The SPAMmers made me do it!

 11 Mar 2009 10:59:46 pm

I know I’m way past due on posting, I’ve been spending a good deal of time preparing for E14 (and hopefully when the time is right some E14 content to post)!

Despite the CAPTCHA I put in place nearly a year ago I’ve had a good deal of ongoing comment SPAM on the blog. I don’t understand why someone would repeatedly lurk on my blog, often for an hour or more, posting their comment SPAM. Especially after they see all their comments suddenly disappear an hour later when I execute a quick SQL one-liner wiping out the nuisance. You’d think after the first dozen or so times they would figure it out and stop wasting their time. To put an end to this I’ve started moderating all comment posts, so nothing will appear until approved.

Thanks for your patronage,
Erik

Posted By : Erik | Category: General | Comments [[50]] | Trackbacks [0]

  Installing MySQL 5.x on Server 2008 x64 RC1

 01 Feb 2008 05:05:28 pm

If you’ve tried to install MySQL 5.x on Server 2008 x64 you’ve probably seen MySQLInstanceConfig.exe (The MySQL Server Instance Config Wizard process) bomb out with the following error:

“The application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect. Please see the application event log for more detail.”

If you review the event log you see the corresponding error:

Source: SideBySide
EventID: 63
“Activation context generation failed for "…MySQLInstanceConfig.exe".Error in manifest or policy file "…MySQLInstanceConfig.exe" on line 6. The value "asAdministrator" of attribute "level" in element "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1^requestedPrivileges" is invalid.”

This happens with both the x64 and the x86 versions of MySQL because both of them use the 32-bit version of MySQLInstanceConfig.

From playing around with it I haven’t been about to find a way to get the configuration wizard working. From some Google searches I hadn’t seen information out there about how to get around it either. The good news is that (so far as I know) all the work that the wizard does can be done manually and you can work around this problem. First let’s look at what the wizard does:


  • Builds the my.ini file that contains the MySQL settings (connection config, path to data files, etc.)
  • Modifies security (allowing you to set the root password)
  • Configures the MySQL process (mysqld-nt.exe) to run as a service

So to get MySQL running:

  1. Rather than trying to build the my.ini file from scratch I suggest starting with one of the examples that get installed to the root MySQL directory (by default 'C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.0'). Choose which file makes the most sense and copy it to my.ini and edit appropriately. If you need more information on using the options file see:
    http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/windows-create-option-file.html
  2. From an administrator’s Windows command prompt install as a service and start it:
    Code :
    >'E:\MySQL\bin\mysqld-nt.exe' --install MySQL --defaults-file='E:\MySQLmy.ini' & net start MySQL

    (just make sure to update your path with wherever it is that you have MySQL installed)
  3. Using the MySQL Command Line Client set your root password and/or create new users as appropriate:
    Code :
    mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'root'@'%'
    -> IDENTIFIED BY 'password' WITH GRANT OPTION;

    (Just replace ‘password’ with whatever you want your password to be, this will allow you to connect to the server as root from anywhere)

From here on connect to it like you would normally with tools such as MySQL Administrator, etc.

Cheers,
Erik

Posted By : Erik | Category: General | Comments [[128]] | Trackbacks [0]

  How to move the DPM_SYSTEM_STATE storage location

 11 Jun 2007 05:12:42 pm

If you’ve had the opportunity to play around with beta 2 of Microsoft’s new System Center Data Protection Manager v2 (DPM 2007) you’ll probably notice that for servers that you enable system state protection a DPM_SYSTEM_STATE directory will be created in the root of your system drive to house the local replica…

A problem with this is that this can easily consume 800+ MB of space and this can be a problem on some servers. I’ve got a couple servers in my lab that don’t have much to spare (which is where I ran into it).

Now before you run and make this change the usual disclaimer applies. I haven’t confirmed these changes with Microsoft and can make no guarantees that this will work for you. I also don’t know if it will work the same when DPM 2007 gets released.

All that said the way that I know of to change the location is to edit:
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Data Protection Manager\DPM\Datasources\PSDataSourceConfig.xml"

If you search the file for the "<FilesToProtect>" section you should see the existing path, edit this piece of the config and point it to wherever you want to store the local replica.
Next remove Computer\SystemState from the protection group (deleting the files) and re-add it.

What you should see is the new .bkf file get created wherever you specified. You can safely delete the old DPM_SYSTEM_STATE directory at this point.

Cheers,
Erik

Posted By : Erik | Category: General | Comments [[142]] | Trackbacks [0]

  TechEd 2007 TLC Schedule

 07 May 2007 01:56:39 pm

It’s confirmed; I will be at TechEd this year and will be discussing Group Policy and WSUS 3 in the “Management and Operations” section of the TLC. If you want to chat be sure to stop by and say hi during one of these times:
2007-06-04 10am-2pm
2007-06-05 9am-6pm
2007-06-06 9am-3pm
2007-06-07 9am-12pm; 3pm-6pm

Location: TLC Yellow Section

Cheers,
Erik

Posted By : Erik | Category: General | Comments [[145]] | Trackbacks [0]

  TechEd 07 Here I come

 19 Feb 2007 11:02:26 pm

Looks like I'm actually going to have availability in my schedule this year to attend TechEd! I'm reserved and am 90% sure I'll be able to make it (barring any major project changes).

For those of you who are interested I may be assisting MSFT in the "Technical Learing Center" (again depending on availability). If you get a chance and you want to talk about Enterprise management or Exchange 2007 be sure to come visit or drop me a line.

If you dont know what I"m talking about be sure to visit microsoft.com/teched

Cheers,

Erik

Posted By : Erik | Category: General | Comments [[138]] | Trackbacks [0]



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