Everyday Adventures

I was recently doing some testing with the new SQL Server 2005 v2.0 JDBC driver and couldn’t get the code to run. Now, as anybody who does Java development in a text editor like myself knows, it is pretty easy to get the wrong CLASSPATH going if you occasionally...

Ever have one of those “I want to kick myself” when you realize something you had been putting off investigating would have saved you a bunch of time?  I did just the other day. In my role, I am often trying to get SPNs configured properly for SQL...

I recently ran into a surprising limitation in Reporting Services. I say surprising because I honesty didn’t know it was a limitation, not because I am surprised at the limitation. It also turns out that this limitation is unfortunately not documented...

Well, it finally happened – Component Checker 2.0 was finally posted on Microsoft.com. I don’t know that the actual functionality is earth shattering, but it is nice to finally see it out there. “What is Component Checker?” and “Why should I care it was...

We had a dump where we got a .NET OutofMemory exception. The ASP.NET folks looked at the dump and saw a large number of rooted TDS objects. I wasn't sure where those were coming from, so pulled up the dump to evaluate this. 0:033> !dumpheap -stat ...

One of the Support Engineers on my team approached me the other day and asked if the SQL Server 2005 JDBC driver we ship works out of the box with XA transactions on Windows 7.  I am embarrassed to say that I did not know the answer off the top of...

With the recent public CTP of Azure, there has been a lot of confusion (both internally and externally) about what each service is supposed to do. Here’s my summary of some internal conversations along that line: Name Description ...

OK, so I always said that I would never use my blog for a rant, but I have finally reached my limit after seeing a number of the attempts on retailers to get me to spend my money during this downturn. Since when has BOGO (Buy One, Get One) become BOGO...

I work in CSS for Microsoft. My team supports almost everything related to SQL Server that is not internal to core Engine functionality. That means we own things like SSIS, SSRS, ADO, ADO.NET. Personally, I specialize in JDBC and SSRS. Oh yeah – due to...

I ran into an odd behavior the other day with SSRS 2008.  I was troubleshooting a Reporting Services 2008 issue where the authentication was not properly configured, so the customer would get three login prompts and then a blank screen. Now, anyone...