Sunday, March 30, 2008

LCS 2005 End point Issue

Recently I faced an issue in LCS 2005, the users were reporting that they are unable to login on LCS and getting Server not found issue. Some users were complaining that they are unable to send messages. After viewing events in server I found following error;

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Live Communications User Services
Event Category: (1006)
Event ID: 30903
Date: 3/30/2008
Time: 11:49:08 AM
User: N/A
Computer: XXXXX
Description:
The Endpoint expiration stored procedure failed. It will be retried, but if this error continues to occur, the Live Communications Server service will need to be restarted.
Error code: 0x80004005
Cause: Possible issues with backend database.
Resolution:
Ensure the backend is functioning correctly.
For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

after googling I found 1 KB article on this issue explaining the cause and fix of this issue
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/904951
As per MS KB "This problem occurs because of a deadlock condition on the back-end Microsoft SQL Server database. When there is a deadlock condition, SQL Server automatically selects one of the set presence calls as the deadlock victim"

I have checked my back-end SQL server and found some process in deadlock state. I have checked with my backup guy and found that there was an unscheduled backup running on LCS database at that time. I requested to stop this backup and tried to restart LCS services but it didn't work. Then I ran following command mentioned in the KB as a workaround of this issue.

OSQL.EXE -S local\<instance name> -d rtc -E -Q "exec sp_MSforeachtable 'dbcc dbreindex(''?'')'"

Apparently this command was succeeded and showing some messages. One of the messages was informing about a deadlock process and a returning transaction. After this I have restarted the LCS service and checked event viewer once again, but the problem remained same. Then I stopped the LCS service and then re-ran the above command which was succeeded without any issue. Then i restarted the LCS service and checked the event viewer and all were normal.

It seemed to have some indexing issues with the LCS database; I will further investigate on it and try to find out the core cause. Meanwhile I have already initiated a request to Microsoft for this hotfix.
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Wednesday, March 26, 2008

MSF V3.0 Templates

Today i was searching for MSF document templates which i was using in my previous projects, luckily i found them on following link http://207.46.19.190/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=9D2016AD-6F8A-47F5-84FA-BEC389DB18C1&displaylang=en

XP Service Pack 3 remains in testing

Microsoft releases a new test version of the Windows XP update, with final availability still slated for sometime in the first half of this year.

View Original Article

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Intel desktop quad chips arrive in tight supply

Intel mainstream quad-core desktop chips have been a long time in coming though supply is still tight.

View Original Article

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Sunday, March 2, 2008

Database Maintenance for MOSS

Bill Baer from Microsoft has recently released a white paper discussing Database Maintenance strategies specifically for MOSS. Must read for any MOSS or SQL DBA http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=111531&clcid=0x409

System Center Capacity Planner 2007

You can find Capacity planner for exchange and Sharepoint from following link;

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sccp/bb969059.aspx

capacity planner for MOM 2007 will be coming soon

MOSS Capacity Planning tool by Microsoft

Microsoft has finally launched its long awaiting Capacity planning tool for MOSS and other Microsoft Servers. I haven't got ample time to go through this tool but will definitely install it and will share my experience. For those of you who wants an early look on it, please download it from the following link http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=DBEE0227-D4F7-48F8-85F0-E71493B2FD87&displaylang=en

Visual Studio 2008 free Downloads for students

If you are a student and wants to develop applications by using visual studio 2008 for free then here is a way "Microsoft DreamSpark Professional Developer and Designer for students tools at no charge" at channel 8 you can find 4 Microsoft products totally free for students these products are
1. Microsoft Visual studio 2008 Professional Edition.
2. Microsoft Windows 2003 standard Edition.
3. Microsoft Expression Studio.
4. Microsoft Game Studio 2.0
But wait please read this from Microsoft before you go;
“We are kicking this off in 11 countries/regions, giving DreamSpark to millions of students in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, China, Germany, France, Finland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Belgium. If you are not residing in one of the countries listed keep checking back, we will be adding more countries throughout the year”
So if your country is not in the list then wait for your turn ;)
Following is the link
https://downloads.channel8.msdn.com/

MOSS - Storage Planning and Monitoring

Microsoft has released a new document for MOSS Storage Planning. The title of this document is "Performance Recommendations for Storage Planning and Monitoring". This document is intended for SQL DBAs and portal Architects who want to plan and monitor their MOSS SQL environment. This document has two sections namely planning and monitoring. A must read for any MOSS DBA. Following is the link http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=105623&clcid=0x409

Channel 8 - Portal for IT Students and Researchers

If you want yourself to get updated about Microsoft events or want to read about Microsoft research projects and articles or have fond of reading interviews of Microsoft chaps then this is the place for you. Channel 8 provides all of these in one place, a portal worth to watch for students and researchers.

Windows Server 2008 Reviewers Guide

For all of those peoples who need to know about windows 2008, its features and its offering, they can now benefit from this guide available on following link. http://download.microsoft.com/download/7/4/0/740ec042-5d5d-4f89-9fd2-8df554774ea4/Windows_Server_2008_Reviewers_Guide.doc

windows 2008 launched

Microsoft Flagship operating system is now finally launched. According to reviews and as per critics this version is like a quantum leap from its predecessors. The canvas of windows 2008 is so expanded that it deserves lots of blogs and reviews. As a startup one should need to see its official website for having a deeper look on its features and offering. The website is worth to watch and delivering a novel idea by depicting server as a robot and OS features as robotic functions. Check it out http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/serverunleashed/default.html