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• Top Questions and Answers for Pluging into Oracle Database as a Service

  - by David Swanger

  Yesterday we hosted a comprehensive online forum that shared a comprehensive path to help your organization design, deploy, and deliver a Database as a Service cloud. If you missed the online forum, you can watch it on demand by registering here. We received numerous questions.  Below are highlights of the most informative: DBaaS requires a lengthy and careful design efforts. What is the minimum requirements of setting up a scaled-down environment and test it out? You should have an OEM 12c environment for DBaaS administration and then a target database deployment platform that has the key characteristics of what your production environment will look like. This could be a single server or it could be a small pool of hosts if your production DBaaS will be larger and you want to test a more robust / real world configuration with Zones and Pools or DR capabilities for example. How does this benefit companies having their own data center? This allows companies to transform their internal IT to a service delivery model for the database. The benefits to the company are significant cost savings, improved business agility and reduced risk. The benefits to the consumers (internal) of services if much fast provisioning, and response to change in business requirements. From a deployment perspective, is DBaaS's job solely DBA's job? The best deployment model enables the DBA (or end-user) to control the entire process. All resources required to deploy the service are pre-provisioned, and there are no external dependencies (on network, storage, sysadmins teams). The service is created either via a self-service portal or by the DBA. The purpose of self service seems to be that the end user does not rely on the DBA. I just need to give him a template. He decides how much AMM he needs. Why shall I set it one by one. That doesn't seem to be the purpose of self service. Most customers we have worked with define a standardized service catalog, with a few (2 to 5) different classes of service. For each of these classes, there is a pre-defined deployment template, and the user has the ability to select from some pre-defined service sizes. The administrator only has to create this catalog once. Each user then simply selects from the options offered in the catalog.  Looking at DBaaS service definition, it seems to be no different from a service definition provided by a well defined DBA team. Why do you attribute it to DBaaS? There are a couple of perspectives. First, some organizations might already be operating with a high level of standardization and a higher level of maturity from an ITIL or Service Management perspective. Their journey to DBaaS could be shorter and their Service Definition will evolve less but they still might need to add capabilities such as Self Service and Metering/Chargeback. Other organizations are still operating in highly siloed environments with little automation and their formal Service Definition (if they have one) will be a lot less mature today. Therefore their future state DBaaS will look a lot different from their current state, as will their Service Definition. How database as a service impact or help with "Click to Compute" or deploying "Database in cloud infrastructure" DBaaS enables Click to Compute. Oracle DBaaS can be implemented using three architecture models: Oracle Multitenant 12c, native consolidation using Oracle Database and consolidation using virtualization in infrastructure cloud. As Deploy session showed, you get higher consolidating density and efficiency using Multitenant and higher isolation using infrastructure cloud. Depending upon your business needs, DBaaS can be implemented using any of these models. How exactly is the DBaaS different from the traditional db? Storage/OS/DB all together to 'transparently' provide service to applications? Will there be across-databases access by application/user. Some key differences are: 1) The services run on a shared platform. 2) The services can be rapidly provisioned (< 15 minutes). 3) The services are dynamic and can be relocated, grown, shrunk as needed to meet business needs without disruption and rapidly. 4) The user is able to provision the services directly from a standardized service catalog.. With 24x7x365 databases its difficult to find off peak hrs to do basic admin tasks such as gathering stats, running backups, batch jobs. How does pluggable database handle this and different needs/patching downtime of apps databases might be serving? You can gather stats in Oracle Multitenant the same way you had been in regular databases. Regarding patching/upgrading, Oracle Multitenant makes patch/upgrade very efficient in that you can pre-provision a new version/patched multitenant db in a different ORACLE_HOME and then unplug a PDB from its CDB and plug it into the newer/patched CDB in seconds.  Thanks for all the great questions!  If you'd like to learn more and missed the online forum, you can watch it on demand here.

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• Webcor Builders Coordinates Construction Schedules and Mitigates Potential Delays More Efficiently with Integrated Project Management

  - by Sylvie MacKenzie, PMP

  Normal 0 false false false EN-US 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:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";} With more than 40 years of commercial construction experience, Webcor Builders is a leading builder of distinguished, high-profile projects, including high-rise condominiums and hotels, laboratories, healthcare centers, and public works projects. Webcor is also known for its award-winning concrete, interior construction, historic restoration, and seismic renovation work. The company has completed more than 50 million square feet of projects to date. Considering the variety and complexity of the construction projects Webcor undertakes, an integrated project management solution is critical to ensuring optimal efficiency and completing client projects on time and on budget. The company previously used a number of scheduling systems for its various building projects. These packages provided different levels of schedule detail and required schedulers, engineers, and other employees to learn multiple systems. From an IT cost and complexity perspective, the company had to manage multiple scheduling systems and pay for multiple sets of licenses. The company looked to standardize on an enterprise project management system, and selected Oracle’s Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management. Webcor uses the solution’s advanced capabilities to schedule complex projects, analyze delays, model and propose multiple scenarios to demonstrate and mitigate delays and cost overruns, and process that information efficiently to deliver the scheduling precision that public and private projects require. In fact, the solution was instrumental in helping the company’s expansion into public sector projects during the recent economic downturn, and with Primavera P6 in place, it can deliver the precise schedule reporting required for large public projects. With Primavera P6 in place, the company could deliver the precise scheduling and milestone reporting capabilities required for large public projects. The solution is in managing the high-profile University of California – Berkeley Memorial Stadium project. Webcor was hired as construction manager and general contractor for the stadium renovation project, which is a fast-paced project located near the seismically active Hayward Fault Zone. Due to the University of California’s football schedule, meeting the Universities deadline for the coming season placed Webcor in a situation where risk awareness and early warnings of issues would be paramount. Webcor and the extended project team needed a solution that could instantly analyze alternate scenarios to mitigate potential delays; Primavera would deliver those answers.The team would also need to enable multiple stakeholders to use an internet-based platform to access the schedule from various locations, and model complicated sequencing requirements where swift decisions would be made to keep the project on track. The schedule is an integral part of Webcor’s construction management process for the stadium project. Rather than providing the client with the industry-standard monthly update, Webcor updates the critical path method (CPM) schedule on a weekly basis. The project team also reviews the schedule and updates weekly to confirm that progress and forecasted performance are accurate. Hired by the University for their ability to deliver in high risk environments The Webcor team was hit recently with a design supplement that could have added up to 70 days to the project. Using Oracle Primavera P6 the team sprung into action analyzing multiple “what if” scenarios to review mitigation means and methods.  Determined to make sure the Bears could take the field in the coming season the project team nearly eliminated the impact with their creative analysis in working the schedule. The total time from the issuance of the final design supplement to an agreed mitigation response was less than one week; leveraging the Oracle Primavera solution Webcor was able to deliver superior customer value With the ability to efficiently manage projects and schedules, Webcor can ensure it completes its projects on time and on budget, as well as inform clients about what changes to plans will mean in terms of delays and additional costs. Read the complete customer case study at :  http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/customers/customersearch/webcor-builders-1-primavera-ss-1639886.html

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• A Patent for Workload Management Based on Service Level Objectives

  - by jsavit

  I'm very pleased to announce that after a tiny :-) wait of about 5 years, my patent application for a workload manager was finally approved. Background Many operating systems have a resource manager which lets you control machine resources. For example, Solaris provides controls for CPU with several options: shares for proportional CPU allocation. If you have twice as many shares as me, and we are competing for CPU, you'll get about twice as many CPU cycles), dedicated CPU allocation in which a number of CPUs are exclusively dedicated to an application's use. You can say that a zone or project "owns" 8 CPUs on a 32 CPU machine, for example. And, capped CPU in which you specify the upper bound, or cap, of how much CPU an application gets. For example, you can throttle an application to 0.125 of a CPU. (This isn't meant to be an exhaustive list of Solaris RM controls.) Workload management Useful as that is (and tragic that some other operating systems have little resource management and isolation, and frighten people into running only 1 app per OS instance - and wastefully size every server for the peak workload it might experience) that's not really workload management. With resource management one controls the resources, and hope that's enough to meet application service objectives. In fact, we hold resource distribution constant, see if that was good enough, and adjust resource distribution if that didn't meet service level objectives. Here's an example of what happens today: Let's try 30% dedicated CPU. Not enough? Let's try 80% Oh, that's too much, and we're achieving much better response time than the objective, but other workloads are starving. Let's back that off and try again. It's not the process I object to - it's that we to often do this manually. Worse, we sometimes identify and adjust the wrong resource and fiddle with that to no useful result. Back in my days as a customer managing large systems, one of my users would call me up to beg for a "CPU boost": Me: "it won't make any difference - there's plenty of spare CPU to be had, and your application is completely I/O bound." User: "Please do it anyway." Me: "oh, all right, but it won't do you any good." (I did, because he was a friend, but it didn't help.) Prior art There are some operating environments that take a stab about workload management (rather than resource management) but I find them lacking. I know of one that uses synthetic "service units" composed of the sum of CPU, I/O and memory allocations multiplied by weighting factors. A workload is set to make a target rate of service units consumed per second. But this seems to be missing a key point: what is the relationship between artificial 'service units' and actually meeting a throughput or response time objective? What if I get plenty of one of the components (so am getting enough service units), but not enough of the resource whose needed to remove the bottleneck? Actual workload management That's not really the answer either. What is needed is to specify a workload's service levels in terms of externally visible metrics that are meaningful to a business, such as response times or transactions per second, and have the workload manager figure out which resources are not being adequately provided, and then adjust it as needed. If an application is not meeting its service level objectives and the reason is that it's not getting enough CPU cycles, adjust its CPU resource accordingly. If the reason is that the application isn't getting enough RAM to keep its working set in memory, then adjust its RAM assignment appropriately so it stops swapping. Simple idea, but that's a task we keep dumping on system administrators. In other words - don't hold the number of CPU shares constant and watch the achievement of service level vary. Instead, hold the service level constant, and dynamically adjust the number of CPU shares (or amount of other resources like RAM or I/O bandwidth) in order to meet the objective. Instrumenting non-instrumented applications There's one little problem here: how do I measure application performance in a way relating to a service level. I don't want to do it based on internal resources like number of CPU seconds it received per minute - We need to make resource decisions based on externally visible and meaningful measures of performance, not synthetic items or internal resource counters. If I have a way of marking the beginning and end of a transaction, I can then measure whether or not the application is meeting an objective based on it. If I can observe the delay factors for an application, I can see which resource shortages are slowing an application enough to keep it from meeting its objectives. I can then adjust resource allocations to relieve those shortages. Fortunately, Solaris provides facilities for both marking application progress and determining what factors cause application latency. The Solaris DTrace facility let's me introspect on application behavior: in particular I can see events like "receive a web hit" and "respond to that web hit" so I can get transaction rate and response time. DTrace (and tools like prstat) let me see where latency is being added to an application, so I know which resource to adjust. Summary After a delay of a mere few years, I am the proud creator of a patent (advice to anyone interested in going through the process: don't hold your breath!). The fundamental idea is fairly simple: instead of holding resource constant and suffering variable levels of success meeting service level objectives, properly characterise the service level objective in meaningful terms, instrument the application to see if it's meeting the objective, and then have a workload manager change resource allocations to remove delays preventing service level attainment. I've done it by hand for a long time - I think that's what a computer should do for me.

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• Migrating Virtual Iron guest to Oracle VM 3.x

  - by scoter

  As stated on the official site, Oracle in 2009, acquired a provider of server virtualization management software named Virtual Iron; you can find all the acquisition details at this link. Into the FAQ on the official site you can also view that, for the future, Oracle plans to fully integrate Virtual Iron technology into Oracle VM products, and any enhancements will be delivered as a part of the combined solution; this is what is going on with Oracle VM 3.x. So, customers started asking us to migrate Virtual Iron guests to Oracle VM. IMPORTANT: This procedure needs a dedicated OVM-Server with no-guests running on top; be careful while execute this procedure on production environments. In these little steps you will find how-to migrate, as fast as possible, your guests between VI ( Virtual Iron ) and Oracle VM; keep in mind that OracleVM has a built-in P2V utility ( Official Documentation )  that you can use to migrate guests between VI and Oracle VM. Concepts: VI repositories.  On VI we have the same "repository" concept as in Oracle VM; the difference between these two products is that VI use a raw-lun as repository ( instead of using ocfs2 and its capabilities, like ref-links ). The VI "raw-lun" repository, with a pure operating-system perspective, may be presented as in this picture: Infact on this "raw-lun" VI create an LVM2 volume-group. The VI "raw-lun" repository, with an hypervisor perspective, may be presented as in this picture: So, the relationships are: LVM2-Volume-Group <-> VI Repository LVM2-Logical-Volume <-> VI guest virtual-disk The first step is to present the VI repository ( raw-lun ) to your dedicated OVM-Server. Prepare dedicated OVM-Server On the OVM-Server ( OVS ) you need to discover new lun and, after that, discover volume-group and logical-volumes containted in VI repository; due to default OVS configuration you need to edit lvm2 configuration file: /etc/lvm/lvm.conf     # By default for OVS we restrict every block device:     # filter = [ "r/.*/" ] and comment the line starting with "filter" as above. Now you have to discover the raw-lun presented and, next, activate volume-group and logical-volumes: #!/bin/bash for HOST in `ls /sys/class/scsi_host`;do echo '- - -' > /sys/class/scsi_host/$HOST/scan; done CPATH=`pwd` cd /dev for DEVICE in `ls sd[a-z] sd?[a-z]`;do echo '1' > /sys/block/$DEVICE/device/rescan; done cd $CPATH cd /dev/mapper for PARTITION in `ls *[a-z] *?[a-z]`;do partprobe /dev/mapper/$PARTITION; done cd $CPATH vgchange -a yAfter that you will see a new device:[root@ovs01 ~]# cd /dev/6000F4B00000000000210135bef64994[root@ovs01 6000F4B00000000000210135bef64994]# ls -l 6000F4B0000000000061013* lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 77 Oct 29 10:50 6000F4B00000000000610135c3a0b8cb -> /dev/mapper/6000F4B00000000000210135bef64994-6000F4B00000000000610135c3a0b8cb By your OVM-Manager create a guest server with the same definition as on VI:same core number as VI source guestsame memory as VI source guestsame number of disks as VI source guest ( you can create OVS virtual disk with a small size of 1GB because the "clone" will, eventually, extend the size of your new virtual disks )Summarizing:source-virtual-disk path ( VI ):/dev/mapper/6000F4B00000000000210135bef64994-6000F4B00000000000610135c3a0b8cbdest-virtual-disk path ( OVS ):/OVS/Repositories/0004fb00000300006cfeb81c12f12f00/VirtualDisks/0004fb000012000055e0fc4c5c8a35ee.img ** ** = to identify your virtual disk you have verify its name under the "vm.cfg" file of your new guest.Clone VI virtual-disk to OVS virtual-diskdd if=/dev/mapper/6000F4B00000000000210135bef64994-6000F4B00000000000610135c3a0b8cb of=/OVS/Repositories/0004fb00000300006cfeb81c12f12f00/VirtualDisks/0004fb000012000055e0fc4c5c8a35ee.img Clean unsupported parameters and changes on OVS.1. Restore original /etc/lvm/lvm.conf    # By default for OVS we restrict every block device:     filter = [ "r/.*/" ]    and uncomment the line starting with "filter" as above.2. Force-stop lvm2-monitor service  # service lvm2-monitor force-stop 3. Restore original /etc/lvm directories ( archive, backup and cache )  # cd /etc/lvm  # rm -fr archive backup cache; mkdir archive backup cache4. Reboot OVSRefresh OVS repository and start your guest.By OracleVM Manager refresh your repository:By OracleVM Manager start your "migrated" guest: Comments and corrections are welcome.  Simon COTER 

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• Performance triage

  - by Dave

  Folks often ask me how to approach a suspected performance issue. My personal strategy is informed by the fact that I work on concurrency issues. (When you have a hammer everything looks like a nail, but I'll try to keep this general). A good starting point is to ask yourself if the observed performance matches your expectations. Expectations might be derived from known system performance limits, prototypes, and other software or environments that are comparable to your particular system-under-test. Some simple comparisons and microbenchmarks can be useful at this stage. It's also useful to write some very simple programs to validate some of the reported or expected system limits. Can that disk controller really tolerate and sustain 500 reads per second? To reduce the number of confounding factors it's better to try to answer that question with a very simple targeted program. And finally, nothing beats having familiarity with the technologies that underlying your particular layer. On the topic of confounding factors, as our technology stacks become deeper and less transparent, we often find our own technology working against us in some unexpected way to choke performance rather than simply running into some fundamental system limit. A good example is the warm-up time needed by just-in-time compilers in Java Virtual Machines. I won't delve too far into that particular hole except to say that it's rare to find good benchmarks and methodology for java code. Another example is power management on x86. Power management is great, but it can take a while for the CPUs to throttle up from low(er) frequencies to full throttle. And while I love "turbo" mode, it makes benchmarking applications with multiple threads a chore as you have to remember to turn it off and then back on otherwise short single-threaded runs may look abnormally fast compared to runs with higher thread counts. In general for performance characterization I disable turbo mode and fix the power governor at "performance" state. Another source of complexity is the scheduler, which I've discussed in prior blog entries. Lets say I have a running application and I want to better understand its behavior and performance. We'll presume it's warmed up, is under load, and is an execution mode representative of what we think the norm would be. It should be in steady-state, if a steady-state mode even exists. On Solaris the very first thing I'll do is take a set of "pstack" samples. Pstack briefly stops the process and walks each of the stacks, reporting symbolic information (if available) for each frame. For Java, pstack has been augmented to understand java frames, and even report inlining. A few pstack samples can provide powerful insight into what's actually going on inside the program. You'll be able to see calling patterns, which threads are blocked on what system calls or synchronization constructs, memory allocation, etc. If your code is CPU-bound then you'll get a good sense where the cycles are being spent. (I should caution that normal C/C++ inlining can diffuse an otherwise "hot" method into other methods. This is a rare instance where pstack sampling might not immediately point to the key problem). At this point you'll need to reconcile what you're seeing with pstack and your mental model of what you think the program should be doing. They're often rather different. And generally if there's a key performance issue, you'll spot it with a moderate number of samples. I'll also use OS-level observability tools to lock for the existence of bottlenecks where threads contend for locks; other situations where threads are blocked; and the distribution of threads over the system. On Solaris some good tools are mpstat and too a lesser degree, vmstat. Try running "mpstat -a 5" in one window while the application program runs concurrently. One key measure is the voluntary context switch rate "vctx" or "csw" which reflects threads descheduling themselves. It's also good to look at the user; system; and idle CPU percentages. This can give a broad but useful understanding if your threads are mostly parked or mostly running. For instance if your program makes heavy use of malloc/free, then it might be the case you're contending on the central malloc lock in the default allocator. In that case you'd see malloc calling lock in the stack traces, observe a high csw/vctx rate as threads block for the malloc lock, and your "usr" time would be less than expected. Solaris dtrace is a wonderful and invaluable performance tool as well, but in a sense you have to frame and articulate a meaningful and specific question to get a useful answer, so I tend not to use it for first-order screening of problems. It's also most effective for OS and software-level performance issues as opposed to HW-level issues. For that reason I recommend mpstat & pstack as my the 1st step in performance triage. If some other OS-level issue is evident then it's good to switch to dtrace to drill more deeply into the problem. Only after I've ruled out OS-level issues do I switch to using hardware performance counters to look for architectural impediments.

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• Business Case for investing time developing Stubs and BizUnit Tests

  - by charlie.mott

  I was recently in a position where I had to justify why effort should be spent developing Stubbed Integration Tests for BizTalk solutions. These tests are usually developed using the BizUnit framework. I assumed that most seasoned BizTalk developers would consider this best practice. Even though Microsoft suggest use of BizUnit on MSDN, I've not found a single site listing the justifications for investing time writing stubs and BizUnit tests. Stubs Stubs should be developed to isolate your development team from external dependencies. This is described by Michael Stephenson here. Failing to do this can result in the following problems: In contract-first scenarios, the external system interface will have been defined.  But the interface may not have been setup or even developed yet for the BizTalk developers to work with. By the time you open the target location to see the data BizTalk has sent, it may have been swept away. If you are relying on the UI of the target system to see the data BizTalk has sent, what do you do if it fails to arrive? It may take time for the data to be processed or it may be scheduled to be processed later. Learning how to use the source\target systems and investigations into where things go wrong in these systems will slow down the BizTalk development effort. By the time the data is visible in a UI it may have undergone further transformations. In larger development teams working together, do you all use the same source and target instances. How do you know which data was created by whose tests? How do you know which event log error message are whose?  Another developer may have “cleaned up” your data. It is harder to write BizUnit tests that clean up the data\logs after each test run. What if your B2B partners' source or target system cannot support the sort of testing you want to do. They may not even have a development or test instance that you can work with. Their single test instance may be used by the SIT\UAT teams. There may be licencing costs of setting up an instances of the external system. The stubs I like to use are generic stubs that can accept\return any message type.  Usually I need to create one per protocol. They should be driven by BizUnit steps to: validates the data received; and select a response messages (or error response). Once built, they can be re-used for many integration tests and from project to project. I’m not saying that developers should never test against a real instance.  Every so often, you still need to connect to real developer or test instances of the source and target endpoints\services. The interface developers may ask you to send them some data to see if everything still works.  Or you might want some messages sent to BizTalk to get confidence that everything still works beyond BizTalk. Tests Automated “Stubbed Integration Tests” are usually built using the BizUnit framework. These facilitate testing of the entire integration process from source stub to target stub. It will ensure that all of the BizTalk components are configured together correctly to meet all the requirements. More fine grained unit testing of individual BizTalk components is still encouraged.  But BizUnit provides much the easiest way to test some components types (e.g. Orchestrations). Using BizUnit with the Behaviour Driven Development approach described by Mike Stephenson delivers the following benefits: source: http://biztalkbddsample.codeplex.com – Video 1. Requirements can be easily defined using Given/When/Then Requirements are close to the code so easier to manage as features and scenarios Requirements are defined in domain language The feature files can be used as part of the documentation The documentation is accurate to the build of code and can be published with a release The scenarios are effective to document the scenarios and are not over excessive The scenarios are maintained with the code There’s an abstraction between the intention and implementation of tests making them easier to understand The requirements drive the testing These same tests can also be used to drive load testing as described here. If you don't do this ... If you don't follow the above “Stubbed Integration Tests” approach, the developer will need to manually trigger the tests. This has the following risks: Developers are unlikely to check all the scenarios each time and all the expected conditions each time. After the developer leaves, these manual test steps may be lost. What test scenarios are there?  What test messages did they use for each scenario? There is no mechanism to prove adequate test coverage. A test team may attempt to automate integration test scenarios in a test environment through the triggering of tests from a source system UI. If this is a replacement for BizUnit tests, then this carries the following risks: It moves the tests downstream, so problems will be found later in the process. Testers may not check all the expected conditions within the BizTalk infrastructure such as: event logs, suspended messages, etc. These automated tests may also get in the way of manual tests run on these environments.

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• What is Happening vs. What is Interesting

  - by Geertjan

  Devoxx 2011 was yet another confirmation that all development everywhere is either on the web or on mobile phones. Whether you looked at the conference schedule or attended sessions or talked to speakers at any point at all, it was very clear that no development whatsoever is done anymore on the desktop. In fact, that's something Tim Bray himself told me to my face at the speakers dinner. No new developments of any kind are happening on the desktop. Everyone who is currently on the desktop is working overtime to move all of their applications to the web. They're probably also creating a small subset of their application on an Android tablet, with an even smaller subset on their Android phone. Then you scratch that monolithic surface and find some interesting results. Without naming any names, I asked one of these prominent "ah, forget about the desktop" people at the Devoxx speakers dinner (and I have a witness): "Yes, the desktop is dead, but what about air traffic control, stock trading, oil analysis, risk management applications? In fact, what about any back office application that needs to be usable across all operating systems? Here there is no concern whatsoever with 100% accessibility which is, after all, the only thing that the web has over the desktop, (except when there's a network failure, of course, or when you find yourself in the 3/4 of the world where there's bandwidth problems)? There are 1000's of hidden applications out there that have processing requirements, security requirements, and the requirement that they'll be available even when the network is down or even completely unavailable. Isn't that a valid use case and aren't there 1000's of applications that fall into this so-called niche category? Are you not, in fact, confusing consumer applications, which are increasingly web-based and mobile-based, with high-end corporate applications, which typically need to do massive processing, of one kind or another, for which the web and mobile worlds are completely unsuited?" And you will not believe what the reply to the above question was. (Again, I have a witness to this discussion.) But here it is: "Yes. But those applications are not interesting. I do not want to spend any of my time or work in any way on those applications. They are boring." I'm sad to say that the leaders of the software development community, including those in the Java world, either share the above opinion or are led by it. Because they find something that is not new to be boring, they move on to what is interesting and start talking like the supposedly-boring developments don't even exist. (Kind of like a rapper pretending classical music doesn't exist.) Time and time again I find myself giving Java desktop development courses (at companies, i.e., not hobbyists, or students, but companies, i.e., the places where dollars are earned), where developers say to me: "The course you're giving about creating cross-platform, loosely coupled, and highly cohesive applications is really useful to us. Why do we never find information about this topic at conferences? Why can we never attend a session at a conference where the story about pluggable cross-platform Java is told? Why do we get the impression that we are uncool because we're not on the web and because we're not on a mobile phone, while the reason for that is because we're creating $1000,000 simulation software which has nothing to gain from being on the web or on the mobile phone?" And then I say: "Because nobody knows you exist. Because you're not submitting abstracts to conferences about your very interesting use cases. And because conferences tend to focus on what is new, which tends to be web related (especially HTML 5) or mobile related (especially Android). Because you're not taking the responsibility on yourself to tell the real stories about the real applications being developed all the time and every day. Because you yourself think your work is boring, while in fact it is fascinating. Because desktop developers are working from 9 to 5 on the desktop, in secure environments, such as banks and defense, where you can't spend time, nor have the interest in, blogging your latest tip or trick, as opposed to web developers, who tend to spend a lot of time on the web anyway and are therefore much more inclined to create buzz about the kind of work they're doing." So, next time you look at a conference program and wonder why there's no stories about large desktop development projects in the program, here's the short answer: "No one is going to put those items on the program until you start submitting those kinds of sessions. And until you start blogging. Until you start creating the buzz that the web developers have been creating around their work for the past 10 years or so. And, yes, indeed, programmers get the conference they deserve." And what about Tim Bray? Ask yourself, as Google's lead web technology evangelist, how many desktop developers do you think he talks to and, more generally, what his frame of reference is and what, clearly, he considers to be most interesting.

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• Why Executives Need Enterprise Project Portfolio Management: 3 Key Considerations to Drive Value Across the Organization

  - by Melissa Centurio Lopes

  Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* 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:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Cambria","serif";} By: Guy Barlow, Oracle Primavera Industry Strategy Director Over the last few years there has been a tremendous shift – some would say tectonic in nature – that has brought project management to the forefront of executive attention. Many factors have been driving this growing awareness, most notably, the global financial crisis, heightened regulatory environments and a need to more effectively operationalize corporate strategy. Executives in India are no exception. In fact, given the phenomenal rate of progress of the country, top of mind for all executives (whether in finance, operations, IT, etc.) is the need to build capacity, ramp-up production and ensure that the right resources are in place to capture growth opportunities. This applies across all industries from asset-intensive – like oil & gas, utilities and mining – to traditional manufacturing and the public sector, including services-based sectors such as the financial, telecom and life sciences segments are also part of the mix. However, compounding matters is a complex, interplay between projects – big and small, complex and simple – as companies expand and grow both domestically and internationally. So, having a standardized, enterprise wide solution for project portfolio management is natural. Failing to do so is akin to having two ERP systems, one to manage “large” invoices and one to manage “small” invoices. It makes no sense and provides no enterprise wide visibility. Therefore, it is imperative for executives to understand the full range of their business commitments, the benefit to the company, current performance and associated course corrections if needed. Irrespective of industry and regardless of the use case (e.g., building a power plant, launching a new financial service or developing a new automobile) company leaders need to approach the value of enterprise project portfolio management via 3 critical areas: Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* 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:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Cambria","serif";} 1. Greater Financial Discipline – Improve financial rigor and results through better governance and control is an imperative given today’s financial uncertainty and greater investment scrutiny. For example, as India plans a US$1 trillion investment in the country’s infrastructure how do companies ensure costs are managed? How do you control cash flow? Can you easily report this to stakeholders? 2. Improved Operational Excellence – Increase efficiency and reduce costs through robust collaboration and integration. Upwards of 66% of cost variances are driven by poor supplier collaboration. As you execute initiatives do you have visibility into the performance of your supply base? How are they integrated into the broader program plan? 3. Enhanced Risk Mitigation – Manage and react to uncertainty through improved transparency and contingency planning. What happens if you’re faced with a skills shortage? How do you plan and account for geo-political or weather related events? In summary, projects are not just the delivery of a product or service to a customer inside a predetermined schedule; they often form a contractual and even moral obligation to shareholders and stakeholders alike. Hence the intimate connection between executives and projects, with the latter providing executives with the platform to demonstrate that their organization has the capabilities and competencies needed to meet and, whenever possible, exceed their customer commitments. Effectively developing and operationalizing corporate strategy is the hallmark of successful executives and enterprise project and portfolio management allows them to achieve this goal. Article was first published for Manage India, an e-newsletter, PMI India.

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• Identity Globe Trotters (Sep Edition): The Social Customer

  - by Tanu Sood

  Welcome to the inaugural edition of our monthly series - Identity Globe Trotters. Starting today, the last Friday of every month, we will explore regional commentary on Identity Management. We will invite guest contributors from around the world to share their opinions and experiences around Identity Management and highlight regional nuances, specific drivers, solutions and more. Today's feature is contributed by Michael Krebs, Head of Business Development at esentri consulting GmbH, a (SOA) specialized Oracle Gold Partner based in Ettlingen, Germany. In his current role, Krebs is dealing with the latest developments in Enterprise Social Networking and the Integration of Social Media within business processes.  By Michael Krebs The relevance of "easy sign-on" in the age of the "Social Customer" With the growth of Social Networks, the time people spend within those closed "eco-systems" is growing year by year. With social networks looking to integrate search engines, like Facebook announced some weeks ago, their relevance will continue to grow in contrast to the more conventional search engines. This is one of the reasons why social network accounts of the users are getting more and more like a virtual fingerprint. With the growing relevance of social networks the importance of a simple way for customers to get in touch with say, customer care or contract departments, will be crucial for sales processes in critical markets. Customers want to have one single point of contact and also an easy "login-method" with no dedicated usernames, passwords or proprietary accounts. The golden rule in the future social media driven markets will be: The lower the complexity of the initial contact, the better a company can profit from social networks. If you, for example, can generate a smart way of how an existing customer can use self-service portals, the cost in providing phone support can be lowered significantly. Recruiting and Hiring of "Digital Natives" Another particular example is "social" recruiting processes. The so called "digital natives" don´t want to type in their profile facts and CV´s in proprietary systems. Why not use the actual LinkedIn profile? In German speaking region, the market in the area of professional social networks is dominated by XING, the equivalent to LinkedIn. A few weeks back, this network also opened up their interfaces for integrating social sign-ons or the usage of profile data for recruiting-purposes. In the European (and especially the German) employment market, where the number of young candidates is shrinking because of the low birth rate in the region, it will become essential to use social-media supported hiring processes to find and on-board the rare talents. In fact, you will see traditional recruiting websites integrated with social hiring to attract the best talents in the market, where the pool of potential candidates has decreased dramatically over the years. Identity Management as a key factor in the Customer Experience process To create the biggest value for customers and also future employees, companies need to connect their HCM or CRM-systems with powerful Identity management solutions. With the highly efficient Oracle (social & mobile enabling) Identity Management solution, enterprises can combine easy sign on with secure connections to the backend infrastructure. This combination enables a "one-stop" service with personalized content for customers and talents. In addition, companies can collect valuable data for the enrichment of their CRM-data. The goal is to enrich the so called "Customer Experience" via all available customer channels and contact points. Those systems have already gained importance in the B2C-markets and will gradually spread out to B2B-channels in the near future. Conclusion: Central and "Social" Identity management is key to Customer Experience Management and Talent Management For a seamless delivery of "Customer Experience Management" and a modern way of recruiting the best talent, companies need to integrate Social Sign-on capabilities with modern CX - and Talent management infrastructure. This lowers the barrier for existing and future customers or employees to get in touch with sales, support or human resources. Identity management is the technology enabler and backbone for a modern Customer Experience Infrastructure. Oracle Identity management solutions provide the opportunity to secure Social Applications and connect them with modern CX-solutions. At the end, companies benefit from "best of breed" processes and solutions for enriching customer experience without compromising security. About esentri: esentri is a provider of enterprise social networking and brings the benefits of social network communication into business environments. As one key strength, esentri uses Oracle Identity Management solutions for delivering Social and Mobile access for Oracle’s CRM- and HCM-solutions. …..End Guest Post…. With new and enhanced features optimized to secure the new digital experience, the recently announced Oracle Identity Management 11g Release 2 enables organizations to securely embrace cloud, mobile and social infrastructures and reach new user communities to help further expand and develop their businesses. Additional Resources: Oracle Identity Management 11gR2 release Oracle Identity Management website Datasheet: Mobile and Social Access (pdf) IDM at OOW: Focus on Identity Management Facebook: OracleIDM Twitter: OracleIDM We look forward to your feedback on this post and welcome your suggestions for topics to cover in Identity Globe Trotters. Last Friday, every month!

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• Navigate Quickly with JustCode and Ctrl+Click

  Ctrl + Click is a widely used shortcut for Go To Definition in many development environments but not in Visual Studio. We, the JustCode team, find it really useful so we added it to Visual Studio. But we didn't stop there - we improved it even further. Read on to find the details. With JustCode you get an enhanced Go To Definition. By default you can execute it in the Visual Studio editor using one of the following shortcuts: Middle Click, Ctrl+Left Click, F12, Ctrl+Enter, Ctrl+B. The first usage of this feature is not much different from the default Visual Studio Go To Definition command use it where a member, type, method, property, etc is used to navigate to the definition of that item. For example, if you have this method:         public void Start()         {             lion = new Lion();             lion.Roar();         } If you hold Ctrl and click on the usage of the lion you will go to the lion member definition. If you hold Ctrl and click on the Lion you will go to the Lion class definition. What we added is the ability to easily find all the usages of the item you just navigated to. For example:     public class Lion     {         public void Roar()         {             Console.WriteLine("Rhaaaar");         }     }   If you hold Ctrl and click on the Lion definition you will see all the usages of the Lion type; if you click on the Roar method definition you will see all the usages of the Roar method: And if there is only one usage you will get automatically to that usage. In the examples I use C#, but it works also in VB.NET, JavaScript, ASP.NET and XAML. Why we like this feature? Let me first start with how the Ctrl+Click (or Go To Definition command) is used. We noticed that developers use it especially in what we call "code browsing sessions". In simple words this is when you browse around the code looking for a bug, just reading the code or searching for something. Sounds familiar? In our experience when you go to the definition of some item you often want to know more about it and the first thing you need is to find its usages. With JustCode this is just one click away. Why Ctrl+Click/Middle Click over F12/Ctrl+Enter/Ctrl+B? Actually you can use all of them. But during these "code browsing sessions" we noticed that most developers use the mouse. So the mouse is already in use and pressing Ctrl+Click (or the Middle Click) is so natural. During heavy coding sessions or if you are a keyboard type developer F12 (or any of the other keyboard shortcuts) is the key. We really use heavily this feature not only in our team but in the whole company. It saves us a bit of time many times a day. And it adds up. We hope you will like it too. Your feedback is more than welcome for us. P.S. If you dont want JustCode to capture the Ctrl+Click and the Middle Click in the editor, you can change that in JustCode->Options->General in the Navigation group. Keyboard shortcuts can be reassigned using the Visual Studio keyboard shortcuts editor.Did you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

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• Microsoft Sql Server 2008 R2 System Databases

  For a majority of software developers little time is spent understanding the inner workings of the database management systems (DBMS) they use to store data for their applications.  I personally place myself in this grouping. In my case, I have used various versions of Microsoft’s SQL Server (2000, 2005, and 2008 R2) and just recently learned how valuable they really are when I was preparing to deliver a lecture on "SQL Server 2008 R2, System Databases". Microsoft Sql Server 2008 R2 System DatabasesSo what are system databases in MS SQL Server, and why should I know them? Microsoft uses system databases to support the SQL Server DBMS, much like a developer uses config files or database tables to support an application. These system databases individually provide specific functionality that allows MS SQL Server to function. Name Database File Log File Master master.mdf mastlog.ldf Resource mssqlsystemresource.mdf mssqlsystemresource.ldf Model model.mdf modellog.ldf MSDB msdbdata.mdf msdblog.ldf Distribution distmdl.mdf distmdl.ldf TempDB tempdb.mdf templog.ldf Master DatabaseIf you have used MS SQL Server then you should recognize the Master database especially if you used the SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) to connect to a user created database. MS SQL Server requires the Master database in order for DBMS to start due to the information that it stores. Examples of data stored in the Master database User Logins Linked Servers Configuration information Information on User Databases Resource DatabaseHonestly, until recently I never knew this database even existed until I started to research SQL Server system databases. The reason for this is due largely to the fact that the resource database is hidden to users. In fact, the database files are stored within the Binn folder instead of the standard MS SQL Server database folder path. This database contains all system objects that can be accessed by all other databases.  In short, this database contains all system views and store procedures that appear in all other user databases regarding system information. One of the many benefits to storing system views and store procedures in a single hidden database is the fact it improves upgrading a SQL Server database; not to mention that maintenance is decreased since only one code base has to be mainlined for all of the system views and procedures. Model DatabaseThe Model database as the name implies is the model for all new databases created by users. This allows for predefining default database objects for all new databases within a MS SQL Server instance. For example, if every database created by a user needs to have an “Audit” table when it is  created then defining the “Audit” table in the model will guarantees that the table will be located in every new database create after the model is altered. MSDB DatabaseThe MSDBdatabase is used by SQL Server Agent, SQL Server Database Mail, SQL Server Service Broker, along with SQL Server. The SQL Server Agent uses this database to store job configurations and SQL job schedules along with SQL Alerts, and Operators. In addition, this database also stores all SQL job parameters along with each job’s execution history.  Finally, this database is also used to store database backup and maintenance plans as well as details pertaining to SQL Log shipping if it is being used. Distribution DatabaseThe Distribution database is only used during replication and stores meta data and history information pertaining to the act of replication data. Furthermore, when transactional replication is used this database also stores information regarding each transaction. It is important to note that replication is not turned on by default in MS SQL Server and that the distribution database is hidden from SSMS. Tempdb DatabaseThe Tempdb as the name implies is used to store temporary data and data objects. Examples of this include temp tables and temp store procedures. It is important to note that when using this database all data and data objects are cleared from this database when SQL Server restarts. This database is also used by SQL Server when it is performing some internal operations. Typically, SQL Server uses this database for the purpose of large sort and index operations. Finally, this database is used to store row versions if row versioning or snapsot isolation transactions are being used by SQL Server. Additionally, I would love to hear from others about their experiences using system databases, tables, and objects in a real world environments.

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• Customer Perspectives: Oracle Data Integrator

  - by Julien Testut

  Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE The Data Integration Product Management team will be hosting a customer panel session dedicated to Oracle Data Integrator at Oracle OpenWorld. I will have the pleasure to present this session with three of our customers: Paychex, Ross Stores and Turkcell. In this session, you will hear how Paychex, Ross Stores and Turkcell utilize Oracle Data Integrator to meet their IT and business needs. Our customers will be able to share with you how they use ODI in their environments, best practices, lessons learned and benefits of implementing Oracle Data Integrator. If you're interested in hearing more about how our customers use Oracle Data Integrator then I recommend attending this session: Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* 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:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; 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-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Customer Perspectives: Oracle Data Integrator Wednesday October, 3rd, 1:15PM - 2:15PM Marriott Marquis – Golden Gate C3 v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} The Data Integration track at OpenWorld covers variety of topics and speakers. In addition to product management of Oracle GoldenGate, Oracle Data Integrator, and Enteprise Data Quality presenting product updates and roadmap, we have several customer panels and stand-alone sessions featuring select customers such as St. Jude Medical, Raymond James, Aderas, Turkcell, Paychex, Comcast, Ticketmaster, Bank of America and more. You can see an overview of Data Integration sessions here.  Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* 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:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; 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-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} If you are not able to attend OpenWorld, please check out our latest resources for Data Integration and Oracle GoldenGate. In the coming weeks you will see more blogs about our products’ new capabilities and what to expect at OpenWorld. We hope to see you at OpenWorld and stay in touch via our future blogs. v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} /* 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:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; 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-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}

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• Microsoft Sql Server 2008 R2 System Databases

  For a majority of software developers little time is spent understanding the inner workings of the database management systems (DBMS) they use to store data for their applications.  I personally place myself in this grouping. In my case, I have used various versions of Microsoft’s SQL Server (2000, 2005, and 2008 R2) and just recently learned how valuable they really are when I was preparing to deliver a lecture on "SQL Server 2008 R2, System Databases". Microsoft Sql Server 2008 R2 System DatabasesSo what are system databases in MS SQL Server, and why should I know them? Microsoft uses system databases to support the SQL Server DBMS, much like a developer uses config files or database tables to support an application. These system databases individually provide specific functionality that allows MS SQL Server to function. Name Database File Log File Master master.mdf mastlog.ldf Resource mssqlsystemresource.mdf mssqlsystemresource.ldf Model model.mdf modellog.ldf MSDB msdbdata.mdf msdblog.ldf Distribution distmdl.mdf distmdl.ldf TempDB tempdb.mdf templog.ldf Master DatabaseIf you have used MS SQL Server then you should recognize the Master database especially if you used the SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) to connect to a user created database. MS SQL Server requires the Master database in order for DBMS to start due to the information that it stores. Examples of data stored in the Master database User Logins Linked Servers Configuration information Information on User Databases Resource DatabaseHonestly, until recently I never knew this database even existed until I started to research SQL Server system databases. The reason for this is due largely to the fact that the resource database is hidden to users. In fact, the database files are stored within the Binn folder instead of the standard MS SQL Server database folder path. This database contains all system objects that can be accessed by all other databases.  In short, this database contains all system views and store procedures that appear in all other user databases regarding system information. One of the many benefits to storing system views and store procedures in a single hidden database is the fact it improves upgrading a SQL Server database; not to mention that maintenance is decreased since only one code base has to be mainlined for all of the system views and procedures. Model DatabaseThe Model database as the name implies is the model for all new databases created by users. This allows for predefining default database objects for all new databases within a MS SQL Server instance. For example, if every database created by a user needs to have an “Audit” table when it is  created then defining the “Audit” table in the model will guarantees that the table will be located in every new database create after the model is altered. MSDB DatabaseThe MSDBdatabase is used by SQL Server Agent, SQL Server Database Mail, SQL Server Service Broker, along with SQL Server. The SQL Server Agent uses this database to store job configurations and SQL job schedules along with SQL Alerts, and Operators. In addition, this database also stores all SQL job parameters along with each job’s execution history.  Finally, this database is also used to store database backup and maintenance plans as well as details pertaining to SQL Log shipping if it is being used. Distribution DatabaseThe Distribution database is only used during replication and stores meta data and history information pertaining to the act of replication data. Furthermore, when transactional replication is used this database also stores information regarding each transaction. It is important to note that replication is not turned on by default in MS SQL Server and that the distribution database is hidden from SSMS. Tempdb DatabaseThe Tempdb as the name implies is used to store temporary data and data objects. Examples of this include temp tables and temp store procedures. It is important to note that when using this database all data and data objects are cleared from this database when SQL Server restarts. This database is also used by SQL Server when it is performing some internal operations. Typically, SQL Server uses this database for the purpose of large sort and index operations. Finally, this database is used to store row versions if row versioning or snapsot isolation transactions are being used by SQL Server. Additionally, I would love to hear from others about their experiences using system databases, tables, and objects in a real world environments.

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• What are the industry metrics for average spend on dev hardware and software? [on hold]

  - by RationalGeek

  I'm trying to budget for my dev shop and compare our budget items to industry expectations. I'm hoping to find some information on what percentage of a dev's salary is generally spent on tooling, both hardware and software. Where can I find such information? If instead there is a source that looks at raw dollars that is useful, too. I can extrapolate what I need from that. NOTE: Your anecdotal evidence from your own job will not be very helpful. I'm looking for industry average statistics from a credible source. EDIT: I'm reluctant to even keep this question going based on the passionate negative responses of commenters, but I do think this is valuable information (assuming anyone will care to answer) so let me make one attempt to clarify why I'm looking for this information, and then leave it at that. I'm not sure why understanding and validating my motives is a necessary step to providing the information, but apparently that is the case, so I will do my best. Firstly, let me respond to the idea that us "management types" shouldn't use these types of metrics to evaluate budgets. I agree in part. Ideally, you should spend whatever is necessary on developers in order to keep them fully happy and productive. And this is true of all employees. However, companies operate in a world of limited resources, and every dollar spent in one area means a dollar not spent in another. So it is not enough to simply say "I need to spend $10,000 per developer next year" without having some way to justify that position. One way to help justify it is to compare yourself against the industry. If it is the case that on average a software shops spends 5% (making up that number) of their total development budget (salaries being the large portion of the other 95%, for arguments sake), and I'm only spending 3%, it helps in the justification process. So, it is not my intent to use this information to limit what I spend on developers, but rather to arm myself with the necessary justification to spend what I need to spend on developers to give them the best tools I can. I have been a developer for many years and I understand the need for proper tooling. Next, let's examine the idea that even considering the relationship between a spend on developer salaries and developer tooling is ludicrous and should be banned from budgetary thinking. As Jimmy Hoffa put it in their comment, it's like saying "I'm going to spend no more than 10% of median employee salary on light bulbs and coffee from now on.". Well, yes, it is like saying that, and from a budgeting perspective, this is a useful way to look at things. If you know that, on average, an employee consumes X dollars of coffee a year, then you can project a coffee budget based on that. And you can compare it to an industry metric to understand where you fall: do you spend more on coffee than other companies or less? Why might this be? If you are a coffee supply manager, that seems like a useful thought process. The same seems to hold true for developers. Now, on to the idea that I need to compare "apples to apples" and only look at other shops that are in the same place geographically, the same business, the same application architecture, and the same development frameworks. I guess if I could find such a statistic that said "a shop that is exactly identical to yours spends X on developer tooling" it would be wonderful. But there is plenty of value in an average statistic. Here's an analogy: let's say you are working on a household budget and need to decide how much to spend on groceries. Is it enough to know that the average consumer spends 15% on groceries and therefore decide that you will budget exactly 15%? No. You have to tweak your budget based on your individual needs and situation. But the generalized statistic does help in this evaluation. You can know if your budget is grossly off from what others are doing, and this can help you figure out why this is. So, I will concede the point that it would be better to find statistics that align to my shop, though I think any statistics I could find would be useful for what I'm doing. In that light, let's say that my shop is mostly focused on ASP.NET web applications. That doesn't map perfectly to reality because large enterprises have very heterogenous IT environments. But if I was going to pick one technology that is our focus that would be it. But, if you were to point me at some statistics that are related to a Linux shop doing embedded Java applications, I would still find it useful as a point of comparison. SUMMARY: Let me try to rephrase my question. I'm trying to find industry metrics on how much dev shops spend on developer tooling, both hardware and software. I don't so much care whether it is expressed as a percentage of total budget or as X dollars per dev or as Y percentage of salary. Any metric would be useful. If there are metrics that are specific to ASP.NET dev shops in the Northeast US, all the better, but I would be happy to find anything.

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• Data Source Security Part 1

  - by Steve Felts

  I’ve written a couple of articles on how to store data source security credentials using the Oracle wallet.  I plan to write a few articles on the various types of security available to WebLogic Server (WLS) data sources.  There are more options than you might think! There have been several enhancements in this area in WLS 10.3.6.  There are a couple of more enhancements planned for release WLS 12.1.2 that I will include here for completeness.  This isn’t intended as a teaser.  If you call your Oracle support person, you can get them now as minor patches to WLS 10.3.6.   The current security documentation is scattered in a few places, has a few incorrect statements, and is missing a few topics.  It also seems that the knowledge of how to apply some of these features isn’t written down.  The goal of these articles is to talk about WLS data source security in a unified way and to introduce some approaches to using the available features.  Introduction to WebLogic Data Source Security Options By default, you define a single database user and password for a data source.  You can store it in the data source descriptor or make use of the Oracle wallet.  This is a very simple and efficient approach to security.  All of the connections in the connection pool are owned by this user and there is no special processing when a connection is given out.  That is, it’s a homogeneous connection pool and any request can get any connection from a security perspective (there are other aspects like affinity).  Regardless of the end user of the application, all connections in the pool use the same security credentials to access the DBMS.   No additional information is needed when you get a connection because it’s all available from the data source descriptor (or wallet). java.sql.Connection conn =  mydatasource.getConnection(); Note: You can enter the password as a name-value pair in the Properties field (this not permitted for production environments) or you can enter it in the Password field of the data source descriptor. The value in the Password field overrides any password value defined in the Properties passed to the JDBC Driver when creating physical database connections. It is recommended that you use the Password attribute in place of the password property in the properties string because the Password value is encrypted in the configuration file (stored as the password-encrypted attribute in the jdbc-driver-params tag in the module file) and is hidden in the administration console.  The Properties and Password fields are located on the administration console Data Source creation wizard or Data Source Configuration tab. The JDBC API can also be used to programmatically specify a database user name and password as in the following.  java.sql.Connection conn = mydatasource.getConnection(“user”, “password”); According to the JDBC specification, it’s supposed to take a database user and associated password but different vendors implement this differently.  WLS, by default, treats this as an application server user and password.  The pair is authenticated to see if it’s a valid user and that user is used for WLS security permission checks.  By default, the user is then mapped to a database user and password using the data source credential mapper, so this API sort of follows the specification but database credentials are one-step removed from the application code.  More details and the rationale are described later. While the default approach is simple, it does mean that only one database user is doing all of the work.  You can’t figure out who actually did the update and you can’t restrict SQL operations by who is running the operation, at least at the database level.   Any type of per-user logic will need to be in the application code instead of having the database do it.  There are various WLS data source features that can be configured to provide some per-user information about the operations to the database. WebLogic Data Source Security Options This table describes the features available for WebLogic data sources to configure database security credentials and a brief description.  It also captures information about the compatibility of these features with one another. Feature Description Can be used with Can’t be used with User authentication (default) Default getConnection(user, password) behavior – validate the input and use the user/password in the descriptor. Set client identifier Proxy Session, Identity pooling, Use database credentials Use database credentials Instead of using the credential mapper, use the supplied user and password directly. Set client identifier, Proxy session, Identity pooling User authentication, Multi Data Source Set Client Identifier Set a client identifier property associated with the connection (Oracle and DB2 only). Everything Proxy Session Set a light-weight proxy user associated with the connection (Oracle-only). Set client identifier, Use database credentials Identity pooling, User authentication Identity pooling Heterogeneous pool of connections owned by specified users. Set client identifier, Use database credentials Proxy session, User authentication, Labeling, Multi-datasource, Active GridLink Note that all of these features are available with both XA and non-XA drivers. Currently, the Proxy Session and Use Database Credentials options are on the Oracle tab of the Data Source Configuration tab of the administration console (even though the Use Database Credentials feature is not just for Oracle databases – oops).  The rest of the features are on the Identity tab of the Data Source Configuration tab in the administration console (plan on seeing them all in one place in the future). The subsequent articles will describe these features in more detail.  Keep referring back to this table to see the big picture.

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• how to run mysql drop and create synonym in shell script

  - by bgrif

  I have added this command to a script I am writing and I am running into a issue with it not logging onto mysql and running the commands. How can i fix this and make it run. #! /bin/bash Subject: Please stage the following TFL09143 Locator Bulletin to all TF90 staging environments: # This next section is to go to mysql server and make changes. you can drop and create synonyms truncate a table and insert into a different one. you will be able to verify the counts to the different locations # $ mysql --host=app03-bsi --u "" --p "" "TF90BPS" -bse "drop synonym TF90.BTXADDR && drop synonym TF90.BTXSUPB && CREATE SYNONYM TF90.BTXADDR FOR TF90BP.TFBPS2.BTXADDR && CREATE SYNONYM TF90.BTXSUPB FOR TF90BP.TFBPS3.BTXSUPB && TRUNCATE TABLE TF90BP.TFBPS3.BTXSUPB SELECT * FROM TF90BP.TFBPS2.BTXSUPB; select count () from TF90BP.TF90.BTXADDR select count() from TF90BPS.TF90.BTXADDR; select count() from TF90BP.TF90.BTXSUPB; select count() from TF90BPS.TF90.BTXSUPB;" $ mysql --host=app03-bsi --u "" --p "" "TF90LMS" -bse "drop synonym TF90.BTXADDR && drop synonym TF90.BTXSUPB && CREATE SYNONYM TF90.BTXADDR FOR TF90LM.TFBPS2.BTXADDR && CREATE SYNONYM TF90.BTXSUPB FOR TF90LM.TFBPS3.BTXSUPB; TRUNCATE TABLE TF90LM.TFLMS2.BTXADDR;TRUNCATE TABLE TF90LM.TFLMS3.BTXSUPB;INSERT INTO TF90LM.TFLMS3.BTXSUPB SELECT * FROM TF90LM.TFLMS2.BTXSUPB;Verify select count() from TF90LM.TF90.BTXADDR;select count() from TF90LMS.TF90.BTXADDR;select count() from TF90LM.TF90.BTXSUPB;select count() from TF90LMS.TF90.BTXSUPB" $ mysql --host=app03-bsi --u "" --p "" "TF90NCS" -bse "drop synonym TF90.BTXADDR && drop synonym TF90.BTXSUPB && CREATE SYNONYM TF90.BTXADDR FOR TF90NC.TFBPS2.BTXADDR && CREATE SYNONYM TF90.BTXSUPB FOR TF90NC.TFBPS3.BTXSUPB; TRUNCATE TABLE TF90NC.TFNCS2.BTXADDR; TRUNCATE TABLE TF90NC.TFNCS3.BTXSUPB; INSERT INTO TF90NC.TFNCS3.BTXSUPB SELECT * FROM TF90NC.TFNCS2.BTXSUPB; Verify select count() from TF90NC.TF90.BTXADDR; select count() from TF90NCS.TF90.BTXADDR;select count() from TF90NC.TF90.BTXSUPB;select count() from TF90NCS.TF90.BTXSUPB" $ mysql --host=app03-bsi --u "" --p "" "TF90PVS" -bse "drop synonym TF90.BTXADDR && drop synonym TF90.BTXSUPB && CREATE SYNONYM TF90.BTXADDR FOR TF90PV.TFBPS2.BTXADDR && CREATE SYNONYM TF90.BTXSUPB FOR TF90PV.TFBPS3.BTXSUPB; TRUNCATE TABLE TF90PV.TFPVS2.BTXADDR;TRUNCATE TABLE TF90PV.TFPVS3.BTXSUPB;INSERT INTO TF90PV.TFPVS3.BTXSUPB SELECT * FROM TF90PV.TFPVS2.BTXSUPB;Verify select count() from TF90PV.TF90.BTXADDR;select count() from TF90PVS.TF90.BTXADDR;select count() from TF90PV.TF90.BTXSUPB;select count() from TF90PVS.TF90.BTXSUPB" TFL09143 Staging cd \ntsrv\common\To\IT-CERT-TEST\TFL09143 #change to mapped network drive cp -p TFL09143.pkg /d:/tf90/code_stg && /tf90bp/code_stg && /tf90lm/code_stg && /tf90pv/code_stg # Copies the package from the networked folder and then copies to the location(s) needed.# InvalidInput="true" if [ $# -eq 0 ] ; then echo "This script sets up TF90 Staging" echo -n "Which production do you want to run? (RB/TaxLocator/Cyclic)" read ProductionDistro else ProductionDistro="$1" fi while [ "$InvalidInput" = "true" ] do if [ "$ProductionDistro" = "RB" -o "$ProductionDistro" = "TaxLocator" -o "$ProductionDistro" = "Cyclic" ] ; then InvalidInput="false" break else echo "You have entered an error" echo "You must type RB or TaxLocator or Cyclic" echo "you typed $ProductionDistro" echo "This script sets up TF90 Staging" read ProductionDistro fi done InvalidInput="true" if [ $# -eq 0 ] ; then echo "This script sets up RB TF90 Staging" echo -n "Which Element do you want to run? (TF90/TF90BP/TF90LM/TF90PV/ALL)" read ElementDistro else ElementDistro="$1" fi while [ "$InvalidInput" = "true" ] do if [ "$ElementDistro" = "TF90" -o "$ElementDistro" = "TF90BP" -o "$ElementDistro" = "TF90LM" -o "$ElementDistro" = "TF90PV" -o "$ElementDistro" = "ALL" ] ; then InvalidInput="false" break else echo "You have entered an error" echo "You must type TF90 or TF90BP or TF90LM or TF90PV" echo "you typed $ElementDistro" echo "This script sets up TF90 Staging" read ElementDistro fi done if [ "$ElementDistro" = "TF90" ] ; then cd /d/tf90/code_stg vim TFL09143.pkg export var=TF90_CONNECT_STRING=DSN=TF90NCS;export Description=TF90NCS;export Trusted_Connection=Yes;export WSID=APP03- BSI;export DATABASE=TF90NCS; export DATASET=DEFAULT pkgintall -l -v ../TFL09143.pkg fi if [ "$ElementDistro" = "$TF90BP" ] ; then cd /d/tf90bp/code_stg vim TFL09143.pkg export TF90_CONNECT_STRING=DSN=TF90BPS;export Description=TF90BPS;export Trusted_Connection=Yes;export WSID=APP03- BSI;export DATABASE=TF90BPS; start tfloader -l –v ../TFL09143.pkg fi if [ "$ElementDistro" = "$TF90LM" ] ; then cd /d/tf90lm/code_stg vim TFL09143.pkg export TF90_CONNECT_STRING=DSN=TF90LMS;export Description=TF90LMS;export Trusted_Connection=Yes;export WSID=APP03- BSI;export DATABASE=TF90LMS; start tfloader -l -v ../TFL09143.pkg fi if [ "$ElementDistro" = "TF90PV" ] ; then cd /d/tf90pv/code_stg vim TFL09143.pkg export TF90_CONNECT_STRING=DSN=TF90PVS;Description=TF90PVS;Trusted_Connection=Yes;WSID=APP03- BSI;DATABASE=TF90PVS; start tfloader -l –v ../TFL09143.pkg fi exit 0

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• Flat File Connection Manager in SSIS package shows "Valid File Name Must be Selected"

  - by Traples

  (Flat File Location) Samba Share | Windows Share (SSIS) _______________________________ | | XP 32bit | Works | Works | | 2003 Serv 32bit | Works | Works | | Vista 64bit | ERROR | Works | | Win 7 64bit | ERROR | Works | | 2008 Serv 64bit | ERROR | Works I created an SSIS package in VS 2008 that parses a flat file from a shared folder and puts the records into a SQL Server db. I recently installed Windows 7 and VS 2008 on a new workstation. When I import the package from TFS and open it, I get the error Validation error. Parse and Import Catalog Flat File: MySSISPackage: The file name "\\shared\flatfile.txt" specified in the connection was not valid. When I open the Flat File Connection Manager Editor, there is an error stating: A valid file name must be selected I can browse to and select the file from inside the editor, but I cannot change any properties, or move away from the General tab because of this error. If I go back to my laptop (Windows XP), where the package was first created, there is no error. Both workstations are on the same domain, and I'm logging in using the same credentials. Any ideas as to why I would receive this error from one workstation and not another? UPDATE: If I take the .dtsx package from the running workstation and load it into SSIS on the server, I get the following errors when it tries to run: Error: The file name "\\shared\flatfile.txt" specified in the connection was not valid. and... Error: Connection "MySSISPackage" failed validation. and... Error: The file name property is not valid. The file name is a device or contains invalid characters. UPDATE 2: a) The Shared folder I'm trying to pull the flat file from is a Samba share on a Unix box. b) If I access the file using SSIS on any 64-bit platform (Windows 7 64-bit, Vista 64-bit, Windows Server 2008) I get the error "A valid file name must be selected." c) Accessing the file using SSIS from 32-bit environments (Windows XP 32-bit, Windows Server 2003 32-bit) there is no problem. d) If I move the file to a shared folder on a Windows server, 64-bit SSIS recognizes the file.

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• Unable to set maxReceivedMessageSize through web.config

  - by Michael Mortensen

  Hello there, I have now investigated the 400 - BadRequest code for the last two hours. A lot of sugestions goes towards ensuring the bindingConfiguration attribute is set correctly, and in my case, it is. Now, I need YOUR help before destroying the building i am in :-) I run a WCF RestFull service (very lightweight, using this resource for inspiration: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd315413.aspx) which (for now) accepts an XmlElement (POX) provided through the POST verb. I am currently ONLY using Fiddler's request builder before implementing a true client (as this is mixed environments). When I do this for XML smaller than 65K, it works fine - larger, it throws this exception: The maximum message size quota for incoming messages (65536) has been exceeded. To increase the quota, use the MaxReceivedMessageSize property on the appropriate binding element. Here is my web.config file (which I even included the client-tag for (desperate times!)): <system.web> <httpRuntime maxRequestLength="1500000" executionTimeout="180"/> </system.web> <system.serviceModel> <diagnostics> <messageLogging logEntireMessage="true" logMalformedMessages="true" logMessagesAtServiceLevel="true" logMessagesAtTransportLevel="true" /> </diagnostics> <bindings> <webHttpBinding> <binding name="WebHttpBinding" maxReceivedMessageSize="1500000" maxBufferPoolSize="1500000" maxBufferSize="1500000" closeTimeout="00:03:00" openTimeout="00:03:00" receiveTimeout="00:10:00" sendTimeout="00:03:00"> <readerQuotas maxStringContentLength="1500000" maxArrayLength="1500000" maxBytesPerRead="1500000" /> <security mode="None"/> </binding> </webHttpBinding> </bindings> <client> <endpoint address="" binding="webHttpBinding" bindingConfiguration="WebHttpBinding" contract="Commerce.ICatalogue"/> </client> <services> <service behaviorConfiguration="ServiceBehavior" name="Catalogue"> <endpoint address="" behaviorConfiguration="RestFull" binding="webHttpBinding" bindingConfiguration="WebHttpBinding" contract="Commerce.ICatalogue" /> <!-- endpoint address="mex" binding="mexHttpBinding" contract="IMetadataExchange" / --> </service> </services> <behaviors> <endpointBehaviors> <behavior name="RestFull"> <webHttp/> </behavior> </endpointBehaviors> <serviceBehaviors> <behavior name="ServiceBehavior"> <serviceDebug httpHelpPageEnabled="true" includeExceptionDetailInFaults="true"/> <serviceMetadata httpGetEnabled="true"/> </behavior> </serviceBehaviors> </behaviors> </system.serviceModel> Thanks in advance for any help leading to succesfull call with 65K XML ;-)

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• ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider and ADAM (or AD LDS) and SetPassword

  - by Iulian

  By the subject line it seems to be a rather broad subject and I need some help here. Basically what I want is to use ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider with an ADAM instance to authenticate users in an ASP.NET web application. My development environment is a windows 7 machine with an AD LDS instance on it whilst the QA server is a Windows 2003 server with an ADAM instance on it. I have all the required users on both instances plus one with adminsitrator role (CN=Admin,CN=xxx,DC=xxx,C=xx) which I want to use as the connection user. Using connectonProtecton="None" connectionUsername="CN=Admin,CN=xxx,DC=xxx,C=xx" connectionPassword="xxx" I am able to authenticate on both environments (dev & qa). If I change to the connectionProtection to "Secure" I am not able to authenticate anymore; the error I get is "Parser Error Message: Unable to establish secure connection with the server" To me it sounds wrong to use connectionProtection="None" although I found on the net a lot of samples using this setting. Can I use connectionProtection="Secure" to connect to an ADAM instance using an account defined on that instance having Administrator role? What other choices do I have (like using an domain account)? What if my machine where I am to deploy the application is not a part of the domain, will this affect in any way the behavior? I am novice in the respect so I would really appreciate some clear answers or some directions as where to look? Now beside the "signing in" feature of the ActiveDirectoryMembershipProvider I also want to add an extra one, which is setting the password without knowing the old one (something that will be used by a "reset password" feature). So I added a couple of extension methods to the provider, and used System.DirectoryServices classes like DirectoryEntry and the like. When creating a directory entry I use the same credentials provided in web.config for the provider minus the AuthenticationType as I don't know what is right combination of the flags that corresponds to None/Secure. I am able to use Invoke "SetPassword" with ADS_OPTION_PASSWORD_METHOD option as ADS_PASSWORD_ENCODE_CLEAR on my dev machine (w/ AD LDS instance); nevertheless on qa environment (w/ ADAM instance) I am getting an error like "Exception Details: System.DirectoryServices.DirectoryServicesCOMException: An operations error occurred. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80072020)" I am quite sure it is not about AD LDS vs ADAM but probably another configuration / permission issue. So can anyone help me with some hints on how to use this SetPassword feature? And as a general question what are the best practices when it comes to using ADAM regarding security, programming etc? Thanks in advance Iulian

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• Rails 3 server won't start in cucumber environment

  - by James

  Hi I'm trying to start my rails 3 app in the same environment that cucumber uses because this is necessary for a particular test. When I try to start the server via rails server -e cucumber I get this error: /home/james/rails-projs/fact/config/environments/cucumber.rb:7: undefined local variable or method `config' for main:Object (NameError) from /home/james/.bundle/ruby/1.8/bundler/gems/rails-16a5e918a06649ffac24fd5873b875daf66212ad-master/activesupport/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:209:in `require' from /home/james/.bundle/ruby/1.8/bundler/gems/rails-16a5e918a06649ffac24fd5873b875daf66212ad-master/activesupport/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:209:in `require' from /home/james/.bundle/ruby/1.8/bundler/gems/rails-16a5e918a06649ffac24fd5873b875daf66212ad-master/activesupport/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:195:in `load_dependency' from /home/james/.bundle/ruby/1.8/bundler/gems/rails-16a5e918a06649ffac24fd5873b875daf66212ad-master/activesupport/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:523:in `new_constants_in' from /home/james/.bundle/ruby/1.8/bundler/gems/rails-16a5e918a06649ffac24fd5873b875daf66212ad-master/activesupport/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:195:in `load_dependency' from /home/james/.bundle/ruby/1.8/bundler/gems/rails-16a5e918a06649ffac24fd5873b875daf66212ad-master/activesupport/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:209:in `require' from /home/james/.bundle/ruby/1.8/bundler/gems/rails-16a5e918a06649ffac24fd5873b875daf66212ad-master/railties/lib/rails/application/bootstrap.rb:10 from /home/james/.bundle/ruby/1.8/bundler/gems/rails-16a5e918a06649ffac24fd5873b875daf66212ad-master/railties/lib/rails/initializable.rb:25:in `instance_exec' from /home/james/.bundle/ruby/1.8/bundler/gems/rails-16a5e918a06649ffac24fd5873b875daf66212ad-master/railties/lib/rails/initializable.rb:25:in `run' from /home/james/.bundle/ruby/1.8/bundler/gems/rails-16a5e918a06649ffac24fd5873b875daf66212ad-master/railties/lib/rails/initializable.rb:55:in `run_initializers' from /home/james/.bundle/ruby/1.8/bundler/gems/rails-16a5e918a06649ffac24fd5873b875daf66212ad-master/railties/lib/rails/initializable.rb:54:in `each' from /home/james/.bundle/ruby/1.8/bundler/gems/rails-16a5e918a06649ffac24fd5873b875daf66212ad-master/railties/lib/rails/initializable.rb:54:in `run_initializers' from /home/james/.bundle/ruby/1.8/bundler/gems/rails-16a5e918a06649ffac24fd5873b875daf66212ad-master/railties/lib/rails/application.rb:109:in `initialize!' from /home/james/.bundle/ruby/1.8/bundler/gems/rails-16a5e918a06649ffac24fd5873b875daf66212ad-master/railties/lib/rails/application.rb:81:in `send' from /home/james/.bundle/ruby/1.8/bundler/gems/rails-16a5e918a06649ffac24fd5873b875daf66212ad-master/railties/lib/rails/application.rb:81:in `method_missing' from /home/james/rails-projs/beta/config/environment.rb:6 from /home/james/.bundle/ruby/1.8/bundler/gems/rails-16a5e918a06649ffac24fd5873b875daf66212ad-master/activesupport/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:209:in `require' from /home/james/.bundle/ruby/1.8/bundler/gems/rails-16a5e918a06649ffac24fd5873b875daf66212ad-master/activesupport/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:209:in `require' from /home/james/.bundle/ruby/1.8/bundler/gems/rails-16a5e918a06649ffac24fd5873b875daf66212ad-master/activesupport/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:195:in `load_dependency' from /home/james/.bundle/ruby/1.8/bundler/gems/rails-16a5e918a06649ffac24fd5873b875daf66212ad-master/activesupport/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:523:in `new_constants_in' from /home/james/.bundle/ruby/1.8/bundler/gems/rails-16a5e918a06649ffac24fd5873b875daf66212ad-master/activesupport/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:195:in `load_dependency' from /home/james/.bundle/ruby/1.8/bundler/gems/rails-16a5e918a06649ffac24fd5873b875daf66212ad-master/activesupport/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:209:in `require' from config.ru:3 from /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rack-1.1.0/lib/rack/builder.rb:46:in `instance_eval' from /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rack-1.1.0/lib/rack/builder.rb:46:in `initialize' from config.ru:1:in `new' from config.ru:1 I'd appreciate any help.

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• How to troubleshoot a 'System.Management.Automation.CmdletInvocationException'

  - by JamesD

  Does anyone know how best to determine the specific underlying cause of this exception? Consider a WCF service that is supposed to use Powershell 2.0 remoting to execute MSBuild on remote machines. In both cases the scripting environments are being called in-process (via C# for Powershell and via Powershell for MSBuild), rather than 'shelling-out' - this was a specific design decision to avoid command-line hell as well as to enable passing actual objects into the Powershell script. The Powershell script that calls MSBuild is shown below: function Run-MSBuild { [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.Build.Engine") $engine = New-Object Microsoft.Build.BuildEngine.Engine $engine.BinPath = "C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5" $project = New-Object Microsoft.Build.BuildEngine.Project($engine, "3.5") $project.Load("deploy.targets") $project.InitialTargets = "DoStuff" # # Set some initial Properties & Items # # Optionally setup some loggers (have also tried it without any loggers) $consoleLogger = New-Object Microsoft.Build.BuildEngine.ConsoleLogger $engine.RegisterLogger($consoleLogger) $fileLogger = New-Object Microsoft.Build.BuildEngine.FileLogger $fileLogger.Parameters = "verbosity=diagnostic" $engine.RegisterLogger($fileLogger) # Run the build - this is the line that throws a CmdletInvocationException $result = $project.Build() $engine.Shutdown() } When running the above script from a PS command prompt it all works fine. However, as soon as the script is executed from C# it fails with the above exception. The C# code being used to call Powershell is shown below (remoting functionality removed for simplicity's sake): // Build the DTO object that will be passed to Powershell dto = SetupDTO() RunspaceConfiguration runspaceConfig = RunspaceConfiguration.Create(); using (Runspace runspace = RunspaceFactory.CreateRunspace(runspaceConfig)) { runspace.Open(); IList errors; using (var scriptInvoker = new RunspaceInvoke(runspace)) { // The Powershell script lives in a file that gets compiled as an embedded resource TextReader tr = new StreamReader(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetManifestResourceStream("MyScriptResource")); string script = tr.ReadToEnd(); // Load the script into the Runspace scriptInvoker.Invoke(script); // Call the function defined in the script, passing the DTO as an input object var psResults = scriptInvoker.Invoke("$input | Run-MSBuild", dto, out errors); } } Assuming that the issue was related to MSBuild outputting something that the Powershell runspace can't cope with, I have also tried the following variations to the second .Invoke() call: var psResults = scriptInvoker.Invoke("$input | Run-MSBuild | Out-String", dto, out errors); var psResults = scriptInvoker.Invoke("$input | Run-MSBuild | Out-Null", dto, out errors); var psResults = scriptInvoker.Invoke("Run-MSBuild | Out-String"); var psResults = scriptInvoker.Invoke("Run-MSBuild | Out-String"); var psResults = scriptInvoker.Invoke("Run-MSBuild | Out-Null"); I've also looked at using a custom PSHost (based on this sample: http://blogs.msdn.com/daiken/archive/2007/06/22/hosting-windows-powershell-sample-code.aspx), but during debugging I was unable to see any 'interesting' calls to it being made. Do the great and the good of Stackoverflow have any insight that might save my sanity?

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• m2eclipse: Eclipse is running in a JRE, but a JDK is required

  - by GernoK

  Hello, I have a problem with m2eclipse (0.10.0) together with eclipse galileo (Build id: 20090920-1017). I always get the error message:"Eclipse is running in a JRE, but a JDK is required". I have tried several things, but nothing works. The error message is still there. Here are the things I have tried: In WindowPreferencesJavaInstalled JREs I checked JDK1.6.0_20. DOES NOT WORK In WindowPreferencesJavaInstalled JREs I removed all JREs. Only the checked JDK1.6.0_20 is still there. DOES NOT WORK In WindowPreferencesJavaInstalled JREsExecution Environments I choosed JavaSE-1.6 and checked JDK1.6.0_20[perfect match]. DOES NOT WORK. In Preferences of the eclipse desktop start icon I added the -vm parameter (C:\Programme\eclipse_galileo\eclipse\eclipse.exe -vm C:\Programme\Java\jdk1.6.0_20\bin). DOES NOT WORK. I added the clean parameter (C:\Programme\eclipse_galileo\eclipse\eclipse.exe -vm C:\Programme\Java\jdk1.6.0_20\bin -clean). DOES NOT WORK. I added the -vm parameter to the eclipse.ini file with a carriage return after -vm and C:/Programme/Java/jdk1.6.0_20/bin/javaw.exe in a new line. DOES NOT WORK. After doing all these things I removed the m2eclipse plugin and installed it once again. DOES NOT WORK. New ideas I have tried: In Preferences of the eclipse desktop start icon I put the executable at the end (C:\Programme\eclipse_galileo\eclipse\eclipse.exe -vm C:\Programme\Java\jdk1.6.0_20\bin\javaw.exe). DOES NOT WORK. I changed in eclipse.ini the slashes to backslashes. DOES NOT WORK. Here is my eclipse.ini file: -startup plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_1.0.201.R35x_v20090715.jar --launcher.library plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.win32.win32.x86_1.0.200.v20090519 -product org.eclipse.epp.package.jee.product --launcher.XXMaxPermSize 256M -showsplash org.eclipse.platform --launcher.XXMaxPermSize 256m -vm C:\Programme\Java\jdk1.6.0_20\bin\javaw.exe -vmargs -Dosgi.requiredJavaVersion=1.5 -Xms40m -Xmx512m Is anyone out there who have other ideas? Any help is appreciated. Thank You very much. GernoK

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• Best programming aids for a quadriplegic programmer

  - by Peter Rowell

  Before you jump to conclusions, yes, this is programming related. It covers a situation that comes under the heading of, "There, but for the grace of God, go you or I." This is brand new territory for me so I'm asking for some serious help here. A young man, Honza Ripa, in a nearby town did the classic Dumb Thing two weeks after graduating from High School -- he dove into shallow water in the Russian River and had a C-4/C-5 break, sometimes called a Swimming Pool break. In a matter of seconds he went from an exceptional golfer and wrestler to a quadriplegic. (Read the story ... all of us should have been so lucky as to have a girlfriend like Brianna.) That was 10 months ago and he has regained only tiny amounts of control of his right index finger and a couple of other hand/foot motions, none of them fine-grained. His total control of his computer (currently running Win7, but we can change that as needed) is via voice command. Honza's not dumb. He had a 3.7 GPA with AP math and physics. The Problems: Since all of his input is via voice command, he is concerned that the predominance of special characters in programming will require vast amount of verbose commands. Does anyone know of any well done voice input system specifically designed for programmers? I'm thinking about something that might be modal--e.g. you say "Python input" and it goes into a macro mode for doing class definitions, etc. Given all of the RSI in programmer-land there's got to be something out there. What OS(es) does it run on? I am planning on teaching him Python, which is my preferred language for programming and teaching. Are there any applications / whatevers that are written in Python and would be a particularly good match for engaging him mentally while supporting his disability? One of his expressed interests is in stock investing, but that not might be a good starting point for a brand-new programmer. There are a lot of environments (Flash, JavaScript, etc) that are not particularly friendly to people with accessibility challenges. I vaguely remember (but cannot find) a research project that basically created an overlay system on top of a screen environment and then allowed macro command construction on top of the screen image. If we can get/train this system, we may be able to remove many hurdles to using the net. I am particularly interested in finding open source Python-based robotics and robotic prostheses projects so that he can simultaneously learn advanced programming concepts while learning to solve some of his own immediate problems. I've done a ton of googling on this, but I know there things I'm missing. I'm asking the SO community to step up to the plate here. I know this group has the answers, so let me hear them! Overwhelm me with the opportunities that any of us might have/need to still program after such a life-changing event.

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• Log4r : logger inheritance, yaml configuration, alternatives ?

  - by devlearn

  Hello, I'm pretty new to ruby environments and I was looking for a nice logging framework to use it my ruby and rails applications. In my previous experiences I have successfully used log4j and log4p (the perl port) and was expecting the same level of usability (and maturity) with log4r. However I must say that there are a number of things that are not clear at all in the log4r framework. 1 Logger Inheritance The logger inheritance does not seem to be managed at all ! If I declare a logger named 'myapp' and then try to get a logger name 'myapp::engine', the lookup will end with a NameError. I would expect that the framework returns the root logger according to the naming scheme and to use the 'myapp' logger. Q1 : Of course I can work around this and manage the names by myself with a lookup method, however is there a cleaner way to do this without any extra coding ? 2 YAML configuration Second thing that confuses me is the yaml configuration. On the log4r site there are literally no information about this system, the doc links forward to missing pages, so all the info I can find about is contained in the examples directory of the gem. I was pretty confused with the fact that the yaml configuration must contain the pre_config section, and that I need to define my own levels. If I remove the pre_config secion, or replace all the “custom” levels by the standard ones ( debug, info, warn, fatal ) , the example will throw the following error : log4r/yamlconfigurator.rb:68:in `decode_yaml': Log level must be in 0..7 (ArgumentError) So there seems to be no way of using a simple file where we only declare the loggers and appenders for the framework. Q2 : I realy think that I missed something and that must be a way of providing a simple yaml conf file. Do you have any examples of such an usage ? 3 Variables substitution in XML file Q3 : The Yaml configuration system seems to provide such a feature however I was unable to find a similar feature with XML files. Any ideas ? 4 Alternatives ? I must say that I'm very disappointed by the feature level and the maturity of log4r compared to the log4j and other log4j ports. I run into this framework with a solid background of logging APIs in other languages and find myself working around in all kinds just to make 'basic things' running in a “real world application”. By that I mean a complex application composed of several gems, console/scripting apps, and a rails web front end where the configuration must be mutualized and where we make intensive usage of namespaces and inheritance. I've run several searches in order to find something more suitable or mature, but did not find anything similar. Q4 : Do you guys know any (serious) alternatives to log4r framework that could be used in a enterprise class app ? Thanks reading all of this ! I'd really appreciate any pointers, Kind Regards,

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• Java web-app debugging not possible due to direct undeploy on debug

  - by Hendrik

  When i try to debug my webapp it starts up the tomcat server and the application, but shuts down the debugger shortly before the app gets usable. I see the debugging toolbar for a second before it vanishes again, though the app keeps running. Tomcat-log: Listening for transport dt_socket at address: 11555 23.03.2010 01:24:35 org.apache.catalina.core.AprLifecycleListener init INFO: The APR based Apache Tomcat Native library which allows optimal performance in production environments was not found on the java.library.path: .:/Library/Java/Extensions:/System/Library/Java/Extensions:/usr/lib/java 23.03.2010 01:24:35 org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol init INFO: Initializing Coyote HTTP/1.1 on http-8084 23.03.2010 01:24:35 org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina load INFO: Initialization processed in 847 ms 23.03.2010 01:24:35 org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService start INFO: Starting service Catalina 23.03.2010 01:24:35 org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine start INFO: Starting Servlet Engine: Apache Tomcat/6.0.20 log4j:WARN No appenders could be found for logger (org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader). log4j:WARN Please initialize the log4j system properly. 23.03.2010 01:24:41 org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol start INFO: Starting Coyote HTTP/1.1 on http-8084 23.03.2010 01:24:41 org.apache.jk.common.ChannelSocket init INFO: JK: ajp13 listening on /0.0.0.0:8009 23.03.2010 01:24:41 org.apache.jk.server.JkMain start INFO: Jk running ID=0 time=0/78 config=null 23.03.2010 01:24:41 org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina start INFO: Server startup in 5855 ms 23.03.2010 01:24:42 org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig checkResources INFO: Undeploying context [] 23.03.2010 01:24:45 org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext start INFO: Container org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.[Catalina].[localhost].[/] has already been started Debugging log: Attached JPDA debugger to localhost:11555 Checking data source definitions for missing JDBC drivers... Deploying JDBC driver to /Applications/NetBeans/apache-tomcat-6.0.20/lib/mysql-connector-java-5.1.6-bin.jar Stopping Tomcat process... Waiting for Tomcat... Tomcat server stopped. Starting Tomcat process... Waiting for Tomcat... Tomcat server started. Undeploying ... OK - Undeployed application at context path / In-place deployment at /path/to/project/dir/build/web deploy?config=file%3A%2Fvar%2Ffolders%2FZP%2FZPbqxGrbHFaUlXzAfgWV1%2B%2B%2B%2BTQ%2F-Tmp-%2Fcontext734173871283203218.xml&path=/ OK - Deployed application at context path / start?path=/ Start is in progress... OK - Started application at context path / debug-display-browser: Browsing: http://localhost:8084/ connect-client-debugger: BUILD SUCCESSFUL (total time: 18 seconds) System is Netbeans 6.8 on MacOS 10.6.2. Thank you very much, guys!

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