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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Friday, June 10, 2011

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Friday, June 10, 2011Popular ReleasesZen4Sync, Orchestration and Test Load platform for SQL Server Merge Replication: Zen4Sync Report 1.0 - Excel Add-In: Zen4Sync Report is an Excel Add-In allowing you to generate reports based on the data generated by your Test Sessions. Choose a Zen4Sync Report release according to your version of Excel. The downloaded .zip archive contains all the resources needed to install the Zen4Sync Report Add-In for your version of Excel. For instrunctions on how to install, use and customize Zen4Sync Report, please see the Zen4Sync Report Guide.Candescent NUI: Candescent NUI Start Menu: This is the first version of the Candescent NUI Start Menu. There is currently only one item in the start menu by default (Windows Explorer). There is no user interface for configuration yet, but you can add programs yourself by adding lines to the file menu_config.csv. Please don't change the first line. Lines for programs have the following format: Name;Path Default Explorer;c:\windows\explorer.exe MyApp;c:\...\myapp.exe To show the menu, present your open hand to the kinect at a distan...Media Companion: MC 3.406b weekly: An minor issue was found with 3.406b, the fixed version is now posted.... Extract the entire archive to a folder which has user access rights, eg desktop, documents etc. Refer to the documentation on this site for the Installation & Setup Guide Important! If you find MC not displaying movie data properly, please try a 'movie rebuild' to reload the data from the nfo's into MC's cache. Fixes Movies Readded movie preference to rename invalid or scene nfo's to info extension Fix crash during ...SCCM Client Actions Tool: SCCM Client Actions Tool v0.5.1: SCCM Client Actions Tool v0.5.1 is currently the most stable version and includes all of the functionality requested so far. It comes with following changes since last version: Fixed an incorrect path to x64 client setup folder. It comes as a ZIP file that contains three files: ClientActionsTool.hta – The tool itself. Cmdkey.exe – command line tool for managing cached credentials. This is needed for alternate credentials feature when running the HTA on Windows XP. Cmdkey.exe is natively a...Windows Azure VM Assistant: AzureVMAssist V1.0.0.5: AzureVMAssist V1.0.0.5 (Debug) - Test Release VersionSizeOnDisk: 1.8.0.3: Fix (issue 317): Main window icon loading error on windows server 2003 32bit runing on x86 cpu. Bypass of the Microsoft windows comexception.SketchFlow Template for Windows Phone: SketchFlow Template for Windows Phone 7: Initial release. Please make sure you are using a version of Blend with SketchFlow enabled and have also installed the the Mango developer tools for Windows Phone. fastJSON: v1.8: - Silverlight 4.0+ support merged - RegisterCustomType() for user defined serialization/deserialization without changing the source code open closed principalNetOffice - The easiest way to use Office in .NET: NetOffice Release 0.9: Changes: - fix examples (include issue 16026) - add new examples - 32Bit/64Bit Walkthrough is now available in technical Documentation. Includes: - Runtime Binaries and Source Code for .NET Framework:......v2.0, v3.0, v3.5, v4.0 - Tutorials in C# and VB.Net:..............................................................COM Proxy Management, Events, etc. - Examples in C# and VB.Net:............................................................Excel, Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, Access - COMAddi...Reusable Library: V1.1.3: A collection of reusable abstractions for enterprise application developerClosedXML - The easy way to OpenXML: ClosedXML 0.54.0: New on this release: 1) Mayor performance improvements. 2) AdjustToContents now take into account the text rotation. 3) Fixed issues 6782, 6784, 6788HTML-IDEx: HTML-IDEx .15 ALPHA: This release fixes line counting a little bit and adds the masshighlight() sub, which highlights pasted and inserted code.AutoLoL: AutoLoL v2.0.3: - Improved summoner spells are now displayed - Fixed some of the startup errors people got - Double clicking an item selects it - Some usability changes that make using AutoLoL just a little easier - Bug fixes AutoLoL v2 is not an update, but an entirely new version! Please install to a different directory than AutoLoL v1Host Profiles: Host Profiles 1.0: Host Profiles 1.0 Release Quickly modify host file Automatically flush dnsVidCoder: 0.9.2: Updated to HandBrake 4024svn. This fixes problems with mpeg2 sources: corrupted previews, incorrect progress indicators and encodes that incorrectly report as failed. Fixed a problem that prevented target sizes above 2048 MB.SharePoint Search XSL Samples: SharePoint 2010 Samples: I have updated some of the samples from the 2007 release. These all work in SharePoint 2010. I removed the Pivot on File Extension because SharePoint 2010 search has refiners that perform the same function.AcDown????? - Anime&Comic Downloader: AcDown????? v3.0 Beta5: ??AcDown?????????????，??????????????，????、????。?????Acfun????? ????32??64? Windows XP/Vista/7 ????????????? ??：????????Windows XP???,?????????.NET Framework 2.0???(x86)?.NET Framework 2.0???(x64)，?????"?????????"??? ??v3.0 Beta5 ?????????? ???? ?? ???????? ???"????????"?? ????????????? ????????/???? ?? ???"????"??? ?? ??????????? ?? ?? ??????????? ?? ?????????????????? ??????????????????? ???????????????? ????????????Discussions???????? ????AcDown??????????????VFPX: GoFish 4 Beta 1: Current beta is Build 144 (released 2011-06-07 ) See the GoFish4 info page for details and video link: http://vfpx.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=GoFishSterling NoSQL OODB for .NET 4.0, Silverlight 4 and 5, and Windows Phone 7: Sterling OODB v1.5: Welcome to the Sterling 1.5 RTM. This version is backwards compatible without modification to the 1.4 beta. For the 1.0, you will need to upgrade your database. Please see this discussion for details. You must modify your 1.0 code for persistence. The 1.5 version defaults to an in-memory driver. To save to isolated storage or use one of the new mechanisms, see the available drivers and pass an instance of the appropriate one to your database (different databases may use different drivers). ...patterns & practices: Project Silk: Project Silk Community Drop 10 - June 3, 2011: Changes from previous drop: Many code changes: please see the readme.mht for details. New "Application Notifications" chapter. Updated "Server-Side Implementation" chapter. Guidance Chapters Ready for Review The Word documents for the chapters are included with the source code in addition to the CHM to help you provide feedback. The PDF is provided as a separate download for your convenience. Installation Overview To install and run the reference implementation, you must perform the fol...New ProjectsAngry Apps: A game platform written on top of XNA Game Studio. The purpose of this project is to project a vanilla type Game project which can be used in many types of games.BLooD_ICQ: bloodicqCloud Fox: Cloud Fox is a Windows Phone application that allows you to view your Firefox Sync data on your mobile phone. It is similar to Firefox Home for iPhone. The current version will target phones running NoDo, but future versions will eventually require Mango. The application is developed in C# using Silverlight, Json.Net, Mvvm Light and Ninject.Configuration files Merger: This program is to help to merge different config files(environmental difference) and common config file into a single web.config/app.config. CRM 2011 Plugin Utilities: This project contains utilities from CRM 2011 plugins. Genera/calculate full name of a custom entity given the first, last and middle name.CUDA driver API: Making the CUDA driver API as simple to use as the runtime API. Almost.DBXMLTransfer: Command line application that: 1) extracts xml returned by a stored procedure to a file and 2) passes xml contained in a file to a stored procedure (which can use it for inserts & updates for example)Dot Generator: This is a project I did to generate numbers using the number of the dots in the number it self to get a visual representation of how big larg numbers areDRYlib.Net: DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself) -- or, in other words, code-reuse -- makes me create this Class Library so I don't have to keep creating the same code here and there. Feel free to use these snippets. I'm releasing them under a permissive license (Apache Public License 2.0). The DRYlib is created using Visual BASIC 2010 Express. What you can find in this DRYlib include, but not limited to: * CRC Hash algorithms * Simple, high-performance Integer extensions * Simple, oft-used Stri...DW.Configurations: DW.Configurations - Enables an easy handling of application settings Please see www.my.libraries.de for more information and documentation.DW.Game.MauMau: Its a MauMau game with the possibility to define all rules DW.Game.Sudoku: It's just a Sudoku gameDW.Interactivity: DW.Interactivity - Brings additional functionalities to WPF controls Please see www.my.libraries.de for more information and documentation.DW.Logging: DW.Logging - Supports an easy working with log files Please see www.my.libraries.de for more information and documentation.DW.Services: DW.Services - Brings standard services Please see www.my.libraries.de for more information and documentation.DW.SharpTools: DW.SharpTools - Brings additional possibilities to C# Please see www.my.libraries.de for more information and documentation.DW.UnitTests: DW.UnitTests - Gives some objects for easy UnitTests Please see www.my.libraries.de for more information and documentation.DW.WPFDev: DW.WPFDev - Some useful objects for developing custom controls and behaviors Please see www.my.libraries.de for more information and documentation.DW.WPFToolkit: DW.WPFToolkit - A custom controls library Please see www.my.libraries.de for more information and documentation.Elucidate: A GUI to drive the SnapRAID command line (All supported platforms): Definition: explain in detail Synonyms: annotate, clarify, clear, clear up, decode, demonstrate, enlighten, exemplify, explicate, expound, get across, illuminate, illustrate, interpret, make perfectly clear This will take on the task of creating a SnapRAID GUI to drive it's command line options, but give a little help and clarification (And logging) to guide the novice user.FixWordProperties for Office 2003, 2007 and 2010: Ken Getz originally wrote the FixWordProperties I believe in 2006. I had a a few extra requirements like the ability to unlock locked files, without passwords, using the office interop model, instead of word and a few more things that I needed in the winter of 2007.Information System Alumni Community: Here is our Internet Programming project. This site help alumni to always keep interact with their friends through this site.They can track his friend name, city, occupation and then interact with them to (whoa..like Social Network right!!).Go check this out int main code samples: Repository for all demos/samples posted at http://blog.r2d2rigo.es/english/LarX - XNA Game Engine: LarX is an XNA Game Engine, 2D and 3D, that uses SunBurn for Rendering, sgMotion for animations, and BEPU for Physics. It enables developers to write quicly AAA games.Membership, Role and Profile Providers for develop, debug, test: These ASP.NET providers for Membership, Roles and Profiles are valuable during development, debugging and testing due to the ease of creating, removing and changing users, user roles, etc. Music search engine: Ilovethismusic.com lets you listen & download music based on your mood, weather, or any type of expression you can think of. Just press Play.NicolasLight: This is for business projectOlympic.Magazine: sport supplements e-shop projectProject Obscura: Project Obscura is a game about to be in development by a group of friends, more data soon...RegularExpressionTest: .SalesManagementSystem: SalesManagementSystemShoozla: Very simple and powerful tool to search for missing covers. It finds album covers automatically and periodically. It uses LASTFM web service (website registration needed). WPF Application developed in C# following a MVVM design pattern.Silverlight Mind Map demo: A Mind Map control library and sample application created in Silveright. Although the library can be useful by itself, the main goal of this project is to server as a demo and reference application for Wiki that shows different Silverlight testing techniques. SketchFlow Template for Windows Phone: The SketchFlow Template for Windows Phone adds a new SketchFlow template for Expression Blend users, making it fast and easy to prototype Windows Phone applications.Smart Blog: Smart Blog ????，??ASP.NET??，?????Entity Framework、MVC 3.0(razor)、WCF???。???????SqlCE?????，????????，????、??。 SQLiteManager (sys_27): SQLiteManager makes for manage SQLite Database. It's developed in C#. (WPF and use MVVM-patern)testing access to TFS: This is a just a trivial set of test files to learn about TFS. I am testing each step of this process and will try to document it for others. Maybe this is obvious to others, but I am still learning TFS.TFS NuGetter: NuGetter is a TFS 2010 Build Activity designed to provide packaging and deployment management to projects destined for a NuGet Gallery.

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• Project Management Helps AmeriCares Deliver International Aid

  - by Sylvie MacKenzie, PMP

  Excerpt from PROFIT - ORACLE - by Alison Weiss Handle with Care Sound project management helps AmeriCares bring international aid to those in need. The stakes are always high for AmeriCares. On a mission to restore health and save lives during times of disaster, the nonprofit international relief and humanitarian aid organization delivers donated medicines, medical supplies, and humanitarian aid to people in the U.S. and around the globe. Founded in 1982 with the express mission of responding as quickly and efficiently as possible to help people in need, the Stamford, Connecticut-based AmeriCares has delivered more than US$10.5 billion in aid to 147 countries over the past three decades. Launch the Slideshow “It’s critically important to us that we steward all the donations and that the medical supplies and medicines get to people as quickly as possible with no loss,” says Kate Sears, senior vice president for finance and technology at AmeriCares. “Whether we’re shipping IV solutions to victims of cholera in Haiti or antibiotics to Somali famine victims, we need to get the medicines there sooner because it means more people will be helped and lives improved or even saved.” Ten years ago, the tracking systems used by AmeriCares associates were paper-based. In recent years, staff started using spreadsheets, but the tracking processes were not standardized between teams. “Every team was tracking completely different information,” says Megan McDermott, senior associate, Sub-Saharan Africa partnerships, at AmeriCares. “It was just a few key things. For example, we tracked the date a shipment was supposed to arrive and the date we got reports from our partner that a hospital received aid on their end.” While the data was accurate, much detail was being lost in the process. AmeriCares management knew it could do a better job of tracking this enterprise data and in 2011 took a significant step by implementing Oracle’s Primavera P6 Professional Project Management. “It’s a comprehensive solution that has helped us improve the monitoring and controlling processes. It has allowed us to do our distribution better,” says Sears. In addition, the implementation effort has been a change agent, helping AmeriCares leadership rethink project management across the entire organization. Initially, much of the focus was on standardizing processes, but staff members also learned the importance of thinking proactively to prevent possible problems and evaluating results to determine if goals and objectives are truly being met. Such data about process efficiency and overall results is critical not only to AmeriCares staff but also to the donors supporting the organization’s life-saving missions. Efficiency Saves Lives One of AmeriCares’ core operations is to gather product donations from the private sector, establish where the most-urgent needs are, and solicit monetary support to send the aid via ocean cargo or airlift to welfare- and health-oriented nongovernmental organizations, hospitals, health networks, and government ministries based in areas in need. In 2011 alone, AmeriCares sent more than 3,500 shipments to 95 countries in response to both ongoing humanitarian needs and more than two dozen emergencies, including deadly tornadoes and storms in the U.S. and the devastating tsunami in Japan. When it comes to nonprofits in general, donors want to know that the charitable organizations they support are using funds wisely. Typically, nonprofits are evaluated by donors in terms of efficiency, an area where AmeriCares has an excellent reputation: 98 percent of expenses go directly to supporting programs and less than 2 percent represent administrative and fundraising costs. Donors, however, should look at more than simple efficiency, says Peter York, senior partner and chief research and learning officer at TCC Group, a nonprofit consultancy headquartered in New York, New York. They should also look at whether organizations have the systems in place to sustain their missions and continue to thrive. An expert on nonprofit organizational management, York has spent years studying sustainable charitable organizations. He defines them as nonprofits that are able to achieve the ongoing financial support to stay relevant and continue doing core mission work. In his analysis of well over 2,500 larger nonprofits, York has found that many are not sustaining, and are actually scaling back in size. “One of the biggest challenges of nonprofit sustainability is the general public’s perception that every dollar donated has to go only to the delivery of service,” says York. “What our data shows is that there are some fundamental capacities that have to be there in order for organizations to sustain and grow.” York’s research highlights the importance of data-driven leadership at successful nonprofits. “You’ve got to have the tools, the systems, and the technologies to get objective information on what you do, the people you serve, and the results you’re achieving,” says York. “If leaders don’t have the knowledge and the data, they can’t make the strategic decisions about programs to take organizations to the next level.” Historically, AmeriCares associates have used time-tested and cost-effective strategies to ship and then track supplies from donation to delivery to their destinations in designated time frames. When disaster strikes, AmeriCares ships by air and generally pulls out all the stops to deliver the most urgently needed aid within the first few days and weeks. Then, as situations stabilize, AmeriCares turns to delivering sea containers for the postemergency and ongoing aid so often needed over the long term. According to McDermott, getting a shipment out the door is fairly complicated, requiring as many as five different AmeriCares teams collaborating together. The entire process can take months—from when products are received in the warehouse and deciding which recipients to allocate supplies to, to getting customs and governmental approvals in place, actually shipping products, and finally ensuring that the products are received in-country. Delivering that aid is no small affair. “Our volume exceeds half a billion dollars a year worth of donated medicines and medical supplies, so it’s a sizable logistical operation to bring these products in and get them out to the right place quickly to have the most impact,” says Sears. “We really pride ourselves on our controls and efficiencies.” Adding to that complexity is the fact that the longer it takes to deliver aid, the more dire the human need can be. Any time AmeriCares associates can shave off the complicated aid delivery process can translate into lives saved. “It’s really being able to track information consistently that will help us to see where are the bottlenecks and where can we work on improving our processes,” says McDermott. Setting a Standard Productivity and information management improvements were key objectives for AmeriCares when staff began the process of implementing Oracle’s Primavera solution. But before configuring the software, the staff needed to take the time to analyze the systems already in place. According to Greg Loop, manager of database systems at AmeriCares, the organization received guidance from several consultants, including Rich D’Addario, consulting project manager in the Primavera Global Business Unit at Oracle, who was instrumental in shepherding the critical requirements-gathering phase. D’Addario encouraged staff to begin documenting shipping processes by considering the order in which activities occur and which ones are dependent on others to get accomplished. This exercise helped everyone realize that to be more efficient, they needed to keep track of shipments in a more standard way. “The staff didn’t recognize formal project management methodology,” says D’Addario. “But they did understand what the most important things are and that if they go wrong, an entire project can go off course.” Before, if a boatload of supplies was being sent to Haiti and there was a problem somewhere, a lot of time was taken up finding out where the problem was—because staff was not tracking things in a standard way. As a result, even more time was needed to find possible solutions to the problem and alert recipients that the aid might be delayed. “For everyone to put on the project manager hat and standardize the way every single thing is done means that now the whole organization is on the same page as to what needs to occur from the time a hurricane hits Haiti and when a boat pulls in to unload supplies,” says D’Addario. With so much care taken to put a process foundation firmly in place, configuring the Primavera solution was actually quite simple. Specific templates were set up for different types of shipments, and dashboards were implemented to provide executives with clear overviews of every project in the system. AmeriCares’ Loop reports that system planning, refining, and testing, followed by writing up documentation and training, took approximately four months. The system went live in spring 2011 at AmeriCares’ Connecticut headquarters. While the nonprofit has an international presence, with warehouses in Europe and offices in Haiti, India, Japan, and Sri Lanka, most donated medicines come from U.S. entities and are shipped from the U.S. out to the rest of the world. In addition, all shipments are tracked from the U.S. office. AmeriCares doesn’t expect the Primavera system to take months off the shipping time, especially for sea containers. However, any time saved is still important because it will allow aid to be delivered to people more quickly at a lower overall cost. “If we can trim a day or two here or there, that can translate into lives that we’re saving, especially in emergency situations,” says Sears. A Cultural Change Beyond the measurable benefits that come with IT-driven process improvement, AmeriCares management is seeing a change in culture as a result of the Primavera project. One change has been treating every shipment of aid as a project, and everyone involved with facilitating shipments as a project manager. “This is a revolutionary concept for us,” says McDermott. “Before, we were used to thinking we were doing logistics—getting a container from point A to point B without looking at it as one project and really understanding what it meant to manage it.” AmeriCares staff is also happy to report that collaboration within the organization is much more efficient. When someone creates a shipment in the Primavera system, the same shared template is used, which means anyone can log in to the system to see the status of a shipment. Knowledgeable staff can access a shipment project to help troubleshoot a problem. Management can easily check the status of projects across the organization. “Dashboards are really useful,” says McDermott. “Instead of going into the details of each project, you can just see the high-level real-time information at a glance.” The new system is helping team members focus on proactively managing shipments rather than simply reacting when problems occur. For example, when a container is shipped, documents must be included for customs clearance. Now, the shipping template has built-in reminders to prompt team members to ask for copies of these documents from freight forwarders and to follow up with partners to discover if a shipment is on time. In the past, staff may not have worked on securing these documents until they’d been notified a shipment had arrived in-country. Another benefit of capturing and adopting best practices within the Primavera system is that staff training is easier. “Capturing the processes in documented steps and milestones allows us to teach new staff members how to do their jobs faster,” says Sears. “It provides them with the knowledge of their predecessors so they don’t have to keep reinventing the wheel.” With the Primavera system already generating positive results, management is eager to take advantage of advanced capabilities. Loop is working on integrating the company’s proprietary inventory management system with the Primavera system so that when logistics or warehousing operators input data, the information will automatically go into the Primavera system. In the past, this information had to be manually keyed into spreadsheets, often leading to errors. Mining Historical Data Another feature on the horizon for AmeriCares is utilizing Primavera P6 Professional Project Management reporting capabilities. As the system begins to include more historical data, management soon will be able to draw on this information to conduct analysis that has not been possible before and create customized reports. For example, at the beginning of the shipment process, staff will be able to use historical data to more accurately estimate how long the approval process should take for a particular country. This could help ensure that food and medicine with limited shelf lives do not get stuck in customs or used beyond their expiration dates. The historical data in the Primavera system will also help AmeriCares with better planning year to year. The nonprofit’s staff has always put together a plan at the beginning of the year, but this has been very challenging simply because it is impossible to predict disasters. Now, management will be able to look at historical data and see trends and statistics as they set current objectives and prepare for future need. In addition, this historical data will provide AmeriCares management with the ability to review year-end data and compare actual project results with goals set at the beginning of the year—to see if desired outcomes were achieved and if there are areas that need improvement. It’s this type of information that is so valuable to donors. And, according to York, project management software can play a critical role in generating the data to help nonprofits sustain and grow. “It is important to invest in systems to help replicate, expand, and deliver services,” says York. “Project management software can help because it encourages nonprofits to examine program or service changes and how to manage moving forward.” Sears believes that AmeriCares donors will support the return on investment the organization will achieve with the Primavera solution. “It won’t be financial returns, but rather how many more people we can help for a given dollar or how much more quickly we can respond to a need,” says Sears. “I think donors are receptive to such arguments.” And for AmeriCares, it is all about the future and increasing results. The project management environment currently may be quite simple, but IT staff plans to expand the complexity and functionality as the organization grows in its knowledge of project management and the goals it wants to achieve. “As we use the system over time, we’ll continue to refine our best practices and accumulate more data,” says Sears. “It will advance our ability to make better data-driven decisions.”

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• SQL SERVER – Shrinking NDF and MDF Files – Readers’ Opinion

  - by pinaldave

  Previously, I had written a blog post about SQL SERVER – Shrinking NDF and MDF Files – A Safe Operation. After that, I have written the following blog post that talks about the advantage and disadvantage of Shrinking and why one should not be Shrinking a file SQL SERVER – SHRINKFILE and TRUNCATE Log File in SQL Server 2008. On this subject, SQL Server Expert Imran Mohammed left an excellent comment. I just feel that his comment is worth a big article itself. For everybody to read his wonderful explanation, I am posting this blog post here. Thanks Imran! Shrinking Database always creates performance degradation and increases fragmentation in the database. I suggest that you keep that in mind before you start reading the following comment. If you are going to say Shrinking Database is bad and evil, here I am saying it first and loud. Now, the comment of Imran is written while keeping in mind only the process showing how the Shrinking Database Operation works. Imran has already explained his understanding and requests further explanation. I have removed the Best Practices section from Imran’s comments, as there are a few corrections. Comments from Imran - Before I explain to you the concept of Shrink Database, let us understand the concept of Database Files. When we create a new database inside the SQL Server, it is typical that SQl Server creates two physical files in the Operating System: one with .MDF Extension, and another with .LDF Extension. .MDF is called as Primary Data File. .LDF is called as Transactional Log file. If you add one or more data files to a database, the physical file that will be created in the Operating System will have an extension of .NDF, which is called as Secondary Data File; whereas, when you add one or more log files to a database, the physical file that will be created in the Operating System will have the same extension as .LDF. The questions now are, “Why does a new data file have a different extension (.NDF)?”, “Why is it called as a secondary data file?” and, “Why is .MDF file called as a primary data file?” Answers: Note: The following explanation is based on my limited knowledge of SQL Server, so experts please do comment. A data file with a .MDF extension is called a Primary Data File, and the reason behind it is that it contains Database Catalogs. Catalogs mean Meta Data. Meta Data is “Data about Data”. An example for Meta Data includes system objects that store information about other objects, except the data stored by the users. sysobjects stores information about all objects in that database. sysindexes stores information about all indexes and rows of every table in that database. syscolumns stores information about all columns that each table has in that database. sysusers stores how many users that database has. Although Meta Data stores information about other objects, it is not the transactional data that a user enters; rather, it’s a system data about the data. Because Primary Data File (.MDF) contains important information about the database, it is treated as a special file. It is given the name Primary Data file because it contains the Database Catalogs. This file is present in the Primary File Group. You can always create additional objects (Tables, indexes etc.) in the Primary data file (This file is present in the Primary File group), by mentioning that you want to create this object under the Primary File Group. Any additional data file that you add to the database will have only transactional data but no Meta Data, so that’s why it is called as the Secondary Data File. It is given the extension name .NDF so that the user can easily identify whether a specific data file is a Primary Data File or a Secondary Data File(s). There are many advantages of storing data in different files that are under different file groups. You can put your read only in the tables in one file (file group) and read-write tables in another file (file group) and take a backup of only the file group that has read the write data, so that you can avoid taking the backup of a read-only data that cannot be altered. Creating additional files in different physical hard disks also improves I/O performance. A real-time scenario where we use Files could be this one: Let’s say you have created a database called MYDB in the D-Drive which has a 50 GB space. You also have 1 Database File (.MDF) and 1 Log File on D-Drive and suppose that all of that 50 GB space has been used up and you do not have any free space left but you still want to add an additional space to the database. One easy option would be to add one more physical hard disk to the server, add new data file to MYDB database and create this new data file in a new hard disk then move some of the objects from one file to another, and put the file group under which you added new file as default File group, so that any new object that is created gets into the new files, unless specified. Now that we got a basic idea of what data files are, what type of data they store and why they are named the way they are, let’s move on to the next topic, Shrinking. First of all, I disagree with the Microsoft terminology for naming this feature as “Shrinking”. Shrinking, in regular terms, means to reduce the size of a file by means of compressing it. BUT in SQL Server, Shrinking DOES NOT mean compressing. Shrinking in SQL Server means to remove an empty space from database files and release the empty space either to the Operating System or to SQL Server. Let’s examine this through an example. Let’s say you have a database “MYDB” with a size of 50 GB that has a free space of about 20 GB, which means 30GB in the database is filled with data and the 20 GB of space is free in the database because it is not currently utilized by the SQL Server (Database); it is reserved and not yet in use. If you choose to shrink the database and to release an empty space to Operating System, and MIND YOU, you can only shrink the database size to 30 GB (in our example). You cannot shrink the database to a size less than what is filled with data. So, if you have a database that is full and has no empty space in the data file and log file (you don’t have an extra disk space to set Auto growth option ON), YOU CANNOT issue the SHRINK Database/File command, because of two reasons: There is no empty space to be released because the Shrink command does not compress the database; it only removes the empty space from the database files and there is no empty space. Remember, the Shrink command is a logged operation. When we perform the Shrink operation, this information is logged in the log file. If there is no empty space in the log file, SQL Server cannot write to the log file and you cannot shrink a database. Now answering your questions: (1) Q: What are the USEDPAGES & ESTIMATEDPAGES that appear on the Results Pane after using the DBCC SHRINKDATABASE (NorthWind, 10) ? A: According to Books Online (For SQL Server 2000): UsedPages: the number of 8-KB pages currently used by the file. EstimatedPages: the number of 8-KB pages that SQL Server estimates the file could be shrunk down to. Important Note: Before asking any question, make sure you go through Books Online or search on the Google once. The reasons for doing so have many advantages: 1. If someone else already has had this question before, chances that it is already answered are more than 50 %. 2. This reduces your waiting time for the answer. (2) Q: What is the difference between Shrinking the Database using DBCC command like the one above & shrinking it from the Enterprise Manager Console by Right-Clicking the database, going to TASKS & then selecting SHRINK Option, on a SQL Server 2000 environment? A: As far as my knowledge goes, there is no difference, both will work the same way, one advantage of using this command from query analyzer is, your console won’t be freezed. You can do perform your regular activities using Enterprise Manager. (3) Q: What is this .NDF file that is discussed above? I have never heard of it. What is it used for? Is it used by end-users, DBAs or the SERVER/SYSTEM itself? A: .NDF File is a secondary data file. You never heard of it because when database is created, SQL Server creates database by default with only 1 data file (.MDF) and 1 log file (.LDF) or however your model database has been setup, because a model database is a template used every time you create a new database using the CREATE DATABASE Command. Unless you have added an extra data file, you will not see it. This file is used by the SQL Server to store data which are saved by the users. Hope this information helps. I would like to as the experts to please comment if what I understand is not what the Microsoft guys meant. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Readers Contribution, Readers Question, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• IIS 7 Authentication: Certain users can't authenticate, while almost all others can.

  - by user35335

  I'm using IIS 7 Digest authentication to control access to a certain directory containing files. Users access the files through a department website from inside our network and outside. I've set NTFS permissions on the directory to allow a certain AD group to view the files. When I click a link to one of those files on the website I get prompted for a username and password. With most users everything works fine, but with a few of them it prompts for a password 3 times and then get: 401 - Unauthorized: Access is denied due to invalid credentials. But other users that are in the group can get in without a problem. If I switch it over to Windows Authentication, then the trouble users can log in fine. That directory is also shared, and users that can't log in through the website are able to browse to the share and view files in it, so I know that the permissions are ok. Here's the portion of the IIS log where I tried to download the file (/assets/files/secure/WWGNL.pdf): 2010-02-19 19:47:20 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx GET /assets/images/bullet.gif - 80 - 10.5.16.138 Mozilla/5.0+(Windows;+U;+Windows+NT+6.1;+en-US)+AppleWebKit/532.5+(KHTML,+like+Gecko)+Chrome/4.0.249.89+Safari/532.5 200 0 0 218 2010-02-19 19:47:20 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx GET /assets/images/bgOFF.gif - 80 - 10.5.16.138 Mozilla/5.0+(Windows;+U;+Windows+NT+6.1;+en-US)+AppleWebKit/532.5+(KHTML,+like+Gecko)+Chrome/4.0.249.89+Safari/532.5 200 0 0 218 2010-02-19 19:47:21 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx GET /assets/files/secure/WWGNL.pdf - 80 - 10.5.16.138 Mozilla/5.0+(Windows;+U;+Windows+NT+6.1;+en-US)+AppleWebKit/532.5+(KHTML,+like+Gecko)+Chrome/4.0.249.89+Safari/532.5 401 2 5 0 2010-02-19 19:47:36 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx GET /assets/files/secure/WWGNL.pdf - 80 - 10.5.16.138 Mozilla/5.0+(Windows;+U;+Windows+NT+6.1;+en-US)+AppleWebKit/532.5+(KHTML,+like+Gecko)+Chrome/4.0.249.89+Safari/532.5 401 1 2148074252 0 2010-02-19 19:47:43 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx GET /assets/files/secure/WWGNL.pdf - 80 - 10.5.16.138 Mozilla/5.0+(Windows;+U;+Windows+NT+6.1;+en-US)+AppleWebKit/532.5+(KHTML,+like+Gecko)+Chrome/4.0.249.89+Safari/532.5 401 1 2148074252 15 2010-02-19 19:47:46 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx GET /manager/media/script/_session.gif 0.19665693119168282 80 - 10.5.16.138 Mozilla/5.0+(Windows;+U;+Windows+NT+6.1;+en-US)+AppleWebKit/532.5+(KHTML,+like+Gecko)+Chrome/4.0.249.89+Safari/532.5 200 0 0 203 2010-02-19 19:47:46 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx POST /manager/index.php - 80 - 10.5.16.138 Mozilla/5.0+(Windows;+U;+Windows+NT+6.1;+en-US)+AppleWebKit/532.5+(KHTML,+like+Gecko)+Chrome/4.0.249.89+Safari/532.5 200 0 0 296 2010-02-19 19:47:56 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx GET /assets/files/secure/WWGNL.pdf - 80 - 10.5.16.138 Mozilla/5.0+(Windows;+U;+Windows+NT+6.1;+en-US)+AppleWebKit/532.5+(KHTML,+like+Gecko)+Chrome/4.0.249.89+Safari/532.5 401 1 2148074252 15 2010-02-19 19:47:59 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx GET /favicon.ico - 80 - 10.5.16.138 Mozilla/5.0+(Windows;+U;+Windows+NT+6.1;+en-US)+AppleWebKit/532.5+(KHTML,+like+Gecko)+Chrome/4.0.249.89+Safari/532.5 404 0 2 0 Here's the Failed Logon attempt in the Security Log: Log Name: Security Source: Microsoft-Windows-Security-Auditing Date: 2/19/2010 11:47:43 AM Event ID: 4625 Task Category: Logon Level: Information Keywords: Audit Failure User: N/A Computer: WEB4.net.domain.org Description: An account failed to log on. Subject: Security ID: NULL SID Account Name: - Account Domain: - Logon ID: 0x0 Logon Type: 3 Account For Which Logon Failed: Security ID: NULL SID Account Name: jim.lastname Account Domain: net.domain.org Failure Information: Failure Reason: Unknown user name or bad password. Status: 0xc000006d Sub Status: 0xc000006a Process Information: Caller Process ID: 0x0 Caller Process Name: - Network Information: Workstation Name: - Source Network Address: 10.5.16.138 Source Port: 50065 Detailed Authentication Information: Logon Process: WDIGEST Authentication Package: WDigest Transited Services: - Package Name (NTLM only): - Key Length: 0 This event is generated when a logon request fails. It is generated on the computer where access was attempted. The Subject fields indicate the account on the local system which requested the logon. This is most commonly a service such as the Server service, or a local process such as Winlogon.exe or Services.exe. The Logon Type field indicates the kind of logon that was requested. The most common types are 2 (interactive) and 3 (network). The Process Information fields indicate which account and process on the system requested the logon. The Network Information fields indicate where a remote logon request originated. Workstation name is not always available and may be left blank in some cases. The authentication information fields provide detailed information about this specific logon request. - Transited services indicate which intermediate services have participated in this logon request. - Package name indicates which sub-protocol was used among the NTLM protocols. - Key length indicates the length of the generated session key. This will be 0 if no session key was requested. Event Xml: <Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event"> <System> <Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Security-Auditing" Guid="{54849625-5478-4994-a5ba-3e3b0328c30d}" /> <EventID>4625</EventID> <Version>0</Version> <Level>0</Level> <Task>12544</Task> <Opcode>0</Opcode> <Keywords>0x8010000000000000</Keywords> <TimeCreated SystemTime="2010-02-19T19:47:43.890Z" /> <EventRecordID>2276316</EventRecordID> <Correlation /> <Execution ProcessID="612" ThreadID="692" /> <Channel>Security</Channel> <Computer>WEB4.net.domain.org</Computer> <Security /> </System> <EventData> <Data Name="SubjectUserSid">S-1-0-0</Data> <Data Name="SubjectUserName">-</Data> <Data Name="SubjectDomainName">-</Data> <Data Name="SubjectLogonId">0x0</Data> <Data Name="TargetUserSid">S-1-0-0</Data> <Data Name="TargetUserName">jim.lastname</Data> <Data Name="TargetDomainName">net.domain.org</Data> <Data Name="Status">0xc000006d</Data> <Data Name="FailureReason">%%2313</Data> <Data Name="SubStatus">0xc000006a</Data> <Data Name="LogonType">3</Data> <Data Name="LogonProcessName">WDIGEST</Data> <Data Name="AuthenticationPackageName">WDigest</Data> <Data Name="WorkstationName">-</Data> <Data Name="TransmittedServices">-</Data> <Data Name="LmPackageName">-</Data> <Data Name="KeyLength">0</Data> <Data Name="ProcessId">0x0</Data> <Data Name="ProcessName">-</Data> <Data Name="IpAddress">10.5.16.138</Data> <Data Name="IpPort">50065</Data> </EventData> </Event>

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• Sensitive Data Storage - Best Practices

  - by Kenneth

  I recently started working on a personal project where I was connecting to a database using Java. This got me thinking. I have to provide the login information for a database account on the DB server in order to access the database. But if I hard code it in then it would be possible for someone to decompile the program and extract that login info. If I store it in an external setup file then the same problem exists only it would be even easier for them to get it. I could encrypt the data before storing it in either place but it seems like that's not really a fail safe either and I'm no encryption expert by any means. So what are some best practices for storing sensitive setup data for a program?

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• Database model for keeping track of likes/shares/comments on blog posts over time

  - by gage

  My goal is to keep track of the popular posts on different blog sites based on social network activity at any given time. The goal is not to simply get the most popular now, but instead find posts that are popular compared to other posts on the same blog. For example, I follow a tech blog, a sports blog, and a gossip blog. The tech blog gets waaay more readership than the other two blogs, so in raw numbers every post on the tech blog will always out number views on the other two. So lets say the average tech blog post gets 500 facebook likes and the other two get an average of 50 likes per post. Then when there is a sports blog post that has 200 fb likes and a gossip blog post with 300 while the tech blog posts today have 500 likes I want to highlight the sports and gossip blog posts (more likes than average vs tech blog with more # of likes but just average for the blog) The approach I am thinking of taking is to make an entry in a database for each blog post. Every x minutes (say every 15 minutes) I will check how many likes/shares/comments an entry has received on all the social networks (facebook, twitter, google+, linkeIn). So over time there will be a history of likes for each blog post, i.e post 1234 after 15 min: 10 fb likes, 4 tweets, 6 g+ after 30 min: 15 fb likes, 15 tweets, 10 g+ ... ... after 48 hours: 200 fb likes, 25 tweets, 15 g+ By keeping a history like this for each blog post I can know the average number of likes/shares/tweets at any give time interval. So for example the average number of fb likes for all blog posts 48hrs after posting is 50, and a particular post has 200 I can mark that as a popular post and feature/highlight it. A consideration in the design is to be able to easily query the values (likes/shares) for a specific time-frame, i.e. fb likes after 30min or tweets after 24 hrs in-order to compute averages with which to compare against (or should averages be stored in it's own table?) If this approach is flawed or could use improvement please let me know, but it is not my main question. My main question is what should a database scheme for storing this info look like? Assuming that the above approach is taken I am trying to figure out what a database schema for storing the likes over time would look like. I am brand new to databases, in doing some basic reading I see that it is advisable to make a 3NF database. I have come up with the following possible schema. Schema 1 DB Popular Posts Table: Post post_id ( primary key(pk) ) url title Table: Social Activity activity_id (pk) url (fk) type (i.e. facebook,twitter,g+) value timestamp This was my initial instinct (base on my very limited db knowledge). As far as I under stand this schema would be 3NF? I searched for designs of similar database model, and found this question on stackoverflow, http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11216080/data-structure-for-storing-height-and-weight-etc-over-time-for-multiple-users . The scenario in that question is similar (recording weight/height of users overtime). Taking the accepted answer for that question and applying it to my model results in something like: Schema 2 (same as above, but break down the social activity into 2 tables) DB Popular Posts Table: Post post_id (pk) url title Table: Social Measurement measurement_id (pk) post_id (fk) timestamp Table: Social stat stat_id (pk) measurement_id (fk) type (i.e. facebook,twitter,g+) value The advantage I see in schema 2 is that I will likely want to access all the values for a given time, i.e. when making a measurement at 30min after a post is published I will simultaneous check number of fb likes, fb shares, fb comments, tweets, g+, linkedIn. So with this schema it may be easier get get all stats for a measurement_id corresponding to a certain time, i.e. all social stats for post 1234 at time x. Another thought I had is since it doesn't make sense to compare number of fb likes with number of tweets or g+ shares, maybe it makes sense to separate each social measurement into it's own table? Schema 3 DB Popular Posts Table: Post post_id (pk) url title Table: fb_likes fb_like_id (pk) post_id (fk) timestamp value Table: fb_shares fb_shares_id (pk) post_id (fk) timestamp value Table: tweets tweets__id (pk) post_id (fk) timestamp value Table: google_plus google_plus_id (pk) post_id (fk) timestamp value As you can see I am generally lost/unsure of what approach to take. I'm sure this typical type of database problem (storing measurements overtime, i.e temperature statistic) that must have a common solution. Is there a design pattern/model for this, does it have a name? I tried searching for "database periodic data collection" or "database measurements over time" but didn't find anything specific. What would be an appropriate model to solve the needs of this problem?

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• Globe Trotters: Asian Healthcare CIOs need ‘Security Inside Out’ Approach

  - by Tanu Sood

  In our second edition of Globe trotters, wanted to share a feature article that was recently published in Enterprise Innovation. EnterpriseInnovation.net, part of Questex Media Group, is Asia's premier business and technology publication. The article featured MOH Holdings (a holding company of Singapore’s Public Healthcare Institutions) and highlighted the project around National Electronic Health Record (NEHR) system currently being deployed within Singapore.  According to the feature, the NEHR system was built to facilitate seamless exchanges of medical information as patients move across different healthcare settings and to give healthcare providers more timely access to patient’s healthcare records in Singapore. The NEHR consolidates all clinically relevant information from patients’ visits across the healthcare system throughout their lives and pulls them in as a single record. It allows for data sharing, making it accessible to authorized healthcare providers, across the continuum of care throughout the country. In healthcare, patient data privacy is critical as is the need to avoid unauthorized access to the electronic medical records. As Alan Dawson, director for infrastructure and operations at MOH Holdings is quoted in the feature, “Protecting the perimeter is no longer enough. Healthcare CIOs today need to adopt a ‘security inside out’ approach that protects information assets all the way from databases to end points.” Oracle has long advocated the ‘Security Inside Out’ approach. From operating systems, infrastructure to databases, middleware all the way to applications, organizations need to build in security at every layer and between these layers. This comprehensive approach to security has never been as important as it is today in the social, mobile, cloud (SoMoClo) world. To learn more about Oracle’s Security Inside Out approach, visit our Security page. And for more information on how to prevent unauthorized access, streamline user administration, bolster security and enforce compliance in healthcare, learn more about Oracle Identity Management.

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• MP3 fingerprint tagger

  - by droberts

  Does anyone know of a tool which will read mp3 audio information directly (not the tag information), generate a fingerprint of that audio information, recommend tags based on the fingerprint and retag your MP3 collection? Last.FM released a console application which did all but retag your collection.

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• Visual Studio 2012 setup crashes when trying to install

  - by Shyju

  In my Win7(64 bit) PC, I installed VS 2012 Ultimate Trial version few days back and today i got my msdn subscription of VS2012 Premium. so i uninstalled the Trial and was trying to run the setup exe for VS 2012 and dit is crashing. this is the error details i am seeing. Anybody know how to fix this ? Problem signature: Problem Event Name: BEX Application Name: en_visual_studio_premium_2012_x86_web_installer_920759.exe Application Version: 11.0.50727.1 Application Timestamp: 4fd9f28c Fault Module Name: igdumd32.dll Fault Module Version: 8.15.10.2057 Fault Module Timestamp: 4b5e4895 Exception Offset: 00015216 Exception Code: c0000409 Exception Data: 00000000 OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.48 Locale ID: 1033 Additional Information 1: 1d75 Additional Information 2: 1d7537ede8bee0a1d08a5f0d2036cc52 Additional Information 3: b4a4 Additional Information 4: b4a4e02d592ed99de97ca18a461b34ee Read our privacy statement online: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=104288&clcid=0x0409 If the online privacy statement is not available, please read our privacy statement offline: C:\Windows\system32\en-US\erofflps.txt

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• SmartAssembly Support: How to change the maps folder

  - by Bart Read

  If you've set up SmartAssembly to store error reports in a SQL Server database, you'll also have specified a folder for the map files that are used to de-obfuscate error reports (see Figure 1). Whilst you can change the database easily enough you can't change the map folder path via the UI - if you click on it, it'll just open the folder in Explorer - but never fear, you can change it manually and fortunately it's not that difficult. (If you want to get to these settings click the Tools > Options link on the left-hand side of the SmartAssembly main window.)   Figure 1. Error reports database settings in SmartAssembly. The folder path is actually stored in the database, so you just need to open up SQL Server Management Studio, connect to the SQL Server where your error reports database is stored, then open a new query on the SmartAssembly database by right-clicking on it in the Object Explorer, then clicking New Query (see figure 2).     Figure 2. Opening a new query against the SmartAssembly error reports database in SQL Server. Now execute the following SQL query in the new query window: SELECT * FROM dbo.Information You should find that you get a result set rather like that shown in figure 3. You can see that the map folder path is stored in the MapFolderNetworkPath column.   Figure 3. Contents of the dbo.Information table, showing the map folder path I set in SmartAssembly. All I need to do to change this is execute the following SQL: UPDATE dbo.Information SET MapFolderNetworkPath = '\\UNCPATHTONEWFOLDER' WHERE MapFolderNetworkPath = '\\dev-ltbart\SAMaps' This will change the map folder path to whatever I supply in the SET clause. Once you've done this, you can verify the change by executing the following again: SELECT * FROM dbo.Information You should find the result set contains the new path you've set.

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• ASP.NET Web Forms Extensibility: Providers

  - by Ricardo Peres

  Introduction This will be the first of a number of posts on ASP.NET extensibility. At this moment I don’t know exactly how many will be and I only know a couple of subjects that I want to talk about, so more will come in the next days. I have the sensation that the providers offered by ASP.NET are not widely know, although everyone uses, for example, sessions, they may not be aware of the extensibility points that Microsoft included. This post won’t go into details of how to configure and extend each of the providers, but will hopefully give some pointers on that direction. Canonical These are the most widely known and used providers, coming from ASP.NET 1, chances are, you have used them already. Good support for invoking client side, either from a .NET application or from JavaScript. Lots of server-side controls use them, such as the Login control for example. Membership The Membership provider is responsible for managing registered users, including creating new ones, authenticating them, changing passwords, etc. ASP.NET comes with two implementations, one that uses a SQL Server database and another that uses the Active Directory. The base class is Membership and new providers are registered on the membership section on the Web.config file, as well as parameters for specifying minimum password lengths, complexities, maximum age, etc. One reason for creating a custom provider would be, for example, storing membership information in a different database engine. 1: <membership defaultProvider="MyProvider"> 2: <providers> 3: <add name="MyProvider" type="MyClass, MyAssembly"/> 4: </providers> 5: </membership> Role The Role provider assigns roles to authenticated users. The base class is Role and there are three out of the box implementations: XML-based, SQL Server and Windows-based. Also registered on Web.config through the roleManager section, where you can also say if your roles should be cached on a cookie. If you want your roles to come from a different place, implement a custom provider. 1: <roleManager defaultProvider="MyProvider"> 2: <providers> 3: <add name="MyProvider" type="MyClass, MyAssembly" /> 4: </providers> 5: </roleManager> Profile The Profile provider allows defining a set of properties that will be tied and made available to authenticated or even anonymous ones, which must be tracked by using anonymous authentication. The base class is Profile and the only included implementation stores these settings in a SQL Server database. Configured through profile section, where you also specify the properties to make available, a custom provider would allow storing these properties in different locations. 1: <profile defaultProvider="MyProvider"> 2: <providers> 3: <add name="MyProvider" type="MyClass, MyAssembly"/> 4: </providers> 5: </profile> Basic OK, I didn’t know what to call these, so Basic is probably as good as a name as anything else. Not supported client-side (doesn’t even make sense). Session The Session provider allows storing data tied to the current “session”, which is normally created when a user first accesses the site, even when it is not yet authenticated, and remains all the way. The base class and only included implementation is SessionStateStoreProviderBase and it is capable of storing data in one of three locations: In the process memory (default, not suitable for web farms or increased reliability); A SQL Server database (best for reliability and clustering); The ASP.NET State Service, which is a Windows Service that is installed with the .NET Framework (ok for clustering). The configuration is made through the sessionState section. By adding a custom Session provider, you can store the data in different locations – think for example of a distributed cache. 1: <sessionState customProvider=”MyProvider”> 2: <providers> 3: <add name=”MyProvider” type=”MyClass, MyAssembly” /> 4: </providers> 5: </sessionState> Resource A not so known provider, allows you to change the origin of localized resource elements. By default, these come from RESX files and are used whenever you use the Resources expression builder or the GetGlobalResourceObject and GetLocalResourceObject methods, but if you implement a custom provider, you can have these elements come from some place else, such as a database. The base class is ResourceProviderFactory and there’s only one internal implementation which uses these RESX files. Configuration is through the globalization section. 1: <globalization resourceProviderFactoryType="MyClass, MyAssembly" /> Health Monitoring Health Monitoring is also probably not so well known, and actually not a good name for it. First, in order to understand what it does, you have to know that ASP.NET fires “events” at specific times and when specific things happen, such as when logging in, an exception is raised. These are not user interface events and you can create your own and fire them, nothing will happen, but the Health Monitoring provider will detect it. You can configure it to do things when certain conditions are met, such as a number of events being fired in a certain amount of time. You define these rules and route them to a specific provider, which must inherit from WebEventProvider. Out of the box implementations include sending mails, logging to a SQL Server database, writing to the Windows Event Log, Windows Management Instrumentation, the IIS 7 Trace infrastructure or the debugger Trace. Its configuration is achieved by the healthMonitoring section and a reason for implementing a custom provider would be, for example, locking down a web application in the event of a significant number of failed login attempts occurring in a small period of time. 1: <healthMonitoring> 2: <providers> 3: <add name="MyProvider" type="MyClass, MyAssembly"/> 4: </providers> 5: </healthMonitoring> Sitemap The Sitemap provider allows defining the site’s navigation structure and associated required permissions for each node, in a tree-like fashion. Usually this is statically defined, and the included provider allows it, by supplying this structure in a Web.sitemap XML file. The base class is SiteMapProvider and you can extend it in order to supply you own source for the site’s structure, which may even be dynamic. Its configuration must be done through the siteMap section. 1: <siteMap defaultProvider="MyProvider"> 2: <providers><add name="MyProvider" type="MyClass, MyAssembly" /> 3: </providers> 4: </siteMap> Web Part Personalization Web Parts are better known by SharePoint users, but since ASP.NET 2.0 they are included in the core Framework. Web Parts are server-side controls that offer certain possibilities of configuration by clients visiting the page where they are located. The infrastructure handles this configuration per user or globally for all users and this provider is responsible for just that. The base class is PersonalizationProvider and the only included implementation stores settings on SQL Server. Add new providers through the personalization section. 1: <webParts> 2: <personalization defaultProvider="MyProvider"> 3: <providers> 4: <add name="MyProvider" type="MyClass, MyAssembly"/> 5: </providers> 6: </personalization> 7: </webParts> Build The Build provider is responsible for compiling whatever files are present on your web folder. There’s a base class, BuildProvider, and, as can be expected, internal implementations for building pages (ASPX), master pages (Master), user web controls (ASCX), handlers (ASHX), themes (Skin), XML Schemas (XSD), web services (ASMX, SVC), resources (RESX), browser capabilities files (Browser) and so on. You would write a build provider if you wanted to generate code from any kind of non-code file so that you have strong typing at development time. Configuration goes on the buildProviders section and it is per extension. 1: <buildProviders> 2: <add extension=".ext" type="MyClass, MyAssembly” /> 3: </buildProviders> New in ASP.NET 4 Not exactly new since they exist since 2010, but in ASP.NET terms, still new. Output Cache The Output Cache for ASPX pages and ASCX user controls is now extensible, through the Output Cache provider, which means you can implement a custom mechanism for storing and retrieving cached data, for example, in a distributed fashion. The base class is OutputCacheProvider and the only implementation is private. Configuration goes on the outputCache section and on each page and web user control you can choose the provider you want to use. 1: <caching> 2: <outputCache defaultProvider="MyProvider"> 3: <providers> 4: <add name="MyProvider" type="MyClass, MyAssembly"/> 5: </providers> 6: </outputCache> 7: </caching> Request Validation A big change introduced in ASP.NET 4 (and refined in 4.5, by the way) is the introduction of extensible request validation, by means of a Request Validation provider. This means we are not limited to either enabling or disabling event validation for all pages or for a specific page, but we now have fine control over each of the elements of the request, including cookies, headers, query string and form values. The base provider class is RequestValidator and the configuration goes on the httpRuntime section. 1: <httpRuntime requestValidationType="MyClass, MyAssembly" /> Browser Capabilities The Browser Capabilities provider is new in ASP.NET 4, although the concept exists from ASP.NET 2. The idea is to map a browser brand and version to its supported capabilities, such as JavaScript version, Flash support, ActiveX support, and so on. Previously, this was all hardcoded in .Browser files located in %WINDIR%\Microsoft.NET\Framework(64)\vXXXXX\Config\Browsers, but now you can have a class inherit from HttpCapabilitiesProvider and implement your own mechanism. Register in on the browserCaps section. 1: <browserCaps provider="MyClass, MyAssembly" /> Encoder The Encoder provider is responsible for encoding every string that is sent to the browser on a page or header. This includes for example converting special characters for their standard codes and is implemented by the base class HttpEncoder. Another implementation takes care of Anti Cross Site Scripting (XSS) attacks. Build your own by inheriting from one of these classes if you want to add some additional processing to these strings. The configuration will go on the httpRuntime section. 1: <httpRuntime encoderType="MyClass, MyAssembly" /> Conclusion That’s about it for ASP.NET providers. It was by no means a thorough description, but I hope I managed to raise your interest on this subject. There are lots of pointers on the Internet, so I only included direct references to the Framework classes and configuration sections. Stay tuned for more extensibility!

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• Best way to implement user-powered data validation

  - by vegetables

  I run a product recommendation engine and I'm hitting a few snags. I'm looking to see if anyone has any recommendations on what I should do to minimize these issues. Here's how the site works: Users come to the site and are presented with product recommendations based on some criteria. If a user knows of a product that is not in our system, they can add it by providing the product name and manufacturer. We take that information, and: Hit one API to gather all the product meta-data (and to validate the product spelling, etc). If the product is not in this first API, we do not allow it in our system. Use the information from step 1 to hit another API for pricing information (gathered from many places online). For the sake of discussion, assume that I am searching both APIs in the most efficient/successful manner possible. For the most part, this works very well. I'd say ~80% of our data is perfectly accurate, but there are a few issues: Sometimes the pricing API (Step 2) doesn't have any information for the product. The way the pricing API is built, it will always return something (theoretically, the closest possible match), and there's no guarantee that the product name is spelled exactly the same way in both APIs, so there's no automated way of knowing if it's the right product. When the pricing API finds the right product, occasionally it has outdated, or even invalid pricing data (e.g. if it screen-scraped the wrong price from a website). Since the site was fairly small at first, I was able to manually verify every product that was added to the website. However, the site has grown to the point where this is taking several hours per day, and is just not efficient use of my time. So, my question is: Aside from hiring someone (or getting an intern) to validate all the data manually, what would be the best system of letting my userbase self-manage the data. Specifically, how can I allow users to edit the data while minimizing the risk of someone ambushing my website, or accidentally setting the data incorrectly.

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• LSI 9285-8e and Supermicro SC837E26-RJBOD1 duplicate enclosure ID and slot numbers

  - by Andy Shinn

  I am working with 2 x Supermicro SC837E26-RJBOD1 chassis connected to a single LSI 9285-8e card in a Supermicro 1U host. There are 28 drives in each chassis for a total of 56 drives in 28 RAID1 mirrors. The problem I am running in to is that there are duplicate slots for the 2 chassis (the slots list twice and only go from 0 to 27). All the drives also show the same enclosure ID (ID 36). However, MegaCLI -encinfo lists the 2 enclosures correctly (ID 36 and ID 65). My question is, why would this happen? Is there an option I am missing to use 2 enclosures effectively? This is blocking me rebuilding a drive that failed in slot 11 since I can only specify enclosure and slot as parameters to replace a drive. When I do this, it picks the wrong slot 11 (device ID 46 instead of device ID 19). Adapter #1 is the LSI 9285-8e, adapter #0 (which I removed due to space limitations) is the onboard LSI. Adapter information: Adapter #1 ============================================================================== Versions ================ Product Name : LSI MegaRAID SAS 9285-8e Serial No : SV12704804 FW Package Build: 23.1.1-0004 Mfg. Data ================ Mfg. Date : 06/30/11 Rework Date : 00/00/00 Revision No : 00A Battery FRU : N/A Image Versions in Flash: ================ BIOS Version : 5.25.00_4.11.05.00_0x05040000 WebBIOS Version : 6.1-20-e_20-Rel Preboot CLI Version: 05.01-04:#%00001 FW Version : 3.140.15-1320 NVDATA Version : 2.1106.03-0051 Boot Block Version : 2.04.00.00-0001 BOOT Version : 06.253.57.219 Pending Images in Flash ================ None PCI Info ================ Vendor Id : 1000 Device Id : 005b SubVendorId : 1000 SubDeviceId : 9285 Host Interface : PCIE ChipRevision : B0 Number of Frontend Port: 0 Device Interface : PCIE Number of Backend Port: 8 Port : Address 0 5003048000ee8e7f 1 5003048000ee8a7f 2 0000000000000000 3 0000000000000000 4 0000000000000000 5 0000000000000000 6 0000000000000000 7 0000000000000000 HW Configuration ================ SAS Address : 500605b0038f9210 BBU : Present Alarm : Present NVRAM : Present Serial Debugger : Present Memory : Present Flash : Present Memory Size : 1024MB TPM : Absent On board Expander: Absent Upgrade Key : Absent Temperature sensor for ROC : Present Temperature sensor for controller : Absent ROC temperature : 70 degree Celcius Settings ================ Current Time : 18:24:36 3/13, 2012 Predictive Fail Poll Interval : 300sec Interrupt Throttle Active Count : 16 Interrupt Throttle Completion : 50us Rebuild Rate : 30% PR Rate : 30% BGI Rate : 30% Check Consistency Rate : 30% Reconstruction Rate : 30% Cache Flush Interval : 4s Max Drives to Spinup at One Time : 2 Delay Among Spinup Groups : 12s Physical Drive Coercion Mode : Disabled Cluster Mode : Disabled Alarm : Enabled Auto Rebuild : Enabled Battery Warning : Enabled Ecc Bucket Size : 15 Ecc Bucket Leak Rate : 1440 Minutes Restore HotSpare on Insertion : Disabled Expose Enclosure Devices : Enabled Maintain PD Fail History : Enabled Host Request Reordering : Enabled Auto Detect BackPlane Enabled : SGPIO/i2c SEP Load Balance Mode : Auto Use FDE Only : No Security Key Assigned : No Security Key Failed : No Security Key Not Backedup : No Default LD PowerSave Policy : Controller Defined Maximum number of direct attached drives to spin up in 1 min : 10 Any Offline VD Cache Preserved : No Allow Boot with Preserved Cache : No Disable Online Controller Reset : No PFK in NVRAM : No Use disk activity for locate : No Capabilities ================ RAID Level Supported : RAID0, RAID1, RAID5, RAID6, RAID00, RAID10, RAID50, RAID60, PRL 11, PRL 11 with spanning, SRL 3 supported, PRL11-RLQ0 DDF layout with no span, PRL11-RLQ0 DDF layout with span Supported Drives : SAS, SATA Allowed Mixing: Mix in Enclosure Allowed Mix of SAS/SATA of HDD type in VD Allowed Status ================ ECC Bucket Count : 0 Limitations ================ Max Arms Per VD : 32 Max Spans Per VD : 8 Max Arrays : 128 Max Number of VDs : 64 Max Parallel Commands : 1008 Max SGE Count : 60 Max Data Transfer Size : 8192 sectors Max Strips PerIO : 42 Max LD per array : 16 Min Strip Size : 8 KB Max Strip Size : 1.0 MB Max Configurable CacheCade Size: 0 GB Current Size of CacheCade : 0 GB Current Size of FW Cache : 887 MB Device Present ================ Virtual Drives : 28 Degraded : 0 Offline : 0 Physical Devices : 59 Disks : 56 Critical Disks : 0 Failed Disks : 0 Supported Adapter Operations ================ Rebuild Rate : Yes CC Rate : Yes BGI Rate : Yes Reconstruct Rate : Yes Patrol Read Rate : Yes Alarm Control : Yes Cluster Support : No BBU : No Spanning : Yes Dedicated Hot Spare : Yes Revertible Hot Spares : Yes Foreign Config Import : Yes Self Diagnostic : Yes Allow Mixed Redundancy on Array : No Global Hot Spares : Yes Deny SCSI Passthrough : No Deny SMP Passthrough : No Deny STP Passthrough : No Support Security : No Snapshot Enabled : No Support the OCE without adding drives : Yes Support PFK : Yes Support PI : No Support Boot Time PFK Change : Yes Disable Online PFK Change : No PFK TrailTime Remaining : 0 days 0 hours Support Shield State : Yes Block SSD Write Disk Cache Change: Yes Supported VD Operations ================ Read Policy : Yes Write Policy : Yes IO Policy : Yes Access Policy : Yes Disk Cache Policy : Yes Reconstruction : Yes Deny Locate : No Deny CC : No Allow Ctrl Encryption: No Enable LDBBM : No Support Breakmirror : No Power Savings : Yes Supported PD Operations ================ Force Online : Yes Force Offline : Yes Force Rebuild : Yes Deny Force Failed : No Deny Force Good/Bad : No Deny Missing Replace : No Deny Clear : No Deny Locate : No Support Temperature : Yes Disable Copyback : No Enable JBOD : No Enable Copyback on SMART : No Enable Copyback to SSD on SMART Error : Yes Enable SSD Patrol Read : No PR Correct Unconfigured Areas : Yes Enable Spin Down of UnConfigured Drives : Yes Disable Spin Down of hot spares : No Spin Down time : 30 T10 Power State : Yes Error Counters ================ Memory Correctable Errors : 0 Memory Uncorrectable Errors : 0 Cluster Information ================ Cluster Permitted : No Cluster Active : No Default Settings ================ Phy Polarity : 0 Phy PolaritySplit : 0 Background Rate : 30 Strip Size : 64kB Flush Time : 4 seconds Write Policy : WB Read Policy : Adaptive Cache When BBU Bad : Disabled Cached IO : No SMART Mode : Mode 6 Alarm Disable : Yes Coercion Mode : None ZCR Config : Unknown Dirty LED Shows Drive Activity : No BIOS Continue on Error : No Spin Down Mode : None Allowed Device Type : SAS/SATA Mix Allow Mix in Enclosure : Yes Allow HDD SAS/SATA Mix in VD : Yes Allow SSD SAS/SATA Mix in VD : No Allow HDD/SSD Mix in VD : No Allow SATA in Cluster : No Max Chained Enclosures : 16 Disable Ctrl-R : Yes Enable Web BIOS : Yes Direct PD Mapping : No BIOS Enumerate VDs : Yes Restore Hot Spare on Insertion : No Expose Enclosure Devices : Yes Maintain PD Fail History : Yes Disable Puncturing : No Zero Based Enclosure Enumeration : No PreBoot CLI Enabled : Yes LED Show Drive Activity : Yes Cluster Disable : Yes SAS Disable : No Auto Detect BackPlane Enable : SGPIO/i2c SEP Use FDE Only : No Enable Led Header : No Delay during POST : 0 EnableCrashDump : No Disable Online Controller Reset : No EnableLDBBM : No Un-Certified Hard Disk Drives : Allow Treat Single span R1E as R10 : No Max LD per array : 16 Power Saving option : Don't Auto spin down Configured Drives Max power savings option is not allowed for LDs. Only T10 power conditions are to be used. Default spin down time in minutes: 30 Enable JBOD : No TTY Log In Flash : No Auto Enhanced Import : No BreakMirror RAID Support : No Disable Join Mirror : No Enable Shield State : Yes Time taken to detect CME : 60s Exit Code: 0x00 Enclosure information: # /opt/MegaRAID/MegaCli/MegaCli64 -encinfo -a1 Number of enclosures on adapter 1 -- 3 Enclosure 0: Device ID : 36 Number of Slots : 28 Number of Power Supplies : 2 Number of Fans : 3 Number of Temperature Sensors : 1 Number of Alarms : 1 Number of SIM Modules : 0 Number of Physical Drives : 28 Status : Normal Position : 1 Connector Name : Port B Enclosure type : SES VendorId is LSI CORP and Product Id is SAS2X36 VendorID and Product ID didnt match FRU Part Number : N/A Enclosure Serial Number : N/A ESM Serial Number : N/A Enclosure Zoning Mode : N/A Partner Device Id : 65 Inquiry data : Vendor Identification : LSI CORP Product Identification : SAS2X36 Product Revision Level : 0718 Vendor Specific : x36-55.7.24.1 Number of Voltage Sensors :2 Voltage Sensor :0 Voltage Sensor Status :OK Voltage Value :5020 milli volts Voltage Sensor :1 Voltage Sensor Status :OK Voltage Value :11820 milli volts Number of Power Supplies : 2 Power Supply : 0 Power Supply Status : OK Power Supply : 1 Power Supply Status : OK Number of Fans : 3 Fan : 0 Fan Speed :Low Speed Fan Status : OK Fan : 1 Fan Speed :Low Speed Fan Status : OK Fan : 2 Fan Speed :Low Speed Fan Status : OK Number of Temperature Sensors : 1 Temp Sensor : 0 Temperature : 48 Temperature Sensor Status : OK Number of Chassis : 1 Chassis : 0 Chassis Status : OK Enclosure 1: Device ID : 65 Number of Slots : 28 Number of Power Supplies : 2 Number of Fans : 3 Number of Temperature Sensors : 1 Number of Alarms : 1 Number of SIM Modules : 0 Number of Physical Drives : 28 Status : Normal Position : 1 Connector Name : Port A Enclosure type : SES VendorId is LSI CORP and Product Id is SAS2X36 VendorID and Product ID didnt match FRU Part Number : N/A Enclosure Serial Number : N/A ESM Serial Number : N/A Enclosure Zoning Mode : N/A Partner Device Id : 36 Inquiry data : Vendor Identification : LSI CORP Product Identification : SAS2X36 Product Revision Level : 0718 Vendor Specific : x36-55.7.24.1 Number of Voltage Sensors :2 Voltage Sensor :0 Voltage Sensor Status :OK Voltage Value :5020 milli volts Voltage Sensor :1 Voltage Sensor Status :OK Voltage Value :11760 milli volts Number of Power Supplies : 2 Power Supply : 0 Power Supply Status : OK Power Supply : 1 Power Supply Status : OK Number of Fans : 3 Fan : 0 Fan Speed :Low Speed Fan Status : OK Fan : 1 Fan Speed :Low Speed Fan Status : OK Fan : 2 Fan Speed :Low Speed Fan Status : OK Number of Temperature Sensors : 1 Temp Sensor : 0 Temperature : 47 Temperature Sensor Status : OK Number of Chassis : 1 Chassis : 0 Chassis Status : OK Enclosure 2: Device ID : 252 Number of Slots : 8 Number of Power Supplies : 0 Number of Fans : 0 Number of Temperature Sensors : 0 Number of Alarms : 0 Number of SIM Modules : 1 Number of Physical Drives : 0 Status : Normal Position : 1 Connector Name : Unavailable Enclosure type : SGPIO Failed in first Inquiry commnad FRU Part Number : N/A Enclosure Serial Number : N/A ESM Serial Number : N/A Enclosure Zoning Mode : N/A Partner Device Id : Unavailable Inquiry data : Vendor Identification : LSI Product Identification : SGPIO Product Revision Level : N/A Vendor Specific : Exit Code: 0x00 Now, notice that each slot 11 device shows an enclosure ID of 36, I think this is where the discrepancy happens. One should be 36. But the other should be on enclosure 65. Drives in slot 11: Enclosure Device ID: 36 Slot Number: 11 Drive's postion: DiskGroup: 5, Span: 0, Arm: 1 Enclosure position: 0 Device Id: 48 WWN: Sequence Number: 11 Media Error Count: 0 Other Error Count: 0 Predictive Failure Count: 0 Last Predictive Failure Event Seq Number: 0 PD Type: SATA Raw Size: 2.728 TB [0x15d50a3b0 Sectors] Non Coerced Size: 2.728 TB [0x15d40a3b0 Sectors] Coerced Size: 2.728 TB [0x15d400000 Sectors] Firmware state: Online, Spun Up Is Commissioned Spare : YES Device Firmware Level: A5C0 Shield Counter: 0 Successful diagnostics completion on : N/A SAS Address(0): 0x5003048000ee8a53 Connected Port Number: 1(path0) Inquiry Data: MJ1311YNG6YYXAHitachi HDS5C3030ALA630 MEAOA5C0 FDE Enable: Disable Secured: Unsecured Locked: Unlocked Needs EKM Attention: No Foreign State: None Device Speed: 6.0Gb/s Link Speed: 6.0Gb/s Media Type: Hard Disk Device Drive Temperature :30C (86.00 F) PI Eligibility: No Drive is formatted for PI information: No PI: No PI Drive's write cache : Disabled Drive's NCQ setting : Enabled Port-0 : Port status: Active Port's Linkspeed: 6.0Gb/s Drive has flagged a S.M.A.R.T alert : No Enclosure Device ID: 36 Slot Number: 11 Drive's postion: DiskGroup: 19, Span: 0, Arm: 1 Enclosure position: 0 Device Id: 19 WWN: Sequence Number: 4 Media Error Count: 0 Other Error Count: 0 Predictive Failure Count: 0 Last Predictive Failure Event Seq Number: 0 PD Type: SATA Raw Size: 2.728 TB [0x15d50a3b0 Sectors] Non Coerced Size: 2.728 TB [0x15d40a3b0 Sectors] Coerced Size: 2.728 TB [0x15d400000 Sectors] Firmware state: Online, Spun Up Is Commissioned Spare : NO Device Firmware Level: A580 Shield Counter: 0 Successful diagnostics completion on : N/A SAS Address(0): 0x5003048000ee8e53 Connected Port Number: 0(path0) Inquiry Data: MJ1313YNG1VA5CHitachi HDS5C3030ALA630 MEAOA580 FDE Enable: Disable Secured: Unsecured Locked: Unlocked Needs EKM Attention: No Foreign State: None Device Speed: 6.0Gb/s Link Speed: 6.0Gb/s Media Type: Hard Disk Device Drive Temperature :30C (86.00 F) PI Eligibility: No Drive is formatted for PI information: No PI: No PI Drive's write cache : Disabled Drive's NCQ setting : Enabled Port-0 : Port status: Active Port's Linkspeed: 6.0Gb/s Drive has flagged a S.M.A.R.T alert : No Update 06/28/12: I finally have some new information about (what we think) the root cause of this problem so I thought I would share. After getting in contact with a very knowledgeable Supermicro tech, they provided us with a tool called Xflash (doesn't appear to be readily available on their FTP). When we gathered some information using this utility, my colleague found something very strange: root@mogile2 test]# ./xflash.dat -i get avail Initializing Interface. Expander: SAS2X36 (SAS2x36) 1) SAS2X36 (SAS2x36) (50030480:00EE917F) (0.0.0.0) 2) SAS2X36 (SAS2x36) (50030480:00E9D67F) (0.0.0.0) 3) SAS2X36 (SAS2x36) (50030480:0112D97F) (0.0.0.0) This lists the connected enclosures. You see the 3 connected (we have since added a 3rd and a 4th which is not yet showing up) with their respective SAS address / WWN (50030480:00EE917F). Now we can use this address to get information on the individual enclosures: [root@mogile2 test]# ./xflash.dat -i 5003048000EE917F get exp Initializing Interface. Expander: SAS2X36 (SAS2x36) Reading the expander information.......... Expander: SAS2X36 (SAS2x36) B3 SAS Address: 50030480:00EE917F Enclosure Logical Id: 50030480:0000007F IP Address: 0.0.0.0 Component Identifier: 0x0223 Component Revision: 0x05 [root@mogile2 test]# ./xflash.dat -i 5003048000E9D67F get exp Initializing Interface. Expander: SAS2X36 (SAS2x36) Reading the expander information.......... Expander: SAS2X36 (SAS2x36) B3 SAS Address: 50030480:00E9D67F Enclosure Logical Id: 50030480:0000007F IP Address: 0.0.0.0 Component Identifier: 0x0223 Component Revision: 0x05 [root@mogile2 test]# ./xflash.dat -i 500304800112D97F get exp Initializing Interface. Expander: SAS2X36 (SAS2x36) Reading the expander information.......... Expander: SAS2X36 (SAS2x36) B3 SAS Address: 50030480:0112D97F Enclosure Logical Id: 50030480:0112D97F IP Address: 0.0.0.0 Component Identifier: 0x0223 Component Revision: 0x05 Did you catch it? The first 2 enclosures logical ID is partially masked out where the 3rd one (which has a correct unique enclosure ID) is not. We pointed this out to Supermicro and were able to confirm that this address is supposed to be set during manufacturing and there was a problem with a certain batch of these enclosures where the logical ID was not set. We believe that the RAID controller is determining the ID based on the logical ID and since our first 2 enclosures have the same logical ID, they get the same enclosure ID. We also confirmed that 0000007F is the default which comes from LSI as an ID. The next pointer that helps confirm this could be a manufacturing problem with a run of JBODs is the fact that all 6 of the enclosures that have this problem begin with 00E. I believe that between 00E8 and 00EE Supermicro forgot to program the logical IDs correctly and neglected to recall or fix the problem post production. Fortunately for us, there is a tool to manage the WWN and logical ID of the devices from Supermicro: ftp://ftp.supermicro.com/utility/ExpanderXtools_Lite/. Our next step is to schedule a shutdown of these JBODs (after data migration) and reprogram the logical ID and see if it solves the problem. Update 06/28/12 #2: I just discovered this FAQ at Supermicro while Google searching for "lsi 0000007f": http://www.supermicro.com/support/faqs/faq.cfm?faq=11805. I still don't understand why, in the last several times we contacted Supermicro, they would have never directed us to this article :\

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• Announcing the latest update to Oracle VM Server for x86 2.2 Release

  - by Honglin Su

  More and more customers have discovered that Oracle delivers more value with Oracle VM compared with other server virtualization solutions, and we've seen the momentum that customers succeed with Oracle VM and leading partners support Oracle VM. Recently, Oracle VM server for x86 with Windows PV Drivers passed Microsoft SVVP requirements for Windows servers, which provides customers more confidence to deploy Microsoft Windows guest OS onto Oracle VM server for x86. Today I'm pleased to announce the Oracle VM server for x86 2.2.2 release. See the new features introduced in the 2.2.2 release. Expand the guest OS support to include Oracle Linux 6.x and Oracle Solaris 11 Express OS. For a complete list of guest OS support, please refer to the Oracle VM server x86 release note. The VMPInfo system information and cluster troubleshooting utility is provided with this release. Additional information on VMPInfo is also available in the following My Oracle Support Notes: 1263293.1 Post-installation check list for new Oracle VM Server 1290587.1 Performing Site Reviews and Cluster Troubleshooting with VMPInfo A new storage repository option to provide NFS mount options when creating a storage repository. For more information on this new parameter, see Oracle VM Server User Guide "Adding a Storage Repository". Updated OCFS2 cluster file system, libdhcp, device drivers. See details and additional enhancements at Oracle VM Server User Guide: New Features in Release 2.2.2. The Oracle VM Server for x86 ISO image is available for download at Oracle's E-Delivery site. If you've subscribed to Oracle's Unbreakable Linux Network (ULN), you can simply run up2date command to update the server. Please refer to Oracle VM Upgrade Guide: Upgrading Oracle VM Server. There's no change to Oracle VM Manager, which remains at 2.2.0 with the patch 2.2-16. If you have any questions about Oracle VM Serer for x86, you may post your questions at OTN discussion forum; or purchase support for Oracle Unbreakable Linux and Oracle VM. For Oracle's x86 systems, Oracle VM support as well Oracle Linux and Oracle Solaris support are included in the Oracle Premier Support for Systems. For more information about Oracle's virtualization, visit oracle.com/virtualization.

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• Downloading image from Picasa Web Albums loses metadata

  - by Jarrod

  I have several photos on my Picasa Web Albums account. I have added captions, tags and location information to many of them through the PWA web interface. I assumed that PWA was saving this information in an IPTC, or some other metadata tag inside the image, but whenever I go to 'Download Photo' (on a single image), the resulting image, when saved to my computer, has no tags whatsoever. Does anybody know why this is the case? Does PWA require Picasa to be installed to preserve this information?

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• Secure Government Series Part 3

  - by Naresh Persaud

  Secure Government Training SeriesSafeguarding Government CyberspaceClick here, to register for the live webcast. Cybersecurity threats represent one of the most serious national security, public safety, and economic challenges. While technologies empower government to lead and innovate, they also enable those who seek to disrupt and destroy progress. Cloud computing, mobile devices and social networks help government reduce costs and streamline service delivery, but also introduce heightened security vulnerabilities. How can government organizations keep pace with heightened service delivery demands and advancements in technology without compromising security? Join us November 28th for a webcast as part of the “Secure Government Training Series” to learn about a security portfolio that helps organizations mitigate cyber attacks by providing Full-spectrum cybersecurity capabilities that harden the data tier, lock down sensitive information, and provide access controls and visibility for frequently targeted systems.Gain insights to an integrated security framework and overall strategy for preventing attacks that will help your organization: Deploy resilient IT infrastructure Catalog and classify sensitive and mission-critical data Secure the enterprise data tier and lock down trusted insider privileges at all levels Automate and centralize enterprise auditing Enable automated alerting and situational awareness of security threats and incidents For more information, access the Secure Government Resource Center or to speak with an Oracle representative, please call1.800.ORACLE1. LIVE Webcast Safeguarding Government Cyberspace Date: Wednesday, November 28th, 2012 Time: 2:00 p.m. ET Visit the Secure Government Resource CenterClick here for information on enterprise security solutions that help government safeguard information, resources and networks. ACCESS NOW Copyright © 2012, Oracle. All rights reserved. Contact Us | Legal Notices | Privacy Statement

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• Automated “ubuntu-12.04.1-server-amd64” OS installation on physical machine

  - by user285336

  We are using Physical server and are in process of Automated “ubuntu-12.04.1-server-amd64” OS installation on it. There are two HDD for OS installation purpose and there are RAID1 relation between them. This setup has been done through BIOS. The kickstart configuration file looks like this: #Generated by Kickstart Configurator #platform=AMD64 or Intel EM64T #System language lang en_US #Language modules to install langsupport en_US #System keyboard keyboard us #System mouse mouse #System timezone timezone Asia/Dili #Root password rootpw --iscrypted $1$Yl1QJyta$KzIT.kq3i9E5XaiQKcUJn/ #Initial user user ankit --fullname "Ankit" --iscrypted --password $1$c6Yflpea$pi1QQ59/jgywmGwBv25z3/ #Reboot after installation reboot #Use text mode install text #Install OS instead of upgrade install #Use Web installation url --url my_repo_location #System bootloader configuration bootloader --location=mbr #Clear the Master Boot Record zerombr yes #Partition clearing information clearpart --all --initlabel #Disk partitioning information part /boot --fstype ext4 --size 100 --ondisk sda part / --fstype ext4 --size 10000 --ondisk sda part /var --fstype ext4 --size 10000 --ondisk sda part swap --size 1024 --ondisk sdb #System authorization infomation auth --useshadow --enablemd5 #Network information network --bootproto=dhcp --device=eth0 #Firewall configuration firewall --enabled --trust=eth0 --http --ftp --ssh --telnet --smtp #X Window System configuration information xconfig --depth=8 --resolution=640x480 --defaultdesktop=GNOME But I am getting the below error : No root file system is defined Please suggest on this. Do we need to do any modification in kickstart configuration file. Any help in this regard will be very helpful for us. The automated Ubuntu OS installation is successful in Virtual Machine(VM) with the above ks.cfg (kickstart configuration file ) but failing in case of physical machine. Please suggest on this and if possible provide the new ks.cfg file to resolve above problem. Thanks & Regards, Rajesh Prasad

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• July, the 31 Days of SQL Server DMO’s – Day 1 (sys.dm_exec_requests)

  - by Tamarick Hill

  The first DMO that I would like to introduce you to is one of the most common and basic DMV’s out there. I use the term DMV because this DMO is actually a view as opposed to a function. This DMV is server-scoped and it returns information about all requests that are currently executing on your SQL Server instance. To illustrate what this DMV returns, lets take a look at the results. As you can see, this DMV returns a wealth of information about requests occurring on your server. You are able to see the SPID, the start time of a request, current status, and the command the SPID is executing. In addition to this you see columns for sql_handle and plan_handle. These columns (when combined with other DMO’s we will discuss later) can return the actual sql text that is being executed on your server as well as the actual execution plan that is cached and being used. This DMV also returns information about various wait types that may be occurring for your spid. The percent_complete column displays a percentage to completion for certain database actions such as DBCC CheckDB, Database Restores, Rollback’s, etc. In addition to these, you are also able to see the amount of reads, writes, and cpu that the SPID has consumed. You will find this DMV to be one of the primary DMV’s that you use when looking for information about what is occurring on your server.

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• Windows Azure Evolution &ndash; Preview Developer Portal

  - by Shaun

  With the MEET Windows Azure event on 7th June, there are many new features and updates in windows azure platform. In the coming several posts I will try to cover some of them. And in the first post here I would like to just have a quick walkthrough of the new preview developer portal.   History of the Developer Portal If you have been working with windows azure since 2009 or 2010, you should remember the first version of the developer portal. It was built in HTML with very limited features. I have the impression when I was using is old one. The layout is not that attractive and you have very limited features. On November, 2010 alone with the SDK 1.3 release, the developer portal was getting a big jump. In order to give more usability and features this it turned to be built on Silverlight. Hence it runs like a desktop application with many windows, lists, commands and context menus. From 2010 till now many features were involved into this portal, such as the remote desktop, co-admin, virtual connect, VM role, etc.. And the portal itself became more and more complicated. But it brought some problems by using the Silverlight. The first one is the browser capability. As you know in most mobile and tablet device the browser doesn’t allow the rich content plugin, such as Flash and Silverlight. This means people cannot open and configure their azure services from their iPad, iPhone and Windows Phone, etc., even though what they need may just be restart a hosted service, or view the status of their databases. Another problem is the performance. Silverlight provides rich experience to the users, but also needs more bandwidth. So in this upgrade the preview developer portal will be back to use HTML, with JavaScript, as a mobile friendly, cross browser, interactively web site.   Preview Portal vs. Silverlight Portal Before I started to talk about the new preview portal I’d better highlight that, this preview portal is a PREVIEW version, which means even though you can do almost all features that already in the old one, as long as some cool new features I will mention in the coming several posts, there are something still under developed and migrated. So sometimes you need to switch back to the old one. For example, in preview portal there is no co-admin manage function, no remote desktop function and the SQL database manage function will take you back to the old SQL Azure Manage Portal. But as Microsoft said these missing features will be moved in the preview portal in the couple of next few months. Since the public URL of the developer portal, https://windows.azure.com/, had been changed to point to this preview one, you need to click to preview button on top of the page and click the “Take me to the previous portal” link.   Overview There are four parts in the preview portal. On the top is the header which shows the account you are currently logging in. If you click on the header it will show the top menu of windows azure, where you can navigate to the windows azure home page, the price information page, community and account, etc.. The navigation bar is on the left hand side, with the categories listed below. ALL ITEMS All items in your windows azure account, includes the web sites, services, databases, etc.. WEB SITES The web sites in your windows azure account. It will only show the web sites you have. The linked resources will be shown if you drill down into a web site. VIRTUAL MACHINES The virtual machines that you had been deployed to azure. CLOUD SERVICES All windows azure hosted services in your account. SQL DATABASES All SQL databases (SQL Azure) in your account. STORAGE All windows azure storage services in your account. NETWORKS The virtual network (Windows Azure Connect) you had been created. The available items will be listed in the main part of the page based on which category your currently selected. If there’s no item it will show the link to you to quick create. At the bottom of the page there will be the command and information bar. Based on what is selected and what is performed by the user, it will show the related information and commands. For example, in the image below when I was creating a new web site, the information bar told me that my web site is being provisioned; and there are two commands in the command bar. And once it ready the command bar will show some commands that I can do to my new web site. The “Web Sites” is a new feature introduced alone with this upgrade. It gives us an easier and quicker way to establish a website from the scratch or from some existing library. I will introduce it more details in the coming next post. Also in the command bar you can create a service by clicking the NEW button. It will slide the creation panel up to you.   Where’s My Hosted Services The Windows Azure Hosted Services had been renamed to the Cloud Services. Create a new service would be very easy. Just click the NEW button at the bottom of the page, and select the CLOUD SERVICE and QIUICK CREATE. This will create a blank hosted service without deployment and certificate. It just needs you to specify the service URL and the affinity/region. Then the service will be shown in the list. If you clicked the item all information will be shown in the main part. Since there’s no package deployed to this service so currently we cannot see any information about it. But we can upload the package by using the command at the bottom. And as you can see, we could manage the configuration, instances, certificates and we can scale up and down (change the VM size), in and out (increase and decrease the instance count) to our service. Assuming I had created an ASP.NET MVC 3 web role project in Visual Studio and completed the package. Then I can click the UPLOAD button in this page to deploy my package. In the popping up window I just specify my deployment name, package file and configure file. Also I can check the box below so that it will NOT warn me if only one instance of this deployment. Once we clicked the OK button our package will be uploaded and provisioned by the platform. After a while we can see the service was ready from the information bar. We can have the basic information about this service and deployment if we to the dashboard page. For example the usage overview diagram, status, URL, public IP address, etc.. In the configure page we can view and change the CSCFG content such as the monitor setting, connection strings, OS family. In scale page we can increase and decrease the count of the instances. And in the instances page we can view all instances status. And, if your services is using some SQL databases and storages they will be shown as the linked resources under the linked resources page. And you can manage the certificates of this service as well under the certificates page.   How About My Storage Services The storage service can be managed by clicking into the STORAGES link in the navigation bar. And we can create a new storage service from the NEW button. After specify the storage name and region it will be previsioned by the platform. If you want to copy or manage the storage key you can just click the Manage Keys button at the bottom, which is very easy. What I want to highlight here is that, you can monitor your storage service by enabling the monitor configuration. Click the storage item in the list and navigate to the configure page. As you can see in the page you can enable the monitoring for blob, table and queue. And you can also enable the logging when any requests come to the storage. But as the tooltip shown in the page, enabling the monitoring and logging will increase the usage of the storage, which means increase the bill of them. So make sure you enable them properly.   And My SQL Databases (SQL Azure) The last thing I want to quick introduce is the SQL databases, which was formally named SQL Azure. You can create a new SQL Database Server and a new database by clicking the ADD button under the SQL Database navigation item. In the popping up windows just specify the database name, the edition, size, collation and the server. You can select an existing SQL Database Server if you have, or cerate a new one. If you selected to create a new server, there will be another step you need to do, which is specify the server login, password and the region. Once it ready you can mange your databases as well as the servers in the portal. In a particular server you can update the firewall settings in its Configure page. So, What Else There are some other area on the preview portal I didn’t cover, such as the virtual machines, virtual network and web sites. Regarding the virtual machines and web sites I will talk about them in the future separated post. Regarding the virtual network, it the Windows Azure Connect we are familiar with. But as I mention in the beginning of this post, the preview portal is still under developed. Some features are not available here. For example, you cannot manage the co-admin of your subscriptions, you cannot open the remote desktop on your hosted services, and you cannot navigate to the Windows Azure Service Bus, Access Control and Caching, which formally named Windows Azure AppFabric directly. In these cases you need to navigate back to the old portal. So in the coming several months we might need to use both these two sites.   Summary In this post I quick introduced the new windows azure developer portal. Since it had been rearranged and renamed I demonstrated some features that existing in the old portal, such as how to create and deploy a hosted service, how to provision a storage service and SQL database. All features in the old portal had been, is being and will be migrated into this new portal, but some of them were in a different category and page we need to figure out.   Hope this helps, Shaun All documents and related graphics, codes are provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind. Copyright © Shaun Ziyan Xu. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons License.

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• Rouen Business School builds its entire back office UI with Visual WebGui

  - by Webgui

  Two years ago, Rouen Business School (AMBA accredited institution located in Rouen, Normandy, France) decided to develop and implement a proprietary information system in-house. The objective was to administer all the data encompassed by a classic 3500 Students business school: from on-line application forms to the registration system including financial information, scheduling, grades management, etc. The development team at Rouen Business School chose Visual WebGui for the UI. “When we tested the Visual WebGui solution we were really amazed and enthusiastic. It was exactly the kind of solution we were looking for… The great performance of the solution allows us to manage a large amount of information with no delay with a very positive feedback at the user end,” said Stéphane Henry the IT Project Manager of the school.   As a result of the fast development, easy deployment, performance, and professional design that the team experienced with Visual WebGui, the entire back office of Rouen Business School information system was chosen to be developed with the Visual WebGui framework “and after two years we do not see any reason to change this,” commented Stéphane Henry who added that “all the original requirements were satisfied using Visual WebGui.” You can read the full Case study here >

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• Disabling CPU management

  - by Tiffany Walker

  If I add the following processor.max_cstate=0 to the kernel command line for boot up, does that disable all CPU power management and throttling? I also found: http://www.experts-exchange.com/OS/Linux/Administration/A_3492-Avoiding-CPU-speed-scaling-in-modern-Linux-distributions-Running-CPU-at-full-speed-Tips.html The link talks of Change CPU governor from 'ondemand' to 'performance' for all CPUs/cores and disabling kondemand from kernel. Server is for web hosting UPDATES: 2.6.32-379.1.1.lve1.1.7.6.el6.x86_64 #1 SMP Sat Aug 4 09:56:37 EDT 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux . # dmidecode 2.11 SMBIOS 2.6 present. 74 structures occupying 2878 bytes. Table at 0x0009F000. Handle 0x0000, DMI type 0, 24 bytes BIOS Information Vendor: American Megatrends Inc. Version: 1.0c Release Date: 05/27/2010 Address: 0xF0000 Runtime Size: 64 kB ROM Size: 4096 kB Characteristics: ISA is supported PCI is supported PNP is supported BIOS is upgradeable BIOS shadowing is allowed ESCD support is available Boot from CD is supported Selectable boot is supported BIOS ROM is socketed EDD is supported 5.25"/1.2 MB floppy services are supported (int 13h) 3.5"/720 kB floppy services are supported (int 13h) 3.5"/2.88 MB floppy services are supported (int 13h) Print screen service is supported (int 5h) 8042 keyboard services are supported (int 9h) Serial services are supported (int 14h) Printer services are supported (int 17h) CGA/mono video services are supported (int 10h) ACPI is supported USB legacy is supported LS-120 boot is supported ATAPI Zip drive boot is supported BIOS boot specification is supported Targeted content distribution is supported BIOS Revision: 8.16 Handle 0x0001, DMI type 1, 27 bytes System Information Manufacturer: Supermicro Product Name: X8SIE Version: 0123456789 Serial Number: 0123456789 UUID: 49434D53-0200-9033-2500-33902500D52C Wake-up Type: Power Switch SKU Number: To Be Filled By O.E.M. Family: To Be Filled By O.E.M. Handle 0x0002, DMI type 2, 15 bytes Base Board Information Manufacturer: Supermicro Product Name: X8SIE Version: 0123456789 Serial Number: VM11S61561 Asset Tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M. Features: Board is a hosting board Board is replaceable Location In Chassis: To Be Filled By O.E.M. Chassis Handle: 0x0003 Type: Motherboard Contained Object Handles: 0 Handle 0x0003, DMI type 3, 21 bytes Chassis Information Manufacturer: Supermicro Type: Sealed-case PC Lock: Not Present Version: 0123456789 Serial Number: 0123456789 Asset Tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M. Boot-up State: Safe Power Supply State: Safe Thermal State: Safe Security Status: None OEM Information: 0x00000000 Height: Unspecified Number Of Power Cords: 1 Contained Elements: 0

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• Accessing Server-Side Data from Client Script: Accessing JSON Data From an ASP.NET Page Using jQuery

  When building a web application, we must decide how and when the browser will communicate with the web server. The ASP.NET WebForms model greatly simplifies web development by providing a straightforward mechanism for exchanging data between the browser and the server. With WebForms, each ASP.NET page's rendered output includes a <form> element that performs a postback to the same page whenever a Button control within the form is clicked, or whenever the user modifies a control whose AutoPostBack property is set to True. On postback, the server sends the entire contents of the web page back to the browser, which then displays this new content. With WebForms we don't need to spend much time or effort thinking about how or when the browser will communicate with the server or how that returned information will be processed by the browser. It just works. While this approach certainly works and has its advantages, it's not without its drawbacks. The primary concern with postback forms is that they require a large amount of information to be exchanged between the browser and the server. Specifically, the browser sends back all of its form fields (including hidden ones, like view state, which may be quite large) and then the server sends back the entire contents of the web page. Granted, there are scenarios where this large quantity of data needs to be exchanged, but in many cases we can use techniques that exchange much less information. However, these techniques necessitate spending more time and effort thinking about how and when to have the browser communicate with the server and intelligently deciding on what information needs to be exchanged. This article, the first in a multi-part series, examines different techniques for accessing server-side data from a browser using client-side script. Throughout this series we will explore alternative ways to expose data on the server so that it can be accessed from the browser using script; we will also examine various tools for communicating with the server from JavaScript, including jQuery and the ASP.NET AJAX library. Read on to learn more! Read More >

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• How to Use Offline Files in Windows to Cache Your Networked Files Offline

  - by Taylor Gibb

  The problem with storing all your files on a file server or networked machine is that when you leave the network, how are you going to access your files? Instead of using a VPN or Dropbox, you can use the Offline Files feature built into Windows. Note: You should probably not be using this guide to make your 2 terabyte movie collection available offline—while it may work, it is not recommended just because the Offline Files feature isn’t made for storing massive amounts of data offline. How to Use Offline Files in Windows to Cache Your Networked Files Offline How to See What Web Sites Your Computer is Secretly Connecting To HTG Explains: When Do You Need to Update Your Drivers?

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• July, the 31 Days of SQL Server DMO’s – Day 20 (sys.dm_tran_locks)

  - by Tamarick Hill

  The sys.dm_tran_locks DMV is used to return active lock resources on your server. Locking is a mechanism used by SQL Server to protect the integrity of data when you have multiple users that may potentially access the same data at the same time. Let’s run a query against this DMV so we can analyze the results. SELECT * FROM sys.dm_tran_locks As we can see, its a lot of lock information returned from this DMV. I will not go into detail about each of the columns returned, but I will touch on the ones that I feel are the most important. The first column in the output is the resource_type column which tells you the type of lock a particular row represents. It could be a PAGE lock, RID, OBJECT, DATABASE, or several other lock types. The resource_database_id represents the id of the database for a particular lock resource. The resource_lock_partition column represents the ID of a lock partition. When you have a table that is partitioned, locks can be escalated to the partition level before going to a table level lock. The request_mode column gives us information about the type of lock that is being requested. From the screenshots above we see RangeS-S locks which represent a share range lock and IS locks which represent Intent Shared locks. The request_status column displays whether the lock has been granted or whether the lock is waiting to be acquired. The request_session_id  shows the session_id that is requesting the lock. This DMV is the best place to go when you need to identify the exact locks that are being held or pending for individual requests. You might need this information when you are troubleshooting severe blocking or deadlocking problems on your server. For more information on this DMV, please see the below Books Online link: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms190345.aspx Follow me on Twitter @PrimeTimeDBA

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• San Joaquin County, California Wins AIIM 2012 Carl E. Nelson Best Practice Award

  - by Peggy Chen

  Last month, AIIM, the global community of information professionals, announced the winners of the 2012 Carl E. Nelson Best Practices Awards. And San Joaquin County, California won in the small company category for 1-100 employees. The Carl E. Nelson Best Practices Award was established to recognize excellence in the area of information management. "Best practice" denotes a standard of excellence that has been achieved with an organization and refers to a process that can be quantified, adapted and repeated. Like many counties, San Joaquin County, California, was faced with huge challenges due to decreasing funds and staff, including decreased cost of building capability. It needed to streamline processes, cut costs per activity, modernize and strengthen the infrastructure, and adopt new technology and standards such as the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM). The Integrated Justice Information System (IJIS) provides a Web-based system to link more than 650,000 residents, 18 agencies countywide and other law enforcement systems nationwide. The county’s modernization initiative focused on replacing its outdated warrant system, implementing service-oriented architecture (SOA) to simplify integration between county law and justice systems, deploying Business Process Management (BPM), Case Management with content management, and Web technologies from Oracle. A critical part of their success has been the proper alignment of our Strategic Vision to the way the organization was enabled to plan and execute (and continues to execute) their modernization project. Congratulations to San Joaquin County!

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