Henry Huey's blog

Microsoft Certification 70-431 exam notes -- MCTS SQL 2005 Implementation

Henry Huey — Tue, 20 May 2008 14:15:10 -0400

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.

.NET 3.5 Framework installation failed for component Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0a. MSI returned error code 1603

Henry Huey — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 20:43:26 -0400

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.

SQL Server Setup error on Vista: Failed to compile the Managed Object Format (MOF) file ...

Henry Huey — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 15:00:11 -0500

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.

Microsoft certification free second shot is back

Henry Huey — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 11:32:44 -0400

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/offers/secondshot/default.mspx

iMIS15 animated cursor

Henry Huey — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 22:34:30 -0400

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.

10.6 iMISSessionInfo Xtender

Henry Huey — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 13:34:06 -0400

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.

SQL Server recovery model

Henry Huey — Thu, 03 May 2007 11:14:47 -0400

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.

Using USE

Henry Huey — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 17:09:56 -0500

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.

Sysinternals.com moves to Microsoft

Henry Huey — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 10:13:51 -0500

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.

iMIS 10 animated cursor

Henry Huey — Sun, 14 May 2006 21:36:02 -0400

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/

SQL Server 2005 downloads

Henry Huey — Fri, 07 Apr 2006 13:33:27 -0400

Updated Books Online (newer than the one in the RTM version):
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=BE6A2C5D-00DF-4...

Third-party replacement for the taskbar tray Service Manager:
http://www.sqldbatips.com/showarticle.asp?ID=46

This tool uses the Net 2.0 framework. When you first run the install, it doesn't automatically put the icon in the tray; you either need to run the app from its installed location, or restart Windows.

what iMIS 10 tells you about the Word Merge install

Henry Huey — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 12:41:02 -0400

There are several bits that need to be set up to enable using Word Merge inside iMIS10 -- the Word .OCX needs to be installed (it's optional in the installer), MS Word needs to be installed on the workstation, and the Word shared document folder needs to be set up and valid (File/System Setup/Choose MS Word Folder). The Help/About/System Info window provides information about the state of these items. This window lists versions for all the ActiveX components in iMIS, and the AsiWordInt.ocx version is at the end of the list. The table below shows possible values for the AsiWordInt.ocx version and what they mean.

multiple monitors and remote access

Henry Huey — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 16:39:53 -0500

Probably the biggest annoyance to using multiple monitors is that Remote Desktop will only pass through information on the default monitor. So if you have two (or more) monitors at work, and two at home, you can't get the benefit of the extra monitors if you're connected remotely. Sometimes, if there's a window that you want on your second monitor at work, you can right-click the taskbar icon and use Move; but sometimes that doesn't work, and the window isn't available at all. It's usually safest to move every window to your default monitor before leaving for the day, but that's easy to forget.

complete validation of email addresses

Henry Huey — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 11:01:18 -0500

An email address like joeuser@anywhere.com follows the syntax rules for an address. Simple string checking can confirm that the address includes an @ sign, a period, and no spaces, but it doesn't confirm that it's an address where email can actually be received.

iMIS currently does simple string checking on email addresses; I'm posting this to keep track of some additional information, in case there's a request for an email validation feature/module someday.

Here are a couple of component vendors that do full-up checking (syntax rules, DNS, and SMTP). The first link has a lot of information, including examples of strange-but-valid email addresses. Note that embedded spaces are technically correct, but in research for the Medina release, we found that some email providers don't accept addresses containing them, and so iMIS doesn't allow embedded spaces for Medina -- disallowing embedded spaces in email addresses was a requirement for Medina.

chili recipe

Henry Huey — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 10:25:02 -0500

This makes enough chili to fill two large crock pots, but you can scale it down.

Start with 12 lbs. beef brisket. I call the butcher shop at HEB and ask them to trim all the fat and cut the meat into 1" chunks.

Cook the meat in a large pan (I use a big stockpot) with a little oil at medium-high heat until it's brown all over. You may want to do it in two batches to make it easier. Once it's cooked, reduce the heat to low, and add 4-6 bottles of beer (I used 4 bottles of Shiner Bock for the last batch). How much beer you use depends on how much juice comes from the meat, but I try to end up with about 8 quarts total for this recipe. While the meat cooks, measure all the spices into a separate bowl. When the meat's cooked, stir in the spices: