Business Networking: The Advocacy Model

I mentioned the Advocacy Model in a recent post on 'How to build trust in business relationships'. I have also made reference to the various steps in many of the recent posts so thought it worth summarising the model again here.

1. Make contactUsually a conversation at an event or networking group meeting

2. Follow upOften a One2One interaction or smaller group to decide whether to move forward and how.

3. Form relationshipsThe next stage after having done something for the other person in the follow up to help them or their business. Or when they have done that for you.

4. Develop AdvocatesProvide ongoing value to the relationship by continuing to make connections and using your expertise to provide information to them. Regular feedback and thanks to the ones doing this for you.

Good Networking!Dave ClarkeGet 7 networking secrets for business success

business networking business networking events business networking podcast

Looking at other social networking sites

One thing that the team's been keen on all along is that our social networking tool shouldn't aim to replace face-to-face interaction at the University. We want to promote 'idea moments', what a team from another University called 'Rolos'*, and we think that getting people physically together is a great way for these moments to happen. As far as we're concerned, if our tool introduces people to each other who go on to meet up occasionally, it's done its job - they don't have to regularly communicate via the tool as well.

So I was excited to hear about www.meetup.com - a site which helps facilitate face to face communication using the web. The whole point is that you meet real people, living near you, to talk about shared interests. Yes, there are message boards and photo albums for those groups, but the emphasis throughout is on meeting face to face. I think it's a brave concept. I'll have to report back on the quality of discussion at a meeting, though!

* Random Opportunities for Learning Outcomes, apparently! Would you give someone your last ROLO?

Pew report on social networking amongst adults

The Arcadia project blog mentions some of the conclusions of a new Pew report on how US adults use social networks. It seems they network mostly for personal reasons, that they are aware of privacy issues, and when networking professionally, use a variety of profiles on a range of sites.

The full blog post is here.

Libraries, Twitter and social networking

Twitter - a 'micro-blogging' and social networking service - is making its way into libraries across the US, whether to update patrons with important news (unexpected closures), to provoke curiosity and questions or to communicate internally. This article provides an interesting overview:

http://lis5313.ci.fsu.edu/wiki/index.php/Twittering_Libraries

Do you web2?

Netskills are looking for information on how researchers, academics, and the people who support their work use emerging tools, such as Web2.0 things like twitter, flickr and more. This is part of work funded by the JISC Users and Innovation (U&I) programme.

Please help them out by taking their survey!

They will use information from the survey to create guides to help others see how emerging technologies can help in research and teaching.

Ambient social networking

Over in the Newnham area of Cambridge, local company CamVine is looking at novel ways of displaying internet content on screens. This is a lot more fun than it might sound - check their daily twitter updates, which will highlight new ways of using Web2 and social, user-generated content in a shared environment. One for every day in February! (Is publishing an idea a day in this way a useful method for getting interest and feedback in your project? Should we try it for Academic Networking? Might it also work for research projects? Would a more private, group-oriented microblog such as Yammer or Wiggio be more appropriate for academics? Let us know!)

In a recent blog post, founder Quentin Stafford-Fraser talks about watching social network status feeds on displays, perhaps dotted around one's home, workplace or university. I can imagine having my research group's feeds in my departmental tearoom, where they could spark conversation and ideas (or give me something to read whilst I wait for the coffee machine to gurgle to a finish). Quentin calls this ambient social networking...

Phase III of our research gets under way...

Just a quick update for those following our research into the uses of social networking in an academic context.

Having interviewed 8 undergraduates and 8 post-graduate students in Phases I and II of our research, we're now onto Phase III, interviewing a diverse collection of academics associated with the University, from people at the start of their careers to a leading Professor, from someone returning part-time after a career break to people holding both departmental and college posts.

We're eagerly anticipating the analysis phase that will be coming up after this, as we try to synthesise the concerns, goals and motivations across the different groups of University members.

even museums are networking socially now

Spotted on the BBC News site: UK museums, including the British Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum, are setting up a new joint website which will let users build communities around museum content. It's the National Museums Online Learning project and you can read about it here.

The value of social networking features to people who are both enjoying the collections and learning at the same time is something we hope we may be able to bring out in our project, too.

Qwest iQ Networking

Qwest iQ Networking™ is a new suite of wide-area networking services that power your business operations on Qwest's application-aware IP and MPLS-based network. Tuned into your specific applications and supported by a consultative buying experience, Qwest iQ Networking provides superior technology, universal access and service and support on your terms.

With Qwest iQ Networking, you can be rest assured that:

Qwest makes technology work for you — we construct flexible solutions to meet your unique needs, transcending the underlying technologies, and permitting universal access to our converged networking environment.

Qwest enables your business applications — as enterprise businesses endeavor to use the benefits of multimedia, such as voice over IP, and other bandwidth-intensive applications, the need for an intelligent network to securely support these mission-critical applications is vitally important.

Qwest provides iQ Networking on your terms — an essential component of an intelligent network solution is your experience and expertise. We listen to how you want your network solution to operate, and respond accordingly with end-to-end accountability.

You'll experience a consultative approach that best fits your specific needs — selecting from multiple access methodologies, Wide Area Networking solutions, security services, remote access, hosting, diversity solutions and more.

You'll receive a single, accountable one-call-resolve support structure — along with convenient, quick Web-based management and reporting tools.

You'll gain confidence — knowing your network partner has your best interests in mind.

Increase the iQ of your network today!

Qwest iQ Networking Powers Global Network and Application Environments

Solve today's complex networking and application requirements with Qwest iQ Networking. Our new interactive tutorial can give you an in-depth look at how global enterprises like yours are using iQ Networking. Browse our library of customer testimonials that relate how you can power mission-critical network and application environments with iQ Networking.

Learn more about how Qwest iQ Networking can enable your business applications and make complex technologies work for you.

HP ML110 G5

HP recently had a special offering for an ML110 G5 hardware bundle, that consisted of the following parts:

. Intel Xeon 3065 2.33Ghz 4MB L2
. 512MB ECC RAM
. E200 SAS Controller (8 Ports, 128MB BBWC)
. 2x 160GB 7.2kRPM SATA Disks

For less than 400 CHF. As i needed a machine to run SBS2008 at home, and my current one wasn’t 64bit capable, this seemed like a good buy, especially because the E200 with BBWC alone is worth around 300 CHF.

Of course, i needed more RAM and disk space. I also ordered 4x 2GB memory modules (with ECC) from a third party memory manufacturer (Transcend) - priced at around 80 CHF each. I also ordered 4x Western Digital 1TB disks that are optimized for 24 hour use, priced at around 180 CHF.


This brought me to a total price of around 1500 CHF. I had two 160GB disks that i didn’t have any use for (except throwing them at people i don’t like).


1500 CHF is a lot of money for me, but for a company it’s nothing - still, this is ideal for experimentation. The free ESXi supports the E200 SAS controller, making it easy to build a test lab based on VMware - also, Windows Server 2008 x64 and Hyper-V also run flawlessly on the machine.


The machine is also very quiet, making it possible to use it in a normal appartment or in your office.


You get what you pay for still applies - the machine has no remote management features, only a single network port, forcing you to use the same port for management and virtual machine traffic, which can be acceptable in a test environment. HP’s System Insight Manager is not supported on this machine, either.


The case is very small, resembling a normal HP client minitower. The mainboard supports ECC memory, which is becoming more and more important with todays memory sizes. Unfortunately, it only offers four memory slots with a maximum capacity of 2GB per stick, maxing the machine out at only 8GB of RAM.


The integrated E200 SAS RAID Controller has a 128MB BBWC card, that allows it to use it as a write cache, and enables licensing to use RAID5. In my case, i used RAID10. The disk performance is better than anticipated, even though i’m using slow consumer drives, the performance for running VMs is acceptable.


The machine has three x8 PCI-E slots and a single PCI slot. One of the x8 slots is used by the E200 controller.

This offer is still available under HP Part# 470064-639, and there are still some companies that are selling it for the lower promotion price.

I’m currently running SBS2008 directly on the hardware, with not virtualization in-between. The performance is good, but i’d still never use such a setup for a production deployment at a customer - the management options, hardware flexibility, redundancy etc. just aren’t fit for production.

Update: I was asked about Linux compatibility on this machine. See the official HP Linux compatibility list. The E200 SAS RAID Controller is supported by the cciss driver, which is in the vanilla linux kernel. So most distributions will be able to install on this box - support is another matter, though.

There is no easy way to get official support for non-corporate versions of Linux, like Ubuntu. My usual way in those scenarios is to run Linux as a VM under ESXi, but that doesn’t work with the ML110 as ESXi is not supported (but works).

Category: Exchange, Hardware, Servers 16 Comments

Hyper-V vs. ESXi management

I’ve compared Hyper-V and ESXi in the past. Since then, the virtualization market has changed. I was also able to get more experience, and have two HP ML110 G5 that run ESXi (albeit unsupported) and Hyper-V Server.

I’ve ran a test environment, mostly to play with Citrix XenApp, SBS 2008 and EBS 2008. Especially the latter, as multi server solution, could be run with multiple roles distributed on Hyper-V and ESXi hosts, which made it interesting to deal with.

Hyper-V Server management
Well, i’ll be blunt. Hyper-V Server standalone management sucks. Big time. The problem here is that you need a Vista machine (which is a problem in the testlab which mostly consists of older PCs), and then you’ll need to create same-username same-password accounts to connect the two.

Also, if you just want to delegate specific VMs, you’ll need to dive into the depths of WMI.

Many of those problems vanish when you’re using a domain setup, with Hyper-V Server joined to the domain. But that’s usually not the case in a test lab.

Add to that that Server Core is still very young, and a lot of 3rd party hardware manufacturers do not have anything Server Core ready yet. Many don’t even announce whether certain tools are supported on Server Core or not.

This doesn’t mean Server Core is a bad idea - it just means that we will need to wait for hardware manufacturers to catch up - also management agents like Backup, Anti Virus, etc. will need to get up to speed for running on Server Core.

ESXi management
ESXi works very well with standalone management. You go to the website, download the VI Client, enter user and password, and you can manage the VM host - you can also delegate permissions easily.

From what i’ve read so far, using single signon and Active Directory with ESXi is more cumbersome than on Hyper-V server. Makes sense.

ESXi integrates a lot of hardware drivers and management. However, fewer servers are supported than with Hyper-V Server. On the other hand, you can use the native ESXi tools to create teams etc., something which you can’t on Server Core because the HW manufacturers do not ship the tools for Server Core.

My opinion
ESXi works very well in a standalone lab environment. Hyper-V is lackluster at best. What does that mean for you? If you want to build a test lab, go with hardware that supports ESXi, or if that is too expensive, go with hardware that at least works with ESXi.

Category: Hyper-V, Windows 5 Comments

Troubles installing KB954960 on German SBS 2008

While setting up a new SBS 2008, i ran into a problem with installing KB954960 - a WSUS Update. It immediately said “Abgebrochen” when trying to install it through Windows Update. Trying to install the update manually instantly showed the reason why it didn work, though.

The reason for this failure is that it expects the WSUS groups to have English names - until this is fixed, there is an easy workaround to install the update:

Rename the group “WSUS-Administratoren” to “WSUS Administrators”Rename the group “WSUS-Berichterstatter” to “WSUS Reporters”

This will allow the update to install. It might make sense to rename the groups back to their original names, in case some other script depends on their names.

Another reason why running non-US versions of Windows is a bad idea in production environments - you just get additional trouble with zero advantages - but that’s for another post.


Category: Windows 6 Comments

6 months on Windows Server 2008

In May, we migrated from our old company name and a Windows Server 2003 infrastructure to Windows Server 2008.

About now, we’ve been running on this Infrastructure for 6 months. While configuring back then was very interesting (especially Exchange 2007) and finding vendors which supported their apps under WS08 wasn’t always easy, it worked out.

We’re running McAfee VirusScan Enterprise, which was supported WS08. Unfortunately, the ProtectionPilot Management App was not supported on WS08, which is why it’s running in an WS03 x32 VM. For Backup, we’ve used Symantec BackupExec 12 (since then, upgraded to 12.5).

I’ve been running six productive VMs in Hyper-V since May. The upgrades to the RTM version of Hyper-V ran flawlessly, and we’ve had zero production issues with those VMs. The VMs are a mix of WS03 x32 and WS08 x64.

Except one WS08 Core x32 Domain Controller, all WS08 machines are x64. Even the setting up an x64 print server for x32 clients was less of an issue than i initially thought.

The feature most applauded by our users is probably the TS Gateway.

We currently OCS 2007 in an (unsupported) VM, because we only use the IM functionality right now (the reason that VMs are unsupported is that voice heavily depends on timing, which can be icky in VMs). Our plan is to migrate to OCS 2007 R2 when it comes out, this time running on WS08 on native hardware, so we can start our internal VoIP rollout.

IBM has finally released Director 6.1, which supports running on WS08 x64.

For Active Directory, i run two WS 08 Core DCs, one x64 (on newer hardware) and one x32 (on rather old hardware). We also have an RODC in our branch office. BackupExec has it’s fair share of troubles running on RODCs and so do other apps that depend on SQL Server, like WSUS. So keep this in mind if you want to deploy branch offices - the single server approach worked with DCs, but it won’t with RODCs. Get two machines, one for the RODC, another one for the rest.

For branch office connectivity, we’ve always used DFS-N and DFS-R, which has continued to work flawlessly on WS08.

In our Edge environment, i’ve deployed an Exchange 2007 Edge Server, an OCS 2007 Edge Server and an ISA 2006 server. The latter two are still running on WS03, which i plan to upgrade as soon as it is possible.

I currently only have one unresolved issue, which is NTLM Authentication for Outlook Anywhere. UR4 should have resolved it, but i haven’t gotten around to test this.

As for the clients: We run three quarters Vista, one quarter XP. The XP machines only remain because i don’t have any jurisdiction over them, there are no technical reasons why they shouldn’t get upgraded.

So, after this you will probably assume that i got paid to write this. Well, i do work for a Microsoft Partner, so the Software cost associated with upgrading to WS08 was rather low, as we have Software Assurances for our Volume Licenses and we also get many internal use licenses through the MSPP.

The experience of deploying and running a production system has been a tremendous help for me to get acquainted with WS08 as a platform. I’m currently in the process of deploying my first SBS08 into production, about which i’ll write as soon as that project is done.

Still, i honestly believe that WS08 is ready to deployed. Not anywhere, mind you. Application Support is still an issue, and especially ERP vendors are slow to catch up (not us, though - we supported WS08 TS as platform from the start).

So, what do you think about WS08? Looked at it? Tried it? Running it?


Category: Hyper-V, Windows 6 Comments

My first SBS 2008 deployment

The past few days were rather busy - i’ve spent them revamping the current network and infrastructure of a small business - deploying new PCs and the first SBS 2008.

First, lets talk about the hardware. It’s important to know that small businesses handle their infrastructure completely differently than large businesses, and in my opinion there are some things that require “unusual” thinking.

Reliability: an SBS server is extremely critical for operation of a small business and they usually do not replace servers after three years

Maintainability: small businesses do not have dedicated IT personnel. Usually, most “heavy” tasks are done by an IT service provider, and the daily IT tasks are done inhouse by someone as a secondary job

Functionality: small businesses are sometimes just as demanding as larger companies - the small size requires setups that maximize the productivity of each employee

So, there are three main aspects one should focus on when deploying an SBS server.

Reliablity is a key aspect. An SBS server is critical for the business and this requires hardware that is highly capable and reliable. After all, an SBS server can serve a Business for up to five years without replacing the hardware. This is why it makes sense to buy really good hardware that lasts that long, combined with appropriate maintenance contracts to get it back up in case you run into problems.


In this case, we decided to use the following hardware:

. IBM System x3500
. Intel Quadcore 2.66 Ghz 12M (leaving 1 slot available)
. 10 GB Memory (leaving 6 slots available)
. 8 2.5″ 147GB 10kRPM SAS Disks (leaving 4 slots available)
. ServeRAID 8k with 256MB BBWC (for the first 8 disks)
. ServeRAID 8s with 256MB BBWC (for the other 4 disks)
. Disk configuration:
. RAID 1 consisting of two 147GB Disks
. RAID 5 consisting of five 147GB Disks
. Global Hotspare
. IBM SAS HBA (for tapedrive)
. LTO4 SAS attached HH internal tapedrive
. Redundant fans & power
. IBM Remote Supervisor Adapter II
. 5Y of IBM ServicePac with committed service option

As you can see, the system has lots of storage and redundancy. It’s also important to know that the SBS server does not run any third party applications (except those necessary for operation), the ERP runs on an IBM POWER machine. With SBS 2008, i would not recommend running any third party applications on the SBS itself - if necessary to run third party apps on a server, purchase SBS premium and run the third party apps on the second server.

The second aspect is ease of use, for which we should use software that can be automated as well as possible. SBS handles lots of things on his own, but we opted for a third party backup application because we still see tape backups as the best way to fulfill most of a customers needs. Especially since LTO drives have WORM media, that can help to comply with certain local laws.

As for the software, i’ve installed BackupExec 12.5 to handle the backups to tape. Tape backups are easier to handle for customers, offer superior performance, and make archival and external storage of data easy. Unfortunately, BackupExec 12.5 does not integrate with the SBS Console (yet?).

For virus scan, we’ve opted for McAfee VirusScan Enterprise. A central management application was unfortunately not yet available, so we deployed McAfee manually on each client, and on the server.

Exchange is protected using ForeFront for Exchange, which has served me well in the past.

SBS 2008 has a nice reporting function, but there are other important notifications: the RSA Adapter notifies for all hardware failures like power supplies, fans, etc. independently through e-mail (which can contact external adresses and even works if the failure killed the server), and allows remote troubleshooting in case the machine does not boot. ServeRAID manager and BackupExec also send daily reports to be viewed by the customer.

Last, but not least, is functionality. After all, customers aren’t like me that want an SBS because they like technology - no, they want an SBS to fulfill certain needs their business has.

In this case, there were several unique requirements regarding mailflow - thanks to the included Exchange 2007 server, which offers a very flexible transport rule system i was able to implement these requirements without having to purchase third party software or even program event sinks on our own.

So far, i’ve had zero issues with SBS 2008 - it worked without any problems and hardware support wasn’t a problem either. Looks like IBM got all the kinks figured out since the release of Windows Server 2008 at the beginning of the year.

The System x3500 is also very nice hardware - it looks like a tower variant of the x3650, which i also like very much. The only criticism i have for the machine is that installing the redundant fan kit is total pain in the ass, mostly because the documentation covers both the x3400 and x3500, and some parts don’t apply for the x3500 (but aren’t marked as such).

It shows that IBM can still deliver top notch hardware at affordable prices.

In case you couldn’t figure it out from reading this far, i really like SBS 2008, and it’s ready for action in a production environment. In case you’re thinking about deploying a new SBS, go with SBS 2008!


Category: Hardware, Servers, Windows 11 Comments

Windows Server 2008 and the Black Screen of Waiting

Last Week, one of our x3650 which serve as a primary file and print server crashed during Backup.

This wasn’t nice, especially because i couldn’t start the machine using the RSA Adapter. After going on-site (at around 23:00), i unplugged the power, reconnected it, and the machine booted. And crashed. And booted.

I booted it in safe mode, disabled all DFS replication task by disabling the DFS service, and the machine was finally able to boot. As soon as something IO intensive happened, it crashed. I opened a call with IBM, IBM replaced the system board.

This worked again for about a day. Then the machine crashed again, this time with “Planar Voltage Channel Fault”. This was at around 20:00. A few hours later, IBM arrived on-site and replaced the system board again.

The ServeRAID Controller then started AutoSynchronization of the array, which made the machine unbearably slow. And then it crashed again. I disabled the Automatic Server Reboot service, and set the synchronization priority to low. I also upgraded the hard disk firmware to version 1.03.

After about a day, the synchronization completed. Performance was comparably normal, but the machine still required about 20 minutes to boot, which was unacceptable. Looking at the eventlog, i saw some log entries before the waiting time, and some after. All of them normal, none of them looking like errors.

IBM came on site two times, replacing the ServeRAID memory and replacing the CPU and HD backplane power connector. However, neither of that fixed the issue. I began to suspect a software issue.

Today, IBM was on site again. They brought a replacement server. After testing our server with one of their hard disks (which was fast, as usual), it seemed clear that this was a software issue.

I had an idea, mostly related to the fact that the first crash was during a backup. I looked at the device manager, set it to show all hidden devices, and found about 100 shadow copies.

I looked at vssadmin list shadows, which also showed a lot of shadow copies. I removed all shadow copies on one of the drives which contained shadow copies, but there were still some there. I deleted them using vssadmin delete shadows. The reboot was fast again: Instead of 20 minutes, it only took around 5 (including the BIOS).

So, if you have Windows Server 2008 hanging at the Black Screen of Death err Waiting, it’s probably a good idea to look at your shadow copies. They may be culprit.

Also, big thanks to the techs from IBM, and for taking this issue seriously.

IBM releases first information about upcoming x3650 M2 and x3550 M2

A few days ago i bought an i7 920 for my computer at home. The performance is absolutely astonishing, compared to the AMD X2 CPU i had before. Especially VMs perform very well on it.

The first Nehalem-based servers have already been released, and as always IBM is a quiet compared to other server manufacturers. However, today while looking at some support documents i saw that IBM finally offers downloads of IBM x3650 M2 and IBM x3550 M2 documentation:

x3650 M2 Installation Guide

x3650 M2 Service Guide

x3550 M2 Installation Guide

x3550 M2 Service Guide

IMM User Guide (RSA II Successor)

All Documents on Scribd

I’ve now skimmed through the documents a few times and found several things worth mentioning - please note that i haven’t seen the actual hardware, so there may be mistakes here. If i’m aware of the, i’ll correct them of course.

RSA II Replaced by IMM

The RSA II adapter has been succeded by the IMM. The IMM is integrated into both the x3650 M2 and the x3550 M2, but certain features need to be enabled by purchasing a “Media Key”. This is similar to how HP handles this issue, except with a physical key. The Media key enables additional features, as described in the IMM User Guide:

In addition, IMM Premium has the following features:-

Remote presence, including the remote control of a server- Operating-system failure- screen capture and display through the Web interface- Remote disk, which enables the attachment of a diskette drive, CD/DVD drive, USB flash drive, or disk image to a server

More Disks

The x3650 M2 will support up to 12 hard disks. The x3550 M2 will support up to 6 hard disks. Only 2.5″ of course. I currently didn’t see much mention of SSD, but i’m sure both these machines will see SSDs during their lifecycle.

There are also several changes regarding the hard disk controller. The Onboard ServeRAID 8k made by Adaptec is gone. It will be replaced by MR10i and BR10i ServeRAID Adapters, made by LSI Logic. For more details about those controllers, see the ServeRAID Quick Reference. These adapters will fit into a special slot, and are no longer fully integrated into the system board.

This is a good thing - RAID controller troubles in the x3550 and x3650 always meant replacement of the system board, which could be problematic because it changed the various IDs of the system (most notably the MAC adresses).

More Memory

Nehalem brings CPUs with On-Die memory controllers to Intel-based servers. If you’ve never handled AMD servers before, this means a few changes.

* Memory is local to the CPU, meaning you will need both CPUs if you want to use the full 16 memory slots.* Nehalem features a triple-channel memory subsystem, making memory placement interesting* If you’ve wondered how triple-channel and 16 slots works, see the graphic to the right

More Ethernet ports

The x3650 M2 comes with 4 Gigabit ethernet ports. The x3550 M2 with two, but an option for an additional two without requiring a full pci-e slot. This is especially good when you’re using virtualization and need to segregate hosts or need the extra bandwidth.

UEFI & other features

UEFI is the successor to the common BIOS. This will get interesting - i have no real idea what to expect from this. I only know that WS08 supports UEFI boot directly, and that IBM will provide emulation for legacy operating systems.

There’s also an in-system USB port for running a Hypervisor directly from flash. The system also features an integrated TPM module, which can be used together with Bitlocker to provide full disk encryption in physically insecure servers.

An important Whitepaper from IBM about Transitioning to UEFI is also available.

NOS support

Both new systems have also appeared in IBMs NOS support list. While full Windows support is offered, it looks like VMware will not be supported, at least initially.

Support for high performance graphics cards:

The system board lists an 8 pin power connector for high performance graphics cards. The parts list also lists NVIDIA FX1700 and NVIDIA FX570. This might be needed for CUDA or similar applications.

Conclusions:

I want one. According to my sources, they should be available for sale starting on the 21st of April. As of today, the System x New Generation information page is finally online

HP announces new DL380 G6, DL360 G6

With yesterdays official announcement of the Nehalem Xeons, all major server manufacturers announced their new product lineup. HPs new announcements are equally interesting as what IBM has announced.

HP DL380 G6 Quickspecs

HP DL360 G6 Quickspecs

There are some interesting things to see there - unlike IBM, HP chose to go with 18 memory slots, allowing each CPU’s three channels to drive three memory modules. HP also offers a flash-based Memory configuration tool, that alleviates having to learn complicated placement rules.

HP also offers more disks per system, allowing a DL 380 G6 configuration with 16 2.5″ drives in 2U server. The DL360 G6 can have up to 8 2.5″ drives - that’s the same number of drives that previous generations had in a 2U form factor!

Having the ability to add lots of local storage is a good thing in smaller businesses. Larger companies probably won’t need that as much. Interestingly, HP choose to stay with a traditional BIOS with their G6 series. IBM is already offering UEFI on their x3550 M2 / x3650 M2.

Another new thing that i gleaned from those documents is the ability to choose a power supply based on the expected load of the server - making it possible to favor higher efficiency (for example, if you do not intend to have local disks in the server, as you’re planning to use your SAN).

Citrix XenApp Exam

Yeah, i know. Not much content from me in the past few weeks. Not much motivation to write anything, and mostly bullshit happening that writing about wouldn’t be productive.

Either way, i attended a Citrix course and started setting up our internal Citrix test environment. Naturally, i also took some uninteresting Citrix Sales exams and a real exam at prometric.

The exam is easy if you even halfway know your way around Citrix. One thing that i didn’t pay too much attention too are port numbers, but there were a few in which knowing them was an advantage.

SQL Server Versions

I have lost count the number of times I go searching for the patch level or version number in SQL.

This was something I did all the time with SQL 2000. It all started when SP 2 came out. We started to get issues with dts packages that were developed on SP1 and then run SP2. The problem was the package format changed between versions. Hence the question what version I am really running?

Why have I brought this up you may ask? Because now that we have SP1 for SQL Server 2005 and the rollup hotfix. We now have three versions of SQL Server 2005 that are in support by Microsoft.

How Do I get the Version of SQL Server?The easiest and most reliable is the T-SQL Statement below:

SELECT @@VersionThere are of course lots of other methods but I prefer T-SQL. This works for SQL 7 and above. The statement returns the SQL Server edition, version, OS and OS Patch number, and the most important the SQL Build Number for Sqlservr.exe.

The build number will tell you the patch level of your SQL Server.

Build Numbers for SQL Server 2005

2005.90.1399 - RTM first commercial release of SQL Server 2005

2005.90.2047 - Service Pack 1 for SQL Server 2005 see: How to obtain the latest service pack for SQL Server 2005

2005.9.0.2153 - Rollup hotfix for SQL Server 2005 see: Cumulative hotfix package (build 2153) for SQL Server 2005

Other Build versions

There are heaps of sources for this information. Listed below are some helpful links for earlier versions of SQL Server and software update naming conventions.


How to identify your SQL Server version and edition

New naming schema for Microsoft SQL Server software update packages

New Zealand TechEd Is Finally Here!

TechEd 06 has been a sold out event for a number of weeks now. It sold out in record time. For those you that are not aware, Microsoft NZ TechEd is the largest annual IT conference in New Zealand with over 2000 delegates attending.

This year I am presenting again. I am lucky enough to have one very comprehensive session on Business Intelligence.

BIN213 - Delivering an End to End Business Intelligence Solution on Monday 21st Aug 2:00:00 p.m. to 3:15:00 p.m.

My session is going to cover a detailed overview of implementing Microsoft Business Intelligence solutions. I am covering topics such as SQL Server 2005, SSIS, Analysis Services 2005, Reporting Services 2005, Office 2007 and ProClarity.

I am also looking at the business reasons behind BI projects. In the demonstrations I will show an integrated architecture for a Microsoft BI platform.

Ok it’s a lot to cover. So I will also be about on the HP stand this year to go through any questions or demos you would like to discuss in detail.

If you have registered for TechEd you need to login to CommNet and book your session schedule.

For complete schedule information see Nigel Parkers Blog

Business Intelligence with SQL Server 2005: Transform Data into Decisions

Just came across a set of PerformancePoint webcasts on

http://thesource.ofallevil.com/events/series/sqlserverbi.mspx. Check out:

TechNet Webcast: Performance Management 101 with PerformancePoint Server 2007 (Level 200)

Join us and learn how Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 enables businesses to deliver performance management capabilities broadly by providing an application that is easy to use and less costly to deploy than traditional solutions.

TechNet Webcast: Microsoft Business Intelligence: Introduction to PerformancePoint Server 2007 (Level 200)

Discover how Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 provides you with critical visibility into the factors that affect your business, allowing you to make decisions and take actions that drive better business outcomes.

Microsoft and Teradata Collaborate

Microsoft and Teradata have formally announced a partnership. It looks like SSIS, AS2005 and RS2005 will be able to access Teradata enterprise warehouse. This will help Tetra data access Performance Point.check out:

Microsoft and Teradata Collaborate to Offer Business Intelligence Solutionshttp://www.teradata.com/t/

Project REAL Reference Implementation

I have just come across a new download from project real. It’s a complete business intelligence reference implementation. I am currently downloading the 238.2 mb sample.
It looks like it a good example of an end to end solution.

Check out: Reference Implementation

My TechEd session Ready for download

My TechEd session on Delivering an End to End Business Intelligence is now up on Microsoft for download.

Check out: BIN213.ppt

This Months Book Recommendation: Microsoft Data Warehouse Toolkit

After TechEd I realised that in my slide deck I did not recommend The Microsoft Data Warehouse ToolKit by Joy Mundy and Warren Thornthwaite as required reading before starting a BI project.

If you are new to BI or new to the SQL Server 2005 BI platform this book is a great starting point. This book covers an end to end BI solution on the SQL server 2005 platform.
The book covers a Reference Architecture for implementing a Microsoft BI Solution.

The book also includes a case study using the Adventure works example database as the source for an end to end BI solution. All the sample code can be downloaded from www.msftdwtoolkit.com

SQL Server 2005 Skill Assessments

Microsoft has released a series of free skill tests that are well worth trying.

There are tests covering most Microsoft products.

There are two categories that I have given a go.

Introduction to SQL Server 2005 (DBA, Developer, BI): SQL 2005

Introduction to SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services: RS 2000

Tips, Tricks, and Advice from the SQL Server Query Optimization Team

A colleague of mine has just introduced me to one of the best blogs I have seen in along while.

The Tips, Tricks, and Advice is brought to you by the SQL Server Query Optimization Team.

Here are some of my favourite posts on the performance features of SQL 2005 Query Optimizer. Check out the following:

MCITP: Business Intelligence Developer

Microsoft has just released an update to the Microsoft Certified IT
Professional (MCITP) with the creation of Business Intelligence Developer credential. It looks like you only need to sit two exams to become a Business Intelligence Developer.

This qualification is a step up from the Microsoft Certified Technology Specialists in Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Business Intelligence (MCTS: SQL Server 2005 BI).

The training material is available but the exams are not available until early 2007. It might be a good time to start looking into getting this certification.

How to obtain the latest service pack for SQL Server 2005

Microsoft have just release SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 CTP. Check out: How to obtain the latest service pack for SQL Server 2005

Microsoft BI Conference

Ok so I have not blogged in a long while. So time for an update!


I have been very busy working on a few data warehouse projects and have not had the time to blog. So I am glad to get sometime out to go to Microsoft's first BI conference in Seattle next week.

It's a Conference of many firsts, first time Microsoft has created a forum for BI using Microsoft products. Sure there has been many a 'TechEd Session' on SSRS, SSAS and SSIS. But this is the real deal best practices, case studies and the like. And I am not talking about project real either. The big difference with this conference is there is not mix bag of sessions.

As a part of the trip I am going to blog every day of the conference to let you know what went to.
It's very exciting.