Mark Wilson's Blog

This blog is moving... me too!

mark.wilson — Fri, 12 Aug 2005 16:30:00 GMT

Over the last few years, I've been a consultant for a major IT Services company; worked for a UK-based support services company; contracted for Australia’s largest independent magazine distributor; worked in-house designing and project managing a Europe-wide infrastructure refresh for a major fashion design, marketing and retail organisation; and then I joined Conchango, a mid-sized consultancy which specialises in delivering technology-driven business solutions that incorporate the latest methodologies and technologies.

I've worked with Conchango, first as a client and then as a consultant, for about 3 and a half years in total but the time has come for me to move on. For anybody who lives within commuting distance of London or Surrey, enjoys the variety of work which consultancy offers, and who knows a significant amount about enterprise intelligence, interactive media, Agile development and program management, or mobility, Conchango is a fantastic place to work. It feels a bit strange to be leaving a company that I still enjoy and which is packed with talented people but I've decided to rejoin the global IT Services organisation I left just over 5 years ago to embrace a new role as a Senior Customer Solutions Architect, taking technical responsibility for large IT infrastructure projects within their Architecture and Design Group.

I've worked with some fantastic people at Conchango - too many to name individually but you know who you are - thank you all!

Since the Conchango blogging community was launched late last year, my blog output has prompted some to comment on its volume and to say they almost expect to see what I had for breakfast appear next! One of my clients says he can find out what he's been up to by reading these pages! I just hope that what I write is useful and, if you enjoy reading it, please update your feed readers to point to the place where I've been blogging for quite some time now - http://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/. Meanwhile, it's time for me to sign off for the last time here, to let Jamie reclaim his place at the top of the blogging table whilst Keni tries his hardest to catch up, and don't forget, there's a whole load of Conchango bloggers now - the full list is here.

Bad timing...

mark.wilson — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 11:37:00 GMT

For the last couple of days, the Microsoft File Transfer Manager has been running on one of my PCs, downloading 5.33Gb of Windows code name "Longhorn" and IE7 beta software from Microsoft Connect (averaging out at about 65kbps). Sometime last night, it all finally completed but then a few minutes ago, DHL delivered a package from Microsoft in Redmond containing... you guessed it... bootable DVDs of Windows Vista Professional Beta 1 and Windows Code Name "Longhorn" Beta 1. Arghhhhh!!!

"Incessant infrastructure and tech gossip"

mark.wilson — Wed, 10 Aug 2005 21:15:00 GMT

For a while now I've wanted a catchy subtitle for my blog (something descriptive, maybe with a touch of humour, and perhaps also a little bit thought provoking - like, for example, a "grey matter honeypot, distracting the mind with information overload") but I'm just not witty enough to come up with one myself.

Well, now it looks like fellow Conchango blogger, Jamie Thomson, has come up with the goods for me in his latest post, where he describes my musings as "incessant infrastructure and tech gossip". Well, it's certainly descriptive. Perhaps I should add another category to my blog (as Jamie has) called inane waffle!

More on integrating device drivers into an unattended Windows build

mark.wilson — Tue, 09 Aug 2005 19:59:00 GMT

Earlier in the year I blogged about discovering unknown devices in Windows for integration into an unattended build. What I didn't detail at the time was how to work out which device driver files are needed for a particular device.

Some device driver packages are pretty simple, but others are several megabytes in size. Rarely is the whole driver package required and it is usually sufficient to just copy a few files to the (RIS) installation source - generally:

An .INF (setup information) file with an associated .CAT (security catalog) file.
One or more .SYS (system) files.
Possibly some .EXE (application) and .DLL (application extension) files.

I usually start off by reading the setup information file which relates to the Windows XP version of a driver. It's straightforward enough to identify the catalog file (used to confirm the digital signature for the other files) from the CatalogFile= line in the [Version] section and for many simple .INFs, it is easy to identify the device driver files from the [SourceDiskFiles] section, but sometimes the setup information file supports a variety of devices and not all of the files are required. For complex driver configurations (e.g. an ATI video driver), I usually copy the .INF and .CAT files to the installation source and then attempt to install the driver from a reference workstation. As Windows XP throws an error each time it is unable to locate a file, I add the requisite file to the installation source, retry and repeat until all the necessary files are present (which normally only takes a few minutes).

Some device drivers include a subfolder within the [SourceDiskNames] section. In this case you have a choice - either edit the .INF (not recommended as it will break the digital signature), or place the appropriate files (geneally all except the .INF and the .CAT into an appropriately named subfolder and extend the OemPnPDriversPath in the [Unattended] section of the unattended setup file.

One final note. In my unattended build, I have support for a variety of PC models, some of which use different drivers for what would seem to be identical hardware. For example, both the IBM ThinkPad T40 and the Compaq Evo N620c have an Agere Systems AC'97 Modem, but the driver version I downloaded from IBM and integrated into the build for the T40 was not recognised by the N620c (due to different PCI device instance IDs - the T40 implementation is PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_24C6&SUBSYS_05241014&REV_01\3&61AAA01&0&FE whilst the N620c is PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_24C6&SUBSYS_00580E11&REV_03\3&61AAA01&0&FE). I didn't have access to a spare T40 in order to regression test a version of the driver with support for both device instances (assuming there is one), so I downloaded a version of the driver from HP, which does work with the N620c. Although the .INF and .CAT files are different, both the IBM and HP drivers have a number of files in common (AGRSM.SYS, AGRSMMSG.EXE and AGRSMDEL.EXE - albeit with different date and time stamps), so I left the newest versions of the common files in place (which happen to be the IBM versions). As I haven't changed the files for the IBM driver, the T40 build should be fine, but the N620c build fails a check on the digital signature due to a mismatch between the file versions. There are two ways around this: either place the two driver versions into different folders and extend the OemPnPDriversPath in the [Unattended] section of the unattended setup file; or disable the check for signed drivers as detailed in Microsoft knowledge base article 314479.

Metro: read all about it!

mark.wilson — Mon, 08 Aug 2005 14:03:00 GMT

A while back, I read that Microsoft is switching to XML-based document formats in the next release of Microsoft Office and I just read some more...

According to PDFzone, Microsoft is developing a new document format (codenamed Metro), which is:

A new document file format, similar in many ways to portable document format (PDF).
A spool format, suitable for spooling to a device through the print subsystem.
A page description language, similar to printer control language (PCL) or PostScript, that can be used to transmit the information all the way down to a printer.

Apparently it's all part of the WinFX API, being developed as part of Windows Vista but also due to be released for Windows XP and Server 2003 and according to Paul Thurrott's Windows Vista FAQ:

"Based on XML, Metro is to Windows Vista as Adobe PDF is to Mac OS X: It's a device- and application-independent printing architecture that allows documents to retain their exact formatting in any application, and when printed. Unlike PDF, however, Metro is based on XML and will be released as an open standard. Metro will also incorporate ZIP technology - similar to that used by the next major version of Microsoft Office - to compress and decompress files on the fly. From a technology standpoint, Metro includes an XML-based electronic paper format called Metro Reach, a document viewer for viewing, managing, and printing Metro files, the ability to digitally sign Metro documents, APIs that allow programmers to integrate their applications and services with Metro, a print pipeline, and a new driver model for Metro-compatible printers."

Finally, an open document standard that doesn't require an expensive application license to produce a document (I'm guessing as it's XML-based, I could write Metro documents using Windows Notepad, edit.com - or if I was feeling particularly masochistic, I could use edlin.exe or the UNIX vi editor!). It will be interesting to see how this new format compares with DocBook.

Brian Jones' blog has more information and links about the Microsoft Office Open XML formats in Office 12.

Exchange Server RFC and standards compliance

mark.wilson — Mon, 08 Aug 2005 12:40:00 GMT

Members of the "oppose Microsoft group" often deride the software giant, accusing them of implementing proprietary technologies to abuse their monopoly; but in recent years there has been a real shift towards standards-based technology implementations in Microsoft software. Like Microsoft Exchange Server, the messaging and collaboration platform, which implements over 50 RFCs/standards, as detailed in Microsoft knowledge base article 262986.

MSI package for Mozilla Firefox 1.0

mark.wilson — Mon, 08 Aug 2005 08:39:00 GMT

Back in February, I posted a blog entry about installing applications silently (or at least quietly), e.g. as part of an unattended build process. Thomas Lee added a comment about WIX (Windows Installer XML), which I had not mentioned because at the time I was hoping to find some time to review WIX myself; although Thomas' blog probably has some more information on the subject.

One of my "problem applications" when it come to automated builds is Mozilla Firefox, which for some reason doesn't seem to support a silent installation (or didn't last time I looked). Well, today I found the YVG Software Services Mozilla Firefox 1.0 installer - so now you can get a copy of Firefox packaged in Windows Installer (.MSI) format.

Making use of various iTunes for Windows plug-ins

mark.wilson — Fri, 05 Aug 2005 18:32:00 GMT

Since I became an iPod convert a few months back, I've ripped all of my CD albums to 192kbps MP3s using iTunes (over 5000 songs using 29Gb of disk space at the time of writing - still got about 500 CD singles, plus MiniDisc and vinyl to go...) but one of the features which really lets down iTunes is the lack of high quality visualizations (Windows Media Player has loads).

To help me with my quest to find decent iTunes for Windows visualizations, one of my MacMates, Stuart, sent me a link to the iLounge directory of known iTunes plug-ins. I'm still underwhelmed with the available visualizations but I came across some other interesting plug-ins, like WMPtunelog, which writes out information of the currently playing track to the registry (HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\CurrentMetaData\). I'd really like to access this from my homepage and include a real-time "what I'm listening to" panel, but I'm not sure how at the moment. The blogging plug-in within the Windows Media Player 9 Series creativity fun pack (which also works with Windows Media Player 10) was looking hopeful, until I found that the "code samples for adding support to my web, Visual Basic, or C/C++ application" link in the creativity_pack_readme.htm file was dead... If anybody has any hints, then please let me know!

One alternative may be Brandon Fuller's Now Playing, which monitors the currently playing song and writes the information out to an XML file (optionally FTPing this to a location of your choice). Brandon uses PHP to process this on his site, but I'm having problems using PHP on my ISP's servers (my ISP only allows active content to run on a separate server and I can't seem to call the PHP from within normal HTML pages on their Apache web server) so am hoping that I can use an XSL transformation to format the XML instead but still not sure how to include that in the HTML...

All of this is a bit developery for an infrastructure bod like me but I'll keep on plugging away with this and will post a comment to this post when (if) I get it all working. In the meantime, answers on a postcard please...

McAfee AntiVirus Enterprise/ePolicy Orchestrator tips and tricks

mark.wilson — Thu, 04 Aug 2005 19:58:00 GMT

Over the last couple of months, I've been helping one of my clients to gain some control over their anti-virus infrastructure using McAfee VirusScan Enterprise and ePolicy Orchestrator (ePO).

I'm more used to Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition with its Symantec System Center Console, but ePO was easy enough to install (the installation wizard will install MDAC 2.7 if required as well as MSDE if there is no SQL Server available) and although it seems a bit complex to start with, once you get your head around how the ePO directory works (and how it can integrate with Active Directory) as well as the terminology (distributed repositories, rogue system detection sensors, notification rules, etc.) then it actually seems like quite a good product (although the HTTP-based administration console can be a bit flaky at times and ePO maintains its own set of security principals). The reporting capabilities seem pretty good too.

For anyone trying to get to grips with ePO, there is a whole heap of high-quality product documentation, but as a starting point, I recommend a look at the ePO quick reference card. Unfortunately I can't link all of the documentation here as you need to have purchased the product to access that part of the McAfee/Network Associates website but it is available for download if you have a valid grant number (having said that, some quick googling has turned up a copy of the English version of the quick reference card on the Danish McAfee site).

One thing that I found particularly confusing was the change in where the McAfee AntiVirus Enterprise product writes its log files, once the ePO agent is enabled. Ordinarily, McAfee AntiVirus Enterprise writes log files to %allusersprofile%\Application Data\Network Associates\VirusScan\ with the main files of interest being onaccessscan.txt (used by the VirusScan On-Access Scan), ondemandscan.txt (used by the VirusScan On-Demand Scan) and updatelog.txt (used for updates via the VirusScan console). Depending on the configuration, and the version of McAfee Enterprise in use there may also be other log files in existence (e.g. accessprotectionlog.txt, bufferoverflowprotectionlog.txt and emailondeliverylog.txt).

This all changes once the ePO agent is activated as ePO stores its logs under %allusersprofile%\Application Data\Network Associates\Common Framework\. This folder actually contains a number of useful XML files, as well as mcscript.txt (which details script engine actions, such as processing updates), updatehistory.ini (which includes details of configuration items such as the site last used for updates); but even more useful is a file in the \Db subfolder which is named agent_%computername%.xml. Formatted using frameworklog.xsl, this is the McAfee Agent Activity log, which shows policy enforcement actions along with links to four more files in the same directory - the current and previous framework service logs (agent_%computername%.log and agent_%computername%_backup.log) and the current and previous Networks Associates product manager logs (prdmgr_%computername%.log and prdmgr_%computername%_backup.log).

Together, these logs are really useful for troubleshooting, like when a really out of date client wouldn't update because the latest anti-virus signature (.DAT) file didn't work with the version of the engine that was installed. One of my colleagues found a superDAT to solve that problem, but it was these logs which confirmed where the issue was.

Whilst on the subject of ePO, a few months back I blogged about adding policy pages to ePO.

So that's it, a few tips and tricks for anybody implementing a McAfee-based anti-virus management solution.

SQL Server 2005 overview

mark.wilson — Wed, 03 Aug 2005 16:08:00 GMT

As part of my recent quest to learn about SQL Server from an infrastructure perspective, I've been attending a number of events, one of which was Michael Platt's keynote at the May 2005 Microsoft Technical Roadshow - SQL Server 2005 for IT Pros.

In my opinion, SQL Server 2005 (codenamed Yukon) is probably Microsoft's most significant product release since Windows 2000. Central to the data management functionality within the Microsoft platform, this new version of SQL Server, due for release in November, is a massive rewrite (around 3 million lines of C# code), including a huge number of new features with improvements in three key areas, all underpinned by new levels of security and reliability:

Developer productivity:
- Visual Studio 2005 integration.
Enterprise data management:
- SQL Server database.
- SQL Server replication services.
Business intelligence (BI):
- SQL Server integration services (SSIS) - replacing data transformation services (DTS).
- SQL Server analytical services.
- SQL Server reporting services.
- SQL Server notification services.

In terms of developer productivity, the Microsoft .NET Framework common language runtime (CLR) is now part of the SQL engine, allowing database-side coding using any Microsoft .NET language. XML support is no longer a bolt-on component, with XML now supported natively, feeding into the web services strategy, with integrated web services features including the new SQL Service Broker for messaging between SQL Server and other systems.

Looking at enterprise data management: availability and security is enhanced with support for database mirroring and online operations as well as data security and privacy (encryption and enhanced auditing); manageability is improved with a self-tuning database, fast recovery and restore, and a host of management tools; and the platform scales to cover a huge range of devices from smartphones to massive 64-bit installations using technologies such as partitioning and snapshots to allow the system to scale in line with business growth.

For business intelligence, all of the previously separate tools are pulled together into a single front-end management interface with two components - Management Studio for management and BI Studio for design - both of which are closely integrated with Visual Studio. SQL Server 2005 has more real-time analytical support built into the platform as well as a comprehensive extract, transform and load (ETL) capability for the entire enterprise, supporting heterogeneous databases.

In the past, DTS used the database engine to carry out the transform whereas SSIS carries out the transform itself, with some standard transforms included, but also expandable with custom transformations. With SQL Server 2005, the SQL Server reporting services reporting solution is supplemented with a report builder for user generated reports and an multidimensional expressions (MDX) builder for developers; providing an interactive enterprise reporting environment, integrated with Office System applications . Analysis Services allows the integration of relational databases and OLAP cubes to cache the OLAP data in synchronisation with relational updates and perform analysis on real time data. Finally, data mining capabilities (previously the domain of expensive high-end technologies) become available for general purpose use in SQL Server 2005 offering exploration, pattern discovery and pattern description.

In line with the Microsoft policy of using its new products internally (a process which they refer to, somewhat delightfully, as "dogfooding"), Microsoft is already using SQL Server 2005 heavily for its enterprise applications (e.g. their SAP R/3 1.7Tb database, the staging data warehouse for all Microsoft data and the Microsoft sales revenue and reporting system - basically all of Microsoft's business-critical applications!). Looking at the metrics for just one of those applications - the SAP R/3 system in Redmond which handles Microsoft global financial, human resources, sales and distribution resources - this 1.7Tb database over 25 production servers services 2500 named users (over 57000 users in total with between 200 and 600 using the system concurrently) handling 300 000 SAP transactions a day and 100 000 batch jobs a month whilst maintaining greater than 99.9% SAP availability and less than 0.5 second response time - on beta code!

In my opinion, SQL Server 2005 will be Microsoft's most significant product release since Windows 2000 and is central to the Microsoft platform. The constant battle between Microsoft and Oracle will continue for some time to come but this new version of SQL Server (which has been a long time coming) might finally help to persuade IT Directors that Microsoft is a serious contender in the enterprise data management space.

For more information about SQL Server 2005, I recommend the Microsoft TechNet SQL Server Tech Center, Mat Stephen's blog, and Jamie Thomson's blog (particularly for SSIS). SQL Server 2005 is due for release in November 2005, with four product editions - Express, Standard, Workgroup and Enterprise.

The Microsoft view of connected systems

mark.wilson — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 18:24:00 GMT

A few weeks back I was at a breakfast briefing on connected systems (Microsoft's view of web services and BizTalk Server), delivered by David Gristwood (one of Microsoft UK's Architect Evangelists). Even though I'm not a developer, I think I understood most of what David had to say (although many of my colleagues' blogs will undoubtedly have more to offer in this subject area).

David explained how the need to connect applications has led to a shift towards service orientation as applications have longer lifetime and no longer consist of just a single executable program. Consequently there are requirements for application customisation and integration (generally loosely coupled) with the four tenets of a service oriented architecture (SOA) being:

Explicit boundaries.
Autonomous services (i.e. other services do not have to wait for your schedule).
Shared schema and contract (not class).
Compatibility based on policy (generally written in XML).

The Web Services Interoperability Organization's WS-* architecture is about providing a framework for web services with broad industry support (in the same way that the open system interconnection 7 layer network model has become the industry model for networking).

Basic web services operate well but are easy to make inoperable. As such WS-I is concerned with identifying the lowest common denominator - the basic profile (BP) or core set of specifications that provide the foundation for web services.

When developing web services, Visual Studio 2005 (codenamed Whidbey) will represent a huge step forward with the Microsoft .NET Framework v2.0 including numerous improvements in the web services protocol stack and ASMX (ASP.NET web services) representing an ongoing evolution towards the Windows communication foundation (formerly codenamed Indigo).

Although coding first and using web methods is still a good way to producing web services, there is a move to interface-based service contracts - first designing the interface using web service definition language (WSDL) and then adding contracts. The new application connection designer (ACD) (codenamed Whitehorse) is a visual tool to drag and drop connections which represent service contracts, allowing the generation of skeleton projects and the basic code required to implement/consume contracts.

In terms of standards and interoperability, this code is WS-I BP 1.1 compliant by default (and hence fits well into the WS-* architecture), whilst ASMX web services automatically support simple object access protocol (SOAP) 1.1 and 1.2.

Web services enhancements (WSE) is a fully supported download which sits on top of ASMX and extends the existing web services support within the Microsoft .NET Framework. WSE is a set of classes to implement on-the-wire standards and is actually an implementation of several WS-* specifications including WS-Addressing and WS-Security, to provide end-to-end message-level security (in a more sophisticated manner than SOAP over HTTP). The current version is WSE 2.0 SP3, and WSE 3.0 will be released with Visual Studio 2005 (due to a dependency on the Microsoft .NET Framework v2.0), with new features including:

Message transmission optimization mechanism (MTOM) for binary data transfer, replacing SOAP with attachments and WS-Attachments/direct Internet message encapsulation (DIME)
Enhancements to WS-Security/WS-Policy.

It should be noted that there are no guarantees that WSE 2.0 and 3.0 will be wire-level or object-model compatible, but there will be side-by-side support for the two versions. WSE 3.0 is likely to be wire-compatible with the Windows communication foundation (which will ultimately replace WSE around the end of 2006).

The Windows communication foundation itself is about productivity (writing less code), interoperability (binary, highly-optimised interoperability between computers, dropping to WS-I BP 1.1 if required) and service oriented development. Implemented as a set of classes, the Windows communication foundation takes messages, transforms them, maps them to a structure and pushes them to the receiving code.

To illustrate the productivity gains, using an example cited by Microsoft, an application implemented using Visual Studio .NET 2003 consisting of 56296 lines of code (20379 lines of security, 5988 lines for reliable messaging, 25507 lines for transactions, and 4442 lines for infrastructure) was reduced using WSE to 27321 lines of code (10 lines for security, 1804 lines for reliable messaging, and no change to the 25507 lines for transactions) and reduced further using the Windows communication foundation to just 3 lines of code (1 line for security, 1 line for reliable messaging and 1 line for the transactions)! This sounds extreme to me; but even an infrastructure architect like myself can appreciate that less code means easier management.

In terms of a roadmap, the Windows communication foundation will supersede existing connected systems technologies (e.g. ASMX), but other technologies will continue to exist, supported by the Windows communication foundation (e.g. enterprise services, .NET remoting, COM, COM+ and MSMQ).

Another tool in Microsoft's integration arsenal is the SQL Server 2005 Service Broker, which will provide a SQL-to-SQL binary data messaging protocol, allowing developers who are familiar with the database programming model to think about queues as databases and to take data from queses as as a kind of hanging query/result sets. Over time, this will be adapted to use the Windows communication foundation so that this will run on top of the Service Broker protocol before eventually allowing the Windows communication foundation to become the transport for WS-* interoperability.

Of course, Microsoft's most significant integration product for connected systems is BizTalk Server. At 1.5 million lines of C# code, BizTalk Server 2004 is one of the largest Microsoft .NET products written to date (although SQL Server 2005 will exceed this at around 3 million lines). BizTalk Server allows the mesh of point-to-point web service (and other) connections to be replaced with a BizTalk Server "hub".

Another advantage of such a process is the ability to take business processes out of (potentially unstable) code and allow BizTalk's orchestration model to handle the business processes.

BizTalk 2004 is the first Microsoft.NET incarnation of the product (the previous two versions were not .NET applications). Built on the ASP.NET application stack and including WS-I v1.0 support (and a v2.0 adapter), BizTalk Server 2004 is integrated with Visual Studio.NET 2003 and the Office System 2003 with additional features including business activity monitoring, human workflow services and a business rules engine. BizTalk Server 2006 is due to follow the SQL Server 2005 and Visual Server 2005 launch in November 2005 and (according to Microsoft) will offer simplified setup, migration and deployment, comprehensive management and operations, and business user empowerment. An adapter for the Windows communication framework is also expected later in 2006. Future versions of BizTalk Server will be built natively on the Windows communication foundation and will offer support for the next version of Windows Server (codenamed Longhorn) as well as the dynamic systems initiative (DSI).

Ultimately, the Windows communication foundation will become a transport layer for connected systems, with BizTalk Server providing orchestration. With continued support for WS-* standards, truly connected systems may well become a reality for many organisations.

Links
WS-I overview presentation

10 steps to help secure SQL Server 2000

mark.wilson — Fri, 29 Jul 2005 12:31:00 GMT

I just stumbled across this 10-step plan to help secure SQL Server 2000 and thought it might be useful to note...

New tools for managing and administering SQL Server 2005

mark.wilson — Fri, 29 Jul 2005 11:02:00 GMT

I haven't looked at structured query language (SQL) since I was at Uni', back in the early 1990s, and don't intended to start now; but with a major new SQL Server release due from Microsoft in November, I've been building up my knowledge of the product from an infrastructure perspective. Yesterday evening, I was at a Microsoft TechNet UK event, where Matthew Stephen (one of Microsoft UK's IT Pro Evangelists) presented the tools for managing and administrating SQL Server 2005 (codenamed Yukon) along with a few of the new features for administrators.

At the centre of SQL Server 2005 administration is the new SQL Management Studio, which replaces SQL Enterprise Manager and uses a Visual Studio project metaphor, featuring a much improved user interface showing registered servers, an object explorer (with a tree view of the databases - similar to Enterprise Manager) and a summary pane. New features include:

An integrated SQLCMD mode, allowing SQLCMD queries to be run from within SQL management Studio (as long as they are preceded with !!).
Online database restoration and fast recovery, with only the data currently being overwritten being unavailable.
Online indexing (so that queries can still be performed whilst indexes are rebuilding).
Integration with Visual Studio 2005 and the Microsoft .NET Framework v2.0, allowing the use of user-defined functions, data types and procedures, using any common language runtime (CLR)-compliant language.
A dedicated connection for administrative access (allowing an administrator to connect to a server and diagnose problems even if access is generally being prevented by, for example, blocking).

In common with all new Microsoft products, SQL Server 2005 will be delivered "secure by default", meaning that some configuration changes may be required in order to administer some legacy services. Now, when connecting to a server using the SQL Management Studio, the default connection method is using TCP/IP, and Windows authentication is the preferred authentication model.

The SQL Server Web Data Administrator is available today for administering SQL Server databases where no management tools are available. It runs on either Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) or the lightweight Cassini portable web server and allows either Windows or SQL-based authentication to connect to a server for management purposes, import and export (queries, stored procedures, etc.) and a T-SQL query editor. Because it is lightweight, the Web Data Administrator is ideal for use over slow network links.

SQL Server 2005 Express Edition replaces the Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine (MSDE) - Microsoft's free (but functionally limited) version of SQL Server 2000. SQL Server Express 2005 is still limited, but the constraints are different to MSDE, now allowing use of a single CPU (although it can make use of multiple logical CPUs - i.e. with a multi-core CPU), 1Gb of RAM and a 4Gb database size, with no limit on the number of concurrent sessions, making it ideal as a database to support a web site.

The SQL Server Express Manager can be used to administer SQL Server Express or MSDE databases and is based on the Microsoft.NET Framework v2.0. With a tree view of database objects and wizards for common tasks, SQL Express Manager can be used to administer either local or remote databases and includes a T-SQL query editor.

SQLCMD uses the OLEDB interface and replaces ISQL (DB-Library) and OSQL (ODBC) tools (although OSQL still exists and SQLCMD parameters are backwards compatible with OSQL). Offering batch functionality (including command line variables and nested scripts) and script chaining, SQLCMD is a powerful command line tool for SQL Server administration and queries.

SQLiMail is a replacement for the former MAPI32-based SQLMail. Including its own SMTP client, SQLiMail makes use of the new SQL Broker provided with SQL Server 2005 and because it is no longer MAPI-based, has no reliance on Outlook. Multiple profiles can be attached to an SMTP account along with multiple host databases. SQLiMail also supports clusters and 64-bit SQL Server installations.

One of the new features of SQL Management Studio is the creation of maintenance plans (each one made up of sub-plans). The maintenance plan designer has a similar appearance to SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) (a subject on which Jamie frequently blogs) featuring a drag and drop visual design workspace which allows tasks to be joined to build up a complex workflow. It is also possible to view the resulting T-SQL statements.

SQL Profiler also has a host of new features, not least the ability to grant trace access to developers (without requiring SA access). Also featuring a new selection user interface, SQL Profiler includes a host of new events (so that pretty much every activity can be audited), assisting with the compliance issues faced by many organisations today. SQL Service Broker activity can also be traced and traced can be redirected to an XML file for programmatic analysis. Working in real-time, SQL Profiler includes templates to assist in profiling and results can be filtered (e.g. by SQL Server internal process identifier). One particularly impressive feature (which Mat didn't show last night but which I've seen him demonstrate before) is that ability to overlay SQL Profiler data on top of a performance monitor graph, allowing analysis of the effect of a SQL operation on server performance.

Finally, the features for monitoring SQL Server 2005 are enhanced with a new log file viewer (allowing SQL logs to be viewed in combination with Windows event logs), activity monitor (e.g. allowing locks to be viewed in real-time, by process, etc.) and an updated SQL Server Agent which can be used to set alerts, now with multiple proxies (so different logins can be used for different services) and new agent user roles.

Microsoft and SAP alliance site

mark.wilson — Fri, 29 Jul 2005 10:50:00 GMT

I don't know anything about enterprise resource planning (ERP) products, except that SAP are a big player in this space (and that Microsoft runs its business on SAP with a 1.7Tb SQL Server database - pretty much the only non-Microsoft product in use there). Last night, Mat Stephen mentioned the Microsoft/SAP Alliance website and, after having taken a look this morning, the technology section (including details of how to integrate SAP and Microsoft products) looks pretty useful to me.

Windows Vista only a replacement for XP - Windows Server is still codenamed Longhorn

mark.wilson — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 12:43:00 GMT

A few days back, Jamie Thomson commented on Microsoft's announcement of Windows Vista (formerly codenamed Longhorn). At the time I speculated as to whether this new name included the next generation Windows server product and it seems not, at least according to the Microsoft Windows Vista Beta 1 fact sheet.

I'm one of the 10,000 beta testers for Windows Vista (not a particularly exclusive club I know...) as well as Longhorn Server and Internet Explorer 7 so I guess I'll blog some more about Vista after I've used it for a while - in the meantime Paul Thurrott has a Vista FAQ on his SuperSite for Windows.