SQL Server Service Pack version query

24 July 2012 by

I was just checking the Service Pack versions on our SQL servers. Here’s the query I used:

SELECT
SERVERPROPERTY('Edition') AS Edition,
SERVERPROPERTY('ProductLevel') AS ProductLevel,
SERVERPROPERTY('ProductVersion') AS ProductVersion

The Community Technology Preview (CTP) of SP2 for SQL Server 2008 is already out, so it shouldn’t be too long for general release, so in the meantime we’re up-to-date using SP1 🙂

SQL Server 2005 is at its latest Service Pack on version 4:

Standard Edition (64-bit) – SP4 – 9.00.5057.00

Filed Under: Microsoft, SQL Server Tagged With:

Hardcore troubleshooting using Logs, Process Monitor, PowerShell and Excel

24 July 2012 by

I’m a huge fan of the Sysinternals Suite – Process Monitor being one of my faves – and am loving using PowerShell to do ever more, but this post is at another level: http://blogs.technet.com/b/askds/archive/2012/06/01/what-s-causing-that-dfsr-change-storm.aspx

Hopefully I’ll be able to use similar techniques for those really tricky problems that rear their ugly head from time to time. Bring it on!

Filed Under: Microsoft, Programming Tagged With: , , , ,

Issuing a certificate to Exchange 2010 using an Internal Certificate Authority (CA)

23 July 2012 by

Scenario

You’ve installed Active Directory Certificate Services and need to issue a certificate to Exchange 2010.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Exchange, Microsoft Tagged With: , ,

ODBC gotcha for DocuWare on Win7 64-bit

18 July 2012 by

I almost got caught out again earlier on the 32-bit ODBC admin console gotcha for 64-bit computers.

Luckily that first post I wrote at the start of the year helped me out. It really is great that this blog is becoming a great reference for me already. I don’t know if I should be proud of that, or ashamed that I forgot about the issue in under a year 😐

Anyway, in addition to using the correct ODBC admin console (C:\Windows\SysWOW64\odbcad32.exe), make sure you tick Return matched rows instead of affected rows and Enable dynamic cursors to make DocuWare run correctly:

Filed Under: Microsoft Tagged With: ,

Installing Active Directory Certificate Services

18 July 2012 by

Scenario

You want to configure and control certificates throughout your IT Infrastructure.

Server 2008 R2 has this functionality built-in, so you just need to add the Server Role.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Microsoft Tagged With: , , ,

Convert a Server 2008 R2 trial license to a full license

18 July 2012 by

Scenario

You’ve installed Windows Server 2008 R2 and are running it in “trial mode”.

You have a spare full license key, and you want to use this to convert the server from trial mode to the full version.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Microsoft Tagged With: ,

Configuring Notifications in System Center Essentials (SCE) 2010

16 July 2012 by

Scenario

You’ve successfully installed and configured System Center Essentials (SCE) 2010. You now need to configure notifications.

There are 3 parts to this:

  1. Channels
  2. Subscribers
  3. Subscriptions
Find out how they all work together below.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Microsoft Tagged With: ,

Malware Hunting with the Sysinternals Tools

11 July 2012 by

I’ve just finished watching the best instructional video to date on Malware Hunting with the Sysinternals Tools, part of the latest TechEd 2012 sessions. There is also a similar PDF available for many of these tips.

The Sysinternals Suite has been my one of my favourite toolkits for many years, and although I already use most of the techniques shown in the video above, there were a few new features for me to get stuck into. Highly recommended.

Other TechEd sessions I’ve enjoyed watching include videos from the following speakers:

 

Filed Under: Microsoft Tagged With: , , ,

Migrate from Exchange 2007 to Exchange 2010

9 July 2012 by

Scenario

You’ve just installed Exchange 2010 and now you want to migrate from Exchange 2007 to Exchange 2010.

Here’s the steps I took.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Exchange, Microsoft Tagged With: ,

Troubleshooting Silent Clients using WSUS

9 July 2012 by

I had the “Silent Clients” warning in System Center this morning, and thought the information in the Resolutions section was excellent.

I try most of these steps when troubleshooting automatic updates, but there was a few new ones I’ve not used to date.

Here’s the complete list:

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Microsoft Tagged With: ,
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