IT Masters - Meet a Graduate

Shucks :-)

http://www.itmasters.com.au/GradProfiles.html

SQL Server 2005 SP2 and Vista

I installed SQL Server 2005 SP2 on Vista Ultimate and things didn't go quite right. Not sure if what I experienced was a bug, but it sure was a pain having to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it.

The main installation went fine, it was when the "SQL Server 2005 User Provisioning Tool for Vista" ran (which runs automatically after the install) that caused the problem.

What is this tool? It is used to grant users in the "Windows Administrators" group access to SQL Server as by default, members of this group aren't granted permission to connect and aren't given admin privileges to SQL Server. This is a great feature as long as you are aware of it and what to do if things don't go right during SP2 installation.

This is what the tool looks like. Very simple to use as all you do is add the members that you want to grant privileges to the right and then click on the OK button. How hard could this be?

So, I did this and clicked on the OK button and after a few seconds, got the following errors:

Ah, of course, I set SQL Server to startup manually (makes laptop boot time quicker) therefore the server isn't running. How stupid of me. Hang on, SP 2 was just installed and it connected to the server to do the update so the server must be running. Maybe something else is wrong. I'll just click on the OK button again, check that SQL Server is running, and then try again.

Click...Abracadabra!!! Where'd the Provisioning Tool go? It's disappeared; vanished into thin air.....

Curious about what the hell just happened, I checked "SQL Server Configuration Manager" and sure enough the server wasn't running (baffled); so I started it. I then launched SQL Server Management Studio to connect to the server. Sure enough and as stated, I can't connect with ANY account, not even SA as my server is set to use Windows Authentication only. WTF...What now????

I launched BOL to search for info on this tool and nothing was there. Now, was this because no one wrote anything or because the updated version of BOL is not part of the SP2 installation; it's a separate download

No problem, I'll just download and install it. Hmmm, perhaps I won't. Another 135mb (approx 13min on ADSL 1500) and I'm an impatient man!

With no other option at hand, I turned to the only real source of knowledge, Google Search. After a few seconds I discovered that this tool is actually part of "SQL Server 2005 Surface Area Configuration".

With my new found knowledge and eager to get SQL Server 2005 running on my Vista box, I launched "SQL Server 2005 Surface Area Configuration". Hmm, where's the option to launch the tool.

Silly me, it's under the "Add New Administrator" link. Of course, how obvious is that!!!! Also, don't bother clicking on the link "Read more about configuring the SQL Server surface area" as you'll just get an error stating that the Help file can't be found. Good one!!!

Needless to say, I clicked on the "Add New Administrator" link and this time the tool worked so I can now connect to SQL Server.

Questions:

1. How did SP2 update SQL Server 2005 when the server wasn't started?
2. If SP2 started the server, why did it stop it again knowing that the "SQL Server 2005 User Provisioning Tool for Vista" would run immediately after the install and required SQL Server to be running?
3. Why did the tool just vanish after it failed to connect to SQL Server 2005?
4. Who the hell thought it was a good idea to place the "SQL Server 2005 User Provisioning Tool for Vista" under the "Add New Administrator" link?
5. Why is the file for the "Read more about the SQL Server surface area" link missing?
6. Why is there no help in BOL on this tool (Yes, I installed the February 2007 SP 2 BOL Update)?

Cheers
Jeff

Eye Operation

Some of you might remember my blog on Why Telstra Sucks Big Time and the problems I was having with Telstra and it's NextG card (BTW: Everything is working fine now, including my Telstra Hotspot access). Well, at the end of that entry there was a reference to why I was actually in Sydney that day.

To refresh your memory, I was in Sydney to see whether I was a candidate for Intacs surgery on my right eye to fix my Keratoconus (my left eye was fixed via Cornea Graft 4 years ago). As reported, I was a candidate and was hoping to have the surgery in 3-4 weeks time. Well, on Friday 16th February I had my surgery.

Things went really well and already I've noticed a huge improvement in my sight. It will take about 2 weeks for my eye to settle down and another 3 months until I know how much my sight has actually improved. The only problems I'm experiencing are light sensitivity and a little bit of blurred vision which was expected and should go away in the next couple of weeks.

Was it worth it? You betchya.

For the first time in 20 years I can actually see without the use of contacts and can get out of bed and not worry about washing the gunk out of my eyes and trying to put in contacts when still half asleep.

SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 Released

SQL Server 2005 SP 2 has finally been released which is good news for all developers running SQL Server 2005 on Vista.

Of course Vista compatibility is not the only benefit provided by this service pack; so check-out what's new and install it now.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/2005/downloads/servicepacks/sp2.mspx for

DISCLOSURE POLICY

This policy is valid from 25th September 2007.

This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. For questions about this blog, please contact Jeff Wharton (Jeff@Wharton.com.au).

This blog does not accept any form of cash advertising, sponsorship, or paid topic insertions. However, I will and do accept and keep free products, services, travel, event tickets, and other forms of compensation from companies and organisations.

The compensation received will never influence the content, topics or posts made in this blog. All advertising is in the form of advertisements generated by a third party ad network. Those advertisements will be identified as paid advertisements.

I am not compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely mine. If I claim or appear to be an expert on a certain topic or product or service area, I will only endorse products or services that I believe, based on my expertise, are worthy of such endorsement. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service are to the best of my knowledge accurate and should be verified with the manufacturer or provider.

I would like to disclose the following existing relationships. These are companies, organisations or individuals that may have a significant impact on the content of this blog:

• I actively work with, and promote, Microsoft products and technologies.
• I regularly help out at Microsoft organised/sponsored events.
• I am a member of the various Microsoft Programs therefore has access to various program benefits.
• I am a member of Canberra.NET, an ICT Industry cluster initiated by a number of industry stakeholders and supported by the ACT Government, Microsoft and other local stakeholders.
• I am the President of the Canberra SQL Server User Group.
• I am employed by WARDY IT Solutions.
  

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Visual Basic/C#/C++ 2005 Keyboard Shortcut Reference Poster

Back on 21st December 2006 I blogged about the Micrososft Visual C# Default Keybindings poster I got while at Tech-Ed: Developer 2006 and that Karen Liu had posted a PDF version on her blog. At the time of blogging, I didn't have a PDF copy of the Visual Basic 2005 Keybindings so left a message for Karen asking if she knew where I could get them from.

Well, today I received an email from Lisa Feigenbaum (Microsoft VB Program Manager) providing me with a download link on the Microsoft’s site for the VB Keybindings poster (I also noticed that there are C# and C++ links as well).

What impressed me about this is that I had put the wrong email on my original request to Karen, therefore Lisa has been tracking me down for a while trying to get this information too me.

Just want to say a big thankyou to Lisa (and of course Karen) for not putting this in the too hard basket :-)

Here are the offical MS links for these posters:

Visual Basic 2005 Keyboard Shortcut Reference Poster
Visual C# 2005 Keyboard Shortcut Reference Poster
Visual C++ 2005 Keyboard Shortcut Reference Poster

Cheers
Jeff