Featured Article(s)
Sharepoint Installation
First of a multipart series covering both new installations of WSS 3/MOSS 2007 and also upgrade paths from WSS 2 to either of the above versions
Featured Video:
Understanding Indexes and Index Fragmentation
How to look at your indexes, how to understand them and how to apply them. We’ll look into fragmentation and how you can determine whether an index needs to be rebuilt. We’ll look at the options you have available to you for maintaining your indexes as well.
Last Days To Register
Today’s the last day to register for Chris Shaw’s deep-dive SQL Server workshop tomorrow. "SQL Server 911" brings you what you really need to know – and you can ask questions, see examples, hear about all of the options and what to do if a restore fails. Great information.
– [ Register Here ]
– The workshop is Tuesday (tomorrow) starting at 9:00a Pacific.
SSWUG.ORG Virtual Conference
120+ Sessions, 9 new LIVE sessions and talks and much more. All about SQL Server, Business Intelligence, .NET Development and SharePoint. The conference brings you the best of the best content – how-to information, tips, examples and a whole lot more. The conference starts Weds. – make sure you get registered right away! Chris and I will be debating the 20 best scripts, performance tips and things to know about SQL Server – all live, along with live Q&A sessions each day.
– [ Register Here ]
– The vConference begins Wednesday and continues through Friday.
Port-Jumping Software – SQL Server and Others
I don’t know if you’ve seen this yet, but there is a trend in software that is causing great heart-ache "in the wild." The trend I’ve seen is the act of "jumping ports" in software. Some software refers to it as using dynamic ports (SQL Server) and some only tell you after you’ve spent incredible amounts of time searching and even using port sniffers to see what’s happening.
Needless to say, this wreaks havoc on your firewalls and/or protection steps you’ve taken. I’ve been reading more and more about SQL Server’s "initial connection is port 1433, then a dynamic port may be selected" especially in cases of multiple SQL Server instances on the box. I’ve also seen this personally with other applications, including one that drove me bonkers – Google Talk. I started wanted to allow it. Then I quickly moved to wanting to block it. Both were significant challenges.
In Google’s case, they talk about being firewall friendly and jumping around trying desperately to make a connection. Sure, great. But if I’m trying to either provide for, or prevent access to, the service, I’m pretty much toast without a long afternoon of watching packets and keep an eye on host names AND IP addresses as they shift around. Block one, watch it work it and try yet another. It was lovely.
What got me (re)started on all of this was this post talking about this issue with SQL Server. Indeed. I think these applications (and many, many others) are confusing being "helpful" with being a rather large pain. There needs to be an assumption of control, not an assumption of "connect at all costs" – or at least give me the option. Google just does it. They just keep trying until they figure out there’s no connection to be made. No configuration option (that I could find, nor others online in the many locations talking about it) to change connection protocols or approaches.
At least with SQL Server you have some controls, but I still say "boo" to the initial act of walking ports without an indication you’re doing so. Perhaps another option for the "Facets" of SQL Server can be whether it’s allowed to do this in the future? (Think surface area configuration in 2005).
Featured White Paper(s)
Practice Safe SQL Server Version Control
This paper describes the problem of version control and change management for the database itself.While it’s obvious for any … (read more)