SQL Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 SP1, and .Net Framework 3.5 SP1 explained....

http://blogs.msdn.com/psssql/archive/2008/08/11/sql-server-2008-visual-studio-2008-sp1-and-net-framework-3-5-sp1-explained.aspx

Hope this article by Microsoft PSS SQL Support team is helpful for you on SQL 2008.

Dannol

Reply:

Dannol Liu - MSFT wrote:

Hope this article by Microsoft PSS SQL Support team is helpful for you on SQL 2008.

Dannol

Not really. What I am after is a down to earth gide as how to uprade a SQL2005 install that uses everything, from CLR to SQL Agent.

I do not see any evidence that testing on large installation has been done nor any inplace upgrade is possible in such case.

SQL2008 will cause me major trouble to upgrade to and it will not be possible to upgrade before all remaining bugs are fixed.

If yu run a 200GB + datawarehouse with ALL options modules and components, you will have to carefully test and planify the "upgrade". Actually, it is NOT an upgrade, it is a beaking software change.

"Upgrading" a production system with SQL2008 will imply extended downtime and debuging unless you can afford the luxury of bringing a new server online and swap the server names and DNS at the last minute when everything finally work. Due to some bugs, this will not happen before SP1 in the most optimistic view.

I am wondering if I should do the same than SQL2000 guys who wanted to skip 2005 and wait fr 2008. I can skip 2008 and wait for 2010 :-)

------------------------------------
Reply:

hi Philippe, I did understand that the upgrade in production system is very critical and expensive.

I just posted 3 more about:

1. installing sql 2008;

2. upgrading to 2008;

3. SQL 2008 Release Notes with Required Actions Before You Install and Known Issues to Read First

thanks.

Dannol

------------------------------------
Reply:

Fair enough, I managed my way through most of the "upgrade" hassle but I am stuck on that one

http://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=362550

A show stopper... Untill I hit the next wall.

I am not considering 2008 as being an upgrade for 2005, I am considering 2008 as being a new software with no upgrade path.

2008 is badly breaking what was working on 2005 version. I may have to put 2008 on the back burner for years.

I just cannot see why I should go through all this pain just for some academic improvements. This sound like ...

------------------------------------

SQL 2008 Release Notes with Required Actions Before You Install and Known Issues to Read First

08/19/2008 19:31:54

This Release Notes document describes known issues that you should read about before you install or troubleshoot SQL Server 2008. This document also provides search tips to help you find more known issues in Knowledge Base (KB) articles on the Microsoft Help and Support Web site. The Release Notes document and the Knowledge Base articles supplement SQL Server 2008 Books Online.

The Release Notes document is available only online, not on the installation media, and is updated periodically. The current version of this file is available on the Release Notes download page.

For information about how to get started with installing SQL Server 2008, see the SQL Server 2008 Readme. The Readme is available on the installation media and from the Readme download page.

Before You Install

Before you install SQL Server 2008, read the following required actions and KB articles.

Required Actions

If you have installed Visual Studio 2008 or have installed prerelease versions of SQL Server 2008, you might have to perform prerequisite actions before you install SQL Server 2008. To determine which actions that you might have to perform, use the following table.

Visual Studio 2008 installation status	SQL Server 2008 installation status	Required action before you install SQL Server 2008
Is not installed.	Prerelease version was never installed.	No action is required.
Is not installed.	Prerelease version is currently or was previously installed.	Follow these steps: Uninstall the prerelease version of SQL Server 2008. Additionally, you might have to uninstall Visual Studio 2008 features that were added by a prerelease installation of SQL Server 2008. In Windows, use Add or Remove Programs and uninstall the following features if they are installed: Visual Studio 2008 Shell (integrated mode) and Visual Studio Tools for Applications 2.0.
Is installed, and the release version of Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 (SP1) is not installed.	Prerelease version was never installed.	Perform one of the following options: Install Visual Studio 2008 SP1 before you install SQL Server 2008. Uninstall Visual Studio 2008, and then install SQL Server 2008. After SQL Server 2008 is installed, you can install Visual Studio 2008 and then install Visual Studio 2008 SP1. Do not install the following components of SQL Server 2008 that require Visual Studio 2008: Management Tools (both Basic or Complete), Integration Services, and Business Intelligence Development Studio features. If you want to later install any of these features, you must first install Visual Studio 2008 SP1.
Is installed, and the release version of Visual Studio 2008 SP1 is not installed.	Prerelease version is currently or was previously installed.	Follow these steps: Uninstall the prerelease version of SQL Server 2008. Perform one of the following options: Install Visual Studio 2008 SP1 before you install SQL Server 2008. Uninstall Visual Studio 2008, and then install SQL Server 2008. After SQL Server 2008 is installed, you can install Visual Studio 2008 and then install Visual Studio 2008 SP1. Do not install the following components of SQL Server 2008 that require Visual Studio 2008: Management Tools (both Basic or Complete), Integration Services, and Business Intelligence Development Studio features. If you want to later install any of these features, you must first install Visual Studio SP1.
Visual Studio 2008 SP1 release version is installed.	Prerelease version was never installed.	No action is required.
Visual Studio 2008 SP1 release version is installed.	Prerelease version is currently installed.	Uninstall the prerelease version of SQL Server 2008.

If you install Visual Studio 2008 after you have installed SQL Server 2008, you must install Visual Studio 2008 SP1 to have a supported configuration. Visual Studio 2008 SP1 is not required if you did not install the following features that require Visual Studio 2008: Management Tools (both Basic or Complete), Integration Services, and Business Intelligence Development Studio.

For more information about how to install SQL Server 2008 with Visual Studio 2008, see the blog entry SQL Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 SP1, and .Net Framework 3.5 SP1 Explained on MSDN and KB article 956139. For more information about Visual Studio 2008 SP1, see this Visual Studio Web site.

Known Issues to Read First

The following KB articles highlight known issues that are important to read before you install SQL Server 2008. To find more KB articles about installation, use this Before You Install query.

KB ID	Summary
956139	Visual Studio 2008 SP1 may be required for SQL Server 2008 installations
956427	You cannot add a cluster node when you install SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services and you do not install the SQL Server 2008 Database Engine
956005	The status indicator for a SQL Server 2008 mirror database differs from SQL Server 2005
955949	Cluster upgrade to SQL Server 2008 fails when SQL Server 2005 cluster nodes have different installed features
955396	How to troubleshoot SQL Server 2008 Setup issues
956138	You cannot upgrade a non-English instance of SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services to SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services
955399	If upgrade to SQL Server 2008 fails, uninstall the upgrade before retrying the upgrade
955973	You might receive this error message when you try to upgrade to SQL Server 2008 on a computer that is running Windows Server: "Access to the path '<Path>\perf-MSSQL$SQL2008sqlctr.dll' is denied"
955389	How SQL Server 2008 updates what feature usage data to collect

Installing SQL Server 2008

Installing SQL Server 2008 [http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb500395.aspx]

The SQL Server Installation Wizard is Windows Installer-based. It provides a single feature tree to install all SQL Server components:

SQL Server Database Engine
Analysis Services
Reporting Services
Integration Services
Replication
Management tools
Documentation

Note SQL Server is available in 32-bit and 64-bit editions. The 64-bit and 32-bit editions of SQL Server are installed either through the Installation Wizard, or at a command prompt. For more information about SQL Server components, see Editions and Components of SQL Server 2008 and Features Supported by the Editions of SQL Server 2008.

By default, sample databases and sample code are not installed as part of SQL Server Setup. To install sample databases and sample code for non-Express editions of SQL Server 2008, see the CodePlex Web site: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=87843. To read about support for SQL Server sample databases and sample code for SQL Server Express, see Databases and Samples Overview: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=110391.

Regardless of whether you use the SQL Server Installation Wizard or the command prompt to install SQL Server, the Setup process involves the following steps:

In This Section

Planning a SQL Server Installation

Desribes how to prepare your computer for SQL Server:

Review hardware and software requirements.
Review System Configuration Checker requirements and blocking issues.
Review security considerations for a SQL Server installation.

Configuring SQL Server 2008: After Setup finishes, you can configure SQL Server by using graphical and command prompt utilities.

Related Sections

Considerations for Installing the SQL Server Database Engine: Describes how to install and configure the SQL Server Database Engine.

Considerations for Installing Analysis Services: Describes how to install and configure Analysis Services.

Considerations for Installing Reporting Services: Describes how to install and configure Reporting Services.

Considerations for Installing Integration Services: Describes how to install and configure Integration Services.

Considerations for Installing SQL Server Replication: This section describes how to install and configure SQL Server Replication.

Considerations for Installing SQL Server Management Tools: This section describes how to install and configure SQL Server management tools.

Considerations for Installing SQL Server Samples and Sample Databases: This section describes how to install SQL Server AdventureWorks samples.

Tasks

How to: Install SQL Server 2008 (Setup)

Other Resources

High Availability Solutions Overview

Upgrading to SQL Server 2008

Upgrading to SQL Server 2008 [http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb677622.aspx]

You can upgrade instances of SQL Server 2000 or SQL Server 2005 to SQL Server 2008. Before running SQL Server Setup to upgrade to SQL Server 2008, review the following topics about the upgrade process.

In This Section

Topic	Description
Planning a SQL Server Installation	Documents installation requirements, system configuration checks run by SQL Server Setup, and security considerations for a SQL Server installation.
Version and Edition Upgrades	Documents supported upgrade paths to SQL Server 2008.
Using Upgrade Advisor to Prepare for Upgrades	Describes Upgrade Advisor, a tool that analyzes instances of SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005 to identify known upgrade issues.
Upgrade How-to Topics	Provides links to procedural topics for upgrading to SQL Server 2008.
Backward Compatibility	Lists the significant changes that might affect your applications after you upgrade to SQL Server 2008.

Microsoft Ad Center - Horrible

Hi Folks,

This is one comment I hope Mr. Steve Ballmer and Mr. Bill Gates reads. I just started an account with Microsoft Ad Center on Tuesday, August 20, 2008 at around 6:00PM EST. I called today because my ads were not showing and the status was set to "active". When I called Ad Center Support, a customer service representative answered who we all know is outsourced by Microsoft. Microsoft is too good for an in house support center, please give me a break...I explained what my issue was. After she spent a few minutes looking at some settings within my account, I told her that I did not want to be on the "content" networks. She told me where to click to change the settings. I went to where she told me, I was not able to change the settings but yet she was able to see what I was not seeing. The representative said I was supposed to have two boxes under my "edit ad group settings" that I could change for content or no content ads. I did not have these options. The representative had to change the settings for me. This was the first blow to Microsoft because I was using IE 7. The second blow to Microsoft was the keyword pricing. I sell shaving cream online. The representative told me the reason why my ads are not showing is because the top bid is around $8.00. I told her that was impossible and checked the ads, another huge blow to Microsoft, guess who the number one ad was under the ad word? Big old Microsoft. I'm saying to myself, you have got to be kidding me. I am competing against a software company to sell shaving cream? Needless to say, my ads are still not up and running yet and it is hours later. I have been in the technology industry for over 25 years holding positions as high as V.P. of Internet Marketing; I have never seen such a poorly run organization under Mr. Steve Ballmer. The big problem is, I can turn the Microsoft Ad Center to a profit but yet they keep seeking people that have no clue within the industry. I would say that Microsoft should be put up for sale and IBM should buy them, not that IBM has a clue either but at least Microsoft might be in better hands. Bill Gates, if he had any understanding of today's world, he would still be running the company and wouldn't have stepped down, Bill Gates, if he had any clue as to what path Microsoft needs to follow, he would not have stepped down, Bill gates, if he had any clue as to the old technology Yahoo has, he would not have given his blessing to acquire Yahoo at such an over priced bid. Microsoft is done and should shut its doors. Microsoft has no clue as to where they are or need to be nor do they have a clue what products and or services they need to concentrate on. They made a failed investment of should I guess, $250 Million in FaceBook. Think about it, FaceBook, who would ever be seen on FaceBook never mind the name, it stinks! The only investment I see they put to good use only because they had to was to rescue Apple. Apple is now over taking Microsoft as the giant in hardware and software development including smartphones. Microsoft buys the maker of the SideKick, a phone that only appeals to kids in high school; I know this for a fact because I take the phones from the kids in class because they cannot seem to stop using them. Now with the IPhone out, the sidekick is dead. What other screw-ups can Mr. Bill Gates and Mr. Steve Ballmer create? Only time will tell...

Microsoft released SQL Server 2008

Microsoft released SQL Server 2008 on Wednesday. The new database software is a continuation of Microsoft's efforts to bolster SQL Server's credibility as a highly scalable database and the cornerstone to Microsoft's evolving "data platform."

"If you added up all of our investments in SQL Server 2008, it was data warehouse scale that got the highest level of investment," Ted Kummert, the VP of Microsoft's data platform and storage division, said on a conference call with reporters and analysts. Microsoft already claims numerous deployments of multiterabyte, heavily accessed databases and has largely gotten over its reputation as a system that couldn't scale, but the company continued that focus in this release.

SQL Server 2008 live on MSDN and TechNet!

http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/trial-software.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/subscriptions/downloads/default.aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/subscriptions/downloads/default.aspx

Dannol Liu

Reply:

They released the DB... but where are the tools to quickly create a DB with the Express version of 2008

I downloaded SQLEXPR_x86_ENU.exe and after several steps of needing NET_v2_CFSetupv2.msi (vs 3.5) to deal with a bogus error on validation about language support missing, I now have a DB installed and running.

SSMSE

I was expecting to have toolsets similar to the Enterprise Manager and Query analizer, or the SSMSE tool for 2000 / 2005 SQL.

The SSMSE tool does not work with SQL 2008 and after a few hours of googling, I belive the toolset you need is Visual Studio Express (VS2008ExpressWithSP1ENUX1504728.iso) but the only install options are Visual C, Visual C++, Visual Basic, or Visual Web Developer.

I would ASSume that one of these would reflect the new tool interface to create a simple DB (or create a new instance for my test DB as I found you can only do one DB per instance)

The only other thing I found in my research is a suggestion to use MS Access as the "tool" to create the DB, but I was looking for something a bit more robust for backups, DB expansion, etc (similar to Enterprise Manager)

Any direction would be greatly appreciated.

------------------------------------

ASP-0156 80004005 / xmldocument must have top level

When you have too many items (more than 200) and, suddenly, instead of them appears a message like "xml document must have top level", you will see an error(asp-0156 80004005). It happens because proclarity tries to rewrite the header page. I modified the metabase and nothing happened. To solve this, I had to remove some code from PStore.asp (inetpub\wwwroot\pas). The lines are:

Response.ContentType = "text/xml"

Response.CacheControl = "No-cache"

Response.Expires = 0

After that, I could see everything. I hope this document helps somebody.

P.D.: Sorry for my english, I'm from Argentina and I don't practice enough. We use Proclarity 6.3. This error has been solved in the new hotfix, but my problem occured 2 weeks ago.

Here's a link to see the asp-0156 error.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/229657/en

Regards,

Martin Averame,

MCP, MCAD, MCBMSS Microsoft Dynamics 3.0 Customization

Reply:

Martin,

Great info, thanks!

-Joey

------------------------------------

SOLVED: Sharepoint 2003 Template Selection - Could not set template for inital top-level site

I couldn't find an acceptable solution to this issue anywhere on the web, so I posted mine here.

I was setting up a SP2k3 VM for my dev environment. After a ton of initial hiccups due to permissions problems, I finally got the Central Admin page up and running. (if anyone is interested, I'll be happy to detail the problems/solutions I ran into.)

After I created the first top-level site on the Default Web Site, it opened up the template picker startup page. I would pick a template, and it would display the error page "Error. Operation could not be completed. Please try again." Very informative.  Checked the logs. Nothing. I deleted the top-level site and tried again.  Same problem.  this time, I tried opening the template picker again from the " Top Level Site Successfully Created" page.  I got the error message "A template has already been chosen..."etc. Meaning it told me it couldn't do it, then did it anyway. I went to the homepage and it had the "under construction" page. So I deleted it again, restarted IIS, and tried again. Same problem.

I checked all of my permissions, they were all good. Finally I ran across another person who had a similar problem with a different error message. They recommended checking what version ASP.NET was running on the site.

Here's my final solution, in short:

1. Open IIS Manager.
2.   Navigate to you Web Site, right click, click "Properties".
3.   In the web site properties dialog, click the "ASP.NET" tab.
4.   If your ASP.NET version does not read "2.0.xxxxx" (the x's are the current version of .NET), change it to 2.0. If you do not have 2.0, you need to install it.
5.   Force an upgrade to 2.0 on that site. Do this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/894903
6.   Close the ie window that pops up. Re-create your site collection. Select your template and it should work fine!

Edited by cnipper Wednesday, August 20, 2008 2:11 PM for accuracy

SQL Server and the Windows Server 2008 Firewall

[http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlsecurity/]

SQL Server and the Windows Server 2008 Firewall

We've long recommended that customers use the Windows Firewall to protect SQL Server installations. Starting with Windows XP/SP2, and continuing with Windows Vista, the firewall has been enabled by default on Windows client operating systems. Windows Server 2008 marks the first time this protection has been extended to a Windows Server OS.

For those of you migrating from Windows Server 2003 or earlier to Windows Server 2008, if you have not previously heeded the advice to enable the firewall, you may be surprised by connectivity failures caused by the firewall (for any version of SQL) and you will need to take action to enable the connectivity you want.

Don't panic! J Choosing the right firewall strategy isn't as hard as it may seem, and it will pay dividends over the long run. We have a books online entry that has lots of good information on how to use the firewall. That document is available at

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc646023(SQL.100).aspx.

We strongly recommend you read that before making changes to your firewall strategy. For detailed information about the firewall, see

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/network/bb545423.aspx

I use the term "firewall strategy" intentionally, because there are some tradeoffs that only you can make. You might want to simply "configure the firewall" to make it all "just work," and you could do that, but it might expose you in ways you don't intend. To highlight that point, I will refer you to a recent survey by David Litchfield of NGS Software. Quoting from the executive summary:

The survey found that there are approximately 368,000 Microsoft SQL Servers directly accessible on the Internet and around 124,000 Oracle database servers directly accessible on the Internet.

That's a lot of servers directly exposed to the Internet, and I doubt strongly that level of exposure is intended. So we're hopeful that you will spend some time making choices you are comfortable with, and that the change to enable the firewall on Windows Server 2008 will lead to a level of exposure that more closely matches your real business needs. And only you can determine your real business needs.

I should note that exposure by itself does not imply that there is any particular vulnerability. Indeed, only 4% of the exposed SQL servers were running a vulnerable version of SQL Server, and those few vulnerable servers appear to have gone unpatched for many years now (our competitors fared much worse in this regard, candidly). But in the event of a newly-discovered vulnerability in SQL Server those 368,000 servers could become 368,000 targets overnight (or faster), and we all want to avoid that.

So, our first piece of advice: review your existing firewall strategy, including your host and network firewalls, to ensure that none of your servers are unintentionally exposed to the internet or to untrustworthy insiders.

Step 0: Establish the scope of your scan, and appropriate policies. Will you be performing a simple audit of connectivity, or a full penetration test? What knowledge will the auditor have of your systems ahead of time? Who is authorized to have the results? Who is tasked with making changes based on the audit?

ISO-27002 discusses " guidelines and general principles for initiating, implementing, maintaining, and improving information security management in an organization" and is worth reviewing if you don't have established policies in place. Additional resources include

· The CERT OCTAVE Method

· The Open Source Security Testing Methodology

· The Center for Internet Security

· The Information Systems Audit and Control Association IS Auditing Procedure

Doing an audit carelessly can be costly and embarrassing. Review the resources above, and plan well.

Step 1: Locate your SQL Servers. Not only are SQL Servers in the datacenter serving enterprise-wide functions, but SQL Servers power desktop and department-wide applications outside the data center as well. And SQL Server comes in free editions like SQL Server Express, and SQL Server Express Advanced, which end users can download and install on their desktops, and which are bundled in other products like Visual Studio.

You can use SQL Browser to search for SQL Servers from different places on your network. Because Browser broadcasts to other instances of Browser in order to locate SQL Servers, there are some limitations.

· If the Browser service on a remote machine is not running, or is blocked by a firewall, this method won't work of course

· If the firewall is enabled on the machine from which the scan is performed, that may interfere with gathering complete results. If a server takes more than 3 seconds to respond, that response may be blocked by the client-side firewall. See the UnicastResponsesToMulticastBroadcastDisabled property of the Windows firewall for more information.

· Because SQL Browser uses broadcasts, it can only "see" SQL servers in the same broadcast domain. So, you may have to do this from different places in your network.

· On clustered systems, be aware that browser is not a clustered resource, and does not support failover from one cluster node to the other.

For more information on Browser, see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms181087.aspx.

Beyond using SQL Browser, you can perform a network scan looking for services listening on default ports for any of the SQL components. These default ports are

Database Engine	1433
SQL Browser	1434 for DB engine
SQL Broker	4022, by convention
Analysis Services	2383
Reporting Services	80/443

This is just the default ports for the most common scenarios, not an exhaustive list of possibilities. For more detail, see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc646023(SQL.100).aspx.

Step 2: review the host firewall configuration to ensure it complies with your policy. For the Windows Firewall with Advanced Security, the basic checks are to ensure that there are appropriately configured exceptions for the services you intend to offer, and otherwise, ports in the firewall are blocked. In today's highly networked world, with complex schemes to embed one protocol within another, and advanced scanning techniques designed to penetrate network firewalls, a host firewall is more important than ever.

Review the documents below for detailed information on using the firewall with various components of SQL:

Database Engine	http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms175043(SQL.100).aspx
Analysis Services	http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms174937(SQL.100).aspx
Reporting Services	http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb934283(SQL.100).aspx
Integration Services	http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms141198(SQL.100).aspx

Beyond just a simple "port open" or "port closed" decision, you should consider at least the network scope (all systems, local subnet, or a specific list of IP addresses), whether or not IP Sec is enabled, and what profile you are configuring. Review "Configuring the Windows Firewall to Allow SQL Server Access" for more information.

Step 3: Review your network firewall configuration to ensure that access to your network is correctly configured. Here, configuration choices vary widely and there are many makers of network firewall systems, including the Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server.

The ISA team has provided online training to help you design a perimeter firewall defense, covering the various classes of network firewalls, security, scalability, performance, and other topics. That material is available at

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/learning/perimeterdefense/all/default.mspx.

Step 4: Verify that your defenses are operating as expected. This may be the most difficult part because the job of the network is to deliver packets, and it may succeed despite your best efforts to stop it.

The basic idea is to attempt to establish connectivity to SQL Server from a location from which you believe the server is not accessible. Even if you have a machine that is providing a service to the whole world by design, it's unlikely that you want to provide all services available on that machine to all comers. So make sure that you are checking for all the services the machine might offer.

It can help here to draw your network as a set of zones, and enumerate the connectivity policy within and between zones. A zone might be the "demilitarized zone" which traditionally provides a buffer between your public and private networks, or it may be "the sales zone," where access is permitted to sales data. "The sales zone" does not consist of a list of authorized sales people, but rather a list of networks from which those sales people need access (after providing appropriate credentials of course).

As part of that process, you should identify zones from which a certain type of access is not permitted, and conduct a scan from that zone. This should fail, of course. It's possible that all the networks you own are designed to permit connectivity to your database, and if that is the case, it means you will have to perform the scan from outside your network. A few things to keep in mind if you need to do that:

1. Don't surprise the lawyers: be sure you have permission from the owners of both networks to perform such a scan.

2. Don't surprise the network team: a scan can be resource intensive, and risky. Don't do it without the approval of your network team.

3. Don't surprise the security guys: be sure your own security team, and the security team of the network you are using, is aware of and prepared for the scan. When you set somebody's pager off in the middle of the night because they think your network is under attack, we call that "an unfortunate event on your annual review."

There are a variety of network scanners available to you to perform this scan. The Microsoft utility PortQry can help you do simple scans. The PortQry utility is available for download from the Microsoft Download Center. You may wish to consider third party tools like nmap, SuperScanner, Nesus, and Foundstone Enterprise for large scanning needs.

We have included some advice from our Application Consulting and Engineering team specifically about scanning:

· Use a moderate scanning speed when conducting UDP scans on the network, especially across WAN links; hosts that do not have a service on the port to which you are trying to connect will respond with "ICMP Port Unreachable", and there have been instances where this can cause a denial of service on some routers

· Most scanning engines support tuning paramaters; try to break the network up logically and scan in smaller chunks to reduce possible outages and negative impact

· Use things like NetBIOS domain browse lists whenever possible to reduce the generation of traffic and "touching hosts"

If you're conducting a complete network penetration test at the same time, things can get more complicated, but we're not going to cover all of that here. Review the documents above, and plan for your pen test.

Step 5: Remedy the problems. No one technology may provide all the filtering capability you need. You may have to make tradeoffs and use a combination of network and host-based firewalls to achieve the protection you want.

-Shawn Hernan, SQL SIA Security, with much input from many people.

SQL Server and the Windows Server 2008 Firewall

[http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlsecurity/]

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc646023(SQL.100).aspx.

We strongly recommend you read that before making changes to your firewall strategy. For detailed information about the firewall, see

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/network/bb545423.aspx

The survey found that there are approximately 368,000 Microsoft SQL Servers directly accessible on the Internet and around 124,000 Oracle database servers directly accessible on the Internet.

· The CERT OCTAVE Method

· The Open Source Security Testing Methodology

· The Center for Internet Security

· The Information Systems Audit and Control Association IS Auditing Procedure

Doing an audit carelessly can be costly and embarrassing. Review the resources above, and plan well.

· If the Browser service on a remote machine is not running, or is blocked by a firewall, this method won't work of course

· Because SQL Browser uses broadcasts, it can only "see" SQL servers in the same broadcast domain. So, you may have to do this from different places in your network.

· On clustered systems, be aware that browser is not a clustered resource, and does not support failover from one cluster node to the other.

For more information on Browser, see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms181087.aspx.

Beyond using SQL Browser, you can perform a network scan looking for services listening on default ports for any of the SQL components. These default ports are

Database Engine	1433
SQL Browser	1434 for DB engine
SQL Broker	4022, by convention
Analysis Services	2383
Reporting Services	80/443

This is just the default ports for the most common scenarios, not an exhaustive list of possibilities. For more detail, see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc646023(SQL.100).aspx.

Review the documents below for detailed information on using the firewall with various components of SQL:

Database Engine	http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms175043(SQL.100).aspx
Analysis Services	http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms174937(SQL.100).aspx
Reporting Services	http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb934283(SQL.100).aspx
Integration Services	http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms141198(SQL.100).aspx

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/learning/perimeterdefense/all/default.mspx.

1. Don't surprise the lawyers: be sure you have permission from the owners of both networks to perform such a scan.

2. Don't surprise the network team: a scan can be resource intensive, and risky. Don't do it without the approval of your network team.

We have included some advice from our Application Consulting and Engineering team specifically about scanning:

· Most scanning engines support tuning paramaters; try to break the network up logically and scan in smaller chunks to reduce possible outages and negative impact

· Use things like NetBIOS domain browse lists whenever possible to reduce the generation of traffic and "touching hosts"

-Shawn Hernan, SQL SIA Security, with much input from many people.

Experiencing SqlServer 2005

Juming to Sql Server 2005 from 2000 was a great experience.
Doing it on your own without any support was a bit hard being a fresher.
but the Journey taught me a lot many things about da Depth of SS2005

Reply:

Hello

Sorry, this is the SQL Server Data Services (SSDS) forum. Please repost your question under the appropriate forum in http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=84&SiteID=1

Sorry for the confusion.

thanks

Anil

------------------------------------
Reply:

Sorry for dat...
Have a problem passing a parameter value 'ABCD' (with single quotes) to SS2005 same works fine in SS2000. Have checked with Quoted Identifier but finding it difficult to grab a solution.
Please Help..

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LDAP authentication error

A domaincontroller running on Windows 2003 Server is used for autentication. RHEL 5 is running the software users need to be authenticated.
Most of the users in the active directory, were migrated from a NT4 domain. Some of them were created later on the 2003 Server.
When authenticating NT4 domain migrated users, they always recieve an authentication error (invalid credentials).
Users which were created after the migration are able to authenticate.
Whats the difference between NT4 Domain migrated Users and Users created on Active Direcotry?

Thanks in advance

Changed type Joson Zhou Wednesday, August 20, 2008 7:03 AM idle, no response

Reply:

Was the domain itself migrated up from NT4 with the existing users or were the NT4 users migrated over from a seperate NT domain into a fresh Active Directory forest? If you compare the Account tabs between the native and migrated accounts do you see any differences between the User Logon Name and the pre-Windows 2000 logon name (sAMAccountName)?

Jeff Schertz, PointBridge | MVP | MCITP: Enterprise Messaging

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Reply:

The NT4 domain was migrated itself including the user accounts.
The logonnames and pre-windows 2000 logonnames are identical, no difference to see.

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Reply:

Hi,

Based on my understanding, the migrated user objects should be the same as the user objects created after the migration.

Before we go further, I would like to confirm the following information:

1. Does the authentication issue only occur when the migrated users access the software running on the Linux computer? Can the users access other resource in the AD domain, such as logon the computer?

2. Is the Linux computer joined the AD domain?

3. Is there any Kerberos event logged on the client machines after the authentication fails? Additionally, could you copy the exact error message for further research?

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Reply:

Hi,

As this thread has been quiet for a while we will be changing the issue type to 'General Discussion'.

If you wish to return to this question you can go ahead and change the type back to 'Question'. Then you can click Options, select Change Type, and change the Tread Type to Question.

If the issue has been resolved, we'd love to hear your solution. By sharing your experience you can help other community members facing similar problems.

Thanks.

------------------------------------

Feedback Requested: Tools Ideas

As we continue to build on our tools strategy, we would like to hear from you on how we could improve the developer experience when working with SSDS. The feedback we seek is primarily related to what tools and/or libraries would help you most when developing applications for SSDS. These can be targeted for development, data management, performance, debugging or any other area of SSDS for which you would like us to provide better support.

Please note that over the weekend we released couple of beta tools for developers creating applications with SSDS. The related beta documentation is at MSDN.

Thank you.
Mohan

Mohan.Vanmane at Microsoft.com

Edited by Mohan Vanmane Tuesday, August 19, 2008 5:43 PM update title

Reply:

Mohan:

thanks for posting the SDK stuff. looks very nice.

This may not be what you're thinking, but one thing that I'd like to see is more information on my traffic and storage. for example, how many GETs/POST/PUT/DELETE transactions in a period (hour,day,week,month). Also how may bytes/KB/MB uploaded and downloaded. Finally, the daily storage values (bytes/KB/MB). maybe avg low/peak?

Also, it'd be nice to get perf data such as the time (in ms?) it takes to complete transactions. maybe run a log for analysis later (using log parser, etc.). This would help me tweak/tune requests, queries, etc.

Just some initial thoughts.

Thanks for listenin'

Mike Amundsen [http://amundsen.com/blog/]

Edited by Mike Amundsen Tuesday, August 19, 2008 6:30 PM fix spelling

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Reply:

Mike,

This is great feedback. We are working on delivering metrics of this nature. You will see them show up in a future release.

Rick Negrin
SQL Server Data Services

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Reply:

Rick:

good to hear. Looking forward to seeing these soon.

Mike Amundsen [http://amundsen.com/blog/]

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SCE 2007 Failed Installation

I have installed a System Center Essential. But based from the Logs, it fails upon installation of the WSUS.

Here are part of the Log SCESetup01.log

==========================================================================

3:51 PM: LaunchYukon: Install succeeded. check log file at c:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\setup bootstrap\log\summary.txt

3:51 PM: ProcessInstalls: ApplyPostSQLQFEs executed with no errors.

3:51 PM: ProcessInstalls: Installing WSUS.

3:51 PM: SetProgressScreen: Init WSUS Install progress.

3:51 PM: statusUpdate: Resetting progress bar.

3:51 PM: statusUpdate: Setting progress bar value to: 90

3:51 PM: ProcessInstalls: we will install or upgrade wsus

3:51 PM: LaunchWSUS: Launching \\190.168.60.50\My Disc (E)\Setup\i386\wsussetup.exe with arguments: /q ENABLE_INVENTORY=1 DEFAULT_WEBSITE=0 PROGRESS_WINDOWS_HANDLE=1704156 CREATE_DATABASE=1 CONTENT_LOCAL =1 CONTENT_DIR="d:\MSSCE_Update" MU_ROLLUP=0 SQLINSTANCE_NAME=AGSRVDATA3\SCE

3:51 PM: LaunchWSUS: Failed: Return Code 5216

3:51 PM: LaunchWSUS: Check c:\document and settings\agcadminsw\local settings\temp1\1\wsussetup.log for more information

3:51 PM: LaunchWSUS: Additional Logs may be available at: C:\Program Files\Update Services\LogFiles

3:51 PM: ProcessInstalls: Doing a rollback

==========================================================================

The system center essential installation directory is on d:\program files\system center essential.

The WSUS update is on d:\msceupdate

What are the possible reason that a WSUS will fail upon installation of SCE?

Thanks

Reply:

Hi,

I'd like to confirm whether there is any old WSUS version installed on this server?

Please send %temp%\SCEsetup#.log and %temp%\SCEreporting#.log to SCEDATA@microsoft.com <mailto

CEDATA@microsoft.com>.

Note:

Please include the following three lines in the email body:

SCE 2007 Failed Installation
http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=3647736&SiteID=17
Eric Zhang - MSFT

Regarding more information about how to send email to SCEDATA@microsoft.com, please refer to:

How to send files to the Microsoft SCE team for review
<http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1680389&SiteID=17>

Also, please post a quick note in the current thread to inform me after sending the email.

Thanks!

--------------------
Regards,
Eric Zhang

------------------------------------
Reply:

Hi,

As this thread has been quiet for a while we will be changing the issue type to 'Comment'.

If you wish to return to this question you can go ahead and change the type back to 'Question'. Then you can edit your initial post and change the radio button at the top of the post editor window.

If the issue has been resolved, we'd love to hear your solution. By sharing your experience you can help other community members facing similar problems.

Thanks!
--------------------
Regards,
Eric Zhang

------------------------------------
Reply:

Hi,

I am looking for an answer, how to get rid of failed installation in Health Report. Some times updates from Microsoft are failed and I get this error and can not remove it. My screens are full of Alerts (0) and failed with Red X.

Any help is appreciated.

Kmath

------------------------------------

SSDSDeploy.exe demo app posted

I just posted (codeplex, google-code) a new demo app that allows users to upload one or more files (using wildcards) to the SSDS servers. The syntax is pretty simple:

POST single binary file: 
/{a}/{c}/{e} "[c:][\folder\path\]file.ext" ["mime-type"] [y] 
where: 
    {a} = authority 
    {c} = container 
    {e} = entity 
     y  = overwrite existing entities 
 
ex: /my-auth/files/my-profile "c:\temp\profile.jpg" "image\jpeg" y 
 
POST multiple files using wildcard: 
/{a}/{c}/* "[c:][\folder\path\]*.*" [y] 
 
ex: /my-authority/my-container/* "c:\uploads\*.*" y 
    or 
ex: /my-authority/my-container/* "c:\images\*.png" y 
 

Currently, SSDS doesn't handle "/" or "\" very well for entity Ids via REST. That means valid entity Ids are "filename.ext", but not "/images/filename.ext." I may do an update that has a work-around for this, but I'm not sure if I'll get to it in the next few days.

NOTE: One of the interesting items in this demo is a method [GetMimeType(string filename)] that uses the Registry to resolve the selected file's MIME type before sending it on to SSDS. The code is not very complex, but might have some security implications. I'd be curious to hear if anyone has trouble running the code in partial trust.

As usual, looking forward to any feedback.

Mike Amundsen [http://amundsen.com/blog/]

Edited by Mike Amundsen Tuesday, August 19, 2008 9:18 AM add reference to GetMimeType()

Reply:

Very cool Mike :)

------------------------------------
Reply:

Dave:

Thanks.

Mike Amundsen [http://amundsen.com/blog/]

------------------------------------

EWS UpdateItemType is too cumbersome for real use.

Having to create a separate ContactItemType for each property being updated is a very poor design for the developer end. Perhaps it makes the server side easier, but it makes development much more difficult. You can't even reuse the same object because of the ErrorIncorrectUpdatePropertyCount issue. So rather than something like this:

An UpdateItem that contains an array of ItemChanges (one per item to be modified with all the values), which contains an array of Updates (a list of properties you wish to modify).

you have this:

An UpdateItem that contains an array of ItemChanges (one per item to be modified with the id of the item you are modifying), which contains an array of Updates (one per property you wish to modify, with a seperate contact item that must have only the property you are modifying populated).

To see why this is so bad, imagine you have an original ContactItemType and one with changes. Are you really going to want to write code that creates a new ContactItemType with just one property populated for each property that is different? Can you imagine the size of that code? You would have to create some sort of a map between a ContactItemType property and the DictionaryURIType.

Isn't being able to say to the server: "Here is a ContactItemType I want you to use, it has all the values you need. Here is a list of all the properties I want updated. Here is the contactID and changeKey. Go do it." A lot easer?! Good for the server, good for us. Probably smaller messages too. You can even complain if there is a difference between the number of properties populated in the ContactItemType versus the list of properties I want updated.

The current state of Exchange Web Services is ridiculous.

Reply:

I'm glad to see you are enjoying the API Smile One of the reasons that we went with this approach is due to the potential interdependency of properties on items and the schema defined order of properties. There are certainly ways that we could have architected this in a different manner. However, the existing semantics are clear and functional, although as you suggest it has the potential for bloating UpdateItem XML messages. Regarding the "original ContactItemType and one with changes", I assume you mean that you want to take an existing ContactItemType instance and make several modifications to it. It is true that you need to maintain a mapping of Field URIs to actual properties in this case, but for error handling you already have a similar issue in that property errors will come back with the offending FieldURI referenced in the MessageXml. In that case, you would also need such a property mapping.

Considering the size of the map, you would need an entry for each publicly exposed property on ContactItemType which is not unmanagable. Of course, there are likely better ways of doing what you want. Typically, client applications will know what properties they want to set on a contact when the app is being built - i.e. some Outlook property page with a bunch of text boxes and check boxes. In that case, you *already* have a similar mapping in your code - you know that the "DisplayName" text box maps to ContactItemType.DisplayName, the "FileAs" combo box corresponds to ContactItemType.FileAs enumeration, etc... In this case, you simply maintain a parallel mapping of either UI element to FieldURI or ContactItemType first class property to FieldURI. So, although I do agree that it is a bit of an inconvenience, I would tend to shy away from the idea that it is unusable. In addition, you only have to write such code once. Actually, I do something very similar to what you are suggesting in the EWS book in the chapter on Contacts where I provide a "SetCompleteName" method that builds an UpdateItem call for each part of a CompleteName structure. So it certainly isn't impossible.

Keep the suggestions coming though - we do appreciate input.

------------------------------------
Reply:

Granted you would need to map between a UI and an object. But let's say you had a two way map between the UI and the ContactItemType. So you copy the values from the UI to the ContactItemType and you want to submit those changes. Now what? Rather than be able to just send the object as is, you have to create a giant request, tons of extra objects with just a single property populated. I realize I need a UI to object map. But I shouldn't need a same object to same object map to actually save the changes.

If you must keep the single property design, one idea would be to add an attribute to the UnindexedFieldURIType that would provide the name of the property. Then you could create something (using Reflection) to save yourself a lot of coding:

Code Snippet

private SetItemFieldType CreateUnindexedChangeItem(ContactItemType ObjectWithAllValues, UnindexedFieldURIType Field)

{

SetItemFieldType obj = new SetItemFieldType();

ContactItemType objectWithJustOneProperty = new ContactItemType ();

//Use reflection to copy the one property from ObjectWithAllValues to

//objectWithJustOneProperty by using the attribute on the UnindexedFieldURIType enum.

return obj;

}

You already have XmlEnumAttribute, however it requires a split and I don't know if it is going to be reliable from version to version.

------------------------------------
Reply:

I think the disconnect is where you are setting all of the changes on a single ContactItemType instance. Before, you likely had something like this (I am guessing here):

private void txtFileAs_Changed(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

this.currentContact.FileAs = txtFileAs.Text;

}

Or maybe you had a single "update" method that took all of the modified UI elements and set them on the contact instance. However, you could do something like this: Note that I did not test this out, so you might have to do some tweaking to get it running - but it should give you the idea...

Code Snippet

private Dictionary<UnindexedFieldURIType, SetItemFieldType> changes =

new Dictionary<UnindexedFieldURIType, SetItemFieldType>();

private ItemIdType currentContactItemId;

/// <summary>

/// Called when the text box value is changed for FileAs. Of course, you wouldn't likely

/// do this on the Changed event, but you get the idea...

/// </summary>

/// <param name="sender"></param>

/// <param name="e"></param>

private void txtFileAs_Changed(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

ContactItemType modifiedContact = new ContactItemType();

modifiedContact.FileAs = txtFileAs.text;

this.CreateUpdateSection(

modifiedContact,

UnindexedFieldURIType.contactsFile):

}

/// <summary>

/// Creates and caches a SetItemFieldType instance for the passed contact and UnindexedFieldURI.

/// </summary>

/// <param name="contact">ContactItemType instance with SINGLE prop set</param>

/// <param name="fieldUri">FieldURI being updated</param>

private void CreateUpdateSection(ContactItemType contact,

UnindexedFieldURIType fieldUri)

{

SetItemFieldType setUpdate = new SetItemFieldType();

PathToUnindexedFieldType path = new PathToUnindexedFieldType();

path.FieldURI = fieldUri;

setUpdate.Item = path;

setUpdate.Item1 = contact; // set the actual object to be updated

// Now, add this change to the list of changes to be applied when we

// are ready to call updateItem.

changes[fieldUri] = setUpdate;

}

/// <summary>

/// Called when we actually want to update the contact via UpdateItem. Builds the changes from

/// the cache.

/// </summary>

private void MakeTheUpdate()

{

UpdateItemType updateRequest = new UpdateItemType();

updateRequest.ConflictResolution = ConflictResolutionType.AutoResolve;

updateRequest.ItemChanges = new ItemChangeType[1];

updateRequest.ItemChanges[0].Item = this.currentContactItemId;

updateRequest.ItemChanges[0].Updates = new SetItemFieldType[changes.Count];

int index = 0;

foreach (KeyValuePair<UnindexedFieldURIType, SetItemFieldType> change in changes)

{

updateRequest.ItemsChanges[0].Updates[index] = change.value;

index++;

}

UpdateItemResponseType response = binding.UpdateItem(updateRequest);

// etc...

}

------------------------------------
Reply:

Yes, that is sufficient for that environment. However, if you are taking changes from a source where you don't have changed events (such as copying data from another data source), it isn't sufficient. Which is what I have.

------------------------------------
Reply:

So when you receive an updated ContactItemType instance from this other source, do you update only the modified properties or do you try to update the entire thing? You would at least have to strip out the read only props and you couldn't update those. And of course, you wouldn't want to update the contact if there were no changes at all to it. So that suggests either:

1. Build change tracking into the ContactItemType by extending the proxy classes. I assume they are taking an original ContactItemType instance and updating it with the new values? Or are they building one from scratch? If modifying an existing instance, change tracking would allow you to keep tabs on those props that have changed and give you a place to keep track of SetItemFieldType instance in a cache *within* the ContactItemType instance.

2. Build an external ContactItemType diffing method - you need to determine which props have changed in order to properly update the contact anyways, so that diffing code could build the SetItemFieldType instances as it does its diff.

I would lean towards #1 above, but again, it assumes that some other code is modifying an existing ContactItemType instance. Then you could just add a "ToItemChange()" method that will take the cached SetItemFieldType changes and build the proxy classes to handle the update, sort of like my previous code did.

------------------------------------

"Where is the forum for..." Forum

Why doesnt nobody answer in there? We complain that there are many offtopic posts, bu we don't help our users to post where they should.

If no one answers, then why does that forum still exists? Dont you think it's a waste of space?

Lucian Baciu, MCTS, http://studentclub.ro/lucians_weblog

"Answerer"

Is the "Answerer" group going to be droped in this Forums? What is the future of this group? I see that the "Answerer" tag is no longer visible behind the name of the poster, like it was in the "old" version of the forums.

Lucian Baciu, MCTS, http://studentclub.ro/lucians_weblog

Edited by Lucian BaciuMicrosoft employee Tuesday, August 19, 2008 10:01 AM explanation added

livecam-W.Vista

Problemas livecam 1.0 in windows vista what to do

Reply:

Hi,

I am afraid we need more detail information about this issue.

Please let me know the following points:

1.Whether you means Microsoft LifeCam 1.0 software installation error? Or a problem with livecam 1.0?

2.Could you let me know the detail problem description?

3.If you means Microsoft LifeCam, could you please let me know the detail model?

4.Do you have another known Windows Vista computer? If so, does it work on that computer?

Once I get information from you, I will take a further research on this problem.

Thanks!

------------------------------------
Reply:

As this thread has been quiet for a while we will be changing the issue type to 'Comment'.

If you wish to return to this question you can go ahead and change the type back to 'Question'. Then you can edit your initial post and change the radio button at the top of the post editor window.

If the issue has been resolved, we'd love to hear your solution. By sharing your experience you can help other community members facing similar problems.

Thanks!

------------------------------------

Search doesn't work by writer name

I searched with my name Silvercode, but it doesn't return all my messages but only one. Why just one, why not more?

Reply:

Hi,

It works but you have to search in the search box at the browse users page to get all your posts, I just searched and got it you have 27 posts and 16 points. The search is not as good as the old site but it works. If you want to get back a thread you need to search at the search pane of the forum you posted that material not easy but it works most of the time.

Asp.net MVP, MCPD Web C#, MCITP BI & MCTS SQL Server 2005

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Reply:

It would be easier and therefore better, if it just worked.

------------------------------------
Reply:

I don't understand what you mean by if it just works because I just searched and got you again this time with 28 posts and 16 points so I know it works. Here is the search see it works.

http://forums.msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/users/#page:1;searchexpression:Silvercode

Asp.net MVP, MCPD Web C#, MCITP BI & MCTS SQL Server 2005

------------------------------------
Reply:

DisplayNames aren't indexed by the forums search engine. This should be rectified when we move to Live Search.

Matt Fraser, STO Forums Software Developer

------------------------------------
Reply:

I agree. Searching by user name plus content is useful. Sometimes I like to find one of my old posts when attempting to answer a similar question.

This used to work on the old forum system.

------------------------------------
Reply:

You can still use the old forum search because I just used it this morning and if you remember the forum here using each forum search pane works for me most of the time.

Asp.net MVP, MCPD Web C#, MCITP BI & MCTS SQL Server 2005

------------------------------------
Reply:

the old forum search wold only work on content in the old forum system, though. New content here would not be searched by that.

Matt Fraser, STO Forums Software Developer

------------------------------------
Reply:

Actually no when the user is added it pulls everything the user have posted so I use it to get even recent posts and it worked on Saturday the 16th of August, 2008.

Asp.net MVP, MCPD Web C#, MCITP BI & MCTS SQL Server 2005

------------------------------------
Reply:

The search don't find everything I have posted.

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Ms Support forum

Wednesday, March 30, 2022