An Insomniac Geek: Blog

Hyper-V freezes on my Asus P5K

insomniacgeek — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:15:32 GMT

I started to prepare my old desktop PC to become a development server running virtual servers on Microsoft Hyper-V.

Hardware Specifications

The hardware specification is as follows:

Motherboard: ASUS P5K

CPU: Intel Xeon X3210

Memory modules: 4x2 GB Kingston Value Ram DDR800

Hard disks: 1x120 GB Hitachi (boot), 1x120 GB Seagate, 1x Western Digital 640GB

Graphics: An old ATI GTO800

Installing Hyper-V Server

My first attempt was to install the free standalone Hyper-V Server 2008 R2.

Everything went smoothly until I connected remotely with my Windows 7 laptop and started to create virtual hard disks. The PC started to hard freeze. Ctrl+Alt+Del didn’t help, it totally locked itself.

Very frustrating. I did have some bad experience with memory modules before, so I suspected that this was a case of bad memory modules.

Downloaded Memtest86 v4.0 and let it ran for an hour. Nothing. Rock solid.

Since the problem happened during creation of the virtual hard disks, I started to suspect some I/O issue with the disks. Removed all but the boot drive and tried again. No. Hard lockups continued. Bad.

I started to run out of options now. The PC had been running Windows Vista 64bit and Windows 7 64bit rock solid, without a glitch. What on earth could cause the Hyper-V behave like this?

Installing Windows Server 2008 R2

Since the possibilities to troubleshoot is rather limited on Hyper-V Server, being console based, I decided to wipe my boot disk and install a full fledged Windows Server 2008 R2 with the Hyper-V role hoping that at least something in the event log could shed some light on the issue. Said and done.

It started good, I could create virtual hard disks and install operating systems without a glitch. I was happy.

I thought I had it going until I prepared remote management for the Hyper-V role, and connected to the server remotely….. bam! Hard freeze again.

This was not good at all. Re-booted, and tried to map a network drive from my laptop to the PC… bam! Hard freeze. Like on order.

Now I started to remember something… didn’t I actually had some network issues with the motherboard before? Indeed, sometimes the built in network card stopped working when I ran Windows Vista. A reboot didn’t always help, I was sometimes forced to do a full power cycle.

Enter the crappy Attensic L1 Ethernet controller

Reading the ASUS support forums I found out that there was a lot of people that had network issues with the built in Attensic L1 controller.

The joy of an Intel network card.

Ok, I had to find an alternative and went out and bought an Intel PRO/1000 GT Desktop Adapter, installed it, and disabled the on board Attensic controller.

Every since that moment, the PC has been rock solid. No freezes, no lockups.

Lesson learned: when it comes to network adapters, there is only one make that cuts it: Intel. Period.

How to open up the Windows firewall for SQL Server 2008 on Windows Server 2008 R2

insomniacgeek — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 09:10:40 GMT

After you have installed SQL Server, you might have noticed that the firewall will block access to it.

In order to remedy this, you will have to open 2 ports in the firewall.

TCP port 1433 for the actual SQL Server engine, and UDP port 1434 for the SQL Server Browser.

This could be done from the GUI, but I have found that it’s more convenient to do it from an elevated command prompt.

netsh firewall set portopening protocol=TCP port=1433 name = SQLPortEngine 
mode=ENABLE scope=SUBNET profile=CURRENT
netsh firewall set portopening protocol=UDP port=1434 name = SQLPortBrowser 
mode=ENABLE scope=SUBNET profile=CURRENT

Or follow the manual GUI steps in this MSDN article:

How to: Configure a Windows Firewall for Database Engine Access

SharePoint: How to select multiple default items in a choice field.

insomniacgeek — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:39:16 GMT

If you have a field in SharePoint that is setup as a choice field, and you want to have multiple default values, you can do the following:

Instead of selecting the Default option, select the Calculated Value and enter the items separated with semicolon and the hash sign.

Like this:

=";#Red;#Green;#Blue;#"

Does the Microsoft .NET Framework slow down your PC?

insomniacgeek — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 16:43:25 GMT

Background

I read in a bunch of discussion forums that installing the Microsoft .NET framework will slow down your PC. These claims often comes from different people that are from the ground up Microsoft bashers. They don’t backup their claims with facts, they often just say that:

- Of course installing the .NET framework will slow down your PC. The hard drive will be filled with some more data, the registry will be filled up with all kinds of “crap”. So, of course, your PC will be slower.

Well, for me, this triggers some thoughts from my side. For me, the Microsoft .NET Framework is exactly what the name suggests; a framework. By definition a framework is something that will help development of a software product.

One thing that must be clear is that Microsoft Windows is not dependant on the .NET Framework.

To determine if this is true I decided to do some benchmarking.

System setup

OS	Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Service Pack	3
Allocated memory	1024MB
Number of virtual processors	2
Host CPU	Intel T9600
Host Hard Drive	7200 rpm 2.5” HD
Host RAM Memory	6GB

Passmark

I ran the complete PassMark version 7.0 build 1008 on a clean Windows XP installation.

I ran the test 5 times and averaged the score.

After that, I ran the setup of the Microsoft Frame v3.5 SP1, using the web install from this link

The total number of MB was 53MB.

I ran the complete PassMark test again, 5 times and averaged the score.

As you can see, the result with the .NET Framework did actually score more points. However, I suspect that this is because some variations in the results and not because of the framework itself.

Disk space

On a clean installation, the total number of free bytes were 5,562,851,328 bytes.

After the .NET Framework was installed, the number of free bytes were 5,115,797,504 bytes.

That makes the total hard disk space allocated by the framework 447,053,824 bytes (447MB)

Now, some people may think that this is a lot, but given the sizes of software today, that is not much.

Registry size

To determine the registry size, I used the dureg.exe utility from the Windows 2000 Resource Toolkit. It turns out that the .NET Framework installation adds about 10MB to your registry. Let’s put that into perspective. On a somewhat normal Windows installation, the registry would typically occupy some 140 MB, and with the .NET Framework, the total would be 150MB.

Processes and allocated memory

On a clean install, the task manager reports the following information:

23 processes running, 96MB of RAM committed.'

Without .NET Framework	With .NET Framework 3.5 SP1

And after the framework is installed, the situation is the same, 23 processes, about the same committed memory.

Boot times

The boot times were measured using a stop watch. 5 boots were measured and the average was calculated.

I put a shortcut in the startup folder to a text file. I measured the time from the BIOS logo to the time when Notepad showed the text file.

Conclusion

It’s a complicated task to determine if the framework affects your PC performance. It' sure adds a mere 10MB to your registry and about 447MB to your hard disk, But the most important thing is that it doesn’t affect the actual performance. The passmark test show that the performance is not deteriorated. After this test I can safely conclude that the Microsoft .NET Framework doesn’t impact the performance of your PC. You can safely install the .NET framework without any worries.

Myth: The .NET Framework degrades performance. Busted.

Myth. The .NET Framework increases boot time: Busted.

Myth. The .NET Framework increases memory usage. Busted.

Myth: The .NET Framework increases the number of running processes: Busted.

Myth: The .NET Framework increases the Registry size: Confirmed. (By some mere 10MB)

Myth. The .NET Framework occupies hard disk space: Confirmed. (By about 447MB)

How to disable the MySite and MyLinks in SharePoint and MOSS

insomniacgeek — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 08:58:38 GMT

I was struggling with this problem, but I did found that Michael Van Cleave had the solution.

Here's the quote from his page:

Go to the Central Administration Web Page
Click on the link for Shared Services Administration
--If you have more than one SSP, select the one that is running the MySites functionality
Under "User Profiles and My Sites" click Personalization Services Permissions

Select the group you want to limit the functionality for. More than likely you will just have NTAuthority\Authenticated Users.

In the next screen you will see a list of checkboxes,
--To disable MySites uncheck "Create Personal Site"
--To disable MyLinks uncheck "Use Personal Features"

.NET naming Conventions

insomniacgeek — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 07:43:07 GMT

I found this great .NET Naming Convention guide from Josh Twist at The Joy Of Code.

Reading it, I decided to put it up here, since it is so great, and it's the naming convention that I follow myself.

using System;

// Namespaces are PascalCased
namespace TheJoyOfCode.NamingConventions
{
    // Class names are PascalCased
    public class ExampleClass
    {
        // All public fields, including constants are PascalCased
        public static const string PiAsAString = "3.14";

        // All private fields are camelCased with an underscore [1]
        private readonly string _privateMember;

        // All protected members are PascalCased
        protected int ProtectedField = 12;

        // All internal members are PascalCased
        internal int InternalField = 13;

        // All private methods are PascalCased
        // *** NOTE - All parameters are camelCased
        private double Multiply(double valueA, double valueB)
        {
            // local variables (scoped within a method) are camelCased (no underscore)
            double result = valueA * valueB;
            return result;
        }

        // All private Properties are PascalCased
        // *** NOTE - Acronyms of 2 characters are UPPERCASED (e.g. UI, IO)
        private string UIElementName { get; }

        // All (public and private) properties are PascalCased
        // *** NOTE - Acronyms longer than 2 characters are PascalCased (e.g. Html, Xml)
        public int HtmlLength { get; set; }

        // All public methods are PascalCased
        // *** NOTE - All parameters are camelCased
        // *** NOTE - Abbreviations are not treated as Acronyms (so _Id_entification is Id, not ID).
        private void AlignObjectById(string id, Alignment alignment)
        {
            throw new NotImplementedException();
        }

        // Nested classes are PascalCased, even Private ones
        private class NestedClass : IDisposable
        {
            public void Dispose()
            {
                throw new NotImplementedException();
            }
        }
    }

    // Enums are PascalCased and not plural (unless marked [Flags] in which case the name should be plural)
    public enum Alignment
    {
        // Enum members are PascalCased
        Top,
        Bottom,
        Left,
        Right,
    }
}

// [1] - Note the underscore isn't as recommended by StyleCop but since it applies only to private members, can be considered a matter of style and one that I personally use.

And, the last comment is also 100% on the spot;

...and as for #region blocks I do not use regions and I don't negotiate with terrorists either.

How to fix the The type Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.Analytics.UI.ReportViewerMessages does not implement IReportViewerMessages or could not be found error

insomniacgeek — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:02:04 GMT

The type Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.Analytics.UI.ReportViewerMessages, Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c does not implement IReportViewerMessages or could not be found

This nasty error message appeared when I published my Reporting Services local report to a custom Web Part.

I solved this be comment out the ReportViewerMessages line in appSettings section in the web.config

So far, I haven't seen any issues by commenting out this entry.

How to fix the Failed to load expression host assembly error in a SharePoint custom solution

insomniacgeek — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 11:27:17 GMT

I was writing a custom Reporting Services local report , placed in a SharePoint Web Part, and got this error:

Failed to load expression host assembly. Details: Could not load file or assembly 'expression_host_31f4d73d84764f4b9a7332f3673bdf0b, Version=10.8.30729.1, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null' or one of its dependencies. Failed to grant permission to execute. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80131418)

This was fixed by setting the ExecuteReportInCurrentAppDomain property like so:

reportViewer1.LocalReport.ExecuteReportInCurrentAppDomain(System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Evidence);

How to fix the The type specified in the TypeName property of ObjectDataSource '' could not be found error in a SharePoint custom solution

insomniacgeek — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 11:21:49 GMT

I was coding away happily developing a custom Reporting Services report for a SharePoint Web Part. The Web Part hosts a local Reporting Services report (.rdlc) and it's using an ObjectDataSource as the data source.

So in my code I have a data class with a select method, so my constructor looks like this:

ObjectDataSource ds = new ObjectDataSource("MyNameSpace.MyClass", "GetObjects");

However, when executing the report, I got this error:

The type specified in the TypeName property of ObjectDataSource '' could not be found

I had put my assembly in the SafeControl section in Web.config, and the assembly was in the GAC.

It turns out that it also needs to be referenced in the <assemlbies> list of the <compiliaton> section, like this:

<compilation batch="false" debug="false">
<assemblies>
<add assembly="MyAssembly, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=123456789ABCDEF" />
</assemblies>
......

And now it worked.

How to debug Potentially excessive number of SPRequest objects error message

insomniacgeek — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 08:19:34 GMT

You may have seen this error message in your SharePoint log file.

“Potentially excessive number of SPRequest objects (10) currently unreleased on thread 5. Ensure that this object or its parent (such as an SPWeb or SPSite) is being properly disposed. This object will not be automatically disposed.”

Now this means that you have some (custom) code in your SharePoint installation that doesn't dispose its memory allocation correctly. You have code that leak memory.

The error message in the log doesn't say much on where this memory leak happens, which makes it a little bit difficult to trouble shoot. However, there is a way to tell SharePoint to tell you more on where this happens by also writing out the stack trace in the log file.

Open RegEdit and browse to the

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\HeapSettings

key. Edit the SPRequestStackTrace DWORD Entry and set it to 1.

You will now geta full stack trace whenever this error message appears, which makes it so much easier to trouble shoot.