Manda QoP

The Dynamics CRM installing is still going on.... this has to be the hardest install of software ever. It was easier installing Red Hat ten years ago. This is a completely fresh install on a nice new Windows 2003 virtual server. SQL 2008 is installed, IIS etc... basically all the requirements from the planning doc are there, I spent several days making sure they were there, and ALL services are running with the correct access rights including the full text search, but can I get past the verification screen on the CRM install? Nope. For some reason it thinks the full text search is not installed. I'm getting to the point where banging my head repeatedly against the wall may be more productive than doing this install. I'm losing a lot of time here that could be spent on other work.

This week's missions: Mission 1 Create a DynamicsCRM environment for peeps at work to play with. The plan is, 1 x virtual CRM server on Windows Server 2003 o/s, 1 x virtual SQL server (might just include that on the CRM server), 1 x virtual MOSS server (again, will include on the CRM server), 1 x virtual client that people can copy and destroy as they see fit. It's going to be hooked in to our actual domain/AD server. Still stuck on installing the server updates for the base o/s system.... could take a while this. Mission 2 Once we have signed our partner agreement, grab a copy of the CRM vpc that can be used for demos - very handily created by Microsoft so that it's all set up and ready to go with every option you could possibly think of adding to CRM. Jump on to Amazon and set up a 64-bit Windows 2008 server, stick the virtual demo on the cloud based server and see how we go running the vpc in the cloud. This one could be fun. :)

Notes from Greg Low's talk at TechEd NZ '09. Visual Studio Team System database edition has merged with developer edition Now called Visual Studio Team System: DB Pro (VSTS:DBPro) - a.k.a. 'DataDude' Released initially as SQL Server 2005 edition 2008 edition of VSTS:DBPro does NOT use SQLS 2008 database GDR release provides SQLS 2008 support GDR2 recently released T-SQL is re-parsed T-SQL parsing dlls can be incorporated into your own apps Should be more extensible in VS2010 Gives great control over database projects Project Management Model based development Team collaboration - TFS, Workitems, Tasks Change Management: SCCI source code management integration Refactoring Schema and data comparison tools Testing Database unit testing MSTest integration Automated data generation system Build/Deploy MSBuild integration Command line tools Allows for multiple inconsistent target systems Build & deploy phases have been separated All important tasks are scriptable Project

Notes from Ian Morrish's talk at TechEd NZ '09. SQLServer 2005 R2 - deep sharepoint integration Light up reporting experience (that's my note, and no, I don't know what I meant here either...) Report server in sharepoint mode Reporting services sharepoint add in New in SQLServer 2008 Data driven subscriptions Support for URL parameters Support for RS management tools in sharepoint mode Integration benefits Single user interface Use SP deployment topologies to distribute reports SP features such as workflows, versioning, collaboration are available Reporting authoring tools can publish direct to SP Report subscriptions can be delivered via SP Reports are executed in report server to leverage all its enterprise capabilities Limitations No report manager No linked reports No Sharepoint SSO Anonymous enabled web apps are not supported Default zone only Architectural decisions to make Sharepoint topology SQL topology Security - NTLM / Kerberos Misc Notes Demo samples availa

These are my notes from Jeremy Boyd's presentation at TechEd NZ '09. These notes are pointers for finding out additional information and as such do not give full details of any particular areas of SQL Azure. Initial services coming with SQL Azure - RDBMS, Data Sync, Data Hub Down the road they will add more services such as Reporting Services and Analysis Services Databases limited to 10GB each SQL Azure is not SQL Data Services - they are two different things. SQL Data Services no longer exists and the tasks it was achieving are now part of Windows Azure. SQL Azure has a familiar SQL relational model Virtual DB server Auto HA and fault tolerance Friction-free scaling Self provisioning Provisioning model: Create an account, add a server, add a database, connect & play OR you can create via SSMS All standard T-SQL language minus a lot of DBA stuff When connecting ignore the error message - it's irrelevant and doesn't stop you connecting. All tables MUST have a c

These are some notes from Matt Velloso's session at TechEd 09 on the 14th Sept. These are just my notes created whilst watching the session and they can be used as a start point to find out more information. Myths to debunk: You can change meta data easily. Well, yes you can, however, that doesn't mean you should. So don't. If you need to change your meta data, plan it out first and make sure that your changes don't break another part of the system. There's no code so it's risk free. Cobblers. What do you think runs Sharepoint if it's not code? Always manage risk and plan for various eventualities. It's an out of the box app, we don't need to test. Sigh.... just test it already and get over the 'testing isn't necessary' mentality. Blobcache Stop going to SQL Server all the time Use Fiddler2 (HTTP debugging proxy) to check the status of your blobcache Enable blobcache in web.config How to break your blobcache: reset IIS, hit refresh

Notes from Chris Auld's presentation at TechEd 09. Again, as with the other TechEd blogs, these are just notes that I can use to find out further information when more time is available. :) Azure: High scale application architecture Consolidate traditional IT to the cloud Move servers and apps out-house Reliable hardware in the cloud Virtualize to the cloud Manage explosive growth (scale out cloud) Scale out clouds are built around disposable hardware Reliability is built using software Scale out cloud is load balanced by default Greeness - PUE (power usage effectiveness) = Total Facility Power / IT Equipment Power. Google and Microsoft are getting around 1.10 to 1.25 PUE. Intergen server room is running at about 1.6 PUE. MS cloud offering = Windows Azure, .NET Services, SQL Azure Azure sits you above the abstraction layer (IMAGE TO GO IN HERE) Compute source (IMAGE TO GO IN HERE) Load balancer is key part of Windows Azure RoleEntryPointStart() has no return value. Always whi