.12 MB) None
6422A Implementing and Managing Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V 6422A-ENU-Companion.zip (2.21 MB) None
6423A Implementing and Managing Windows Server 2008 Clustering None
6425B Configuring and Troubleshooting Windows Server 2008 Active Directory Domain Services 6425B-ENU-Companion.zip (2.87 MB) None
6425C Configuring and Troubleshooting Windows Server 2008 Active Directory Domain Services 6425C-ENU-Companion.zip (4.05 MB) None
6426B Configuring and Troubleshooting Identity and Access Solutions with Windows Server 2008 Active Directory 6426B-ENU-Companion.zip (3.79 MB) None
6426C Configuring and Troubleshooting Identity and Access Solutions with Windows Server 2008 Active Directory 6426C-ENU-Companion.zip (3.32 MB) 6426C-ENU-Allfiles.exe (25.6 MB)
6427A Configuring and Troubleshooting Internet Information Services in Windows Server 2008
6428A Configuring and Troubleshooting Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services 6428A-ENU-Companion.zip (2.20 MB) None
6429A Configuring and Managing Windows Media Services for Windows Server 2008 6429A-ENU-Companion.zip (3.04 MB) 6429A-ENU-Allfiles.exe (39.0 MB)
6430B Planning for Windows Server 2008 Servers 6430B-ENU-Companion.zip (3.67 MB) None
6431A Managing and Maintaining Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure Servers
6432A Managing and Maintaining Windows Server 2008 Active Directory Servers
6433A Planning and Implementing Windows Server 2008 None
6435A Designing a Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure 6435A-ENU-Companion.zip (2.85 MB) None
6436A Designing Active Directory Infrastructure and Services in Windows Server 2008 6436A-ENU-Companion.zip (4.12 MB) None
6437A Designing a Windows Server 2008 Applications Infrastructure 6437A-ENU-Companion.zip (3.09 MB) None
6438A Implementing and Administering Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 in Windows Server 2008 None
6445A Implementing and Administering Windows Small Business Server 2008 6445A-ENU-Companion.zip (3.13 MB) 6445A-ENU-Allfiles.exe (6.55 MB)
6446A Implementing and Administering Windows Essential Business Server 2008 None
6451B Planning, Deploying, and Managing Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 6451B-ENU-Companion.zip (5.22 MB) None
6744A Configuration et résolution des problèmes en utilisant Internet Information Services dans Windows Server® 2008
6745A Internetinformationsdienste in Windows Server® 2008: Konfiguration und Problembehandlung
10231A Designing a Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Infrastructure 10231A-ENU-Companion.zip (3.70 MB) 10231A-ENU-Allfiles.exe (3.60 MB)
10232A Designing and Developing Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Applications 10232A-ENU-Companion.zip (4.09 MB) 10232A-ENU-Allfiles.exe (62.7 MB)
10233A Designing and Deploying Messaging Solutions with Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 10233A-ENU-Companion.zip (3.41 MB) None
10262A Developing Windows Applications with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 10262A-ENU-Companion.zip (4.29 MB) 10262A-ENU-Allfiles.exe (43.2 MB)
10263A Developing Microsoft Windows Communication Foundation Solutions with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 10263A-ENU-Companion.zip (3.44 MB) 10263A-ENU-Allfiles.exe (9.48 MB)
10264A Developing Web Applications with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 10264A-ENU-Companion.zip (4.8 MB) 10264A-ENU-Allfiles.exe (56.6 MB)
10265A Developing Data Access Solutions with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 10265A-ENU-Companion.zip (4.21 MB) 10265A-ENU-Allfiles.exe (120 MB)
10266A Programming in C# with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010
10267A Introduction to Web Development with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 10267A-ENU-Companion.zip (5.87 MB) 10267A-ENU-Allfiles.exe (304 MB)
10324A Implementing and Managing Microsoft Desktop Virtualization 10324A-ENU-Companion.zip (4.51 MB) None
10325A Automating Administration with Windows PowerShell 2.0 10325A-ENU-Companion.zip (3.57 MB) 10325A-ENU-Allfiles.exe (2.67 MB)
10337A Updating Your Microsoft SQL Server 2008 BI Skills to SQL Server 2008 R2 10337A-ENU-Companion.zip (3.76 MB) 10337A-ENU-Allfiles.exe (11.1 MB)

Download or run exe file, good luck.

 

Posted in BI-DW, Cloud, MS SQL Server, MS Windows, SharePoint | Comments Off

Database Engine Tools

Posted by Mehboob on 2011/12/06

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 includes a complete set of tools and command prompt utilities that allow users, programmers, and administrators to:

* Administer and configure SQL Server.

* Determine the catalog information in a copy of SQL Server.

* Design and test queries for retrieving data.

* Copy, import, export, and transform data.

* Provide diagnostic information.

* Start and stop SQL Server.

Command prompt – CMD – utilities that come with Microsoft SQL Server

Utility Description Installed in
bcp Utility Used to copy data between an instance of Microsoft SQL Server and a data file in a user-specified format. <drive>:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Binn
dta Utility Used to analyze a workload and recommend physical design structures to optimize server performance for that workload. <drive>:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Binn
dtexec Utility (SSIS Tool) Used to configure and execute an Integration Services package. A user interface version of this command prompt utility is called DTExecUI, which brings up the Execute Package Utility. <drive>:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\DTS\Binn
dtutil Utility (SSIS Tool) Used to manage SSIS packages. <drive>:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\DTS\Binn
Deployment Utility (Analysis Services – Multidimensional Data) Used to deploy Analysis Services projects to instances of Analysis Services. <drive>:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Binn\VShell\Common7\IDE
osql Utility Allows you to enter Transact-SQL statements, system procedures, and script files at the command prompt. <drive>:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Binn
Profiler Utility Used to start SQL Server Profiler from a command prompt. <drive>:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Binn
rs Utility Used to run scripts designed for managing Reporting Services report servers. <drive>:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Binn
rsconfig Utility Used to configure a report server connection. <drive>:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Binn
rskeymgmt Utility Used to manage encryption keys on a report server. <drive>:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Binn
sqlagent90 Application Used to start SQL Server Agent from a command prompt. x:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\<instance_name>\MSSQL\Binn
sqlcmd Utility Allows you to enter Transact-SQL statements, system procedures, and script files at the command prompt. <drive>:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Binn
SQLdiag Utility Used to collect diagnostic information for Microsoft Customer Service and Support. <drive>:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Binn
sqllogship Application Used by applications to perform backup, copy, and restore operations and associated clean-up tasks for a log shipping configuration without running the backup, copy, and restore jobs. <drive>:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Binn
sqlmaint Utility Used to execute database maintenance plans created in previous versions of SQL Server. x:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10_50.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\Binn
sqlps Utility Used to run PowerShell commands and scripts. Loads and registers the SQL Server PowerShell provider and cmdlets. <drive>:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Binn
sqlservr Application Used to start and stop an instance of Database Engine from the command prompt for troubleshooting. x:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10_50.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\Binn
Ssms Utility Used to start SQL Server Management Studio from a command prompt. <drive>:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Binn\VSShell\Common7\IDE
tablediff Utility Used to compare the data in two tables for non-convergence, which is useful when troubleshooting a replication topology. <drive>:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\COM

Any comments will be learning point.

Mehboob

SQL & SPS DBA – MCTS

Posted in MS SQL Server | Leave a Comment »

SQL Tools

Posted by Mehboob on 2011/11/30

SQL Server Tools

IT Database professionals (database administrators, sql developers, Business Intelligence developers, report builders) require SQL Server tools for :

SQL Database Management Tools
Data Modeling Tools
SQL Monitoring Tools
SQL Tracing Tools
SQL Auditing Tools
Performance Tools
Optimizing / Optimization Tools
Building SQL Jobs
Business Intelligence Tools for developing Business Intelligence applications
DTS Converting and DTS Migration Tools
Data Importing Tools and Data Exporting Tools
Data Transformation – ETL Tools
SQL / T-SQL Rapid Development Tools
SQL Formatter (SQL Formatting Tools)
SQL Server Query Tool
SQL Backup Tools
Database Restore
Log Management
Deployment Tools for deployment of database objects like script deployment, sql job deployment
dealing with high number of servers
Compare Data
Compare Database Schemas and SQL Database Objects
Script Data in Database Tables
Building Reports / Report Development
Intellisense or Autocomplete in SQL Editor
Documenting SQL Objects or Database Documentation

In this list of tools for SQL Server in which users can find sql tools download links from the product developers and software vendors. There are hundered and thousand of tools out there but most of DBA used this tool.

SQL Server Management Tools

EMS SQL Management Studio for SQL Server
SQL Management Studio for SQL Server provides a complete package for all common SQL Server tasks for database administrators and developers.

DBArtisan
DBArtisan is a database administration tool from Embarcadero which aims the maximum availability, performance and security of databases including MS SQL Server DBArtisan provides powerful GUI editor and wizards for DBSa in order to speed routine tasks while minimizing errors for increades productivity.

EMS SQL Manager for SQL Server
EMS SQL Manager for SQL Server is a MS SQL Server administration and database development tool.

Discovery Wizard for SQL Server from Quest Software.
Quest Software is being developing a very useful and handy tool for SQL Server administrators. The SQL tool is in Beta phase and MS SQLServer administrators can download free.
This SQLServer tool enables administrators to gather information about the SQL Server installations in their network.

And what makes this tool unique is that SQL admins can see the users and the network traffic connecting to those MS SQL Server instances and watch this traffic within a period of time.
A must tool for SQL Server administrators especially for those administrators that are new in the company and want to get a summary of the existing MS SQL Server instances in their company network.

Tools for SQL Server – Database Desing and Data Modeling Tools

Embarcadero ER/Studio is a data modeling tool enables database designers document and re-use data assets. ER/Studio enable database desingners reverse engineering so making it easier to analyze and optimize existing SQL Server databases. BI-Tools.

Embarcadero Schema Examiner
Schema Examiner can be used to validate database design errors, and find out schema errors. Schema Examiner prepares sql scripts for resolving the found schema problems.
Schema Examiner can be used to identify problems like missing relationships between sql tables, or incorrect relationships, disabled triggers, required missing indexes on sql tables, etc.

SQL Dependency Tracker

Tools for SQL Server – SQL Monitor and Database Monitoring Tools

SQL Response
SQL Response is a sql monitoring tool SQL Server administrators require much. SQL Response monitors the health of the SQL Server instance and the activity on the server. Administrators can build alerts for notification of problems when they occur on the server. It is easy to monitor sql deadlocks, blocking processes or problems like long running and resource consuming queries.

Zero Impact Sql Monitor
Zero Impact SQL Monitor is an other tool for SQL Server that is used as database monitoring tools. Zero Impact SQL Monitor enables database administrators to monitor performance of their SQL Server database systems without any affect.

SecureSphere Database Activity Monitoring
SecureSphere Database Activity Monitoring is a compact tool for major databases like SQL Server for sql monitoring, auditing and reporting.

SQL Server Tools to Compare Schema

SQL Compare
SQL Compare can be used to compare schemas of two different databases and synchronize SQL database schemas of the sql databases by DDL sql commands. SQL Compare can especially be used between development and test databaases or test and production databases.

DB Comparer for SQL Server
EMS DB Comparer for SQL Server compares SQL Server databases and finds schema differences between sql databases.
DB Comparer for SQL Server prepares sql scripts that can be used to eliminate the database schema differences between SQL Server databases and synchronizing sql database structures.

dbForge Schema Compare for SQL Server
dbForge Schema Compare for SQL Server is used for schema comparison and synchronization between different sql databases. dbForge Schema Compare enables analyze the differences in database structures of development, test and production databases environments. It can build scripts and propagate the desired modifications to a target SQL Server database.

SQL Server Tools Compare Data and Data Synchronization

Data Sync
Data Sync is a data compare and data synchronization tool. An important feature of Data Sync tool from Spectral Core is that Data Sync can compare and synchronize data between two different database servers.

SQL Data Compare
SQL Data Compare is a handy tools for SQL Server professionals in order to compare data in sql tables and if required synchronize SQL database contents by generating sql DML scripts like insert, update or delete.

dbForge Data Compare for SQL Server
dbForge Data Compare for SQL Server enables database workers for easy data comparison and synchronization between different SQL Server databases.

SQL Comparison SDK
SQL Comparison SDK supplies developers an API for reaching Data and Schema comparison tools of Red Gate.

Data Comparer for SQL Server
EMS Data Comparer for SQL Server is a powerful data compare and synchronization tool. Data Comparer for SQL Server can create automatic scripts for eliminating data differences between SQL Server database tables.

SQL Server Backup Tools – SQL Backup and SQL Server Backup Compression Software

SQL Server professionals can find more related information on sql backup compression at SQL Backup Compression Default Option in MS SQL Server 2008 sp_configure Command.
They can also refer to SQL Server Backup Compression Software for more detailed review of SQL Server backup compression software and SQL Server tools for sql backup compression.

SQL Backup
SQL Backup from Red-Gate is a complete sql tool to compress, encrypt and monitor SQL Server backups for SQL Server administrators.

LiteSpeed for SQL Server
One of the SQL Server tools of Quest Software company is the SQL Server Backup and Recovery Tool “LiteSpeed for SQL Server”. LiteSpeed offers secure encrypted backups and fast sql backup compression method for saving from sql backup time and backup storage space. It is also possible using LiteSpeed Backup and Recovery Tool for SQL Server to restore individual database objects. You can also download a 15 day free evaluation and free trial download of this SQL Server Backup and Recovery tool.
For a detailed review on LiteSpeed please refer to LiteSpeed Backup SQL Server Backup Compression Tool.

Task Automation Tools for SQL Server

DB Mail
DB Mail is an automation tool not for sending e-mails from most common databases but can manage automation of sending e-faxes, SMS and cell phone messages, etc. DB Mail is a perfect tool for automating messaging needs of a database application.

Tools for SQL Server Development

Rapid SQL
Rapid SQL from Embarcadero is a tool for database and application developers which can be used to produce high quality SQL code faster. Rapid SQL supports team work environments that will boost the outcome of teams. Rapid SQL easies sql coding and source code control, database object management, reverse-engineering and deployment of a database schema.
Rapid SQL also supplies profiling tools for application and sql developers.

SQL Sets
One of the SQL Server tools that I have found very interesting as well as very useful is the SQL Sets from PrimalBits Software. SQL developers and test teams can create snapshots of data that will be affected during tests before starting the test. After the test is completed sql developers and test team members can create the same snapshot with new data that are changed during the test processes. Comparing two data sets it will be easier to understand what has happened and what went wrong during tests.

SQL Sets also enables SQL users to create Portable Data Documents which are query based data which can be saved and shared between collaborating teams and members. Users can add annotations into portable data documents to highlight important issues related with data. One additional feature of SQL Sets SQL Server tool is SQL developers and SQL Server administrators can easily export sql data in various formats. Developers interested in SQL Sets tool can download the 14-day free trial version from product download page.

SQL Multi Script
SQL Multi Script enables deployment of multiple sql scripts to multiple MS SQL Servers by executing each script on each database with a single click in this tool. SQL Multi Script easies database management tasks on multi servers for administrators. Developers can query multi databases parallel and aggregate results of their queries in case of need.

SQL Assistant
SQL Assistant is a SQL Server tool from SoftTree Technologies. In fact database developers can this database development tool not only for SQL Server but for Oracle, DB2, MS Access, MySQL, etc. Code snippets, SQL syntax check, format code, refactoring, test data generation, unit test, compare code are all very useful features of this SQL Server tool.

SQL Refactor
SQL Refactor can be used by sql programmers for refactoring and formatting sql code in their work.

SQL Prompt
SQL Prompt enables intelligent code completion known as intellisense for sql developers to be used on SQL Server query editors.

SoftTree SQL Assistant
SoftTree SQL Assistant enables a high code quality and accuracy with increased speed in database development and sql coding for database administrators and developers.

DatabaseSpy
DatabaseSpy is a multi-database query editor which enables sql developers to work on one query editor tool on all common databases. DatabaseSpy is also a database design tool for sql administrators.

EMS Advanced Query Builder
EMS Advanced Query Builder is an sql query editor tool in order to build sql statements like Select, Insert, Update and Delete. Query Builder tool has the advantage to work with major databases and with its visual GUI building sql statements is easier without any knowledge of SQL.

EMS SQL Query for SQL Server
EMS SQL Query for SQL Server is a sql query editor tool with a visual editor interface as well as the text query editor. SQL query editor tool also displays query execution plans for t-sql developers.

Toad for SQL Server, SQL Server Management and Development Tool-Set for SQL Administrators and SQL Developers from Quest Software. The development tool for SQL Server “Toad for SQL Server” brings the power of MS Visual Studio and SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) together and makes it easy for DBA ‘s and developers their daily tasks.

For example, comparing schemas and synchronizing schemas. Also data compare and synchronization is made easier. It is possible to run an SQL script on more than one instances so developers can work on multiple SQL Server instances using the Toad for SQL Server. Besides these, managing SQL Server jobs is an additional feature for this SQL Server tool.

SQL Server Tools – Test Data Generator

SQL Data Generator
Red-Gate SQL Data Generator is a SQL Server tool for developers or testers in order to ease production development stages with automatically populating sql databases with realistic test data. You can refer to tutorial Create Test Data using SQL Data Generator as an example on this tool.

Data Generator for SQL Server
Data Generator for SQL Server can be used by database testers and application programmers to generate test data for MS SQL Server database tables. There is also a tutorial for Creating test data using EMS Data Generator for SQL Server as an example on this sql data generation tool.

Datanamic DB Data Generator
Database developer can use DB Data Generator as a SQL Server tool for creating meaninful test data in order to test their applications. One of the features of DB Data Generator is that it can use a well enough mask for string values while generating test data. If you want more information on this tool please read my review at SQL Data Generator – Generate Test Data for SQL Server Using Datanamic DB Data Generator Tool.

SQL Server Tools for Documentation

SQL Doc
SQL Doc is a handy documentation tool for sql developers who wants to document their databases. SQL Doc can create database documentation from database schema and build descriptions for database objects like tables, views, and even for columns. Documentation includes internal or external database dependencies for the related database objects.
Developers can build database documentation in HTML format or MS Word format.

Document! X 2008
Document! X documentation tool helps admins and developers creating and maintaining the documentation of databases including MS SQL Server.

Documenter for SQL Server
Documenter for SQL Server enables SQL Server database administrators prepare a full documentation of their databases covering all of the database objects. DBAS can prepare quickly cross-linked HTML documentation or Windows Help File (in CHM format) documentation of all database objects by parsing database properties.

SQL Server References

SQL Safari
SQL Safari is a reference resource for SQL Server administrators and sql developers. SQL Safari enables full access to most appretiated SQL Server books from Safari Books Online

 

SQL Server Database Schema Management Tools

SQL Packager
SQL Packager tools is used to package and compress schema and the database contents of a SQL Server database.

 

SQL Server Log Management Tools

SQL Log Rescue
SQL Log Rescue is log analysis tool which IT professionals can use for viewing details in SQL Server logs and information on database transactions. DBAs can also use SQL Log Rescue records in order to get lost data back in case you have accidentally delete, or modify data in a database.

SQL Audit Tool

DB Audit Expert
DB Audit Expert is a professional sql auditing tool for SQL Server. System, database and security administrators as well as auditors can use DB Audit Expert as an sql audit tool.
DB Audit Expert enables tracking and analyzing database activity about database security, data access and usage, data creation, data updates or data deletion.

SSW SQL Auditor
SSW SQL Auditor or SQLAuditor is a tool for big development teams to ensure Quality Assurance. Database designers can trace if best practice standards are applied to the SQL Server application by running SQL Auditor. SQL Auditor sql audit tool can be assumed as the FxCop for SQL Server development teams. This tool can find database desing problems and fix them, can identify sql naming problems, can find missing relations, missing primary keys, foreign keys, etc.

Lumigent Audit DB
Audit DB is a sql auditing software package from Lumigent. Audit DB is a perfect solution for data auditing and security policy management. SQL Server database administrators can easily detect unauthorized access to data and can follow privileged database users activity. Security administrators can publish security policies and can ensure and control that the security policy management is working successfully. One more important feature of the Lumigent Audit DB sql auditing software is that it comply with data protection and data security regulations like 21CFR11, Basel II, HIPAA, PCI, SB1386, Sarbanes-Oxley, etc.

ApexSQL Audit
ApexSQL Audit is an sql auditing tool from Apex. It can track DML statements and save audit data into an other seperate SQL database.
ApexSQL Audit tool has also command line support.

OmniAudit
OmniAudit SQL Server Auditing tool is easy to install and easy to use sql audit tool. By activating OmniAudit on any database, table and field, database administrators can identify which field in which table has been altered by which user. SQL auditing tool also reports before update and after update data values as well as change time. OmniAudit also fullfills the Compliance Requirements of regulations like FDA Part 11, HIPAA, PCI-CISP, Sarbanes-Oxley, etc.

Business Intelligence Tools (BI Tools)

PrismCubed
PrismCubed enables developers and database professionals build business intelligence applications within short periods of time. PrismCubed provides ETL (Extract – Transform – Load) functions with huge amounts of data. Provides a simply interface for users to filter data, analyze data and visualize data.

DTS xChange
DTS xChange is one of the most searched tools in the market which convert DTS packages to SSIS 2005 or SSIS 2008 packages. The Business Intelligence tool DTS xChange from Pragmatic Works Software can successfully migrate existing SQL Server 2000 DTS packages to new SQL Server Integration Services SSIS packages. A very little manual work is left to SQL BI developers after DTS xChange is used for migration DTS packages.

Your opinion, suggestions and comments are highly appreciated.

Mehboob

SQL – SPS DBA, MCTS

 

Posted in BI-DW, MS SQL Server | Leave a Comment »

Info SQL Server 2012 RC

Posted by Mehboob on 2011/11/30

Download SQL Server 2012 RC

Microsoft has released the new SQL Server product Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Release Candidate 0 (RC0) on 17th of November, 2011 for Data Platform professionals to evaluate and analyze what is new in SQL Server 2012. The SQL Server 2012 RC0 downloads are better organized and the main sub-product lines within the SQL Server Data Platform has been highlighted with seperate downloads options for SQL Server administrators and SQL Server developers.

You can continue Microsoft Downloads web portal to download Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Release Candidate 0 (RC0). But unfortunately this main SQL2012 download page offers a unique download .iso image file “ENU\SQLFULL_ENU.iso” with 4.4 GB in size. This single SQLFULL_ENU.iso image download contains both x86 and x64 editions of SQL Server 2012 RC0 so it may be unreasonable to download and both SQL Server 2012 editions.

I’ll suggest database administrators and transact-sql developers to check the SQL Server 2012 download page on Microsoft Beta Experience.

As you can see from above screenshot of the Microsoft Beta Experience SQL Server download page, IT professionals can download and try evaluation version in 32-bit version or in 64-bit version options. Of course SQL Server 2012 is available in languages US English, French, Italian, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese, Japanese and in Korean for the first Release Candidate RC0 version.

32-bit and 64-bit SQL Server 2012 download files are around 2.15GB
 

 

Download Sample Database AdventureWorks for SQL Server 2012

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 database administrators and T-SQL developers can download sample database AdventureWorks for SQL Server 2012, Denali CTP3. A sample database like AdventureWorks will be very helpful to demonstrate the capabilities of SQL Server Database Engine, and other database components in action. Especially for new enhancements, AdventureWorks database built for this task is great help for SQL Server developers and SQL Server administrators.

Download AdventureWorks Sample Database
AdventureWorks sample database for SQL Server 2012, Denali CTP3 can be downloaded from HERE CodePlex. If link doesn’t work so please visit www.codeplex.com

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 CTP3 Download

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Denali CTP3 is released at 07/13/2011 for SQL Server IT professionals to enable them review the next version of SQL Server from first hand. The data platform administrators and developers can free download MS SQL Server 2012 Denali CTP3 version from Microsoft Beta Experience portal using url https://www.microsoft.com/betaexperience/pd/SQLDCTP3CTA/enus/. The current SQL Server 2012 download is provided in 32bit and 64 bit binaries in English, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Japanese and Russian.

Before downloading below setup files, remember that Microsoft renamed the SQL Server Denali as SQL Server 2012 which was expected as SQL Server 2011 or SQL11. If you meet so called SQL Server 2011 or SQL11 versions, remember that these are the CTP releases of the early beta versions of SQL Server 2012.

SQL Server Denali CTP3 download includes 4 SQL Server download files :

For 32 bit SQL Server 2012 installation files :
SQL Denali LCA EN.html, 1 KB ReadMe file
SQLFULL_x86_ENU_Install.exe, about 94 KB installation file
SQLFULL_x86_ENU_Core.box, about 1.7 GB x86 32-bit SQL Server 2012 Edition
SQLFULL_x86_ENU_Lang.box, about 570 MB

For 64 bit SQL Server 2012 installation files :
SQL Denali LCA EN.html, 1 KB ReadMe file
SQLFULL_x64_ENU_Install.exe, about 94 KB installation file
SQLFULL_x64_ENU_Core.box, about 1.8 GB x64 64-bit SQL Server 2012 Edition
SQLFULL_x64_ENU_Lang.box, about 620 MB

For free download of SQL Server 2012 Express edition and new SQL Express LocalDB edition, IT professionals can go to Microsoft Downloads portal Denali Express Core CTP3 download page.

Download Microsoft SQL Server 2012 CTP1 (aka SQL Server Denali CTP1)

Microsoft has released the next version of SQL Server, Microsoft SQL Server 2012 code-name SQL Server Denali CTP1 (Community Technology Preview 1) on 11/8/2010.
SQL Server database professional waiting first SQL Server 2012 CTP before the new year.
As assumed Microsoft has released MS SQL Server 2012 for free community download.
As we have used to, the first release of SQL Server Denali is the Community Technology Preview 1 or Microsoft SQL Server 2012, Denali CTP 1.
SQL Server database administrators and developers can find the Microsoft SQL Server 2012 download links below.

Please note that it is possible that in next months we will ne presented a new version of SQL Server 2012 Denali CTP which will contain less bugs, more stable, more functional.
This next version will be named as Microsoft SQL Server 2012 CTP 2. I will announce the SQL Server 2012 CTP download links here as soon as the next CTP is released. I assume that the next CTP of SQL Server 2012 release date will be within 4 months.

After SQL Server 2012 CTP releases (Community Technology Preview), we will be able to try free SQL Server 2012 Beta version. Just a few months later the RTM release of the Microsoft SQL Server 2012 will be released to manufacture. You can find the Microsoft SQL Server 2012 download links for various builds here in this page.

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 CTP Download

SQL Server Denali CTP1 download includes 4 SQL Server download files :

Readme SQL Server Denali CTP1, 12 KB read me file. Download from “http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/6/B/A6BA76B8-BA7D-4408-A93A-F5EF8A1E1DD5/Readme_SQLServerDenaliCTP1.htm” Readme

SQLFULL_x86_ENU.exe, about 1.3 GB x86 32-bit SQL Server 2012 Enterprise Evaluation Edition download from “http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/6/B/A6BA76B8-BA7D-4408-A93A-F5EF8A1E1DD5/SQLFULL_x86_ENU.exe”
SQLFULL_x64_ENU.exe, about 1.5 GB x64 64-bit SQL Server 2012 Enterprise Evaluation Edition download from “http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/6/B/A6BA76B8-BA7D-4408-A93A-F5EF8A1E1DD5/SQLFULL_x64_ENU.exe” X64 version

It is also possible to download SQL Server Denali in .iso image file mode :
SQLFULL_ENU.iso about 2.8 GB in size downloadable from “http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/6/B/A6BA76B8-BA7D-4408-A93A-F5EF8A1E1DD5/SQLFULL_ENU.iso” SQL Server 2012 Full

Please note that starting with SQL Server 2012, Denali CTP 1 Itanium based installations are not supported any longer.

Before starting to download SQL Server 2012 CTP 1, note that SQL Server Denali is only supported on Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2, or on Windows Vista Service Pack 2 operating systems.
So if you are still using Windows XP computers, it is not possible to install SQL Server 2012 Denali on Windows XP.
For further SQL Server 2012 Requirements please refer to Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Requirements.
Mehboob

SQL – SPS DBA – MCTS

Posted in MS SQL Server | Leave a Comment »

SharePoint 2010 Architectures

Posted by Mehboob on 2011/11/28

Provided by:  Ricky Kirkham, Microsoft Corporation

Technologies for Creating SharePoint Applications. Provided by:Eric White, Microsoft Corporation

 

Posted in SharePoint | Comments Off

Windows 8

Posted by Mehboob on 2011/11/23

Microsoft created the Windows 8 setup process with A & B types of users in mind:

A.People who want to easily upgrade without any hassle; and
B.People who want to run a clean install and tap into advanced options to control their disk and partition settings.

One of the first enhancements can be found in the delivery of Windows 8.

Beyond offering the new OS on a standard boxed DVD, Microsoft will also make it available to customers via the Web. Users can download and even install the product directly online from start to finish.

The Web setup process also integrates the product key, sparing people from having to manually enter it. Users who want more control over the installation can also run an advanced setup from a DVD or USB key.

Microsoft has also combined several tools to simplify the Windows 8 upgrade. In Windows 7, the company offered both an upgrade advisor to tell users which applications were compatible with the new OS and Windows Easy Transfer to save and restore key files and settings. Now both tools are fully integrated into the Windows 8 setup.

So a user who upgrades to Windows 8 will encounter one single end-to-end process and as few as 11 clicks, compared with the four different products and up to 60 screens required to jump to Windows 7.

Windows 8 users should also see the entire upgrade fly by faster. For Windows 7, each needed file and document would be moved one by one and then moved back once the installation was done. The Windows 8 installation will move entire folders instead, thereby speeding up the process. Other tweaks also promise a quicker upgrade experience.

Finally, advanced users and IT professionals alike will be able to choose from a range of options to give them full control over their upgrades and migrations.

Improving the setup experience

Minimizing restarts after automatic updating in Windows Update

Designing search for the Start screen

“With Windows 8 setup we have greatly improved both speed and ease of use, while still retaining all of the advanced setup functionality that many customers will demand,” St. Pierre explained. “We have integrated what was once many separate steps for people to perform when preparing and starting their setup into a streamlined user experience, with a fast and reliable setup engine under the hood.”

Posted in MS Windows | Comments Off

MCM SQL Server 2008

Posted by Mehboob on 2011/11/23

Did you know that based on the Microsoft Certifications you’ve achieved, you meet the certification prerequisites for the Microsoft Certified Master (MCM) SQL Server 2008 certification?

Consider taking your career to the next level with MCM SQL Server 2008. Through virtual classroom and self-paced training, online practice labs, and challenging exams; the MCM program provides the most experienced and talented IT professionals with worldwide validation and recognition of their in-depth technical expertise in using SQL Server.

Why become an MCM for SQL Server 2008?
When you earn MCM certification, you join – and can share knowledge with – an exclusive community of top SQL Server experts worldwide. Your name and technical services will be promoted on the Microsoft website. You can stand out to your employer and customers because your certification is proof of your advanced technical expertise in SQL Server. In a 2010 survey of MCMs, over 60% of respondents reported that the MCM certification increased their requests for participation in active projects. Moreover, Microsoft Partners have told us that they have won customer engagements primarily because they have MCMs on staff.

Get ready for the MCM Exams
Microsoft offers a number of options to help prepare candidates for the required Knowledge Exam and Lab Exam for MCM SQL Server 2008:

SQL Server 2008 MCM Accelerated Exam Preparation Program
The program has two components:

  • SQL MCM Sessions: A scheduled series of seven weeks of live online sessions with a presenter who is a SQL Server MCM, covering review of an exam topic and open Q&A time. There will be two two-hour sessions delivered weekly, with each week focusing on one of the seven Exam topic areas. Sessions start November 29, 2011 and seats are limited.
  • SQL MCM Labs: A two month subscription to an anytime-access lab environment for practicing with 20 SQL MCM-level labs in a hosted SQL Server VM environment. The labs will be associated with the weekly exam topics. Lab access starts November 21, 2011 and continues until January 20, 2012.

You may choose either or both of the two components, based on your learning needs. Find out more and register.

Anytime access to practice labs
Want to make use of the same practice labs described above, but don’t need the full two month subscription? Subscribe to one week or one month of lab access instead. These options are available NOW, so register today.

Additional Preparation Resources
Microsoft also provides a collection of free preparation resources including MCM SQL Server 2008 instructor video lectures, as well as recommended books and white papers.

With exam preparation resources so readily available, and the benefits of certification so apparent, now is the time to achieve recognition as one of the top SQL Server experts in the world. Visit the MCM SQL Server 2008 program website to learn more about taking your career to the next level with MCM certification.

Microsoft Certified Master Program Team:  Contact us with questions

Recently i achived my certification for SharePoint 2010, Configuration & SharePoint Administrator 2010 certification – MCTS.

 

Mehboob

SQL-SPS DBA – MCTS

Posted in MS SQL Server | Comments Off

10 advices to young people

Posted by Mehboob on 2011/11/07

Bill Gates’ 10 advices to young people

May be this is not a right place to publish Bill Gates artical but it is worth to read it.

Before retiring in July 2008, Bill Gates gave the following advices to high school students. You can get good learning experience to enhance yourself and get motivated from these valuable advices.

“Life is not fair – get used to it.” The world is never fair. You know this. You can never change the whole world. Injustice still exists in the current society, so you should try to adapt.

“The world won’t care about your self-esteem”. The world will expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself. Your extreme self-esteem may make your job inconvenient. Don’t attach too much significance on your self-esteem as people care about your achievements rather than it.

“You will NOT make 40 thousand dollars a year right out of high school. You won’t be a vice president with car phone, until you earn both.” Normally you can’t be rich if you have just finished high school. However to become an executive, you need to obtain both: a high school certificate and the money.

“If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. He doesn’t have tenure.” Don’t complain that your boss is tough. When you are at school, your teachers always stand by you whenever you meet problems. However if you have thought that all your problems really come from the hard requirements of your teachers, you shouldn’t look for a job. Simply if there aren’t strict demands from your company, you will do nothing and quickly become unemployed. Then nobody will give you a hand.

“If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.” Don’t blame your failure on your destiny. All you need now is to stay calm and start from scratch.

“Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes, and listening to you talk about how cool you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent’s generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.”

You should show your gratefulness to your parents for spending most of their lives for your living and growth. All the “outdated” of your parents today is the price they have to pay for your growth.

“Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life may not. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they’ll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.”

Keep in mind that you can always become a leader, so that you will have more motivation to strive for your career.

“Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time.”

Don’t always wait for holidays or you will be left behind your colleagues. That backwardness means elimination and unemployment.

“Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.”
Everybody likes watching TV, but you shouldn’t watch it too much. As that actually isn’t your life and your thinking will be influenced. You yourself have to determine your own life.

“Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.”

You should be nice to everyone. Life has happenings you could never expect. Be open to your boss; don’t say bad things behind his back as it will bring you nowhere.

7 Key Lessons from a Greatest Leader of all times – Bill Gates

After more than three decades of entrepreneurship, Bill provided a great sense of achievement for himself and revolutionized the rest of the computer industry. Out of his experiences, he shares key lessons to guide us all through.

Success comes with a Great Vision

“Every business and household must have a computer and must run Microsoft software”, was the basic guiding vision of Bill Gates. When people in the world were not even aware of the software industry’s future, when people were unaware of the unknown, here was a man who had full confidence on his gut feel, and had the passion and zeal to take the vision the farthest possible way. He was almost there achieving his vision. This clear vision of him won him success and glory and made him the richest person in the world for 13 continuous long years.

Failures are learning lessons:

Bill Gates says “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” This says that Bill Gates was never afraid of losing and went on to win a lot of deals because of this. While the Microsoft windows operating system is the widely used in the world, there are a good number of criticisms and unhappiness about the software among the users. While many of them used to get bugged using Microsoft products, Bill Gates did not easily give up. He took all those as nice lesson and is improving every single day.

Higher the Self Esteem the better it gets

When you start achieving something big, there will be people who would want to make fun of your efforts, criticize and try to pull you down. The stronger you stand the bolder you get the faster these negatives fade.

Opportunity knocks once

Bill Gates took up the accountability of being the Chief Software Architect; Bill Gates was nurturing Microsoft by building a wide spectrum of products. This was not just to capitalize on the knowledge but also to provide the best by understanding the requirement of the people. He did not wait for people to ask what they wanted and instead made a revolution of creating an opportunity for himself and his company by innovating. He did not sit and do something that anyone could, but he took the reins into his hands to take Microsoft to these great heights.

Action Speaks Louder

This is one never mentioned secret of success. Action is the key word, when logic never drives us its emotions. We must have that emotional strength in us to act, to perform. Bill Gates as a small young boy never had anything to lose which he kept telling his good friend Paul Allen. When he had several odds against him such as the American Law and several cases against him, he still without fail took action by developing more software, which the people wanted. This made him a super star overnight. If not for Bill Gates, Microsoft would have not seen the light today of what it gets. This was because of his persistence and constant delivery of ideas to his Goals and vision.

He was a drop out from one of the world’s best universities the Harvard and not everyone from there went to achieve great heights like Bill Gates did, which reiterates the basic fact that education is just a tool for success and does not define success itself. During the convocation address at the Harvard university, Bill Gates mentioned that good he came when they were graduating and not when during the time when they joined the university else they would have changed their mind.

Trust- An unwritten rule for great leadership wisdom

Right from day 1 at Microsoft, Bill Gates was very open to the ideas. This he also proved later when Steve Balmer stepped into the shoes of Bill Gates and became the CEO of the company. He always believed that there is no end to learning from people, from books and so on. “I really had a lot of dreams when I was a kid, and I think a great deal of that grew out of the fact that I had a chance to read a lot”, says Bill Gates. Ready for more ideas to float around which will make sure that the same culture of innovation continues in Microsoft even without his presence.

Success must never get on to the head

This is by far the best lesson what we learn from Bill Gates. At a tender age of 21, Bill Gates had achieved many a things beyond money and fame. This did not allow him to stop achieving and always had the drive to achieve great heights. “If I’d had some set idea of a finish line, don’t you think I would have crossed it years ago?” quote Bill Gates with utmost passion and determination.

Never stop learning was the Mantra of Bill Gates which he follows until date. This makes him a Great Leader of our times. He will always be remembered as an icon and even without his presence in Microsoft; he would still be regarded as a great inventor and a real genius with respect to Business, Technology and Entrepreneurship.

More info visit here ..

 

Posted in BI-DW, Cloud, MS SQL Server, MS Windows, SharePoint | 1 Comment »

SQL Server Code Name “Denali”

Posted by Mehboob on 2011/11/03

SQL Server Code Name “Denali” CTP3

Reason to Love SQL Server 2012
SQL Server 2012 helps enable security and compliance with added built-in security and IT controls.

 

Download Microsoft System Center 2012 Pre-Release Products

See how they can help you manage your physical and virtual IT environments. Also watch the TechNet Edge video Mobile Device Management in Configuration Manager 2012 and check out Private Cloud Deployment with Service Template in VMM 2012.

Posted in MS SQL Server | 1 Comment »

SQL Server 2012

Posted by Mehboob on 2011/10/20

 

Microsoft disclosed SQL Server 2012 as the final name of its upcoming release during the Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) Summit. See what customers are already saying about the value SQL Server 2012 will bring to their business. Download the SQL Server CTP3 beta and try it out.

* Download SQL Server Connector for Hadoop
Microsoft SQL Server Connector for Apache Hadoop is a Sqoop-based connector that facilitates efficient data transfer between SQL Server 2008 R2 and Hadoop.

* Video: Learning the Basics in System Center VMM 2012
System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 (SCVMM 2012) offers a new interface and new features for managing virtual machines, applications, and your cloud environments. In this video we are going to start with the basics – how to find and add a hypervisor host to the SCVMM interface, how to create hardware and software profiles, and finally, how to create virtual machines.

Khan – SQL DBA, SPA – MCTS

Posted in MS SQL Server | Comments Off

SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 3

Posted by Mehboob on 2011/10/20

SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 3
Version: 10.00.5500.00 Date Published: 10/6/2011

SQL Server 2008 SP3 contains fixes to issues that have been reported through our customer feedback platforms, and hotfix solutions provided in SQL Server 2008 SP2 Cumulative Update 1 through Cumulative Update 4. Service Pack 3 also includes supportability enhancements and issues that have been reported through Windows Error Reporting.

Download SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 3 …

Let me know if you have any other question.

Khan – SQLDBA, SPA -MCTS

 

Posted in MS SQL Server | Comments Off

1 person dies & 100 million cry

Posted by Mehboob on 2011/10/15

1 person dies & 100 million cry, 1 million die and no one cries. Is this 2011 ?

 

Your thoughts would greatly appreciate, leave your comments ….

Posted in BI-DW, Cloud, MS SQL Server, MS Windows, SharePoint | 1 Comment »

SharePoint 2010 Certifications

Posted by Mehboob on 2011/10/13

SharePoint 2010 Certifications

Microsoft have listened and decided to make 2 professional level certifications available for SharePoint. In SharePoint 2010 you will now be able to get certified as an MCITP and MCPD for SharePoint as well as the usual MCTS certifications.

IT Pros: New on for IT Pros are 2 certifications. MCTS SharePoint 2010 Configuring and MCITP SharePoint 2010.

•70-667 : Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Configuring
Microsoft Official Curriculum: Will cover configuration of SharePoint 2010 including deployment, upgrade, management, and operation on a server farm.

•70-668 PRO: SharePoint 2010, Administrator
Microsoft Official Curriculum: Will cover advanced SharePoint 2010 topics including capacity planning, topology designing, and performance tuning.

For developers, check here..

Also for developers there will be 2 new certifications. MCTS SharePoint 2010 Application Development and MCPD SharePoint 2010.

•70-573 : Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Application Development
Microsoft Official Curriculum: Five-day instructor-led course designed for developers with six months or more of .NET development experience. Course covers what you need to know to be an effective member of a SharePoint development team using Visual Studio 2010.

•70-576 PRO: Designing and Developing Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Applications

Microsoft Official Curriculum: Five-day instructor-led training course designed for development team leads who have already passed the Developing on SharePoint 2010 technical specialist exam. The course covers choosing technologies for and scoping a SharePoint project, best practices for SharePoint development, configuring a SharePoint development environment, advanced use of SharePoint developer features, and debugging of code in a SharePoint project.

These new certifications also feed into the Microsoft Certified Master certification for SharePoint 2010. The MCM for SharePoint 2007 required 4 MCTS certifications whereas the 2010 version will require the MCPD and MCITP for SharePoint 2010. The experience requirements have not yet been release nor has the how the upgrade will work from MCM 2007 to MCM 2010.

There will be no upgrade path from the MCTS 2007 to MCITP/MCPD 2010 due to the fact that there are Pro level certifications for 2007 making the upgrade process redundant.

More information can be got on the MS Partners site HERE

Posted in SharePoint | Comments Off

Health Analyzer SP 2010

Posted by Mehboob on 2011/10/13

Run database maintenance Health Analyzer rules.

SharePoint 2010 with the Health Analyzer rules framework. This rules framework is configured with a number of rules to monitor the health and well-being of a ShärePoint environment and in some instances takes action to correct certain types of issues.

SharePoint 2010 ships with several rules pertinent to content database maintenance. There are rules that automatically reduce index fragmentation for some SharePoint databases, and rules that check for outdated statistics, updating them if necessary. These Health Analyzer rules replace the updated Database Statistics timer job introduced in Service Pack 2 for SharePoint  Technologies.  By default, these rules are configured to execute on a schedule that varies from daily, weekly, to on-demand depending on the rule target.

All Health Analyzer rules that are configured to execute daily and associated with a particular SharePoint service are executed by the same timer job. Adjusting the scheduling of this timer job will adjust when Health Analyzer rules configured for daily execution and associated to that service will execute during the day. All rules discussed in this white paper are associated to the SharePoint Timer service.

Health Analyzer rules configured to execute on a different time interval ((such as weekly), depend upon your needs) or associated with a different service have distinct timer jobs. Configuring a Health Analyzer rule to execute weekly would mean that that Health Analyzer rule will execute with the timer job configured to execute weekly for the specific service that the Health Analyzer rule is associated to. This execution will occur on whatever schedule has been defined for that timer job.

Health Analyzer rules may be run manually by selecting ―”"” Run Now from the ribbon “”"” from within the Health Analyzer Rules page in Central Administration. Running these rules will cause the health of indexes and statistics to be evaluated, and cause index rebuilds and recalculations as appropriate.

Databases used by SharePoint have fragmented indices – When you run this rule, the following tasks are performed:

* The rule reports indexes as being fragmented. This is because evaluating index health is an expensive operation. As a result of the details of Health Analyzer rule execution, this rule will always reports indexes as being fragmented in order to trigger the corrective action.
* For each SharePoint database, the rule action looks for, and if found, executes the proc_DefragmentIndices stored procedure. During the execution of this stored procedure, a listing of all indexes within the database is built. Each index is evaluated as to its present level of fragmentation. Any indexes fragmented in excess of 30 percent are considered for rebuild.
* Assuming the edition of SQL Server supports online index rebuilds, an online index rebuild is attempted for each index. Should this fail, perhaps because the underlying index does not support online rebuilds due to the use of LOB columns, an offline index rebuild will be performed.

As noted above, not every database in a SharePoint environment is serviced by this rule. Certain databases use different rules to perform similar maintenance activities.

Search (Search engine is huge topic)- One or more crawl databases may have fragmented indices – This rule maintains the indexes within the SharePoint 2010 Enterprise Search Crawl Databases. This rule is configured by default to only execute on demand. When executed, it will execute from any server in the farm.

This rule, when executed, will always report indexes in the crawl databases as being fragmented. This is due to the expensive nature of checking for fragmentation within a database. As a result, simply disabling the ‗Repair‘ activity for this rule will result in all crawl databases being reported as unhealthy, even when the crawl databases have had their indexes recently rebuilt.

To manually manage the maintenance of indexes within crawl databases, you should disable the ‗Search – One or more crawl databases may have fragmented indices‘ rule in its entirety.
When you run the ‗Search – One or more crawl databases may have fragmented indices‘ the following tasks are performed:

* The rule confirms that the environment is in a state in which performing an index rebuild is safe.
* For each Crawl database configured for search applications within the local farm, the rule executes the proc_MSS_DefragGathererIndexes stored procedure.
* Each index within the Crawl database performance in the list is rebuilt. If the edition of SQL Server supports online index rebuilds, an önline index rebuild is performed. If an önline index rebuild is attempted, but fails, the index will be rebuilt offline.

It is important to note that the ‗Search – One or more crawl databases may have fragmented indices‘ rule will rebuild every index within all Crawl databases regardless of fragmentation level. It will also enable page level data compression, if supported by the edition of SQL Server that is hosting the Crawl database.

Due to the nature of the Crawl database, it is not anticipated that you will need to defragment this database frequently. Execute this rule after you have first performed a full crawl over your content. Afterwards, monitor the indexes within the Crawl database for fragmentation, and execute this rule whenever index fragmentation grows. This may occur as a result of the sudden addition or removal of a large amount of crawled content – for example, during content expulsion as a result of environmental cleanup, or after the onboarding of a new content source, such as a file share or large SharePoint Web application.

The following databases do not have an automated mechanism in place for their maintenance. These databases are not anticipated to encounter a great deal of fragmentation. Monitor these databases for fragmentation, and rebuild indexes within these databases when fragmentation exceeds 30%.

* Search Administration Database
* Secure Store Database
* State Service Database
* Profile Sync Database
* Usage Database
* Managed Metadata Database
* Business Connectivity Services Database
* PerformancePoint Services Database

Please visit för more information about the changes that are supported for SharePoint 2010 databases, see Support for changes to the databases that are used by Office server products and by Windows SharePoint Services (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=110844&clcid=0×409) in the Microsoft Knowledge Base.

If the performance of a heavily fragmented database or table is not measurably improved by frequent defragmentation, you should check the performance of the I/O subsystem.

Reducing fragmentation for a specific table and its indexes: defragment an index associated with a particular table rather than an entire database, you can either reorganize or rebuild the index.

* Reorganizing an index specifies that the index leaf level will be reorganized. Index reorganization defragments and compacts clustered and nön-clustered indexes on tables and views and can significantly improve index scanning performance. Reorganizing an index makes use of the existing space allocated to the index. Reorganization is always performed online, so that the underlying table is available to users.
* Rebuilding an index specifies that an entirely new copy of the index will be rebuilt. This means that a rebuild operation requires enough extra space to build the new copy of the index before removing the old, fragmented index. Rebuilding improves the performance of index scans and seeks. You can rebuild the index with a table either önline or öffline.

The fragmentation level of an index determines the method you should use to defragment it, and whether it can remain online, or should be taken offline. The table describes the defragmentation method that is recommended for different fragmentation levels.

IMP: Using the DROP INDEX and CREATE INDEX commands is not supported on SharePoint 2010 databases.

Posted in SharePoint | Comments Off

The database maintenance tasks for SharePoint 2010

Posted by Mehboob on 2011/10/13

The database maintenance tasks supported for SharePoint 2010.

The recommended maintenance tasks for SharePoint 2010 databases include:
* Checking database integrity.
* Defragmenting indexes by either reorganizing them or rebuilding them.
* Setting the fill factor for a server.

Database maintenance and not planning for capacity or performance. För information about capacity or capacity planning, see Storage and SQL Server capacity planning and configuration
(SharePoint Server 2010) http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=217482.

SharePoint required manual intervention to perform index defragmentation and statistics maintenance, SharePoint 2010 automates this process for its databases. This is accomplished by several SharePoint Health Analyzer rules. These rules evaluate the health of database indexes and statistics daily, and will automatically address these items for these databases:

* Configuration Databases
* Content Databases
* User Profile Service Application Profile Databases
* User Profile Service Application Social Databases
* Web Analytics Service Application Reporting Databases
* Web Analytics Service Application Staging Databases
* Word Automation Services Databases

Database maintenance tasks can be also performed by either executing Transact-SQL commands, or running the Database Maintenance Wizard. We will initially present the Transact-SQL commands that you can use, and then explain how to create database maintenance plans by using the Microsoft SQL Server® Database Maintenance Wizard.

Check for consistency errors by using DBCC CHECKDB
Start your routine maintenance operations with consistency checks to ensure that your data and indexes are not corrupted. You can use the DBCC
CHECKDB statement to perform an internal consistency check of the data and index pages.
The most of database consistency problems are caused by I/O subsystem errors.

Database consistency checks should be performed at least once per week on your SharePoint 2010 databases, and whenever events such as database server or I/O subsystem failures occur.

DBCC CHECKDB:
DBCC CHECKDB checks the logical and physical integrity of all the objects in the specified database by performing the following operations:
1. Runs the equivalent of DBCC CHECKALLOC (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=110815&clcid=0×409) to verify the allocation structures in the database.
2. Runs the equivalent of DBCC CHECKTABLE (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=162093) on every table and view in the database to verify their logical and physical integrity.
3. Runs the equivalent of DBCC CHECKCATALOG (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=110834&clcid=0×409) on the database to verify its metadata consistency.

Running DBCC CHECKDB WITH REPAIR_ALLOW_DATA_LOSS is not supported. However, running DBCC_CHECKDB WITH REPAIR_FAST and REPAIR_REBUILD is supported, as these commands only update the indexes of the associated database.

DBCC CHECKDB and performance:
DBCC CHECKDB causes blocking” (http://www.sqlskills.com/BLOGS/PAUL/post/A-SQL-Server-DBA-myth-a-day-(230)-DBCC-CHECKDB-causes-blocking.aspx). by Paul S. Randal.
You may find that the resource overhead of running DBCC CHECKDB is too high for your production system. In that case, do not attempt to run consistency checks one table at a time as this will be more problematic overall. The best ways to reduce the integrity-checking overhead on the production system

Posted in SharePoint | Comments Off

World Database and OS

Posted by Mehboob on 2011/10/12

JDBC database provides the ability to connect to databases via JDBC on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and Unix machines. There is very little work on the user’s end. World Database RDBMS – ANSI sql:1999, sql 2008 Standard, Database concept & terms is same. Syntax have minor/some different in all world database

•DB2
•Derby / JavaDB
•Firebird
•FrontBase
•HSQLDB
•Informix
•MS SQL Server
•MySQL
•OpenBase
•Oracle
•PostgreSQL
•SQLite
•Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise
•Sybase SQL Anywhere

Other databases using JDBC, such as Daffodil, H2, Ingres, Interbase, Mckoi, Mimer, Pervasive, Pointbase, Solid, and Teradata.

Enhanced Features
•DB2
•Derby
•Firebird
•FrontBase
•H2
•HSQLDB
•Informix
•Ingres
•Interbase
•JavaDB
•MySQL
•OpenBase
•Oracle
•Pervasive
•PostgreSQL
•SimpleDB (Amazon)
•SQL Server
•SQLite
•SQL Azure
•Sybase (ASE)
•Sybase IQ
•SQL Anywhere
•Teradata

Connect to databases via ODBC for Windows machines, many types of ODBC drivers such as drivers for the following databases:

•SQL Server
•MySQL
•PostgreSQL
•Oracle
•DB2
•Sybase
•SQL Anywhere / iAnywhere
•DBASE
•Microsoft Access
•Pervasive

How many OS in market ? Windows: Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2008 or 2003, or Windows 2000. both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows.
Mac OS X:  OS X 10.7 (Lion), OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard), OS X 10.5 (Leopard), or OS X 10.4 (Tiger).
Linux & Solaris / Unix.

Posted in MS SQL Server, MS Windows | Comments Off

Joke of a day

Posted by Mehboob on 2011/10/12

 

 A man and his wife are lying in bed, just about to fall asleep.  The conversation goes like this:

Wife: ‘If I were to die, would you re-marry?’

Husband: ‘Of course not!’

Wife: ‘Why? Don’t you like being married?’

Husband: ‘Well, yes – I suppose I would re-marry’

Wife: ‘Would you take down all the pictures of me and replace them with her?’

Husband: ‘Well yes, that would be the proper thing to do’

Wife: ‘Would you let her use my golf-clubs?’

Husband: ‘No, she’s left handed… oh shit!’

:-)

 

Posted in SharePoint | Comments Off

Moving SQL Database

Posted by Mehboob on 2011/10/03

Moving master database 

Moving master database is a bit different process than moving any other system database.This has to be carried out very carefully and here is the process on how to move the master database.
Before doing anything, make sure you are having proper backups.

1.Stop the SQL Services.

2.Go to the "SQL Server Configuration Manager".
In SQL Server 2005, Click "Start" >> "All Programs" >> "Microsoft SQL Server 2005" >> "Configuration Tools" >> SQL Server Configuration Manager
In SQL Server 2008, Click "Start" >> "All Programs" >> "Microsoft SQL Server 2008" >> "Configuration Tools" >> SQL Server Configuration Manager

3.In the left pane, click on "SQL Server Services" 

4.Now in the right pane, select the SQL Server Service component  (which looks like "SQL Server (InstanceName)" ) and go to its properties.

5.In the "Properties" page, go to the "Advanced" tab

6.In the "Startup Parameters", click on the drop list and modify the parameters -d and -l to the new location where you want the master data file (master.mdf) and log file (mastlog.ldf) to reside respectively.

-d stands for the fully qualified data file path of master database.
-l stands for the fully qualified log file path of master database.
-e stands for the fully qualified path of the error log file.

7.Now move the files manually to the new location.

8.Start the SQL Services.

Moving model, msdb databases 

Moving of model and msdb databases also follow the similar procedure as moving the tempdb database but with some additional steps.
Since these are also system databases, unfortunately we cannot move them just by detach and attach process, as we cannot attach or detach a system database.

Moving model database:

1.First get the list of model database files by using this query

select name,physical_name from sys.master_files where DB_NAME(database_id)='model'  

2.Then for each model database file that you need to move, execute statements like below
Alter Database model modify

file (NAME = 'modeldev' , FILENAME = 'Drive:\Path\model.mdf') -- Mention the new location

Alter Database model modifyfile (NAME = 'modellog' , FILENAME = 'Drive:\Path\modellog.ldf') -- Mention the new location

3.Stop SQL Services

4.Move the files manually to the new location

5.Start SQL Services

6.Verify the new Location
select name,physical_name from sys.master_files where DB_NAME(database_id)='model'

Moving msdb database:

1.First get the list of msdb files by using this query
select name,physical_name from sys.master_files where DB_NAME(database_id)='msdb'  

2.Then for each msdb database file that you need to move, execute statements like below Alter Database msdb modify

file (NAME = 'MSDBData' , FILENAME = 'Drive:\Path\MSDBData.mdf') -- Mention the new location

Alter Database msdb modifyfile (NAME = 'MSDBLog' , FILENAME = 'Drive:\Path\MSDBLog.ldf') -- Mention the new location

3.Stop SQL Services

4.Move the files manually to the new location

5.Start SQL Services

6.Verify the new Location

select name,physical_name from sys.master_files where DB_NAME(database_id)='msdb'

If the SQL Server Instance is configured with Database Mail option, then after the msdb movement you will have to verify that the database mail is working fine by sending a test email.

Moving the tempdb database 

There are cases when you might want to move tempdb database from an existing drive to a new drive.

1.When the drive is full and you are in a situation where you cannot extend that drive.

2.Move tempdb to a separate drive to increase its performance. This is a simple process and cannot be done by detaching and attaching the database, as we cannot attach or detach a system database.
Also we need to restart the SQL services.

Here is the process how we can move the tempdb to a new location.

1.First get the list of tempdb files by using this query
select name,physical_name from sys.master_files where DB_NAME(database_id)='tempdb'  

2.Then for each tempdb file that you need to move, execute statements like below
Alter Database tempdb modify
file (NAME = 'tempdev' , FILENAME = 'Drive:\Path\tempdb.mdf') -- Mention the new location
Alter Database tempdb modify
file (NAME = 'templog' ,
FILENAME = 'Drive:\Path\templog.ldf') -- Mention the new location

3.Stop SQL Services

4.Start SQL Services

5.Verify the new Location
select name,physical_name from sys.master_files where DB_NAME(database_id)='tempdb'

Khan - MCTS

Posted in MS SQL Server | Comments Off

SQL Server 2008 Service fails to start

Posted by Mehboob on 2011/10/03

SQL Server 2008 Service fails to start after Service Pack Installation 

Some times you may find that the SQL Server Service is not starting after applying a service pack and when you check in the Event Viewer you find the below message.

Script level upgrade for database 'master' failed because upgrade step 'sqlagent100_msdb_upgrade.sql' encountered error 598, state 1, severity 25. This is a serious error condition which might interfere with regular operation and the database will be taken offline. If the error happened during upgrade of the 'master' database, it will prevent the entire SQL Server instance from starting. Examine the previous errorlog entries for errors, take the appropriate corrective actions and re-start the database so that the script upgrade steps run to completion. 

SQL Server Setup creates a database with the data file name temp_MS_AgentSigningCertificate_Database.mdf during the installation process and if the SQL Server setup is not able to create that database in the default data path then the above error is returned as it is not able to find the path.
To fix this issue.

1.Go to Registry editor, To open this, go to "Run" and type "regedit" and click "ok"

2.First go to this path and make sure that the path in the key SQLDataRoot exists. If not then give a valid path to this key.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.<instance name>\Setup3.Then go to this path and make sure that the path in the keys "BackupDirectory", "DefaultData" and "DefaultLog" exists. If not then give a valid path to these keys.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.<instance name>\MSSQLServer

4.Now you should be able to start the SQL Server Service without any issues.
Once the Service is started, verify the SQL Server, databases and others to make sure everything is fine.

Also verify if the Service pack or the CU is installed correctly.

Posted in MS SQL Server | Comments Off

SQL Server Migration Checklist

Posted by Mehboob on 2011/10/03

SQL Server Migration Checklist 

Are you migrating your SQL Servers? Here is a checklist for your SQL Server Migration, easy way to achive your moving goal.

1.Build your New Server, Install SQL Server and required updates and keep the server ready for migration

2.Stop Application Service(s).This is to ensure that the no applications are connected to the Databases during the migration process.

3.Change the Properties of the databases that are part of Migration to "Read-only". This is to ensure that the data modification is not happening by any other sources.

4. Take a FULL backup of all the User databases that are involved in the Migration Process. 

5.Move the backups to the destination server or a Shared location, then restore them to the appropriate drives on the destination.

6.Change the compatibility level of the databases (Optional) Do this if the applications connecting to these databases are independent of the database compatibility level.

7.Transfer logins using SSIS (Transfer Logins Task) or using "sp_help_revlogin" More information about sp_help_revlogin is at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/246133

8.Check for Orphaned Users in the databases and Fix them (if Any)

9.Update Usage on the migrated Databases

10.Update Stats on the migrated Databases

11.Re-Index or Re-Organize Indexes on the migrated Databases

12.Transfer Jobs using SSIS or manually create them

13.Build Maintenance plans (if Any)

14.Recompile database objects if required

15.Move or rebuild SSIS or DTS packages (if Any)

16.Create Alerts and Operators (if Any)

17.Setup High Availability Options (if Any Like Replication, LogShipping, Mirroring)

18.Test the High Availability options that were setup in the previous step

19.Point the Application(s) to new Server and start the Application Service(s)

20.Test the Application(s)

Let me know if you any other question or suggestion.

Khan - MCTS

Posted in MS SQL Server | Comments Off

Developing on SharePoint 2010

Posted by Mehboob on 2011/09/02

Software developers can use the SharePoint 2010 business collaboration platform to build enterprise-class solutions for intranet portals and the web. Use these ten modules to get started with development for SharePoint 2010 using Visual Studio 2010. 

SharePoint 2010 Advanced IT Professional Training
For IT professionals, SharePoint 2010 offers enhancements to drive productivity, a scalable unified infrastructure, and flexible deployment. SharePoint 2010 Advanced IT Professional Training is a deep technical learning series for current SharePoint professionals who are looking to upgrade their skills to SharePoint 2010.

Khan – MCTS

www.addarr.com

Posted in SharePoint | Comments Off

SharePoint 2010 Enterprise Developer Training

Posted by Mehboob on 2011/09/02

SharePoint 2010 Enterprise Developer Training

 

Khan – MCTS

Posted in SharePoint | Comments Off

SQL Azure Price

Posted by Mehboob on 2011/07/28

What is SQL Azure?

SQL Azure is a cloud based relational database as a Service offered by Microsoft. Conceptually it is SQL server in the cloud.

What is cloud computing?

National Institute of standards and computing definition of cloud computing:

Cloud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.

SQL Azure Pricing Overview:-

Compute time, measured in service hours: Windows Azure compute hours are charged only when your application is deployed. When developing and testing your application, developers will want to remove the compute instances that are not being used to minimize compute hour billing.

The standard pay-as-you-go pricing for Windows Azure compute is as follows:

Extra small instance**: $0.05 per hour
Small instance (default): $0.12 per hour
Medium instance: $0.24 per hour
Large instance: $0.48 per hour
Extra Large instance: $0.96 per hour

More info visit here …

To pick the best Windows Azure platform offer for your needs, please visit our Pricing Calculator.

I have not included the questions specific to unsupported features because it keeps on changing. Read general guidelines and limitations. Also note that SQL Azure is evolving very fast and it is important to keep a tab on the features that are added in service releases.

Posted in Cloud | Comments Off

Videos Training MCM

Posted by Mehboob on 2011/07/14

The following readiness videos provide candidates who want to pursue SQL Server 2008 Microsoft Certified Master certification with an overview of what you need to know to prepare for the SQL Server 2008 Microsoft Certified Master Knowledge Exam. All of this free of cost, no fee or regestration require in order to watch, simple just click and enjoy…

Microsoft Certified Masters Video från Brent Ozar.

Immersion Event on Performance Tuning

Immersion Event on HA+DR

Immersion Event on Security and Development Support

Khan – MCTS

Posted in MS SQL Server | Comments Off

Free videos to learn more about Microsoft

Posted by Mehboob on 2011/07/13

Microsoft Virtualization whenever and from wherever you want just click, listen, and learn. Start by clicking the title to learn more about the video. You can then stream it or download to view offline.

Desktop Virtualization:-

TechNet Video: Virtualization Jump Start (12): Application Delivery for VDI

 Server Virtualization:-

 

Posted in Cloud | Comments Off

Office 365 Video for IT Pros

Posted by Mehboob on 2011/07/08

The Microsoft Office 365 Overview provides an excellent perspective of the overall value Office 365 provides to modern organizations in terms of productivity, access, familiarity, security, control and reliability. This section will help IT Pros better understand the options and advantages organizations have by taking this approach.

Watch the complete video series:

 Additional Resources:

 

Posted in MS Windows | Comments Off

Cloud & database service (RDBMS)

Posted by Mehboob on 2011/07/04

Microsoft SQL Azure Database is a relational cloud database service (RDBMS) built on SQL Server technologies. It is a highly available, scalable, multi-tenant database service hosted by Microsoft in the cloud. SQL Azure Database helps to ease provisioning and deployment of multiple databases.

Microsoft Virtual Academy: Understanding the Private Cloud

 “Microsoft Virtualization for VMware Professionals”      Video Learning:
 

To download or watch the complete video series

TechNet Edge Media: Video’s

Top Edge Categories:

How to deploy Windows Azure Worker Nodes as part of a Windows …

Windows HPC Server integrates with Windows Azure to allow you to add Windows Azure nodes to supplement your on-premises computing cluster. This video shows how to create a hosted service and storage account in your Windows Azure subscription, create a node template in HPC Cluster Manager, and then deploy a set of nodes. This video is meant to introduce steps for node deployment, and does not cover application deployment or file staging.

0 Time: 9:38  June 27, 2011

This short video introduces Windows Azure AppFabric, a comprehensive middleware platform that can help you develop and manage your business applications. It covers key features and benefits, including middleware services, application composition and management, and a cloud-optimized application infrastructure.

4 Time: 5:00   May 16, 2011

This short video discusses the comprehensive platform that allows developers to easily deploy and manage .NET-based applications spanning on-premises and cloud-based components. In addition it covers the benefits of the four main parts: Middle-Tier Services, Composition Model, Developer Tools and the AppFabric Application Manager.

0 Time: 4:27  May 16, 2011

 Basic Architectural Considerations

This walkthrough provides an overview of some basic architectural considerations that you can use to establish best practices and optimize your SQL Azure databases. Specifically, the video discusses standard database optimization techniques, database sharding, and table considerations. The demo portion of the video shows how to create a clustered index in the Windows Azure portal and shows how to test for latency using SQL Server Management Studio. The conclusion points you to some additional resources to help you get started using SQL Azure.

0 Time: 7:40  April 26, 2011

This walkthrough demonstrates how easy it is to extend, share, and integrate SQL Azure data with mobile and heterogeneous applications using other programming platforms via an OData service. The video starts by covering the benefits of using SQL Azure, and then it briefly reviews an existing ASP.NET application that was built to support this series of videos. The video goes on to cover how to enable the application to expose some of the data via an OData service, and finally, it shows how a variety of different client applications, such as an Android phone, can interact with this OData service. The video concludes by referring users to additional resources that offer further support.

0 Time: 9:14  April 25, 2011

 
  • Test your service both locally and remotely

    1 Time: 2:16  February 09, 2011

    Ease the barriers to getting you started with cloud service development.

    4 Time: 2:59  February 09, 2011

     What is Windows Azure?

    How does Windows Azure work? How does it let you concentrate more on your code and less on operations, maintenance and scaling? Let Steve Marx from Microsoft draw you a picture.

    5 Time: 4:15  February 09, 2011

    Origin Digital wanted to increase transcoding without increasing capital expense. To gain dynamic scalability within a familiar development environment, the company built an innovative transcoding application called Cloudcoder on the Windows Azure platform.

    0 Time: 8:49  February 09, 2011

    Siemens IT Solutions and Services developed a system for remote service of more than 80,000 devices worldwide. Its users can distribute software packages to devices spread around the gloabe through virtual private network connections. To be more efficient and reduce costs, Siemens uses the Windows Azure platform.

    0 Time: 14:31  February 09, 2011

    T-Mobile USA needed new mobile software that simplified communications for families and their tight deadline left no time to implement application or server infrastructure. With Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional, T-Mobile was able to build their solution for the Windows Phone 7 on the Windows Azure platform in just six weeks.

    3 Time: 3:44  February 09, 2011

     How to deploy Windows Azure Worker Nodes as part of a Windows HPC Cluster

  • Windows HPC Server integrates with Windows Azure to allow you to add Windows Azure nodes to supplement your on-premises computing cluster. This video shows how to create a hosted service and storage account in your Windows Azure subscription, create a node template in HPC Cluster Manager, and then deploy a set of nodes. This video is meant to introduce steps for node deployment, and does not cover application deployment or file staging.

    0 Time: 9:38  June 27, 2011

    This short video introduces Windows Azure AppFabric, a comprehensive middleware platform that can help you develop and manage your business applications. It covers key features and benefits, including middleware services, application composition and management, and a cloud-optimized application infrastructure.

    4 Time: 5:00  May 16, 2011

    Views: 1,478

     
    This short video discusses the comprehensive platform that allows developers to easily deploy and manage .NET-based applications spanning on-premises and cloud-based components. In addition it covers the benefits of the four main parts: Middle-Tier Services, Composition Model, Developer Tools and the AppFabric Application Manager.

    0 Time: 4:27  May 16, 2011 

    This walkthrough provides an overview of some basic architectural considerations that you can use to establish best practices and optimize your SQL Azure databases. Specifically, the video discusses standard database optimization techniques, database sharding, and table considerations. The demo portion of the video shows how to create a clustered index in the Windows Azure portal and shows how to test for latency using SQL Server Management Studio. The conclusion points you to some additional resources to help you get started using SQL Azure.

    0 Time: 7:40  April 26, 2011

    This walkthrough demonstrates how easy it is to extend, share, and integrate SQL Azure data with mobile and heterogeneous applications using other programming platforms via an OData service. The video starts by covering the benefits of using SQL Azure, and then it briefly reviews an existing ASP.NET application that was built to support this series of videos. The video goes on to cover how to enable the application to expose some of the data via an OData service, and finally, it shows how a variety of different client applications, such as an Android phone, can interact with this OData service. The video concludes by referring users to additional resources that offer further support.

    0 Time: 9:14  April 25, 2011

    This walkthrough demonstrates how easy it is to extend, share, and integrate SQL Azure data with Microsoft applications via an OData service. The video starts by covering the benefits of using SQL Azure, and then it briefly reviews an existing ASP.NET application that was built to support this series of videos. The video goes on to cover how to enable the application to expose some of the data via an OData service, and finally, it shows how a variety of different client applications, such as Excel, Javascript, and Windows Phone 7, can interact with this OData service. The video concludes by referring users to additional resources that offer further support.

    0 Time: 11:24  April 25, 2011

  • This walkthrough demonstrates how to use the Windows Azure AppFabric Cache to cache data from a SQL Azure database. This includes: – Populating an ASP.NET GridView control from SQL Azure – Provisioning a Windows Azure AppFabric Cache – Retrieving SQL Azure data into the default cache – Retrieving SQL Azure data from the default cache – Enabling the local cache – Retrieving SQL Azure data from the local cache – Using ASP.NET code to compare the performance benefits

    4 Time: 9:14  April 25, 2011

    This walkthrough introduces some of the features of SQL Azure Reporting and demonstrates the use of advanced analytical tools, such as using SQL Azure data with Excel and PowerPivot. Specifically, users will learn how to use SQL Azure data with Excel and create two pivot tables using employee expense report data. The conclusion points to some additional resources to help users get started.

    5 Time: 6:42  April 12, 2011

    This walkthrough discusses how businesses can take business intelligence to the cloud with SQL Azure. The video covers the benefits of SQL Azure—including the ability to establish business intelligence without adding hardware costs or IT overhead—and it also introduces SQL Azure Reporting. The ability to embed SQL Azure reports into on-premises Apps and Windows Azure Web Apps—as well as the ability to create and export SQL Azure reports using available report authoring tools is also covered. The demonstration portion of the video shows users how to author a report with Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS), display reports, embed a report into a web app, and manage and deliver reports. The conclusion offers some additional resources to help users get started.

    4 Time: 12:34  April 12, 2011

    This walkthrough covers the value of using SQL Azure Data Sync to provide bi-directional synchronization and data-management capabilities with on-premises and cloud databases. The video covers both the benefits and features of SQL Azure and explains how businesses can use SQL Azure Data Sync to share information efficiently. The demonstration portion of the video covers how to establish synchronization between an on-premises database and SQL azure, as well as between two SQL Azure databases. It also shows the sync results in real time within a web application. The conclusion offers additional resource information to help users get started with SQL Azure and SQL Azure Data Sync.

    0 Time: 10:12   April 12, 2011

Let me know if you have any further question or comments.

Khan – MCTS, MCITP, MCDBA, MCSE @ MCP

 

Posted in BI-DW, MS SQL Server, MS Windows, SharePoint | Comments Off

How to change the SA password

Posted by Mehboob on 2011/06/28

How to change the SA password without having Sysadmin rights

Log on interactively to the physical server (RDP is fine) that hosts the SQL Server\Instance. It is important that we are logged on as Local Admin or eqvivalent.

In a DOS window, navigate to the directory that keeps OSQL.EXE

Issue the following command at the DOS prompt:
OSQL -E

If everything is ok, the SQL prompt will appear. This means we are now connected to the SQL Server through Trusted Connection. At the SQL prompt, issue the following command:

EXEC sp_password NULL,’newpassword’,'SA’ GO

If everything is ok, this command now have changed the password for SA to the new password, and you exit the SQL prompt and close the DOS window. If you connect to a certain instance, the initial command line would be:

OSQL -E -S Server\Instance

If you aren’t sure of the name of the server, you can list all servers:
OSQL -L

Khan – SQL DBA – SPA  MCTS

Posted in MS SQL Server, MS Windows | Comments Off

Terabyte, Petabyte, Exabyte, Zettabyte & Petaflop

Posted by Mehboob on 2011/06/22

Byte, Kilobyte, Megabyte, Gigabyte, Terabyte, Petabyte, Exabyte, Zettabyte & Petaflop

Computer storage and memory is often measured in megabytes (MB) and gigabytes (GB). A medium-sized novel contains about 1MB of information. 1MB is 1,024 kilobytes, or 1,048,576 (1024×1024) bytes, not one million bytes.

Unit  Equivalent
1 kilobyte (KB)  1,024 bytes
1 megabyte (MB)  1,048,576 bytes
1 gigabyte (GB)  1,073,741,824 bytes
1 terabyte (TB)  1,099,511,627,776 bytes
1 petabyte (PB)  1,125,899,906,842,624 bytes

Similarly,
1 GB is 1,024MB, or 1,073,741,824 (1024x1024x1024) bytes.
A terabyte (TB) is 1,024GB; 1TB is about the same amount of information as all of the books in a large library, or roughly 1,610 CDs worth of data.
A petabyte (PB) is 1,024TB. Indiana University – USA is now building storage systems capable of holding petabytes of data.
An exabyte (EB) is 1,024PB.
A zettabyte (ZB) is 1,024EB.

Finally, a yottabyte (YB) is 1,024ZB, however, in a binary system, 10GB is 10,737,418,240 bytes. WOW

Top 10 are
Nebulae at China’s National Supercomputing Center in Shenzen (1.27 petaflop/s),
Tsubame 2.0 at the Tokyo Institute of Technology (1.19 petaflop/s),
Cielo at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico (1.11 petaflop/s),
Pleiades at the NASA Ames Research Center in California (1.09 petaflop/s),
Hopper at DOE’s National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) in California (1.054 petaflop/s),
Tera 100 at the CEA (Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives) in France (1.05 petaflop/s),
and Roadrunner at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico (1.04 petaflop/s).

World Best Computer:

1. Riken, Japan                                                                                    8773 teraflops
2. National Supercomputing Center Tianjin, Kina               4701 teraflops
3. Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA                                   2331 teraflops
4.  National SuperComputing, Shenshen, Kina                      2984 teraflops
5 Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan                                  2287 teraflops
6. Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA                               1365 teraflops
7. NASA, USA                                                                                      1315 teraflops
8. Nersc, USA                                                                                      1288 teraflops
31. KTH, Sweden                                                                                  305  teraflops

The New Number One
The K Computer, built by Fujitsu – (my employer), currently combines 68544 SPARC64 VIIIfx CPUs, each with eight cores, for a total of 548,352 cores—almost twice as many as any other system in the TOP500. The K Computer is also more powerful than the next five systems on the list combined.

The K Computer’s name draws upon the Japanese word “Kei” for 10^16 (ten quadrillions), representing the system’s performance goal of 10 petaflops. RIKEN is the Institute for Physical and Chemical Research. Unlike the Chinese system it displaced from the No. 1 slot and other recent very large system, the K Computer does not use graphics processors or other accelerators. The K Computer is also one of the most energy-efficient systems on the list.

Khan – sql dba

MCTS

Posted in BI-DW, MS SQL Server, MS Windows, SharePoint | Comments Off

Error: 1418 fails to connect sql 2008 mirror server

Posted by Mehboob on 2011/06/20

Error 1418, fails to connect sql 2008 mirror server:

  • The server network address can not be reached
  • Alter failed
  • Error 1418
  • Insufficient Log Data
  • Error 1478

Start with: In this example we are inside a DOMAIN. We have a domain user called khan_machine

1)      Machine A, Machine B with Sqlserver installed. NO XP or other kind of firewalls ON.

2)      khan_machine is local admin in both machines. Also is a sysadmin user in both sqlservers.

3)      khan_machine  is the MSSQLSERVER service account in both machines

4)      Machine A is gonna be the PRINCIPAL, B the MIRROR.

5)      Log on in my machine as khan_machine

6)      Open Sql server Studio. Connect to both machines using windows authenticacion.

7)      Create a New Database in A (you may need to have sysadmin role to khan_machine using sa) create a table, add some data

8)       Backup the new DB (Full backup) with .bak extension

9)       Backup the new DB (Transaction log) with .trn extension

10)    Copy the both files to a location in B machine.

11)     Restore .bak into a new DB using NORECOVERY option

12)     Restore .trn into the previous DB using NORECOVERY option

13)    Go to Machine A, open a new query

14)    Take a look to the endpoints

Run this syntax in QA:

SELECT type_desc, port FROM sys.tcp_endpoints;
SELECT name,role,state_desc FROM sys.database_mirroring_endpoints;

15)   Delete existing ones (DROP ENDPOINT [NAME])
16)   Create a new endopoint

 

 

 

Run this syntax in QA:
CREATE ENDPOINT [Mirroring]
AS TCP (LISTENER_PORT = 5023)
FOR DATA_MIRRORING (ROLE = PARTNER, ENCRYPTION=DISABLED)

17)   Start it

ALTER ENDPOINT [Mirroring]
STATE = STARTED
AS TCP (LISTENER_PORT = 5023)
FOR database_mirroring (ROLE = PARTNER);
GO

18)   Do steps 13 to 17 in machine B.

19)   Return to machine A. Query.

20)   Lets link to our partner in machine B. First ensure you can see it with ping and telnet to the port.

ALTER DATABASE NAME
SET PARTNER =’TCP://MACHINENAME:5023′

21)   Repeat step 20 from MACHINE B pointing to MACHINE A

22)   Note: Refresh the both databases in the UI, you should see the role and status of the mirror beside the database UI object.

23)   Lets test them: Add some new data in Machine A database.

24)   Then, right click over database, then mirror, then in the form select “FAILOVER”, then say yes.

25)   Refresh the 2 databases in the UI you should see the new status and roles changed.

26)   Open Machine B databse, the new data should be there.

To establish any mirroring session (with or without certificates) you must use FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Names) machine name.domain.com.  ** Before going on, be sure that you can reach the 3 machines with a single PING. Also, is a good practice to ensure that you can reach a telnet call over the FQDN + the port you plan to use (5022 in this example)** 

FIX: Over the post above. When establishing a mirroring session using machine accounts (not certificates, so you are inside a DOMAIN)  ensure your 3 mssqlservices are running under NETWORK SERVICE account

 

För more information have a look here

 

Khan – MCTS

Posted in MS SQL Server | Comments Off

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 2

Posted by Mehboob on 2011/06/19

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 2 download here 

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 2 (SP2) is now available for download.

Posted in MS SQL Server | Comments Off

Professional SQL DBA Tips

Posted by Mehboob on 2011/06/17

Top Tips for Effective Database Maintenance

Paul S. Randal

Several times a week I’m asked for advice on how to effectively maintain a production database. Sometimes the questions come from DBAs who are implementing new solutions and want help.  It’s worth to go through here is link: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2008.08.database.aspx

Some other topic which you might want to know:

Twit List
http://www.sqlteam.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=69568

It’s dead, Jim
http://www.sqlteam.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=67782

Not Even Stupid
http://www.sqlteam.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=79305

 Khan – MCTS

 

Posted in MS SQL Server | Comments Off

Log Shipping – solutions for high availability

Posted by Mehboob on 2011/06/15

Log Shipping is one of the solutions for High Availability for business critical application. Log Shipping is first introduced in SQL Server 7.0.  Log Shipping; as name defines does the shipping of Transaction Log to another server; it does exact replica of the database; it does backup of Transaction Log and restores it on a Secondary /Stand by Server which keeps database on secondary server in sync with the database on Primary Server. In case of failure work loss happens only for the time being copy of T-Log backup and restoring back to
Secondary/Stand by Server. Stand by / Secondary server which can act as a primary server in case of failure.

SQL Server DBA has to perform some manual tasks to bring it online for business. There are other options like Clustering and Replication for High Availability of Business Critical Application, so why do we go for Log Shipping? that good question so here we go .. 

Well, there are reasons for choosing Log Shipping against Cluster and Replications: Its easy to maintian and cost$ is less then other technolog, such as cluster, some details why we go for LS.

1. Setting up: It is very easy to create a Log Shipping, only thing you need to identify is you must have two servers with SQL Server Enterprise Edition and a database(s) which is critical to your business environment.
2. Manageability: It is easy to manage Log Shipping comparing to Replication and Cluster Server, generally Log Shipping works well and you don’t feel panic with its monitoring or maintenance work.
3. Act as a Reporting Server: Stand by or Secondary Server can act as a Reporting Server in your organization, your database which is being log shipped can be used for Read Only queries or I would rather say it can act as a Reporting Server. The thing need to be consider here is it will be unavailable at the time of Restoration of Transaction Log e.g. if your Transaction Log backup takes 10 minutes of Restoration Time and you does Log Shipping every 60 minutes then your Reporting/Secondary/Stand by Server will be un-available for 10 minutes.
4. Can use multiple database(s)/server(s): You can use multiple server(s) as a Stand by or Secondary Server for different purpose, e.g. you can create two Stand by server(s) one for Reporting and another for High Availability
5. Cheaper then cluster: If you go for a Cluster Server you will have to meet software and Hardware requirement; I mean you need identical hardware to setup clustering where as in case of Log Shipping you don’t need to have exactly the same set of hardware for Primary and Secondary or Stand by server.
6. Best solution for physical dispersed location: Data Center: In your environment you are having a cluster server configured at your Data Center for high availability so that if in case of any failure or damaged you can recover your data back, imagine what if your data center itself got damaged!!!!!! In this type of scenario Log Shipping does good job you can configure Log Shipping to Dr Server which is at different physically location and if your local Data Center / Server got damaged you may still recover your data. You can do this thing using Replication too; in case of replication again you have to select Snapshot/Transactional/Snapshot Replication, now as you may use Log Shipping you would rather go for Snapshot Replication, you have to monitoring it regularly whether it is running or not!!! Where as with Log Shipping it generally runs smoothly and even if it caught an error it will tell you exact where it breaks so fixing a Log Shipping is not difficult.

Prerequisite
1. Database must be in Full or Bulk-Logged Recovery Model.It is required that Database has to be in Full or Bulk-Logged Recovery Model,One can perform T-Log backup only when Database Recovery Model is set to Full or Bulk-Logged, here is a brief on recovery model.

3. Create a share on Primary Server and Secondary Server with change and write permissions for Windows Account User which is used for SQL Server Agent.

4. You may Restore Full Database on Secondary Server manually or it can be done via Log Shipping installation itself at the time of setup process (Ensure this database on Secondary Server must be restored with NORECOVERY or STANDBY option).It is required to Restore Database with NORECOVERT STANDBY because if the database restored in recovered/write enabled mode you can not apply another T-Log.

Optional Component : Monitoring / Witness Server
Identify your Monitor Server which will look after for your Primary Server and SECONDARY Server’s Activity.It is better to use separate server which monitors the activity of Primary and Secondary Server so that you can get the alert even if server itself won’t works.

Primary Server:
1. Create a Share with read/write permission for domain user which we’ll be using to startup SQLServerAgent
2. Create a Full Database backup for LogShDB
3. Backed up T-Log on the folder you have created earlier to store the log backup You can create a maintenance plan to take a T-Log backup for regular interval and then add it as a Step in job to automate this process
4. Please ensure that the duration must enough to copy the log backup file to Secondary Server.Suppose we are taking T-Log backup each 1/2 hour and if the backup file is big enough which takes more then 1/2 to copy over the network share, it will again creates a new T-Log backup which will then occupies recourse unnecessarily.
5. Copy T-Log backup file to Secondary Server’s shared folder
6. Delete the T-Log backup file after it copied to the Secondary Server’s shared folder.
7. Ensure you have selected Allow Database to assume primary role option so that if in future requirement of role reversal can be possible easily.If in case we need to change the role of primary server or secondary server to act as Primary or Secondary this option should be used while setting up Log Shipping.
8. Ensure that you have set up proper threshold values for Destination Database for Out of Sync, Load Time Delay, File Retention Period and History Retention Period option.These options are self explanatory: Out of Sync=used by witness server to send alert if the specified time has been exceeded between Last T-Log backup on primary and secondary server, Load Time Delay= Destination Database waits before it restores the T-Log, File Retention Period= Time elapse till file gets deleted and History Retention Period= Time till we retain History details
Secondary Server
1. Check if the Database is already exists on Secondary Server, if it is already their drop it.
2. Restore a Full Database Backup for LogShipping database. Restore a T-Log for LogShipping database. on the secondary server which is copied on the shared folder of Secondary Server;
4. Ensure you have given STANDBY or NORECOVERY option while restoring T-Log backup for LogShipping database..

You may find log shipping is a very use full yet simple to configure, use and manage, it is cheaper and easily manageable solution for High Availability of your data(Most of the company want cheep and good solution for there invoriment). It is a good solution over clustering (because it is costly; requires identical hardware to setup cluster) and easily manageable, easy troubleshooting against replication as it clearly says where it breaks.

Generally Log Shipping works very smooth once it is configured. Even if you have to re-configure it from the scratch it is easy job to do, which i love that.

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Posted by Mehboob on 2011/06/05

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