reference architecture

Team Foundation Server (TFS) 2010 Branching Guide

The following guide is a very helpful resource. I recommend that you read it and determine the branching strategy that you want to use before you setup your team projects.

http://tfsbranchingguideiii.codeplex.com/

DbVisualizer - No install and uses JDBC drivers

DbVisualizer is a good tool if you want to access and navigate through your database using a graphical user interface.

It is a good solution if you don't have a tool installed to access and view your database. This is because it doesn't have to be installed, which means that you don't need local system administrator privileges to run it.

Also, because it uses JDBC drivers to connect to the database it is a good tool for validating your JDBC drivers if you are having issues connecting to the database from another application using the same JDBC drivers.

VMware and datastores.xml

As I mentioned in other posts - I use VMware server for prototyping installations. I have VMware Server 2 running under Windows 7 Ultimate X64 on my laptop.

The other day my VMware console wouldn't come up. Turns out that the datastores.xml file was corrupt (it is at c:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware Server\hostd). If it is corrupt then the VMware Host Agent service won't start.

You can just delete it, restart the VMware Host Agent, and then you should be able to get into the VMware console again. However, all is still not good. Without a datastore defined you can't add existing servers or create new servers. You can use the following format to define your datastores so that you can get at them again. The path should be where ever your VMware server files are located.

<ConfigRoot>

<LocalDatastores>

<_length>1</_length>

<_type>hostd.host.LocalDatastoreEntry[]</_type>
<e id="0">

<_type>hostd.host.LocalDatastoreEntry</_type>
<id>1</id>
<name>standard</name>
<path>C:\Virtual Machines\</path>
</e>
</LocalDatastores>

<NasVolumes>

<_length>0</_length>

<_type>hostd.host.NasDatastoreEntry[]</_type>

</NasVolumes>

</ConfigRoot>

Port Numbers

I have been working on a distributed application and needed to assign some port numbers.

This link was very helpful - http://www.iana.org/assignments/port-numbers.

VMWare and Active Directory Domains

I have some Windows 2008 R2 Servers that I use to prototype software installations. I usually use them in stand-alone mode - meaning, not part of a common domain. Because of this I had created one, updated it, activated it, and then saved it as a baseline for any new servers that I needed. This has been working fine for me for years now.

Well, I finally needed to install some software in a domain configuration. So I took some of these images, made one the domain controller, joined the other ones to the domain, and everything seemed happy. But when I tried to reconfigure SQL Server to use a domain user account I kept getting an error that was something like - No mapping between account names and security IDs was done.

No matter what I tried I couldn't get it to work. Finally, it hit me like a ton of bricks - the classic Duh! moment. All of these servers were copies of each other and therefore had the same SIDs. I hadn't reset the SIDs when I created a new server because it never mattered before.

So, if you are using any virtualization software and you are used to using stand-alone servers - make sure you watch out for this issue if you ever decide to move them to a domain.

Internet Explorer 9 Final Version Available

The final version of Internet Explorer 9 is available.

NuGet

NuGet is a free, open source developer focused package management system for the .NET platform intent on simplifying the process of incorporating third party libraries into a .NET application during development.

I haven’t used it but the example of incorporating ELMAH (a library that I use in almost all of my solutions) into a project hit home.

I will certainly give it a try on my next project.

First internal clouds likely to fail, Forrester says

I have worked with a lot of corporate data centers and believe me, this is so true. They have a lot of learning to do when it comes to virtualized and shared infrastructure. They have generally been smart and quick learners though so I am sure that they will eventually get there. Patience will rule the day.

First internal clouds likely to fail, Forrester says

Syntax Style for HTML5 Markup

Here is one suggestion for HTML5 Markup Syntax Style - My Preferred Syntax Style for HTML5 Markup.

Fresh off 'Jeopardy!' victory, IBM Watson lands health care job

It will be interesting to watch how this turns out.

Fresh off 'Jeopardy!' victory, IBM Watson lands health care job