9^th to 13^th September, join the MVP community

in London for a ‘real world’ look at the Microsoft Cloud OS

Hi all, I’m Tristan Scott, a program manager on the Remote Desktop Virtualization team with some exciting news for decreasing the storage cost of Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) using Windows Server 2012 R2.

The File Server team just posted two great blogs on the value of live data deduplication for VDI (Extending Data Deduplication to New Workloads in Windows Server 2012 R2) and how to deploy it (Deploying Data Deduplication for VDI Storage in Windows Server 2012 R2).  As you can see, storing your personal virtual desktop collections on a Windows Server 2012 R2 file server just got A LOT cheaper, and in some cases, faster as well!  Coordinating downtime to turn off your virtual machines and deduplicating your virtual hard disks (VHDs) is a thing of the past, as now “live” VDI files can be deduplicated, meaning your VHDs can be deduplicated even while they are running.

To preempt a few follow-up questions you might have:

• The personal virtual desktop collection is the mainline scenario here, but if you have a session collection running as virtual machines, you should get similar benefits (both often have upwards of 90% duplicative content across the VHDs).
• User profile disks are now another great candidate for deduplication (often upwards of 50% duplicative content across the VHDs).
• Yes, Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) caching will continue to work on your file servers configured with data deduplication. At any given point in time your VDI file servers will contain some content that has been deduplicated and some that has not (i.e. new or modified content); the system cache will handle caching of files that have been deduplicated, and the CSV cache will handle everything else.

So if you haven’t done so already, now is the time to deploy a scale out file server cluster with Data Deduplication enabled by using the Windows Server 2012 R2 Preview.

I recently had an interesting discussion with Giles Daniel, Giles is from Visual Studio UK Team @VisualStudioUK. The discussion was about group based projects and how academics and students could use technology to assist them in this task.

This post describes the changes that we’ve made to .NET Framework documentation for the .NET Framework 4.5.1. It was written by Cheryl Simmons, who works on the .NET Framework documentation team.

In the recent preview release of the .NET Framework 4.5.1, we changed the way we update the documentation for the .NET Framework, refreshed the content to support the release, and made additional feedback-driven updates and fixes. This post describes the changes.

Structural changes and markup

We’ve tried something new for this release of the .NET Framework. You will see in-place updates and additions to the .NET Framework 4.5 docs for version 4.5.1 instead of a new doc set for 4.5.1. We’re hoping this helps with discoverability and search.

In recent usability studies, we noticed that folks would land on an older version of the docs due to the idiosyncrasies of search engines and not realize it. Hopefully, by NOT creating another version of the docs, we’ll see less of this happening in the future.

To make 4.5.1 content discoverable, we added markup to the existing 4.5 docs to indicate items that apply to the .NET Framework 4.5.1.

You’ll see an example of this in the What's New in the .NET Framework 4.5 topic, which contains a mix of 4.5 and 4.5.1 content. If you’ve looked at this topic before, please check it out again. Based on feedback on our first doc release, we made the 4.5.1 content easier to find by adding additional 4.5.1 headings.

You will see updates to the Version section of APIs that were added for 4.5.1 when it releases, but until then you will see the following note at the top of new API pages and conceptual topics that discuss the new 4.5.1 features:

[This topic is preliminary and is subject to change.]

Also, note that the table of contents on MSDN contains an entry for the .NET Framework 4.5, and not 4.5.1. This is a result of our choice to combine the documentation for the two releases.

Topic changes for .NET 4.5.1

Here’s a sampling of updates we made for the .NET Framework 4.5.1 Preview:

Installation/troubleshooting: The installation and troubleshooting topics have been updated with links and information for 4.5.1, and we restructured the content so it’s easier to follow.

Automatic binding redirection: We added How to: Enable and Disable Automatic Binding Redirection, and we reworked an existing topic on binding redirection: Redirecting Assembly Versions.

API additions: .NET Framework 4.5.1 doesn’t have a lot of new APIs, but you might want to check out the GCSettings.LargeObjectHeapCompactionMode property, which enables large object heap compaction, and the WriteEventWithRelatedActivityId and WriteEventWithRelatedActivityIdCore methods, which were added to the EventSource class to provide better diagnostics for server and cloud apps.

.NET Framework NuGet packages: You can read about the current direction of the .NET Framework in The .NET Framework and Out-of-Band Releases.

Updates and customer feedback-driven changes

The following updates are not related to the 4.5.1 release, but still might be of interest:

Framework Design Guidelines: We updated the guidelines for designing .NET Framework class libraries with excerpts from the 2^nd edition of  Framework Design Guidelines: Conventions, Idioms, and Patterns for Reusable .NET Libraries. This definitive  resource for software architects and developers was written by Krzysztof Cwalina and Brad Abrams, who were founding members of the .NET Framework team at Microsoft. The 2^nd edition was published on October 22, 2008 by Addison-Wesley Professional, and is excerpted with permission from Pearson Education, Inc.

Passing a URI to the Windows Runtime: We updated this topic and added a code example, based on customer feedback.

Reflection in the .NET Framework for Windows Store Apps: The code example was updated based on customer feedback.

Feedback is always welcome

We refresh the .NET Framework docs every three weeks, and we do so based on your feedback.

When you view any of our MSDN topics, please take the time to scroll to the bottom of the page to express your satisfaction or dissatisfaction, and leave a comment. Look for “Did you find this helpful” and select either “Yes” or “No”. A comment box will appear, in which you can provide actionable feedback.  We’ll do our best to act on your feedback and continue to improve our docs.

This is the default view:

A comment box appears after you click on either “Yes” or “No”.

Your hands-on guide to Entity Framework fundamentals

Expand your expertise—and teach yourself the fundamentals of the Microsoft ADO.NET Entity Framework 5. If you have previous programming experience but are new to the Entity Framework, this tutorial delivers the step-by-step guidance and coding exercises you need to master core topics and techniques.

Discover how to:

•Access data in a managed way—using minimal code

•Apply three workflows supported by the Entity Framework

•Perform essential tasks with full automation in place

•Manipulate data with both LINQ and Entity SQL

•Create examples that rely on Table-Valued Functions

•Determine the remedies for Entity-specific exceptions

•Explore the use of optimistic and pessimistic concurrency

•Define mappings between your applications and data sources

Author:

John Paul Mueller is a technical editor and freelance author who has written on topics ranging from database management to heads-down programming, from networking to artificial intelligence. He is the author of Start Here!™ Learn Microsoft Visual C#® 2010.

Have a look at this new TechNet Wiki article which describes ideas to crawl secure non-SharePoint web sites: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/18577.sharepoint-2013-crawl-non-sharepoint-iis-web-sites-and-capture-user-acls.aspx

SharePoint 2013: Crawl [non-SharePoint] IIS Web Sites and capture user ACLs

Table of Contents

• Use case
• Problem
• Solutions
• Primary recommendation (A) (The letters A,B,C are to signify priority in choosing options)
• Alternative Option 1 (C)
• Alternative Option 2 (C)
• Option (B)
• Option (B)
• Option (C)
• Unsuccessful Option 2

Use case

Crawl [non-SharePoint] IIS web sites and ensure the search results will only display pages that the user has permission to see.

Problem

The crawl is performed as a super user with access to all pages. Therefore, users are able to see all pages in the search results.

Solutions

Primary recommendation (A) (The letters A,B,C are to signify priority in choosing options)

The primary recommendation is to migrate the secure sites to SharePoint 2013. There are many advantages to this approach. The two primary benefits are: 1) SharePoint automatically provides crawl security; 2) SharePoint provides a platform for users to contribute and share content.

Alternative Option 1 (C)

One option is to crawl the sites several times with separate content sources. Then, attach a custom "security" field/value to the document at crawl time. Use that value to create several search centers that use scopes. This may not be too difficult to manage if there are only several security levels. But, it definitely feels like a hack.

Alternative Option 2 (C)

Implement a BCS custom connector to crawl the remote source and add ACLs via BCS. This solution would crawl the sites and access each page multiple times based on a list of credentials. The determined ACL list would then be added to the document for indexing. With SharePoint 2010 the ACLs must map to Active Directory users and groups. For SharePoint 2013 the ACLs could be Claims and map to the SharePoint user via a mapping other than Active Directory.

SP2013 Specific Solutions

Option (B)

Leverage the SharePoint 2013 post security trimmer API to implement a query time post security trimmer. The API provides access to the urls that should be considered for trimming and provides access to the user’s identity.  

Ref: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee819930.aspx#Implementing_the_interfaces

SP2010 Specific Solutions

Option (B)

Upgrade the search farm to SharePoint 2013. This option will enable a business to implement SharePoint 2013 post security trimmer option.

Option (C)

Engage Microsoft MCS or a Microsoft Partner to identify another creative solution. 

Unsuccessful Option 1

Post security trimming does not work with FAST Search for SharePoint 2010.

Unsuccessful Option 2

The custom security added specifically for Documentum will not solve the stated Use Case.

Just a quick FYI that Dan put it on his blog today: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/descapa/archive/2013/08/07/onenote-2013-com-api-xml-schema-onenote-2013-xsd.aspx

If you write any applications that you think might be useful to others, let me know and I can link to them or post them here.

Now, back to testing OneNote.

Questions, comments, concerns and criticisms always welcome,
John

MSMQ fails to install on Windows Server 2008 R2, and the following error is returned:

Application Event Logs show the following:

Log Name:      Setup
Source:        Microsoft-Windows-ServerManager
Date:          mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss AM/PM
Event ID:      1616
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:     
User:          Domain\User
Computer:      ComputerName
Description:
Installation failed. 

Features: 

Message Queuing

   Error: Attempt to install Message Queuing Server failed with error code 0x80070643.  Fatal error during installation 
   The following features were not installed:
   Message Queuing Services
      Message Queuing Server 

CBS(C:/Windows/Logs/CBS) logs show the following:

2013-07-25 10:48:43, Error                 CBS    Failed to perform operation.  [HRESULT = 0x80070643 - ERROR_INSTALL_FAILURE]
2013-07-25 10:48:43, Info                  CBS    Session: 30312782_1807246208 finalized. Reboot required: no [HRESULT = 0x80070643 - ERROR_INSTALL_FAILURE]
2013-07-25 10:48:43, Info                  CBS    Session: 30312782_1890862208 initialized by client RMT.
2013-07-25 10:48:43, Info                  CBS    Session: 30312782_1892890208 initialized by client WindowsUpdateAgent.
2013-07-25 10:48:43, Info                  CBS    Appl: DetectUpdate, Package: Microsoft-Windows-IIS-WebServer-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.1.7601.17514, Local Parent: IIS-WebServerRole, Intended State: Installed
2013-07-25 10:48:43, Info                  CBS    Appl: Evaluating applicability block(detectUpdate part), disposition is: Staged, applicability: Applicable, result applicability state: Installed
2013-07-25 10:48:43, Info                  CBS    Appl: Package: Microsoft-Windows-IIS-WebServer-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.1.7601.17514, Update: IIS-WebServer, Applicable: Applicable, Disposition: Installed
2013-07-25 10:48:43, Info                  CBS    Appl: DetectUpdate, Package: Microsoft-Windows-IIS-WebServer-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.1.7601.17514, Local Parent: IIS-WebServer, Intended State: Installed
2013-07-25 10:48:43, Info                  CBS    Appl: Evaluating applicability block(detectUpdate part) 

Cause

This issue may occur if the user permissions are inadequate for the installation. MSMQ service runs under the Network Service account. During installation if we are unable to start the service then the installation rolls back. The Network Service account permission is restricted and hence the service does not start up and thus rolls back the installation.

Resolution:

Add the Network Service Account to the Local Administrator group on the machine.

You may also try the following:

1. Give permission to Authenticated Users on ‘C:\Windows\System 32’ and ‘C: \Windows\debug’ folder.

2. Disable all antivirus software’s.

3. Make sure UAC is turned off.

a.       Go to Control panel and click User Accounts

b.       Select User Accounts and click Turn User Account Control on/off

c.       Un-check the check box beside User Account Control

d.       Close the User Account Window, reboot the computer and try to install Microsoft Message Queuing (MSMQ) again

Note: Make sure to turn User Account Control back ON when the issue is resolved.

5. If you are using a debug build of the OS, try using the free/retail build (Refer: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff543450(VS.85).aspx to see the difference between debug and free build of the OS)

Written by:
Kshitij Dattani

Reviewed by:
Jainath Ramanathan

Microsoft India
GTSC

Posted By Partha Srinivasan
Product Manager, Windows Embedded Server and SQL Products

The following is the fourth in a series of posts on Windows Server 2012 for Embedded Systems.

As indicated in the previous blogs, customers of Embedded OEMs can now start testing the new Windows Server 2012 R2 for Embedded Systems (binary identical to Windows Server 2012 R2) that provides improved performance, hybrid cloud-service capabilities and innovative storage options for building robust, industry-class server appliances. Today, I am going to focus on some of the advantages the new product offers in terms of high availability, recovery and storage management features.

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2 entity relationship diagrams (ERD) are now available. ERDs are useful to AX developers when they need to customize a given application module such as accounts payable or general ledger. Many of the ERDs that are provided are designed to capture the core tables of each module and to include some major tables from other related modules. The AXErd website contains hundreds of inter-linked support .htm files designed to assist the partner developer who need to extend the ERDs that AXErd provides.

Click here to access

Today, the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) posted details about the August security updates.

If you have automatic updating turned on, most of these updates will download and install on their own. Sometimes you may need to provide input for Windows Update during an installation. In this case, you'll see an alert in the notification area at the far right of the taskbar—be sure to click it.

In Windows 8, Windows will turn on automatic updating during setup unless you choose to turn it off. To check this setting and turn on automatic updating, open the Search charm, enter Turn automatic updating on or off, and tap or click Settings to find it. 

For other versions of Windows, you can check whether automatic updating is turned on through the Microsoft Update website. This will open Windows Update in Control Panel; if automatic updating is not turned on, you'll be guided through the steps to set it up. After that, all the latest security and performance improvements will be installed on your PC quickly and reliably.

If you are a technical professional

The Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification Service offers details about security updates approximately three business days before they are released. We do this to enable customers (especially IT professionals) to plan for effective deployment of security updates.

Sign up for security notifications

Visual Studio ALM MVP Jeff Bramwell has released an app titled Kids Eat 4 Less!  Kids Eat 4 Less! shows you restaurants within a selected range (in miles) from your current location that offer free or discounted kids’ meals, relying on crowdsourcing to continuously add new restaurant deals.  Once you’ve found a restaurant, the app also links to your phone’s map application for driving directions, and lets you pin your favorite restaurant to your Start screen for easy access.  The non-expiring trial version is ad-supported or you can purchase a full version without ads. 

Jeff was inspired to create this app for anyone who wants to save money when taking their children out to eat.  He also built it as a learning experience, as he learned a lot about UI design, Azure websites, and geo-coordinate/distance comparisons in the coding process.

His MVP experience was invaluable in the creation of this app: “Over recent years I have learned that, more often than not, I get some of the best answers to some of my toughest questions from other MVPs. Although the Kids Eat 4 Less! app was inspired simply by the fact that I have four children (which can be quite costly when going out to eat) I have relied heavily on contacts that I have made through the MVP program to work through some of the challenges I faced when creating the app.”

This post describes how to add targeting support for the .NET Framework 4.5.1 in Visual Studio 2012. It was written by Rich Lander, who worked on the original multi-targeting support in Visual Studio 2010.

Here’s the question:

You can. Visual Studio 2013 preview provides built-in support for targeting the .NET Framework 4.5.1 Preview, but you can also build apps that target the .NET Framework 4.5.1 using Visual Studio 2012.

Here’s the short answer:

The .NET Framework 4.5.1 Preview includes the .NET runtime, but doesn’t include the files needed by Visual Studio to build .NET 4.5.1 apps. Instead, there is a separate download that includes all of the reference assemblies, IntelliSense XML files, and anything else needed to provide a great targeting experience in Visual Studio. We call this download a targeting pack.

You can get the targeting pack in these two ways:

• Either install Visual Studio 2013 Preview on your machine that already includes Visual Studio 2012. You’ll be able to target .NET 4.5.1 from both versions of Visual Studio.
• Or install the Windows 8.1 Preview SDK, which includes the targeting pack. The next time you open Visual Studio 2012, .NET 4.5.1 will be available from the target framework list.

For future reference, this information is also listed on .NET Framework SDKs and Targeting Packs for Visual Studio 2012. Our Get the latest .NET bits post explains how you can get to the SDK and targeting pack pages, for each version of Visual Studio.

Thanks for all the interest in and feedback on the .NET Framework 4.5.1 Preview.

DTA purge and Archive job gets created automatically on the SQL server when you configure the BizTalk group pointing to that SQL server.
DTA Purge and Archive job does two maintenance operations on the Tracking Database : Purging and Archival of the data.

Purging Mechanism

The detailed description of the DTA purge mechanism is explained in the following link:
Archiving and Purging the BizTalk Tracking Database : http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa560754.aspx

You can manually purge the tracking data using the dtasp_PurgeAllCompletedTrackingData stored procedure in case you don't enable this job in the environment.
This would require manual intervention and also a downtime as dependent services need to be stopped during this process.
Description on How to Manually Purge Data from the BizTalk Tracking Database is explained at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa561918.aspx .

Archival Mechanism

By default the DTA Purge and Archive job will have the dtasp_BackupAndPurgeTrackingDatabase stored procedure associated with it.

Here is an example of the parameter configuration for the above stored procedure:
exec dtasp_BackupAndPurgeTrackingDatabase
1, --@nLiveHours 1,
0, --@nLiveDays
1, --@nHardDeleteDays
‘\\server\backup’, --@nvcFolder
null, --@nvcValidatingServer
0 --@fForceBackup Soft purge process

If you choose to run the above procedure with nvcFolder parameter configured to point to aUNC share, Any data older than HardDeleteDays interval is eligible to be archived at the next archive and then purged. Default is 30 days.
You can set the fForceBackup Soft purge process to archive the data which are being soft purged during every execution.

Archiving is an optional functionality along with the Purging. There are customers who use automatic validation functionality they have reporting requirements on the tracked data.
The '.bak'  file created by the DTA Purge and Archive job is restored on a different SQL server, can use custom tools to create reports from them.

If you don’t require to Archive the Tracking Data

The exec dtasp_PurgeTrackingDatabase stored procedure does not archive the BizTalk Tracking (BizTalkDTADb) database. Before using this option, be certain that you no longer require archived tracking data.
Change exec dtasp_BackupAndPurgeTrackingDatabase to exec dtasp_PurgeTrackingDatabase.

How to Purge Data from the BizTalk Tracking Database using dtasp_PurgeTrackingDatabase
is explained at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa578470.aspx .

Tables affected

The stored procedures configured on the DTA Purge and Archive job calls the  stored procedure dtasp_PurgeTrackingDatabase_Internal.
This stored procedure deletes data from the below tables of the DTADb.
dta_CallChain
dta_DebugTrace
dta_MessageInOutEvents
dta_RulesAgendaUpdates
dta_RulesConditionEvaluation
dta_RulesFactActivity
dta_RulesFired
dta_RuleSetEngineAssociation
dta_ServiceInstanceExceptions
dta_ServiceInstances

How the SP works

Explanation on the actions performed by the stored procedure is clearly explained in the comment section of the stored procedure.
I have added the same below for ease:
This code is designed to keep infinite schedules from filling our database with information about their execution.
MSMQt is handled correctly because we use an activity id for MSMQt. The only thing we need to do here is delete the DebugTrace and CallChain table information as well as the MessageInOutEvents information.
These tables contain shape execution and nested orchestration call information, so the orchestration debugger will not be able to give complete information.
The InOutEvents table contains information about message flow into and out of the schedule so that will also be deleted.
Not only do we check when they completed, but also when they were inserted so that we make sure we dont delete data which was not in the last backup. Also prune rules engine related information.
We need to prevent page locks which cause deadlocks so we delete 100 at a time until we have no more work to do on a table

Performance challenges

Here is an article which explains about the importance of maintaining your BizTalk database size at a healthy level.
Improving the Performance of the Archiving and Purging Process : http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa578643.aspx

Supportability

From the environment supportability standpoint, MS recommend all the BizTalk users to enable the DTA Purge and Archive job in their environment.
The parameters that can be modified are the ones which are configurable parameters for the SP’s configured for the jobs.
The schedules for this jobs are set to default values which were tested by the product group and is verified to have shown the best results.
The BizTalk jobs and internal logic were designed and created by the same team who worked on the SQL engine logic.

Written By
Jainath V R

Reviewed By
Chirag Pavecha

Microsoft GTSC India

If you are designing Multi-farm environments with social feature capabilities, I strongly encourage you to go over this article – What architects need to know about social features in Multi-Farm environments

The key take away from that article is that some of the social features are limited to work if you have MySite Farm and Content Farm separately.  If you are looking for full social capabilities in your SharePoint environment, then you need to have both Content and MySite in same farm. 

Recently I’ve had a number of reasons to use Date and Time formatting.  Usually, a few educated guesses and you’ve found what you needed.  Except when you educated guess don’t get you want you expected and you do a bit of research.

For example to get a Hours, Minutes and Seconds for like 12:10:23 you could use the string HH:mm:ss.  Not so fast!  Did you really want military time (e.g. the 24 hour clock like 20:12:15)?  The capital HH gets you the 24 hour clock.

If you want the more standard 12 clock with AM and PM you’d need.  hh:mm:ss.  Additionally, you’d need the tt.  What is tt?  It the AM, PM designator.

You want milliseconds its fff.

But wait there is bit more.  There are standard and custom date/time formatting strings and some the character overlap, which explains an occasional unexpected results.

My research turned up some useful reference information.

standard date/time formatting strings (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/az4se3k1.aspx).

For example the following get the current date.  Well for me its US local depending on your part the world it may differ.

string s = DateTime.Now.ToString(“d"); // produces current date like 8/8/2013

Custom date/time formatting strings (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/8kb3ddd4.aspx).

For example to get the current time in the AM/PM 12 hour format use.

string s = DateTime.Now.ToString(“d"); // produces current time like 10:37:42 AM

When trying to pull data from a SharePoint List Data Source, using the Microsoft Online Services ID, you may see the following output in your query:

DataFormat.Error: OData: The given URL neither points to an OData Service or a feed: ‘https://login.microsoftonline.com/login.srf?wa=wsignin1.0&rpsnv=2&ct=1375471406&rver=6.1.6203.0&wp=MBI&wreply=<URL>&lc=1033&id=500046&guests=1’.

You may also see an error saying “The user was not authorized”.

You may see one of these errors when you do not select “Keep me signed in” when logging into O365.

After putting the check in “Keep me signed in”, you should then see the proper output.

Adam W. Saxton | Microsoft Escalation Services
http://twitter.com/awsaxton

1. ars technica: Should junior programmers be involved in all code reviews?
2. Martin Hinshelwood: Integrate reporting and analyses services with Team Foundation Server 2013
3. Brian Keller: Visual Studio 2013 Application Lifecycle Management Virtual Machine with Hands-on-Labs / Demo Scripts
4. Willy-P. Schaub: Visual Studio Unit Test Generator is feature complete – v1 Release Candidate lands!
5. Li Shao: C++ IDE Performance Improvement in Visual Studio 2013 Preview
6. Sam Stokes: null, nullptr, dull? Certainly not! New C++ 11 stuff
7. Marla Sukesh: Asp.Net 4.5 features - Part 1
8. MSDN Blogs: Flowchart of App Writing
9. Usman Ur Rehman Ahmed: Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 Tips, Tricks & Coding Best Practices
10. Giles Davies: Well, I like Team Foundation Server and I like Git, but which is better?

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