Code Eater (Wael A. Kabli) : SQL Server 2005

Doh!! Don’t install DC on SQL box

Wael A. Kabli — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 08:19:00 GMT

Ok I did this mistake in my VPC,

I tried to make my machine a domain controller (DC) ,

But the box already have a SQL Server installed,

The SQL stopped and if you try to uninstall, it gives you this error:

The setup has encountered an unexpected error while Setting Internal Properties. The error is: Fatal error during installation.

To solve this, there is a good link I found in MS support:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919945

SQL Server Hijri (Hijra) Dates

Wael A. Kabli — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 12:46:00 GMT

(Source: http://www.experts-exchange.com/Microsoft/Development/MS-SQL-Server/Q_21866389.html)

Hijri Date
The SQL Server datetime data type supports only Gregorian dates, but you can use a conversion function to convert the Gregorian date to the Hijri date based on the Kuwaiti algorithm.

Conversion to and from the Hijri calendar is possible through the CONVERT intrinsic. There are two CONVERT styles that are available in SQL Server 2000 to support Hijri dates:

130—Returns the date using the Hijri calendar, in dd mon yyyy hh:mi:ss:mmmAM format.
131—Returns the date using the Hijri calendar, in dd/mm/yy hh:mi:ss:mmmAM format.
For example, to convert a Gregorian date to Hijri format with Transact-SQL, you would use syntax such as the following:

SELECT CONVERT(nchar, GETDATE(), 131)

This query will return a string such as the following in its result set:

7/05/1421 12:14:35:727PM

The reverse operation is also possible. The following syntax would be used to convert a Hijri date to Gregorian format:

SELECT CONVERT(datetime, ' 7/05/1421 12:14:35:727PM', 131)

This query would convert the date to SQL Server datetime type, which in SQL Query Analyzer would appear as follows:

2000-08-07 12:14:35.727

Note that SQL Server does not use the regional calendar settings included with Windows 2000, and any adjustment made in that regional setting for the Hijri date does not affect the conversion method of SQL Server.

Also, SQL Server date functions such as DateName, DatePart, and DateAdd work with the Gregorian calendar, so you must make your conversions programmatically during development.

Best regards,
Mohammad Al-Mohsin
http://mem9.net | http://mem999.spaces.live.com

Microsoft SQL Server has a stronger security posture than the Oracle RDBMS!!

Wael A. Kabli — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 22:52:00 GMT

This was a nice white paper David Litchfield on November 2006 and he published it in the NGSSoftware Insight Security Research (NISR) Publication.

a copy of the white paper is on the follwing site: www.databasesecurity.com/dbsec/comparison.pdf

The article had a nice and non-biased points on each product...

Summary:

"paper will examine the differences between the security posture of Microsoft’s SQL Server and Oracle’s RDBMS based upon flaws reported by external security researchers and since fixed by the vendor in question. Only flaws affecting the database server software itself have been considered in compiling this data so issues that affect, for example, Oracle Application Server have not been included"

"if security robustness and a high degree of assurance are concerns when looking to purchase database server software – given these results one should not be

looking at Oracle as a serious contender."

This is a nice document, go throug it and maybe tell me about it...

thanks to my friend "Umit Tiric" who provided me with the white paper..

Weird Thing about Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition VHD!!

Wael A. Kabli — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 21:44:00 GMT

Ok,

I might be blind, but if you go and download the Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition VHD from this site:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=558F3ECE-6509-45E9-8D60-25175848A8B7&displaylang=en

you'll find an excellent VM to work on SQL Server 2005,,,

but the strange thing, YOU CAN'T FIND THE ADMINISTRATOR PASSWORD any where in the pag,,,

and oh, what makes it more fun, when one guy was asking about the password in one of the forums, the moderator told him that "we don't want to repeat stuff again, go to the downloading page and you'll find it"!!.

i don't know but if you go to the downlaod page and found the password by any chance, please print screen it and send it to me :)

anyways to solve this issue:

to find the administrator password for Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition VHD, go to this site:

http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/appliances/directory/651

The amazing thing is that, when you open the VM, you can see the README file actually on the desktop containing the username and password !!!!