Passing this exam gives you MCTS – SQL Server 2005 certification. It’s a prerequisite for the MCITP: DBAdmin cert, but it’s not an elective for MCPD (unlike the 70-229 SQL 2000 exam for MCSD).
The Transcender test is available on DEVEXAM, and it’s helpful. It includes simulations that work like the ones on the actual test. I also used the ExamCram book by Thomas Moore, which had good test-specific material. I’ll pass it on to Mark D. for the Dev library.
I ran into this when installing the 3.5 Framework on two Windows 2003 SP2 servers. .NET 3.5 installed with no problems on one, but failed on the other. The full error from the log was:
[03/28/08,17:08:09] Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0a: [2] Error: Installation failed for component Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0a. MSI returned error code 1603
[03/28/08,17:08:46] WapUI: [2] DepCheck indicates Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0a is not installed.
I encountered this when installing SQL Server on a new Vista machine. The full error is:
SQL Server Setup Failed to compile the Managed Object Format (MOF) file C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Shared\sqlmgmproviderxpsp2up.mof. To proceed, see "Troubleshooting an Installation of SQL Server 2005" or "How to: View SQL Server 2005 Setup Log Files" in SQL Server 2005 Setup Help documentation.
Here, by popular demand (well, one request, anyway), is an animated cursor based on the iMIS 15 icon. To install it, copy the iMIS15.ani.txt file to your windows\cursors folder. Take off the .txt extension. In Control Panel / Mouse / Pointers, Browse to this cursor for the "Busy" and "Working in Background" selections. Click Apply and you're done.
I'm posting this in response to Bruce Drury's question here: http://www.imiscommunity.com/accessing_omnis_variables
Bruce, this sample does require an Xtender license. I don't know of a way to get the current ID into the framework without Xtender.
One way or another, some of the development dbs on devsqlsrv1 had ended up with the recovery model set to Full instead of Simple. This wasn't a huge deal, but there was some extra disk use for log files, and maybe a performance hit because of the extra transaction logging.
In general, for development and testing, the Simple model is best. It's better suited for db upgrades, because a full backup is a requirement prior to starting an upgrade. Full is for production environments, where it's a requirement to recover to any point in time via transaction log restores. Since it duplicates a production environment, Full is a good idea for performance testing as well. For more information, check the articles on recovery models in Books Online.
This is a basic SQL Server tip, but a couple of folks now have commented on it being new to them while they were looking over my shoulder, so I'll post it. If you open a query window against a server which has a lengthy list of databases (Devsqlsrv1\sql2005CS comes to mind), navigating the treeview or the droplist to find the database you're after can be annoying. If you know the database you want to work in, just enter "use MyFavoriteDB" instead. It will switch the context to that database.
I've been a fan of the free Windows utilities from Sysinternals for a long time. Sysinternals was acquired by Microsoft in July 2006, but the web site was separate until fairly recently. It can now be found here: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/default.mspx
Some of my favorites are Filemon (real-time file system activity), Regmon (real-time registry activity), Process Explorer (see which process is using which files, registry keys, etc.), Autoruns (see everything that loads at startup), and DebugView (capture messages from OutputDebugString). And of course, there's the BlueScreen screen saver, and many, many more.
Attached to this post is an animated cursor based on the iMIS 10 icon. To install it, copy the iMIS10.ani.txt file to your windows\cursors folder. Take off the .txt extension. In Control Panel / Mouse / Pointers, Browse to this cursor for the "Busy" and "Working in Background" selections. Click Apply and you're done.
Here's an excellent cursor tool: http://www.axialis.com/axcursors/
