Two users using the same same user profile while not in a domain.

I have a windows server 2003 acting as a terminal server, this computer is not a member of any domain. We demo our product on the server by creating a user account. The person logs in uses the demo for a few weeks and when they are done we delete the user account.

However every time we do this it creates a new folder in C:\Documents and Settings\. I know with domains you can have many users point at one profile and make it read only so all changes are dumped afterwords, but is there a way to do that when the machine is not on a domain? I would really like it if I didn't have to remote in and clean up the folders every time.

EDIT- I already have utility for scripting the cleanup, I just would rather have the extra folders not created if possible. It feels like the "correct" way of doing it.

From serverfault Scott Chamberlain

• I would use delprof.exe and set it as a system task. You can set it to a number of days that the profile is inactive and it will delete it for you. Read more here

  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315411

  Scott Chamberlain : That may be by backup choice if I can not get this to work. But What I would really like to know is can I make all users use one static single profile.
  From Nixphoe

• Why not use one Demo account or a set of demo accounts. Reset the password and profile instead of creating a new one.

  From discomurray

• Its called a "Mandatory Profile": http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307800

  Apply whatever settings you want to the profile, rename the .dat to .man, then, when creating accounts in future (or modify existing), set the "Profile" field in the accounts properties to that profile's directory.

  (The link above shows how to set this path)

  From Grizly

How do I set the password that contains quotation mark to a connection string in an ASP.NET application?

Hi,

How do I set the password that contains quotation mark to a connection string in an ASP.NET application?

Answer:

Password: This"Is"Password

In connection string: This""Is""Password

From serverfault

• Great resource for Connection Strings

  From Campo

• Encode it as a

        " 
  

  That's how " are encoded in XML.

  Let me know if it works :-)

  Here is a link.

  http://xml.silmaril.ie/authors/specials/

  From ggonsalv

Duplicate free/busy or full calendar information between two exchange servers

We have acquired a new entity with their own AD/Exchange environment. Until they fully join our domain, we need to sync their exchange calendars or minimally free/busy for users. All users in the acquisition have a new account in our organization.

We have considered a number of options including CalDAV, but nothing seems to meet our needs.

Even a client solutions to update the NEW server with the free/busy would be workable.

From serverfault Wayne Arthurton

• Would the Exchange Replication Service be suitable for you? Nice install\config guide. There's another guide with screen shots if you prefer

  From Ben Quick

IP KVM switch, or serial console box for remote admin?

We have a small server farm (11 now, may add more in the future) of HP Proliant DL160 G6s. They all run either Linux (server only, no X11) or VMware ESX. We had intended to get models with iLO, in case BIOS-level remote admin became an issue, but that didn't happen.

I had an IP KVM switch recommended to me (along with some sort of Remote Reboot hardware.) I've since realized that none of our machines need GUI administration, so perhaps a serial console switch would be a cheaper and more appropriate option. Something like this: http://www.kvm-switches-online.com/serimux-cs-32.html

Do you folks have an opinion on which way is a better choice? Should we go for the ease of setup (plug and go, instead of turning on the feature in the BIOS and making sure the serial settings are correct) and the flexibility of an IP KVM switch even with the extra cost? Or is a serial console switch just fine?

From serverfault Allan Anderson

• If an IP-KVM solution is in your budget, I'd go for that, particularly if you have the ability to remotely trigger power cycles and the like.

  Can I recommend getting the type that doesn't use thick KVM cables, but instead uses CAT-5 or the like? The big cables are a PITA to run and deal with, where as we're all pretty much used to CAT-5 by now.

  If you go that route, keep yourself sane by color-coding the cables so that your KVM lines don't resemble your network connections.

  Serial cables do work, but the ones I've used are susceptible to interference, plus the BIOS has to support redirect-to-serial (many do now, but there's always an outlier).

  Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams : They're all Linux, which means just spawning an instance of mingetty on ttyS0.

  Matt Simmons : Don't underestimate the power of remote bios administration. How else do you rebuild a RAID array remotely?

  Allan Anderson : Yes, these machines are all on RAIDs. From looking at HP's docs, I believe I can set redirect to serial in these machines' BIOS. Still, if we need to rebuild the RAID array, I guess we need to get into the room anyhow to reinstall the OS or hypervisor, eh? I know that this will be rarely used, but I'd like to make it as easy as possible for everyone in my group to use.

  Matt Simmons : grahzny: Yes, reinstalling an OS requires local access (except in the case of some remote access boxes), but there are lots of BIOS settings I've been grateful for being able to access without trudging into our colo

  Allan Anderson : Now something like this looks fancy! http://www.ami.com/products/product.cfm?CatID=4&SubID=32&prodid=196
  From Matt Simmons

• I would recommend IP-KVM, especially the better models with virtual media (which means you can connect a virtual CD drive which consists of an .iso file reachable over the network). If you also have remote power control, you can do absolutely everything remotely which doesn't require direct physical access to the server (replacing or adding parts), including the installation of a hypervisor.

  From SvenW

Building a Data Warehouse

I've seen tutorials articles and posts on how to build datawarehouses with star and snowflakes schemas, denormalization of OLTP databases fact and dimension tables and so on.

Also seen comments like:

Star schemas are for datamarts, at best. There is absolutely no way a true enterprise data warehouse could be represented in a star schema, or snowflake either.

I want to create a database that will server for reporting services and maybe (if that isn't enough) install analisys services and extract reports and data from cubes.

My question was : Is it really necesarry to redesign my current database and follow the star/snowflake schemas with fact and dimension tables ?

Thank you

From serverfault Paul

• It pretty much is, unless you dump the whole SQL side and build the repository in a Cube - in which case you MAY get away with an OLTP schema underlying the data.

  The main problem is that a non-star-schema approach simply puts a lot of burden on the server for analysis. That said, the idea to sue analysis services is terrific - they shine in this area. Just try whether you can directly load them from... the OLTP schema, possibly a snapshot of that.

  Paul : If you give me a good resource (tutorial) on how to build and make best use of OLAP you've got yourself a winning answer :)

  TomTom : Sorry, no online resource I know of. This is something requiring experience.
  From TomTom

• Another part of the rationale of the data warehouse is that any computations to massage or transform data are done prior to loading it into a particular schema so that much what is pulled from a data warehouse is "ready to use".

  From jl

• I'd recommend a good book on the subject: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Microsoft-Data-Warehouse-Toolkit-Intelligence/dp/0471267155/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272019644&sr=8-3

  Although it is targeted at 2005 (2008 version I think is in the pipeline) the general theory holds well, and the design and planning steps are almost platform independent anyway.

  Worth it's weight in gold if you are looking to get into DW :)

  From Meff

• There are few things I would look at before redesigning your database.

  1. I'm pretty sure that reporting services doesn't need a star/snowflake to do its work so you might see what you can build with your nomalized database.
  2. Try building views that denormalize your OLTP data. It will get you thinking about the design aspects that you will need if you do redesign your database.
  From CTKeane

esx backup usb disk

my server has a disk error, unfortunately RAID-0. So i am planning to boot it off CD (partedmagic) and copy the VMs to a USB disk. File system is VMFS (esxi4) once the damaged disk is replaced back could the data be restored back?

this server has two datastores this bad disk belongs to store-1. please suggest any better ways or tools. thanks in advance

From serverfault maruti

• RAID 0? groan

  The best mnemonic for RAID-0 is that it provides 0 protections against data loss. If your server had a disk error, I would be very, very surprised if you were able to recover any data.

  If your disk isn't completely dead, and you do manage to get data off of it, replace the failing drive and rebuild the array using RAID 1, which will take the two drives and mirror them, so that if one fails, you can rebuild it.

  Do you have any other forms of backup? I suspect you'll have to use them, or rebuild the entire thing from scratch. Next time, don't use RAID-0.

  maruti : RAID-1? pls suggest a less expensive option in terms of disk cost

  Holocryptic : +1 If you use RAID-0, expect to lose your data. It should not under any circumstance be used for important production equipment, unless you're a developer running builds. A pretty standard config would be RAID-1 for the OS volume (ESX) and RAID-5 or -10 for the volume holding the virtual machines.

  Holocryptic : Also, I don't see how RAID-1 would be more expensive than -0. You'd still be using 2 disks, and the ESX disk overhead is minimal.

  Matt Simmons : Less expensive in terms of disk cost? get another disk and use RAID-5.

  maruti : configure all as either RAID-0 or RAID-5? the server has 8 disks - 300GB 10K SAS...

  Matt Simmons : NOT RAID 0! RAID-5 gives the sum disk space of the entire array minus the space of one of the drives. Therefore, you'll have 2.1TB of usable space: (8 disks * 300GB) - one parity drive = 2100GB of space. If you want to be up on the "best practices", use RAID6, which provides 2 parity drives, but with only 300GB/drive, that shouldn't be necessary.

  maruti : thanks, so for people planning RAID choosing smaller capacity disks makes more sense than 3.5 inch large ones? i mean 2.5 inch 300GB Vs 3.5 inch 600GB.

  Matt Simmons : when it comes to that, it depends very much on the performance of the drive and the intended usage. Ask another question, and we can discuss it there
  From Matt Simmons

• RAID-0 aside, yes you can restore the data back, assuming you recover it from the bad disk. When you have your disk arrays set up again (in a hopefully more fault tolerant setup), you can copy the data files back over. It's just a matter of adding the VMs to the inventory through VSphere.

  maruti : thanks, any free tools which backup esx vm?

  Holocryptic : I don't know about free, but you can look at http://www.veeam.com/. I heard from other people that they're ok.
  From Holocryptic

Control which os is booted on multi-boot system

I am setting up a server with multiple operating systems for the automatic testruns of my company's product. I'd like to be able to control with a script which OS boots up after a restart, so I could say for example "after the windows run, boot into linux".

I thought of using the windows bootloader for all OSes, because it should be easy to just change the default entry in C:\boot.ini to whichever system I want to boot.

Is this a feasible way of doing this? Are there better options?

EDIT:
We already discussed virtualization, and it's not really an option.

From serverfault mooware

• In Vista/2008/7 there is no boot.ini; it's a Boot Configuration Database (BCD), and I don't think there are any linux tools for it yet (not sure).

  I might be a whole lot easier to setup virtual machines to do the testing in parallel.

  mooware : I already suggested virtualization like Xen, but these are mainly performance tests, so parallel runs are out of the question, and most of us are also opposed to running performance tests on virtual machines.

  sinping : bootcfg is the command you are looking for on the Windows side.

  Chris S : `bcdedit` is the program for editing the BCD, but that's not going to help Linux or any other OS. I'm thinking Moriarty is right on this one.
  From Chris S

• I would create a FAT16 /boot partition in Linux, and just use GRUB, it is more flexible and supports a lot more operating systems.

  Prof. Moriarty : And, as Chris S says, VMs may be a better choice.

  mooware : Sounds good, but how do I change the default OS from windows? Do I just have to change '/boot/grub/default'?

  Prof. Moriarty : You would just change the x in the line 'default x' in D:\grub\grub.conf to point to whatever entry you need. You would have /boot as D: in Windows.
  From Prof. Moriarty