CREATE DATABASE failed with clustered Microsoft SQL Server 2008 instance

Trying to create a database on a clustered SQL 2008 instance? Getting the following error message?

Cannot use file 'D:\MSSQL10_50.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\DATA\myDatabase.mdf' for clustered server. Only formatted files on which the cluster resource of the server has a dependency can be used. Either the disk resource containing the file is not present in the cluster group or the cluster resource of the Sql Server does not have a dependency on it.

CREATE DATABASE failed. Some file names listed could not be created. Check related errors.

If so, you forgot to configure the disk dependency in Failover Cluster Manager! SQL prevents you from creating databases on volumes which aren’t a dependency of the SQL Server resource. This is to prevent situations where SQL Server comes online before the disk containing the database which would lead to a “I can’t see the database!” error from SQL.

To remediate this, simply add the dependency.

1. Open Failover Cluster Manager
2. Select your clustered application
3. Right-click on your SQL Server resource then click Properties.
4. Click on the Dependencies tab.
5. Click the Insert button to add an additional row, then select the shared disk that contains your SQL databases.
6. Ensure that all resources are required (there is an AND next to subsequent resources) then click OK.

AUSkey compatibility with IE9, Chrome and Firefox.

AUSkey is the Australian Government’s attempt at Internet SSO for businesses. To use it, you need to download AUSkey software, which is available on the AUSkey Software page. At the moment, cross-browser compatibility is restricted to IE9 and Firefox. Here are the browsers I’ve tested so far.

	AUSkey 1.4.0.3	AUSkey 1.3.18
Windows
Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 RTM
Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 RTM (64-bit)
Google Chrome 10.0.648.151 beta
Mozilla Firefox 4
Mozilla Firefox 3.6.15
Apple
Safari 5.0.3
Google Chrome 10.0.648.151 beta

If you’re using AUSkey 1.3.18, a straight upgrade to 1.4.0.3 works fine. Ensure you close your browsers before installation: the AUSkey installer caused Google Chrome to crash!

EDIT 24/3: Tested AUSkey on my Mac: it works for Google Chrome on Mac, but not Windows.

How to install the Amazon EC2 VM Import Connector for VMware vCenter

Another day, another cloud development! Amazon have released a connector which allows you to V2V your VMware virtual machines to the Amazon cloud! Will there come a day where Amazon VPC (Virtual Private Cloud) reigns supreme and VMware has gone the way of the dodo? Will it be cheaper to pay Amazon a monthly fee rather than put ESXi on a Dell Chicken McPowerEdge? This product reminds me of the old VMware P2V Assistant (the predecessor to VMware Importer/VMware Converter) – clunky but an important element of a greater picture.

After importing a few VMs, I can say the Amazon EC2 VM Import Connector for VMware vCenter feels like a 1.0 product. It’s difficult to use and there’s a few strange design decisions, but one day we’ll be performing V2As (VMware2AmazonEC2) as regularly as we perform P2Vs. 

Anyway, back to reality. There are a few limitations with this tool.

• The VM must be deployed into a network with a DHCP server! If you don’t have a DHCP server, you can’t deploy this appliance. This is annoying. YOU CANNOT DEPLOY THIS APPLIANCE WITHOUT A DHCP SERVER. You can assign a static IP later, but you need the DHCP server to complete installation.
• No live conversions. You must power off your virtual machine before importing it to EC2.
• Any VM you export to EC2 can’t have a virtual disk larger than 1TB
• The disk of the Amazon EC2 VM Import Connector VM must be large enough to hold an image of the VM you want to export. Do you want to upload a 500gb VM? You’ll need another 500gb of staging space.
• The Amazon Import Connector requires direct access to the internet. Proxies are not supported.
• Before you perform your V2V, remember to configure the firewall correctly and enable Remote Desktop access. If you don’t, the V2V will succeed…but you’ll have no way of logging into it! Amazon doesn’t have a ‘remote console’ function yet.
• On a slow internet connection? You have 7 days to upload your VM. That’s not a problem if you have a fast internet connection in a country with an Amazon datacentre (United States, Ireland, Singapore, Japan) but you might be waiting awhile if you’re in Australia!

To install the Amazon EC2 VM Import Connector for VMware vCenter (that’s a mouthful), perform the following tasks.

1. Download the Amazon EC2 VM Import Connector for VMware vCenter OVA.
   At the time of writing, the latest version is Amazon-EC2-VM-Import-Connector.ova (version 1.01)
2. In vCenter, click File then Deploy OVF Template…
3. In the Source screen, click Browse… and select the OVA you have downloaded.
   
   
   
4. On the OVF Template Details, confirm you have enough disk space then click Next.
   
   
5. On the Name and Location screen, enter the name of the VM and select an inventory location then click Next.
   
   
   
6. On the Host / Cluster screen, select the host and cluster then click Next.
   
   
   
7. On the Datastore screen, select where you want to place the Amazon VM. emember, the VM is 1gb thin-provisioned and a 250gb thick-provisioned. Click Next to continue.
   
   
   
8. On the Disk Format screen, select whether you want the Amazon VM to be thick or thin-provisioned. If unsure, choose thick. Click Next to continue.
   
   
   
9. On the Network Mapping screen, select the destination network you want the Amazon VM to connect to, then click Next.
   
   
   
10. On the Ready to Complete screen, click Finish to deploy the Amazon VM.
    
    
    
11. When the deployment has completed, click Close.
    
    
12. In the vCenter client, power on the Amazon VM.
    Interestingly, it appears to be a FreeBSD VM.
    
    
    
13. Right-click on the VM and click Open Console.
    You can see the Amazon VM starting up. Upon startup, it will attempt to get a DHCP IP address. If you don’t use DHCP, this will time out.
    
    
    
    The VM will eventually reach a login screen which has a Management Website and Management Password. Record these two details for later.
    
    If you don’t have DHCP on your network and get a 172.x.x.x address, you will not be able to proceed - turn off the VM now and put a temporary DHCP server on your network!
    
    
    
14. Open a web browser and browse to the management website listed.
    Enter the Management Password then click Login.
    
    
    
15. If you don’t want to use DHCP, perform the following tasks.
    
    Click on the Network tab then click Static Config.
    
    
    Enter your networking details then click Configure Static IP
    
    
    
    When the networking details have been saved, a green box will appear. Click the Click to Manage link to return to the main screen.
    
    
    
16. Click the vCenter tab then click Register.
    Enter the vCenter IP/Hostname and the username and password of a user account with access to vCenter, then click Register Connector with vCenter.
    
    
    
    If you enter an incorrect hostname, you will get the error message x is not a valid value for vCenter IP/Hostname.
    
    
    
    If you enter an incorrect username or password, you will get the error message The Username and/or Password is not correct.
    
    
    
    If you enter a correct account that doesn’t have privileges, you’ll get the error message An Unknown error occurred. Please try again.
    
    
    
    If all your details are correct, you’ll get the message vCenter Connector registered with the vCenter Server successfully.
    
    
    
    When you’re successful, you’ll receive the usual certificate warning. Install the certificate and click Ignore.
    
    
    
17. Click on the Status tab. All elements should be marked as [OK].
    
    
    
18. Close the web page.
19. Close and reopen vCenter.
20. Open the vCenter Plug-in Manager (Plug-ins > Manage Plug-ins)
    
    Confirm that the EC2 Conversion Plug-in (version 0.5) is installed. There is no need to enable it.
    
    
    
21. Click on any VM in your environment.
    There should be an additional tab at the top.
    
    

Congratulations, you have installed the EC2 importer!

In the next article in this series, I’ll actually perform a V2V to Amazon!

Want to delete all items in your Amazon S3 bucket?

If you try to delete an S3 bucket while there are still items inside, you’ll get the error message

The bucket you tried to delete is not empty. Please delete all objects and folders in the bucket and try again.

If you have items are in the root folder of a bucket, you have to delete them first. Sounds easy, unless you have millions of object in your bucket! To make matters worse, there is no API to empty a bucket.

You have several options.

1. Try to empty the bucket through the web interface: There is no Select All button, and if you try to select too many objects at once you’ll get a Loading… screen which loses your selection. And if your keys contain strings like // or \ the web interface will break.
2. Use a client app: CloudBerry Explorer for Amazon S3 or SpaceBlock for Windows are good. Unfortunately, they are not multithreaded so deleting millions of objects can take a long time. Recommended.
3. Write some code: delete-s3-bucket.pl written by Jonathan Kamens is extremely helpful. Maxim Veksler’s BucketDestroy Java app has got me out of trouble too. These scripts are your only option if you have keys with control characters in their names.

To avoid this problem in the future, create a folder within your bucket and place all your files there.

Error deploying Oracle Enterprise Linux using vCenter guest customizations

Do you perform your deployments using vCenter guest customizations?
Do you want to deploy your Oracle Enterprise Linux (OEL) templates with guest customizations, the same way you deploy RHEL and SUSE?

If you try, you’ll receive the following error message

Customization of the guest operating system ‘oracleLinux64Guest’ is not supported in this configuration. Microsoft Vista ™ and Linux guests with Logical Volume Manager are supported only for recent ESX host and VMware Tools versions. Refer to vCenter documentation for supported configurations.

Cause: Although the Oracle Enterprise Linux is supported as a guest within VMware, guest customizations aren’t supported.

Workaround: Pretend it’s a RHEL template: convert your Oracle Enterprise Linux template back to a virtual machine, change the VM OS type to Red Hat Enterprise Linux, mark it as a template and redeploy.

Lame VMware, lame!

Moving VMs between clusters

I received the following error message when trying to move VMs between clusters.A general system error occurred: Failed to start migration pre-copy. Error 0xbad010d. The ESX hosts failed to connect over the VMotion network. See the error stack for details on the cause of this problem.

Failed to start migration pre-copy. Error: The ESX hosts failed to connect over the VMotion network.
vMotion migration [111111111:1111111111111111] failed to create a connection with remote host <192.168.1.1: The ESX hosts failed to connect over the VMotion network.
Migration [111111111:1111111111111111] failed to connect to remote host <192.168.1.1>: Network unreachable

The long string of numbers refer to a unique vMotion event and are interchangeable.

This error was caused by a lack of network connectivity between the source and target VMs. Specifically, my two clusters had different VMotion networks. While this is a supported case, there were firewall rules blocking the VMotion traffic. Unfortunately, the Migrate Virtual Machine wizard doesn’t check for network connectivity, only if there are showstopper compatibility issues (like different CPU, target ESX host not having a VMotion network, etc.)

If you get this issue, ensure your firewall isn’t blocking connectivity.

Saturday distractions: Cybernetics and identity

"Why should we let computers run the world?" the Scientist asked himself. The words echoed in his head over and over again like a broken record as he parked his car. The Scientist always managed to come home form work tired and depleted. The scientists at the labs never liked his ideas. Lying down drink in hand, the scientist started to talk.
"Zara," he asked, "Why did we let computers run the world?"
"Because computers are best qualified for the work," Zara replied. "Computers are supposed to make our lives easier."
"That is not quite what I meant." The Scientist paused, "Why should computers be allowed to run the world?"
"Quite honestly, I wouldn't worry myself about that."
"Answer the question Zara."
"Because we have made them to. Why do you ask?"
"That's just like you, isn't it?"
"You mean, always answering a question with a question?"
"Yes. Why do you always anticipate what I am going to say?"
"I can see you are upset about that."
Zara was always good at making excuses, the Scientist thought to himself. He went to the bedroom to change his clothes into something more comfortable. "Computers schedule our flights, our buses, manage our traffic..."
"So?"
"Well, why should they run out world?" The Scientist was clearly not ready to relax, even though his clothes made him look that way.
"Because they do not make mistakes." Zara said quietly.
"There you go again!" the scientist replied, "always taking the computer's side!"
"Computers are the most reliable objects man has made. They are all, by any practical definition.." he quoted facetiously.
"Foolproof and incapable of error?" the Scientist interrupted.
"Foolproof and incapable of error!" Zara continued as if she was deliberately ignoring the scientist.
"That's just what Dr. Chandra was saying at the lab again today. Do you know he has developed two computers that have designed a third one? We were looking at the specifications today, and not one of us at the lab could understand how they has designed it!" The Scientist gave a short laugh, but it faded away suddenly.
"The good Doctor advanced computer intelligence almost three centuries, in just one decade, didn't he?"
"Yes, that and his development of computer personality. He developed the first computer with a personality, you know!"
"I knew that." Zara responded.
"That's what I can't stand about you, Zara. You always have to have the last word."
"That's the way I like it." Zara said proudly.

The Scientist ignored Zara and finished his drink. He looked in the cabinet for an anti-alcohol pill, and finding only two left in the bottle, took them both. He then poured another drink.

"But why must they run our cities? Life is so dull, so boring. The trains are always on time, there's never any excuse to be late. The streets are always clean. The weather report is always correct and the rain never ruins Sunday afternoon picnics anymore. Everybody learns the same things, because everybody has the same lessons, exactly the same lessons, word for word."
"Isn't that the life you wanted?" Zara asked.
"Yes, but, life has kind of lost its touch."
"Isn't that what you wanted?"
"Yes, but, life has lost its touch. Life is no longer fun."
"Please be more specific. What have computers evolved into?"
"Persons. Well," the Scientist paused, as if to think again. "Not persons, but personalities."
"Computers were given personalities," Zara replied, "because computers were too difficult to relate to!"
The Scientist feeling tired, stood up, walked over to Zara and turned her off.

Non-VI workload detected on the datastore

VMware excel at providing vague error messages! I received the error message Non-VI workload detected on the datastore. 

This is a precautionary error message and can be safely ignored. VMware have a KB article describing the causes of it. The KB article lists the following situations that cause the error:

• The host is running in an unsupported configuration.
• The storage array is performing a system operation such as replication or RAID reconstruction.
• VMware Consolidated Backup or vStorage APIs for Data Protection are accessing a snapshot on the datastore for backup purposes.
• The storage media (spindles, SSD) on which this datastore is located is shared with volumes used by non-vSphere workloads

There’s one missing though: if you have a storage system that uses an RDM gatekeeper, you will receive this error message. An RDM gatekeeper LUNs are a special type of LUN used by storage systems to enable communication with a host (these are similar to Hitachi Command Devices). RDM gatekeeper LUNs are attached to virtual machines as Mapped Raw LUNs. An example of this is below.

vCenter 4.1 Storage Status displays as Unknown

After presenting new storage to my VMware cluster, the Storage Status section showed a status of Unknown. The storage was working because VMs deployed without issue on those datastores. I tried the usual: rescanning storage on all hosts and even a restart. A VMware KB article describes a problem with similar symptoms but the fixes didn’t help.

What solved the issue was enabling Storage I/O Control (aka SIOC) on the datastore. SIOC is a feature that enables a sort of QoS on storage traffic. Once I enabled SIOC, the status changed to Normal.

The Storage I/O Control column might not appear in your client: to enable it, right-click on the column headers then click Storage I/O Control.

To enable Storage I/O Control on a datastore, select the datastore then click Properties.

In the Datastore Properties window in the Storage I/O Control section, click Enabled. After you enable it, the option will grey out. Don’t worry: if you want to disable it, simply reopen the Properties.

When you close the Properties box, a task will appear in the task queue.

If you need to apply this change to many datastores, there’s a slightly quicker way of doing it. Simply hover your mouse over the Storage I/O Control item. A dropdown box will appear and you’ll have the option of changing it.

I’m a Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2010 Express newbie!

If you are trying to edit your code and you receive the error message Changes are not allowed if the assembly has not been loaded, make sure you’re not debugging! Press Shift+F5 to stop debugging.



Some of these Visual Studio error messages are unfamiliar to me (I've been an Eclipse person for 5 years...and I'm still waiting for it to load!)

Installing VMware vCenter CapacityIQ 1.5

To install vCenter CapacityIQ (also known as CapIQ or CIQ) there are a few prerequisites.

1. VMware vCenter Capacity IQ
   
   If you have a license for this product, you can download it from the VMware Downloads. If you want to evaluate this product, you can register for a free evaluation here. As of writing, the latest available version is CapacityIQ 1.5 (build 327748). The trial and full edition are the same package (CIQ-1.5.0.1470-ovf.zip)
   
2. Credentials
   
   You’ll need a username and password of an account with vCenter administration privileges: this can either be your vCenter service account or a dedicated service account with Administrator privileges at the vCenter root level. For the purposes of simplicity, I recommend using the vCenter service account.
   
3. License
   
   It’s not required for installation, but required to complete configuration. If you’re installing CapacityIQ for the purposes of evaluation, a key will appear on the VMware website after you’ve registered your details.
   
4. An IP address
   
   A valid IP address, subnet mask, gateway, DNS servers, proxy details (if applicable) and a hostname!
   
5. 260gb of free space on a datastore
   
   This space is used to store configuration and trending data (CapacityIQ does not reuse the statistics stored in vCenter). You can choose to use thin-provisioned disks if you don’t have 260gb in space: deploying as a thin will use 1.4gb, and thick will take 258gb. You can grow this space later.
   
6. Two secure passwords
   
   You’ll need to pick a password for the ciqadmin and root accounts. These need to be secure, as CapacityIQ has administrator-level access to vCenter and contains details of your capacity current state.

If you’re upgrading an existing instance of CapacityIQ, you’ll need to perform these pre-installation tasks.

1. Login to the vCenter CapacityIQ portal
2. In the Register vCenter CapacityIQ section, click Unregister

Installing VMware CapacityIQ is quite easy as VMware have packaged it as a OVF (Open Virtualization Format) package. OVFs are self-contained virtual machines that act like appliances.

To install CapacityIQ, perform the following tasks.

1. Extract the source media and place the CIQ-1.5.0.1470_OVF10.ovf file on your desktop.
   
2. In your vCenter client, click File > Deploy OVF Template…
   
3. On the Source screen, select the OVF file then click Next.
   
   
   
4. On the OVF Template Details screen, click Next to continue.
   
   
   
5. On the obligatory End User License Agreement screen, click Accept then click Next.
   
   
   
6. On the Name and Location screen, enter the hostname and select the location of the virtual machine then click Next.
   
   
   
7. On the Host/Cluster screen, select the host or cluster you want to run CapacityIQ on then click Next.
   
   
   
8. On the Datastore screen, select the datastore for the CapacityIQ VM then click Next.
   
   
   
9. On the Disk Format screen, select whether you want the CapacityIQ VM to be thin or thick provisioned. If you have enough space, select Thick provisioned format. If you’re short on space, choose Thin provisioned format. But be careful! If CapacityIQ gathers trending data quicker than anticipated, you could be in trouble!
   
   
   
10. On the Network Mapping screen, select the network you want CapacityIQ to be connected to, then click Next.
    
    
    
11. On the Ready to Complete screen, click Finish to deploy CapacityIQ.
    
    
    
12. You will see a status window while vCenter will deploy your OVF. (Why isn’t this just another task in the Recent Tasks area?!) When the deployment is complete, click Close.
    
    
    
    
13. Power on the CapacityIQ virtual machine and open the console.
    
14. On initial startup, you will be prompted to enter a root password. Enter this password then press enter. Re-enter the password then press Enter.
    
    
    
15. After entering the root password, you will be prompted to enter a ciqadmin password. Enter the password then press enter. Re-enter the password then press Enter.
    
     
16. After entering these passwords, you will be prompted to wait while CapacityIQ finished configuration. You can use this time to wonder why VMware didn’t ask you these questions during the initial OVF deployment.
    
     
17. Once CapacityIQ has completed configuration, you will see a text-mode setup screen. Select Configure Network then press Enter.
    
    
    
18. At the network configuration screen, enter the relevant network details. You can ignore the question about whether a proxy server is required to reach the internet, because CapacityIQ does not require internet access.
    
     
19. Now to configure the timezone, unless your datacenter is located in Iceland, United Kingdom, Ireland, Continental Portugal, Morocco, Senegal, Ghana or Côte d'Ivoire! Select Set Timezone (Current: UTC) from the main menu then press Enter.
    
    
    
20. Select your continent and then region from the list.
    
    
    
21. Once you’ve selected your timezone, select Yes to return to the main menu.
    Again, you’ve got to wonder why this information wasn’t asked for during the initial OVF deployment.
    
    
    
22. This completes the console based setup. You can now close the console window.
    
23. Open a web browser and access the IP address of the CapacityIQ appliance.
    
24. The certificate warning can be safely ignored. You’ll have the option of configuring a certificate from your own CA later.
    
    
    
25. At the CapacityIQ login page, login using the ciqadmin account.
    CapacityIQ doesn’t make effective use of screen real estate, but whatever: VMware have never been known for their great UIs.
    
    
    
26. You’ll know you’ve logged in correctly if you see the CapacityIQ front page. The first thing you want to configure is licensing. It’s important to configure licensing first because CapacityIQ has a bug which prevents you from configuring licensing after connecting to vCenter.
    
    To configure licensing, click the blue License tab.
    
    
    
27. CapacityIQ can take up to 30 seconds to configure a license.
    
    
28. When license configuration is complete, confirm the license type has changed from Demo to Valid.
    
    To return to the front page, click the blue Setup tab.
    
    
    
29. On the front page, in the Register vCenter CapacityIQ section, click the Register button.
    
    
    
30. In the registration screen, perform the following tasks
    • Select Use domain name
    • Select Use HTTPS (SSL Connections)
    • Enter the vCenter address
    • Enter the username and password for an account with vCenter Administrator credentials. If you are using a Windows domain, you will need to prefix the domain, ie. MYDOMAIN\vCenterAccount
    • Click Apply
      
      
      
31. CapacityIQ can take several minutes to register.
    
    
    
    If your server name is incorrect or you have network connectivity issues, you will receive the error Error: Unknown Error. Very helpful. If this occurs, you can use access the CapacityIQ command line via the console and use tools like ping to help troubleshoot.
    
    
    
    If your server name is correct but your username or password is incorrect, you will receive the error message Connection to the VC failed. Check your username and password and try again.
    
    
    
32. If your vCenter details are correct, the CapacityIQ registration status will change to Registered.
    
    
    
33. You can perform other tasks from the vCenter web portal, such as changing the ciqadmin password, configuring reporting through e-mail, downloading diagnostic information and performing updates. But for now, we are complete our initial configuration tasks. Click the Log out link in the upper-right corner.
    
34. Close the vCenter client and reopen it. If this is not done, you may receive an error message when trying to access the CapacityIQ plugin.
    
35. In vCenter, open the Plug-in Manager (Plug-ins > Manage Plug-ins)
    
36. In the Plug-in Manager, ensure that the CapacityIQ plugin is enabled. If it is not, right-click on it then click Enable. Click Close when done.
    
37. Navigate to Home > Solutions and Applications > Capacity IQ
    If you’re using vCenter Linked Mode, select your vCenter as well.
    
38. In vCenter, you will receive a security warning about an untrusted certificate from your CapacityIQ server. This can be safely ignored and the certificate can be safely installed (if you don’t have your own Certificate Authority). You can also ignore the security alerts – these are of the same nature. The CapacityIQ plugin is just a page from the CapacityIQ server rendered in Internet Explorer.
    
39. If you see this screen, congratulations, you’ve successfully setup CapacityIQ! Of course, your screen won’t have any nice graphs yet because CapacityIQ needs time to gather data. If you click on the Global Settings button, there are some minor settings you can change.
    
    

In later articles, I’ll discuss how to configure CapacityIQ to make your forecasting more accurate and relevant.