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  • Going to the Score Cards - Exceptional DBA Awards 2011

    - by Rodney
    This year marks my 4th year as a judge for the Exceptional DBA Awards, founded by Red Gate in 2008 to "recognize the essential but often overlooked contributions of DBAs, the unsung heroes of the IT community." As a professional DBA myself I have been honored to participate as a judge. It is not an easy job because there is a voluminous amount of nominees from all over the world. Each judge has to read through every word of the nominee's answers, deciding what makes each person special and stand out amongst their peers. What drives them? What single element of their submission will shine above all others? It is my hope that what I am about to divulge to you as a judge will prompt you to think about yourself or someone you know and decide that you may be the exceptional DBA who can take home the gold at this year's award ceremony in Seattle. We are more than a few weeks into the nomination process and there are quite a number of submissions already. I can not tell you how many as that would not be fair. I can say it is not 1 million or more. I can also say that it is not 100,000. But that is all I can say about that. However, I can tell you that it is enough this year that we are breaking records on the number of people who have been influenced, inspired or intrigued by the awards in the past. I remember them all like it were yesterday. fuzzy thought cloud here. It was a rainy day in Seattle (all memories for each award ceremony will start thusly) and I was in the hotel going over my notes on what I wanted to say about the winner of the 2008 Red Gate Exceptional DBA Award. The notes were on index cards that I had either bought or stolen from my wife, I do not recall, but I was nervous which was unlike me. This was, after all, a big night for the winner. Of course, we, the judges and the SQL community, had already decided the winner and now all that remained was to present the award. The room was packed. It was Casino night, sponsored by sqlservercentral.com. Money (fake), drinks (not fake) and camaraderie flowed through the room. Dan McClain won the award that year. He worked for Anheuser-Busch at the time. I promise that did not influence my decision. We presented Dan with the award. He was very proud of this achievement, rightfully so, as was the SQL community for him. I spoke with Dan throughout the conference and realized how huge this award was for him, not just personally but professionally. It was a rainy day in Seattle in 2009 and I was nervous. I was asked to speak to a group of people again as a judge for the Exceptional DBA Awards. This year, Josef Richberg would be the recipient of the award, but he would not be able to attend. We all prayed for him as he fought through an illness and congratulated him for his accomplishments as a DBA for his company. He got better and sallied forth and continued to give back to the SQL community that he saw as one big family. In 2010, and I am getting ahead of myself, he was asked to be a judge himself for the very award he had just received the year before. It was a sunny day in Seattle and I missed it, because it was in July and I was not there. It was a rainy day in Seattle and it is 2010 and Tracy Hamlin enters a submission that blows this judge away. She is managing a 50 Terabyte distributed database ("50 Gigabytes! Are you kidding me!!!", Rodney jokes.)  and loves her daily job as a DBA working with developers, mentoring them and teaching them best practices with kindness and patience. She is a people person who just happens to have 10+ years experience with RDBMS'. She wins the award and goes on to be recognized as famous at PASS. It will be a rainy day in Seattle this year when I sit amongst my old constituent judges and friends, Brad McGehee, http://www.simple-talk.com/books/sql-books/how-to-become-an-exceptional-dba,-2nd-edition/, Steve Jones, whom we all know and love at http://www.sqlservercentral.com and a young upstart to the SQL Community, this cat named Brent Ozar to announce the 2011 winner. I personally have not heard of Brent but I am told I have interviewed him for a DBA position several years ago and turned him down, http://www.brentozar.com/archive/2011/05/exceptional-dba-contest/ . I hope that did not jeopardize his future in the SQL world. I am a big hearted oaf and would feel horrible. Hopefully I will meet him at PASS and we can work this all out and I can help him get a DBA job. The rain has stopped and a new year is upon us. The stakes are high...the competition is fierce...the rewards are incredible. The entry form awaits you. http://www.exceptionaldba.com/ I very much look forward to meeting you and presenting the award to you in front of hundreds of your envious but proud peers as the new Exceptional DBA for 2011 at the PASS Summit. Here is what you could win: The Exceptional DBA of the Year receives full conference registration for the 2011 PSS Summit in Seattle, where the awards ceremony will take place, four nights' hotel accommodation, and $300 towards travel expenses. They will also be featured on Simple-Talk. Are you ready? Are you nervous?

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  • High Jinks, Hi Jacks, Exceptional DBA Awards and PASS

    - by Rodney
    The countdown to PASS has counted down.  The day after tomorrow I will board a plane, like many others, on my way for the 4th year in a row to SQL PASS Summit.  The anticipation has been excruciating but luckily I have this little thing called a day job as a DBA that has kept me busy and not thinking too much about the event. Well that is not exactly true since my beautiful wife works for PASS so we get to talk about SQL from the time we wake up until late in the evening. I would not have it any other way and I feel very fortunate to be a part of this great event and to have been chosen as the Exceptional DBA Award judge also for the 4th year in a row.  This year, I will have been again tasked with presenting the award to the winner, Mr. Jeff Moden and it will be a true honor to meet him in person as I have read many of his articles on SSC and have attended his session at PASS previously.  The speech is all ready but one item remains, which will be a surprise to all who attend the party on Tuesday night in Seattle (see links below).  Let's face it, Exceptional DBAs everywhere work very hard protecting our data stores, tuning queries, mentoring, saving money, installing clusters, etc and once in a while there is time to be exceptionally non-professional and have a bit of fun. Once incident that happened this year that falls under the High Jinks category was when my network admin asked if I could Telnet into a SQL instance and see if I could make the connection through the firewall that he had just configured. I was able to establish a connection on port 1433 and it occurred to me that it would be very interesting if I could actually run T-SQL queries via a Telnet session much like you might do with an SMTP server. With that thought, I proceeded to demonstrate this could be possible by convincing my senior DBA Shawn McGehee that I was able to do so. At first he did not believe me. It shook his world view.  It was inconceivable.  What I had done, behind the scenes, of course, was to copy and rename SQLCMD.exe to Telnet.exe and used it to connect and run a simple, "Select * from sys.databases" on the SQL instance. I think if it had been anyone other than Shawn I could have extended this ruse indefinitely but he caught on within 30 seconds. It was a fun thirty seconds though. On the High Jacks side of the house, which is really merged to be SQL HACKS, I finally, after several years of struggling with how to connect to an untrusted domain like in a DMZ with a windows account in SSMS, I stumbled upon a solution that does away with the requirement to use SQL Authentication.  While "Runas" is a great command to use to run an application with a higher privileged account, I had not previously been able to figure out how to connect to the remote domain with SSMS and "Runsas". It never connected and caused a login failure every time for the remote windows domain account. Then I ran across an option for "Runas",   "/netonly".  This option postpones the login until a connection is made and only then passes the remote login you supply when you first launch SSMS with the "Runas" command. So a typical shortcut would look like: "C:\Windows\System32\runas.exe /netonly /user:remotedomain.com\rodlandrum "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Binn\VSShell\Common7\IDE\Ssms.exe" You will want to make sure the passwords are synced between the two domains, your local domain and the remote domain, otherwise you may have account lockout issues, but I have found in weeks of testing this is a stable solution. Now it is time to get ready to head for Seattle. Please, if you see me (@SQLBeat) or my wife (@Karlakay22) please run up and high five me (wait..High Jinks.High Jacks.High Fives.Need to change the title) or give me a big bear hug if you are strong enough to lift me off the ground. And if you do actually do that, I will think you are awesome and will not embarrass you by crying out for help or complaining of a broken back or sciatic nerve damage. And now the links to others who have all of the details. First, for the MVP Deep Dives 2, of which, like John, I was lucky enough to be able to participate in this year. http://www.simple-talk.com/community/blogs/johnm/archive/2011/09/29/103577.aspx And the details of the SSC party where the Exceptional DBA of 2011, Jeff Moden, will be awarded. http://www.simple-talk.com/community/blogs/rebecca_amos/archive/2011/10/05/103661.aspx   Cheers! Rodney

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  • T-SQL Tuesday - the swag

    - by Rob Farley
    This month’s T-SQL Tuesday is hosted by Kendal van Dyke (@SQLDBA), and is on the topic of swag. He asks about the best SQL Server swag that we’ve ever received from a conference. I can’t say I ever focus on getting the swag at conferences, as I see some people doing. I know there are plenty of people that get around all the sponsors as soon as they’ve arrived, collecting whatever goodies they can, sometimes as token gifts for those at home, sometimes as giveaways for the user groups they attend. I remember a few years ago at my first PASS Summit, the SQLCAT team gave me a large pile of leftover SQL Server swag to give away to my user group – piles of branded things to stop your phone sliding off your car dashboard, and other things. The user group members thought it was great, and over the course of a few months, happily cleared me out of it all. I tend to consider swag to be something that you haven’t earned except by being at a conference, and there was no winning associated with it, it was simply a giveaway item at a sponsor booth. That means I don’t include the HP Mini laptop that was given away at TechEd Australia a few years ago to every attendee, or the SQL Server bag and Camelbak bottle that I was given as a thank-you for writing a guest blog post (which I use as my regular laptop bag and water bottle for work). I don’t even include the copy of Midtown Madness that I got as a door prize at my vey first TechEd event in 1999 (that was a really good game, and even meant that when I went to Chicago last year, I felt a strange familiarity about the place). I don’t want to include shirts in the mix either. I was given a nice SQL Server shirt about five years ago TechEd Australia. It’s a business shirt (buttons, cuffs, pocket on the chest), black with the SQL Server logo on it. It was such a nice shirt that I commented about it to the Product Marketing Manager for Australia (Christine, at the time), who unexpectedly arranged for me to get another one. That was certainly an improvement on the tent I was given at one of the MVP conference I attended. So when I consider these ‘rules’, two pieces of swag come to mind, and I think both were at PASS Summits (although I can’t be sure). One was a hand-warmer from HP, one of the “crystallisation-type” ones, which proved extremely popular when I got home, until one day when it didn’t survive being recharged – not overly SQL related, but still it was good swag. The other was an umbrella, from expressor, which was from the PASS Summit in 2010, my first PASS Summit. I remember it well – Blythe Morrow (now Gietz) (@blythemorrow) was working the booth, having stopped working for PASS some time before, but she’d been on my list of people to meet, as I’d had plenty of contact with her while she’d worked at PASS, my being a chapter leader and general volunteer. There had been an expressor dinner on one of the first evenings, which I’d been asked to be at, which is when I’d met lots of SQL people in person for the first time, including Ted Krueger (@onpnt), Jessica Moss (@jessicamoss) and Blythe. Anyway, at some point the next day I swung by their booth to say hello and thank them for the dinner, and Blythe says “Oh, we have the best swag – here!” and handed me an umbrella. And she was right. It’s excellent. @rob_farley

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  • Read & Write app.config

    - by Rodney Vinyard
    Imports System.Configuration   Public Class Form1       Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load           Dim config As System.Configuration.Configuration = ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(ConfigurationUserLevel.None)         Me.txtFromFolder.Text = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings("fromFolder")         Me.txtToFolder.Text = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings("toFolder")         End Sub       Private Sub Form1_FormClosing(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.FormClosingEventArgs) Handles MyBase.FormClosing             'to write         Dim config As System.Configuration.Configuration = ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(ConfigurationUserLevel.None)           config.AppSettings.Settings.Remove("fromFolder")         config.AppSettings.Settings.Add("fromFolder", txtFromFolder.Text.Trim)           config.AppSettings.Settings.Remove("toFolder")         config.AppSettings.Settings.Add("toFolder", txtToFolder.Text.Trim)           config.Save(ConfigurationSaveMode.Modified)           ConfigurationManager.RefreshSection("appSettings")       End Sub

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  • FTP Upload ftpWebRequest Proxy

    - by Rodney Vinyard
    Searchable:   FTP Upload ftpWebRequest Proxy FTP command is not supported when using HTTP proxy     In the article below I will cover 2 topics   1.       C# & Windows Command-Line FTP Upload with No Proxy Server   2.       C# & Windows Command-Line FTP Upload with Proxy Server   Not covered here: Secure FTP / SFTP   Sample Attributes: ·         UploadFilePath = “\\servername\folder\file.name” ·         Proxy Server = “ftp://proxy.server/” ·         FTP Target Server = ftp.target.com ·         FTP User = “User” ·         FTP Password = “Password” with No Proxy Server ·         Windows Command-Line > ftp ftp.target.com > ftp User: User > ftp Password: Password > ftp put \\servername\folder\file.name > ftp dir           (result: file.name listed) > ftp del file.name > ftp dir           (result: file.name deleted) > ftp quit   ·         C#   //----------------- //Start FTP via _TargetFtpProxy //----------------- string relPath = Path.GetFileName(\\servername\folder\file.name);   //result: relPath = “file.name”   FtpWebRequest ftpWebRequest = (FtpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create("ftp.target.com/file.name); ftpWebRequest.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.UploadFile;   //----------------- //user - password //----------------- ftpWebRequest.Credentials = new NetworkCredential("user, "password");   //----------------- // set proxy = null! //----------------- ftpWebRequest.Proxy = null;   //----------------- // Copy the contents of the file to the request stream. //----------------- StreamReader sourceStream = new StreamReader(“\\servername\folder\file.name”);   byte[] fileContents = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(sourceStream.ReadToEnd()); sourceStream.Close(); ftpWebRequest.ContentLength = fileContents.Length;     //----------------- // transer the stream stream. //----------------- Stream requestStream = ftpWebRequest.GetRequestStream(); requestStream.Write(fileContents, 0, fileContents.Length); requestStream.Close();   //----------------- // Look at the response results //----------------- FtpWebResponse response = (FtpWebResponse)ftpWebRequest.GetResponse();   Console.WriteLine("Upload File Complete, status {0}", response.StatusDescription);   with Proxy Server ·         Windows Command-Line > ftp proxy.server > ftp User: [email protected] > ftp Password: Password > ftp put \\servername\folder\file.name > ftp dir           (result: file.name listed) > ftp del file.name > ftp dir           (result: file.name deleted) > ftp quit   ·         C#   //----------------- //Start FTP via _TargetFtpProxy //----------------- string relPath = Path.GetFileName(\\servername\folder\file.name);   //result: relPath = “file.name”   FtpWebRequest ftpWebRequest = (FtpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create("ftp://proxy.server/" + relPath); ftpWebRequest.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.UploadFile;   //----------------- //user - password //----------------- ftpWebRequest.Credentials = new NetworkCredential("[email protected], "password");   //----------------- // set proxy = null! //----------------- ftpWebRequest.Proxy = null;   //----------------- // Copy the contents of the file to the request stream. //----------------- StreamReader sourceStream = new StreamReader(“\\servername\folder\file.name”);   byte[] fileContents = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(sourceStream.ReadToEnd()); sourceStream.Close(); ftpWebRequest.ContentLength = fileContents.Length;     //----------------- // transer the stream stream. //----------------- Stream requestStream = ftpWebRequest.GetRequestStream(); requestStream.Write(fileContents, 0, fileContents.Length); requestStream.Close();   //----------------- // Look at the response results //----------------- FtpWebResponse response = (FtpWebResponse)ftpWebRequest.GetResponse();   Console.WriteLine("Upload File Complete, status {0}", response.StatusDescription);

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  • New SQL Code Deployment Book and Damn I Need to Blog More

    - by Rodney
    Select datediff(d,'02/19/2009',getdate()) This value returned from the above SELECT statement  is 398 and that is the number of days since my last blog post.  As I was formulating my apology for this hiatus from blogging, it dawned on me that I also do not twitter (sorry tweet) and as apologies beget apologies, I then realized that instead of catching up on the backlog of blogs, I should write a book about what I have been most focused on in the past year, one month and 3 days.  That focus is my day job, which of course, most of us have. And that day job we share is why most of us read blogs, tweets, articles and even books in the first place. So my focus for the past year has been SQL code deployments and all of that entails. I am fortunate that Redgate has agreed to entertain my crazy notion of writing an entire book about this subject, which I have tentatively titled, "The Sound and the Fury". Wait..that is not right. Oh yes, a title more befiting a techical tome but with as much profundity, "Standardizing SQL Server Code Deployements - A Redgate Guide". The great American novel must wait a few more years. As I begin this journey, I am inviting you to assist me in the discovery process and even be interviewed and included in the book itself. How do you do deployments in your company? Do you have a documented process or no process? Do you do code review or cross your fingers? Do you work for a small company or a Fortune 100 company? Government regulations or  garage? It does not  matter to me. I am not here to judge. I worked for both companies myself and have seen many things that you can relate to.  If you would like to participate and are one of the 3 people still reading this blog after 398 days, please fill out my survey and let's get started.  http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RRG86RH  

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  • What is the best way to create HTML in C# code?

    - by Rodney
    I have a belief that markup should remain in mark-up and not in the code behind. I've come to a situation where I think it is acceptable to build the HTML in the code behind. I'd like to have some consensus as to what the best practices are or should be. When is it acceptable to build html in the code behind? What is the best method to create this html? (example: Strings, StringBuilder, HTMLWriter, etc)

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  • ISO - the language of this installation package is not supported by your system

    - by Rodney Vinyard
    Problem: When attempting to install the extracted ISO image the following error appears: "the language of this installation package is not supported by your system", and exits.  The install does not start.   Solution: Within ISO buster , choose Fileà<ExtractedFileName>à”Extract Raw, but convert to User data”, then rerun the setup.exe that is extracted.   Might save you some time in the future…

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  • SQL Server Interview Questions

    - by Rodney Vinyard
    User-Defined Functions Scalar User-Defined Function A Scalar user-defined function returns one of the scalar data types. Text, ntext, image and timestamp data types are not supported. These are the type of user-defined functions that most developers are used to in other programming languages. Table-Value User-Defined Function An Inline Table-Value user-defined function returns a table data type and is an exceptional alternative to a view as the user-defined function can pass parameters into a T-SQL select command and in essence provide us with a parameterized, non-updateable view of the underlying tables. Multi-statement Table-Value User-Defined Function A Multi-Statement Table-Value user-defined function returns a table and is also an exceptional alternative to a view as the function can support multiple T-SQL statements to build the final result where the view is limited to a single SELECT statement. Also, the ability to pass parameters into a T-SQL select command or a group of them gives us the capability to in essence create a parameterized, non-updateable view of the data in the underlying tables. Within the create function command you must define the table structure that is being returned. After creating this type of user-defined function, I can use it in the FROM clause of a T-SQL command unlike the behavior found when using a stored procedure which can also return record sets.

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  • Select comma separated result from via comma separated parameter

    - by Rodney Vinyard
    Select comma separated result from via comma separated parameter PROCEDURE [dbo].[GetCommaSepStringsByCommaSepNumericIds] (@CommaSepNumericIds varchar(max))   AS   BEGIN   /* exec GetCommaSepStringsByCommaSepNumericIds '1xx1, 1xx2, 1xx3' */ DECLARE @returnCommaSepIds varchar(max); with cte as ( select distinct Left(qc.myString, 1) + '-' + substring(qc.myString, 2, 9) + '-' + substring(qc.myString, 11, 7) as myString from q_CoaRequestCompound qc               JOIN               dbo.SplitStringToNumberTable(@CommaSepNumericIds) AS s               ON               qc.q_CoaRequestId = s.ID where SUBSTRING(upper(myString), 1, 1) in('L', '?') ) SELECT @returnCommaSepIds = COALESCE(@returnCommaSepIds + ''',''', '''') + CAST(myString AS varchar(2x)) FROM cte;   set @returnCommaSepIds = @returnCommaSepIds + '''' SELECT @returnCommaSepIds   End   FUNCTION [dbo].[SplitStringToNumberTable] (        @commaSeparatedList varchar(max) ) RETURNS @outTable table (        ID int ) AS BEGIN        DECLARE @parsedItem varchar(10), @Pos int          SET @commaSeparatedList = LTRIM(RTRIM(@commaSeparatedList))+ ','        SET @commaSeparatedList = REPLACE(@commaSeparatedList, ' ', '')        SET @Pos = CHARINDEX(',', @commaSeparatedList, 1)          IF REPLACE(@commaSeparatedList, ',', '') <> ''        BEGIN               WHILE @Pos > 0               BEGIN                      SET @parsedItem = LTRIM(RTRIM(LEFT(@commaSeparatedList, @Pos - 1)))                      IF @parsedItem <> ''                            BEGIN                                   INSERT INTO @outTable(ID)                                   VALUES (CAST(@parsedItem AS int)) --Use Appropriate conversion                            END                            SET @commaSeparatedList = RIGHT(@commaSeparatedList, LEN(@commaSeparatedList) - @Pos)                            SET @Pos = CHARINDEX(',', @commaSeparatedList, 1)               END        END           RETURN END

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  • Disaster Recovery Discovery

    - by Rodney Landrum
    Last weekend I joined several of my IT staff on a mission to perform a DR test in our remote CoLo center in a large South East city of the US. Can I be more obtuse? The goal was simple for me as the sole DBA in a throng of Windows, Storage, Network and SAN admins – restore the databases and make them work. There were 4 applications that back ended to 7 SQL Server databases on 4 different SQL Server instances. We would maintain the original server names, but beyond that it was fair game. We had time to prepare so I was able to script out or otherwise automate the recovery process. I used sp_help_revlogin for three of the servers, a bit of a cheat actually because restoring the Master database on the target DR servers was the specified course of action according to the DR procedures ( the caveat “IF REQUIRED” left it open to interpretation. I really wanted to avoid the step of restoring Master for a number of reasons but mainly because I did not want to deal with issues starting SQL Services afterward. Having to account for the location of TempDB and the version conflicts of the resource DBs were just two of the battles I chose not to fight. Not to mention other system database location problems that might arise and prevent SQL from starting.  I was going to have to restore all of the user databases anyway, so I would not really gain any benefit, outside of logins, for taking the time to restore the source Master database over the newly installed one on the fresh server. What I wanted was the ability to restore the Master database as a user database, call it Master_Mine, from a backup on the source system and then use that restored database to script the SQL Logins and passwords on the DR systems. While I did not attempt this on the trip, the thought stuck in my mind and this past week I succeeded at scripting user accounts and passwords using only a restored copy of the Master database. Granted there were several challenges to overcome.  Also, as is usual for any work like this the usual disclaimers apply:  This is not something that I would imagine Microsoft would condone or support and this was really only an experiment for me to learn if it was even possible. While I have tested the process with success, I do not know that I would use this technique in a documented procedure because future updates for SQL Server will render this technique non-functional. I thought at first, incorrectly of course, that I could use sp_help_revlogin on a restored copy of the master database I named Master_Mine.   Since sp_help_revlogin uses system schema objects, sys.syslogins and sys.server_principals, this was not going to work because all results would come from the main Master database. To test this I added a SQL login via SSMS, backed up Master, restored  it as Master_Mine, and then deleted the login.  Even though the test account I created should presumably still be in the Master_Mine database, I should be able to get to it and script out its creation with its password hash so that I would not need to know the password, but any applications that stored that password would not have to be altered in the DR scenario. They would just work as expected. Once I realized that would not work I began looking deeper.  Knowing that sys.syslogins and sys.server_principals are system views, their underlying code should be available with sp_helptext, right? They were. And this led me to discover the two tables sys.sysxlgns and sys.sysprivs, where the data I needed was stored. These tables existed in both the real Master and the restored copy, Master_Mine.  I used this information to tweak the sp_help_revlogin stored procedure to use these tables instead to create the logins cursor used in sp_help_revlogin. For the password hash,  sp_help_revlogin uses the function LoginProperty() which takes a user name and option ‘passwordhash’ to return the hash for the user. Unfortunately, it requires the login to exist in the Master database. This would not work. So another slight modification I had to make was to pull the password hash itself (pwdhash from sys.sysxlgns) into the logins cursor and comment out the section of sp_help_revlogin that uses LoginProperty. Instead, I pass the pwdhash value as the variable @PWD_varbinary to the sp_hexadecimal stored procedure which is also created by and used within the code provided by Microsoft in the link above for sp_help_revlogin. The final challenge: sys.sysxlgns and sys.server_principals are visible only within a Dedicated Administrator Connection (DAC) query window in SSMS or within SQLCDMD.  To open a DAC connection you have to be logged in on the SQL Server itself, via RDP in my case,  and you preface the server name in the query connection with ADMIN:, so that the server connection looks like ADMIN:ServerName. From there you can create the modified stored procedure in the restored copy of a Master database from a source system as whatever name you like, and then run the modified stored procedure. I named my new stored procedure usp_help_revlogin_MyMaster. Upon execution I was happy to see the logins and password hashes that I needed to apply from the source Master database without having to restore over the new Master system database and without the need to access the original server (assuming it was down due to whatever disaster put it in that state). You will note that I am not providing full code samples here of the modifications. I will say that it was a slight bit of work and anyone who needed to do this for whatever reason, could fairly easily roll their own solution with the information provided herein.  My goal, as I said was to prove that this could be done and provide another option if required to ease the burden of getting SQL Servers up and available in an emergency situation where alternatives may be more challenging or otherwise unavailable.  

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  • Better than dynamic SQL - How to pass a list of comma separated IDs into a stored proc

    - by Rodney Vinyard
    Better than dynamic SQL - How to pass a list of comma separated IDs into a stored proc:     Derived form "Method 6" from a great article: ·         How to pass a list of values or array to SQL Server stored procedure ·          http://vyaskn.tripod.com/passing_arrays_to_stored_procedures.htm     Create PROCEDURE [dbo].[GetMyTable_ListByCommaSepReqIds] (@CommaSepReqIds varchar(500))   AS   BEGIN   select * from MyTable q               JOIN               dbo.SplitStringToNumberTable(@CommaSepReqIds) AS s               ON               q.MyTableId = s.ID End     ALTER FUNCTION [dbo].[SplitStringToNumberTable] (        @commaSeparatedList varchar(500) ) RETURNS @outTable table (        ID int ) AS BEGIN        DECLARE @parsedItem varchar(10), @Pos int          SET @commaSeparatedList = LTRIM(RTRIM(@commaSeparatedList))+ ','        SET @commaSeparatedList = REPLACE(@commaSeparatedList, ' ', '')        SET @Pos = CHARINDEX(',', @commaSeparatedList, 1)          IF REPLACE(@commaSeparatedList, ',', '') <> ''        BEGIN               WHILE @Pos > 0               BEGIN                      SET @parsedItem = LTRIM(RTRIM(LEFT(@commaSeparatedList, @Pos - 1)))                      IF @parsedItem <> ''                            BEGIN                                   INSERT INTO @outTable (ID)                                   VALUES (CAST(@parsedItem AS int)) --Use Appropriate conversion                            END                            SET @commaSeparatedList = RIGHT(@commaSeparatedList, LEN(@commaSeparatedList) - @Pos)                            SET @Pos = CHARINDEX(',', @commaSeparatedList, 1)               END        END           RETURN END

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  • ASP.NET Conditionally Change ButtonField text at runTime

    - by Rodney Vinyard
    ASP.NET Conditionally Change ButtonField text at runTime   <asp:ButtonField CommandName="Edit" HeaderText="" Text="Edit" ButtonType="Link" />       protected void gvRequests_RowDataBound(object sender, GridViewRowEventArgs e)     {         if (e.Row.RowType == DataControlRowType.DataRow)         {             //----------------------------------------------------             // If status = "Saved", change buttonField.LinkButton.Text to "Copy"             //----------------------------------------------------             if (e.Row.Cells[(int)gCol.Status].Text == "Saved")             {                 //----------------------------------------------------                 // no !                 //----------------------------------------------------                 //string x = e.Row.Cells[(int)gCol.EditLink].Text;                 //e.Row.Cells[(int)gCol.EditLink].Text = "Copy";                   //----------------------------------------------------                 // yes !                 //----------------------------------------------------                 LinkButton linkButton = (LinkButton)e.Row.Cells[(int)gCol.EditLink].Controls[0];                 linkButton.Text = "Copy";             }         }     }

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  • Crime Scene Investigation: SQL Server

    - by Rodney Landrum
    “The packages are running slower in Prod than they are in Dev” My week began with this simple declaration from one of our lead BI developers, quickly followed by an emailed spreadsheet demonstrating that, over 5 executions, an extensive ETL process was running average 630 seconds faster on Dev than on Prod. The situation needed some scientific investigation to determine why the same code, the same data, the same schema would yield consistently slower results on a more powerful server. Prod had yet to be officially christened with a “Go Live” date so I had the time, and having recently been binge watching CSI: New York, I also had the inclination. An inspection of the two systems, Prod and Dev, revealed the first surprise: although Prod was indeed a “bigger” system, with double the amount of RAM of Dev, the latter actually had twice as many processor cores. On neither system did I see much sign of resources being heavily taxed, while the ETL process was running. Without any real supporting evidence, I jumped to a conclusion that my years of performance tuning should have helped me avoid, and that was that the hardware differences explained the better performance on Dev. We spent time setting up a Test system, similarly scoped to Prod except with 4 times the cores, and ported everything across. The results of our careful benchmarks left us truly bemused; the ETL process on the new server was slower than on both other systems. We burned more time tweaking server configurations, monitoring IO and network latency, several times believing we’d uncovered the smoking gun, until the results of subsequent test runs pitched us back into confusion. Finally, I decided, enough was enough. Hadn’t I learned very early in my DBA career that almost all bottlenecks were caused by code and database design, not hardware? It was time to get back to basics. With over 100 SSIS packages and hundreds of queries, each handling specific tasks such as file loads, bulk inserts, transforms, logging, and so on, the task seemed formidable. And yet, after barely an hour spent with Profiler, Extended Events, and wait statistics DMVs, I had a lead in the shape of a query that joined three tables, containing millions of rows, returned 3279 results, but performed 239K logical reads. As soon as I looked at the execution plans for the query in Dev and Test I saw the culprit, an implicit conversion warning on a join predicate field that was numeric in one table and a varchar(50) in another! I turned this information over to the BI developers who quickly resolved the data type mismatches and found and fixed “several” others as well. After the schema changes the same query with the same databases ran in under 1 second on all systems and reduced the logical reads down to fewer than 300. The analysis also revealed that on Dev, the ETL task was pulling data across a LAN, whereas Prod and Test were connected across slower WAN, in large part explaining why the same process ran slower on the latter two systems. Loading the data locally on Prod delivered a further 20% gain in performance. As we progress through our DBA careers we learn valuable lessons. Sometimes, with a project deadline looming and pressure mounting, we choose to forget them. I was close to giving into the temptation to throw more hardware at the problem. I’m pleased at least that I resisted, though I still kick myself for not looking at the code on day one. It can seem a daunting prospect to return to the fundamentals of the code so close to roll out, but with the right tools, and surprisingly little time, you can collect the evidence that reveals the true problem. It is a lesson I trust I will remember for my next 20 years as a DBA, if I’m ever again tempted to bypass the evidence.

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  • Tutorials - Getting Started

    - by Rodney Vinyard
    Walkthrough: Creating And Using Ajax-Enabled Web Service http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb532367(v=vs.90).aspx  Getting Started with jQuery in Visual Studio 2008 http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/bursteg/archive/2009/06/05/getting-started-with-jquery-in-visual-studio-2008.aspx  jQuery Examples http://www.w3schools.com/jquery/jquery_examples.asp  Ajax Control Toolkit http://www.asp.net/ajaxlibrary/act.ashx

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  • Wireless internet connection connects but internet does not work (no packets received). Wired does.

    - by Rodney
    When I connect my PC via ethernet cable to my ADSL router it works fine. When I connect via Wireless it connects and the internet will work for a random amount of time and then stop working. It stays connected with a strong signal but no packets are received. My laptop/iphone are right next to it and wireless works fine. If I open the Wireless USB status, it says it is connected to my SSID with full strength (54 mps - I am 3 meteres away from my router) and the activty shows as Packets 594 SENT and 105 RECEIVED (this goes up VERY slowly) I have tried the following: Turned off anitvirus and firewall completely. Tested the wifi signal- I am writing this on my laptop which is next to my PC and also has full wifi strength. Tried a different wireless adapter - I dug out an old PCI wireless card - it does the exact same thing. Compared all wireless settings to my laptop. I can ping google.com and it replies (sometimes with packet loss) When I reboot the PC it will connect for a minute or two (random time) and then just stops again. I tried Firefox, IE etc. no joy I have updated all latest versions (Netgear WG111v2) and drivers Checked Event Log - nothing unusual Ping the router (and even connect as admin for the few minutes when the internet does work) Changed the MTU down to 1200 using DrTCP Checked Device Manager for conflicts - none. I ping the router from the PC (192.168.0.10 - 192.168.0.1) and it replies with 4 packets. BUT, on my router admin page (which I access via http on my laptop wirelessly) - if I ping 192.168.0.10 all packets timeout (pinging my laptop 192.168.0.12 works fine) My router admin page shows the leased IP address for 192.168.0.10 (ie it is definitely talking to the router initially) Now I am out of ideas - please help. I think it is an OS/Software issue as I have tried 2 different wireless adapaters (PCI and USB) with the same result but all other wireless devices work fine around mine). It's not the firewall. It is getting assigned an IP address correctly (my PC gets 192.168.0.10, my laptop is .12) It is assigned by DHCP. As soon as I plug in the ethernet cable it all works fine. Repairing the adapter sometimes helps but it will always stop working after a random time. The wireless adapter always shows as connected with Excellent signal but the internet does not work. I am running Windows XP SP3 and have tried a Netgear WG111v2 USB adapter. Thanks in advance! UPDATE: The internet seems to be working, it is just either sending packets too small or slow to work (some small pages load bits of them very slowly but then hang). XP seems to have a networking diagnostic app - here is the output: Last diagnostic run time: 08/30/10 08:16:38 IP Configuration Diagnostic Invalid IP address info Valid IP address detected: 192.168.0.10 IP Layer Diagnostic Corrupted IP routing table info The default route is valid info The loopback route is valid info The local host route is valid info The local subnet route is valid Invalid ARP cache entries action The ARP cache has been flushed Gateway Diagnostic Gateway info The following proxy configuration is being used by IE: Automatically Detect Settings:Disabled Automatic Configuration Script: Proxy Server: Proxy Bypass list: info This computer has the following default gateway entry(ies): 192.168.0.1 info This computer has the following IP address(es): 192.168.0.10 info The default gateway is in the same subnet as this computer info The default gateway entry is a valid unicast address info The default gateway address was resolved via ARP in 1 try(ies) info The default gateway was reached via ICMP Ping in 1 try(ies) info TCP port 80 on host 65.55.12.249 was successfully reached info The Internet host www.microsoft.com was successfully reached info The default gateway is OK DNS Client Diagnostic DNS - Not a home user scenario info Using Web Proxy: no info Resolving name ok for (www.microsoft.com): yes No DNS servers DNS failure HTTP, HTTPS, FTP Diagnostic HTTP, HTTPS, FTP connectivity info FTP (Passive): Successfully connected to ftp.microsoft.com. info HTTP: Successfully connected to www.microsoft.com. warn HTTPS: Error 12002 connecting to www.microsoft.com: The operation timed out warn HTTPS: Error 12002 connecting to www.passport.net: The operation timed out error Could not make an HTTPS connection. info Redirecting user to support call WinSock Diagnostic WinSock status info All base service provider entries are present in the Winsock catalog. info The Winsock Service provider chains are valid. info Provider entry MSAFD Tcpip [TCP/IP] passed the loopback communication test. info Provider entry MSAFD Tcpip [UDP/IP] passed the loopback communication test. info Provider entry RSVP UDP Service Provider passed the loopback communication test. info Provider entry RSVP TCP Service Provider passed the loopback communication test. info Connectivity is valid for all Winsock service providers. Wireless Diagnostic Wireless - Service disabled Wireless - User SSID action User input required: Specify network name or SSID Wireless - First time setup info The Wireless Network name (SSID) to which the user would like to connect = RodSof Wifi. Wireless - Radio off info Valid IP address detected: 192.168.0.10 Wireless - Out of range Wireless - Hardware issue Wireless - Novice user Wireless - Ad-hoc network Wireless - Less preferred Wireless - 802.1x enabled Wireless - Configuration mismatch Wireless - Low SNR Network Adapter Diagnostic Network location detection info Using home Internet connection Network adapter identification info Network connection: Name=Local Area Connection 2, Device=Realtek RTL8168C(P)/8111C(P) PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet NIC, MediaType=LAN, SubMediaType=LAN info Network connection: Name=Wireless USB, Device=NETGEAR WG111v2 54Mbps Wireless USB 2.0 Adapter, MediaType=LAN, SubMediaType=WIRELESS info Both Ethernet and Wireless connections available, prompting user for selection action User input required: Select network connection info Wireless connection selected Network adapter status info Network connection status: Connected HTTP, HTTPS, FTP Diagnostic HTTP, HTTPS, FTP connectivity info FTP (Active): Successfully connected to ftp.microsoft.com. warn HTTP: Error 12007 connecting to www.microsoft.com: The server name or address could not be resolved warn HTTP: Error 12002 connecting to www.hotmail.com: The operation timed out warn HTTPS: Error 12002 connecting to www.passport.net: The operation timed out warn HTTPS: Error 12002 connecting to www.microsoft.com: The operation timed out error Could not make an HTTP connection. error Could not make an HTTPS connection.

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  • I can't work locally unless connected to the internet - how to fix?

    - by Rodney
    Hi, In Firefox, when I am disconnected from the net, I want to work locally on my local IIS server (Win XP, Firefox 3.5.10). I do NOT have Work Offline checked but FF says that it cannot find my site (ie. the message from FF if you try to access an online site offline) This applies to any localhost URL. I tried 127.0.0.1 and checked my Host file - that does not work either. If I check Work Offline then it shows the Firefox message that it cannot be reached because I have Work Offline checked. Unchecking it does not help. Then - I load up Safari, copy and paste the URL into that browser and it connects to my development localhost site. It is not just browser caching as I can log in etc. So Firefox will not let me develop locally unless I am connected to the internet, which is a problem. Suggestions please?

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  • How to pass an argument to a Windows Scheduled Task with spaces in it

    - by Rodney
    I need to set up a Windows Scheduled Task. It accepts 1 parameter/argument which is a path and can contain spaces. My Scheduled task does not work - it "breaks" the parameter up at the first space. If I run it in the Command Prompt I can just wrap the argument in " " and it works fine, however, this does not work in the Scheduled Task UI. e.g. C:\Program Files\xyz\FTP File Transfer\FTPFileTransferTask.exe "C:\Program Files\xyz\The Interface\Folder Path" I have tried wrapping the argument with " " ' ' [ ] () and have tried filling in the spaces with %20, ~1 etc. with no luck. I know of one solution to make a bat file and use " " around my argument but I don't want to add more complexity. I tried it on Windows 7 and Windows 2008 Server and both failed. There seems to be no discussions on this?

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  • SharpFFmpeg dll references

    - by Rodney Burton
    Looking at SharpFFmpeg project (c# interop library for ffmpeg) I noticed it references avcodec.dll and avformat.dll. What I have are libavcodec.dll and libavformat.dll. Are these the same and if not where do the non-lib versions come from?

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  • Metro UsernameToken Policy

    - by Rodney
    I created a web services client prototype using api's available in weblogic 10.3. I've been told I need to use Metro 2.0 instead (it's already being used for other projects). The problem I have encounter is that the WSDL does not include any Security Policy information but a UsernameToken is required for each method call. In weblogic I was able to write my own policy xml file and instantiate my service with it (see below), however I can not seem to figure out how to do the same using Metro. Policy.xml <?xml version="1.0"?> <wsp:Policy xmlns:wsp="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2004/09/policy" xmlns:sp="http://docs.oasis-open.org/ws-sx/ws-securitypolicy/200512"> <sp:SupportingTokens> <wsp:Policy> <sp:UsernameToken sp:IncludeToken="http://docs.oasis-open.org/ws-sx/ws-securitypolicy/200512/IncludeToken/AlwaysToRecipient"> <wsp:Policy> <sp:WssUsernameToken10/> <sp:HashPassword/> </wsp:Policy> </sp:UsernameToken> </wsp:Policy> </sp:SupportingTokens> </wsp:Policy> Client.java (Weblogic) ClientPolicyFeature cpf = new ClientPolicyFeature(); InputStream asStream = WebServiceSoapClient.class.getResourceAsStream("Policy.xml"); cpf.setEffectivePolicy(new InputStreamPolicySource(asStream)); try { webService = new WebService(new URL("http://192.168.1.10/WebService/WebService.asmx?wsdl"), new QName("http://testme.com", "WebService")); } catch ( MalformedURLException e ) { e.printStackTrace(); } WebServiceSoap client = webService.getWebServiceSoap(new WebServiceFeature[] {cpf}); List<CredentialProvider> credProviders = new ArrayList<CredentialProvider>(); String username = "user"; String password = "pass"; CredentialProvider cp = new ClientUNTCredentialProvider(username.getBytes(), password.getBytes()); credProviders.add(cp); Map<String, Object> rc = ((BindingProvider) client).getRequestContext(); rc.put(WSSecurityContext.CREDENTIAL_PROVIDER_LIST, credProviders); ... I am able to generate my Proxy classes using Metro however I can not figure out how to configure it to send the UsernameToken. I have attempted several different examples from the web which have not worked. Any help would be appreciated.

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  • Multiple WCF calls for a single ASP.NET page load

    - by Rodney Burton
    I have an existing asp.net web application I am redesigning to use a service architecture. I have the beginnings of an WCF service which I am able to call and perform functions with no problems. As far as updating data, it all makes sense. For example, I have a button that says Submit Order, it sends the data to the service, which does the processing. Here's my concern: If I have an ASP.NET page that shows me a list of orders (View Orders page), and at the top I have a bunch of drop down lists for order types, and other search criteria which is populated by querying different tables from the database (lookup tables, etc). I am hoping to eventually completely decouple the web application from the DB, and use data contracts to pass information between the BLL, the SOA, and the web app. With that said, how can I reduce the # of WCF calls needed to load my "View Orders" page? I would need to make 1 call get the list of orders, and 1 call for each drop down list, etc because those are populated by individual functions in my BLL. Is it good architecture to create a web service method that returns back a specialized data contract that consists of everything you would need to display a View Orders page, in 1 shot? Something like this pseudocode: public class ViewOrderPageDTO { public OrderDTO[] Orders { get; set; } public OrderTypesDTO[] OrderTypes { get; set; } public OrderStatusesDTO[] OrderStatuses { get; set; } public CustomerListDTO[] CustomerList { get; set; } } Or is it better practice in the page_load event to make 5 or 6 or even 15 individual calls to the SOA to get the data needed to load the page? Therefore, bypassing the need for specialized wcf methods or DTO's that conglomerate other DTO? Thanks for your input and suggestions.

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