Today I came across 2 articles relating to SQL server. The first, talks about determining events that take place during a time slice. I can see possible uses for this in scheduling, and definite use in reporting.

The second article, discusses some new features and functionality in SQL 2008. Below are some quick notes that were important to me.

• Transparent DB encryption - I'm more in interested in transparent table encryption, including indexes (in case the index contains sensitive data). Further research is needed. I know SQL 2005 has some encryption functionality, so I'm interested in what has exactly changed.
• Built in support for auditing data. Configured thru T-SQL.
• Data Compression.
• MS says slight processor performance hit on compression, but made up due to less I/O.
• It will be an interesting exercise to see how this will work on VMWare.
• Resource Governor
• Prevent users or groups from consuming high levels of resources.
• Since everyone is going to be coming in as Network Service (a rather large assumption), be interesting to see if we can still take advantage of this
• HotPlug CPU
• Don't know if we can take advantage of this. Probably only if we were using blades.
• Performance Data
• Sql Dashboard to display
• Suggestions for improving performance
• Current and historical data
• Installation sounds allot easier
• Configuration data separate from engine, so you should be able to setup once, deploy multiple servers and then configure.
• Should help with cloning.

So I got around to adding Database rollback functionality to my MSTest unit tests by using an article I read in MSDN magazine back in 04, before switching to MBUnit at my last job.

Everything was working great on my local computer (Vista even), and then I checked in my tests, and the failed, horribly on the build server. Fist issue was MSDTC network access was not enable, so I fixed that, but Then the build wouldn't even complete.

I dropped down to a console window and ran the tests manually using the MSTest command line tool. When running all of the tests, it hung after about test #9 of 17. When running the tests individually I was getting MSDTC errors. After spending too long just randomly trying DTC settings, I rememberd the trusty MSDTC testing tool I had stashed away for problems like this. Got that copied over to the build server and.....a generic error message that had me searching on google to no avail.

Around this time, I noticed that the event view was conviently located in the same MMC windows as Component Services, and had ment to check it for the past 30 minutes, I finally opened it up and BAM, there it was, a DTC error, but would it give me a clue as to what the problem was? YES! Not only a clue, but a god dam solution to boot (a welcome change).

The problem? My build server was from the same clone as my Dev Server that had the SQL DB on, and since I did not use sysprep, but SysInternals NewSid app, the DTC was not setup correctly (they both had the same ID).

The solution? Run msdtc -uninstall and then msdtc -install from the command line to reinstall msdtc. I had to run msdtc -install twice and click around in the Component Services windows a couple of times before i could get DTC configured for using a local cooridantor, but in the end, it was running.

Back to dtctester, which passed, back to my command line unit tests, which passed, back to the build server, which passed.

Now because I like the extra challenge, I thought I'd enable windows firewall on the build server as well. Whooops, broke it again, but I knew I had gotten DTC to work before so it was just a matter of comparing settings.

It's pretty easy to get DTC to work with windows firewall, just enable an exception in the firewall for c:\windows\system32\msdtc.exe, and don't forget to restart MSDTC service for changes to really take affect.

Bam, everything works, and now, I can go home.

So I got around to adding Database rollback functionality to my MSTest unit tests by using an article I read in MSDN magazine back in 04, before switching to MBUnit at my last job.

Everything was working great on my local computer (Vista even), and then I checked in my tests, and the failed, horribly on the build server. Fist issue was MSDTC network access was not enable, so I fixed that, but Then the build wouldn't even complete.

I dropped down to a console window and ran the tests manually using the MSTest command line tool. When running all of the tests, it hung after about test #9 of 17. When running the tests individually I was getting MSDTC errors. After spending too long just randomly trying DTC settings, I remembered the trusty MSDTC testing tool I had stashed away for problems like this. Got that copied over to the build server and.....a generic error message that had me searching on Google to no avail.

Around this time, I noticed that the event view was conveniently located in the same MMC windows as Component Services, and had meant to check it for the past 30 minutes, I finally opened it up and BAM, there it was, a DTC error, but would it give me a clue as to what the problem was? YES! Not only a clue, but a god dam solution to boot (a welcome change).

The problem? My build server was from the same clone as my Dev Server that had the SQL DB on, and since I did not use sysprep, but SysInternals NewSid app, the DTC was not setup correctly (they both had the same ID).

The solution? Run msdtc -uninstall and then msdtc -install from the command line to reinstall msdtc. I had to run msdtc -install twice and click around in the Component Services windows a couple of times before i could get DTC configured for using a local coordinator, but in the end, it was running.

Back to dtctester, which passed, back to my command line unit tests, which passed, back to the build server, which passed.

Now because I like the extra challenge, I thought I'd enable windows firewall on the build server as well. Whooops, broke it again, but I knew I had gotten DTC to work before so it was just a matter of comparing settings.

It's pretty easy to get DTC to work with windows firewall, just enable an exception in the firewall for c:\windows\system32\msdtc.exe, and don't forget to restart MSDTC service for changes to really take affect.

Bam, everything works, and now, I can go home.

This is a placeholder for an About me page.

Quick Info:

Name: Adam Salvo
Current Employment: Full time Software Engineer for Terso Solutions
Location: Madison, WI
Education: Graduated from UW-Madison in December of 2001 with a BS in Computer Science. MCSD.

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