.Net Scraps

Changing the design of DotNetScraps

rahul@dotnetscraps.com (rahul) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:26:06 +0500

I thought of doing this many times, but due to the kind of lazy bum that I am… I kept on procrastinating it (until today). And yes, thanks to Vivek for pointing out that the design really isn’t as good as it could be. So, from a site that used to look like this till today, will look as you are looking now. If you are in an RSS Feed reader… this is what you need to click on.

Please feel to pass on any constructive feedback at rahul@dotnetscraps.com. I am not a designer, but with whatever limited abilities I have, I will try my best. And yes, do click on Ads, even if you choose not to click on any articles

Cheers,
Rahul

Quote of the day:
Just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do doesn't mean it's useless. - Thomas A. Edison

MOSS 2007 – Step by Step – Part 9

Rahul@dotnetscraps.com (Rahul) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 21:56:00 +0500

MOSS 2007 – Step by Step – Table of Content

In this post, we’ll install POP3 email and configure Outlook to send/receive email. This will make enable us to test MOSS 2007 email functions.

    Switch to the machine AS. Click Start –> Control Panel –> Add/Remove Programs
    Click Add/Remove Windows Components.
    Select E-mail Services and click Next

    You may be prompted for installation media, insert it and click Next.
    Click Finish when prompted.

    Select Start > Administrative Tools > POP3 Service

    Right click on AS, and select Properties.
    Make it look like the following… and click OK

    In the right pane, select… Start POP3 Service

    Right click on AS and select New –> Domain

    Type dotnetscraps.com and click OK.

    In the left pane, expand AS and select dotnetscraps.com. Click Add Mailbox link in the right pane.

    Type Administrator in Add Mailbox dialog and click OK.

    You will get a prompt as follows…

    That’s pretty much it. You have a fully functional POP3 server.

Next step would be to configure Microsoft Outlook. Let’s begin..

    If you have been following instructions from this site, you would have Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 already installed on machine AS. Click Start –> All Programs –> Microsoft Office –> Microsoft Office Outlook 2007    Click Next

    Select Yes and click Next.

    Select Manually configure server settings or additional server types, and click Next.

    Select Internet E-mail and click Next.

    Enter the following information…

    Open IIS Manager and ensure Default SMTP Virtual Server is started.

    Click on Test Account Settings…

    If everything goes well, you should see the following… (click Close –> Next –> Finish)

    Outlook will open and you will see a Welcome email…

     CONGRATULATIONS!!! You have successfully installed POP3 and configured your Outlook to send/receive mails for Administrator account.

So far, things have been more or less sequential. Going forward, I will show you the features of SharePoint and share some tips and tricks. In the next post, we will create a new Web Site (or a Web Application as it is called in SharePoint terminology).

We will discuss about it in the next post. Stay tuned…

-Rahul

Quote of the day:
The brain is a wonderful organ. It starts working the moment you get up in the morning and does not stop until you get into the office. - Robert Frost

MOSS 2007 – Step by Step – Part 8

Rahul@dotnetscraps.com (Rahul) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 08:40:00 +0500

MOSS 2007 – Step by Step – Table of Content

In this post, we’ll upgrade our existing farm – MOSS SP1 with April CU to MOSS SP2 with June CU. We’ll also install a patch which fixes the trial issue. Once done with installation, I will show you how to verify if all the patches and Service Packs has been installed correctly.

    So let’s first learn how we check the current version of SharePoint.
    Open Start –> All Programs –> Microsoft Office Server –> SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration
    Switch to Operations tab –> Servers in Farm. This will show you all the servers in the farm with the version information



    Another way of figuring out about versions is to issue the following SQL Query for any content database. Select * from dbo.versions

    Yet another way to verify the versions and successful/unsuccessful install is to check it through Add/Remove Programs. Ensure that Show Updates checkbox is checked below.

    All the three screenshots so far were of MOSS SP1 with April CU.
    I want to install WSS SP2 followed with MOSS 2007 SP2 along with the patch that fixes trial issue.
    The first command I would run on WFE1, WFE2 and AS is iisreset /stop
    This is to ensure that no one is accessing any of the website while we update the farm.
    I have already downloaded and extracted SP2 and June CU. The idea is to install it in the following order.
    Just started binary installation of WSS SP2 on WFE1, WFE2 and AS

    On every machine, once SP2 is installed you will be prompted with a wizard, click Cancel instead of Next.

    It will give you another message box, click Yes.

    Once done with WSS SP2 installation on all the machines, start with MOSS SP2 installation.

    Once done with MOSS SP2 installation, you will get this dialog. Click Cancel again.

    Press Yes.

    Now that you are done with WSS SP2, and MOSS SP2 let’s fix the Trial Issue by installing another patch.

    Okay, easy part done. Next step is not really hard, but somehow I always get butterflies when I do it. Anyways, since this is my VM I am not really worrying as much. If you are doing it in production, you better plan the update on a non-production farm, and test your SharePoint to ensure after SP2 to ensure there are no surprises. BEFORE you proceed, you MUST have a proper backup (if it is an existing farm).
    Start with AS machine.
    Start –> Run –> Type %moss%\bin\psconfigui.exe –> Click OK
    Press Next, then click Yes

    Press Next and click OK on the next prompt.

    Notice that it would say “Initiating the upgrade sequence…” Wait until the wizard completes. If it is an existing server farm, it may take a long time. Be prepared and don’t start PSConfigUI on all the WFEs at once!

    Wait until the wizard finishes.
    In case there are some issues, %moss%\LOGS\Upgrade.log is your friend. There are other ULS Logs created as well which can be helpful.
    Great, in my case it is successful, as you can see below…

    Switch over to WFE1. Repeat the steps above starting from the following…

Start –> Run –> Type %moss%\bin\psconfigui.exe –> Click OK

    Wait until the upgrade finishes on WFE1. Once done, switch over to WFE2 and repeat the steps for PSConfigUI.exe
    After configuration is completed, you will find the information about SP2 in Add/Remove programs inside Control Panel.

    If, by chance you would have forgotten patch 971620, because of SP2 your office setup will become Trial and to get rid of this problem install you will need to provide the Product Key and click OK

    Final step now is to get June CU installed on this farm.
    Installation Order in which I am doing it is as follows…

    1. IISRESET /stop on all the servers
    2. June CU – WSS on all the servers – only binaries (Configuration wizard should not be executed)

    3. June CU – MOSS on all the servers – only binaries (Configuration wizard should not be executed)

    4. Run PSConfigUI.exe on one of the servers – AS – Wait till it finishes
    At this point, if you have been following my blog posts, you MUST do something EXTRA. This may not be required if you have already created some applications. But right now, since I have not created any Web Applications yet, if try to upgrade any of my WFE machines it will fail…

The error in Upgrade.log will read like this…

Don’t worry, this is by design (or design flaw if like to call it). It is happening primarily since there are no web applications created and you don’t have a web.config. What next?

On your WFE1 and WFE2 machine go to c:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\web server extensions\12\template\layouts… and copy/paste the web.config from \\as\c$\program files\common files\microsoft shared\web server extensions\12\template\layouts

    5. Now, run PSConfigUI.exe one by one on all the remaining servers. My experience with setup was not good when I tried running the PSConfigUI on all the machines at one shot. So, I personally prefer doing it sequentially. I don’t even touch any other machine unless one machine is completely done.
    Notice, that in the versions table for SharePoint databases, there will be one more entry for June CU – 12.0.0.6510

    Central Administration –> Operations –> Servers in Farm should now show…

    Awesome, we have just updated our Web Farm with the latest Cumulative Update available – June CU.
    I believe, by now you would have become pretty comfortable in setting up a MOSS farm.

In the next few posts, we will configure our farm and I will tell you more about different features of MOSS 2007. The immediate next step would be to setup POP3 email and configure Outlook to send/receive email.

We will discuss about it in the next post. Stay tuned…

-Rahul

Quote of the day:
The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work. - Richard Bach

MOSS 2007 – Step by Step – Part 7

rahul@dotnetscraps.com (rahul) — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 15:18:00 +0500

MOSS 2007 – Step by Step – Table of Content

In this post, we’ll create a SharePoint farm. AS will be the Application Server, and it will also double as SQL server. Apart from that, AS will also host Central Administration Tool. As I have already discussed earlier, having SQL on an Application Server is not scalable and it shouldn’t be the case in real production scenario and we must have a separate SQL cluster at least. Anyways, disclaimers aside… let’s have some action.

    Switch to AS machine.
    Click Start –> All Programs –> Microsoft Office Server –> SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration
    Click Next.

    Click Yes

    Select No, I want to create a new server farm. Click Next.

    Type in the following…

    Change the port number. Click Next.

    Review, and click Next. Notice that Advanced Settings button is disabled.

    Post-Setup configuration continues…

    PLEASE WAIT, until the configuration completes! Click Finish.

     You will see an Internet Explorer instance spawn up showing you the Central Administration. Great!!!

     Before we complete the farm setup, do a small little thing for all the servers.
     Right Click My Computers –> Properties
     Select Advanced Tab –> Environment Variables –> Click New button in User Variables for Administrator

     Type the following…

        Variable name: moss
        Variable value: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12



     Click OK, thrice.
     Create this moss variable name on WFE1, WFE2 and AS. This is a very special folder and is also known as 12 hive.
     Switch to WFE1. We have to add WFE1 and WFE2 to the same farm.
     Start –> Run –> Type %moss%\bin\psconfigui.exe –> hit Enter
     Click Next. And Click Yes to the message box.

     Select Yes, I want to connect to an existing server farm. We are doing this since we have a farm created already in the last few steps. Click Next.

     Type the Database Server Name AS and click Retrieve Database Names button. Key in the password (pass@word1) and click Next

     Post Setup Configuration wizard will continue…

     Now switch to WFE2 and repeat the same steps.
     Wait until the wizard completes the configuration on both WFE1 and WFE2.

     After you hit Finish, this time you will see all the machines in Central Administration web page.

     Congratulations!!! Your SharePoint Farm has been setup!!!!!

Right now, I am shutting down all the machines so that a back up can be taken. I will call this backup… “Fresh and Working SharePoint Farm with SP1 and April CU” If something goes drastically bad with my virtual machines, I will restore it from the backup. Virtual machine rocks, seriously!!!!!!!!!

Next step would be to setup SP2 and June CU.

We will discuss about it in the next post. Stay tuned…

-Rahul

Quote of the day:
I have such poor vision I can date anybody. - Garry Shandling

MOSS 2007 – Step by Step – Part 6

rahul@dotnetscraps.com (rahul) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 12:52:00 +0500

MOSS 2007 – Step by Step – Table of Content

In this post, we’ll create a couple of accounts that are required for SharePoint in order to make it talk to the SQL Server and other Administrative actions. Refer to this article if you want to learn more about different accounts.

Two domain accounts that we are going to create and configure are…

Moss Administrator’s account name : dotnetscraps\MossAdmin
SQL Server service account : dotnetscraps\SQLAdmin

    Switch to the machine DC.
    Click Start –> Run –> Type dsa.msc and hit Enter.
    Switch to Users

    Right Click Users –> Select New –> User

    Type in the following and click Next.

    Make the following changes (I am using Password as pass@word1) and click Next, Finish.

    Once again, Right Click Users –> Select New –> User
    Type in the following and click Next.

    Make the following changes (I am using Password as pass@word1) and click Next, Finish.

    The accounts are created, let’s give it appropriate permission in SQL Server.
    Switch to AS machine, and open SQL Server Management Studio
    Connect to the Database server by click Connect.

    In the left pane, expand Security –> Right click Logins –> Select New Login…

    Click the Search button

    Type dotnetscraps\sqladmin and click Check Names button

    Click OK.

    Ensure Windows Authentication is checked. Switch to Server Roles in the left pane.

    Select dbcreator and securityadmin. Click OK.

     Now, let’s take care of MossAdmin account.
     You need to do this in all the machines AS, WFE1 and WFE2.
     Right Click on My Computer and select Manage.
     Expand Groups. Double click Administrators. Then click on Add… button.

     Type mossadmin and click Check Names button. Click Ok.

     PLEASE DO IT ON ALL THE MACHINES if you want to avoid unpleasant surprises later on
     We are all set now. Very soon we’ll have a fully functional web farm which has Network Load balancing enabled and all the accounts setup. All the hard work that we have done so far will pay off in the next post when you see SharePoint farm up and running.

Next step would be to create a SharePoint farm and launch Central Administration Tool.

We will discuss about it in the next post. Stay tuned…

-Rahul

Quote of the day:
If at first you don't succeed, find out if the loser gets anything. - Bill Lyon

MOSS 2007 – Step by Step – Part 5

Rahul@dotnetscraps.com (Rahul) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 15:32:00 +0500

MOSS 2007 – Step by Step – Table of Content

In this post, we’ll install MOSS binaries on WFE1, WFE2 and AS. Please keep in mind that there are 3 phases of installing SharePoint.

1. Install the SharePoint Binaries on all the machines which you wish to use (in our case WFE1, WFE2 and AS)
2. Use PSConfig or PSConfigUI to configure the farm (later)
3. Use Central Administration Tool to do the maintenance and “real” work with SharePoint. (later)

Before we do anything else, let’s install SQL 2005 and Office 2007 on AS. Ideally, you should have a separate cluster where you would install SQL, but I will make an exception and simply install it on AS, since this machine for me would have minimum load. I will be using AS for three different purposes, MOSS Application Server, SQL Server and Office Client machine.

Okay are you done with installation of SQL and Office? Yes?? Then proceed.

Right now, we will install only SharePoint binaries. Installing SharePoint is like installing any other Software. You get a DVD, ISO, Share etc… double click on setup.exe and click next, next, next… you got the picture, right? Although, there are some finer nuances to SharePoint installation and hence this post. This is especially because you would normally work with more than one machine and you would like all of the machines to be at the same patch level.

Let’s say you have installed SharePoint from an ISO, and you want to install a few patches/hotfixes on all the machines. Don’t you think it would be a better idea to have the setup.exe also apply all the patches at one shot, so that you don’t have to install the patches one by one again? For this kind of setup to happen you need to create something called a “Slipstream” build. That’s exactly what we will do today so that we have all the MOSS machines setup and patched at the same level (from binaries perspective).

I’ll start with creating an ISO file. I personally use UltraISO, you can use any software you prefer. Your steps may differ from mine, but the idea is same.

    Create a folder. I will call it MOSS
    Since I have MOSS 2007 SP1 in a DVD, I will need to copy everything inside MOSS folder that I just created.     Notice that there is an Updates folder. This is the place where all the patches and cumulative updates will go.

     For more details refer to Create an installation source that includes software updates
     If you are doing it manually, you must ensure that the order is correct.
     I have downloaded April CU (I am doing this just for fun, I could have downloaded SP2 and June CU at one shot and I would have had the latest MOSS installation as on 9th September, 2009. Once I am done with the setup of MOSS SP1 with April CU, I will show you how to upgrade to SP2 and June or August CU)
     Delete Wsssetup.dll because it may conflict with Svrsetup.dll. Having both Wsssetup.dll and Svrsetup.dll in the updates folder for a slipstreamed installation source is not supported
     So far I have downloaded April CU for WSS and MOSS. After that, I have extracted them all in the MOSS\Updates folder. This build can now be referred to as slipstream. We will use the same build to install SharePoint on all the machines.
     Let me create an ISO file before I begin. Okay, I am done, and I’ve mounted the ISO on my AS virtual machine.
     The moment I try doing setup for SharePoint on AS, it shouts back saying…

     Download Redistributable package from Microsoft and set it up on all the machine, AS, WFE1 and WFE2.
     I am done with .NET Framework 3.0 installation, let’s begin with SharePoint now.
     No errors this time… Good…

     Enter your product key… and click Continue

     Accept the agreement and click continue…

     Choose Advanced.

     Select Complete. If you choose Complete, later on, if you wish you may choose to switch roles between different servers of a farm. Thus an Application Server can serve the purpose of Web Front End, and vice versa. If you don’t choose Complete, and later decide to switch roles, if you will be required to un-install and re-install SharePoint. Stand-alone install installs and configures SQL Server 2005 express edition for you at one shot. It won’t be much of a multiple computer farm if you choose to do this. Click Install Now.

     Installation will begin…

     Notice the sweet little “Applying Updates” phase… this is why we took so much pain. But now that the slipstream is ready, we just have to repeat these steps on WFE1 and WFE2.

     Once done, you will get the following screen… Right now, UNCHECK the checkbox, and click close.

     Repeat the steps above to install SharePoint binaries on remaining machines WFE1 and WFE2.

Great!!! Now you have SharePoint binaries installed on all the machines.

Next step would be to configure the farm using PSConfigUI.

We will discuss about it in the next post. Stay tuned…

-Rahul

Quote of the day:
The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think. - Edwin Schlossberg

MOSS 2007 – Step by Step – Part 4

rahul@dotnetscraps.com (rahul) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 21:19:00 +0500

MOSS 2007 – Step by Step – Table of Content

In this post, we’ll enable Network Load Balancing between WFE1 and WFE2 and ensure it works for IIS Default Web Site.

    Open Local Area Connection properties on both WFE1 and WFE2… and select Network Load Balancing.

    Click Properties. Type in the following IP addresses (on both WFE1 and WFE2)… and confirm that Multicast is selected

    Switch to Host Parameters tab on WFE1… and type in the following. Set the Priority to 1.

    Switch to Host Parameters tab on WFE2… and type in the following. Set the Priority to 2.

    Switch back to WFE1 now. Start –> Run –> Type nlbmgr.exe
    Right click on Network Load Balancing Clusters and select New Cluster

    Ensure that the screen looks like this…

    10.0.0.10 is a Virtual IP in the screen above. After you have confirmed all the settings, click Next thrice until you see the following dialog… Type Host = WFE1 and click Connect

    Click Next… confirm the parameters… and click Finish.

    After a few seconds, you should see that the Node is added and it should become green.

    Right click on nlb.dotnetscraps.com and select “Add Host to cluster”.

    Type WFE2 and click connect. Since we are working with images, you will see an issue as follows.

    Go to Device Manager and uninstall Network Adapters from WFE2. Reboot and reinstall the adapter when prompted.

    Once the driver is re-installed, repeat the steps for WFE2.
    This time, if you try to connect to WFE2, you should be able to.

    Click Next and select Priority to 2. Click Finish

    If everything goes smoothly, you should have a cluster setup and working fine by now…

    Go to the machine – DC and open Internet Explorer.
    Browse to http://10.0.0.10/pagerror.gif and you should be able to see the graphic.

    On your WFE1 machine, you will have full control to the end clients… you can Start, Stop, Drainstop, Suspend and Resume all your traffic now.

    If you stop both WFE1 and WFE2, you would see an error message.

    The moment you start any server (WFE1 or WFE2), the traffic starts flowing.
    Now that we have NLB setup, we will finally proceed towards SharePoint installation.

Next step would be to install SQL and SharePoint binaries on all the machines WFE1, WFE2 and AS.

We will discuss about it in the next post. Stay tuned…

-Rahul

Quote of the day:
I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it. - Thomas Jefferson

MOSS 2007 – Step by Step – Part 3

rahul@dotnetscraps.com (rahul) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 10:54:00 +0500

MOSS 2007 – Step by Step – Table of Content

In this post, we’ll make two more copies of WFE1 called AS and WFE2. After that, we’ll join them in the same domain.

This post will cover part 3.

     Copy the VHD for WFE1, and paste it in two different folders with name WFE2 and AS.
     Create two new Virtual Machines, WFE2 and AS and attach VHD of WFE2 and AS respectively
     Next few steps have to be done on both the machines. I will type out the instructions ONLY for WFE2. The only difference for machine AS would be the IP address. Call it 10.0.0.4
     Start up the machine WFE2. Change the TCP/IP settings to…

     So we have started this server as…

     Time now to rename the server and get a new SID. Use the same utility newsid and change the name of this machine to WFE2.
     Select Random SID, click Next

     Rename the computer to WFE2, and click Next twice

     If you are following along, you will be denied access while trying to logon with the following message…

     Log on to local computer.

     Disjoin it from the domain. Click Change.

     Specify any workgroup name and click ok. Reboot.

     Join it back to the dotnetscraps domain and reboot.

     So, we started with this…

    And now, we have this…

    Not that it matters a lot, but I like to keep things clean, and at this point we don’t have the IUSR names clean in WFE2. We will change it as per this post.

     Once done, repeat the same steps for AS.
     So once again, we have started with this…

     And now, we have this…

     Now, I have four machines DC, WFE1, WFE2, AS and I am almost done with the pre-work before I start MOSS 2007.

Next step would be to enable Network Load Balancing for WFE1 and WFE2 and ensuring that it works for IIS.

We will discuss about it in the next post. Stay tuned…

-Rahul

Quote of the day:
By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher. - Socrates

MOSS 2007 – Step by Step – Table of Contents

rahul@dotnetscraps.com (rahul) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 08:21:16 +0500

This post will contain links to all the other posts in this series, so that I don’t have to copy/paste them in every post.

1. Start with a Windows 2k3 – R2 – SP2 plain vanilla machine and promote it to a Domain Controller – dotnetscraps.com
2. Create a machine WFE1, join it to dotnetscraps domain. Install IIS, SMTP and .NET 2.0
3. Make two more copies of WFE1 called AS and WFE2. Join them in the same domain
4. Enable Network Load Balancing between WFE1 and WFE2 and ensure it works for IIS Default Web Site
5. Install SharePoint binaries on all the machines AS, WFE1 and WFE2 along with Microsoft Office 2007 and SQL
6. Create accounts required for SharePoint in order to make it talk to the SQL Server and other Administrative tasks
7. Create a SharePoint farm using Post Setup Configuration Utility
8. Upgrade an existing farm to SP2 and latest CU (June CU)
9. Install POP3 email and configure Outlook to send/receive mail

More to come… stay tuned…

Hope this helps,
Rahul

PS. If a link doesn’t work, don’t worry… they may be in “Draft” mode, and not published.

Quote of the day:
Those who can laugh without cause have either found the true meaning of happiness or have gone stark raving mad. - Norm Papernick

MOSS 2007 – Step by Step – Part 2

rahul@dotnetscraps.com (rahul) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 13:23:00 +0500

MOSS 2007 – Step by Step – Table of Content

In this post we’ll create a machine WFE1, join it to dotnetscraps domain. Install IIS, SMTP and .NET 2.0

    Time to setup up a new machine – WFE1 – (Win 2k3 – R2 – SP2)!!!
    Since this is just a copy/paste of the same VHD, we need to change the name of the machine and SID. There is a fix, although unsupported – read through the link carefully and don’t be hasty!! I am following this path, because I don’t have to ask for support (since this is just a demo) . If you are following along, you are creating such a farm to do the same thing – i.e, LEARN!
    Drag and Drop this newsid.exe to the new machine and run it. Rename the machine to WFE1. It will take some time to replace the existing SID with a Random SID.

    Open WFE1 Settings. Select Networking –> Change Adapter 1 to Internal Network.

     Click Start –> All Programs -> Control Panel –> Network Connections –> Local Area Connection

     Click Properties. Select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and click Properties.

     Change it to following…

     Click on Ok, then click on Close.
     At this point, you should have a machine with configuration as follows…

     If you try pinging 10.0.0.1, you should be able to!
     Let’s add this machine to the domain – dotnetscraps.
     Select My Computer –> Properties –> Computer Name –> Change

     Select Domain and type dotnetscraps
     Provide user name (dotnetscraps\administrator) and password to join WFE1 machine to domain and hit enter. Wait for a while, and you should be greeted successfully. Click on Ok and restart when prompted.

     So we started with this…

    And now we have this…

     Try to ping DC from command prompt in WFE1 and you should be able to see a response.

     Let’s install IIS and .NET 2.0 on this machine.
     Go to Control Panel –> Add Remove Programs –> Add Remove Windows Components.
     Double click Application Server –> Check ASP.NET
     Double click Internet Information Services –> Check SMTP Service
     Select Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 and click Next.
     Ensure that IIS is working fine by browsing any page. Once confirmed Shut down this machine – WFE1

Next step would be to make 2 more copies of this machine WFE1 (as WFE2 and AS) and get them on the same network. The idea is to get Network Load Balancing working for WFE1 and WFE2.

We will discuss about it in the next post. Stay tuned…

-Rahul

Quote of the day:
Great people talk about ideas, average people talk about things, and small people talk about wine. - Fran Lebowitz

MOSS 2007 – Step by Step – Part 1

rahul@dotnetscraps.com (rahul) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 20:28:00 +0500

I am planning to write the next few posts to show you how you can setup a farm with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 – from scratch! I am currently working with Windows 7 with Virtual PC. I will be using only Virtual PCs and I intend to create four machines as follows…

DC – This will be my Domain Controller and SQL Server.

WFE1 – First Web Front End. I will also configure NLB on the same machine.

WFE2 – Second Web Front End.

AS – My Application Server that contains Indexing and other Services. This will also act as my client machine since this will have MS Office 2007 installed on it.

So, let’s begin…

I am assuming that you know how to work with Virtual Hard Disks and Virtual PC. I am also assuming that you have appropriate software with you.

REQUIREMENT

I have ONLY 1 VHD file to begin with. It is a plain vanilla Win 2k3 – R2 with SP 2.

First of all, let’s change the IP. Go to All Programs –> Control Panel –> Network Connections –> Local Area Connection. Click on Properties. Type in the following IP addresses and click Ok.

And by the way, I use BgInfo to show the details. Notice that in the screen shot below, the machine name is Win2K3

Today, I will rename this server (since it is called Win2k3 in the VHD that I created) and call it DC. If you have a machine with IIS installed, you may follow this post to rename the IIS server. I have no intentions to install IIS on my DC, and hence for me renaming the machine should be straightforward. Once done with the rename, I will promote this machine to a domain called “DotNetScraps”

    Rename the machine if required and reboot.
    Start –> Run –> type DCPromo –> Ok

    Click Next twice
    Select first option “Domain controller for a new domain” and click Next.

    Select Domain in a new forest and click Next

    Select No, just install and configure DNS of this computer and click Next

    Type dotnetscraps.com in the textbox and click Next

    Leave the default… and click Next – 4 times.

    Specify a password… and click Next Twice.

    You will see an Active Directory Installation Wizard. It may ask you for a disk…

    Provide the path, and let it complete. Click Finish and Restart your machine.

    Keep in mind that in your Virtual Machine settings, you must select Internal Network for Networking.

    Next time when you login, select dotnetscraps.

    So, we started with…

    And now we have…

    That was easy!
    Next step would be to create three more machines… WFE1, WFE2 and AS and bring them on the same network.

We will discuss about it in the next post. Stay tuned…

-Rahul

Quote of the day:
We are born charming, fresh and spontaneous and must be civilized before we are fit to participate in society. - Judith Martin

DBCC SHRINKDB – Understanding Math behind it……

guru@dotnetscraps.com (guru) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 11:30:25 +0500

This is in response to the question about detailing how DBCC SHRINKDB works. The confusion typically arises from the fact that in DBCC SHRINKDB, Target Percentage is not Target Size that database should be shrunk to but rather Target Percent Free Space in Database Post Shrink Operation.

It needs one more reminder that DBCC SHRINKDB or SHRINKFILE will induce fragmentation and are not recommended in Production Systems that typically backend OLTP type of data usage patterns.

For Syntax and Books Online explanation please refer below link:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa258287(SQL.80).aspx

How we approach before we plan for ShrinkDB:

Think of each data file (assuming there are multiple data files) in the database as 100%. In the data file there will

* User Data, Meta Data all falling under Data.

* Free space for future use for both User Data and Meta Data.

Sum of these should be 100% (irrespective of the size of Data file)

To reiterate further, say we have a database of 100 GB with 30 GB Data and 70 GB Free, it is 30% filled with Data and 70% Free Space.

When we try to Shrink using DBCC SHRINKDB command (not ShrinkFile), we are only Shrinking Free Space (%) from Data File and we are not Shrinking Data Portion.

So, in above example our data % was 30 and if DBCC SHRINKDB was run with 80% as Target Percent, DBCC SHRINKDB would not shrink database but would return a message that it could not shrink. Reason being

30% of Data + 80% of Free spaces amounts 110% which is not mathematically possible.

Math behind calculations:

As regards to exact math, we tried with different permutations and came up with best possible match that suits results. May be a Microsoft team can only answer that.. but our postulate is something as below..

D = Data Size in the Data File.

X = Target Data File Size post Shrink Percentage.

P = Percentage Specified in DBCC SHRINKDB operation.

D + (X * P / 100) = X

Say for example in our case

Data File is 10 MB with 6 MB Data and 4 MB free Space. If we Shrink this Database with DBCC SHRINKDB with Target Percentage of 25% then

D (6 MB) + X (we do not know this Yet) * P (25) / 100 = X

=> 6 + .25X = X => 6 = .75 X = 8 MB.

So post Shrink Operation data file size should be 8 MB.

Now let us say we shrunk Database with DBCC SHRINKDB with Target of say 50% (Remember our Free space was only 40%). As per our math

=> 6 + .5X = X => 6 = .5X = 12 MB (File should be expanded and not Shrunk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)) atleast DBCC SHRINKDB does not expand file size for a Shrink Operation.

Disclaimer: This one is fairly accurate for large databases but not for smaller ones.. And we are not sure about

* If such calculations are made in Pages (Database pages of 8KB)

* Converted to Bytes or Kilo Bytes for Calculation Purposes

* Is it Integer Math or Float Maths

Other Things to Keep in Mind:

=> Database can not be shrunk to smaller than it was originally created. Like the mistake once we did, Create a database of 100 GB initial size which was never used and now shrink would not work as it was the size with with database was created.

During the course of working on this article found one interesting UNDOCMENTED DBCC COMMAND which seems very useful. Refer this blog http://blogs.msdn.com/psssql/archive/2008/03/24/how-it-works-dbcc-shrinkdatabase-shrinkfile-tabular.aspx

Getting the proof:

Below are logical steps that would be needed to perform the test

1. Create a Database, 2. Create 3 Tables, 3. Fill the data in these tables in Alternative manner so that data pages from these tables are interleaved, 4. Drop or Truncate 2 of the tables (remember only drop and truncate would enable database to reclaim space from object not delete operations). Shrink Database.

Below Code to Populate Data.. Beware we did wrong by filling too much data consequently had lot of time for coffee

Create Database TestShrinkDatabase
on 
(
   Name = 'TestShrinkDB',
   FileName = 'C:\TestShrinkDB.mdf',
   size = 10 MB
)
log on
(
   Name = 'TestShrinkDB_log',
   FileName = 'C:\TestShrinkDB.ldf',
   size = 10 MB
)
go
Use TestShrinkDatabase
go
--Create Table 1
Create table Test(i char(4000))
go
--Populate Table 1
Declare @i int
Set @i = 1
While @i < 100
Begin
   Insert into Test  Values(@i)
   Set @i = @i  +1
End
--Create Table 2
Create table Test_Dummy_1 (i char(4000))
go
--Populate Table 2
Insert into Test_Dummy_1
select * from Test
--Populate Table 1 again
Declare @i int
Set @i = 101
While @i < 1000
Begin
   Insert into Test  Values(@i)
   Set @i = @i  +1
End
go
--Create and Populate Table 3
Select * into Test_Dummy_2 from Test
go
--Populate Table 2 (Beware of this go 10.. this is what filled up our database)
Insert into Test_Dummy_1
Select * from Test_Dummy_1
go 10
--Populate Table 3 (Beware of this go 10.. this is what filled up our database)
Insert into Test_Dummy_2
Select * from Test_Dummy_2
go 5
--Populate Table 1 again
Insert into Test
Select * from Test
go

To find out database properties we would use

* SP_SpaceUsed, Database Properties Screen Shots, and Database File Properties Screen shots and use Shrink file option not for Shrinking but just for checking Data usage.

Database Properties after Data is loaded:

Output of sp_spaceused:

database_name database_size unallocated space
TestShrinkDatabase 7162.19 MB 0.22 MB

reserved data index_size unused
4701984 KB 4700648 KB 608 KB 728 KB

Database Properties:

Database File Sizes:

We see that Database is around 7 GB (as said we filled too much data and you can reduce if needed) with data file around 4.5 GB and Log file around 2.5 GB.

Post table Drop (Table 2 and Table 3) operation:

Output of SP_Spaceused:

database_name database_size unallocated space
TestShrinkDatabase 7162.19 MB 4091.80 MB

reserved data index_size unused
512200 KB 511464 KB 584 KB 152 KB

Database Properties:

Database File Sizes:

See the UnAllocated space from SP_Spaceused it is around 4 GB and Data only around 511 MB (highlighted in red bold)

As per our calculation we have data around 501 MB and if we Shrink with Target Percent of 50 then

D (501) + .5 X = X ==> 501 = .5 x = 1 GB for Data File.

Shrink with 50%

Post Shrink Operation:

Sp_SpaceUsed:

database_name database_size unallocated space
TestShrinkDatabase 1020.56 MB 500.19 MB

reserved data index_size unused
512192 KB 511464 KB 576 KB 152 KB

Database Properties:

Data Files:

To summarize again, when running DBCC SHRINKDB,

=> Target Percentage is Target free space that needs to be present post shrink operation

=> DBCC ShrinkDB will only Shrink files to their Initial Size (Size specified when creating Database or When Alter Database with different size)

=> Sum of Data Percentage and Free Space Percentage should not be greater than 100%

Hope this article achieves the goal of explaining the how DBCC SHRINKDB works.

Change IIS Server (Machine) name including IUSR and IWAM account

rahul@dotnetscraps.com (rahul) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 17:27:02 +0500

I borrowed a VHD recently with Windows 2003 SP 2 installed. Since I had to rename the name of the machine before I make a networked farm, I thought of writing this post to show how you can take care of renaming of an IIS Server. Yeah, looks and sounds simple but I have a few tips up my sleeve so you may prefer to read on.

To rename a machine is not difficult. Right Click on My Computer –> Properties –> Computer Name –> Change and give a name. Yes, that simple. It will ask for a reboot, do it… and you are done.

Now, let’s say you see a screen like this after you rebooted this and don’t like the IUSR_OldName and IWAM_OLDName… If you delete these accounts or rename it, you will find that as soon as you restart your IIS Admin service, they will be back. Besides, you will not be able to browse the sites that are accessible for Anonymous Users. Before you delete both the IUSR_OLDName and IWAM_OLDName accounts, ensure that your pages are coming up fine with the existing account name.

This is the error that you will get for sites with Anonymous Access…

Don’t worry, this is by design. So how do you take care of this? Before you proceed, take a backup of IIS Metabase.

Right click on your Machine Name in IIS Manager and select properties (see snapshot)–> Enable Direct Metabase Edit and click Ok.

   Open C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv\Metabase.xml in Notepad
   Search for AnonymousUserName and change the value to IUSR_DC (or any name you like) for all instances
   Search for WAMUserName and change the value to IWAM_DC (or any name you like) for all instances
   Save Metabase.xml
   Start –> Run –> Services.msc –> Right click on IIS Admin Service and choose to restart.
   You will find two new accounts with name IUSR_DC and IWAM_DC created for you.

   Browse the site and ensure it works. In case you still have difficulties read this and synchronize your password.

I hope this helps.

Rahul

Quote of the day:
Doing nothing is very hard to do ... you never know when you're finished. - Leslie Nielsen

Insert functionality in GridView – Part 2

rahul@dotnetscraps.com (rahul) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 20:45:07 +0500

In my previous post I have shown that if you have no records in your table and try to bind that table to a grid view, you will get nothing. Not even the header rows. To get rid of this issue, there is a very simple way.

1. Select Edit Templates

2. Switch over to EmptyDataTemplate

3. Drag and drop a Form View control and bind it to the same data source.

4. Change the Default Mode of this Form View to Insert and you should be good to go.

And if this doesn’t suit your bill… “Code”.

Hope this helps,
Rahul

Quote of the day:
Man has to suffer. When he has no real afflictions, he invents some. - Jose Marti

Location of Temporary ASP.NET files in Vista or Windows 7

rahul@dotnetscraps.com (rahul) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 12:11:03 +0500

Ideally, you would see the Temporary ASP.NET files in…

C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Temporary ASP.NET Files

But, if you are working on Vista/Windows 7 and not running Visual Studio as an Administrator, you may find that this location Temporary ASP.NET Files will be empty. Thankfully, the functionality of the web application doesn’t get affected. Nevertheless, if you need to go to the Temporary ASP.NET Files, find it here…

c:\Users\[myuserid]\AppData\Local\Temp\Temporary ASP.NET Files

Hope that helps,
Rahul

Quote of the day:
By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he's wrong. - Charles Wadsworth

Missing Insert functionality in GridView – Part 1

rahul@dotnetscraps.com (rahul) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 12:04:28 +0500

I have never been a very big fan of “drag and drop, do data binding… get your application up in no time, and rejoice” approach, but sometimes when I am really lazy I go that route too. So, today was that day…

I had a very simple requirement. Let’s take a look at the two tables below… one is Course (Master) and the other one is CourseArticle (Detail). My requirement is to use LINQ and see how fast I can make the things work in ASP.NET.

Approach 1 : Using GridView

Step 1. Drag and drop GridView –> Select New Data Source

Step 2. Select LINQ and selected my LINQ Data Context (in my case, it was called quizDataContext)

Step 3. Select Courses. Click on Advanced… button

Step 4. Check all the checkboxes… and click Ok. Then click Finish

Step 5. Here is the final output…

You can see that everything appears just fine, and the page would work flawlessly. Right?? I just tried it with one record (inserted using SQL Management Studio directly) and you can see that I have a simple little page with almost no effort, zero code, and fully working.

Let’s get to the facts now… and start by pressing Delete in the row above. It is not just the ROW which went away… it is the ENTIRE GRID!!!!

How do you take care of such scenarios? My answer will follow in the next post…

Currently, I am more interested in finding out different ways people use to overcome this limitation.

Thanks for your response… in advance!!
Rahul

Quote of the day:
All things are difficult before they are easy. - Dr. Thomas Fuller

Smileys plugin for Windows Live Writer - Update

rahul@dotnetscraps.com (rahul) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 11:56:19 +0500

This has been one of the really famous plug-ins that I wrote a while ago (more than 11K downloads as of 17th June, 2009). The intent was to use smileys in my posts easily from the blogging tool itself. Since I used Microsoft - Windows Live Writer (which IMHO, is the best blog editor currently) I was quite easily attracted by the plug-in model it exposed.

Later on, I created more plug-ins which pretty much uses the same code base, called Fancy Bullets plug-in, and Quotations plug-in.

I don’t want to post this software anywhere else now (earlier, it was…), since it doesn’t give me full control. So, here you go… download, and enjoy!

Once you are done, you should be able to see this in your Windows Live Writer…

Click on it, and you will be shown a list of different smileys…

If you like, you can also add custom smileys (or URLs for future reference)

Hope this helps,
Rahul

Quote of the day:
There is nothing more demoralizing than a small but adequate income. - Edmund Wilson

Quotation Plug-in for Windows Live Writer

rahul@dotnetscraps.com (rahul) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 11:53:14 +0500

If you have been following my posts, you might have noticed that almost all the posts contains a famous quote. Well, searching is not what I do or prefer. Here is the secret, revealed…

I use a simple little plug-in which is gets me a few quotes to select from.

Select any of the quotes and click on Ok. Here is what I just got…

Quote of the day:
It's hard to be nostalgic when you can't remember anything. - Unknown

Pretty simple, right? Okay, go ahead and download it.

Enjoy!

Rahul

Unable to create Database diagrams

rahul@dotnetscraps.com (rahul) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 10:51:17 +0500

Just re-installed Visual Studio 2008 SP1 on my brand new Windows 7 RC, along with SQL Server 2005. I was struggling with the following error for a while, since I wanted to create a Database Diagram.

TITLE: Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio
------------------------------
Database diagram support objects cannot be installed because this database does not have a valid owner. To continue, first use the Files page of the Database Properties dialog box or the ALTER AUTHORIZATION statement to set the database owner to a valid login, then add the database diagram support objects.
------------------------------
BUTTONS: OK
------------------------------

Here is what resolved it for me.

    Right Click on your database, choose properties
    Goto the Files Page
    Enter "sa" in the owner textbox.
    4. Hit OK

Hope this helps,
Rahul

Quote of the day:
Always and never are two words you should always remember never to use. - Wendell Johnson

Screencast Software – Two free ones that I really liked…

rahul@dotnetscraps.com (rahul) — Sat, 23 May 2009 12:13:14 +0500

I have been pretty quiet for the last couple of months. There were two reasons for this hiatus. First, I was getting into a little more nitty-gritty of MOSS 2007 and getting my hands dirty with MOSS Development. Secondly, I was thinking about a new way of sharing the knowledge. Not that writing hurts, but more because it is much easier to show something than type it out.

Taking screen capture using software for demo/training/sharing is nothing new. I personally feel that when it comes to any professional utility, Camtesia is the best (but not free). There are a quite a few of them out there on the net... but a couple of them which I found today from a discussion forum is really worth a mention.

Utility Spotlight:Screen Recorder – Free and very simple to use, outputs WMV file.

Jing for Windows – Free, little more functionality, outputs SWF file, but I found the size of the file to be a little on the higher side (due to better quality images). I have decided against it since I am under privileged when it comes to bandwidth at home and I don’t want to work with big uploads/downloads.

Suit Yourself.

For the time being, I am selecting the former and that means, going forward you can see some screen casts from me in my blogs posts. Stay tuned...

Cheers!

Quote of the day:
There used to be a real me, but I had it surgically removed. - Peter Sellers

Rahul

Sample ASPX page to show security details in ASP.NET

rahul@dotnetscraps.com (rahul) — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 09:50:40 +0500

This may come in handy if you are trying to troubleshoot security related issues in ASP.NET. I had this page posted here, but it was in VB.NET and I have been experiencing some issues with my previous blog site, so I am cross posting it here in C# for future reference. All you have to do is create a page (say security.aspx) and open it up in Notepad. Paste the following code, and you should be good.

<%@ Page Language="C#" %>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<script runat="server">
    protected void btnShowInfo_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        StringBuilder strInformation = new StringBuilder();
        try
        {
            strInformation.Append("");
            strInformation.Append("Http Context = " + GetHTTPContext() + "<BR>");
            strInformation.Append("Windows Identity = " + GetWindowsIdentity() + "<BR>");
            strInformation.Append("Thread Information = " + GetThreadInformation() + "<BR>");
            Response.Write(strInformation);

        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            Response.Write(ex.Message + "<BR>" + ex.StackTrace);
        }
        finally
        {
            strInformation = null;
        }
    }

    private string GetHTTPContext()
    {
        return(HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.Name);
    }

    private string GetWindowsIdentity()
    {
        return(System.Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent().Name);
    }

    private string GetThreadInformation()
    {
        return (System.Threading.Thread.CurrentPrincipal.Identity.Name);
    }
    
</script>

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head id="Head1" runat="server">
    <title>.NET Security Demo</title>
</head>
<body>
    <form id="form1" runat="server">
    <div>
        <asp:Button ID="btnShowInfo" runat="server" Text="Show Information" 
            onclick="btnShowInfo_Click" />
        <BR><HR><B><U>HttpContext</U></B>= HttpContext.Current.User, which returns an IPrincipal object that contains security information for the current web request. This is the authenticated Web client. 
        <BR><B><U>WindowsIdentity</B></U> = WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent(), which returns the identity of the security context of the currently executing Win32 thread. 
        <BR><B><U>Thread</U></B> = Thread.CurrentPrincipal which returns the principal of the currently executing .NET thread which rides on top of the Win32 thread.
        <BR><HR><A href="http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa302377.aspx">Read about the Security Identity Matrix</A>
        <BR><A href="http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa302376.aspx">How does IIS & ASP.NET Processing work</a>!
    </div>
    </form>
</body>
</html>

Let’s take a look at a sample output when you have identity impersonate = false (for a web site with Anonymous authentication in IIS 6)…

Just changing the impersonate to true changes the account to…

Read about the Security Identity Matrix

How does IIS & ASP.NET Processing work

Hope this helps!
Rahul

Win 7 - 4GB installed, but shows only 3GB!!

rahul@dotnetscraps.com (rahul) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 21:46:07 +0500

Honestly, I never noticed it till date, and I was really surprised when I was working with a few Virtual Machines today on my Win 7 Laptop which has 4GB RAM. I was thinking that something must have gone wrong with my laptop. Finally, I did some research and found a few interesting things. First of all, there were a lot of people in forums who were thinking that there is something wrong with their machines, and they have gone to the extent of changing their BIOS settings, plugging out the RAM, etc.

Don’t believe me? Okay, let me show you a few snapshots to clarify...

On my Win 2k3 machine, my System Properties (Right click on My Computer and select properties) looks as follows...

...and the Task Manager’s Performance Tab shows the Memory as follows...

So far so good. That’s what you would expect, right?

Let’s check the output on my Win 7 machine. Oh by the way, just as an FYI... the Win 2k3 machine is running as a Virtual Machine on my Win 7 machine.

System Properties shows the RAM as 4 GB...

...and now the BIG SURPRISE... the Task Manager’s Performance tab...

Crap!! Where is my 1 GB? Who stole that??? That’s the question I believe a lot of people are asking with Win 7. It seems like the same issue is present with Vista as well (I am not sure though). But, I just checked my Windows Server 2008 enterprise, and the output is correct (similar to Win 2k3). Let’s first find out where exactly this 1 GB is! Click on Resource Monitor on the screen and switch to Memory tab.

1027 + 3069 = 4096!!! So that makes sense, and I have just given you an answer.

Unfortunately, I have got quite a few questions which I don’t know the answer yet... and I can feel the pain already. I have to run 3 VM at the same time with just 1 GB each. This was possible easily with Win 2k3, but now it is not possible with the same hardware

Why such a difference from other versions of Windows?
Is there a way to tweak this?
Any side effects of even trying to tweak this (I don’t want any blue screens!)?
And above all, am I missing anything or reading something wrong??

I don’t have any answers to these questions. Do you? Please comment, and let me know if you are seeing the same problem or if you have a solution to this.

Thanks,
Rahul

Quote of the day:
I don't necessarily agree with everything I say. - Marshall McLuhan

System.InvalidOperationException: Sequence contains no elements

rahul@dotnetscraps.com (rahul) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 08:56:00 +0500

While using LINQ, let’s say you decide to do something similar to the following…

    NorthWindDataContext dc = new NorthWindDataContext();
    Product p = dc.Products.First(p1 => p1.ProductName.StartsWith("My New Product"));
    if (p == null)
        return;

    dc.Products.DeleteOnSubmit(p);
    dc.SubmitChanges();
    ShowProducts();

Everything would be fine if you do have a product whose name starts with “My New Product”, but what do you think would happen if that’s not the case? Well surprisingly... you would get an un-handled runtime exception!!!

Exception Details: System.InvalidOperationException: Sequence contains no elements
Source Error:

Line 69:         NorthWindDataContext dc = new NorthWindDataContext();
Line 70: 
Line 71:         Product p = dc.Products.First(p1 => p1.ProductName.StartsWith("My New Product"));
Line 72:         if (p == null)
Line 73:             return;

To get rid of this error, instead of using dc.Products.First, use dc.Products.FirstOrDefault and you should be good!

Happy Coding.
Rahul

Quote of the day:
Few people can see genius in someone who has offended them. - Robertson Davies

Getting back to the normal routine…

rahul@dotnetscraps.com (rahul) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 09:25:31 +0500

Somewhere deep down my heart, I know it doesn’t really matter whether I blog or not. But somehow, my mind says something different... probably, just to make myself feel a little better (yeah, everyone thinks he is special and I am no exception ) Nevertheless, this is one of those posts which I am writing simply because I am fed up of being in the bed for over a 10 days now. I underwent a couple of surgeries this week and trying to get back to my normal routine.

This upper abdomen pain kept on nagging me for almost 7 years now and the diagnosis was fruitless till date. Thankfully, the doctors found the root cause and did the surgery. The recovery is slow, but steady. I think I should be back in business in another few days.

Wish me luck!
Rahul

Quote of the day:
Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. - Thomas A. Edison

Fancy Bullets plugin for Windows Live Writer - Update

rahul@dotnetscraps.com (rahul) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 14:03:05 +0500

For quite some time there were a couple of bugs reported, and I was not able to fix them until today.

First one was a nasty one. Quite a lot of folks reported that the plug-in didn’t work directly. They had to run the Windows Live Writer as Administrator to make the plugin work fine. I have been pretty busy of late, but finally… I have fixed it.

2nd one was reported by lawvol here. I have fixed that too! Thanks Lawvol for letting me know. Please uninstall the existing version from control panel and download the latest version from…

Cheers,
Rahul

Quote of the day:
There's always somebody who is paid too much, and taxed too little - and it's always somebody else. - Cullen Hightower

Windows 7 – Yeah, I joined the bandwagon too…

rahul@dotnetscraps.com (rahul) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 11:24:31 +0500

…and I must say, I am VERY VERY happy that I did Here is what all I absolutely fell in love with…

Windows + T – If you press the Windows Key along with T, you can see the taskbar getting highlighted. Now, you can press T multiple times or use your arrow keys to move to the application that you would like to activate.
Quick Launch is missing – And although I was a very big fan of it, I don’t miss it at all. You have an option to Pin/Unpin the application from the taskbar

    Taskbar looks pretty cool when docked to the left or right of the screen! I finally changed my taskbar’s position and made it auto-hide But all said, the taskbar now is so cool, that you have to experience it. It can’t be told, seriously!!! If you really want to be told, then you should visit this.
    You can now change the applications icon in the Taskbar even while the application is running.
   Click on any icon in the Taskbar and move your mouse to the right… voila… you would see the history. I just clicked on Internet Explorer icon and dragged my mouse to the right to see the history. WOW!!!!

Similarly, doing the same thing with explorer icon reveals the frequent files!

Right click on Windows and click personalize

The first icon above makes the desktop with 1 wallpaper. The other ones give you an option to shuffle the desktop background change periodically.

    I haven’t really benchmarked it, but it feels much snappier. The startup and shutdown time are both lesser than the Vista counterpart.
    Windows + Down for minimize, Windows + Up for maximize, Windows + Left and Windows + Right to dock the current window to the left and right, respectively.
    No more Windows gadget sidebar, gadgets can appear anywhere on the desktop. And the fact that Windows + Space bar gives you a peek at the desktop means now that you can have some gadgets floating around your desktop showing you relevant gadget. I am liking it… seriously. Now, I have no task bar visible all the time (saving me some space), and when I have to see the clock, weather, etc.. all I need to do is, Win + Space (which shows me my gadgets), without minimizing and restoring everything like I used to do earlier with Win+D.

Much better UAC. Yeah, this one was a really welcome change. So far, after installing Win 7, I have been prompted only when I try to do the admin related work (like setup/repair/remove/etc) and I think it is fair enough to confirm it through UAC. I have started liking the UAC, finally
Windows + P shows you a small screen like this using which you can decide how to extend your desktop. WOW!!!!

Paintbrush comes with a Ribbon and a few commonly used shapes. well… looks awesome… I almost stopped using Paintbrush. Now, no need for me to download any extra tool to do the simplest of things!

Sticky Notes is another thing to watch out for. If you are not addicted to sticky notes already, may be the chances are high. Windows + Space actually hides these , and I have sent feedback using the Send Feedback link. If you agree with me, please do the same.

New features in the calculator…

Problem steps record records all the steps with appropriate snapshots so that you could send it to the support technician. Play around with it and take a look at the mht file that it generates and zips for you.
Tim talks about a lot more secrets. Check it out.

Enjoy!
Rahul

Quote of the day:
An ignorant person is one who doesn't know what you have just found out. - Will Rogers

Programming “gotcha” when you code for Vista and beyond!

rahul@dotnetscraps.com (rahul) — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 22:49:29 +0500

If you blog, and haven’t used any of my plug-ins for Windows Live Writer, may be you should. In this post though, the agenda is not to push you to install the plug-ins but tell you about my experience with Application.StartupPath and how problematic it could be!!!

Well, it all started when I decided to write a few plug-ins for my favorite Windows Live Writer. The SDK was easily available, and I found that any new plug-in was required to be installed in the Plug-in folder inside WLW Installation folder. I never realized that a code as simple as Application.StartupPath would cause so much problem for me. In fact, quite a lot of users who downloaded the plug-in complained that it just doesn’t work. Finally, I had to give a suggestion that they should run WLW as an Administrator and the issue would go away!

Anyways, I decided to fix this issue once and for all, and the only change that was required was to use Application.UserAppDataPath instead of Application.StartupPath. By the way, in case you don’t know why this happens only in Vista… you should read this. In a nutshell, it is because of security implications, and Vista is much more strict than its predecessors. You should prefer using the UserAppDataPath in case you are writing a new file. Application.StartupPath is NOT the way to go.

Hope this helps,
Rahul

Quote of the day:
Fall not in love, therefore; it will stick to your face. - National Lampoon

Using Javascript and ASP.NET Ajax to create a continuous list

rahul@dotnetscraps.com (rahul) — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 15:46:29 +0500

What the heck is a continuous list anyway? Honestly, I don't know if I should be using this name or not, but probably this is what it looks like. Without further ado, let's see what I am referring to...

Visit www.dzone.com - Notice that whenever you tend to reach the bottom of the page, there are some more items listed for you. The list seems almost endless, and I like this interface a lot, simply because it doesn't ask me to go to page N.

In this post, we will use the following to create a similar experience...

1. Java Script
2. ASP.NET Ajax
3. ASP.NET Web Service
4. Visual Studio 2008

I won't be focusing on making the things look pretty simply because of the lack of time (and you can say, I am bit graphically challenged as well ). Here is all that you need to do...

Create a new WebSite in Visual Studio 2008
Copy and paste the following code in default.aspx (in source view)...

<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true"  CodeFile="Default.aspx.cs" Inherits="_Default" %>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head id="Head1" runat="server">
    <title></title>
    <script language="javascript">
        //Creating a variable so that we could maintain how many items are already loaded in the Div
        var num = 0;
        function OnDivScroll() {
            //Get the container
            var container = document.getElementById('container');

            //When you scroll, you need to show the "Loading..." div when
            //you are about to reach the end of the list
            if (container.scrollTop < container.scrollHeight - 300)
                return;
                
            var loading = document.getElementById('loading');

            //Check if it is already loading!
            if (loading.style.display == '')
                return; 
                
            //Make it visible if not already
            loading.style.display = '';
            LoadNextTenItems();
        }

        function LoadNextTenItems() {
            //ReturnAList is visible to Javascript section because we have
            //added a WebService with an appropriate attribute
            //Parameter 1 = num --- To maintain a list of items added
            //Parameter 2 = LoadItems ------ Method that will be called once this asynchronous call completes
            //Parameter 3 = ErrorMessage --- Method that will be called in case there is any error
            //Parameter 3 = TimeOutError --- Method that will be called in case the webservice times out
            ReturnAList.ReturnAListOfStrings(num, LoadItems, ErrorMessage, TimeOutError);
            num += 10;
        }

        function LoadItems(result) {
            var container = document.getElementById("container");
            container.innerHTML += result.toString();
            
            var loading = document.getElementById('loading');
            loading.style.display = 'none';
        }

        function ErrorMessage() {
            var loading = document.getElementById('loading');
            loading.style.display = 'none';
        }

        function TimeOutError() {
            var loading = document.getElementById('loading');
            loading.style.display = 'none';  
        }
    </script>
</head>
<body>
    <form id="form1" runat="server">
    <div style="overflow:scroll; width:300px; height:200px; top:100px; left:300px" onscroll="OnDivScroll();" id="container">
      Line number:1<br />
      Line number:2<br />
      Line number:3<br />
      Line number:4<br />
      Line number:5<br />
      Line number:6<br />
      Line number:7<br />
      Line number:8<br />
      Line number:9<br />
      Line number:10<br />
      Line number:12<br />
      Line number:13<br />
      Line number:14<br />
      Line number:15<br />
      Line number:16<br />
      Line number:17<br />
      Line number:18<br />
      Line number:19<br />
      Line number:20<br />
      <!-- This section can be added if you drag and drop a ScriptManager. 
           You need to add all the ServiceReference and their Path in the Services section -->
        <asp:ScriptManager ID="ScriptManager1" runat="server">
            <Services>
                <asp:ServiceReference Path="ReturnAList.asmx" />
            </Services>
        </asp:ScriptManager>
    </div>
    <div id="loading" style="position:absolute;top:180px;left:230px;display:none;background-color:Red;color:Yellow;">
    Loading...
    </div>
    </form>
</body>
</html>

Right-click on the Project in Project Explorer, and click Add New Item
Select WebService and in the Name textbox, name it ReturnAList.asmx

In ReturnAList.cs file copy/paste the following...

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Services;
using System.Web.Script.Services;

/// <summary>
/// Summary description for ReturnAList
/// </summary>
[WebService(Namespace = "http://tempuri.org/")]
[WebServiceBinding(ConformsTo = WsiProfiles.BasicProfile1_1)]
// To allow this Web Service to be called from script, using ASP.NET AJAX, uncomment the following line. 
[System.Web.Script.Services.ScriptService]
public class ReturnAList : System.Web.Services.WebService
{
    [WebMethod]
    public string ReturnAListOfStrings(int number)
    {
        string s = string.Empty;
        for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
        {
            //Induce some delay to show actual work. YOU MUST REMOVE THIS LINE in a real application :-)
            System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(50);
            s += "Items from Webservice #" + number++ + "<BR />";
        }
        return s;
    }
}

That's all. Now right click on default.aspx and select View In Browser
You should be able to see something like the following...

Now scroll down, and as soon as you are about to reach the bottom, the web service will be called from Javascript and the result will be displayed somewhat like this...

Hope this helps,
Rahul

Quote of the day:
Committee--a group of men who individually can do nothing but as a group decide that nothing can be done. - Fred Allen

LINQ Performance - Part 1 - LINQ to Collection

rahul@dotnetscraps.com (rahul) — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 14:30:23 +0500

There are multiple benchmarking results already out there for LINQ. The reason why I am doing this again is the because I have heard multiple times that the latest version of LINQ contains a lot of improvements.

My current configuration is...

Windows Server 2008 Enterprise SP 1
Visual Studio 2008 SP1
4GB RAM

System.Core version 3.5.30729.1

In this post, I will take a look at the results ONLY from LINQ to Collection (An array of strings). You can play around with the code and post other findings (in comments) if any.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Diagnostics;

namespace EventAndDelegateDemo
{
    class LINQPerf
    {
        static string[] strArray;
        static string[] strFetch;
        private const int number = 10; //Change this number to make the Array larger

        public static void Main()
        {
            FillTheArrayWithGUID();
            FetchSixElements();
            Console.WriteLine("Using For Each loop");
            UseForEachLoop();
            Console.WriteLine("\n\n");
            Console.WriteLine("Using LINQ");
            UseLINQ();
        }

        private static void UseForEachLoop()
        {
            Stopwatch sw = new Stopwatch();
            for (int i = 0; i < 6; i++)
            {
                sw.Start();
                foreach (var item in strArray)
                {
                    if (item == strFetch[i])
                    {
                        Console.Write("Guid = {0}", item);
                        sw.Stop();
                        Console.Write(" Item was found in {0} ticks\n", sw.ElapsedTicks.ToString());
                        break;
                    }
                }
            }
        }

        private static void UseLINQ()
        {
            Stopwatch sw = new Stopwatch();
            for (int i = 0; i < 6; i++)
            {
                sw.Start();
                var qry = from x in strArray
                          where x == strFetch[i]
                          select x;

                foreach (var item in qry)
                {
                    Console.Write("Guid = {0}", item);
                }
                sw.Stop();
                Console.Write(" Item was found in {0} ticks\n", sw.ElapsedTicks.ToString());
            }
        }

        #region Initialize the Array and fetch 6 elements for comparison
        private static void FillTheArrayWithGUID()
        {
            //Fill the string Array with GUIDs
            strArray = new string[number * 6];
            for (int i = 0; i < number * 6; i++)
            {
                strArray[i] = System.Guid.NewGuid().ToString();
            }
        }

        private static void FetchSixElements()
        {
            //Fetch just 6 elements from the big array for comparison
            //We are fetching the elements from different locations to see if that has any affect on performance
            strFetch = new string[6];
            strFetch[0] = strArray[0 * number];
            strFetch[1] = strArray[1 * number];
            strFetch[2] = strArray[2 * number];
            strFetch[3] = strArray[3 * number];
            strFetch[4] = strArray[4 * number];
            strFetch[5] = strArray[5 * number];
        }
        #endregion
    }
}

Results with private const int number = 10

Results with private const int number = 1000000

If you do the maths, you will find that with an array of 60 strings...

To find nth element...	LINQ took... (M)	For Loop took... (N)	M/N
0	4292	768	5.58
50	7195	3552	2.02

And for the array of 6 million strings...

To find nth element...	LINQ took... (M)	For Loop took... (N)	M/N
0	2352237	826	2847!!!!
1000000	4607527	359450	12.81!!
5000000	13586926	5322037	2.5

Conclusion: For the time being, if I have to work with an array to store and find, may be I'll continue to stick with typical C# code. As we can see, no matter how many records are there, LINQ to collection takes at least twice as much ticks as the regular code. The important thing for me is that if we had to find 1 millionth entry, LINQ took approximately 13 times more ticks than a regular loop!!!

I will try some other tests whenever I get opportunity. Stay tuned!

Disclaimer : I am no performance testing genius. I have tested it just for my own sake. If you feel that you would like to stress test LINQ yourself, use the code provided here and tweak it accordingly to test the performance yourself.

Timepass... Fix the code...

rahul@dotnetscraps.com (rahul) — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 12:22:07 +0500

Create a C# Console application, and paste the following code in the Main method...

          for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++)
          {
              //Generating a Random number between 0 and 100000
              int intRandomElement;
              Random r = new Random();
              intRandomElement = r.Next(1, 100000);
              Console.WriteLine(intRandomElement);
          }

If you run this code in debug mode, you should be able to get the output as expected. But if you run the same application without debugging, you would see a different result. Can you fix the code?

Enjoy!
Rahul