Setting Up SharePoint Search Error: The Web application at could not be found.

If you are receiving this error:
The Web application at <URL> could not be found. Verify that you have typed the URL correctly. If the URL should be serving existing content, the system administrator may need to add a new request URL mapping to the intended application.

Take a look in Central Administration > Operations > Alternate Access Mappings.

If there is no DNS entry for the server, replace the server name with the IP address. This will get your search capabilities working in most cases.

Here is a little background in my case that might help you. I setup a TFS server and wanted to configure the underlying WSS (Windows SharePoint Services).

Hope this helps!

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How To: Review Saved Perfmon (aka Performance Monitor) Binary Log (BLG) Files

Alright so this isn’t really obvious  in Perfmon.  This is what you do to review a log file.

Step 1: Right mouse click on Performance Monitor (figure 1).

Step 2: Select Properties.Step 3: Select Source then connect to the file, database, etc. (figure 2).

Figure 1

Figure 2

Control Alt Delete in Remote Desktop

Step 1: Maximize your RDP window.

Step 2: Ctrl+Alt+Esc

Step 3: Do what you must.

IE9 & Firefox 4 – Facebook & Flash Issues Continued

Are you having problems with Facebook games on Facebook using IE9 or Firefox 4? Another solution…

So I figured something out recently, if you need the hardware acceleration turned on (I have to admit it is a nice thing to have) in your web browser, the problem might be related to your graphics driver. Most laptops today use the Intel graphics drivers. Go to http://downloadcenter.intel.com/ to download the latest drivers (Microsoft’s Windows Update is a little behind on this) then follow the on-screen installation steps. If you are unsure which drivers you have on your system they have a utility that can help you, simply go to http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/detect.

If this is not the case for you I recommend going to my previous post, which is still very useful if you are not using an Intel chipset.

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MS Access Upsizing to SQL Server Issues & Troubleshooting

Upsizing Access Databases to SQL Server?

If you are like me you have had one or two very small Access databases that have grown and need SQL Server’s power. Naturally you run the upsizing wizard and move over all your tables. This allows you to keep the Access fron-end and have a rip-roaring SQL Server in the back-end. Here are a couple things to look out for:

Careful with the Switchboard

Migrating the switchboard table over to SQL Server is a good idea if you want have many people using the Access database front-end.  If you can figure out the switchboard table, you can modify your switchboard using this table.

If you migrate the switchboard table to SQL Server, you can no longer use the Switchboard Manager

To get around this issue, you have have to modify the table directly.

Timestamps: Problems Updating Data

Be sure that you include a timestamp on your tables, Access needs these if it is going to make some DML changes to your data. I believe although couldn’t find verification that it uses timestamps on the tables as a locking mechanism and reduces contention.

New Problem, Indexes

Primary keys do not come over appropriately. They come over as unique non-clustered indexes, not clustered. This means your data can be stored out of order on disk, which is very inefficient for larger tables. Delete these indexes and create primary keys for them!

Lastly, any changes made to indexes (creating, altering, dropping) will need the Access front end to be updated. Be sure to refresh your linked tables in the linked table manager.

Enjoy!

Internet Explorer 9 / Firefox 4 – Facebook Flash Issues

Are you having problems with Facebook games on Facebook using IE9 or Firefox 4?

Here is what I found. These guys (Microsoft and Mozilla) got something right in their browsers; giving the browsers direct access to the graphics card.

So this is really good most of the time, pages will act more responsive.

And now…

Adobe has to get with it, Flash games aren’t displaying properly with the new browsers.

The solution in IE9 is to go into Internet Options (click on the gear icon on the right side of the window) > Advanced Tab. Then check the tab the Graphics Acceleration option to use software rendering.

In Firefox 4, go into Options > Advanced > General tab. Then uncheck the “Use hardware acceleration when available” box.

These solutions will allow the games to work a little better, but general web pages might not be as responsive.

I have an additional information on this topic here.

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SQL Server DAC (Dedicated Administrator Connection)

Have you ever had a query go rogue? CPU at pegged at 100%? This will help!

Note: This is only for SQL Server 2005 and later…

There is some groundwork to do.

Setting up the DAC

Run these statements as an administrator:

sp_configure 'remote admin connections',1
GO
RECONFIGURE
GO

This will enable the ability to connect to the server.

Using DAC When IT Matters!

You can do two things use sqlcmd to connect to the SQL Server or a query window (not the Object Browser). The trick is before the name of the server prefix the name of the server with admin:.

Example:

admin:servername

A note of interest, you are limited by what you can do in this mode. Nothing that needs to store temporary tables and things like that. You can even use this if you do something terrible like corrupt the master or tempdb databases.

I hope you never need this!

SQL Server Foreign Key Constraints – sp_fkeys on ‘Roids!

This query gives you enough information to recreate a foreign key. Enjoy!

--===========================================
--Returns what you need to recreate foreign
-- keys. SP_FKEYS on steriods...
--===========================================

SELECT
SCHEMA_NAME(fk.schema_id) + '.' + OBJECT_NAME(fk.parent_object_id) as [Primary Table Name],
fk.name as [Foreign Key Name],
OBJECT_NAME(fk.referenced_object_id) as [Foriegn Key Table Name],
fkcol.name as [Foriegn Key Column Name],
pkcol.name as [Primary Table Column Name]
FROM
sys.foreign_keys fk
INNER JOIN sys.columns fkcol
ON fkcol.object_id = fk.referenced_object_id AND fkcol.column_id = fk.key_index_id
INNER JOIN sys.foreign_key_columns pk
ON pk.constraint_object_id = fk.object_id
INNER JOIN sys.columns pkcol
ON pkcol.object_id = pk.parent_object_id AND pkcol.column_id = parent_column_id
WHERE OBJECT_ID('insert table name here') = fk.parent_object_id

 

Fun With Images and Photographs – Photosynth

This is very interesting and compelling. Anyone have an other great ideas for processing of images? What are your plans for images? I would love to hear them as I am planning my own project similar to this one but to a different end and for a different purpose.

Troubleshooting SSIS – The component could not be added to the Data Flow task.

So if you are getting this error creating an SSIS package and you happen to be testing out a new component; these are the things to do:

1. Check the name, version, and SNK (Strong Name Key) between BIDS, GAC (General Assembly Cache), and in the components source.
2. If more than one version exists in the file location or in the GAC, delete all entries and reinstall the correct version.
3. Restart the SQL Integration Service.
4. Delete the component (in the package) and reset the toolbar in BIDS.

Hope this helps. I applaud the SSIS beginners, experts, and gurus out there!