eTrust Realtime Monitor does not start on Windows Server 2003

Once you installed eTrust Agent on Windows Server 2003 be careful in session management.

Following scenarion takes place:
1. Administrator starts first terminal session to the box and sees the eTrust Realtime Monitor started normally.
2. Administrator disconnects (no logout!) the session.
3. Administrator starts another TS or performs logon on the console: Realtime Monitor doesn't start.

While eTrust runs in background and still protects the machine, there's no notification icon in systray neither possibility to start the updates manually, to open eTrust console etc.

Solution: logout all the connected sessions and restart eTrust Realtime Monitor manually ß it worked for me.

Enjoy!

Two of most popular problems with handmade XML

Sooner or later everybody tries to master his/her own XML files using notepad. And sooner or later one gets troubles with it:

1. XmlSerializer reports on Deserialize():

"http://abcde.efg/blabla" was not expected here

Assure the case in the path - xmlns attribute value is case sensitive: http://abcde.efg is not the same as http://Abcde.efg

2. Trying to open a "handmade" XML file in Internet Explorer

Invalid character in content. Error on processing the resource file:///filename

Most popular cause: create XML with notepad and save a ANSI. Once there's a special character in the content (like german Umlaute or french accents) - you'll be notified with the error message above.

The cure: open the file and save as UTF-8.
Check also MS KB

Enjoy!

Generation of designer file failed: The method or operation is not implemented.

Working with AJAX and ReportViewer controls with VS2008 in an Web Application, we've got suddenly a problem: the designer file for a WebForm won't update.
The error in VS error pane sounds:

Generation of designer file failed: The method or operation is not implemented.

After a numerous tries and web searches the workaround is:
1. Delete designer file.
2. Restart VS and reopen the project (important step!).
3. Open a context menu on a victim page (.aspx) and select "Convert to Web Application"

The designer file with correct entries appears immediately.

Enjoy!

Timer in managed Windows Service

Writing a managed Windows service be careful trying to implement any timer functionality: Timers from Forms namespace won't work - mostly

Use System.Threading.Timer instead.
A couple things to know:
1. Use the Timer constructor wisely:

public Timer(
   TimerCallback callback, // create a private void method with only stateInfo
                           // argument (the method signature is essential)
   Object state,           // can be null if you do not plan to use a sync object
   int dueTime,            // delay before first timer event gets fired
   int period              // timer event interval - what else
)

2. Use Change method to Stop/Restart the timer:

public bool Change(
   int dueTime, // set Timeout.Infinite to stop the timer or smth else to continue
   int period   // see above
)

3. Do not forget to Dispose() the timer when it is no more required

Enjoy!

BizTalk 2009 configuration error 0x80070002 deploying Microsoft.BizTalk.GlobalPropertySchemas.dll

Seen this week: installing BizTalk 2009 x64 on two machines farm (one SQL 2008 SP1 and the second BizTalk 2009) - both Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise - we encountered permanent error configuring BizTalk group:

[INFO] WMI Deploying 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft BizTalk Server 2009\Microsoft.BizTalk.GlobalPropertySchemas.dll'
[WARN] AdminLib GetBTSMessage: hrErr=80070002; Msg=File not found

The cause of the error is DTC: you have to configure DTC on BOTH the SQL and BT boxes according the BizTalk installation guide.
What more to check:
- SQL server protocols enabled? (TCP/IP, Named Pipies)
- Firewall rules on BOTH machines should enable SQL connection
- DTC rules must be enabled on BOTH nachines.

Once we checked and implemented the requirements above - the BT group was installed in minutes.

Enjoy!