Verify SQL connection from your machine

Everyone know System Center products are heavily rely on SQL server, we must prepare the SQL server first in order to proceed with the System Center products installation. Sometimes we would like to verify the connectivity between System Center servers and SQL servers, since we are not SQL server expert, how we gonna achieve that by using tools or is there any other primitive way (such as ping, or telnet command in command prompt) to troubleshoot that?

Here, I would like to share with everyone a good tip.

Create a blank text file on your desktop using Notepad, and then rename the text file extension from 'txt' to 'udl'. Double click the udl file, a Data Link Properties windows will prompt out. Here we go! Now we are able to test out the SQL connectivity by using this small interface! Is that cool?

Although this is not a big news, I doubt a lot of developers knew about this, and I got this tip from my best friend Koh Nyap Hong. He is a great developer and thanks for him to share this tip with me. Now, I would like to share this tool with all IT Professionals, this will be a very useful tool for you to troubleshoot some basic SQL errors.

Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 3.2 RTM is now Available!

MAP 3.2 RTM is now available!! This RTM released has expanded its assessment capabilities to SQL Server 2008, ForeFront/NAP, Microsoft Online Services migration, as well as providing a Power Savings assessment.

MAP 3.2 assessment areas now include:

• SQL Server 2008 Migration Proposals and Reports (NEW)
• Forefront/NAP Readiness Proposals (NEW)
• Microsoft Online Services Migration Surveys, Proposals, and Reports (NEW)
• Power Savings Proposals (NEW)
• Server Migration Reports and Proposals (Windows Server 2008 and "virtualized guests by hosts" reporting) (NEW)
• Server Consolidation Reports and Proposals (Virtual Server 2005 R2 and Hyper-V)
• Desktop Security Assessment to determine if desktops have anti-virus and anti-malware programs installed and up-to-date, or if the Windows Firewall is turned on
• Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007 Hardware Assessment Reports and Proposals

If you are interested to download or if you would like to know more about it, please visit the website below:
Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit

SRS Server Validation Error while installing Operation Manager Reporting

We tried to install Operation Manager Reporting on Windows 2008, but during the installation, the wizard showed the error "SRS Server Validation Error". We spent quite sometimes to do troubleshooting and verify the step-by-step installation procedures (inclusive SQL 2005 & SQL 2005 SP2 installation), but we found nothing wrong with those procedures. Furthermore, the SQL Reporting Service Configuration did not return any error and every components are showing healthy status.

After hours of troubleshooting, I found that the IIS 7.0 does not allow executable script and program to run on the SQL reporting virtual directory. After we make some permissions changes on the SQL reporting virtual directory, the installation then can be completed with no error.

Below are the steps for editting the virtual directory permissions:

1. In IIS Manager, open the Sites folder, and then open the folder of the Web site that contains the report server virtual directory.
2. Select the report server virtual directory.
3. In the IIS area, double-click HTTP Handlers.
4. In the Actions pane, click Edit Handler Permissions.
5. Click Script, and then click OK.

If the above matter cannot help you, try to verify your SQL reporting service status by using Reporting Service Configuration, make sure all components and services are in healthy status.

Managing Open Source in Operation Manager x64 Environment

In enterprise data center environment, some of the customer might interested on managing Open Source servers using Operation Manager.

Microsoft Connect introduced a Cross Platform Extensions for Operation Manager, which provide open source dll runtime to Operation Manager for querying the open source systems and as well as various open source system's Management Pack.

Previously this Cross Platform Extensions can only be able to run on 32-bit Operation Manager, but Microsoft Connect one again introduced a new Cross Platform Extensions Beta Update Yesterday!! Now, Operation Manager that run on 64-bit platform will also be able to manage open source system with this new update!

Currently, the Cross Platform Extensions only be able to manage the following open source platform:

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
• Suse 10.1
• HP UX 11.31
• Solaris 10
• AIX 5.3 (New in Beta Update)

If you guys are interested on managing open source using Operation Manager 2007, register yourself and downlaod the installer from Microsoft Connect site!

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Paul's Sys-Center Shared

Dear all,

Thanks for visiting and supporting System Center Product Blog. I will share out my video & files at SkyDrive in the future. Feel free to grab those video & files for your kind perusal.

Paul's Sys-Center Shared

If you guys are interested on contributing to community, feel free to contact us. Cheers.

Managing SCVMM 2008 using SCOM 2007

Since System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 is still in beta stage, is there a way for Operation Manager 2007 to manage it? We are trying to sort it out and try to make it become possible...

Finally, we've found the VMM 2008 Management Pack for Operation Manger is actually resided in the VMM's bits itself, this is amazing!

By the way, before you can install the VMM 2008 management pack into Ops Manager, below are few prerequisites management pack you need to load:

• Windows Server Internet Information Services Library
• Windows Server Internet Information Services 2003
• SQL Server Core Library
• SQL Server 2005 (Discovery)
• SQL Server 2005 (Monitoring)
  

Below is the video for installing SCVMM 2008 management pack into SCOM 2007. For those virtualization fans, share this with your friends.

DPM - Virtual Tape

One of our participants on the DPM class is asking if we can test out the Tape functionality in DPM without installing a real Tape Library? Yes you can.

Thanks to FireSteamer.

You can download and use it for 30 days trial from:

http://cid-147d10eebd539097.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Public/Tools/VirtualTape