Passed this exam on 5/25. It rained heavily all day.

Books for this exam arent really out yet, even from Microsoft. Theres a new book that came out l’ll immediately recommend to anyone – its very concise, real-world practise sections and scenarios – SQL Server 2008 Administration: Real-World Skills for MCITP Certification and Beyond (Exams 70-432 and 70-450) by Tom Carpenter. I googled last week for any book and came up with this one, and l immediately bought this from amazon.com. This arrived the weekend before my scheduled exam, and l read the entire book that weekend, did all the practical excercises, highlighted all the core points etc. for my review sheet.  Heres a link to Tom Carptenter’s blog. Other material l used was the CBTNuggets Video Course. This is very very good. I also used for the 2nd time -  practise exam software from Kaplan. Had installed for my review daily on my bus commute their Selftest software. This comes with practise tests, review notes etc.

Obviously l cant go into what the questions asked were, but my advice is – make sure you cover all new features provided with SQL Server 2008, and most admin stuff like database performance optimization, high availability etc. Download trial SQL Server 2008 [developer version] from Microsoft’s website and have at least 2 instances installed for your personal practise. If you attend any Microsoft launch event. they usually give away a licensed copy of SQL Server Standard edition. You dont need to install SQL Server 2008 R2, but it doesnt hurt to get familiar with that version.

Good luck!

Setup steps involved in code and pictures:

1) Create a SQL login account to use for this.

USE [master]
GO
CREATE LOGIN [dwlogin] WITH PASSWORD=N’xxxxxx’,
DEFAULT_DATABASE=[master],
CHECK_EXPIRATION=OFF, CHECK_POLICY=OFF
GO

2)

• right click on data collection under your database instance/management group
• select configure management data warehouse
• next
• create a management data warehouse
• click on new
• enter a name for the data collection database, accept defauly options
• next
• select dwlogin, nt authority\system, nt service\sqlserveragent and assign role mdw_admin
• next
• finish

right click on data collection, configure management data warehouse, setup data collection

click next, then click finish

You will notice under sql agent -> jobs – that some Data collection related jobs eg collectionset_3_upload have been created for you.

You can access reports by going to:

Datacollection -> reports -> management data warehouse ->

• server activity history
• disk usage summary
• query statistics history

SQL Server 2008 R2 adds a new option for bringing Microsoft Server virtualization concepts to database servers – its called Utility information. Click here for a demo video explaining this.

Management -> Data collection -> Start data collection set  – gives the below error. I’ll update this blog on resolving this.

TITLE: Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Collector
——————————

Unable to start collection set Utility Information.

For help, click: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink?ProdName=Microsoft+SQL+Server&ProdVer=10.50.1447.4+((KJ_RTM).100213-0103+)&LinkId=20476

——————————
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

An exception occurred while executing a Transact-SQL statement or batch. (Microsoft.SqlServer.ConnectionInfo)

——————————

Caught error#: 14693, Level: 16, State: 1, in Procedure: sp_syscollector_start_collection_set, Line: 108, with Message: A collection set cannot start without a schedule. Specify a schedule for the collection set. (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 14684)

For help, click: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink?ProdName=Microsoft+SQL+Server&ProdVer=10.50.1352&EvtSrc=MSSQLServer&EvtID=14684&LinkId=20476

——————————
BUTTONS:

OK
——————————

• Application server role, web server IIS Role
• SQL Server 2008 native client
• Microsoft “Geneva” framework runtime
• Microsoft Chart Controls for Microsoft Framework 3.5
• Microsoft Filter Pack 2.0
• SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services ADOCMD.NET

I attempted to install this on a development Windows 2008 R2 server, which already had SQL Server 2008 R2 installed. Out of the list below, l only needed to pre-install the Geneva framework runtime, MS chart control and ADOMD.net SQL 2008 Analysis services – even though l had SSAS installed as a SQL Server 2008 component.

Will post pictures later.

To install, you download the 575Mb Office2010 beta executable from Microsoft’s Sharepoint Website.

Running this, you first select – install software prerequities to deal with above.  A reboot is required. The you select install sharepoint server.

Source for the Beta Product key – click here.

Since l would be using a separate SQL Server instalation – not sql server express, l did not select standalone. Then l selected complete installation, and changed my install paths to Drive D not Drive C – which l always reserve soley for OS installations only. Next, you select run the sharepoint configuration wizard. Click close. Select yes to restart necessary services. I selected Create a new server farm.

You’ll keep getting “Windows NT User or group ‘MyDomain\MyUser’ not found. Check the name again. Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 15401″

Here is a link to the solution that worked.

• you need an account – get one from sql.azure.com - it takes some time for your access information to arrive by email.
• download the sample database using link above
• extract/unzip to a known location
• make sure you add your home/work/workstation actual external facing ip address to the firewall settings
• wait for 5-10 mins for your ip address to be accepted by the azure online firewall system
• run the script commands below

See commands/reference pictures below:

Server Name:        serverx        serverx.database.windows.net
Administrator Username:     userx
Server Location:     South Central US
db name: ankh

cd dw
buildawdwaz.cmd tcp:serverx.database.windows.net userx@serverx passwordx

cd lt
buildawltaz.cmd tcp:serverx.database.windows.net userx@serverx passwordx

Interesting quotes/definitions:

“Would you tell me please, which way I ought to go from here?” asked Alice.

“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.

“I don’t much care where,” said Alice.

“Then, it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

- Lewis Carroll

Planning ahead is a good idea. It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.

- Anonymous

He who has not first laid his foundations may be able with great ability to lay them afterwards, but they will be laid with trouble to the architect and danger to the building.

The Prince

- Niccolò Machiavelli

Business intelligence is the delivery of accurate, useful information to the appropriate decision makers within the necessary timeframe to support effective decision making.

Data mining uses a complex mathematical algorithm to sift through detail data to identify patterns, correlations, and clustering within the data.

Online analytical processing (OLAP) systems enable users to quickly and easily retrieve information from data, usually in a data mart, for analysis. OLAP systems present data using measures, dimensions, hierarchies, and cubes.

To view the detailed logs in SSMS 2008:

Drill down on
Management -> data collection -> query statistics -> view logs

====== Error Messages Below=====

Event
Data Code

Message
SSIS error. Component name: DFT – Upload collection snapshot, Code: -1073450974, Subcomponent: SSIS.Pipeline, Description: SSIS Error Code DTS_E_PROCESSINPUTFAILED. The ProcessInput method on component “ODS – Upload snapshots into active_sessions_and_requests table” (2686) failed with error code 0xC0209029 while processing input “OLE DB Destination Input” (2699). The identified component returned an error from the ProcessInput method. The error is specific to the component, but the error is fatal and will cause the Data Flow task to stop running. There may be error messages posted before this with more information about the failure.
.
============================

Message
SSIS Error Code DTS_E_OLEDBERROR. An OLE DB error has occurred. Error code: 0×80004005.
An OLE DB record is available. Source: “Microsoft SQL Server Native Client 10.0″ Hresult: 0×80004005 Description: “Invalid character value for cast specification”.
An OLE DB record is available. Source: “Microsoft SQL Server Native Client 10.0″ Hresult: 0×80004005 Description: “Invalid character value for cast specification”.
An OLE DB record is available. Source: “Microsoft SQL Server Native Client 10.0″ Hresult: 0×80004005 Description: “Invalid character value for cast specification”.
An OLE DB record is available. Source: “Microsoft SQL Server Native Client 10.0″ Hresult: 0×80004005 Description: “Invalid character value for cast specification”.
An OLE DB record is available. Source: “Microsoft SQL Server Native Client 10.0″ Hresult: 0×80004005 Description: “Invalid character value for cast specification”.

==========

Event OnError
Data Code -1071607780

Message
There was an error with input column “collection_time” (2778) on input “OLE DB Destination Input” (2699). The column status returned was: “Conversion failed because the data value overflowed the specified type.”.

==============

Package Execution ID
Event OnError
Data Code -1071607767

Message
SSIS Error Code DTS_E_INDUCEDTRANSFORMFAILUREONERROR. The “input “OLE DB Destination Input” (2699)” failed because error code 0xC020907A occurred, and the error row disposition on “input “OLE DB Destination Input” (2699)” specifies failure on error. An error occurred on the specified object of the specified component. There may be error messages posted before this with more information about the failure.

================

Package Execution ID
Event OnError
Data Code -1073450974

Message
SSIS Error Code DTS_E_PROCESSINPUTFAILED. The ProcessInput method on component “ODS – Upload snapshots into active_sessions_and_requests table” (2686) failed with error code 0xC0209029 while processing input “OLE DB Destination Input” (2699). The identified component returned an error from the ProcessInput method. The error is specific to the component, but the error is fatal and will cause the Data Flow task to stop running. There may be error messages posted before this with more information about the failure.

Read the article on this link.

Solution above essentially worked for me, l changed my retries to 4 from 2 and re-ran the job. It ran okay. Still investigating this in depth.

EXEC sp_configure
GO
–Instance level principals.
SELECT * FROM sys.asymmetric_keys
SELECT * FROM sys.certificates
SELECT * FROM sys.credentials
SELECT * FROM sys.linked_logins
SELECT * FROM sys.remote_logins
SELECT * FROM sys.server_principals
SELECT * FROM sys.server_role_members
SELECT * FROM sys.sql_logins
SELECT * FROM sys.endpoints
GO

–Database level principals.
SELECT * FROM sys.database_principals
SELECT * FROM sys.database_role_members
GO
ALTER LOGIN sa WITH NAME = hiddenSaAccount
GO
–Check your user execution context
SELECT SUSER_SNAME(), USER_NAME()
GO
–View the list of objects in the database
SELECT * FROM sys.objects
GO
–Change user context
EXECUTE AS USER = ‘AnotherUserName’
GO
–Return to your login
REVERT
GO
–explore database files
select * from AdventureWorks.sys.database_files
select * from master.sys.database_files
select * from msdb.sys.database_files
select * from tempdb.sys.database_files
–explore endpoints
select * from sys.endpoints
select * from sys.tcp_endpoints
select * from sys.http_endpoints
select * from sys.database_mirroring_endpoints
select * from sys.service_broker_endpoints

–Security

SELECT * FROM sys.symmetric_keys
GO

SELECT * FROM sys.certificates
GO