A customer of mine contacted me this week about a problem they were having. They have a two-node failover cluster on Windows Server 2008 R2 with an instance of SQL Server 2008 with SQL Server 2008 SP1. They installed SQL Server's program files to another drive - not the main system drive (C). They then configured log shipping. Everything worked fine until they were testing failover. When the instance was failed over to the node which was not the first one installed, log shipping stopped working. When they failed it back, everything worked. After a WebEx session, it looks like Setup didn't put everything in the right place on the other node. Before I rushed to any conclusions, I needed to reproduce the problem to see if it was possibly something that went wrong in their setup. Here's what I did.

1. I created a two node W2K8 R2 cluster with a slipstreamed SQL Server 2008 SP1 instance.

Here is where I installed the progams to:

and on the next dialog


So far, so good.

2. I configured log shipping to an instance on another server while the instance was on the original (first) node it was installed on. Everything worked great.

3. I failed the instance over to the other node, and log shipping failed.

4. I failed the instance back to the original node. Lo and behold, log shipping worked again.

So what happened?

If you look at the job step for the transaction log backup job, here's what it is calling:
"Z:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Binn\sqllogship.exe" -Backup 6B81BF42-4AA8-4DE3-8349-5E54EE0C52ED -server KILROY

Here is what the programs look like on the first (original) install node for Drive Z. Note the shared tools directory with SqlLogShip.exe.

Here is what the programs look like on the second node (add node) install:
C drive showing the shared tools directory with SqlLogShip.exe.

Z drive showing no shared tools directory.


So it's pretty clear to me that the Add Node operation is not putting the files in the same place even though the other node has the same drive structure, thus causing log shipping to stop working in a failover.

If you install things all to the original system drive (such as C), everything works fine so that is a workaround. But I know some of you like to put program files in places other than the system drive.

I have written this up over on the Connect site here, so if you want to try to get this fixed, vote for it!

The funny thing about this is that on the initial install I selected everything to go to the Z drive, but it still install some files to C. Interesting.

So I'm finally finishing up the scripts and such for the book. Yes, they are very, very late. But you guys will benefit from that because you'll get a few things which wouldn't have been in there had I released 'em when Pro SQL Server 2008 Failover Clustering was released.

Anyway, I was creating the final versions of the checklists and configuration worksheets using Office 2010. I started them in Office 2007,  but have since installed 2010. I'm working with a client this week and I sent them the latest version of the configuration worksheet. The worksheet contains a lot of dropdown boxes to make it easier in some cases to select a value. The customer said they couldn't see the dropdown. I was baffled. Both Office 2007 and Office 2010 have the same format (.xlsx). I wasn't aware of any changes. Since I didn't have Office 2007 installed, I couldn't figure it out. I was baffled.

Today, I installed Office 2007 in one of the virtual machines on my laptop. Lo and behold, the customer was 100% correct. So what's the difference?

In Office 2007, to create a dropdown with a list of values on another sheet, here's what you do:
1. On the sheet where you want (other than the one you're working on), create the values.
2. Select the values.
3. In the Name box (next to the formula [fx] under the ribbon) enter a name for those values.
4. On the sheet where you want to use those as a dropdown, select a cel.
5. Select the Data ribbon.
6. Select Data Validation, then Data Validation.
7. On the Settings tab, select List in the Allow dropdown.
8. For Source, enter the equals sign and then the name you just created. An example would be =MyList.

In Office 2010, you no longer have to define a name for the list before using it. You are allowed to directly select the data in Step 8, meaning that steps 2 and 3 no longer need to be done.

While this is actually more intuitive, when you save it does not pop up a warning message (like it does for other instances) where this would cause a problem for previous versions of Excel. Now, I didn't select to save this as an .xls (the 97 - 2003 format). I did .xlsx which is the same format as Office 2007. So while the file format is the same, something is clearly different. The file does not error out in Office 2007 at all; it just shows the last selected value in the cel, no dropdown. Annoying.

The moral here: if you are creating documents in Excel 2010 that use dropdowns, and need them to be backwards compatible, do things the 2007 way.

Sometimes living on the bleeding edge isn't the best thing. Although you'll get both 2007 and 2010 versions of my files when I put them up for download soon, so maybe you guys all benefit from my pain ...

I really like my new laptop, the Panasonic CF-S9 from Japan (i5-540, 8GB of memory, 12.1" widescreen, 8 - 12 hour battery life, under 3lbs - yes, under 3lbs). I don't always say that as I fall out of love with laptops pretty quickly. Is it perfect? No. I've definitely got some gripes with it. Disk speed is not one of them. Stock, it came with the new Toshiba 256GB 2nd generation SSD that supports TRIM (THNS256GG8BBAA). The Toshiba R600 I bought last year has the Toshiba 1st generation 512GB drive (THNS512GG8BBA) which does not support TRIM. One of my concerns in the switch was overall capacity - taking a step back since I have a lot of VMs. The 512GB SSD was pretty fast, and truth be told, all of my laptops since about 2005 or 2006 have all had SSDs. But the one thing anyone who runs VMs knows is that I/O is king. The 256GB that came with the Panasonic was pretty quick, but not the fastest. I say that knowing it gave me a Windows Experience of 6.7 for disk, which is nothing to shake a stick at.

So to expand capacity, my original goal was to add USB 3.0 externally via an ExpressCard on the Panasonic. Unforuntately, Panasonic put a PCMCIA (cardbus) slot in the CF-S9, and even with an adapter, I couldn't get my USB 3.0 ExpressCard to work. I tried an eSATA PCMCIA card and I got worse than USB 2.0 speeds, so Panasonic's PCMCIA controller officially sucks. The lack of ExpressCard support and the poor PCMCIA implementation is my biggest disappointment with the Panasonic.

Why all the fuss? I bought the 256GB Crucial C300 CTFDDAC256MAG-1G1 - the new king of the SSD speeds in 2.5" drives. It would be a waste of money cripple it with USB 2.0 speeds. Thankfully Panasonic didn't make it near impossible to get the internal drive out (like Sony does with many of their models ... speaking from experience, I have a very love-hate relationship with higher end Sony laptops). Just unscrew two screws, and carefully get the drive out.

I used Paragon Partition Manager 10.0 Professional (bought; not a freebie) to clone the Toshiba to the Crucial (4 hours since I was using an external USB 2.0 enclosure), popped out the Toshiba, put in the Crucial, and with fingers crossed, powered on the Panasonic. Success!

I re-ran my Windows Experience, and disk went up to a whopping 7.6. 7.6! Not too shabby. I can tell the laptop has a bit more snap to it as well. The increased write speeds do make a difference. Check out my CrystalDiskMark scores now:

It is not a drive for those who are on the fence about SSD - there are much cheaper options if you want SSD. With SSDs it's not only about SLC vs. MLC, but it has nearly everything to do with how the SSD manufacturer has optimized its controller. Compared to the original SSDs I was using in the 32GB sizes back on my old Vaio VGN-G1 from Japan, the speeds are amazing to see how far the technology has come.

And I will tell you this as someone with a history with SSDs in laptops - they don't significantly add to your battery life. Maybe 30 minutes, or at most, an hour, but I'd say about 30 minutes. What you do gain is a lot of silence, have less heat, and I love the fact it has no moving parts so if you accidentally jar your laptop, the drive head won't fail. The only SSD failure (knock on wood) I had was on my Sony Vaio VGN-Z90 from a couple of years ago which had a proprietary RAID system, and this Crucial is pretty much faster than that.

Hope this helps some of you wondering about SSDs and whether they are worth it. Like anything, it depends. You do get what you pay for. Just because you may get an SSD doesn't mean it's going to be better than that traditional hard drive. Like many do in the SQL Server world, they go for capacity over speed and/or reliability. Know what your tradeoffs are.

If you read my last blog post, you can see where I'll be - at least publicly for the next month. Privately, I've got a few clients in addition to the public stuff I'll be doing. It seems like since the beginning of the year I've been on the road pretty constantly. To put it in perspective, I'm half way to hitting Platinum status (50,000 miles) on American Airlines without any kind of double miles promotion and also very close to Platinum status with Marriott (75 nights; I'll be about 15 days shy as of mid-June, and thst doesn't count my non-Marriott hotel stays so far this year). Now, you may be thinking, "Man, what a jerk! Bragging about his travel status!" I look at it a different way: it means I'm away from home. A lot. Actually, this blog post is being written on the Amtrak Acela going back home to the Boston area. (Free wi-fi. Woo hoo!) By the way, if you're traveling on the Northeast corridor, and especially between Boston and New York, taking the train is much easier if you need to be in Midtown.

I genuinely love what I do and the customers I work for. I know what I signed up for, especially since I'm chief cook and bottlewasher around these parts. So while I'm not complaining, I don't lead a fabulous life of extravagance on the road, either. People think that I get to go to all of these wonderful places (that's true to a degree, although some are not as wonderful as others), stay in top notch hotels, fly in first class, sip champagne ... in essence, lead a "fabulous" life. It is a good life. But "fabulous"? Not so much.

At the end of the work day, a hotel is just that: a place to go back, do some more work, and get some sleep. Some definitely are better than others; I'm not saying there's no difference. I'd be lying. But I can't always justify, say, staying in a Renaissance or a "normal" Marriott when one of the other brands is in the same area and like $200 cheaper per night. That's not a hard and fast rule. For example, if I'm going to be working, say, in downtown Los Angeles, it makes no sense to stay farther out because if you need to be somewhere first thing in the AM, it's just impractical. I always work with customers to have very reasonable travel costs when it comes to things like hotels and flights. One customer of mine who I've worked closely with since going independent and I spend a lot of time up front getting estimates based on the proposed days. As long as we can sign the work quickly (PO processes can be fun at some companies), we're always close if not right on the money. Doing things that way can easily chew up the better part of a day or two as I search for deals and flight combinations. For example, sometimes with Marriott properties the rates for Thursday night through Sunday night are cheaper (not always, though). So if I'm going to be somewhere for 10 days, I may have 3 or so reservations at the same hotel just to get a discounted rate Thursday - Sunday. You get different rates depending on how you select your dates. Sometimes you can negotiate a good rate at certain hotels if you stay often enough. I've done that once so far.

Doesn't this sound glamorous - spending a day or two just to find travel costs? There's no assistant doing all of this for me. Add travel agent to my list of job duties after consulting, billing, and running my business.

After a day working at a customer, sometimes it's too late and restaurants are closed. Compound that with special dietary needs, and life in certain parts of the country can be challenging at times. Not everywhere is like New York City or Los Angeles. Many cities roll up the carpet by 9 or 10 o'clock. This is often why I'll stay in a place that has a kitchenette or at least a refrigerator so I can go to a supermarket or a Whole Foods (if there is one) and get some stuff. I've also learned not to change my diet on the road. I eat the same things at home as I do elsewhere. I also snack less, drink less soda, etc. Why? Before you know it, you're 10 - 15 pounds heavier. As a small guy, 10 extra pounds makes a big difference and quite frankly, you feel lousy. I could do better on the road; I should use the hotel gyms more often. But after a long day of work, it's about the last thing I want to do.

Before you go break out your little violins for me and say, "Awww, poor Allan!" I do get to have some fun at times, but it's not often. For example, on this trip where I'm on the way back from, it was a pretty intense week or so in Seattle, and then I spent a day and half in New York City. Hey, it's on the way, right? It didn't add any cost to my airfare to do it, and I don't charge my customers for the hotel in New York. Win-win. I got to see Peter Gabriel at Radio City Music Hall (fantastic show) with a lifelong friend of mine who I grew up with and don't get to see very often.

Not being around as much makes you appreciate the really good times more. I sometimes wonder if friends and family think I abandon them ... I don't. My time is mine since I'm self employed, but very limited as my work schedule dictates everything else most of the time. If I'm out West or in another country altogether, I need to be mindful of the time zone differences. Of course I still manage to go home and at least change suitcases, squeeze in a rehearsal or two with the big band, maybe some recording dates (hope to do round two of the sessions I started last fall sometime this summer), and have a bit of downtime to unwind, too. Music is a big part of my life, and even on the road, I try to catch shows if I can if someone I like is playing. I've had the good fortune of catching people like Joe Jackson in both London and Sydney, the Chick Corea/Stanley Clarke/Lenny White trio at the Blue Note in Tokyo, and Genesis on the last tour outside of London.

I pledge to get back to more regular technical blog posts that I've got some planned after I get through this next stretch of customer work and deliverables (including two whitepapers). Some possible blog post ideas I'm toying with:

• How to create DTC in the cluster resource group/application with SQL Server on Windows Server 2008/R2
• Upgrading your SQL Server 2008 failover clustering instance to SQL Server 2008 R2
• ... and more

Back to editing one whitepaper and writing about 9 presentations I need to deliver over the next month or so ... 

On May 13 and May 20, Ben DeBow and I will be giving two days worth (six sessions) of webinars dedicated to the topic of consolidation with SQL Server. There is no requirement to attend both days, and you can do just one, or both. These webinars are not free, but are great value for the money and your boss does not need to send you anywhere - you can view them right on your computer screen! The cost for a single day is $99, or $178 for both (a savings of $20).

The six sessions we'll be doing are:
May 13 - Part I
11:00 am ET: SQL Server Consolidation Basics
1:00 pm ET: Gathering Information to Make Consolidation Decisions
3:00 pm ET: Applications and SQL Server Consolidation

May 20 - Part II
11:00 am ET: Considerations for SQL Server Consolidation
1:00 pm ET: Approaches for a Consolidated SQL Server Architecture
3:00 pm ET: Administering and Maintaining a Consolidated SQL Server Environment 

Each session will be about 75 minues with a live Q&A with both of us. For more details on each session and to register:

Part I Only http://elearning.left-brain.com/event/sql-server-consolidation-part-1-elearning-series.aspx?code=EP2905A1
Part II Only http://elearning.left-brain.com/event/sql-server-consolidation-part-2-elearning-series.aspx?code=EP2905A2
Both Days (with the $20 Savings) http://elearning.left-brain.com/event/sql-server-consolidation-parts-i-and-ii.aspx?code=EP2905AC

As if that wasn't enough to keep me busy, I've got more going on. Besides working on a few whitepapers which I hope will be released in the next two months as well as customer engagements, I'll be on the road quite a bit. Here's where you can catch me at public or semi-public events besides the webinar:

TechEd North America 2010
I'll be spending time in the SQL Server booth (and probably the Windows Clustering one as well), but the main reason will be my session DAT407 "Windows Server 2008 R2 and Microsoft SQL Server 2008: Failover Clustering Implementations". It will be on Thursday, June 10th from 5 - 6:15 PM in Room 276 (subject to change, I'm sure; check the site and guide when you get there). I know it's late in the day and most likely before the attendee party (update: it is; actually this is arguably one of the last sessions of the conference), but I hope to see you there and your brains are ready for 75 more minutes of content!

Microsoft Certified Master - SQL Server
I was recently honored with being asked to give one day of sessions at the upcoming May rotation for the Microsoft Certified Master - SQL Server certification. That day is May 14th, so if you're in the rotation, I'll see you there.

I'll actually be on the West Coast quite a bit (mainly in the Pacific Northwest and California) in May and June (outside of TechEd, of course), so if you've got a user group that needs a speaker and I'm in town, let's see if we can't coordinate. Click the Contact link above to get in touch.

Puget Sound SQL Server Users Group
Since I will be in the area, I do plan on trying to attend the Puget Sound SQL Server Users Group meeting if my schedule permits on May 12th. I am not going to be speaking if I go; I'm rarely around to just attend user group meetings anywhere. So feel free to say hello if you spot me!

Back in February, I wrote a blog post entitled "The Blog and Site Are Back (or, Don't Change Hosting Providers If You Don't Have To". Since then, I've changed hosting providers for sqlha.com another two times. Why all the change? Well, a lot of it has to do with this blog.

Let's start with the original hosting provider. That blog post tells the high level tale of woe which I will not rehash. That opened the door for Hosting Company #2. They in many ways were just as bad as the original one - I couldn't get the blog working right to save my life. They were hard to get support from and after about a month of trying to troubleshoot, I gave up. That was unfortunate as I really liked their e-mail solution and they were flexible with domains and databases (relatively speaking).

Hosting Company #3 came into play early in April at my frustration with #2. By all accounts, everything has worked, but the problem is their flexibility with domains and what I got for my money. Quite frankly, I'm not a high volume user, but demanding in other ways, and by just hosting sqlha.com with them, it was more expensive. (I also do a couple of other domains for personal stuff, too, and I prefer to have it all under one house so-to-speak.)

Enter Hosting Company #4 for sqlha.com, who winds up being the hosting provider for one of my long running websites. I was going to possibly move that one, but their new hosting plans are flexible, pretty cheap, and solid. I know what I'm getting from them as my one domain has been there for ten years. They're always responsive and helpful. They fully support BlogEngine.NET and I spent quite a bit of time porting over my old posts to here. This should be the final move. Now all of my domains are under one roof.

All of this was going on behind the scenes between a few business trips, a lot of work (including writing a 70+ page whitepaper), and so on. Anyone who thinks those of us running our own businesses and being self employed is easy, think again! If I had lots of minions I'd have tasked all of this domain business to other folks to get finished. Instead, I'm head chef, sous chef, dishwasher, and waiter all rolled up in one.

Today I found a bit of nastiness. I recently received a new notebook and was configuring it to dual boot with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 so I could run Hyper-V. I had no problem doing that with my Toshiba from last year. So what's the problem? This:
http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2009/11/16/understanding-high-end-video-performance-issues-with-hyper-v.aspx

If you install the proper graphics driver under Windows Server 2008 R2 for your laptop with an i5 (or possibly an i7) and configure Hyper-V, you are presented with the lovely BSOD. Consistently.

Unfortunately, it seems like a "not my problem"/"he said she said" problem where MS may not issue a fix, and the graphic card vendor may not either. It's frustrating, as most newer laptops are shipping with the new processors. Right now I'm running with the standard VGA adapter so I can run Hyper-V, but eventually I'd like to run at a better resolution.

Let's hope this problem gets resolved soon, or a lot of unhappy power users and presenters may be storming the proverbial castle.

I've seen the popups for the past few weeks and ignored them. Tomorrow is D-Day - the Release Candidate (RC) for Windows 7 will expire and it'll go into shutdown mode every  two hours.

Here's the problem with someone like myself who is often on the road or way to busy to deal with things like this since my laptop is my main computer: when am I going to carve out a day to reformat my computer? Yes, I know I can technically do an upgrade by changing a file in the ISO (well documented if you do a Bing or Google search), but really at this point I should do a clean, full install. The problem with that is the time it takes to get everything reinstalled and configured the way I like it. I've got very real deliverables over the next few weeks and taking a day to reconfigure my laptop really isn't an option. I've done it so much over the years and I can do it in 4 - 8 hours depending, but it's a lot of hurry up and wait. I've got nearly 300GB of stuff on here. The OS install is the easy part and dealing with drivers isn't so bad, either.

My hope was that the new laptop I ordered in early February would be here by now and I could deal with this one in time, but now my back is to the wall. I have no choice. Today I went to my local Micro Center and bought a 2TB external drive (my current drive is a 512GB SSD, a good portion of which is filled up). I'm currently backing up all of my files, and I will probably attempt the upgrade from RC to RTM because I just can't afford to take a day right now. Backing everything up is something I needed to do in anticipation of my new laptop anyway. Unfortunately it's a long process and I'm only part of the way there.

As much as this is going to be a painful day or so converting to RTM, I have to say this: I've been running the Windows 7 RC since last June with very few hiccups. Most hiccups were early on, and driver related. If you had told me even 3 or 4 years ago I'd be running a non-final operating system as my main OS for 8 months, I would have laughed at you. I was the guy who went kicking and screaming from Windows 2000 Professional to XP. Win7's RC has just been rock solid, so I've had no real reason until now to have to change. I've used plenty of beta products over the years that were not ready for prime time and left me frustrated.

Back to hurry up and wait ...

I just found out one of my proposed sessions was approved, so I'll be speaking at TechEd North America 2010. This year it's back in New Orleans from June 7 - 10. I was at I think the last TechEd in around 2003 or so in New Orleans (well, the last one in New Orleans *I* spoke at). Clearly it's too early to know what day or time, but I'm very happy and honored nonetheless. Stay tuned for more info.

Oh, and if you're curious, it's a clustering-related session - not a surprise.

Last week I was in Seattle at the MVP Summit. While it was a lot of fun and great to not only hang with my fellow MVPs, I did learn quite a bit. Unfortunately, I also was working at the same time. The work included moving my domain (the website, my e-mail, this blog, etc.) from one hosting provider to another. Let me tell you, as someone who does stuff like this for a living with and for clients, it's not easy even for my own stuff. Why?

First, a little background: I've been using Hosting Company A since I went independent. I've had the intermittant issue - mainly with e-mail - since the start. It was annoying at times, but it is what it is. Nothing is perfect, right? Fast forward to January. They were going to "migrate" me to their new platform. They claimed they did a bunch of testing and had scheduled my move ... which was last Wednesday. Unfortunately, their definition of testing and my definition of testing were far off. My static pages worked, and my e-mail seemed ok, but my blog was down. Even rudimentary testing would have sussed that out. Having a QA background, needless to say, I was a bit livid. Oh, how I wish my story ended there and it was an easy fix. No. Hosting Company A's new platform had less control, so debugging was hard to say the least. Between online chats and phone calls, I spent nearly three hours trying to get things up and running. No go.

I asked one of my fellow MVPs what company he used for hosting, and he suggested Hosting Company B. I did a bit of research, and not only are they a bit cheaper, but they would apparently give me what I needed as well. So a few hundred bucks later, and I was set up pretty instantaneously. There were a few niggles, and it's taken me about a week to resolve some issues in getting this blog back up, but by golly, it's up. I also had a snag with my MX records, so I couldn't send e-mail, but they have been very helpful and all seems to be well (finally).

This blog was difficult to get up and running. First, I had to migrate the data from the database it was in (SQL Server, naturally ... I try to preach what I practice and use a MS-based blogging tool). That was a combination of exporting data via SSIS (figuring out the order due to PK/FK restrictions) and scripts with INSERT statements. The hosting company finally resolved whatever application issues I was having with IIS7/W2K8 this evening, and now I'm back up and posting again.

Not everything is perfect; unfortunately, I can't seem to get the comments portion working. I'll see what I can do.

What's the moral of this story? Well, testing is your friend would be one possible candidate. Another is practice what you preach (I try to). I guess the real moral is that I am a victim of the same issues you are, and it's one of the reasons that when I work with you, I can truly relate. I don't sit here high on my perch where I don't run into real issues or have to solve some real problems, sometimes creatively.

The other big lesson here is to trust your gut. I've had some so-so luck over the years with hosting companies for one reason or another, and in this case, should have moved earlier. My e-mail issues should have been a clue. At random times my e-mail server would be down, and I'd contact their support. They'd say they were doing something. You know, as a guy who does a lot of availability, an e-mail or some sort of message would be nice. Instead, I'm down. As someone who is independent, I depend on that access to communicate with my customers and potential customers. My new hosting company seems pretty solid so far in this way.

Anyway, that's been my week. Off to finish a few presentations, one of which I deliver this week.