Monday, April 13, 2009

Run a SQL Server Command from PowerShell without the SQL Server Provider

 

Run a SQL Server Command from PowerShell without the SQL Server Provider

Published 13 April 09 08:57 AM | Buck Woody

Some folks don't have SQL Server 2008 installed - shame on you! If you're in that sad state, you can still run a query against a SQL Server. You will still need the client connection software installed on your system - you'll have that with any 2005 edition of SQL Server, and in many cases you'll have it with just plain old Microsoft Office. It certainly won't hurt to try this script - on a TEST system, of course. Change the Server, instance and database names as appropriate:

# Connect and run a command using SQL Native Client, Returns a recordset

# Create and open a database connection

$sqlConnection = new-object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection "server=SERVERNAME\INSTANCE;database=AdventureWorks;Integrated Security=sspi"

$sqlConnection.Open()

#Create a command object

$sqlCommand = $sqlConnection.CreateCommand()

$sqlCommand.CommandText = "select FirstName, LastName from Person.Contact where LastName like 'W%'"

#Execute the Command

$sqlReader = $sqlCommand.ExecuteReader()

#Parse the records

while ($sqlReader.Read()) { $sqlReader["LastName"] + ", " + $sqlReader["FirstName"]}

# Close the database connection

$sqlConnection.Close()

As always, this warning applies to any script you find anywhere, including here.

Carpe Datum : Run a SQL Server Command from PowerShell without the SQL Server Provider

Samsung’s Web Site for Windows Mobile Developers

 

Samsung’s Web Site for Windows Mobile Developers

My very first Windows Mobile phone was a Samsung BlackJack, and my wife and I each use, and love, BlackJack IIs (a matching his-and-hers pair in blue and pink respectively) every day. The Blackjack II is also very popular phone among my coworkers; it’s very common for one of my colleagues to pull out a BlackJack device during a meeting to check their mail, manage their calendar, or do some research.

Given my history, I’m sure you can imagine that I was totally stoked to hear about Samsung’s Web site, the Samsung Mobile Innovator (found at http://innovator.samsungmobile.com) for Windows Mobile developers. After doing some research I found out that the Mobile Innovator has actually been around since October 2008. In February 2009, Samsung added developer centers for Java and Windows Mobile development.

Membership to the site is free (all you have to do is register), and includes a number of great features:

image …and here’s an image of the SGH-617 Blackjack II Device Emulator skin:

image

Additional features of the Samsung Mobile Innovator program include:

  • Access to the Windows Mobile Discussion Board: an open forum that provides support for Windows Mobile device users.
  • Lab.dev: a virtual device lab that allows you to install and test your applications on Samsung Windows Mobile devices over the Web.
  • Access to the Samsung Reference Collection, which includes links to a Knowledge Base, the Samsung Device Database, the Samsung Mobile Innovator Wiki, and the Samsung Windows Mobile SDK Documentation.
  • Product Showcase that provides detailed specifications for the latest Samsung devices that run on the Windows Mobile platform.
  • Access to Sammi, the Samsung Mobile Innovator blog for Mobile Developers.

Just in time for the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last month, the Samsung Mobile Innovator has started to go global by launching a Chinese-Language site. For more news about the Samsung Mobile Innovator, check out the Mobile Innovator News.

You can register for Samsung Mobile Innovator at https://innovator.samsungmobile.com/mbr/individual.mbr.add.do.

Enjoy exploring all the great features the Samsung Mobile Innovator has to offer for you!

(Special thanks to Constanze Roman for helping write this blog post, and to Jonathan Konrath from Samsung for reviewing it before posting!)

Windows Mobile Team Blog : Samsung’s Web Site for Windows Mobile Developers

Free Resources and Training on MSDev.com

 

Free Resources and Training on MSDev.com

msdev-homeThough specifically geared toward developers at ISVs*, the newly updated MSDev.com site has great content useful for any developer and is worth checking out.

From the ISV Developer Community blog announcement:

You will find web seminars, virtual events, live events on .NET Framework, business development, cloud computing, Exchange, Expression, high performance computing, Hyper-V, Internet Explorer, IIS, Dynamics, Office System, VSTO, SharePoint, Next Web, Web UI, Silverlight, SQL Server, Azure, Windows, Visual Studio, and much more.

msdevlogoYou'll find unfettered, friction free access to rich media learning content for Microsoft-based solution developers and non-Microsoft based developers.  In additon, the site provides developer training focused on value added partners (VAPs).

The phrase “friction free” is key, there’s no need to log in to view resources (though you can if you wish) – just easy access to the content you need.

Start with a search and take a look.

-Chris

Chris Bowen's Blog : Free Resources and Training on MSDev.com

Right Sizing your Network for OCS R2

 

Right Sizing your Network for OCS R2

In order to understand bandwidth requirements for OCS it’s important to first model expected usage and right provisioning the network. You will also have to manage usage and grow in line with your business needs. Bottom line – Measure Well!!

Bandwidth Requirements

OCS uses both RTAudio narrowband and wideband. Narrowband is used for UC <=> PSTN calls and wideband for all other calls. Wideband has a richer sound to the call and more user friendly with a higher sampling at 16kHz. The payload increases to a little over double but the real information that is needed is the full payload rate with IP+UDP+RTP+SRTP to find out how much bandwidth is needed. Also important in sizing is to understand that these are one-way numbers and that silent suppression saves on bandwidth. If you aren’t talking then the bits are less. As well as the dynamic changes of the packetization. If there is packet loss Forward Error Correction (FEC) is turned on to essentially double the packets. But for understanding the bandwidth the below chart will help us get some fairly accurate data.

Picture1

2 party calls

Picture3

For calls going to and from San Francisco from New York. We use the following datapoints

50% of the time User A talks (from SF)  and 50% of the time User B talks (from NY). The stream is 50kpbs but since it’s only half the time the average bandwidth is 25kbps. We can then extrapolate this to more users.

Total BW SF to NY = N x 25kbps (N is concurrent Calls)

Total BW NY to SF = N x 25kbps

Beyond 2 party calls

If we look at the SF Office as the datacenter with the OCS Pool and the NY Office available via WAN link. We can examine bandwidth further with 750 users in SF and 250 users in NY.

First we need to know what the Peak call concurrency is. In the below example it’s 5%. This gives us 25 calls and .9 Answered:unanswered calls to give us 22.5 answered calls. We have .55Mbps of audio in each direction with Video BW of 1.37Mbps.

Conferencing is also modeled below. Conferencing is very different then 2 party calling in that all traffic is directed to the MCU, only one speaker is typically speaking, some may or may not include video conferencing.

Picture4

Recap

These are busy hour peak bandwidth numbers. 2 party calls are symmetric but conferencing calls are asymmetric. Video BW is always greater than audio bandwidth.

Any model you choose is dependent on assumptions. Consider your intra-office calling patterns. How many calls, conferences do I have in between sites? Also do we have potential outliers – Superintendent wants an all hands audio/video conference. This will obviously skew our bandwidth model.

Published Monday, April 13, 2009 10:59 AM by gkatz

The Three UC Amigos : Right Sizing your Network for OCS R2

Operations Manager Service Level Dashboard

 

Operations Manager Service Level Dashboard

YAASAFTSAT (AKA Yet Another Awesome Solution Accelerator From the Solution Accelerator Team) :)

Check out the new Service Level Dashboard 2.0 Beta for System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 RC1

image

This free Solution Accelerator collects and monitors operational measurements for your line of business (LOB) applications. Its graphical dashboard makes it easy to keep tabs on service availability and performance, letting you:

· Spot trends in service availability and performance

· Head off problems before they occur

· Reduce costs by streamlining IT operations

This new version of the Dashboard uses Operations Manager as the engine, and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 as its presentation platform to track and report service levels on a near real-time basis.  The Dashboard now tracks additional metrics for service level compliance, including mean time to repair (MTTR), mean time between failures (MTBF), and application service level trends.  The Dashboard’s SharePoint-based authentication lets you create individual Dashboards by department, so you can easily track service levels for different groups in the organization.

Click here to join the Beta on Microsoft Connect (you’ll need your Microsoft Live ID).  Already using SCOM 2007 R2 Release Candidate 1 ? Click here

Posted: Monday, April 13, 2009 3:45 PM by smearp

The Sean Blog : Operations Manager Service Level Dashboard

Announcing the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Dev Toolkit

 

Announcing the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Dev Toolkit

The Microsoft Dynamics CRM team is proud to announce the availability of The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Developer Toolkit. This Visual Studio 2008 plug-in radically expands on the Visual Studio tools introduced in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 SDK. The toolkit enables developers and system customizers to take advantage of the tools and knowledge that they already have when engaging in custom development with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0.

With the toolkit, implementers and managers of Microsoft Dynamics CRM solutions can manage schema, engage in form design, update security roles and generate wrapper classes for Microsoft Dynamics CRM. These capabilities will enhance the productivity of organizations, particularly those building and deploying XRM solutions – line of business applications that use the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform.

Corey O’Brien, whom some of you may know from his work as Development Manager at Sonoma Partners or from his work on the MS Press title Programming Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 told me that “whether you are a reseller of Microsoft Dynamics CRM working on behalf of clients or an IT organization managing the Microsoft Dynamics CRM solution, the toolkit is a great option for helping you get up to speed fast in the management of an XRM application. The toolkit opened our eyes to a new level of CRM integration.”

The Developer Toolkit makes it easy for teams of developers to customize, extend, and maintain an on-premise CRM solution, all from within an integrated Visual Studio 2008 environment. When building a solution with Microsoft Dynamics CRM developers typically design and iterate on an entity model, create custom security roles for accessing those entities and then may generate .Net assemblies to extend the business logic. Once the solution has been developed customizations need to be deployed to test and production environments. With the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Developer Toolkit developers and IT professionals can manage all of those tasks from within Visual Studio 2008.

Users of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Developer Toolkit can:

View CRM entities using the CRM Explorer

The list of entities is dynamically available from the CRM Explorer within Visual Studio 2008.

b1

Create and Update CRM Entities

The Toolkit allows developers and system customizers to create new entities and update existing entities from within the CRM Explorer experience.

b2

Create Wrapper Classes

A key Toolkit feature is the ability to auto-generate wrapper classes for entities. This exposes the CRM entities and their corresponding attributes as classes and properties respectively to enable development of code to interact with the entities.

b3

Generate Plug-in Code

The CRM Explorer enumerates the available Plug-ins for an entity and generates the code necessary to jumpstart the plug-in development process.

b4

Integrate the Build and Deploy Process

Build scripts provided with the Toolkit simplify the process of building and deploying a CRM solution. They prepare the environment, obtain and publish the latest customizations, perform code analysis, register CRM Plug-ins, deploy the solution and execute Unit Test cases.

Deploy Across Multiple Servers

The deployment tool assists in deployment and maintenance of Windows installer packages across multiple environments.

b5

The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Developer Toolkit is available free of charge from the MSDN Code Galleries at http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/E2DevTkt .

The Microsoft Dynamics CRM team would like to encourage Toolkit users to submit comments and suggestions for the Toolkit. To initiate or participate in Toolkit discussions, go to the MSDN Code Gallery site and click on the Discussions tab at http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/E2DevTkt/Thread/List.aspx .

Cheers,

Barry Givens

Published Monday, April 13, 2009 10:10 AM by crmblog

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog : Announcing the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Dev Toolkit

Getting more out of Excel Reports

 

Getting more out of Excel Reports

Microsoft Dynamics GP V10 delivered 200 out of the box Excel Reports that allow you to quickly generate, modify and save refreshable excel files.  The beauty of this is the ability to create pivot tables and graphs quickly off of Dynamics GP information that is easily refreshable from inside Excel.  Now . . . I’m no graphing guru and I suspect there are many out there that are in the same boat (no Fargo flood pun intended).  Sooooo  here’s a great Office Excel 2007 add-in that suggests different kinds of charts according to the data that is selected.

http://www.officelabs.com/projects/chartadvisor/Pages/default.aspx

Based on the data in your spreadsheet, it identifies, ranks, and displays an array of charts most relevant to you so you can make the most out of your information.

chart advisor

ChAd2

Have fun with it.

Errol

Published Monday, April 13, 2009 11:39 AM by DynGpTeam

Inside Microsoft Dynamics GP : Getting more out of Excel Reports

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