Category Archives: Technology

What’s happening in 2011

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2010 came by pretty quickly. It has been a very busy year with all kinds of expansions, migrations and consolidations. We installed HP Blade Servers, VMware, SQL Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008 R2, CentOS 4.2 X64, F5s, Dell R710s/610s, Dell Equallogic Storage, TFS 2010, Windows 7 X64 for all DBAs and BI developers, etc. The list continues.

So what is happening next year? Many exiting things, with a core focus on HA, DR, Analytics, SharePoint 2010, and VMware on production databases.

On the Database side:

  • Homogenous environment. All instance running under SQL Server 2008 R2 (some edition downgrades in the mix)
  • Isolated Development, QA and UAT environments with proper edition (Developer, Standard, Enterprise). VMWare and MSDN come to play.
  • Management Data Warehouse deployment to collect health information from all production instances. Birds-eye view of all instances in one location.
  • Central Management Servers Implementation
  • Policy Based Management Implementation
  • Data-Tier Application Implementation
  • RML utilities for pre-production load testing
  • PowerShell

On the Analytics side:

  • All legacy cubes migrated to SQL Server Analysis Services 2008 R2
  • Deployment of Star Schemas for the remaining business units
  • Dedicated instance for transformations (SSIS)
  • Fire up 3rd and 4th VM for our Scaled-out Deployment of Reporting Services
  • Mastering DAX. PowerPivot for Excel 2010
  • GUI implementation for browsing our cubes. We are in the process of evaluating products.

High Availability & Disaster Recovery:

  • All instances to be moved to HA (2, 3, 4 node clusters). No more single point of failures.
  • Zero-Downtime database migration with Mirroring
  • Block Level Backup and restore offsite
  • Full-Log-Daily Differential Backups across the board.
  • Backup file test by restoring to our UAT environments

Storage:

  • Footprint Reduction by archiving historical data that can be rolled up
  • Storage Expansion to benefit from the spindle count
  • SSD for the most demanding applications (over iSCSI)

Training:

  • I am encouraging my team members to use twitter, to follow knowledgeable folks and read tweets from the #sqlserver and #sqlhelp hash tags.
  • To Read Blog Posts and subscribe to RSS feeds
  • To attend to SQL Saturdays
  • To buy books (and e-books)
  • To get trained online and if necessary bring someone to get us trained.
  • To attend the SQL Rally 2011 or SQL Pass Summit 2011
  • To read about SQL Server Denali and install on a VM to test.

I see 2011 being an excellent year for us.

Happy Holidays everyone.

2011

Maintaining Passwords. What do I do?

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It comes with no surprise to me that online database of passwords are being hacked. Last week Gawker Media got compromised and their password database stolen. Passwords were stored in an encrypted format but are still prone to dictionary attacks.

So how do I do it?

I use a different password for every account I create online. I combine uppercase, lowercase, numbers and non-alphabetical characters when possible.

How do I keep up with different passwords?

Well with so many passwords it is almost impossible for me to remember them. I use an excellent software: KeePass.

Do I create my own Passwords?

I do mostly. But lately I have let KeePass generate them for me.

How do I access my own password database from different places?

The easy way? Storing the password database on a USB thumb drive. Just make sure that the database has a strong password for accessing it.

The convenient way? Synchronizing to the cloud. I use DropBox for that matter. I can download from the website, or if feasible, install the DropBox and KeePass application on the local machine where I am working on.

KeePass Password Safe

KeePass Password Safe

What If I need to access the site using my SmartPhone?

No problem. I installed DropBox and KeePass for Android. Both Applications are available for pretty much all mobile platforms.

Is my smartphone saving passwords for websites?

Yes, for convenience, although it is a security concern.

What if my phone gets lost/stolen?

I installed Android Protector and the most sensitive applications require a PIN to access it. I have also installed Lookout for Android which allows me to backup sensitive data to the cloud, remote lock, remote locate and the best option, remote wipe.

Do I change my passwords?

Yes. Every 3 months at the most.

This is what I do for my passwords. How do you do it?

Wi-Fi Hotspot [HTC G2]

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After sending the OTA upgrades, TMobile enabled 3 nice features: WiFi Calling, USB Tethering and WiFi HotSpot. The HTC G2 can be used as a wireless router and be able to accept connections from any device that connects to Open and WPA2-PSK Wi-Fi networks.

Portable WiFi Hotspot

Portable WiFi Hotspot

Portable WiFi Hotspot Configuration

Portable WiFi Hotspot Configuration

Just follow the steps:

  1. On the Android phone, press Home, press Menu, and touch Settings to open the Settings application.
  2. Touch Wireless & networks > Tethering & portable hotspot.
  3. Check Portable Wi-Fi hotspot.
  4. Check Portable Wi-Fi hotspot Settings
  5. Configure the Netword SSID, Security and Save
  6. Your phone is now a Wireless Router using the Available HSPA+ network.

It seems that T-Mobile isn’t charging extra for this feature yet, but will throttle if bandwidth usage goes over 5 GB within a month.

USB Tethering [HTC G2]

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After ensuring that WiFi calling worked properly I went ahead and researched about USB tethering for my G2. I have tried PDA Net before, but I wanted to use a “native” solution provided by T-Mobile. It is really easy.

USB Tethering

  1. You are likely to need drivers, so download it from here and decompress into a folder.
  2. Use the USB cable that came with your phone to connect your phone to your computer.
  3. On the Android phone, press Home, press Menu, and touch Settings to open the Settings application.
  4. Touch Wireless & networks > Tethering & portable hotspot.
  5. Check USB tethering.
  6. When asked for drivers, point the the one you just downloaded.
  7. You should be able to connect to the internet at this point.

If your phone is connected to the Internet through WiFi, the tethered computer will use your phone as a gateway, using wireless internet instead of the available HSPA+ network. This is good for computers that do not have a wireless connection and not able to connect to the internet.

Speed Tests:

Tethering using 3G Network (No HSPA+ available)

Tethering using 3G Network (No HSPA+ available)

Tethering using Wi-Fi and local Internet Service Provider

Tethering using Wi-Fi and local Internet Service Provider

WiFi Calling Feature Does Not Work Properly With Bluetooth Enabled And No Headset [HTC G2]

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T-Mobile started to roll out OTA radio upgrades and Wifi Calling in the past couple of days. Mine was updated yesterday and I was really exited to try it. At first it did not work and left for work. Then came back to try it again and it did;  I even got a couple of calls at night with no issues. Today calls dropped to the point that was almost unusable. I researched online and found out two cases of users having the same exact issue and pointing Bluetooth as the culprit. They were right. As soon as I disabled Bluetooth, WiFi calling just worked beautifully. It is a bug that T-Mobile will need to patch quickly.

Now, what does WiFi calling means for your plan and phone:

  1. It will use the alloted minutes for your current plan, for the bucket you are currently on: Peak, Nights, Weekends or MyFavs. I double checked today and ensured that all calls made were recorded as “Weekend”.
  2. You might be able to use it overseas and avoid ridiculous roaming charges. You just need a decent WiFi connection.
  3. Your phone is likely to use more battery as WiFi will be on all the time. So keep a spare charger or MiscroUSB cable handy.

I have also read that tethering was going to be part of this OTA update. I have not found the option yet, but will comment about it as soon as I do. Right now I am focused on ensuring that WiFi is flawless while in my house which has really bad reception spots, including my home office.

Enjoy your G2.