Hyper-V Exam: My Learning

Earlier, in June, 2012, I had an opportunity to attend a full day event on “Jump Start to Windows 2008 R2 Virtualization Exam 70-659” organized by BangaloreITPro user group & Microsoft. I received a free exam voucher for the certification exam 70-659: Windows Server 2008 R2: Server Virtualization”, as I answered one of question during the event.

How did I Prepare?

As advised during the event by most of the speakers, I started watching the following three modules on Microsoft Virtual Academy . It’s a must watch for people, who wants to learn about Hyper-V. There are 12 videos in the following three modules & if you are new to Hyper-V / Virtualization, you will find it as very helpful.

• Microsoft Virtualization for VMware Professionals – The Platform
• Microsoft Virtualization for VMware Professionals – Management
• Microsoft Virtualization for VMware Professionals – VDI

While I was looking for a preparation guide for the certification exam, I was landed on the following post by Keith Mayer, “The Study Guide” for the certification exam 70-659. I suggest, you should have a look on this guide, it has all the information you need for your exam preparation.

Security & Authorization Manager (Azman): humm.. Again a web search, and I found a series of post by John Howard, Senior Program Manager, Hyper-V. A six part series, covers in detail about Authorization Manager in Hyper-V.

Build a test lab for practice all the features. Its always better to have a hands-on experience on how to perform certain operations. Get as much hands-on as possible, there is absolutely no replacement to that. I had spend a few hours everyday on my lab environment to practice the features (although I was not able perform every task ). Talk to friends/colleagues, who are working on virtualization platform. They can provide some additional valuable input.

Watch Out

You need to look out for the following features while reading:

• New features & functionality with Windows 2008 R2 and with Windows 2008 R2 SP1
• Tools like MPIO, ISCSI, SCONFIG, HVREMOTE, DISM
• Pass-through disk & disk size limitation on various types of disks
• Hyper-V & SCVMM PowerShell Cmdlets
• Types of Network adapters (4 legacy and 8 synthetic Network adapters are supported)
• System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2
• RDS Services

All The Best

I have cleared my exam on 4th September, 2012. SCVMM gave a real surprise to me. There were some scenarios, which I had never came across earlier. Incase you are using a setup with one single machine (like me), you can not perform certain actions, e.g. Live Migration. So make sure, you watch the above jumpstart series videos, specially the Management series. My friend Sahal had written a post about his learning on the JumpStart event, you can read it here.  For more information, check out the Hyper-V Survival Guide, which has a ton of resources on Hyper-V.

I wish you, all the very best for your certification exam.

Want to Join for Future Events

If you want to attend any of the future events, join BangaloreITPro User Group:

• Website
• FaceBook Page
• Twitter

Happy Learning

@PSBUG Inaugural Meet: 2 days 2 Go

I am sure, most of us are aware of this !! The Inaugural meeting of Bangalore PowerShell User Group is scheduled on 28th July, 2012 at the Dell International Services, Intermediate Ring Road, Domlur, Bangalore. The registration will be opened till 12PM today, so make sure, you have registered for the event & call your friends as well. To register for this event, click here.

The agenda for the day is as follows:

2:45 PM to 3:00 PM     -  -  -  Registrations

3:00 PM to 4: 30 PM    -  -  – Welcome Note by UG Leads

• Introduction to PowerShell v 3.0
• Getting Started with Windows PowerShell

4:40 PM to 4:45 PM  -  -  -  Tea / Snacks

4:45 PM to 5:30 PM -  -  – PowerShell Scripting Club

5:30 PM to 5:45 PM -  -  -  Closing Note

As some of my friends wants to receive information via social networks, here is a link to Bangalore PowerShell User Group on Facebook & twitter. The group is also listed on PowerShell group site.

Let’s learn the Power of PowerShell together !!!

Rebuild MSDB Database

I had accidentally deleted the transaction log file of msdb database on a newly installed SQL Server 2008 R2 instance yesterday, while I was removing the old tempdb files. Although I normally copy the system database files prior removing the tempdb files from the default location, I missed it this time. When I connect to the instance, I received the following error:

I searched in Books Online and found this article about Rebuilding System Databases, which helps in rebuild the msdb database.

Steps to Follows

1. Stop all the SQL Server services & start the command prompt with elevated administrative privilege & execute the following command:
   NET START MSSQLSERVER /T3608
2. Once you start the SQL Server with trace flag 3608, you will be able to detach the msdb database. To do that, execute the following command in SQLCMD mode:
   SQLCMD -E -S DBS03 -dmaster -Q"EXEC sp_detach_db msdb"
3. Rename the msdb data file, and execute the instmsdb.sql file from the install folder, as shown below:
   SQLCMD -E -S DBS03 -i"E:\SQL Server\MSSQL10_50.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\Install\instmsdb.sql" -o"E:\instmsdb.out"
4. Review the instmsdb.out for any errors and re-apply the service packs.
5. Stop the SQL Server.
6. Start the SQL Server normally

Since I was able to connect to the instance without any error, I stopped the SQL Server instance and copy all the system databases files. Later I restarted the SQL Server Agent and the instance was online.

Hope, this may help someone, Happy Learning

Database Files Location

“I have created a database on XXX instance, where are the physical files located?” I saw a similar post today on MSDN forum and thought of writing this short note on it. Here are the few ways to find the location of the files.

The quick way to find out the location of the data and transaction log files of a database is using the following system stored procedure. I have been using this command on a daily basis since past few weeks, while migrating databases to SQL Server 2008 R2 instances.
-- List all the available data and log file
USE [Sudeepta];
GO
EXEC sp_helpfile;
GO
You can also execute the following command to find the location of the data and transaction log files of a database.
-- List all the available data and log file
USE [Sudeepta];
GO
SELECT name, type_desc, physical_name FROM sys.database_files;
GO
We can find it by GUI as well. Connect to the instance using SSMS; expand the Databases, Right-click on the database, Select Properties. Click on the Files tab and we are presented with the location of the data and log files:
Hope, this may help someone. Happy Learning

Failed Job Issue

This morning I received a mail from one of our customer stating that a SQL Server job failed many times on last Friday; however, he didn’t receive any notification about it. For a moment, I thought that I had missed to notify the customer about the failed job. I checked the job history and confirmed that the job was failed four times on last Friday and I had no clue about it. Then I started to look at all the events generated by the Operation Manager on last Friday for the same server. To my surprise, there were no alerts from that server.

Next thing, I wanted to check is the Notification tab in the Job’s Properties. And as I thought, the checkbox next to Write to the Windows Application event log was unchecked. That’s why the failed job event was not written to the Windows event log and Operation Manager Agent was not able to display any alert on the console.

Hope this may help someone Happy Learning

User Mapping With ALTER USER

Yesterday I was working with my colleague to help him with a user-mapping issue. He was migrating a database to SQL server 2008 R2 environment. He restored the database in the new environment from a recent backup and copied all the logins using the sp_help_revlogin stored procedure. Although the logins were present in the instance, the existing users were not mapped correctly and there were some orphaned users present in the database. 

We can fix this issue either with the help of the system stored procedure sp_change_users_login or with the ALTER USER command. Using the system stored procedure sp_change_users_login, we can fix the user-mapping issues; however the stored procedure will be deprecated in future version of SQL Server and is limited only to the SQL Login.
USE [SKG_Test];
GO
EXEC sp_change_users_login 'Update_One', 'skganguly', 'skganguly';
GO

So I asked him to use the ALTER USER command to fix the login issue, which can fix both the Windows Logins as well as SQL Login.
USE [SKG_Test];
GO
ALTER USER [skganguly] WITH LOGIN = [skganguly];
GO

In case you want to read more about the available options for these commands, click here and here.

Happy Learning

Learning, Networking and Community Contribution Award

As of now, 2012 is proven to be great year for me from Learning and Networking prospective. Not only I had an opportunity to attend some of the finest events, but also able to meet many SQL Experts. The first event of this year was SQLSaturday 116 on 7^th January, 2012. What an event it was!!! It was a great opportunity for me, to be a part of such an event, Thanks to Vinod and Pinal Sir for giving that opportunity. In case you were unable to attend this event, here is a link on the same.

A few months later, March 21^st – 23^rd, 2012, I was able to attend the largest Technical event in Bangalore; Microsoft’s TechED 2012. One of biggest event in this part of the world, it was an wonderful opportunity for me to meet MVPs, and other SQL Experts. This is the second time I was attending Microsoft’s TechED; so this time the focus was not only on the sessions, but also to meet the other SQL Experts. You can read more about it here.

On 7^th April, 2012, the BangaloreITPro and BDotNet user group organized an event for the UG members. In this event, SQL Server Experts Vinod Kumar had presented two of the best sessions of TechED 2012: Understanding Windows with Sysinternal Tools and Peeling the Onion: SQL Server Internal Demystified. Both of these sessions were a full house during TechED, and many people are unable to get inside. On the request from many UG members, Vinod Sir took these two sessions in the UG meet. In case, you missed this one too, here is a link for your reference.

This morning, while I was checking my mail, I saw the below mail from Microsoft stating that I have received the Microsoft’s Community Contributor Award for the year 2012.

A big thanks to all the community members, without whom, it might not be possible. Thank you, Microsoft for this award.

Friends, if you are in Bangalore, try to attend these events. The amount of information you receive in these events and the opportunity you have to meet the Industry experts are phenomenal.

Happy Learning