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• SQLAuthority News – #TechEdIn – TechEd India 2012 Memories and Photos

  - by pinaldave

  TechEd India 2012 was held in Bangalore last March 21 to 23, 2012. Just like every year, this event is bigger, grander and inspiring. Pinal Dave at TechEd India 2012 Family Event Every single year, TechEd is a special affair for my entire family.  Four months before the start of TechEd, I usually start to build the mental image of the event. I start to think  about various things. For the most part, what excites me most is presenting a session and meeting friends. Seriously, I start thinking about presenting my session 4 months earlier than the event!  I work on my presentation day and night. I want to make sure that what I present is accurate and that I have experienced it firsthand. My wife and my daughter also contribute to my efforts. For us, TechEd is a family event, and the two of them feel equally responsible as well. They give up their family time so I can bring out the best content for the Community. Pinal, Shaivi and Nupur at TechEd India 2012 Guinea Pigs (My Experiment Victims) I do not rehearse my session, ever. However, I test my demo almost every single day till the last moment that I have to present it already. I sometimes go over the demo more than 2-3 times a day even though the event is more than a month away. I have two “guinea pigs”: 1) Nupur Dave and 2) Vinod Kumar. When I am at home, I present my demos to my wife Nupur. At times I feel that people often backup their demo, but in my case, I have backup demo presenters. In the office during lunch time, I present the demos to Vinod. I am sure he can walk my demos easily with eyes closed. Pinal and Vinod at TechEd India 2012 My Sessions I’ve been determined to present my sessions in a real and practical manner. I prefer to present the subject that I myself would be eager to attend to and sit through if I were an audience. Just keeping that principle in mind, I have created two sessions this year. SQL Server Misconception and Resolution Pinal and Vinod at TechEd India 2012 We believe all kinds of stuff – that the earth is flat, or that the forbidden fruit is apple, or that the big bang theory explains the origin of the universe, and so many other things. Just like these, we have plenty of misconceptions in SQL Server as well. I have had this dream of co-presenting a session with Vinod Kumar for the past 3 years. I have been asking him every year if we could present a session together, but we never got it to work out, until this year came. Fortunately, we got a chance to stand on the same stage and present a single subject.  I believe that Vinod Kumar and I have an excellent synergy when we are working together. We know each other’s strengths and weakness. We know when the other person will speak and when he will keep quiet. The reason behind this synergy is that we have worked on 2 Video Learning Courses (SQL Server Indexes and SQL Server Questions and Answers) and authored 1 book (SQL Server Questions and Answers) together. Crowd Outside Session Hall This session was inspired from the “Laurel and Hardy” show so we performed a role-playing of those famous characters. We had an excellent time at the stage and, for sure, the audience had a wonderful time, too. We had an extremely large audience for this session and had a great time interacting with them. Speed Up! – Parallel Processes and Unparalleled Performance Pinal Dave at TechEd India 2012 I wanted to approach this session at level 400 and I was very determined to do so. The biggest challenge I had was that this was a total of 60 minutes of session and the audience profile was very generic. I had to present at level 100 as well at 400. I worked hard to tune up these demos. I wanted to make sure that my messages would land perfectly to the minds of the attendees, and when they walk out of the session, they could use the knowledge I shared on their servers. After the session, I felt an extreme satisfaction as I received lots of positive feedback at the event. At one point, so many people rushed towards me that I was a bit scared that the stage might break and someone would get injured. Fortunately, nothing like that happened and I was able to shake hands with everybody. Pinal Dave at TechEd India 2012 Crowd rushing to Pinal at TechEd India 2012 Networking This is one of the primary reasons many of us visit the annual TechEd event. I had a fantastic time meeting SQL Server enthusiasts. Well, it was a terrific time meeting old friends, user group members, MVPs and SQL Enthusiasts. I have taken many photographs with lots of people, but I have received a very few back. If you are reading this blog and have a photo of us at the event, would you please send it to me so I could keep it in my memory lane? SQL Track Speaker: Jacob and Pinal at TechEd India 2012 SQL Community: Pinal, Tejas, Nakul, Jacob, Balmukund, Manas, Sudeepta, Sahal at TechEd India 2012 Star Speakers: Amit and Balmukund at TechEd India 2012 TechED Rockstars: Nakul, Tejas and Pinal at TechEd India 2012 I guess TechEd is a mix of family affair and culture for me! Hamara TechEd (Our TechEd) Please tell me which photo you like the most! Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority Author Visit, SQLAuthority News, SQLServer, T SQL, Technology Tagged: TechEd, TechEdIn

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• How to Answer a Stupid Interview Question the Right Way

  - by AjarnMark

  Have you ever been asked a stupid question during an interview; one that seemed to have no relation to the job responsibilities at all?  Tech people are often caught off-guard by these apparently irrelevant questions, but there is a way you can turn these to your favor.  Here is one idea. While chatting with a couple of folks between sessions at SQLSaturday 43 last weekend, one of them expressed frustration over a seemingly ridiculous and trivial question that she was asked during an interview, and she believes it cost her the job opportunity.  The question, as I remember it being described was, “What is the largest byte measurement?”.  The candidate made up a guess (“zetabyte”) during the interview, which is actually closer than she may have realized.  According to Wikipedia, there is a measurement known as zettabyte which is 10^21, and the largest one listed there is yottabyte at 10^24. My first reaction to this question was, “That’s just a hiring manager that doesn’t really know what they’re looking for in a candidate.  Furthermore, this tells me that this manager really does not understand how to build a team.”  In most companies, team interaction is more important than uber-knowledge.  I didn’t ask, but this could also be another geek on the team trying to establish their Alpha-Geek stature.  I suppose that there are a few, very few, companies that can build their businesses on hiring only the extreme alpha-geeks, but that certainly does not represent the majority of businesses in America. My friend who was there suggested that the appropriate response to this silly question would be, “And how does this apply to the work I will be doing?” Of course this is an understandable response when you’re frustrated because you know you can handle the technical aspects of the job, and it seems like the interviewer is just being silly.  But it is also a direct challenge, which may not be the best approach in interviewing.  I do have to admit, though, that there are those folks who just won’t respect you until you do challenge them, but again, I don’t think that is the majority. So after some thought, here is my suggestion: “Well, I know that there are petabytes and exabytes and things even larger than that, but I haven’t been keeping up on my list of Greek prefixes that have not yet been used, so I would have to look up the exact answer if you need it.  However, I have worked with databases as large as 30 Terabytes.  How big are the largest databases here at X Corporation?”  Perhaps with a follow-up of, “Typically, what I have seen in companies that have databases of your size, is that the three biggest challenges they face are: A, B, and C.  What would you say are the top 3 concerns that you would like the person you hire to be able to address?…Here is how I have dealt with those concerns in the past (or ‘Here is how I would tackle those issues for you…’).” Wait! What just happened?!  We took a seemingly irrelevant and frustrating question and turned it around into an opportunity to highlight our relevant skills and guide the conversation back in a direction more to our liking and benefit.  In more generic terms, here is what we did: Admit that you don’t know the specific answer off the top of your head, but can get it if it’s truly important to the company. Maybe for some reason it really is important to them. Mention something similar or related that you do know, reassuring them that you do have some knowledge in that subject area. Draw a parallel to your past work experience. Ask follow-up questions about the company’s specific needs and discuss how you can fulfill those. This type of thing requires practice and some forethought.  I didn’t come up with this answer until a day later, which is too late when you’re interviewing.  I still think it is silly for an interviewer to ask something like that, but at least this is one way to spin it to your advantage while you consider whether you really want to work for someone who would ask a thing like that.  Remember, interviewing is a two-way process.  You’re deciding whether you want to work there just as much as they are deciding whether they want you. There is always the possibility that this was a calculated maneuver on the part of the hiring manager just to see how quickly you think on your feet and how you handle stupid questions.  Maybe he knows something about the work environment and he’s trying to gauge whether you’ll actually fit in okay.  And if that’s the case, then the above response still works quite well.

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• How to create managed properties at site collection level in SharePoint2013

  - by ybbest

  In SharePoint2013, you can create managed properties at site collection. Today, I’d like to show you how to do so through PowerShell. 1. Define your managed properties and crawled properties and managed property Type in an external csv file. PowerShell script will read this file and create the managed and the mapping. 2. As you can see I also defined variant Type, this is because you need the variant type to create the crawled property. In order to have the crawled properties, you need to do a full crawl and also make sure you have data populated for your custom column. However, if you do not want to a full crawl to create those crawled properties, you can create them yourself by using the PowerShell; however you need to make sure the crawled properties you created have the same name if created by a full crawl. Managed properties type: Text = 1 Integer = 2 Decimal = 3 DateTime = 4 YesNo = 5 Binary = 6 Variant Type: Text = 31 Integer = 20 Decimal = 5 DateTime = 64 YesNo = 11 3. You can use the following script to create your managed properties at site collection level, the differences for creating managed property at site collection level is to pass in the site collection id. param( [string] $siteUrl="http://SP2013/", [string] $searchAppName = "Search Service Application", $ManagedPropertiesList=(IMPORT-CSV ".\ManagedProperties.csv") ) Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue $searchapp = $null function AppendLog { param ([string] $msg, [string] $msgColor) $currentDateTime = Get-Date $msg = $msg + " --- " + $currentDateTime if (!($logOnly -eq $True)) { # write to console Write-Host -f $msgColor $msg } # write to log file Add-Content $logFilePath $msg } $scriptPath = Split-Path $myInvocation.MyCommand.Path $logFilePath = $scriptPath + "\CreateManagedProperties_Log.txt" function CreateRefiner {param ([string] $crawledName, [string] $managedPropertyName, [Int32] $variantType, [Int32] $managedPropertyType,[System.GUID] $siteID) $cat = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchMetadataCategory –Identity SharePoint -SearchApplication $searchapp $crawledproperty = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchMetadataCrawledProperty -Name $crawledName -SearchApplication $searchapp -SiteCollection $siteID if($crawledproperty -eq $null) { Write-Host AppendLog "Creating Crawled Property for $managedPropertyName" Yellow $crawledproperty = New-SPEnterpriseSearchMetadataCrawledProperty -SearchApplication $searchapp -VariantType $variantType -SiteCollection $siteID -Category $cat -PropSet "00130329-0000-0130-c000-000000131346" -Name $crawledName -IsNameEnum $false } $managedproperty = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchMetadataManagedProperty -Identity $managedPropertyName -SearchApplication $searchapp -SiteCollection $siteID -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue if($managedproperty -eq $null) { Write-Host AppendLog "Creating Managed Property for $managedPropertyName" Yellow $managedproperty = New-SPEnterpriseSearchMetadataManagedProperty -Name $managedPropertyName -Type $managedPropertyType -SiteCollection $siteID -SearchApplication $searchapp -Queryable:$true -Retrievable:$true -FullTextQueriable:$true -RemoveDuplicates:$false -RespectPriority:$true -IncludeInMd5:$true } $mappedProperty = $crawledproperty.GetMappedManagedProperties() | ?{$_.Name -eq $managedProperty.Name } if($mappedProperty -eq $null) { Write-Host AppendLog "Creating Crawled -> Managed Property mapping for $managedPropertyName" Yellow New-SPEnterpriseSearchMetadataMapping -CrawledProperty $crawledproperty -ManagedProperty $managedproperty -SearchApplication $searchapp -SiteCollection $siteID } $mappedProperty = $crawledproperty.GetMappedManagedProperties() | ?{$_.Name -eq $managedProperty.Name } #Get-FASTSearchMetadataCrawledPropertyMapping -ManagedProperty $managedproperty } $searchapp = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceApplication $searchAppName $site= Get-SPSite $siteUrl $siteId=$site.id Write-Host "Start creating Managed properties" $i = 1 FOREACH ($property in $ManagedPropertiesList) { $propertyName=$property.managedPropertyName $crawledName=$property.crawledName $managedPropertyType=$property.managedPropertyType $variantType=$property.variantType Write-Host $managedPropertyType Write-Host "Processing managed property $propertyName $($i)..." $i++ CreateRefiner $crawledName $propertyName $variantType $managedPropertyType $siteId Write-Host "Managed property created " $propertyName } Key Concepts Crawled Properties: Crawled properties are discovered by the search index service component when crawling content. Managed Properties: Properties that are part of the Search user experience, which means they are available for search results, advanced search, and so on, are managed properties. Mapping Crawled Properties to Managed Properties: To make a crawled property available for the Search experience—to make it available for Search queries and display it in Advanced Search and search results—you must map it to a managed property. References Administer search in SharePoint 2013 Preview Managing Metadata

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• Parner Webcast - Innovations in Products Program

  - by Richard Lefebvre

  We are pleased to invite you to join the Innovations in Products –webcast. Innovations in Products will present Oracle Applications' Product's new functions and features including sales positioning. The key objectives of these webcasts are to inspire System Integrator's implementation personnel to conduct successful after sales in their Customer projects. Innovations in Products will be presented on the 1st Monday of each quarter after the billable day (4:00 to 5:00 PM CET). The webcast is intended for System Integrator's Implementation Certified Specialists but Innovations in Products is open for other interested Oracle Applications system Integrator's personnel as well. At first, two Oracle representatives will discuss Oracle's contribution to Partners. Then you will see product breakout session followed by Q&A with Oracle Experts. Each session will last for maximum 1 hour. A Q&A document covering all questions and answers will be made available after the webcast. What are the Benefits for partners? Find out how Innovations in Products helps you to improve your after sales Discover new functions and features so you can enrich your Customers's solution Learn more about Oracle Applications products, especially sales positioning Hear crucial questions raised by colleague alike, learn from their interest Engage and present your questions to subject experts Be inspired of the richness of Oracle Application portfolio – for your and your customer’s benefit Note: Should you already be familiar with a specific Product, then choose another one. Doing so you would expand your knowledge of the overall Applications portfolio. Some presentations contain product demonstration, although these presentations are not intended to be extremely detailed technical presentations. Note: At the latter part of this email you have also 17 links into the recent Applications Products presentations and 6 links into the Public Sector Value Proposition presentations that were presented in Innovations in Industries -program. Product breakout sessions: Topics Speaker To Register Fusion Applications Technology and Extensibility: A next-generation platform that adapts to client needs. Matthew Johnson, Sr. Director, SCM Product Development, EMEA CLICK HERE Fusion Applications - Transforming your Back-Office Accounting Function: Changing how people work in back office functions to drive value add Liam Nolan, Director, ERP Product Development, EMEA CLICK HERE Fusion HCM & Talent Overview & Extensibility: A more in-depth look into a personalized HCM solution Synco Jonkeren, Vice-President HCM Product Development & Management, EMEA CLICK HERE Fusion HCM Compensation Planning: Compensate To Compete Rosie Warner, Director, HCM Sales Development CLICK HERE Enterprise PLM for the Product Value Chain: Oracle Enterprise PLM offers Industry specific solutions that cover the Product Value Chain Ulf Köster, Sales Development Leader Enterprise PLM, Oracle Western Europe CLICK HERE Oracle's Asset Management and Maintenance Solution: What you need to know to successfully implement Oracle Asset Management solutions within Oracle Installed Base Philip Carey, Asset Management and Maintenance Solution Specialist CLICK HERE For more details please visit Innovations in Products and other breakout sessions on OPN page. Delivery Format Innovations in Products –program is a series of FREE prerecorded Applications product presentations followed by Q&A. It will be delivered over the Web. Participants have the opportunity to submit questions during the web cast via chat and subject matter experts will provide verbal answers live. Innovations in Products consists of several parallel prerecorded product breakout sessions, each lasting for max. 1 hour. At first, two Oracle representatives will discuss Oracle’s contribution to Partners. Then you’ll see the product breakout sessions followed by Q&A with Oracle Experts. A Q&A document covering all questions and answers will be made available after the webcast. You can also see Innovations in Products afterwards as its content will be available online for the next 6-12 months. The next Innovations in Products web casts will be presented as follows: July 2nd 2012 October 1st 2012 January 14th 2013 April 8th 2013. Note: Depending on local network bandwidth please allow some seconds time the presentations to download. You might want to refresh your screen by pressing F5. Duration Maximum 1 hour For further information please contact me Markku Rouhiainen. Recent Innovations in Products presentations Applications Products presented on April the 2nd, 2012 Speaker To Register Fusion CRM: Effective, Efficient and Easy James Penfold , Senior Director, Applications Product Development and Product Management CLICK HERE Fusion HCM: Talent management overview performance, goals, talent review Jaime Losantos Viñolas, Director, HCM Sales Development CLICK HERE Distributed Order Management - Fusion SCM Solution Vikram K Singla, Business Development Director, Supply Chain Management Applications, UK CLICK HERE Oracle Transportation Management Dominic Regan, Senior Director Oracle Transportation Management EMEA CLICK HERE Oracle Value Chain Planning: Demantra Sales & Operation Planning and Demantra Demand Management Lionel Albert, Senior Director Value Chain Planning, EMEA CLICK HERE Oracle CX (Customer Experience) - formerly CEM: Powering Great Customer Experiences Maria Ramirez , CRM Presales Consultant, EPC CLICK HERE EPM 11.1.2.2 Overview Nicholas Cox , EMEA Sales Development Director - Enterprise Performance Management CLICK HERE Oracle Hyperion Profitability and Cost Management, 11.1.2.1 Daniela Lazar , Senior EPM Sales Consultant, EPC CLICK HERE January the 16th 2012 Speaker To Register CRM / ATG: Best-in-Class CRM & Commerce Maria Ramirez , Associate CRM Presales Consultant, EPC CLICK HERE CRM / Automate Business Rules for Maximum Efficiency with OPA (Oracle Policy Automation) Marco Nilo, Associate CRM Presales Consultant, EPC CLICK HERE CRM / InQuira Toby Baker, Principal Sales Consultant, CRM Product Specialist Team CLICK HERE EPM / Business Intelligence Foundation Suite – Sales and Product Updates Liviu Nitescu, Senior BI Sales Consultant, EPC CLICK HERE EPM / Hyperion Planning 11.1.2.1 - Sales & Product Updates Andreea Voinea, EPM Sales Consultant, EPC CLICK HERE ERP / JDE EnterpriseOne Fulfillment Management Overview Mirela Andreea Nasta , ERP Presales Consultant, EPC CLICK HERE ERP / Spotlights on iExpenses Elena Nita ,ERP Presales Consultant, EPC CLICK HERE MDM / Master Data Management Martin Boyd , Senior Director Product Strategy CLICK HERE Product break through session Fusion Applications Human Capital Management Rosie Warner , Director, HCM Sales Development CLICK HERE Recent Innovations in Industries Value Proposition presentations January the 16th 2012 Speaker To Register Process Modernisation Iemke Idsingh Public Sector Solutions Director CLICK HERE Shared Services Ann Smith Business Development Director, Shared Services CLICK HERE Strengthening Financial Discipline Whilst Delivering Cashable Savings Philippa Headley UK Sales Development Director Public Sector - EPM Solutions CLICK HERE Social Welfare Industry Solutions Christian Wernberg-Tougaard Industry Director - Social Welfare CLICK HERE Police Industry Solutions Jeff Penrose Solution Sales Director CLICK HERE Tax and Revenue Management Industry Solutions Andre van der Post Global Director - Tax Solutions and Strategy CLICK HERE  

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• Better documentation for tasks waiting on resources

  - by SQLOS Team

  The sys.dm_os_waiting_tasks DMV contains a wealth of useful information about tasks waiting on a resource, but until now detailed information about the resource being consumed - sys.dm_os_waiting_tasks.resource_description - hasn't been documented, apart from a rather self-evident "Description of the resource that is being consumed."   Thanks to a recent Connect suggestion this column will get more information added. Here is a summary of the possible values that can appear in this column - Note this information is current for SQL Server 2008 R2 and Denali:   Thread-pool resource owner:•       threadpool id=scheduler<hex-address> Parallel query resource owner:•       exchangeEvent id={Port|Pipe}<hex-address> WaitType=<exchange-wait-type> nodeId=<exchange-node-id> Exchange-wait-type can be one of the following.•       e_waitNone•       e_waitPipeNewRow•       e_waitPipeGetRow•       e_waitSynchronizeConsumerOpen•       e_waitPortOpen•       e_waitPortClose•       e_waitRange Lock resource owner:<type-specific-description> id=lock<lock-hex-address> mode=<mode> associatedObjectId=<associated-obj-id>               <type-specific-description> can be:• For DATABASE: databaselock subresource=<databaselock-subresource> dbid=<db-id>• For FILE: filelock fileid=<file-id> subresource=<filelock-subresource> dbid=<db-id>• For OBJECT: objectlock lockPartition=<lock-partition-id> objid=<obj-id> subresource=<objectlock-subresource> dbid=<db-id>• For PAGE: pagelock fileid=<file-id> pageid=<page-id> dbid=<db-id> subresource=<pagelock-subresource>• For Key: keylock  hobtid=<hobt-id> dbid=<db-id>• For EXTENT: extentlock fileid=<file-id> pageid=<page-id> dbid=<db-id>• For RID: ridlock fileid=<file-id> pageid=<page-id> dbid=<db-id>• For APPLICATION: applicationlock hash=<hash> databasePrincipalId=<role-id> dbid=<db-id>• For METADATA: metadatalock subresource=<metadata-subresource> classid=<metadatalock-description> dbid=<db-id>• For HOBT: hobtlock hobtid=<hobt-id> subresource=<hobt-subresource> dbid=<db-id>• For ALLOCATION_UNIT: allocunitlock hobtid=<hobt-id> subresource=<alloc-unit-subresource> dbid=<db-id> <mode> can be:• Sch-S• Sch-M• S• U• X• IS• IU• IX• SIU• SIX• UIX• BU• RangeS-S• RangeS-U• RangeI-N• RangeI-S• RangeI-U• RangeI-X• RangeX-S• RangeX-U• RangeX-X External resource owner:•       External ExternalResource=<wait-type> Generic resource owner:•       TransactionMutex TransactionInfo Workspace=<workspace-id>•       Mutex•       CLRTaskJoin•       CLRMonitorEvent•       CLRRWLockEvent•       resourceWait Latch resource owner:•       <db-id>:<file-id>:<page-in-file>•       <GUID>•       <latch-class> (<latch-address>)   Further Information Slava Oks's weblog: sys.dm_os_waiting_tasks.Informit.com: Identifying Blocking Using sys.dm_os_waiting_tasks - Ken Henderson   - Guy

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• SQLAuthority News – #TechEDIn – TechEd India 2012 – Things to Do and Explore for SQL Enthusiast

  - by pinaldave

  TechEd India 2012 is just 48 hours away and I have been receiving lots of requests regarding how SQL enthusiasts can maximize their time they’ll be spending at TechEd India 2012. Trust me – TechEd is the biggest Tech Event in India and it is much larger in magnitude than we can imagine. There are plenty of tracks there and lots of things to do. Honestly, we need clone ourselves multiple times to completely cover the event. However, I am going to talk about SQL enthusiasts only right now. In this post, I’ll share a few things they can do in this big event. But before I start talking about specific things, there is one thing which is a must – Keynote. There are amazing Keynotes planned every single day at TechEd India 2012. One should not miss them at all. Social Media I am a big believer of the social media. I am everywhere - Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and GPlus. I suggest you follow the tag #TechEdIn as well as contribute at the healthy conversation going on right now. You may want to follow a few of the SQL Server enthusiasts who are also attending events like TechEd India. This way, you will know where they are and you can contribute along with them. For a good start, you can follow all the speakers who are presenting at the event. I have linked all the speakers’ names with their respective Twitter accounts. Networking Do not stop meeting new people. Introduce yourself. Catch the speakers after their sessions. Meet other SQL experts and discuss SQL as well as life aside SQL. The best way to start the communication is to talk about something new. Here are a few lines I usually use when I have to break the ice: SQL Server 2012 is just released and I have installed it. How many SQL Server sessions are you going to attend? I am going to attend _________ I am a big fan of SQL Server. Sessions Agenda Day 1 T-SQL Rediscovered with SQL Server 2012 - Jacob Sebastian Catapult your data with SQL Server 2012 integration services - Praveen Srivatsa Processing Big Data with SQL Server 2012 and Hadoop  - Stephan Forte SQL Server Misconceptions and Resolution – A Practical Perspective – Pinal Dave and Vinod Kumar Securing with ContainedDB in SQL Server 2012  - Pranab Majumdar Agenda Day 2 Hand-on-Lab – Exploring Power View with SQL Server 2012 – Ravi S. Maniam Hand-on-Lab - SQL Server 2012 – AlwaysOn Availability Groups  - Amit Ganguli Agenda Day 3 Peeling SQL Server like an Onion: Internals Debunked  - Vinod Kumar Speed Up! – Parallel Processes and Unparalleled Performance  - Pinal Dave Keeping Your Database Available – ‘AlwaysOn’  - Balmukund Lakhani Lesser Known Facts of SQL Server Backup and Restore  - Amit Banerjee Top five reasons why you want SQL Server 2012 BI - Praveen Srivatsa Product Booth and Event Partners There will be a dedicated SQL Server booth at the event. I suggest you stop by there and do communication with SQL Server Experts. Additionally there will be booths of various event partners. Stop by their booth and see if they have a product which can help your career. I know that Pluralsight has recently released my course on their online learning site and if that interests you, you can talk about the subject with them. Bring Your Camera Make a list of the people you want to meet. Follow them on Twitter or send them an email and know their location. Introduce yourself, meet them and have your conversation. Do not forget to take a photo with them and later on, share the photo on social media. It would be nice to send an email to everyone with attached high resolution images if you have their email address. After-hours parties After-hours parties are not always about eating and meeting friends but sometimes, they are very informative. Last time I ended up meeting an SQL expert, and we end up talking for long hours on various aspects of SQL Server. After 4 hours, we figured out that he stays in the same apartment complex as mine and since we have had an excellent friendship, he has then become our family friend. So, my advice is that you start to seek out who is meeting where in the evening and see if you can get invited to the parties. Make new friends but never lose mutual respect by doing something silly. Meet Me I will be at the event for three days straight. I will be around the SQL tracks. Please stop by and introduce yourself. I would like to meet you and talk to you. Meeting folks from the Community is very important as we all speak the same language at the end of the day – SQL Server. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority News, SQLServer, T SQL, Technology

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• Templated Razor Delegates – Phil Haack

  - by nmarun

  This post is largely based off of Phil Haack’s article titled Templated Razor Delegates. I strongly recommend reading this article first. Here’s a sample code for the same, so you can have a look at. I also have a custom type being rendered as a table. 1: // my custom type 2: public class Device 3: { 4: public int Id { get; set; } 5: public string Name { get; set; } 6: public DateTime MfgDate { get; set; } 7: } Now I can write an extension method just for this type. 1: public static class RazorExtensions 2: { 3: public static HelperResult List(this IList<Models.Device> devices, Func<Models.Device, HelperResult> template) 4: { 5: return new HelperResult(writer => 6: { 7: foreach (var device in devices) 8: { 9: template(device).WriteTo(writer); 10: } 11: }); 12: } 13: // ... 14: } Modified my view to make it a strongly typed one and included html to render my custom type collection in a table. 1: @using TemplatedRazorDelegates 2: @model System.Collections.Generic.IList<TemplatedRazorDelegates.Models.Device> 3:  4: @{ 5: ViewBag.Title = "Home Page"; 6: } 7:  8: <h2>@ViewBag.Message</h2> 9:  10: @{ 11: var items = new[] { "one", "two", "three" }; 12: IList<int> ints = new List<int> { 1, 2, 3 }; 13: } 14:  15: <ul> 16: @items.List(@<li>@item</li>) 17: </ul> 18: <ul> 19: @ints.List(@<li>@item</li>) 20: </ul> 21:  22: <table> 23: <tr><th>Id</th><th>Name</th><th>Mfg Date</th></tr> 24: @Model.List(@<tr><td>@item.Id</td><td>@item.Name</td><td>@item.MfgDate.ToShortDateString()</td></tr>) 25: </table> We get intellisense as well! Just added some items in the action method of the controller: 1: public ActionResult Index() 2: { 3: ViewBag.Message = "Welcome to ASP.NET MVC!"; 4: IList<Device> devices = new List<Device> 5: { 6: new Device {Id = 1, Name = "abc", MfgDate = new DateTime(2001, 10, 19)}, 7: new Device {Id = 2, Name = "def", MfgDate = new DateTime(2011, 1, 1)}, 8: new Device {Id = 3, Name = "ghi", MfgDate = new DateTime(2003, 3, 15)}, 9: new Device {Id = 4, Name = "jkl", MfgDate = new DateTime(2007, 6, 6)} 10: }; 11: return View(devices); 12: } Running this I get the output as: Absolutely brilliant! Thanks to both Phil Haack and to David Fowler for bringing this out to us. Download the code for this from here. Verdict: RazorViewEngine.Points += 1;

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• Serving up a RSS feed in MVC using WCF Syndication

  - by brian_ritchie

  With .NET 3.5, Microsoft added the SyndicationFeed class to WCF for generating ATOM 1.0 & RSS 2.0 feeds.  In .NET 3.5, it lives in System.ServiceModel.Web but was moved into System.ServiceModel in .NET 4.0. Here's some sample code on constructing a feed: .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: Consolas, "Courier New", Courier, Monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } 1: SyndicationFeed feed = new SyndicationFeed(title, description, new Uri(link)); 2: feed.Categories.Add(new SyndicationCategory(category)); 3: feed.Copyright = new TextSyndicationContent(copyright); 4: feed.Language = "en-us"; 5: feed.Copyright = new TextSyndicationContent(DateTime.Now.Year + " " + ownerName); 6: feed.ImageUrl = new Uri(imageUrl); 7: feed.LastUpdatedTime = DateTime.Now; 8: feed.Authors.Add(new SyndicationPerson() { Name = ownerName, Email = ownerEmail }); 9:   10: var feedItems = new List<SyndicationItem>(); 11: foreach (var item in Items) 12: { 13: var sItem = new SyndicationItem(item.title, null, new Uri(link)); 14: sItem.Summary = new TextSyndicationContent(item.summary); 15: sItem.Id = item.id; 16: if (item.publishedDate != null) 17: sItem.PublishDate = (DateTimeOffset)item.publishedDate; 18: sItem.Links.Add(new SyndicationLink() { Title = item.title, Uri = new Uri(link), Length = item.size, MediaType = item.mediaType }); 19: feedItems.Add(sItem); 20: } 21: feed.Items = feedItems;   Then, we create a custom ContentResult to serialize the feed & stream it to the client: 1: public class SyndicationFeedResult : ContentResult 2: { 3: public SyndicationFeedResult(SyndicationFeed feed) 4: : base() 5: { 6: using (var memstream = new MemoryStream()) 7: using (var writer = new XmlTextWriter(memstream, System.Text.UTF8Encoding.UTF8)) 8: { 9: feed.SaveAsRss20(writer); 10: writer.Flush(); 11: memstream.Position = 0; 12: Content = new StreamReader(memstream).ReadToEnd(); 13: ContentType = "application/rss+xml" ; 14: } 15: } 16: } Finally, we wire it up through the controller: 1: public class RssController : Controller 2: { 3: public SyndicationFeedResult Feed() 4: { 5: var feed = new SyndicationFeed(); 6: // populate feed... 7: return new SyndicationFeedResult(feed); 8: } 9: }   In the next post, I'll discuss how to add iTunes markup to the feed to publish it on iTunes as a Podcast. 

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• Einladung zur Oracle SE University am 13./14. Dezember 2011

  - by A&C Redaktion

  Sehr geehrte Oracle Partner, die erste Oracle SE University wird von Azlan und Oracle gemeinsam ins Leben gerufen, dazu laden wir Sie herzlich ein. Zielgruppe sind die technischen Ansprechpartner aller Oracle Partner. Wir bieten Ihnen in Fulda einen umfassenden Überblick über aktuelle Technologien, Produkte und Dienstleistungen mit den Schwerpunkten Oracle on Oracle, Positionierung und Architektur. Dabei werden sowohl bewährte Software-Produktbereiche wie Datenbank und Fusion Middleware beleuchtet, als auch klassische Hardware-Themen wie Systems, Storage und Virtualisierung. Die Agenda finden Sie hier. Top-Referenten garantieren Ihnen qualitativ hochwertige und technisch anspruchsvolle Vorträge.  Projektberichte aus der Praxis bringen Ihnen Kernthemen näher, um mit diesem Wissen zusätzlichen Umsatz zu generieren. Nutzen Sie darüber hinaus die Möglichkeiten zum Networking, die im täglichen Geschäft Gold wert sind.Logistische Informationen: Termin: 13. - 14. Dezember 2011 Ort: Fulda - bietet als die Barockstadt Deutschlands einen reizvollen Kontrast zu unseren technischen Themen. Aber vor allem liegt Fulda fast genau in der geographischen Mitte Deutschlands und ist via einem modernen ICE-Bahnhof bestens von ganz Deutschland aus zu erreichen. Hotel Esperanto Kongress- und Kulturzentrum Fulda: Vom Bahnhof aus gehen Sie gemütliche zwei Minuten um die Ecke und kommen direkt ins Hotel. Für PKW Fahrer sind ausreichend Parkplätze direkt am Hotel vorhanden. Zielgruppe: SEs, technischer Vertrieb, technische Consultants Normal 0 21 false false false DE X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;} Konzept der Oracle SE University: Plenum Sessions und Keynote mit strategischen Übersichtsthemen Break Out Sessions (4 Sessions parallel) mit technischem Tiefgang Technologie, Projekterfahrungen, Architekturen, Lösungsszenarien u.v.m. Networking: bei einem gemeinsamen Abendessen am 13.12., ab 19.00 Uhr. Im hauseigenen Grill-Restaurant "El Toro Nero" gibt es die brasilianische Spezialität "Rodizio". Die Teilnahme zur Oracle SE University inklusive dem gemeinsamen Abendessen ist für Sie kostenfrei, die Übernachtungskosten werden von Ihnen selbst getragen. Melden Sie sich bitte bis spätestens 30.11. zur Oracle SE University hier an. Wir haben ein Zimmer-Kontingent reserviert, die Buchung bitten wir Sie online selbst vorzunehmen. Bitte geben Sie bei der Buchung das Stichwort „Oracle SE Uni“ an, damit erhalten Sie den Sonderpreis von 102,- Euro inklusive Frühstück. Wir freuen uns, Sie in Fulda zu begrüßen! Joachim Hissmann Birgit Nehring Normal 0 21 false false false DE X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";} Manager Key Partner HW Normal 0 21 false false false DE X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";} Direktor Software & Solution Normal 0 21 false false false DE X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";} Oracle Deutschland Tech Data/Azlan ================================================================= Kontakte Azlan:Peter MosbauerTel.: 089 [email protected] Robert BacciTel.: 089 4700-3018 [email protected] Oracle:Regina SteyerTel.: 0211 [email protected]

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• Collisions not working as intended

  - by Stan

  I'm making a game, it's a terraria-like game, with 20x20 blocks, and you can place and remove those blocks. Now, I am trying to write collisions, but it isn't working as I want, the collision succesfully stops the player from going through the ground, but, when I press a key like A + S, that means if I walk down and left (Noclip is on atm), my player will go into the ground, bug up, and exit the ground somewhere else in the level. I made a video of it. The red text means which buttons I am pressing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo4frZyNwOs You see, if I press A and S together, I go into the ground. Here is my collision code: Vector2 collisionDist, normal; private bool IsColliding(Rectangle body1, Rectangle body2) { normal = Vector2.Zero; Vector2 body1Centre = new Vector2(body1.X + (body1.Width / 2), body1.Y + (body1.Height / 2)); Vector2 body2Centre = new Vector2(body2.X + (body2.Width / 2), body2.Y + (body2.Height / 2)); Vector2 distance, absDistance; float xMag, yMag; distance = body1Centre - body2Centre; float xAdd = ((body1.Width) + (body2.Width)) / 2.0f; float yAdd = ((body1.Height) + (body2.Height)) / 2.0f; absDistance.X = (distance.X < 0) ? -distance.X : distance.X; absDistance.Y = (distance.Y < 0) ? -distance.Y : distance.Y; if (!((absDistance.X < xAdd) && (absDistance.Y < yAdd))) return false; xMag = xAdd - absDistance.X; yMag = yAdd - absDistance.Y; if (xMag < yMag) normal.X = (distance.X > 0) ? xMag : -xMag; else normal.Y = (distance.Y > 0) ? yMag : -yMag; return true; } private void PlayerCollisions() { foreach (Block blocks in allTiles) { collisionDist = Vector2.Zero; if (blocks.Texture != airTile && blocks.Texture != stoneDarkTexture && blocks.Texture != stoneDarkTextureSelected && blocks.Texture != airTileSelected && blocks.Texture != doorTexture && blocks.Texture != doorTextureSelected) { if (IsColliding(player.plyRect, blocks.tileRect)) { if (normal.Length() > collisionDist.Length()) { collisionDist = normal; } player.Position.X += collisionDist.X; player.Position.Y += collisionDist.Y; break; } } } } I got PlayerCollisions() running in my Update method. As you can see it works partly, but if it runs perfectly, it would be awesome, though I have no idea how to fix this problem. Help would be greatly appreciated. EDIT: If I remove the break; it works partly, then it is just the thing that it spasms when it hits two or more blocks at once, like, if I touch 2/3 blocks at once, it does twice the force up. How can I make it so that it only does the force for one block, so it stays correct, and does not spasm? Thanks.

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• .NET 4: &ldquo;Slim&rdquo;-style performance boost!

  - by Vitus

  RTM version of .NET 4 and Visual Studio 2010 is available, and now we can do some test with it. Parallel Extensions is one of the most valuable part of .NET 4.0. It’s a set of good tools for easily consuming multicore hardware power. And it also contains some “upgraded” sync primitives – Slim-version. For example, it include updated variant of widely known ManualResetEvent. For people, who don’t know about it: you can sync concurrency execution of some pieces of code with this sync primitive. Instance of ManualResetEvent can be in 2 states: signaled and non-signaled. Transition between it possible by Set() and Reset() methods call. Some shortly explanation: Thread 1 Thread 2 Time mre.Reset(); mre.WaitOne(); //code execution 0 //wating //code execution 1 //wating //code execution 2 //wating //code execution 3 //wating mre.Set(); 4 //code execution //… 5 Upgraded version of this primitive is ManualResetEventSlim. The idea in decreasing performance cost in case, when only 1 thread use it. Main concept in the “hybrid sync schema”, which can be done as following:   internal sealed class SimpleHybridLock : IDisposable { private Int32 m_waiters = 0; private AutoResetEvent m_waiterLock = new AutoResetEvent(false);   public void Enter() { if (Interlocked.Increment(ref m_waiters) == 1) return; m_waiterLock.WaitOne(); }   public void Leave() { if (Interlocked.Decrement(ref m_waiters) == 0) return; m_waiterLock.Set(); }   public void Dispose() { m_waiterLock.Dispose(); } } It’s a sample from Jeffry Richter’s book “CLR via C#”, 3rd edition. Primitive SimpleHybridLock have two public methods: Enter() and Leave(). You can put your concurrency-critical code between calls of these methods, and it would executed in only one thread at the moment. Code is really simple: first thread, called Enter(), increase counter. Second thread also increase counter, and suspend while m_waiterLock is not signaled. So, if we don’t have concurrent access to our lock, “heavy” methods WaitOne() and Set() will not called. It’s can give some performance bonus. ManualResetEvent use the similar idea. Of course, it have more “smart” technics inside, like a checking of recursive calls, and so on. I want to know a real difference between classic ManualResetEvent realization, and new –Slim. I wrote a simple “benchmark”: class Program { static void Main(string[] args) { ManualResetEventSlim mres = new ManualResetEventSlim(false); ManualResetEventSlim mres2 = new ManualResetEventSlim(false);   ManualResetEvent mre = new ManualResetEvent(false);   long total = 0; int COUNT = 50;   for (int i = 0; i < COUNT; i++) { mres2.Reset(); Stopwatch sw = Stopwatch.StartNew();   ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem((obj) => { //Method(mres, true); Method2(mre, true); mres2.Set(); }); //Method(mres, false); Method2(mre, false);   mres2.Wait(); sw.Stop();   Console.WriteLine("Pass {0}: {1} ms", i, sw.ElapsedMilliseconds); total += sw.ElapsedMilliseconds; }   Console.WriteLine(); Console.WriteLine("==============================="); Console.WriteLine("Done in average=" + total / (double)COUNT); Console.ReadLine(); }   private static void Method(ManualResetEventSlim mre, bool value) { for (int i = 0; i < 9000000; i++) { if (value) { mre.Set(); } else { mre.Reset(); } } }   private static void Method2(ManualResetEvent mre, bool value) { for (int i = 0; i < 9000000; i++) { if (value) { mre.Set(); } else { mre.Reset(); } } } } I use 2 concurrent thread (the main thread and one from thread pool) for setting and resetting ManualResetEvents, and try to run test COUNT times, and calculate average execution time. Here is the results (I get it on my dual core notebook with T7250 CPU and Windows 7 x64): ManualResetEvent ManualResetEventSlim Difference is obvious and serious – in 10 times! So, I think preferable way is using ManualResetEventSlim, because not always on calling Set() and Reset() will be called “heavy” methods for working with Windows kernel-mode objects. It’s a small and nice improvement! ;)

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• Create and Track Your Own License Keys with PowerShell

  - by BuckWoody

  SQL Server used to have  cool little tool that would let you track your licenses. Microsoft didn’t use it to limit your system or anything, it was just a place on the server where you could put that this system used this license key. I miss those days – we don’t track that any more, and I want to make sure I’m up to date on my licensing, so I made my own. Now, there are a LOT of ways you could do this. You could add an extended property in SQL Server, add a table to a tracking database, use a text file, track it somewhere else, whatever. This is just the route I chose; if you want to use some other method, feel free. Just sharing here. Warning Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly by using Registry Editor or by using another method. These problems might require that you reinstall the operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that these problems can be solved. Modify the registry at your own risk. And this is REALLY important. I include a disclaimer at the end of my scripts, but in this case you’re modifying your registry, and that could be EXTREMELY dangerous – only do this on a test server – and I’m just showing you how I did mine. It isn’t an endorsement or anything like that, and this is a “Buck Woody” thing, NOT a Microsoft thing. See this link first, and then you can read on. OK, here’s my script: # Track your own licenses # Write a New Key to be the License Location mkdir HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Buck   # Write the variables - one sets the type, the other sets the number, and the last one holds the key New-ItemProperty HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Buck -name "SQLServerLicenseType" -value "Processor" # Notice the Dword value here - this one is a number so it needs that. Keep this on one line! New-ItemProperty HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Buck -name "SQLServerLicenseNumber" -propertytype DWord -value 4 New-ItemProperty HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Buck -name "SQLServerLicenseKey" -value "ABCD1234"   # Read them all $LicenseKey = Get-Item HKCU:\Software\Buck $Licenses = Get-ItemProperty $LicenseKey.PSPath foreach ($License in $LicenseKey.Property) { $License + "=" + $Licenses.$License }   Script Disclaimer, for people who need to be told this sort of thing: Never trust any script, including those that you find here, until you understand exactly what it does and how it will act on your systems. Always check the script on a test system or Virtual Machine, not a production system. Yes, there are always multiple ways to do things, and this script may not work in every situation, for everything. It’s just a script, people. All scripts on this site are performed by a professional stunt driver on a closed course. Your mileage may vary. Void where prohibited. Offer good for a limited time only. Keep out of reach of small children. Do not operate heavy machinery while using this script. If you experience blurry vision, indigestion or diarrhea during the operation of this script, see a physician immediately. Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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• Guidance: How to layout you files for an Ideal Solution

  - by Martin Hinshelwood

  Creating a solution and having it maintainable over time is an art and not a science. I like being pedantic and having a place for everything, no matter how small. For setting up the Areas to run Multiple projects under one solution see my post on  When should I use Areas in TFS instead of Team Projects and for an explanation of branching see Guidance: A Branching strategy for Scrum Teams. Update 17th May 2010 – We are currently trialling running a single Sprint branch to improve our history. Whenever I setup a new Team Project I implement the basic version control structure. I put “readme.txt” files in the folder structure explaining the different levels, and a solution file called “[Client].[Product].sln” located at “$/[Client]/[Product]/DEV/Main” within version control. Developers should add any projects you need to create to that solution in the format “[Client].[Product].[ProductArea].[Assembly]” and they will automatically be picked up and built automatically when you setup Automated Builds using Team Foundation Build. All test projects need to be done using MSTest to get proper IDE and Team Foundation Build integration out-of-the-box and be named for the assembly that it is testing with a naming convention of “[Client].[Product].[ProductArea].[Assembly].Tests” Here is a description of the folder layout; this content should be replicated in readme files under version control in the relevant locations so that even developers new to the project can see how to do it. Figure: The Team Project level - at this level there should be a folder for each the products that you are building if you are using Areas correctly in TFS 2010. You should try very hard to avoided spaces as these things always end up in a URL eventually e.g. "Code Auditor" should be "CodeAuditor". Figure: Product Level - At this level there should be only 3 folders (DEV, RELESE and SAFE) all of which should be in capitals. These folders represent the three stages of your application production line. Each of them may contain multiple branches but this format leaves all of your branches at the same level. Figure: The DEV folder is where all of the Development branches reside. The DEV folder will contain the "Main" branch and all feature branches is they are being used. The DEV designation specifies that all code in every branch under this folder has not been released or made ready for release. And feature branches MUST merge (Forward Integrate) from Main and stabilise prior to merging (Reverse Integration) back down into Main and being decommissioned. Figure: In the Feature branching scenario only merges are allowed onto Main, no development can be done there. Once we have a mature product it is important that new features being developed in parallel are kept separate. This would most likely be used if we had more than one Scrum team working on a single product. Figure: when we are ready to do a release of our software we will create a release branch that is then stabilised prior to deployment. This protects the serviceability of of our released code allowing developers to fix bugs and re-release an existing version. Figure: All bugs found on a release are fixed on the release.  All bugs found in a release are fixed on the release and a new deployment is created. After the deployment is created the bug fixes are then merged (Reverse Integration) into the Main branch. We do this so that we separate out our development from our production ready code.  Figure: SAFE or RTM is a read only record of what you actually released. Labels are not immutable so are useless in this circumstance.  When we have completed stabilisation of the release branch and we are ready to deploy to production we create a read-only copy of the code for reference. In some cases this could be a regulatory concern, but in most cases it protects the company building the product from legal entanglements based on what you did or did not release. Figure: This allows us to reference any particular version of our application that was ever shipped.   In addition I am an advocate of having a single solution with all the Project folders directly under the “Trunk”/”Main” folder and using the full name for the project folders.. Figure: The ideal solution If you must have multiple solutions, because you need to use more than one version of Visual Studio, name the solutions “[Client].[Product][VSVersion].sln” and have it reside in the same folder as the other solution. This makes it easier for Automated build and improves the discoverability of your code and its dependencies. Send me your feedback!   Technorati Tags: VS ALM,VSTS Developing,VS 2010,VS 2008,TFS 2010,TFS 2008,TFBS

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• OpenSSL Versions in Solaris

  - by darrenm

  Those of you have have installed Solaris 11 or have read some of the blogs by my colleagues will have noticed Solaris 11 includes OpenSSL 1.0.0, this is a different version to what we have in Solaris 10.  I hope the following explains why that is and how it fits with the expectations on binary compatibility between Solaris releases. Solaris 10 was the first release where we included OpenSSL libraries and headers (part of it was actually statically linked into the SSH client/server in Solaris 9).  At time we were building and releasing Solaris 10 the current train of OpenSSL was 0.9.7.  The OpenSSL libraries at that time were known to not always be completely API and ABI (binary) compatible between releases (some times even in the lettered patch releases) though mostly if you stuck with the documented high level APIs you would be fine.   For this reason OpenSSL was classified as a 'Volatile' interface and in Solaris 10 Volatile interfaces were not part of the default library search path which is why the OpenSSL libraries live in /usr/sfw/lib on Solaris 10.  Okay, but what does Volatile mean ? Quoting from the attributes(5) man page description of Volatile (which was called External in older taxonomy): Volatile interfaces can change at any time and for any reason. The Volatile interface stability level allows Sun pro- ducts to quickly track a fluid, rapidly evolving specif- ication. In many cases, this is preferred to providing additional stability to the interface, as it may better meet the expectations of the consumer. The most common application of this taxonomy level is to interfaces that are controlled by a body other than Sun, but unlike specifications controlled by standards bodies or Free or Open Source Software (FOSS) communities which value interface compatibility, it can not be asserted that an incompatible change to the interface specifica- tion would be exceedingly rare. It may also be applied to FOSS controlled software where it is deemed more important to track the community with minimal latency than to provide stability to our customers. It also common to apply the Volatile classification level to interfaces in the process of being defined by trusted or widely accepted organization. These are generically referred to as draft standards. An "IETF Internet draft" is a well understood example of a specification under development. Volatile can also be applied to experimental interfaces. No assertion is made regarding either source or binary compatibility of Volatile interfaces between any two releases, including patches. Applications containing these interfaces might fail to function properly in any future release. Note that last paragraph!  OpenSSL is only one example of the many interfaces in Solaris that are classified as Volatile.  At the other end of the scale we have Committed (Stable in Solaris 10 terminology) interfaces, these include things like the POSIX APIs or Solaris specific APIs that we have no intention of changing in an incompatible way.  There are also Private interfaces and things we declare as Not-an-Interface (eg command output not intended for scripting against only to be read by humans). Even if we had declared OpenSSL as a Committed/Stable interface in Solaris 10 there are allowed exceptions, again quoting from attributes(5): 4. An interface specification which isn't controlled by Sun has been changed incompatibly and the vast majority of interface consumers expect the newer interface. 5. Not making the incompatible change would be incomprehensible to our customers. In our opinion and that of our large and small customers keeping up with the OpenSSL community is important, and certainly both of the above cases apply. Our policy for dealing with OpenSSL on Solaris 10 was to stay at 0.9.7 and add fixes for security vulnerabilities (the version string includes the CVE numbers of fixed vulnerabilities relevant to that release train).  The last release of OpenSSL 0.9.7 delivered by the upstream community was more than 4 years ago in Feb 2007. Now lets roll forward to just before the release of Solaris 11 Express in 2010. By that point in time the current OpenSSL release was 0.9.8 with the 1.0.0 release known to be coming soon.  Two significant changes to OpenSSL were made between Solaris 10 and Solaris 11 Express.  First in Solaris 11 Express (and Solaris 11) we removed the requirement that Volatile libraries be placed in /usr/sfw/lib, that means OpenSSL is now in /usr/lib, secondly we upgraded it to the then current version stream of OpenSSL (0.9.8) as was expected by our customers. In between Solaris 11 Express in 2010 and the release of Solaris 11 in 2011 the OpenSSL community released version 1.0.0.  This was a huge milestone for a long standing and highly respected open source project.  It would have been highly negligent of Solaris not to include OpenSSL 1.0.0e in the Solaris 11 release. It is the latest best supported and best performing version.     In fact Solaris 11 isn't 'just' OpenSSL 1.0.0 but we have added our SPARC T4 engine and the AES-NI engine to support the on chip crypto acceleration. This gives us 4.3x better AES performance than OpenSSL 0.9.8 running on AIX on an IBM POWER7. We are now working with the OpenSSL community to determine how best to integrate the SPARC T4 changes into the mainline OpenSSL.  The OpenSSL 'pkcs11' engine we delivered in Solaris 10 to support the CA-6000 card and the SPARC T1/T2/T3 hardware is still included in Solaris 11. When OpenSSL 1.0.1 and 1.1.0 come out we will asses what is best for Solaris customers. It might be upgrade or it might be parallel delivery of more than one version stream.  At this time Solaris 11 still classifies OpenSSL as a Volatile interface, it is our hope that we will be able at some point in a future release to give it a higher interface stability level. Happy crypting! and thank-you OpenSSL community for all the work you have done that helps Solaris.

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• Implementing synchronous MediaTypeFormatters in ASP.NET Web API

  - by cibrax

  One of main characteristics of MediaTypeFormatter’s in ASP.NET Web API is that they leverage the Task Parallel Library (TPL) for reading or writing an model into an stream. When you derive your class from the base class MediaTypeFormatter, you have to either implement the WriteToStreamAsync or ReadFromStreamAsync methods for writing or reading a model from a stream respectively. These two methods return a Task, which internally does all the serialization work, as it is illustrated bellow. public abstract class MediaTypeFormatter { public virtual Task WriteToStreamAsync(Type type, object value, Stream writeStream, HttpContent content, TransportContext transportContext); public virtual Task<object> ReadFromStreamAsync(Type type, Stream readStream, HttpContent content, IFormatterLogger formatterLogger); }   .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } However, most of the times, serialization is a safe operation that can be done synchronously. In fact, many of the serializer classes you will find in the .NET framework only provide sync methods. So the question is, how you can transform that synchronous work into a Task ?. Creating a new task using the method Task.Factory.StartNew for doing all the serialization work would be probably the typical answer. That would work, as a new task is going to be scheduled. However, that might involve some unnecessary context switches, which are out of our control and might be affect performance on server code specially.   If you take a look at the source code of the MediaTypeFormatters shipped as part of the framework, you will notice that they actually using another pattern, which uses a TaskCompletionSource class. public Task WriteToStreamAsync(Type type, object value, Stream writeStream, HttpContent content, TransportContext transportContext) {   var tsc = new TaskCompletionSource<AsyncVoid>(); tsc.SetResult(default(AsyncVoid));   //Do all the serialization work here synchronously   return tsc.Task; }   /// <summary> /// Used as the T in a "conversion" of a Task into a Task{T} /// </summary> private struct AsyncVoid { } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } They are basically doing all the serialization work synchronously and using a TaskCompletionSource for returning a task already done. To conclude this post, this is another approach you might want to consider when using serializers that are not compatible with an async model. Update: Henrik Nielsen from the ASP.NET team pointed out the existence of a built-in media type formatter for writing sync formatters. BufferedMediaTypeFormatter http://t.co/FxOfeI5x

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• The Virtues and Challenges of Implementing Basel III: What Every CFO and CRO Needs To Know

  - by Jenna Danko

  The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) is a group tasked with providing thought-leadership to the global banking industry.  Over the years, the BCBS has released volumes of guidance in an effort to promote stability within the financial sector.  By effectively communicating best-practices, the Basel Committee has influenced financial regulations worldwide.  Basel regulations are intended to help banks: More easily absorb shocks due to various forms of financial-economic stress Improve risk management and governance Enhance regulatory reporting and transparency In June 2011, the BCBS released Basel III: A global regulatory framework for more resilient banks and banking systems.  This new set of regulations included many enhancements to previous rules and will have both short and long term impacts on the banking industry.  Some of the key features of Basel III include: A stronger capital base More stringent capital standards and higher capital requirements Introduction of capital buffers  Additional risk coverage Enhanced quantification of counterparty credit risk Credit valuation adjustments  Wrong  way risk  Asset Value Correlation Multiplier for large financial institutions Liquidity management and monitoring Introduction of leverage ratio Even more rigorous data requirements To implement these features banks need to embark on a journey replete with challenges. These can be categorized into three key areas: Data, Models and Compliance. Data Challenges Data quality - All standard dimensions of Data Quality (DQ) have to be demonstrated.  Manual approaches are now considered too cumbersome and automation has become the norm. Data lineage - Data lineage has to be documented and demonstrated.  The PPT / Excel approach to documentation is being replaced by metadata tools.  Data lineage has become dynamic due to a variety of factors, making static documentation out-dated quickly.  Data dictionaries - A strong and clean business glossary is needed with proper identification of business owners for the data.  Data integrity - A strong, scalable architecture with work flow tools helps demonstrate data integrity.  Manual touch points have to be minimized.   Data relevance/coverage - Data must be relevant to all portfolios and storage devices must allow for sufficient data retention.  Coverage of both on and off balance sheet exposures is critical.   Model Challenges Model development - Requires highly trained resources with both quantitative and subject matter expertise. Model validation - All Basel models need to be validated. This requires additional resources with skills that may not be readily available in the marketplace.  Model documentation - All models need to be adequately documented.  Creation of document templates and model development processes/procedures is key. Risk and finance integration - This integration is necessary for Basel as the Allowance for Loan and Lease Losses (ALLL) is calculated by Finance, yet Expected Loss (EL) is calculated by Risk Management – and they need to somehow be equal.  This is tricky at best from an implementation perspective.  Compliance Challenges Rules interpretation - Some Basel III requirements leave room for interpretation.  A misinterpretation of regulations can lead to delays in Basel compliance and undesired reprimands from supervisory authorities. Gap identification and remediation - Internal identification and remediation of gaps ensures smoother Basel compliance and audit processes.  However business lines are challenged by the competing priorities which arise from regulatory compliance and business as usual work.  Qualification readiness - Providing internal and external auditors with robust evidence of a thorough examination of the readiness to proceed to parallel run and Basel qualification  In light of new regulations like Basel III and local variations such as the Dodd Frank Act (DFA) and Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review (CCAR) in the US, banks are now forced to ask themselves many difficult questions.  For example, executives must consider: How will Basel III play into their Risk Appetite? How will they create project plans for Basel III when they haven’t yet finished implementing Basel II? How will new regulations impact capital structure including profitability and capital distributions to shareholders? After all, new regulations often lead to diminished profitability as well as an assortment of implementation problems as we discussed earlier in this note.  However, by requiring banks to focus on premium growth, regulators increase the potential for long-term profitability and sustainability.  And a more stable banking system: Increases consumer confidence which in turn supports banking activity  Ensures that adequate funding is available for individuals and companies Puts regulators at ease, allowing bankers to focus on banking Stability is intended to bring long-term profitability to banks.  Therefore, it is important that every banking institution takes the steps necessary to properly manage, monitor and disclose its risks.  This can be done with the assistance and oversight of an independent regulatory authority.  A spectrum of banks exist today wherein some continue to debate and negotiate with regulators over the implementation of new requirements, while others are simply choosing to embrace them for the benefits I highlighted above. Do share with me how your institution is coping with and embracing these new regulations within your bank. Dr. Varun Agarwal is a Principal in the Banking Practice for Capgemini Financial Services.  He has over 19 years experience in areas that span from enterprise risk management, credit, market, and to country risk management; financial modeling and valuation; and international financial markets research and analyses.

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• Extending Database-as-a-Service to Provision Databases with Application Data

  - by Nilesh A

  Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c Database as a Service (DBaaS) empowers Self Service/SSA Users to rapidly spawn databases on demand in cloud. The configuration and structure of provisioned databases depends on respective service template selected by Self Service user while requesting for database. In EM12c, the DBaaS Self Service/SSA Administrator has the option of hosting various service templates in service catalog and based on underlying DBCA templates.Many times provisioned databases require production scale data either for UAT, testing or development purpose and managing DBCA templates with data can be unwieldy. So, we need to populate the database using post deployment script option and without any additional work for the SSA Users. The SSA Administrator can automate this task in few easy steps. For details on how to setup DBaaS Self Service Portal refer to the DBaaS CookbookIn this article, I will list steps required to enable EM 12c DBaaS to provision databases with application data in two distinct ways using: 1) Data pump 2) Transportable tablespaces (TTS). The steps listed below are just examples of how to extend EM 12c DBaaS and you can even have your own method plugged in part of post deployment script option. Using Data Pump to populate databases These are the steps to be followed to implement extending DBaaS using Data Pump methodolgy: Production DBA should run data pump export on the production database and make the dump file available to all the servers participating in the database zone [sample shown in Fig.1] -- Full exportexpdp FULL=y DUMPFILE=data_pump_dir:dpfull1%U.dmp, data_pump_dir:dpfull2%U.dmp PARALLEL=4 LOGFILE=data_pump_dir:dpexpfull.log JOB_NAME=dpexpfull Figure-1:  Full export of database using data pump Create a post deployment SQL script [sample shown in Fig. 2] and this script can either be uploaded into the software library by SSA Administrator or made available on a shared location accessible from servers where databases are likely to be provisioned Normal 0 -- Full importdeclare    h1   NUMBER;begin-- Creating the directory object where source database dump is backed up.    execute immediate 'create directory DEST_LOC as''/scratch/nagrawal/OracleHomes/oradata/INITCHNG/datafile''';-- Running import    h1 := dbms_datapump.open (operation => 'IMPORT', job_mode => 'FULL', job_name => 'DB_IMPORT10');    dbms_datapump.set_parallel(handle => h1, degree => 1);    dbms_datapump.add_file(handle => h1, filename => 'IMP_GRIDDB_FULL.LOG', directory => 'DATA_PUMP_DIR', filetype => 3);    dbms_datapump.add_file(handle => h1, filename => 'EXP_GRIDDB_FULL_%U.DMP', directory => 'DEST_LOC', filetype => 1);    dbms_datapump.start_job(handle => h1);    dbms_datapump.detach(handle => h1);end;/ Figure-2: Importing using data pump pl/sql procedures Using DBCA, create a template for the production database – include all the init.ora parameters, tablespaces, datafiles & their sizes SSA Administrator should customize “Create Database Deployment Procedure” and provide DBCA template created in the previous step. In “Additional Configuration Options” step of Customize “Create Database Deployment Procedure” flow, provide the name of the SQL script in the Custom Script section and lock the input (shown in Fig. 3). Continue saving the deployment procedure. Figure-3: Using Custom script option for calling Import SQL Now, an SSA user can login to Self Service Portal and use the flow to provision a database that will also  populate the data using the post deployment step. Using Transportable tablespaces to populate databases Copy of all user/application tablespaces will enable this method of populating databases. These are the required steps to extend DBaaS using transportable tablespaces: Production DBA needs to create a backup of tablespaces. Datafiles may need conversion [such as from Big Endian to Little Endian or vice versa] based on the platform of production and destination where DBaaS created the test database. Here is sample backup script shows how to find out if any conversion is required, describes the steps required to convert datafiles and backup tablespace. SSA Administrator should copy the database (tablespaces) backup datafiles and export dumps to the backup location accessible from the hosts participating in the database zone(s). Create a post deployment SQL script and this script can either be uploaded into the software library by SSA Administrator or made available on a shared location accessible from servers where databases are likely to be provisioned. Here is sample post deployment SQL script using transportable tablespaces. Using DBCA, create a template for the production database – all the init.ora parameters should be included. NOTE: DO NOT choose to bring tablespace data into this template as they will be created SSA Administrator should customize “Create Database Deployment Procedure” and provide DBCA template created in the previous step. In the “Additional Configuration Options” step of the flow, provide the name of the SQL script in the Custom Script section and lock the input. Continue saving the deployment procedure. Now, an SSA user can login to Self Service Portal and use the flow to provision a database that will also populate the data using the post deployment step. More Information: Database-as-a-Service on Exadata Cloud Podcast on Database as a Service using Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c Installation and Administration guide, Cloud Administration guide DBaaS Cookbook Screenwatch: Private Database Cloud: Set Up the Cloud Self-Service Portal Screenwatch: Private Database Cloud: Use the Cloud Self-Service Portal Stay Connected: Twitter |  Face book |  You Tube |  Linked in |  Newsletter

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• Move a sphere along the swipe?

  - by gameOne

  I am trying to get a sphere curl based on the swipe. I know this has been asked many times, but still it's yearning to be answered. I have managed to add force on the direction of the swipe and it works near perfect. I also have all the swipe positions stored in a list. Now I would like to know how can the curl be achieved. I believe the the curve in the swipe can be calculated by the Vector dot product If theta is 0, then there is no need to add the swipe. If it is not, then add the curl. Maybe this condition is redundant if I managed to find how to curl the sphere along the swipe position The code that adds the force to sphere based on the swipe direction is as below: using UnityEngine; using System.Collections; using System.Collections.Generic; public class SwipeControl : MonoBehaviour { //First establish some variables private Vector3 fp; //First finger position private Vector3 lp; //Last finger position private Vector3 ip; //some intermediate finger position private float dragDistance; //Distance needed for a swipe to register public float power; private Vector3 footballPos; private bool canShoot = true; private float factor = 40f; private List<Vector3> touchPositions = new List<Vector3>(); void Start(){ dragDistance = Screen.height*20/100; Physics.gravity = new Vector3(0, -20, 0); footballPos = transform.position; } // Update is called once per frame void Update() { //Examine the touch inputs foreach (Touch touch in Input.touches) { /*if (touch.phase == TouchPhase.Began) { fp = touch.position; lp = touch.position; }*/ if (touch.phase == TouchPhase.Moved) { touchPositions.Add(touch.position); } if (touch.phase == TouchPhase.Ended) { fp = touchPositions[0]; lp = touchPositions[touchPositions.Count-1]; ip = touchPositions[touchPositions.Count/2]; //First check if it's actually a drag if (Mathf.Abs(lp.x - fp.x) > dragDistance || Mathf.Abs(lp.y - fp.y) > dragDistance) { //It's a drag //Now check what direction the drag was //First check which axis if (Mathf.Abs(lp.x - fp.x) > Mathf.Abs(lp.y - fp.y)) { //If the horizontal movement is greater than the vertical movement... if ((lp.x>fp.x) && canShoot) //If the movement was to the right) { //Right move float x = (lp.x - fp.x) / Screen.height * factor; rigidbody.AddForce((new Vector3(x,10,16))*power); Debug.Log("right "+(lp.x-fp.x));//MOVE RIGHT CODE HERE canShoot = false; //rigidbody.AddForce((new Vector3((lp.x-fp.x)/30,10,16))*power); StartCoroutine(ReturnBall()); } else { //Left move float x = (lp.x - fp.x) / Screen.height * factor; rigidbody.AddForce((new Vector3(x,10,16))*power); Debug.Log("left "+(lp.x-fp.x));//MOVE LEFT CODE HERE canShoot = false; //rigidbody.AddForce(new Vector3((lp.x-fp.x)/30,10,16)*power); StartCoroutine(ReturnBall()); } } else { //the vertical movement is greater than the horizontal movement if (lp.y>fp.y) //If the movement was up { //Up move float y = (lp.y-fp.y)/Screen.height*factor; float x = (lp.x - fp.x) / Screen.height * factor; rigidbody.AddForce((new Vector3(x,y,16))*power); Debug.Log("up "+(lp.x-fp.x));//MOVE UP CODE HERE canShoot = false; //rigidbody.AddForce(new Vector3((lp.x-fp.x)/30,10,16)*power); StartCoroutine(ReturnBall()); } else { //Down move Debug.Log("down "+lp+" "+fp);//MOVE DOWN CODE HERE } } } else { //It's a tap Debug.Log("none");//TAP CODE HERE } } } } IEnumerator ReturnBall() { yield return new WaitForSeconds(5.0f); rigidbody.velocity = Vector3.zero; rigidbody.angularVelocity = Vector3.zero; transform.position = footballPos; canShoot =true; isKicked = false; } }

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• Upgrading Agent Controllers in Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center 12c

  - by S Stelting

  Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center 12c recently released an upgrade for Solaris Agent Controllers. In this week's blog post, we'll show you how to upgrade agent controllers. Detailed instructions about upgrading Agent Controllers are available in the product documentation here. This blog post uses an Enterprise Controller which is configured for connected mode operation. If you'd like to apply the agent update in a disconnected installation, additional instructions are available here. Step 1: Download Agent Controller Updates With a connected mode Ops Center installation, you can check for product updates at any time by selecting the Enterprise Controller from the left-hand Administration navigation tab. Select the right-hand Action link “Ops Center Downloads” to open a pop-up dialog displaying any new product updates. In this example, the Enterprise Controller has already been upgraded to the latest version (Update 1, also shown as build version 2076) so only the Agent Controller updates will appear. There are three updates available: one for Solaris 10 X86, one for Solaris 8-10 SPARC, and one for all versions of Solaris 11. Note that the last update in the screen shot is the Solaris 11 update; for details on any of the downloads, place your mouse over the information icon under the details column for a pop-up text region. Select the software to download and click the Next button to display the Ops Center license agreement. Review and click the check box to accept the license agreement, then click the Next button to begin downloading the software. The status screen shows the current download status. If desired, you can perform the downloads as a background job. Simply click the check box, then click the next button to proceed to the summary screen. The summary screen shows the updates to be downloaded as well as the current status. Clicking the Finish button will close the dialog and return to the Browser UI. The download job will continue to run in Ops Center and progress can still be viewed from the jobs menu at the bottom of the browser window. Step 2: Check the Version of Existing Agent Controllers After the download job completes, you can check the availability of agent updates as well as the current versions of your Agent Controllers from the left-hand Assets navigation tab. Select “Operating Systems” from the pull-down tab lets to display only OS assets. Next, select “Solaris” in the left-hand tab to display the Solaris assets. Finally, select the Summary tab in the center display panel to show which versions of agent controllers are installed in your data center. Notice that a few of the OS assets are not displayed in the Agent Controllers tab. Ops Center will not display OS instances which do not have an Agent Controller installation. This includes Enterprise Controllers and Proxy Controllers (unless the agent has been activated on the OS instance) and and OS instances using agentless management. For Agent Controllers which support an update, the version of agent software (in this example, 2083) appears to the right of the currently installed version. Step 3: Upgrade Your Agent Controllers If desired, you can upgrade agent controllers from the previous screen by selecting the desired systems and clicking the upgrade button. Alternatively, you can click the link “Upgrade All Agent Controllers” in the right-hand Actions menu: In either case, a pop-up dialog lets you start the upgrade process. The first screen in the dialog lets you choose the upgrade method: Ops Center provides three ways to upgrade agent controllers: Automatic Upgrade: If Agent Controllers are running on all assets, Ops Center can automatically upgrade the software to the latest version without requiring any login credentials to the system SSH using a single set of credentials: If all assets use the same login credentials, you can apply a single set to all assets for the upgrade process. The log-in credentials are the same ones used for asset discovery and management, which are stored in the Plan Management navigation tab under Credentials. SSH using individual credentials: If assets use different login credentials, you can select a different set for each asset. After selecting the upgrade method, click the Next button to proceed to the summary screen. Click the Finish button to close the pop-up dialog and start the upgrade job for the agent controllers. The upgrade job runs a series of tasks in parallel, and will upgrade all agents which have been selected. Once the job completes, the OS instances in your data center will be upgraded and running the latest version of Agent Controller software.

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• JavaOne 2012 Sunday Strategy Keynote

  - by Janice J. Heiss

  At the Sunday Strategy Keynote, held at the Masonic Auditorium, Hasan Rizvi, EVP, Middleware and Java Development, stated that the theme for this year's JavaOne is: “Make the future Java”-- meaning that Java continues in its role as the most popular, complete, productive, secure, and innovative development platform. But it also means, he qualified, the process by which we make the future Java -- an open, transparent, collaborative, and community-driven evolution. "Many of you have bet your businesses and your careers on Java, and we have bet our business on Java," he said.Rizvi detailed the three factors they consider critical to the success of Java--technology innovation, community participation, and Oracle's leadership/stewardship. He offered a scorecard in these three realms over the past year--with OS X and Linux ARM support on Java SE, open sourcing of JavaFX by the end of the year, the release of Java Embedded Suite 7.0 middleware platform, and multiple releases on the Java EE side. The JCP process continues, with new JSR activity, and JUGs show a 25% increase in participation since last year. Oracle, meanwhile, continues its commitment to both technology and community development/outreach--with four regional JavaOne conferences last year in various part of the world, as well as the release of Java Magazine, with over 120,000 current subscribers. Georges Saab, VP Development, Java SE, next reviewed features of Java SE 7--the first major revision to the platform under Oracle's stewardship, which has included near-monthly update releases offering hundreds of fixes, performance enhancements, and new features. Saab indicated that developers, ISVs, and hosting providers have all been rapid adopters of the platform. He also noted that Oracle's entire Fusion middleware stack is supported on SE 7. The supported platforms for SE 7 has also increased--from Windows, Linux, and Solaris, to OS X, Linux ARM, and the emerging ARM micro-server market. "In the last year, we've added as many new platforms for Java, as were added in the previous decade," said Saab.Saab also explored the upcoming JDK 8 release--including Project Lambda, Project Nashorn (a modern implementation of JavaScript running on the JVM), and others. He noted that Nashorn functionality had already been used internally in NetBeans 7.3, and announced that they were planning to contribute the implementation to OpenJDK. Nandini Ramani, VP Development, Java Client, ME and Card, discussed the latest news pertaining to JavaFX 2.0--releases on Windows, OS X, and Linux, release of the FX Scene Builder tool, the JavaFX WebView component in NetBeans 7.3, and an OpenJFX project in OpenJDK. Nandini announced, as of Sunday, the availability for download of JavaFX on Linux ARM (developer preview), as well as Scene Builder on Linux. She noted that for next year's JDK 8 release, JavaFX will offer 3D, as well as third-party component integration. Avinder Brar, Senior Software Engineer, Navis, and Dierk König, Canoo Fellow, next took the stage and demonstrated all that JavaFX offers, with a feature-rich, animation-rich, real-time cargo management application that employs Canoo's just open-sourced Dolphin technology.Saab also explored Java SE 9 and beyond--Jigsaw modularity, Penrose Project for interoperability with OSGi, improved multi-tenancy for Java in the cloud, and Project Sumatra. Phil Rogers, HSA Foundation President and AMD Corporate Fellow, explored heterogeneous computing platforms that combine the CPU and the parallel processor of the GPU into a single piece of silicon and shared memory—a hardware technology driven by such advanced functionalities as HD video, face recognition, and cloud workloads. Project Sumatra is an OpenJDK project targeted at bringing Java to such heterogeneous platforms--with hardware and software experts working together to modify the JVM for these advanced applications and platforms.Ramani next discussed the latest with Java in the embedded space--"the Internet of things" and M2M--declaring this to be "the next IT revolution," with Java as the ideal technology for the ecosystem. Last week, Oracle released Java ME Embedded 3.2 (for micro-contollers and low-power devices), and Java Embedded Suite 7.0 (a middleware stack based on Java SE 7). Axel Hansmann, VP Strategy and Marketing, Cinterion, explored his company's use of Java in M2M, and their new release of EHS5, the world's smallest 3G-capable M2M module, running Java ME Embedded. Hansmaan explained that Java offers them the ability to create a "simple to use, scalable, coherent, end-to-end layer" for such diverse edge devices.Marc Brule, Chief Financial Office, Royal Canadian Mint, also explored the fascinating use-case of JavaCard in his country's MintChip e-cash technology--deployable on smartphones, USB device, computer, tablet, or cloud. In parting, Ramani encouraged developers to download the latest releases of Java Embedded, and try them out.Cameron Purdy, VP, Fusion Middleware Development and Java EE, summarized the latest developments and announcements in the Enterprise space--greater developer productivity in Java EE6 (with more on the way in EE 7), portability between platforms, vendors, and even cloud-to-cloud portability. The earliest version of the Java EE 7 SDK is now available for download--in GlassFish 4--with WebSocket support, better JSON support, and more. The final release is scheduled for April of 2013. Nicole Otto, Senior Director, Consumer Digital Technology, Nike, explored her company's Java technology driven enterprise ecosystem for all things sports, including the NikeFuel accelerometer wrist band. Looking beyond Java EE 7, Purdy mentioned NoSQL database functionality for EE 8, the concurrency utilities (possibly in EE 7), some of the Avatar projects in EE 7, some in EE 8, multi-tenancy for the cloud, supporting SaaS applications, and more.Rizvi ended by introducing Dr. Robert Ballard, oceanographer and National Geographic Explorer in Residence--part of Oracle's philanthropic relationship with the National Geographic Society to fund K-12 education around ocean science and conservation. Ballard is best known for having discovered the wreckage of the Titanic. He offered a fascinating video and overview of the cutting edge technology used in such deep-sea explorations, noting that in his early days, high-bandwidth exploration meant that you’d go down in a submarine and "stick your face up against the window." Now, it's a remotely operated, technology telepresence--"I think of my Hercules vehicle as my equivalent of a Na'vi. When I go beneath the sea, I actually send my spirit." Using high bandwidth satellite links, such amazing explorations can now occur via smartphone, laptop, or whatever platform. Ballard’s team regularly offers live feeds and programming out to schools and the world, spanning 188 countries--with embedding educators as part of the expeditions. It's technology at its finest, inspiring the next-generation of scientists and explorers!

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• SSAS: Utility to export SQL code from your cube's Data Source View (DSV)

  - by DrJohn

  When you are working on a cube, particularly in a multi-person team, it is sometimes necessary to review what changes that have been done to the SQL queries in the cube's data source view (DSV). This can be a problem as the SQL editor in the DSV is not the best interface to review code. Now of course you can cut and paste the SQL into SSMS, but you have to do each query one-by-one. What is worse your DBA is unlikely to have BIDS installed, so you will have to manually export all the SQL yourself and send him the files. To make it easy to get hold of the SQL in a Data Source View, I developed a C# utility which connects to an OLAP database and uses Analysis Services Management Objects (AMO) to obtain and export all the SQL to a series of files. The added benefit of this approach is that these SQL files can be placed under source code control which means the DBA can easily compare one version with another. The Trick When I came to implement this utility, I quickly found that the AMO API does not give direct access to anything useful about the tables in the data source view. Iterating through the DSVs and tables is easy, but getting to the SQL proved to be much harder. My Google searches returned little of value, so I took a look at the idea of using the XmlDom to open the DSV’s XML and obtaining the SQL from that. This is when the breakthrough happened. Inspecting the DSV’s XML I saw the things I was interested in were called TableType DbTableName FriendlyName QueryDefinition Searching Google for FriendlyName returned this page: Programming AMO Fundamental Objects which hinted at the fact that I could use something called ExtendedProperties to obtain these XML attributes. This simplified my code tremendously to make the implementation almost trivial. So here is my code with appropriate comments. The full solution can be downloaded from here: ExportCubeDsvSQL.zip   using System;using System.Data;using System.IO;using Microsoft.AnalysisServices; ... class code removed for clarity// connect to the OLAP server Server olapServer = new Server();olapServer.Connect(config.olapServerName);if (olapServer != null){ // connected to server ok, so obtain reference to the OLAP databaseDatabase olapDatabase = olapServer.Databases.FindByName(config.olapDatabaseName);if (olapDatabase != null){ Console.WriteLine(string.Format("Succesfully connected to '{0}' on '{1}'",   config.olapDatabaseName,   config.olapServerName));// export SQL from each data source view (usually only one, but can be many!)foreach (DataSourceView dsv in olapDatabase.DataSourceViews){ Console.WriteLine(string.Format("Exporting SQL from DSV '{0}'", dsv.Name));// for each table in the DSV, export the SQL in a fileforeach (DataTable dt in dsv.Schema.Tables){ Console.WriteLine(string.Format("Exporting SQL from table '{0}'", dt.TableName)); // get name of the table in the DSV// use the FriendlyName as the user inputs this and therefore has control of itstring queryName = dt.ExtendedProperties["FriendlyName"].ToString().Replace(" ", "_");string sqlFilePath = Path.Combine(targetDir.FullName, queryName + ".sql"); // delete the sql file if it exists... file deletion code removed for clarity// write out the SQL to a fileif (dt.ExtendedProperties["TableType"].ToString() == "View"){ File.WriteAllText(sqlFilePath, dt.ExtendedProperties["QueryDefinition"].ToString());}if (dt.ExtendedProperties["TableType"].ToString() == "Table"){ File.WriteAllText(sqlFilePath, dt.ExtendedProperties["DbTableName"].ToString()); } } } Console.WriteLine(string.Format("Successfully written out SQL scripts to '{0}'", targetDir.FullName)); } }   Of course, if you are following industry best practice, you should be basing your cube on a series of views. This will mean that this utility will be of limited practical value unless of course you are inheriting a project and want to check if someone did the implementation correctly.

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• Announcing Solaris Technical Track at NLUUG Spring Conference on Operating Systems

  - by user9135656

  The Netherlands Unix Users Group (NLUUG) is hosting a full-day technical Solaris track during its spring 2012 conference. The official announcement page, including registration information can be found at the conference page.This year, the NLUUG spring conference focuses on the base of every computing platform; the Operating System. Hot topics like Cloud Computing and Virtualization; the massive adoption of mobile devices that have their special needs in the OS they run but that at the same time put the challenge of massive scalability onto the internet; the upspring of multi-core and multi-threaded chips..., all these developments cause the Operating System to still be a very interesting area where all kinds of innovations have taken and are taking place.The conference will focus specifically on: Linux, BSD Unix, AIX, Windows and Solaris. The keynote speech will be delivered by John 'maddog' Hall, infamous promotor and supporter of UNIX-based Operating Systems. He will talk the audience through several decades of Operating Systems developments, and share many stories untold so far. To make the conference even more interesting, a variety of talks is offered in 5 parallel tracks, covering new developments in and  also collaboration  between Linux, the BSD's, AIX, Solaris and Windows. The full-day Solaris technical track covers all innovations that have been delivered in Oracle Solaris 11. Deeply technically-skilled presenters will talk on a variety of topics. Each topic will first be introduced at a basic level, enabling visitors to attend to the presentations individually. Attending to the full day will give the audience a comprehensive overview as well as more in-depth understanding of the most important new features in Solaris 11.NLUUG Spring Conference details:* Date and time:        When : April 11 2012        Start: 09:15 (doors open: 8:30)        End  : 17:00, (drinks and snacks served afterwards)* Venue:        Nieuwegein Business Center        Blokhoeve 1             3438 LC Nieuwegein              The Nederlands          Tel     : +31 (0)30 - 602 69 00        Fax     : +31 (0)30 - 602 69 01        Email   : [email protected]        Route   : description - (PDF, Dutch only)* Conference abstracts and speaker info can be found here.* Agenda for the Solaris track: Note: talks will be in English unless marked with 'NL'.1.      Insights to Solaris 11         Joerg Moellenkamp - Solaris Technical Specialist         Oracle Germany2.      Lifecycle management with Oracle Solaris 11         Detlef Drewanz - Solaris Technical Specialist         Oracle Germany3.      Solaris 11 Networking - Crossbow Project        Andrew Gabriel - Solaris Technical Specialist        Oracle UK4.      ZFS: Data Integrity and Security         Darren Moffat - Senior Principal Engineer, Solaris Engineering         Oracle UK5.      Solaris 11 Zones and Immutable Zones (NL)         Casper Dik - Senior Staff Engineer, Software Platforms         Oracle NL6.      Experiencing Solaris 11 (NL)         Patrick Ale - UNIX Technical Specialist         UPC Broadband, NLTalks are 45 minutes each.There will be a "Solaris Meeting point" during the conference where people can meet-up, chat with the speakers and with fellow Solaris enthousiasts, and where live demos or other hands-on experiences can be shared.The official announcement page, including registration information can be found at the conference page on the NLUUG website. This site also has a complete list of all abstracts for all talks.Please register on the NLUUG website.

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• Building on someone else's DefaultButton Silverlight work...

  - by KyleBurns

  This week I was handed a "simple" requirement - have a search screen execute its search when the user pressed the Enter key instead of having to move hands from keyboard to mouse and click Search.  That is a reasonable request that has been met for years both in Windows and Web apps.  I did a quick scan for code to pilfer and found Patrick Cauldwell's Blog posting "A 'Default Button' In Silverlight".  This posting was a great start and I'm glad that the basic work had been done for me, but I ran into one issue - when using bound textboxes (I'm a die-hard MVVM enthusiast when it comes to Silverlight development), the search was being executed before the textbox I was in when the Enter key was pressed updated its bindings.  With a little bit of reflection work, I think I have found a good generic solution that builds upon Patrick's to make it more binding-friendly.  Also, I wanted to set the DefaultButton at a higher level than on each TextBox (or other control for that matter), so the use of mine is intended to be set somewhere such as the LayoutRoot or other high level control and will apply to all controls beneath it in the control tree.  I haven't tested this on controls that treat the Enter key special themselves in the mix. The real change from Patrick's solution here is that in the KeyUp event, I grab the source of the KeyUp event (in my case the textbox containing search criteria) and loop through the static fields on the element's type looking for DependencyProperty instances.  When I find a DependencyProperty, I grab the value and query for bindings.  Each time I find a binding, UpdateSource is called to make sure anything bound to any property of the field has the opportunity to update before the action represented by the DefaultButton is executed. Here's the code: public class DefaultButtonService { public static DependencyProperty DefaultButtonProperty = DependencyProperty.RegisterAttached("DefaultButton", typeof (Button), typeof (DefaultButtonService), new PropertyMetadata (null, DefaultButtonChanged)); private static void DefaultButtonChanged(DependencyObject d, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e) { var uiElement = d as UIElement; var button = e.NewValue as Button; if (uiElement != null && button != null) { uiElement.KeyUp += (sender, arg) => { if (arg.Key == Key.Enter) { var element = arg.OriginalSource as FrameworkElement; if (element != null) { UpdateBindings(element); } if (button.IsEnabled) { button.Focus(); var peer = new ButtonAutomationPeer(button); var invokeProv = peer.GetPattern(PatternInterface.Invoke) as IInvokeProvider; if (invokeProv != null) invokeProv.Invoke(); arg.Handled = true; } } }; } } public static DefaultButtonService GetDefaultButton(UIElement obj) { return (DefaultButtonService) obj.GetValue(DefaultButtonProperty); } public static void SetDefaultButton(DependencyObject obj, DefaultButtonService button) { obj.SetValue(DefaultButtonProperty, button); } public static void UpdateBindings(FrameworkElement element) { element.GetType().GetFields(BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Static).ForEach(field => { if (field.FieldType.IsAssignableFrom(typeof(DependencyProperty))) { try { var dp = field.GetValue(null) as DependencyProperty; if (dp != null) { var binding = element.GetBindingExpression(dp); if (binding != null) { binding.UpdateSource(); } } } // ReSharper disable EmptyGeneralCatchClause catch (Exception) // ReSharper restore EmptyGeneralCatchClause { // swallow exceptions } } }); } }

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• 2D metaball liquid effect - how to feed output of one rendering pass as input to another shader

  - by Guye Incognito

  I'm attempting to make a shader for unity3d web project. I want to implement something like in the great answer by DMGregory in this question. in order to achieve a final look something like this.. Its metaballs with specular and shading. The steps to make this shader are. 1. Convert the feathered blobs into a heightmap. 2. Generate a normalmap from the heightmap 3. Feed the normal map and height map into a standard unity shader, for instance transparent parallax specular. I pretty much have all the pieces I need assembled but I am new to shaders and need help putting them together I can generate a heightmap from the blobs using some fragment shader code I wrote (I'm just using the red channel here cus i dont know if you can access the brightness) half4 frag (v2f i) : COLOR{ half4 texcol,finalColor; texcol = tex2D (_MainTex, i.uv); finalColor=_MyColor; if(texcol.r<_botmcut) { finalColor.r= 0; } else if((texcol.r>_topcut)) { finalColor.r= 0; } else { float r = _topcut-_botmcut; float xpos = _topcut - texcol.r; finalColor.r= (_botmcut + sqrt((xpos*xpos)-(r*r)))/_constant; } return finalColor; } turns these blobs.. into this heightmap Also I've found some CG code that generates a normal map from a height map. The bit of code that makes the normal map from finite differences is here void surf (Input IN, inout SurfaceOutput o) { o.Albedo = fixed3(0.5); float3 normal = UnpackNormal(tex2D(_BumpMap, IN.uv_MainTex)); float me = tex2D(_HeightMap,IN.uv_MainTex).x; float n = tex2D(_HeightMap,float2(IN.uv_MainTex.x,IN.uv_MainTex.y+1.0/_HeightmapDimY)).x; float s = tex2D(_HeightMap,float2(IN.uv_MainTex.x,IN.uv_MainTex.y-1.0/_HeightmapDimY)).x; float e = tex2D(_HeightMap,float2(IN.uv_MainTex.x-1.0/_HeightmapDimX,IN.uv_MainTex.y)).x; float w = tex2D(_HeightMap,float2(IN.uv_MainTex.x+1.0/_HeightmapDimX,IN.uv_MainTex.y)).x; float3 norm = normal; float3 temp = norm; //a temporary vector that is not parallel to norm if(norm.x==1) temp.y+=0.5; else temp.x+=0.5; //form a basis with norm being one of the axes: float3 perp1 = normalize(cross(norm,temp)); float3 perp2 = normalize(cross(norm,perp1)); //use the basis to move the normal in its own space by the offset float3 normalOffset = -_HeightmapStrength * ( ( (n-me) - (s-me) ) * perp1 + ( ( e - me ) - ( w - me ) ) * perp2 ); norm += normalOffset; norm = normalize(norm); o.Normal = norm; } Also here is the built-in transparent parallax specular shader for unity. Shader "Transparent/Parallax Specular" { Properties { _Color ("Main Color", Color) = (1,1,1,1) _SpecColor ("Specular Color", Color) = (0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 0) _Shininess ("Shininess", Range (0.01, 1)) = 0.078125 _Parallax ("Height", Range (0.005, 0.08)) = 0.02 _MainTex ("Base (RGB) TransGloss (A)", 2D) = "white" {} _BumpMap ("Normalmap", 2D) = "bump" {} _ParallaxMap ("Heightmap (A)", 2D) = "black" {} } SubShader { Tags {"Queue"="Transparent" "IgnoreProjector"="True" "RenderType"="Transparent"} LOD 600 CGPROGRAM #pragma surface surf BlinnPhong alpha #pragma exclude_renderers flash sampler2D _MainTex; sampler2D _BumpMap; sampler2D _ParallaxMap; fixed4 _Color; half _Shininess; float _Parallax; struct Input { float2 uv_MainTex; float2 uv_BumpMap; float3 viewDir; }; void surf (Input IN, inout SurfaceOutput o) { half h = tex2D (_ParallaxMap, IN.uv_BumpMap).w; float2 offset = ParallaxOffset (h, _Parallax, IN.viewDir); IN.uv_MainTex += offset; IN.uv_BumpMap += offset; fixed4 tex = tex2D(_MainTex, IN.uv_MainTex); o.Albedo = tex.rgb * _Color.rgb; o.Gloss = tex.a; o.Alpha = tex.a * _Color.a; o.Specular = _Shininess; o.Normal = UnpackNormal(tex2D(_BumpMap, IN.uv_BumpMap)); } ENDCG } FallBack "Transparent/Bumped Specular" }

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• Part 1 - Load Testing In The Cloud

  - by Tarun Arora

  Azure is fascinating, but even more fascinating is the marriage of Azure and TFS! Introduction Recently a client I worked for had 2 major business critical applications being delivered, with very little time budgeted for Performance testing, we immediately hit a bottleneck when the performance testing phase started, the in house infrastructure team could not support the hardware requirements in the short notice. It was suggested that the performance testing be performed on one of the QA environments which was a fraction of the production environment. This didn’t seem right, the team decided to turn to the cloud. The team took advantage of the elasticity offered by Azure, starting with a single test agent which was provisioned and ready for use with in 30 minutes the team scaled up to 17 test agents to perform a very comprehensive performance testing cycle. Issues were identified and resolved but the highlight was that the cost of running the ‘test rig’ proved to be less than if hosted on premise by the infrastructure team. Thank you for taking the time out to read this blog post, in the series of posts, I’ll try and cover the start to end of everything you need to know to use Azure to build your Test Rig in the cloud. But Why Azure? I have my own Data Centre… If the environment is provisioned in your own datacentre, - No matter what level of service agreement you may have with your infrastructure team there will be down time when the environment is patched - How fast can you scale up or down the environments (keeping the enterprise processes in mind) Administration, Cost, Flexibility and Scalability are the areas you would want to think around when taking the decision between your own Data Centre and Azure! How is Microsoft's Public Cloud Offering different from Amazon’s Public Cloud Offering? Microsoft's offering of the Cloud is a hybrid of Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) which distinguishes Microsoft's offering from other providers such as Amazon (Amazon only offers IaaS). PaaS – Platform as a Service IaaS – Infrastructure as a Service Fills the needs of those who want to build and run custom applications as services. Similar to traditional hosting, where a business will use the hosted environment as a logical extension of the on-premises datacentre. A service provider offers a pre-configured, virtualized application server environment to which applications can be deployed by the development staff. Since the service providers manage the hardware (patching, upgrades and so forth), as well as application server uptime, the involvement of IT pros is minimized. On-demand scalability combined with hardware and application server management relieves developers from infrastructure concerns and allows them to focus on building applications. The servers (physical and virtual) are rented on an as-needed basis, and the IT professionals who manage the infrastructure have full control of the software configuration. This kind of flexibility increases the complexity of the IT environment, as customer IT professionals need to maintain the servers as though they are on-premises. The maintenance activities may include patching and upgrades of the OS and the application server, load balancing, failover clustering of database servers, backup and restoration, and any other activities that mitigate the risks of hardware and software failures.   The biggest advantage with PaaS is that you do not have to worry about maintaining the environment, you can focus all your time in solving the business problems with your solution rather than worrying about maintaining the environment. If you decide to use a VM Role on Azure, you are asking for IaaS, more on this later. A nice blog post here on the difference between Saas, PaaS and IaaS. Now that we are convinced why we should be turning to the cloud and why in specific Azure, let’s discuss about the Test Rig. The Load Test Rig – Topology Now the moment of truth, Of course a big part of getting value from cloud computing is identifying the most adequate workloads to take to the cloud, so I’ve decided to try to make a Load Testing rig where the Agents are running on Windows Azure.   I’ll talk you through the above Topology, - User: User kick starts the load test run from the developer workstation on premise. This passes the request to the Test Controller. - Test Controller: The Test Controller is on premise connected to the same domain as the developer workstation. As soon as the Test Controller receives the request it makes use of the Windows Azure Connect service to orchestrate the test responsibilities to all the Test Agents. The Windows Azure Connect endpoint software must be active on all Azure instances and on the Controller machine as well. This allows IP connectivity between them and, given that the firewall is properly configured, allows the Controller to send work loads to the agents. In parallel, the Controller will collect the performance data from the agents, using the traditional WMI mechanisms. - Test Agents: The Test Agents are on the Windows Azure Public Cloud, as soon as the test controller issues instructions to the test agents, the test agents start executing the load tests. The HTTP requests are issued against the web server on premise, the results are captured by the test agents. And finally the results are passed over to the controller. - Servers: The Web Server and DB Server are hosted on premise in the datacentre, this is usually the case with business critical applications, you probably want to manage them your self. Recap and What’s next? So, in the introduction in the series of blog posts on Load Testing in the cloud I highlighted why creating a test rig in the cloud is a good idea, what advantages does Windows Azure offer and the Test Rig topology that I will be using. I would also like to mention that i stumbled upon this [Video] on Azure in a nutshell, great watch if you are new to Windows Azure. In the next post I intend to start setting up the Load Test Environment and discuss pricing with respect to test agent machine types that will be used in the test rig. Hope you enjoyed this post, If you have any recommendations on things that I should consider or any questions or feedback, feel free to add to this blog post. Remember to subscribe to http://feeds.feedburner.com/TarunArora.  See you in Part II.   Share this post : CodeProject

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