22 April 2011 0 Comments

Illustration of Coded UI Test playback failure – "Search may have failed at ControlX as it may have virtualized children …"

In one of my earlier blogs here , I had explained the some search failure scenario and how to go about tackling the problem. As a continuation to that, I’m providing a simple application scenario and the solution here.   My test scenario is to click on a tree item “Sub Item #1” for a simple WPF app as shown in the snapshot below:     Open a Coded UI Test project, and record a click on the “Sub Item #1” Tree Item

1 April 2011 0 Comments

Writing bytes to the wire

  As a tester in .NET (more specifically, WCF), every now and then, I end up defining a test requirement that isn’t possible to cover with simply using our WCF product code.   For example, in 4.0, I wanted to test hitting a service with an Http request that contained an invalid host header

11 March 2011 0 Comments

Danish schools use the web in exams

Last week I wrote about the call for more examinations to use IT – to more closely follow the style of learning and working today. At the back of my mind was the fact that in some Scandinavian countries this has been happening – and I’ve finally found the info

22 February 2011 0 Comments

Handling "An unexpected error occurred: Server operation did not finish within user specified timeout ’90′ seconds.." with CSUPLOAD in Windows Azure VM Role

When you try to upload a VHD using CSUPLOAD tool, it is possible you may receive the following error:   “An unexpected error occurred: Server operation did not finish within user specified timeout ’90′ seconds, check if operation is valid or try increasing the timeout.”     Here are a few suggestions to solve this problem:   [1] Please try again later time with the same command that was used before and it is possible the CSUPLOAD recognized the previously uploaded blob, and committed the VHD immediately. This will take a few minutes and your VHD will be ready to use

10 February 2011 0 Comments

DBG] Access Violation in IE [frame pointer error]

IE 에서 발생한 아주 간단한 AV dump 입니다 . 0:019> .lastevent Last event: 594.7bc: Access violation – code c0000005 (first/second chance not available) debugger time: Wed Feb   9 16:39:51.673 2011 (UTC + 9:00)   0:019> r eax=00000000 ebx=02fc2718 ecx=00000101 edx=ffffffff esi=00000000 edi=00000000 eip= 02de5300 esp=0301ffb8 ebp=0301ffec iopl=0          nv up ei pl zr na pe nc cs=001b   ss=0023   ds=0023   es=0023   fs=0038   gs=0000              efl=00000246 02de5300 ??

1 February 2011 0 Comments

Women In Technology: “Geekette” Eileen Brown: From Merchant Sea Woman to Social Media Guru by Genevieve L’Esperance MSP

Eileen is a real hero for women in technology. Her story, like so many others, begins anywhere but in a classroom in computer science. She’s one of many high profile ladies who got their introduction to technology in the most unexpected way.

29 January 2011 0 Comments

Microsoft recognized by Gartner as a Leader in Business Intelligence based on “Ability to Execute” and “Completion of Vision”

We are pleased to see Microsoft acknowledged by Gartner as a Leader in the Business Intelligence Platforms Magic Quadrant. [1]   I am happy to see this type of affirmation in our approach and strength of our technologies from Gartner. The high level of satisfaction of our current Microsoft Business Intelligence customers highlighted is especially gratifying.

24 January 2011 1 Comment

谁用掉了我的数据库空间?

随着硬件能力的升级,以及软件应用的扩展,现在的数据库是越来越大了。回想 10 年前,一个上百 GB 的数据库就会把支持工程师吓得要命。而现在,上 TB 的数据库真是比比皆是。   DBA 遇到的一个常见问题,就是如何监视数据空间的增长情况,或者在数据库用满的时候,能够迅速定位谁是罪魁祸首。 了解一个数据库空间使用的最简单方法,就是在 Management Studio 里,右键点击数据库名字,选择 ”Reports” – “Standard Reports” ,缺省就有 4 个 Disk Usage 的报表。它们能很好地统计出了从不同角度分析的数据库空间使用情况。        但是在一个非常繁忙的生产环境里,随随便便地跑 UI 的报表总是有点头皮发麻。而且有些详细的信息,报表上可能没有。所以许多 DBA 更喜欢用命令来查询。 SP_Spaceused 是个大名鼎鼎的指令。可惜的是,它的结果太笼统,也不精确。作者就从来不用它。   本文将介绍几个常用的指令,能够迅速检查数据空间的使用情况,并比较它们的区别和不同。   SQL Server 的数据库文件分两种:数据文件,主要是放数据的;日志文件,主要是放置事务纪录,帮助 SQL Server 维护事务的一致性。两类文件都有可能增长到很大。而且在空间耗尽的时候, SQL Server 在这个数据库上的操作都有可能会失败。所以首先 DBA 要确定的,是到底哪一类文件使用量不正常。   检查文件空间的方法不止一种,这里推荐一种又快又准的方法: 同时运行下面两条命令。   Use < 数据库 > Go dbcc showfilestats go dbcc sqlperf(logspace) go   “dbcc showfilestats” 命令会以 Extent 为单位,统计当前数据库下所有数据文件里有多少个 Extent ,其中有多少个被使用过了。一个 Extent 是 64K 。乘一下,就能得到每个文件的使用情况。       这个命令直接从系统分配页面上面读取区分配信息,能够快速准确地计算出一个数据库数据文件区的总数和已使用过的区的数目,而系统分配页上的信息永远是实时更新的,所以这种统计方法比较准确可靠。在服务器负载很高的情况下也能安全执行,不会增加额外系统负担。所以看数据库数据文件级的使用情况,它是个比较好的选择。   “ dbcc sqlperf(logspace)” 命令的输出非常浅显易懂。它返回 SQL 里所有数据库的日志文件当前使用量。这个命令的输出也非常快速准确,使用安全。       通过这两个命令,你应该能定位是日志文件用得太多,还是数据文件用得太多了吧。日志文件为什么用那么多,是个很热门的话题。我们的 Blog 会另有讨论。 Tempdb 的使用和一般用户数据库的使用也不同,我们的 Blog 也会另有讨论。这里我们就只讨论用户数据库数据文件的使用。   如果发现是数据库文件用得太多,很自然地,就要去找是哪张表现在长得那么大?下面这个查询可以很容易地回答你的问题。   Use < 数据库 > Go SELECT o.name ,                                   SUM (p.reserved_page_count) as reserved_page_count,                                   SUM (p.used_page_count) as used_page_count,                                   SUM (                                                 CASE                                                                 WHEN (p.index_id < 2) THEN (p.in_row_data_page_count + p.lob_used_page_count + p.row_overflow_used_page_count)                                                                 ELSE p.lob_used_page_count + p.row_overflow_used_page_count                                                 END                                                 ) as DataPages,                                   SUM (                                                 CASE                                                                 WHEN (p.index_id < 2) THEN row_count                                                                 ELSE 0                                                 END                                                 ) as rowCounts                 FROM sys.dm_db_partition_stats p inner join sys.objects o                 on p.object_id = o.object_id                 group by o.name go       输出结果的第一列是每个表的名字。 SQL Server 在使用数据页的时候,为了提高速度,会先把一些页面一次预留 ”reserve” 给表格,然后真正有数据插入的时候,再使用。所以这里有两列, Reserved_page_count 和 Used_page_count 。两列的结果相差一般不会很多。所以粗略来讲, Reserved_page_count*8K ,就是这张表格占用的空间大小。 DataPages 是这张表数据本身占有的空间。因此,( Used_page_count – DataPages )就是索引所占有的空间。索引的个数越多,需要的空间也会越多。   RowCounts ,是现在这个表里有多少行数据。   通过这些信息, DBA 可以掌握数据库的使用情况。   还有一个方法可以精确地统计出某张表格的空间使用量,那就是 DBCC SHOWCONTIG (或者直接查询系统管理视图 sys.dm_db_index_physical_stats )。它可以说是最精确的方法,可以告诉你某张表(或索引)用了多少页面,多少区,甚至页面上的平均数据量。从这些值可以算出一张表格占用了多少空间。然而,得到这些精确的数据也是要付出代价的。 SQL Server 从整体性能的角度出发,不可能一直维护这样底层的统计信息。为了完成这个命令, SQL Server 必须要对数据库进行扫描。所以说,这种方式虽然精确,但是在数据库处于工作高峰时,还是需要避免使用。   总之,一共有五种常见的分析数据文件存储空间的方法。下面的表格里比较了它们的优缺点和使用特点。 命令 精确单位 性能影响 准确性 dbcc showfilestats Extent 无 基本准确 Sp_spaceused Page 无 有时不准确 Sp_spaceused + updateusage Page 稍有 基本准确 sys.dm_db_partition_stats Page 无 有时不准确 Dbcc showcontig Page/Extent 有 准确   如果管理者只需要看数据文件的整体使用情况, dbcc showfilestats 是比较好的选择。如果要看每个对象的空间使用情况,可以使用动态管理视图 sys.dm_db_partition_stats 。如果还想了解每个 page ,每个 extent 的使用情况、碎片程度,那 Dbcc showcontig 是比较好的选择。

11 January 2011 0 Comments

Finding out the Thread which is actually handling the WCF request for the HttpContext

In the recent past, the PSSCOR2 debugger extension was made public. This debugger extension contains a very useful command called !aspxpages which shows you information about various asp.net requests running in the dump, the time they have been executing and the thread associated with the System.Web.HttpContext.

7 January 2011 0 Comments

Lo Nuevo: Personalización y Extensibilidad

Personalización y Extensibilidad La experiencia de los usuarios puede ser personalizada de diferentes maneras. Muchas de estas personalizaciones pueden ser hechas mediante configuración y no requieren desarrollo de código de programación

2 January 2011 0 Comments

FTP Adapter Enhancements in BizTalk Server 2010 : Video Tutorial

I have just finished creating and uploading a video that demonstrates the new features introduced in the FTP adapter in BizTalk Server 2010. Here are some related links: The video tutorial is available at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=208084

20 December 2010 0 Comments

Diacritics, accents, tashkeel

So what are diacritics anyway? Diacritic is a mark typically used in combination with another character