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• Know Your Service Request Status

  - by Get Proactive Customer Adoption Team

  Untitled Document To monitor a Service Request or not to monitor a Service Request... That should never be the question Monitoring the Service Requests you create is an essential part of the process to resolve your issue when you work with a Support Engineer. If you monitor your Service Request, you know at all times where it is in the process, or to be more specific, you know at all times what action the Support Engineer has taken on your request and what the next step is. When you think about it, it is rather simple... Oracle Support is working the issue, Oracle Development is working the issue, or you are. When you check on the status, you may find that the Support Engineer has a question for you or the engineer is waiting for more information to resolve the issue. If you monitor the Service Request, and respond quickly, the process keeps moving, and you’ll get your answer more quickly. Monitoring a Service Request is easy. All you need to do is check the status codes that the Support Engineer or the system assigns to your Service Request. These status codes are not static. You will see that during the life of your Service request, it will go through a variety of status codes. The best advice I can offer you when you monitor your Service Request is to watch the codes. If the status is not changing, or if you are not getting responses back within the agreed timeframes, you should review the action plan the Support Engineer has outlined or talk about a new action plan. Here are the most common status codes: Work in Progress indicates that your Support Engineer is researching and working the issue. Development Working means that you have a code related issue and Oracle Support has submitted a bug to Development. Please pay a particular attention to the following statuses; they indicate that the Support Engineer is waiting for a response from you: Customer Working usually means that your Support Engineer needs you to collect additional information, needs you to try something or to apply a patch, or has more questions for you. Solution Offered indicates that the Support Engineer has identified the problem and has provided you with a solution. Auto-Close or Close Initiated are statuses you don’t want to see. Monitoring your Service Request helps prevent your issues from reaching these statuses. They usually indicate that the Support Engineer did not receive the requested information or action from you. This is important. If you fail to respond, the Support Engineer will attempt to contact you three times over a two-week period. If these attempts are unsuccessful, he or she will initiate the Auto-Close process. At the end of this additional two-week period, if you have not updated the Service Request, your Service Request is considered abandoned and the Support Engineer will assign a Customer Abandoned status. A Support Engineer doesn’t like to see this status, since he or she has been working to solve your issue, but we know our customers dislike it even more, since it means their issue is not moving forward. You can avoid delays in resolving your issue by monitoring your Service Request and acting quickly when you see the status change. Respond to the request from the engineer to answer questions, collect information, or to try the offered solution. Then the Support Engineer can continue working the issue and the Service Request keeps moving forward towards resolution. Keep in mind that if you take an extended period of time to respond to a request or to provide the information requested, the Support Engineer cannot take the next step. You may inadvertently send an implicit message about the problem’s urgency that may not match the Service Request priority, and your need for an answer. Help us help you. We want to get you the answer as quickly as possible so you can stay focused on your company’s objectives. Now, back to our initial question. To monitor Service Requests or not to monitor Service Requests? I think the answer is clear: yes, monitor your Service Request to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.

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• Migrating a WebLogic Domain from a 32 to a 64 bit JVM/Architecture

  - by adejuanc

  Currently on 32 bit OS which presents a physical constraint when trying to allocate memory. By limit, a 32 bit OS, will not be able to allocate more than 3 GB on a Linux environment, or 2 GB for Windows environment (not considering Physical Address Extension (PAE) implementation, which can increase the maximum allocatable memory). When this limit is reached, a migration to a 64 bit architecture is recommended. Below are the steps on how to install a 64 WebLogic Server version, along with a 64 Bit JVM and then how to migrate the domain to this new environment. Weblogic Server Version: WebLogic Server Version: 10.3.4.0 OS: Linux adejuan-cl.cl.oracle.com 2.6.18-194.el5 #1 SMP Mon Jan 01 22:10:29 EDT 2010 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux JVM:java version "1.6.0_22" Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_22-b04) Oracle JRockit(R) (build R28.1.1-13-139783-1.6.0_22-20101206-0136-linux-x86_64, compiled mode) To create migration template: 1. Execute $<WLS_HOME>/wlserver_10.3/common/bin/config_builder.sh 2. Create Domain Template. 3. Select Domain to migrate. 4. Enter the name of template and other info. Click next. 5. Using Add Button, Select libraries you want to add under lib folder. copy jdbc data sources you would like to have under config/jdbc folder. If you want to have log4j configuration, copy log4j.xml under domain_root folder. 6. Select data base for the domain and click next. 7. Enter Admin Server Name and port numbers. Click next. 8. Enter username and password. Click next. Select No if you don want to add users/groups/roles 9. Click next until reach button create. This will create a jar file that is needed for the next action plan. To install and migrate domain to 64 bit architecture. 1. Install JVM Jrockit R28.1.1.13 on environment. (uncompress zip folder on a known location) 2. Go to JRockit_Home/bin and execute $ java -d64 -jar wls1034_generic.jar 3. When prompt, select JRockit JVM in browse menu, and wait for installation to finish. 4. Go to <WLS_HOME>/wlserver_10.3/common/bin and execute $ ./config.sh 5. Select Create a new Weblogic domain 6. Select Base this domain on an existing template and select browse. 7. Select jar file created on previous action plan. 8. Select Name of domain. Maintain in most cases. 9. Select user name and password. Maintain in most cases. 10. Select Jrockit SDK 1.6.0_22 and click next. 11. Confirm all JMS/JDBC/security configuration. 12. On select Optional Configuration, reconfigure if necessary. 13. Check on Configuration summary for all domain configuration. 14. Click on create, to finish up domain import. Note: Always when installing a 64 bit WLS, it's necessary to install first the 64 JVM and then run the generic installer with the -d64 bit option. If this is not performed, the installation will be the 32 default version. For more information, please refer: http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E13188_01/jrockit/docs50/dev_faq.html#pae

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• SQL2K8R2: StreamInsight changes at RTM: Hopping Windows

  - by Greg Low

  We've been working on updating our demos and samples for the RTM changes of StreamInsight. I'll detail these as I come across them. The first is that there is a change to the HoppingWindow. The first two parameters are the same in the constructor but the third parameter is now required. It is the HoppingWindowOutputPolicy. Currently, there is only a single option for this which is ClipToWindowEnd. So you can create a HoppingWindow like this: var queryOutput = from w in input.HoppingWindow ( TimeSpan...(read more)

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• Upgrade SSIS 2005 Packages to SSIS 2008

  There are several enhancements in SSIS 2008 such as enhanced lookup transformation, the development environment for Script Task and Script Component changing from VSA to VSTA, etc. If you intend to upgrade your SSIS 2005 packages to SSIS 2008 ... [Read Full Article]

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• Register now for the UK Windows Azure Self-paced Interactive Learning Course starting May 10th

  - by Eric Nelson

  [Suggested twitter tag #selfpacedazure] We (myself and David Gristwood) have been working in the UK to create a fantastic opportunity to get yourself up to speed on the Windows Azure Platform over a 6 week period starting May 10th – without ever needing to leave the comfort of your home/office.  The course is derived from the internal training Microsoft gives on Azure which is both fun and challenging in equal parts – and we felt was just too good to keep to ourselves! We will be releasing more details nearer the date but hopefully the following is enough to convince you to register and … recommend it to a colleague or three :-) What we have produced is the “Microsoft Azure Self-paced Learning Course”. This is a free, interactive, self-paced, technical training course covering the Windows Azure platform – Windows Azure, SQL Azure and the Azure AppFabric. The course takes place over a six week period finishing on June 18th. During the course you will work from your own home or workplace, and get involved via interactive Live Meetings session, watch on-line videos, work through hands-on labs and research and complete weekly coursework assignments. The mentors and other attendees on the course will help you in your research and learning, and there are weekly Live Meetings where you can raise questions and interact with them. This is a technical course, aimed at programmers, system designers, and architects who want a solid understanding of the Microsoft Windows Azure platform, hence a prerequisite for this course is at least six months programming in the .NET framework and Visual Studio. Check out the full details of the event or go straight to registration.   The course outline is: Week 1 - Windows Azure Platform Week 2 - Windows Azure Storage Week 3 - Windows Azure Deep Dive and Codename "Dallas" Week 4 - SQL Azure Week 5 - Windows Azure Platform AppFabric Access Control Week 6 - Windows Azure Platform AppFabric Service Bus If you have any questions about the course and its suitability, please email [email protected].

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• Intermittent Copy/Paste Problem in RDP

  - by Tara Kizer

  If you use RDP to remotely connect to your servers, you've probably encountered a clipboard issue where copy/paste stops working.  A quick Google search on the problem indicates you can easily fix the problem by logging out/logging back in or killing/restarting rdpclip.exe on the remote server.  Here's an article which covers this topic. But what do you do when copy/paste is intermittent?  It works one second, stops working for 5-30 seconds, and then on its own starts working again.  This is what’s occurring in our new non-production environment.  The DBA team is setting up 16 new physical servers and 5 new virtual machines.  I haven’t found a server where this ISN’T happening.  This intermittent copy/paste issue is driving me crazy!

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• Why Hekaton In-Memory OLTP Truly is Revolutionary

  - by merrillaldrich

  I just returned from the PASS Summit in Charlotte, NC – which was excellent, among the best I have attended – and I have had Dr. David DeWitt’s talk rolling around in my head since he gave it on Thursday. (Dr. DeWitt starts at 27:00 at that link.) I probably cannot do it justice, but I wanted to recap why Hekaton really is revolutionary, and not just a marketing buzzword. I am normally skeptical of product announcements, and I find too often that real technical innovation can be overwhelmed by the...(read more)

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• London: SQLFAQ 2010 Festive Soirée (Buffet & Dance) - 17th December

  - by NeilHambly

  On the 17th December (Friday Evening) I'm holding a Xmas Soirée (Buffet & Dance) @ Central London club, so dress to impress & join us for this festive Soirée, Enjoy a Fabulous buffet, along with reserved seating for the evening, fee also includes cover charge to club areas which ahs multiple different dance floors & music Cost Per Person is £25 (Includes finger buffet & first drink, resevred seating & club access) Please notify me if you wish to be included in this as bookings...(read more)

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• Is Data Science “Science”?

  - by BuckWoody

  I hold the term “science” in very high esteem. I grew up on the Space Coast in Florida, and eventually worked at the Kennedy Space Center, surrounded by very intelligent people who worked in various scientific fields. Recently a new term has entered the computing dialog – “Data Scientist”. Since it’s not a standard term, it has a lot of definitions, and in fact has been disputed as a correct term. After all, the reasoning goes, if there’s no such thing as “Data Science” then how can there be a Data Scientist? This argument has been made before, albeit with a different term – “Computer Science”. In Peter Denning’s excellent article “Is Computer Science Science” (April  2005/Vol. 48, No. 4 COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM) there are many points that separate “science” from “engineering” and even “art”.  I won’t repeat the content of that article here (I recommend you read it on your own) but will leverage the points he makes there. Definition of Science To ask the question “is data science ‘science’” then we need to start with a definition of terms. Various references put the definition into the same basic areas: Study of the physical world Systematic and/or disciplined study of a subject area ...and then they include the things studied, the bodies of knowledge and so on. The word itself comes from Latin, and means merely “to know” or “to study to know”. Greek divides knowledge further into “truth” (episteme), and practical use or effects (tekhne). Normally computing falls into the second realm. Definition of Data Science And now a more controversial definition: Data Science. This term is so new and perhaps so niche that the major dictionaries haven’t yet picked it up (my OED reference is older – can’t afford to pop for the online registration at present). Researching the term's general use I created an amalgam of the definitions this way: “Studying and applying mathematical and other techniques to derive information from complex data sets.” Using this definition, data science certainly seems to be science - it's learning about and studying some object or area using systematic methods. But implicit within the definition is the word “application”, which makes the process more akin to engineering or even technology than science. In fact, I find that using these techniques – and data itself – part of science, not science itself. I leave out the concept of studying data patterns or algorithms as part of this discipline. That is actually a domain I see within research, mathematics or computer science. That of course is a type of science, but does not seek for practical applications. As part of the argument against calling it “Data Science”, some point to the scientific method of creating a hypothesis, testing with controls, testing results against the hypothesis, and documenting for repeatability.  These are not steps that we often take in working with data. We normally start with a question, and fit patterns and algorithms to predict outcomes and find correlations. In this way Data Science is more akin to statistics (and in fact makes heavy use of them) in the process rather than starting with an assumption and following on with it. So, is Data Science “Science”? I’m uncertain – and I’m uncertain it matters. Even if we are facing rampant “title inflation” these days (does anyone introduce themselves as a secretary or supervisor anymore?) I can tolerate the term at least from the intent that we use data to study problems across a wide spectrum, rather than restricting it to a single domain. And I also understand those who have worked hard to achieve the very honorable title of “scientist” who have issues with those who borrow the term without asking. What do you think? Science, or not? Does it matter?

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• SSIS 2012 Moving and Resizing

  - by andyleonard

  Occasionally someone will email or post a comment about how all MVPs are Microsoft shills. I’m sure I enjoy those comments about as much as the Developer Teams at Microsoft. Let me start by saying that’s simply not true. In fact, it is completely off the mark – at least when it comes to the MVPs I know and with whom I interact. If anything, we are Microsoft’s harshest critics. Just last week, I sent someone at Microsoft an email with the following complaint (paraphrased): I do not like chasing down...(read more)

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• Have You Heard About the Microsoft TechNet Wiki?

  - by KKline

  Here's another one to add to your list of browser bookmarks! The TechNet Wiki covers Microsoft technologies from writers throughout the community for use by the community. As with all wikis, this grassroots effort needs your help. Microsoft is encouraging everyone to contribute the effort - all you have to do is join. So start a whole new article, add your knowledge or draw from your experience to improve an existing article. You can start small or large... Join in at http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/...(read more)

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• Statistical Sampling for Verifying Database Backups

  A DBA's huge workload can start to threaten best practices for data backup and recovery, but ingenuity, and an eye for a good tactic, can usually find a way. For Tom, the revelation about a solution came from eating crabs. Statistical sampling can be brought to bear to minimize the risk of failure of an emergency database restore.

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• Restore database to the point of disaster

  - by TiborKaraszi

  This is really basic, but so often overlooked and misunderstood. Basically, we have a database, and something goes south. Can we restore all the way up to that point? I.e., even if the last backup (db or log) is earlier than the disaster? Yes, of course we can (unless for more extreme cases, read on), but many don't realize/do that, for some strange reason. This blog post was inspired from a thread in the MSDN forums, which exposed just this misunderstanding. Basically the scenario was that they...(read more)

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• The 2013 PASS Summit - Day 2

  - by AllenMWhite

  Good morning! It's Day 2 of the PASS Summit 2013 and it should be a busy one. Douglas McDowell, EVP Finance of PASS opened up the keynote to welcome people and talked about the financial status of the organization. Last year's Business Analytics Conference left the organization $100,000 ahead, and he went on to show the overall financial health, which is very good at this point. Bill Graziano came out to thank Doug, Rob Farley and Rushabh Mehta for their service on the board, as they step down from...(read more)

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• New CAM Editor v2.3 with Open-XDX for Open Data APIs

  - by drrwebber

  Creating actual working XML exchanges, loading data from data stores, generating XML, testing, integrating with web services and then deployment delivery takes a lot of coding and effort. Then writing the documentation, models, schema and doing naming and design rule (NDR) checks and packaging all this together (such as for NIEM IEPD use). What if there was a tool that helped you do all that easily and simply? Welcome to the new Open-XDX and the CAM Editor! Open-XDX uses code-free techniques in combination with CAM templates and visual drag and drop to rapidly design your XML exchange. Then Open-XDX will automatically generate all the SQL for you, read the database data, generate and populate the valid output XML, and filter with parameters. To complete the processing solution Open-XDX works with web services and JDBC database connections as a callable module that can be deployed plug and play with your middleware stack, all with just a few lines of Java code (about 5 actually). You can build either Query/Response or Publish/Subscribe services from existing data stores to XML literally in minutes. To see a demonstration of using Open-XDX, a MySQL data store and integrating with Oracle Web Logic server please see this short few minutes video - http://youtube.com/user/TheCameditor There is also a Quick Guide available that provides more technical insights along with a sample pack download of templates and SQL that you can try for yourself. Head on over to our project resource site to learn more, download the latest CAM Editor and see links to all the resources and materials. We look forward to seeing how the developer community is able to jump start information sharing initiatives using this new innovative approach.

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• Disruption

  - by andyleonard

  Introduction This post is the thirty-first part of a ramble-rant about the software business. The current posts in this series are: Goodwill, Negative and Positive Visions, Quests, Missions Right, Wrong, and Style Follow Me Balance, Part 1 Balance, Part 2 Definition of a Great Team The 15-Minute Meeting Metaproblems: Drama The Right Question Software is Organic, Part 1 Metaproblem: Terror I Don't Work On My Car A Turning Point Human Doings Everything Changes Getting It Right The First Time One-Time...(read more)

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• Efficiently Reuse Gaps in an Identity Column

  This article will demonstrate an efficient way to reuse gaps in an identity column. Please note that this is something you normally shouldn't be bothered about in a well-designed database or application. However, there are circumstances where you are forced to do this.

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• Windows in StreamInsight: Hopping vs. Snapshot

  - by Roman Schindlauer

  Three weeks ago, we explained the basic concept of windows in StreamInsight: defining sets of events that serve as arguments for set-based operations, like aggregations. Today, we want to discuss the so-called Hopping Windows and compare them with Snapshot Windows. We will compare these two, because they can serve similar purposes with different behaviors; we will discuss the remaining window type, Count Windows, another time. Hopping (and its syntactic-sugar-sister Tumbling) windows are probably the most straightforward windowing concept in StreamInsight. A hopping window is defined by its length, and the offset from one window to the next. They are aligned with some absolute point on the timeline (which can also be given as a parameter to the window) and create sets of events. The diagram below shows an example of a hopping window with length of 1h and hop size (the offset) of 15 minutes, hence creating overlapping windows:   Two aspects in this diagram are important: Since this window is overlapping, an event can fall into more than one windows. If an (interval) event spans a window boundary, its lifetime will be clipped to the window, before it is passed to the set-based operation. That’s the default and currently only available window input policy. (This should only concern you if you are using a time-sensitive user-defined aggregate or operator.) The set-based operation will be applied to each of these sets, yielding a result. This result is: A single scalar value in case of built-in or user-defined aggregates. A subset of the input payloads, in case of the TopK operator. Arbitrary events, when using a user-defined operator. The timestamps of the result are almost always the ones of the windows. Only the user-defined  operator can create new events with timestamps. (However, even these event lifetimes are subject to the window’s output policy, which is currently always to clip to the window end.) Let’s assume we were calculating the sum over some payload field: var result = from window in source.HoppingWindow( TimeSpan.FromHours(1), TimeSpan.FromMinutes(15), HoppingWindowOutputPolicy.ClipToWindowEnd) select new { avg = window.Avg(e => e.Value) }; Now each window is reflected by one result event:   As you can see, the window definition defines the output frequency. No matter how many or few events we got from the input, this hopping window will produce one result every 15 minutes – except for those windows that do not contain any events at all, because StreamInsight window operations are empty-preserving (more about that another time). The “forced” output for every window can become a performance issue if you have a real-time query with many events in a wide group & apply – let me explain: imagine you have a lot of events that you group by and then aggregate within each group – classical streaming pattern. The hopping window produces a result in each group at exactly the same point in time for all groups, since the window boundaries are aligned with the timeline, not with the event timestamps. This means that the query output will become very bursty, delivering the results of all the groups at the same point in time. This becomes especially obvious if the events are long-lasting, spanning multiple windows each, so that the produced result events do not change their value very often. In such a case, a snapshot window can remedy. Snapshot windows are more difficult to explain than hopping windows: they represent those periods in time, when no event changes occur. In other words, if you mark all event start and and times on your timeline, then you are looking at all snapshot window boundaries:   If your events are never overlapping, the snapshot window will not make much sense. It is commonly used together with timestamp modification, which make it a very powerful tool. Or as Allan Mitchell expressed in in a recent tweet: “I used to look at SnapshotWindow() with disdain. Now she is my mistress, the one I turn to in times of trouble and need”. Let’s look at a simple example: I want to compute the average of some value in my events over the last minute. I don’t want this output be produced at fixed intervals, but at soon as it changes (that’s the true event-driven spirit!). The snapshot window will include all currently active event at each point in time, hence we need to extend our original events’ lifetimes into the future: Applying the Snapshot window on these events, it will appear to be “looking back into the past”: If you look at the result produced in this diagram, you can easily prove that, at each point in time, the current event value represents the average of all original input event within the last minute. Here is the LINQ representation of that query, applying the lifetime extension before the snapshot window: var result = from window in source .AlterEventDuration(e => TimeSpan.FromMinutes(1)) .SnapshotWindow(SnapshotWindowOutputPolicy.Clip) select new { avg = window.Avg(e => e.Value) }; With more complex modifications of the event lifetimes you can achieve many more query patterns. For instance “running totals” by keeping the event start times, but snapping their end times to some fixed time, like the end of the day. Each snapshot then “sees” all events that have happened in the respective time period so far. Regards, The StreamInsight Team

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• Run your cpus fast but not hot

  - by John Paul Cook

  Paul Randall recently blogged about the importance of checking to make sure you are getting every bit of speed you should from your cpus. He recommended that people use CPU-Z , a free tool I recommend and have been using for many years. Power saving features in a cpu are great for laptops. Battery life is greatly extended when a processor isn't running to the max all of the time. But this isn't necessarily a good thing for a server. As Paul and others have pointed out, the processor might not get...(read more)

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• Insider Insights

  Insider rumours and gossip from the murky world of the Database Industry, and from the colourful characters that inhabit it.

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• Differences in documentation for sys.dm_exec_requests

  - by AaronBertrand

  I've already complained about this on Connect ( see #641790 ), but I just wanted to point out that if you're trying to make sense of the sys.dm_exec_requests document and what it lists as the commands supported by the percent_complete column, you should check which version of the documentation you're reading. I noticed the following discrepancies. I can't explain why certain operations are missing, except that the Denali topic was generated from the 2008 topic (or maybe from the 2008 R2 topic before...(read more)

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• PowerShell – Show a Notification Balloon

  - by BuckWoody

  In my presentations for PowerShell I sometimes want to start a process (like a backup) that will take some time. I normally pop up a notification “balloon” at the start, and then do the bulk of the work, and then pop up a balloon at the end to let me know it’s done. You can actually try out this little sample (on a test system, of course) without any other code to see what it does. Then just put the other PowerShell commands in the #Do Some Work part. Oh – throw an icon (.ico file) in a c:\temp directory or point that somewhere else. (No, this probably isn’t original. Can’t remember where I saw the original code, but I’ve modified it a bit anyway, so if you’re the original author and this looks slightly familiar, post a comment.) [void] [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.Windows.Forms") $objBalloon = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.NotifyIcon $objBalloon.Icon = "C:\temp\Folder.ico" # You can use the value Info, Warning, Error $objBalloon.BalloonTipIcon = "Info" # Put what you want to say here for the Start of the process $objBalloon.BalloonTipTitle = "Begin Title" $objBalloon.BalloonTipText = "Begin Message" $objBalloon.Visible = $True $objBalloon.ShowBalloonTip(10000) # Do some work # Put what you want to say here for the completion of the process $objBalloon.BalloonTipTitle = "End Title" $objBalloon.BalloonTipText = "End Message" $objBalloon.Visible = $True $objBalloon.ShowBalloonTip(10000) Script Disclaimer, for people who need to be told this sort of thing: Never trust any script, including those that you find here, until you understand exactly what it does and how it will act on your systems. Always check the script on a test system or Virtual Machine, not a production system. Yes, there are always multiple ways to do things, and this script may not work in every situation, for everything. It’s just a script, people. All scripts on this site are performed by a professional stunt driver on a closed course. Your mileage may vary. Void where prohibited. Offer good for a limited time only. Keep out of reach of small children. Do not operate heavy machinery while using this script. If you experience blurry vision, indigestion or diarrhea during the operation of this script, see a physician immediately. Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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• Outlying DBAs

  - by steveh99999

  Read an interesting book recently, ‘Outliers – the story of success’ by Malcolm Gladwell. There’s a good synopsis of the book here on wikipedia. I don’t want to write in detailed review of the book, but it’s well worth a read. There were a couple of sections which I thought were possibly relevant to IT professionals and DBAs in particular. Firstly, ‘the 10,000 hour rule’, in this section Gladwell asserts that to be a real ‘elite performer’ takes 10,000 hours of practice. ‘Practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good, it’s the thing you do that makes you good’.  He gives many interesting examples – the Beatles, Bill Gates etc – but I was wondering could this be applied to DBAs ? If it takes 10,000 hours to be a really elite DBA – how long does that really take ? 8 hours a day makes 1250 days. If we assume that most DBAs work around 230 days a year – then it takes around 5 and a half years to become an elite DBA.   But how much time per day does a DBA spend actually doing DBA work ? Certainly it’s my experience that the more experienced I get as a DBA, the less time I seem to spend actually doing DBA work – ie meetings, change-control meetings, project planning, liasing with other teams, appraisals etc.  Is it more accurate to assume that a DBA spends half their time actually doing ‘real’ DBA work – or is that just my bad luck ?   So, in reality, I’d argue it can take at least 5 1/2 and more likely closer to 10 years to become an elite DBA. Why do I keep receiving CVs for senior DBAs with 2-4 years actual DBA experience ? In the second section I found particularly interesting, Gladwell writes about analysis of plane crashes and the importance of in-cockpit communications. He describes a couple of crashes involving Korean Airlines – where co-pilots were often deferrential to pilots, and unwilling to openly criticise their more senior colleagues or point out errors when things were going badly wrong… There’s a better summary of Gladwell’s concepts on mitigation  here – but to apply this to a DBA role… If you are a DBA and you do not agree with  a decision of one of your superiors, then it’s your duty as a DBA to say what you think is wrong, before it’s too late…  Obviously there’s a fine line between constructive criticism and moaning, but a good senior DBA or manager should be able to take well-researched criticism\debate from a more junior DBA.   Is this really possible ?

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• SQLSat65, Great Perf Counters Poster from Quest

  - by merrillaldrich

  I was fortunate to be able to attend the Vancouver BC SQLSaturday this past weekend, and it was excellent! Great sessions, good facility, well attended. Nice work, and a huge thank you to the volunteers that made that happen. One side perk: I got a copy of this terrific performance counters poster from Quest, which you can download as a PDF for free. Very handy, especially as a teaching tool. I'm using it for my SCOM MP work. Check it out....(read more)

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• Clustering and custom applications

  - by Ahmed ilyas

  I was not entirely sure what tags to put but hope this is ok. This is just a general question in regards to clustering and applications: so lets say we have a clustered environment setup. We cluster SQL Server (I dont know exactly how its done but lets just say its been done for the sake of argument). Now if a website or application is trying to access that database for read/write (say an ASP.NET app or a C# Winforms app) and during that time SQL goes down - it takes a couple of minutes for the clustering failover to take affect to switch to another node. What happens during this time? I think it will time out/unable to connect. BUT is there a way for it to place the request in some pipeline so when the cluster node is back up/switched over it will continue as normal? as you can see, I know nothing much about clustering! what about your own custom .NET apps? Would there be a special way to develop them? I know that you can say create a simple Hello world app, and cluster that but they wouldnt be something you could see interms of the UI or anything, so they would effectively need to be developed as a Windows Service perhaps or even as a standard Console app which runs and not wait for user input but you wouldnt see any output from it (unless you redirect output to somewhere else) What im getting at here is... for those who have experience or developed a cluster application in .NET, how did you do it and what are the things to be aware of? For example we have the cloud service - fundamentally its built on clustering - if there is an outage, another node takes place and service is resumed as normal but we dont really see much of that downtime.

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