Installing Exchange 2007 on Windows 2008 (aka UAC is a pain)

Over the last couple of days I have been setting up Exchange 2007 SP1 on Windows Server 2008 RTM.  No matter what I tried, I was stuck in a Catch-22: If I logged in as Local Admin on the box, I didn't have permission to make the necessary changes to the domain; if I logged in as Domain Admin, I didn't have permission to write to the local log file on the C:\ drive of the Exchange server.  I kept getting errors like the one at right from the GUI, or this one from the command line:

Failed to initialize the log file: Access to the path 'C:ExchangeSetupLogs\ExchangeSetup.log' is denied.

Setup will not continue.

Those are NOT the most descriptive errors.  If I logged in as local admin, those errors went away, but instead I received errors that the local admin account didn't have the rights to make massive changes to the domain (shocker).

I posted on the Microsoft Technet Exchange forums, and hardly anyone read my post, much less answered it.  One person responded that they had the same problem, so I knew it wasn't just me.  I noticed that I couldn't run the basic commands that install Windows 2008 components, like PowerShell without getting similar errors.  It didn't matter if it was on a Hyper-V VM, or a physical server, I could not resolve the problem.

Then I had an idea.  I knew that Windows 2008 and Vista are the same underneath, and I remember that the first thing I did when I installed Vista was to disable UAC. . . hmm. . . yep, that was the problem.  Here is where you do it on Windows 2008, just like in Vista:

Then go here:

I hope that anyone else that is about to go crazy from Installing Exchange 2007 on Exchange 2008 finds this blog entry and simply disables UAC.

Is the Nintendo Wii just a gimmick?

I was reading a post on Kotaku about the new Wii 3.2 system software update, and I noticed that about 40% of the comments say something along the lines of "I haven't turned my Wii on since the last system update", or "I only play my 360 or PS3".

I have a 360, PS3 and Wii, and that is the order that I would rate them right now.  The Wii is cool, and Wii Sports is the best game ever for when you have friends over. . . but I haven't really seen anything else that is impressive enough to hold the attention of anyone over the age of 25.

I know that they are selling many more Wii's than they are 360's or PS3's, but I bet 80% of them are collecting dust after the first couple of weeks.  Microsoft has a crazy high attach rate, something like 8 games for every system sold.  I'm guessing the Wii has about 2 games for every system sold.  I hope that they come out with a killer app, or at least Wii Sports 2 in the near future.

New Bluetooth Headset - BlueAnt Z9

My old bluetooth headset died (Plantronics Voyager 510, best basic bluetooth headset you can get for $45).  This seems to happen every year in February.  I am very picky about my bluetooth headset, so always try a couple until I get the perfect one.  This year I tried 2: the Aliph Jawbone and the BlueAnt Z9. 

They both claim to have excellent noise cancellation, but the Jawbone is very dramatic about this claim.  Back before I blew the engine on my Land Rover, noise was a real problem since that is probably the noisiest car on the road.  Since I don't have that car anymore, noise is less of an issue.

The bottom line is that for the money ($75), the Jawbone would have to be the best thing ever.  It turns out that it is not the best thing ever.  It is awkward  to put over your ear and too big to put in your pocket.  The BlueAnt is easy to put over your ear and fits in your pocket no problem, plus its only $60.  I've had it for a 2 weeks and it is great.  They seem to upgrade the firmware frequently, and I have already updated it to v3.4, it seems to be better than it was on v3.2 but it might be my imagination.  At any rate, it is a nice headset and I recommend it.

Connecting Excel Services to an External Data Source

I will be setting up a proper connection from Excel Services to an Analysis Services 2005 cube over the next couple of days and found this article that describes the necessary steps in detail.  The article is titled Plan external data connections for Excel Services, just what I was looking for.

Undoing Checkout for Another User in TFS 2005

It is not as easy as it should be to undo someone else's checkout in Team Foundation Server 2005.  In 2008, you can do it through a GUI, but only if you have the Power Tools installed.

Here is how to do it in TFS 2005, from the command line:

tf undo [/workspace:workspacename[;workspaceowner]] 
[/server:servername] [/recursive] itemspec [/noprompt]

I was also faced with having to add my login info, so the exact command I used was as follows:

tf undo /workspace:WORKSPACE-NAME;User $/myProject/CheckedOutFile.cs /login:myusername,mypassword

I also found out that you can delete an entire workspace for a developer who is no longer on your project and maybe had some files checked out.  That command is even easier, and will automatically undo any checkouts:

tf workspace /delete Workspace  (add "/login:name,password" to end of command if not using AD)

SQL Server 2005 SP2 Performance Reports

Just stumbled across a whole set of reports that can be deployed to SQL 2005 if you have SP2 installed.  Here is the link.  From what I have read, these are a pretty slick addition to the existing reports (you did know that there are existing reports, right?)

Here is the description from the download site:

The SQL Server 2005 Performance Dashboard Reports are Reporting Services report files designed to be used with the Custom Reports feature introduced in the SP2 release of SQL Server Management Studio. The reports allow a database administrator to quickly identify whether there is a current bottleneck on their system, and if a bottleneck is present, capture additional diagnostic data that may be necessary to resolve the problem. For example, if the system is experiencing waits for disk IO the dashboard allows the user to quickly see which sessions are performing the most IO, what query is running on each session and the query plan for each statement.

Common performance problems that the dashboard reports may help to resolve include:

- CPU bottlenecks (and what queries are consuming the most CPU)
- IO bottlenecks (and what queries are performing the most IO).
- Index recommendations generated by the query optimizer (missing indexes)
- Blocking
- Latch contention

The information captured in the reports is retrieved from SQL Server's dynamic management views. There is no additional tracing or data capture required, which means the information is always available and this is a very inexpensive means of monitoring your server.

Reporting Services is not required to be installed to use the Performance Dashboard Reports.

Microsoft BI Demo VPC 5.1

You better have a monster machine on which to run this: Microsoft has released a new Business Intelligence sample VPC.  The .vmc is set to use 1GB when you first install it, I would recommend bumping to 1.5GB - I tried 2GB and it was a still sluggish on my laptop.  Might want to throw it on a spare server if you have one.

It is a big download, but definitely worth it if you want to have a VPC available for "playing around" with any of the Microsoft BI tools without having to go through the trouble of deploying MOSS, etc. on a VPC.

Download Part 1 (3.5GB)
Download Part 2 (1GB)

From the readme, here is the list of software that is installed and fully configured:

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 Service Pack 2
Internet Explorer 7
Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007
Microsoft Office Visio 2007
Microsoft Office Project 2007
Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007
Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2007
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 w/ Service Pack 1
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 w/ Service Pack 2 (w/ SSIS, SSAS, SSRS)
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Data Mining Add-ins
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 SharePoint Integration Add-in
ProClarity Analytics Server 6.3
ProClarity Dashboard Server 6.3
ProClarity Desktop Professional 6.3
ProClarity Web Professional 6.3
Microsoft PerformancePoint Planning Server 2007
Microsoft PerformancePoint Monitoring Server 2007
Microsoft PerformancePoint Dashboard Designer
Microsoft PerformancePoint Planning Add-In for Excel
Microsoft PerformancePoint Planning Business Modeler
Project REAL Reference Implementation
SoftArtisans OfficeWriter 3.8.1 and Designer
BI Demo Files
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Samples
Microsoft SQL Server BI Metadata Samples
Performance Point Planning Samples/Labs
Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office Second Edition