If you have to reinitialize the log shipping for a database which is doing log backup every 5 minutes, there are probably piles of log backup files need to be restored after restoring database backup nightly. A little bit crazy if you have to manually go through all files. This is a helpful script to generate the SQL script for you to do all the log restoral.

<span class="kwrd">SELECT</span>  <span class="str">'RESTORE LOG ['</span> + database_name + <span class="str">'] FROM DISK='</span><span class="str">''</span>
        + physical_device_name + <span class="str">''</span><span class="str">' WITH NORECOVERY'</span>
<span class="kwrd">FROM</span>    msdb.dbo.backupset a
        <span class="kwrd">INNER</span> <span class="kwrd">JOIN</span> msdb.dbo.backupmediafamily b <span class="kwrd">ON</span> a.media_set_id = b.media_set_id
<span class="kwrd">WHERE</span>   database_name = <span class="str">'laFileStore'</span>
        <span class="kwrd">AND</span> type = <span class="str">'L'</span>
        <span class="kwrd">AND</span> backup_start_date >= ( <span class="kwrd">SELECT</span> <span class="kwrd">TOP</span> 1
                                            backup_start_date
                                   <span class="kwrd">FROM</span>     msdb.dbo.backupset
                                   <span class="kwrd">WHERE</span>    database_name = <span class="str">'laFileStore'</span>
                                            <span class="kwrd">AND</span> type = <span class="str">'D'</span>
                                   <span class="kwrd">ORDER</span> <span class="kwrd">BY</span> backup_start_date <span class="kwrd">DESC</span>
                                 )
<span class="kwrd">ORDER</span> <span class="kwrd">BY</span> a.backup_start_date 

We just upgraded some apps from .Net Framework 3.5 sp1 to .Net Framework 4. Some Crystal reports got this error.

After Bingo a little bit, found this note on SAP site. It is because of the mixed mode dll issue. Have to put this configuration in the config file:

**

**

And this basically is for compatibility of mixed mode dlls. This blog post has very detail info about this flag.

We have a VM which is running Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard with 32GB RAM. Recently we have to add more RAM to it to improve SQL Server performance. Another 32GB RAM is added through VM configuration. But since it is a Windows Server 2008 R2 standard edition which has a limitation of only being able to use 32GB RAM MAX, it still can’t see the full 64GB. Found out we have to upgrade the edition to Enterprise in order to fully utilize 64GB RAM. By following this blog post for upgrading Windows Server 2008 R2 without media, I ran the script to initiate the upgrade:

DISM /online /Set-Edition:ServerEnterprise /ProductKey:XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX

I used the right MAK license key for Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise. But the upgrade was failed. The error message is something like this:

Error: 1605

The specified product key is not valid for the target edition.
Run this command again with a product key specific to the target edition.

The DISM log file can be found at C:\Windows\Logs\DISM\dism.log

For example if upgrading to Enterprise and using a MAK key, the DISM log would contain the following entry.

dism /online /Set-Edition:ServerEnterprise /ProductKey:[abcde-abcde-abcde-abcde-abcde]

Error DISM DISM Transmog Provider: PID=5728 Product key is keyed to [], but user requested transmog to [ServerEnterprise] - CTransmogManager::ValidateTransmogrify
>
> CTransmogManager::ValidateTransmogrify
>
> Error DISM DISM Transmog Provider: PID=3880 [Upgrading system]: The specified product key is not valid for the target edition.
>
> Run this command again with a product key specific to the target edition.
>
> [hrError=0x80070645] - CTransmogManager::EventError
>
> Warning DISM DISM Transmog Provider: PID=3880 The selected OS cannot upgrade to [ServerEnterprise] - CTransmogManager::TransmogrifyWorker
>
> Error DISM DISM Transmog Provider: PID=3880 Failed to Upgrade! - CTransmogManager::TransmogrifyWorker(hr:0x80070645)
>
> Error DISM DISM Transmog Provider: PID=3880 Failed to upgrade! - CTransmogManager::ExecuteCmdLine(hr:0x80070645)
>
>

I Bingo a little bit about this error message. Found a KB which is exactly for it. Looks like I can’t use our MAK key to do it since the key works for multiple editions. DISM doesn’t know what to do with it. I have to get a KMS Client Setup Key for Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise to do the upgrade first. So I get the KMS key from here which is 489J6-VHDMP-X63PK-3K798-CPX3Y.

Then I ran the upgrade script again. It worked this time. After the upgrade and reboot, I have to use these two script to change the product key to my correct MAK key, and activate windows. Otherwise, windows will show it is not a genuine windows installation.

cscript.exe %windir%\system32\slmgr.vbs /IPK XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX

cscript.exe %windir%\system32\slmgr.vbs /ato

After all these were done, my VM is able to see and use full 64GB RAM right now. Cheers!

I got a notification for upgrading to newer version when opening Skype on my Windows 8.1. But when I chose to upgrade, it stopped at this error complaining “The older version of Skype cannot be removed. Contact your technical support group.” Ok, well. What if I manually remove the old version from Windows Programs and Features? Boom, another stop error “Can’t find Skype.msi in folder C:\ProgramData\Skype{4E76FF7E-AEBA-4C87-B788-CD47E5425B9D} for the corresponding version”. Can’t continue the upgrade process.

After some Bingle, looks like this is a common issue after installing certain previous version of Skype. According to this article, I have to update Skype without using any Skype installer. But when I downloaded the Skype full installation file directly from Skype.com, it is a Skype installer exe. I was not able to find the msi file as the solution mentioned. Then I just thought how about going to the folder windows installer was complaining about. Bingo, found another folder in C:\ProgramData\Skype{7A3C7E05-EE37-47D6-99E1-2EB05A3DA3F7}. And the new version of Skype.msi is right there. Then I just used 7-zip to open this msi as an archive. And copied Skype.exe to overwrite the old version of exe in the program files folder. And the upgrade is just done! Started the Skype, checked the version. And it shows the new version number.

I used Microsoft Enterprise Library 5.0 in a lot of project. After I upgraded SQL Server installation on my workstation to SQL Server 2012, I got this error every time trying to open a new query window in SSMS 2012.

“The ‘Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Configuration.Design.VisualStudioIntegration2010Package, Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Configuration.Design.VisualStudioIntegration2010, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=netutral, PublicKeyToken=null’ package did not load correctly. The problem mayhave been cuased by a configuration change or by the installation of another extension. You can get more information by running the application together with the /log parameter on the command line, and then examining the file …\AppDate\Roaming\Microsoft\AppEnv\10.0\ActivityLog.xml’. Continue to show this error message?”

Even I can disabled and hide it for next time after it shows up at the first time, it is still very annoying. I Bingle a little bit. Looks like there was a Microsoft Connect item on SQL Server already. But the item is closed and no fix available. The only workaround is:

Remove the VisualStudio 2010 integration from Microsoft Enterprise Library 5.0 Optional Update 1 installation. Then if you need the Visual Studio 2010 integration, install the EnterpriseLibrary Configuration extension from Microsoft via the Extension Manager in VS2010.

Found a nice article on MSDN site. It has all the information about .Net Framework Versions and Dependencies. You can see the .Net Framework versions which are included or supported in which version of Windows OS and Visual Studio. Check it out. Cool!

When using WebClient to send request to a HTTPS site, if the site is using a self issued or expired Certificate, it will have the “Invalid Certification” error. So it has to handle that by disabling the SSL check.

System.Net.ServicePointManager.ServerCertificateValidationCallback =

 <span class="kwrd">new</span> System.Net.Security.RemoteCertificateValidationCallback(

     <span class="kwrd">delegate</span>

     { <span class="kwrd">return</span> <span class="kwrd">true</span>; }

 );

Just found a cool site which has all the build numbers of SQL Servers. Very good resource.

Microsoft announced SQL Server 2014 RTM today. Some highlights from this announcement:

“Built-in in-memory technology for faster application performance”

“In-memory transaction processing (In-Memory OLTP), speeds up an already very fast experience by delivering speed improvement of up to 30x.”

“Important to our in-memory work is our approach to build SQL Server’s In-Memory OLTP right into the box. This means our customers don’t need expensive additional software to take advantage of the technology. ”

“Hybrid cloud capabilities offer greater flexibility”

“The other key area of investment for SQL Server 2014 has been hybrid features that span the cloud and on-premises, giving customers a choice in how they deploy database solutions. Customers can easily and securely backup and recover on-premises SQL Server databases using Windows Azure. SQL Server 2014’s AlwaysOn technology was not just improved for this release, it was built to enroll Windows Azure virtual machines running SQL Server into a customers’ disaster recovery solution. “

Very excited. Can’t wait to get hands on it. It will be available on Apr. 1.

As a hardcore developer, I always prefer to use keyboard than use mouse to go through GUI menus and toolbars. So I like the hot keys and command lines. When doing the settings and configurations, we use control panel tools a lot. I always use “Win+R” to bring up the “Run” dialog firstly.

Then just type the command line to bring up the control panel tool. Here has a list of all common command lines to bring up various Control Panel tools. And a few examples:

To bring up the “Programs and Features” tool.

To bring up the “Network Connections” tool.

control ncpa.cpl

To bring up the “Fonts” tool.

control fonts

Have fun!