Reporting Services Catalog Database File Existence Failed

While installing the Microsoft SQL server 2008 enterprise evaluation edition I got an error as

“Reporting Services Catalog Database File Existence Failed or Temporary Database File Existence failed” as follows

Tried to google around to see if I get any solution on this and found the reason behind the error , It was mainly because someone earlier  had installed SQL server on this machine and that was uninstalled couple of days ago which had left some of its footprints on the machine through the reporting services files under program files

C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10_50.SQLSERVER\MSSQL\DATA

This path showed some files created for reporting services, hence deleted those files (you need to have administrator privileges to delete them) and tried to Re-run the setup it went through with no errors as follows

Hence it worked for me the files deleted were found under C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10_50.SQLSERVER\MSSQL\DATA. Though I forgot to note down the filenames which i deleted , other blogs on the same issue tell you the name of the files also ; ReportServer.mdf,ReportServer_log.LDF,ReportServerTempDB.mdf,ReportServerTempDB_log.LDF etc . But yes it was indeed a learning experience.

Installing OpenFiler

Openfiler is an Open Source Network Attached Storage and Storage Area Network, Open filer supports volume based partitioning on native file systems, Supports quota-based resource allocation and helps allocating shares for various network file systems.

Below procedure helps Installing Open filer using graphical Installation method on virtual machine

To begin installation attach the openfiler iso file  to CD\DVD drive through virtual machine settings

Click on connect at power on and boot the virtual machine It displays

Hit Enter to go for graphical installation 

Select language and keyboard whichever you want and next comes disk partitioning, you can either select automatic partitioning or manual partition and create partitions.

In network configuration step you would configure machine ip address and other settings like hostname,gateway and dns etc.

Set the root password

Once you finish these steps click next and it starts the installation process

Once you get installation complete screen you can click on reboot to boo the machine and you will be presented with screen like this

To access the open filer through the web browser use following

Management Interface: https://<ip of openfiler host>:446

Administrator Username: openfiler

Administrator Password: password

Now you are ready to access your open filer through web browser like this

We will discuss using the Open Filer in coming blogs.

ADRMS Installation Facts

ADRMS (Active Directory Rights Management Server) 

Active directory rights management services is a form of service which helps in protecting  corporate information through policies applied over them selective operations could be authorized for selective users and the access could be streamlined .companies use this technology to protect their information which flows through emails, web services or shares .

Below is the general set up required to enforce this service

Set up key facts

1.       Login to Active directory and create domain users (if active directory already exists)

2.       Install Microsoft server 2008 R2 on a new machine, login as administrator and go to add roles and install active directory rights management role

3.       You need service account to specify while installing if this machine is not there on a domain then the service account has to be a member of enterprise admin group

4.       If you want to use internal database then you can select the same, if you want to use external database server then select the same.

5.       Database server which is selected here should have sql server browser services running and remote connections enabled.

6.       We need to select SSL security for server authentication

7.       You can select the certificates issued by your CA or self-signed certificates.

8.       Service connection point should be registered while installing ADRMS.

9.       After installation you can create ADRMS templates and path has to be specified on server.

10.   Change the registry settings at server as well as at client where this set up need to be tested.

my next blog would cover detailed steps of ADRMS installation with screenshots.

vCenter Single Sign On Password Issues

                    

If you are Unable to login to vSphere Web client and if it says password is incorrect or account locked then you can check the status of the account through various options

1.       You can use any other users  logged in session with administrators privileges

2.       Wait for 15 minutes

3.       You can reset the same through command prompt

Procedure: 

1.      Unlocking administrator’s account using another session which is open is as follows

• Click on Home
• Go to Administration
• Select SSO Users and Groups
• Choose the administrators account right click and click Unlock

2.      Wait for 15 minutes

You can wait for 15 minutes as because by default account lockout policy is set to unlock after 15 minutes this should work fine in most of the cases.

3. Resetting Administrators password through command prompt 

     If SSO server is installed on Windows server then you can reset the password through               command prompt also

• Login to SSO server as admin 
• Go to command prompt Start > Run, type cmd, and click OK
• Navigate to SSOInstallDirectory through default installation directory i.e.
• C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\SSOServer.
• Run the command :   rsautil reset-admin-password
• Provide the master password which was given during SSO installation it should accept even if it is changed
• Enter the name of the administrator account which needs password reset
•  Type the new password and confirm it again

·         This should fix the issue

Bootmgr is missing ERROR ...!!!!!!!!

Bootmgr is missing ERROR

I had a tough time with windows server 2008 R2 when it gave me an error as 

“ BOOTMGR IS MISSING  PRESS CTRL+ALT+DEL TO RESTART”

After lots of struggling hours on internet and consulting many experts I was able to boot my server normally, it was very important server to retain as many things depended upon it .Things that I have tried were changing the boot options from settings and trying to boot and tried to explore other options too… things which worked were when I tried to explore through repair options,(I took a snapshot of the machine before attempting these as it was virtual machine)

1.   Boot your server from CD\DVD
2.  Click next and select Repair your computer 
3. Select first option and click next
4. Select command prompt
5. Type diskpart and enter
6.  Type list Volume and enter  
7. Check which is the system reserved partition (basically it would be 100 MB check the drive letter too)
8. Select the volume which is assigned to system reserved partition eg. Select volume 1 and enter
9. Type active and enter this would give message like ’DiskPart marked the current partition as active'
10. If you type list volume again it would shoe asterisk (*)which is active
11. Now type list disk and enter
12. Select the disk where your windows is installed typically its disk0 hence type Select Disk 0 and enter
13. Type list partition and enter to list partitions which may display message like Partition 1 is now the selected partition
14. Exit diskpart now
15. You can additionally try system file checker commands too like sfc /scannow which inspects all important windows files and if it finds any issues with them it replaces them
16. Restart your server machine and check if that’s boots properly.

Hope this helps resolving the above issue.

Failed to create SQL server certificate Error on SCCM installation

I came across one more error while installing SCCM 2012 which says Failed to create SQL server certificate Error on SCCM installation, tried to Google again on the same to find root cause it was found that the account with which you install the SCCM set up should be local administrator on that machine which my account was but more condition is it should also be added onto sysadmin group on the sql server it is connecting to. After adding the user to these groups installation completed smoothly. Enjoy installing SCCM.

Error :

Could not connect or execute SQL query error on SCCM installation

While installing SCCM 2012 I came across one more error as Could not connect or execute SQL query as shown below hence tried to Google for the solutions to rectify the same .

If many instances are running on sql server they try to run on port 1433 for specific IP hence it is better to turn off Listen All but the changes which would matter here are protocols for instance under  IP All settings through configuration manager on SQL server should have 1433 listed and listen all setting to be given as NO. Specifying the port number is the key here, clear all the dynamic ports number and don’t forget to restart the SQL services once changes are made.

How do I get rid of Dynamic ports Enabled Error on SCCM installation?

How do I get rid of Dynamic ports Enabled Error on SCCM installation?

We use configuration manager to specify the ports TCP port 1433 and to disable the dynamic ports .Even though it again says us to use static port 1433, hence one should disable dynamic ports (field set to a blank string) ie this can be set to blank through SQL server configuration manager as shown below, this should fix the error.But make sure you restart the sql service before trying to attempt for it again.

Is Happiness a Mystery?

It’s an attempt to put something on what HAPPINESS mean to me .Word happy has a letter ‘Y’ in it hence people can be happy but happiness has ‘I ‘in it which means it starts with me or myself , I can either feel it or sense it, it’s a state of self-containment and self-satisfaction.
Feeling regretted is human tendency, it comes to us by nature, these are the signs that make you a human being who really cares for others and it tells us that you are indeed open to learn from your mistakes but one should continuously look towards learning from your past successes too which would take you towards excellence and making you more capable of achieving successes with perfection.
Being true to yourself is one more factor that tests your character and patience ,one should keep evaluating himself to judge your progress because that’s the key for the happiness , happiness cannot be defined by the surrounding atmosphere, it’s a process of self-judgement which evolves from within, you can only feel it, you can always try to share it but it depends upon the person who is at receiving end, you cannot simply make him happy only by sharing your happiness but it’s a process which enables him to feel that happiness. And yes I would say its individuals business of realising those moments for himself. Being true doesn’t mean just standing for the true or best it also means that you trust yourself and that you will rightly succeed someday despite keeping odds against you. One should keep evolving and strive for the best to deliver.
Sometimes I feel happiness as mystery as we fail to understand it or define it though we can feel it or see its happening. Defining it for someone could be tough task; we could even miss it from enjoying it, if we start consciously monitoring our responses or our feeling to certain activities which makes us happy. May be happiness is something that we can only pursue and maybe we can actually never have it.

Cloud based service desk:

Help desk software applications are a database of customer information, call reports, solutions guides and service agreement levels.

In a quest to automate their tools, companies would look to automate their service desks in order to make it cost effective and to be able to make the whole process user friendly through self-service features of cloud and its ability to be used anytime from anywhere it would fetch potential benefits to companies. One can customise tools as per his needs, features one can expect could be

·         Customise incident management ,

·         Remote user access,

·         Maintaining knowledge base

·         Improved issue resolution

·         Quicker responses to events

·         Tracking inventory and assets,

·         Web based application software usage

·         Speedy deployments

·         Embedding ITIL process based rules for incident management.

With increasing demand to provide world class services within the small budgets for small-medium businesses and ever increasing customer expectations , businesses are looking for the optimised ,expandable solutions .

Many organisations fail to customise the infrastructure to maintain their helpdesk on time. You expect to grow with time and also your capabilities to deliver business requirements in a time saving and cost saving capabilities.

Features it has to provide are

1. Automation of Ticket Management: ability of the solution to support the existing support solutions which processes with rule-based triggers, notifications and views.

2. Any channel connect & support: To improve customer engagement on their own terms, managing   support processes centrally with multiplatform support it can be email, Web, social media, online chat, community forums and also supporting it over mobile phones.

3. Easy to Implement: it has to be easy & faster to implement

4. Reporting: ability of the people concerned in getting reports and analytics to track incident metrics , CSI customer satisfaction index, performance of analysts , resolution time etc.

5. Tracking events: time stamping the events to manage SLAs,

6. ITIL based best practices integration support: to follow industry accepted best practices.

7. Integration: the helpdesk processes have to be integrated with all other related application to function properly and reduce time for resolution.

8. Scalable, highly available and secure helpdesk: it needs to provide scope for live backup, disaster recovery

Service desks would definitely be interested to look to explore the benefits from self-service, easy to use, improved agent productivity, online manageable applications. Cloud-based hosting offers continual support, backup and maintenance ,Cloud based service desk would be web based solution , one can launch it through web browser the data would be managed at a remote place accessed from any location with ability to view the tickets raised and the progress of the same .it would also provide access to online knowledge database. The knowledge base provides a quick way to look up products and services customers use and determine how to resolve issues.

what do we get out of these bandhs...!!

Once again one more Bharat bandh today..........people say they are against the petrol price hike.But keeping whole nation on standstill with these type things would only harm our economy...our economical capital gets hit most of the time due to these bandhs, we see empty roads ,empty markets,no schools , people not turning to offices, public transport vehicles put on fire,stone pelting and what not....sometimes lives of innocent people.. is this the outcome one expects out of this ?

   we've had enough of these bandhs , India needs strong leaders to tackle these issues and strong political will power to sort the issues with talks before calling these type of bandhs.Everybody wants to take advantage out of it ,common man thinks he gets holiday and netas think they have shown their power , nobody seems to be cared about solutions.... yes we need solutions............

what happens to your online information after death?

With almost everyone using internet and having considerable amount of data over the internet. Everyone wanting to have their presence felt over internet over various platforms. Its been a real question now “What exactly happens with our online information or the data which is saved over internet through social networking websites or email accounts after death?.”

With many companies providing access to cloud based services with some of them being free service providers the data which is kept over internet is huge now. Having said that the information could be photos, blogs, contacts, personal information, mails, chats, comments does defines your thoughts ,your virtual presence to the world and we need to value it.

So what happens to your information after death? Well different companies have different policies for these altogether, as Facebook’s policy allows your family to decide whether to deactivate, delete, download profile information, it also provides a very interesting feature of memorializing your profile as many people would still be wanting to remember you but your family would have to come up with your username and password or your death certificate. Whereas yahoo has a strict death policy where, upon receiving a copy of your death certificate they will permanently delete all of your accounts and their contents meaning no one but you can ever access them.

Definitely your family or relatives will have access to your online information provided they satisfy conditions & policies set by online service providers with related documents and necessary details. Internet archiving would be a boon for this as it allows you to archive web pages which are not password protected and which are publicly available.