Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio Express (SSMSE) 2005 Installation Error

Today I had to download the SSMSE 2005 from the Microsoft downloads site and when I was installing on a fresh new sever it was complaining about a DLL.

Then I had a copy of a previously downloaded MSI and when I did the installation it went through without any issues.

I was curious to see the file sizes and actually there was a difference.

Please let me know if any one else had a similar kind of experience.

TRIM Any Word Seach Error (GetRecordset64) Workgroup Error Timeout expired

Our TRIM production server is running on a Windows 2003 R2 server with all the patches and SQL Server 2005 SP2.

We have recently started receiving an error when we do an “Any Word” search for words such as "personal care". These are not noise word.

Here is the error message.



Based on my initial investigation it seems like this message is generated from the database server and being relayed to the user by the TRIM workgroup server.

We contacted the HP TRIM helpdesk and they mentioned this error generally appears when the MDAC is corrupted.

Their recommendations were to:

1. Reregister the OLE32.DLL
2. Repair MDAC - you can get the latest version for www.microsoft.com
3. Reinstall MDAC
4. Reinstall TRIM
5. Reinstall the Operating System
6. Reimage the computer

When I mentioned the time constraints, they recommended trying a Wild Card search. Example: personal* care

Wow, actually that worked and I thought it will be useful to share this tip.

At this stage I’m not exactly sure how it fixes the issue, but I’m assuming the SQL query passed to the database might be the difference. I’m planning to run SQL Profiler to see the difference. I’ll share my experience when it is completed.

Turn off SharePoint (MOSS) 2007 Custom Error Messages

I always forget these steps, so thought of adding a reference to this great post from Steve Pietrek.

1. Navigate to the site directory.
2. Backup web.config.
3. Open web.config.
4. Switch Custom Errors off. Search for “customErrors” and set the value to “Off” instead of “On”. You can also set the value to “RemoteOnly” to troubleshoot a production issue.
5. Enable CallStack. Search for “CallStack” and set the value to “true” instead of “false”.
6. Save web.config.

http://stevepietrek.com/2007/07/28/turn-off-sharepoint-custom-error-messages/

Remote Name Could not be Resolved in SQL Server Reporting Services

I recently had to change the machine name of my development server. It broke my Reporting Services connection via SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS). I updated the Reporting Services Configuration setting but SSMS was complaining saying “Remote Name Could not be Resolved”.

This was finally fixed by updating new machine name setting on the following file C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.3\Reporting Services\ReportServer\rsreportserver.config

http://[machinename]/reportserver

Colour Convertors

In my current job I work very closely with our graphic designer. She comes up with amazing mock-ups. Colour codes are normally given to me in RGB codes. I found this great website which converts a specified RBG code into a hexadecimal string.

Here is the URL: http://www.javascripter.net/faq/rgbtohex.htm

Does Microsoft really test their code? (Attention: Important Information on Service Pack 2)

I was so looking forward for SharePoint 2007 Service Pack 2. I was in the middle of planning the rollout into our environments (Dev, Test and Production).

And then we received this email from Microsoft which can be also found at the SharePoint team blog. http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2009/05/21/attention-important-information-on-service-pack-2.aspx

What’s going on Microsoft, do you really test your code. I love Microsoft products and have been promoting them at every opportunity. I had to put up with lot of crap today because of this.

I know there is a workaround but please please get your act together. We are so fed up of Microsoft workarounds.

ActiveX controls used by Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007

Our infrastructure team is creating a new Microsoft XP image for the SOE (Standard Operating Environment). They wanted to know a list of ActiveX controls required by MOSS 2007 which could be pre-installed.

85% of our intranet is on SharePoint 2003, 15% in MOSS 2007 (We are currently migrating from SharePoint 2003 to 2007) and client machines have Office 2003 installed.

I found this really useful blog from Jose Barreto and thought of sharing it. The link is http://blogs.technet.com/josebda/archive/2007/03/26/searching-the-visible-moss-2007-code-for-activex-references.aspx.

I’ll share our experience when the testing is completed.

How to fix corrupted TRIM indexes?

Recently we started receiving following types of emails from the TRIM Event Processor.

TRIM Event Processor running on server reported the following message:
Error : Database: - User An error occurred updating Content Index for Record(xxxxxxx). The primary content index in folder C:\.. has a pending transaction file (C:\TRIMIndexFolder\TRIMpending.bin). This indicates that a previous call to update the index using these transactions has failed. All content indexing will cease for this database until the problem has been rectified.
This E-mail Message has been automatically generated by TRIM Context (server).

This became a very big issue because it was filling up our TRIM notification inbox. It wasn’t effecting day to day TRIM operations except for document content searches.

This is how we fixed it.

Solution 1 – Failed

These were the steps involved based on HP documentation:

1. Stop the TRIM Event Server service on your Event Server.
2. Locate the TRIMPending.bin file. This should be located in the Document Content Index folder, the location being administered by each site.
3. Rename the file ‘TRIMPending.bin’ to ‘TRIMtrans.bin’.
4. Start the Event Server service.

Solution 2 - Successful

We tried the above few times and every attempt failed. We were running out of time and finally we decided to delete the current index and recreate it. Worked like a magic. No more issues and no more automated email notifications.

These were the steps involved:

1. Stop all TRIM services (Low priority to high priority).
2. Go to Event Server and stop Document Content Indexing (DCI).
3. Remove the content index from the dataset.
4. Go to the DCI folder and delete the folder which is represented by the 2 character database identifier.
5. Go back to TRIM enterprise Manage and create the new index.
6. Reindex the newly created Content Index.
7. Check for the logs and fix any issues.
8. Go to properties of the Workgroup Server and update the Content Search Settings path.
9. Turn on Document Content Indexing(DCI) on the Event Server (Check the path).
10. Create a new DCI chain and mark the existing chain as read-only.
11. Start all TRIM Services (High priority to low priority).
12. Using Monitor Activity ensure Event Queue is back to normal.

How to change DotNetNuke favicon?

DNN supports favicon per portal.

1. Generate a favicon.ico using a free 3rd party website. I use http://www.chami.com/html-kit/services/favicon/.


2. Upload favicon.ico file to the root of the portal folder. (Example: \Portals\0, \Portals\1, \Portals\3, etc)

My first blog.

This is my first blog entry. After 6 years of putting off, finally I’ve decided to start blogging. Main objective of my blog will be to share my knowledge and thoughts with the other. Please stay tuned…