June 2008 - Posts
In my previous post, I mentioned that I upgraded to Windows Server 2008. All seemed to be ok until on Friday afternoon, I decided to do a quick test to see if my old builds were still working. I thought I might have some issues with respect to permissions and shares. I started the build and it stopped really quickly. Team Build came back with an error TF215085: An error occurred while connecting to the agent. I could also see TF215076 : Team Foundation Build is not responding.
First task - checked services. Team Build was not started even though it was set to manaul. Tried to start it but got an error that a dependant service could not be started
Checked the event log. it had an error. The Visual Studio Team Foundation Build service depends on the following service : HTTPFuler. This service might not be installed.
Looked at the available services and HTTP or HTTP Filter service available.
Workaround/resolution
Remove the dependency on the HTTP service - which I guess does not exist in WS08.
In the registry, goto HKEY LOCAL MACHINE/SYSTEM/CONTROLSET001/VSTFBUILD and remove the entry for DependsOnServer. Reboot!
Start Team Build - all good except...
If you kicked off the build initially like I did and you got the errors above, the build agent is set to a status unreachable. You need to bring up the "Build Agent Properties" dialog box and set the status to enabled.
Yesterday, I started upgrading my WS03 machine to WS08. This machine had TFS on it as well so I was a bit apprehensive. The experience was "interesting".
Based on some internal tips, I first upgraded WSS v3 and MOSS to SP1. This was easy.
I then removed Powershell - also based on the internal tip. This was not that easy because it has some fancy KB name. Check my previous post. Once I figured it out, this was easy as well.
I then ran setup for what I assumed was WS08 Std. When I tried to upgrade it moaned about not being able to move from WS03 Enterprise to WS08 Std. Turns out that I entered a Product Key for WS08 Std. After using a WS08 Enterprise key, the same setup kicked off fine. At this stage setup started doing its work. It then moaned to me about removing a Bluetooth driver. Did this and was told to reboot - which I did NOT do!!.
Ran setup again and no blocking issues. I went for some meetings etc. At one point, it looked like it needed to reboot. But it did not look like much was happening. I tried to invoke the restart myself but no action - only waited for a few seconds though. In my impatience I hit the power button down for a few seconds and then restarted - BAD BOY.
Now the installation continued but at some point I got the BLACK SCREEN OF NOTHING.You just saw the mousepointer. Tried a few reboots and tried safe mode. No luck. Not a happy camper at this point.
Thankfully, when you bootup at this stage you see a nice option to rollback. Cool!. Tried this and in under 5 minutes it rolled back the install and I was back to WS03. It was getting a bit late so I just copied all the files onto my hard drive.
In the evening, while watching the soccer (or not watching it due the storms in Vienna), I decided to try again. First thing I did was to install all the WS03 (yes 2003) Windows updates and make sure I reboot. This time around, I ran setup and no problems. It was busy with the last bit when I decided to go and sleep. I got up this morning and it looks like everything is working.
Some tips and possible reasons why the install failed the first time.
- Reboot when it tells you to!
- Be a bit patient for the restart. I reckon me doing a hard shutdown caused some issues.
- Probably a good idea to install the pending Windows Update before doing the install.
Subsequently, I have been setting up the WS08 box with the Vista themes etc. Maybe a different post on that. Overall, the process was good. I was very impressed with the rollback option!
This looks interesting. We just published a tool for to find SQL injection vulnerabilities in ASP code (not ASP.NET). Check http://support.microsoft.com/kb/954476 for more information. You can download from here
At the same time checkout http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/954462.mspx for some other tools like HP Srawlr and UrlScan.
I am trying to install Windows Server 08 and cannot as it says I must remove Windows Powershell. Looking through the add/removed programs list I could not find it. After some digging it turns out that you need to "show updates" and then remove Hotfix KB926139
TIP/WARNING - What sessions you choose at any conference ultimately decides the value of it and how satisfied you are. If you are attending TechED, or know someone who is, I highly encourage you to:
- think about what you want to get out of the event. Are you going to learn about new stuff or to gain practical knowledge on tools you are already using. Maybe, you want to get some insight into something you know nothing about. It is generally a bad idea to attend sessions on stuff you already know.
- do some research. Learn about the sessions and the speakers. We have some top notch speakers and I would often attend a session purely due to the speaker. For example, I would personally look to attend Rafal Lukawiecki's sessions. Yet many developers might not have heard of him and on first glance might decide the session would not be interesting.
- give us feedback.
On Friday and today, Eben and I spent some time - Oh wait, lots and lots of time - working on the TechED schedule from a developer's perspective. As content owners for developer, we clearly have the most difficult task compared to the other owners. We are responsible for around 50 sessions in 4 tracks, as well as ensuring that around 20+ sessions have a home in the other tracks. Overall we have direct or indirect responsibility for approximately 80 sessions. This excludes lunch sessions and chalk and talk sessions. These add another 10 to the list.
When we looked at TechED this year from a scheduling perspective, we viewed it in a couple of ways.
Firstly we viewed it from a level perspective. We wanted to check that in each slot, there were both intro and advanced sessions available.
Secondly, we looked the technology. We wanted to ensure that there was a good mix of sessions in each slot. We also try to get at least 4 sessions in every slot so there is choice available.
Ultimately we did not want to end up with a scenario whereby you have 3 intro sessions all focused on web development in the same timeslot. Furthermore, there are other factors to look into. We need to look at the speaker schedule and logistics. Some speakers want to arrive and leave at certain times so you need to schedule the sessions correctly. You also need to see if a speaker has back to back sessions or is presenting too much on one day. Furthermore, you need to look at the flow. This means you want to ensure that an Intro session generally occurs before an advanced session.Then we need to look at room allocations - and figure out which sessions will be more or less popular. Finally, we need to integrate into the full TechED schedule.
We think we are ok and I will post a draft soon - i.e once Eben sends it to me (we worked on his machine) and I format it properly.
You might also want to review this older post on TechED.