The Database Hive for SQL Server DBAs

Great Turnout for The Montreal XV's First Pratice - Rugby XV de Montréal Première pratique

2010-03-12T21:49:00Z

The Montreal XV Rugby Club (rejuvinating the Rugby Football Club name from the 1920s) first practice was the other night at Collège Marie de France - 30 guys showed up, and the facebook group is FIFTY(!), thus we are heading to Quebec's ever growing 2nd and 3rd Division, which starts in May, with a great pool of energetic Ruggerheads!

Première pratique du XV de Montréal

Location:collège International Marie de France

Really looking forward to next weeks' pratice.

Happy Belated International Woman's Day - C'est Votre Jour Les Femmes !

2010-03-10T05:12:00Z

Yesterday was International Woman’s Day – Let’s take the time to honour a few great women at the top!

Firstly, to Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth II, the greatest monarch of our ages (funny that Queens have been the best Monarchs of the past two centuries…hmm, no co-incidence there, eh?) and the Head of State for Canada (both Passports I hold), Her Excellency, the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, Governor General of Canada (who has been visiting her devastated homeland of Haiti over the past few days, see Globe and Mail story below), KEEP IT UP LADIES, you raise the bar higher than many men would be able to maintain.

Great to overhear the Air Canada executive who thinks that the Flight Attendant Woman working for his company are spoilt brats what only deserve one third of their pay - maybe this jerk should think a little bit harder about the security of passengers they are entrusted with. Please note that during the last two quasi-bankruptcies of our National airline, the front line workers have had to swallow a twenty percent wage reduction AND ‘enjoy’ having their retirement funds underfunded (taking advantage of their position a major airline, and the Federal Govt.’s lack of enforcement with respect to fines), all the while the executive board continued to give themselves bonuses. Way to build loyalty Chumps! Great job on demonstrating the lack pay equity and typical executive board abuse Air Canada. Respect labour standards and Womens' rights to maintain a fair wage.

And, yet another great woman to mention, our Dearest Nancy Wood (local morning show host), who was off for three days stress leave following a brain-fart from CBC Montreal executives who decided to replace her prematurely. I shall continue to campaign via this Facebook group for this greatly intelligent woman to return to the CBC Montreal Radio’s Daybreak show that many believe, which she was the best host so far (and for the 12 years I've been in Montreal, this is without a doubt). I have also defended her rights under the Labour Standards Act here: CBC Management in Montreal are going to have to eat a piece of humble pie pretty soon I hope for Nancy's sake.

Developing Your DBA Skills Further Thanks to Experience with Multiple RDBMS

2010-02-24T22:30:00Z

Any DBA who really understands databases and SQL standards can make out with other RDBMSs quite well, and if they have not tried yet, I recommend it for the reasons I shall discuss below.

Specialists maintain, with reason, that you cannot be a Master/Mistress of multiple database management systems. Fine, if you have decided that for your future, that there is not the possibility of being proficient in another system, then you have closed up your options before even trying perhaps(?).

Just in the same way as knowing multiple languages can help you know your own language better, I believe the same goes for database management systems. This competition between vendors of varying DBMSs allows for great features to be passed from one database engine to the other and benefits us, the DBAs, greatly. The benefits of taking the deep step into another RDBMS can further enlighten your approach to resolving problems or creating unique solutions that embrace a resolution no matter what source they come from.

After several months working back with Ellison's baby (trained on Oracle 8 in 1998), Oracle 11g and its solid architecture are impressive. I especially appreciate the recovery approach Oracle takes, explicitly the redo/unlog log files: relying on the SCN (system change number, defined during a checkpoint) for bombproof recovery. The real issue with learning multiple backup systems running on MSSQL is that you could lose your backup recovery chain (unable to match LSN numbers) with mixed Tape/Disk backups, whereas with Oracle’s use of the SCN, this is not an issue. The hardest part initially, was learning a whole new set of Acronyms related to Oracle's architecture for example: SMON, PMON, DBWn, RECO, ARCn et al.

Oracle Developer is a pretty cool management tool also with easy result set export to XLS/CSV/etc., although I prefer SQL 2008's Management Studio. But also not to be ignored, is the excellent web-based Enterprise Manager from Oracle, which can take a bit of getting used to – with respect to finding your way around – but is very rich once you are familiar with how to take advantage of it.

Seasoned Oracle DBAs I enjoy working with have mentioned the lack of spooling in Oracle's developer, and after going back to using SQL+ for a while they have a very good point. Oracle Developer and SSMS always have the code / results split up (unless in SQL DMO?), which doesn't always make it easy to associate the error with the section of code you are working on (unless you click on the error in SSMS that is). Setting the Spool on and off after working on production provides pretty bomber evidence for auditing operations on your production databases, or results during testing and development.

My next post will discuss some fun I have had with MySQL – and unfortunate tendency I have found also, that MySQL developers (who have worked very hard to build their system, and are naturally defensive) will ask the DBA for help in desperation, and as soon as the access is sorted, it only takes a short time before the real fixes become obvious and the developers’ knee-jerk reaction becomes to circle around their team in defence instead of accepting DBA intervention (we are there to help (!), and ultimately improve the bottom line for the company, or success of the respective project). Anyway, that is par for the course often enough for DBAs, as mentioned to an extreme in my last post.

PS enjoying a little work with PostgreSQL also recently, converting a schema to Oracle.

First Public Hearing Against Quebec's Pension Fund Manager - The Beginning of Proof that Multiple Laws Were Violated (Before Sabia took over at least)

2010-02-15T11:52:00Z

As mentioned in a previous post, between the months of January and September 2008 I was hired to be a Database Cop for the Caisse de Défauts (Master Sabia coined this phrase in a TVA interview btw, not me!) and clean up a department where developers were giving the impression of being cowboys with some pretty mission-critical financial data. Here are the notes from the first meeting last week at the Workplace Relations Commission (CRT: Commission des relations du travail, located in Montreal, 35 Port-Royal East, 2^nd Floor).

Why I am doing this? Public Interest and to its right to know what the infamous Commission Parliamentaire hid from Quebeckers
I believe some significant personal sacrifice is necessary to maintain Canadian Unity whilst I attempt to impartially describe this horrible situation our Pension Fund manager has been putting me through over the past fiveteen months (their victims are many, even some friends have mentioned psychological harassment until suicide after working there), but first, the disclaimer. Most importantly this post is a warning to Database Administrators in general who have been in hostile environments, this is the nightmare that we have to walk into frequently enough when only Developers have controlled an environment (Brad McGehee discusses this partially in his DBA Manifesto), or if there is only one 'token' subordinated/muzzeled DBA in-house to maintain compliance.

Disclaimer: Veuillez prendre en note que je ne suis pas francophobe, je blogue en français et je partage, vers un côté de la famille, les mêmes racines que la majorité ici. Je suis né à Vancouver, et ma soeur Monique et moi aussi, nous sommes allés à l'école bilingue. Je veux que nous améliorons notre société au Québec; non pas seulement pour faire des accommodations raisonnables aux nouvelles arrivées dans la province, mais pour donner du respect à la minorité anglophone qui vit ici depuis des siècles. Le mal traitement dont j’ai vécu à la Caisse de Dépôt est un cauchemar absolu, mais ce n’est pas isolé à cette organisation gouvernementale exclusivement, et existent dans certaines sociétés privés aussi au Québec. Je resterai toujours positif, parce que je suis un Champion pour le Canada, and Quebec is included in my country. Mais, il faut que ces extrémistes ultranationalistes soient mis en règle afin de laisser le Québec se progresser, car à mon avis, c’est leur faute que la province est en déclin tranquille (à cause de deux referendums, et maintenant $47 Milliards perdus à la CDPQ). J'emploi mon droit constitutionnelle de s'exprimer - to clearly counter sovereigntist bullies who have repetitively told me that my constitutional rights in Quebec do not exist

First image: Interview dates, time, place from an e-mail I sent to the Working Standard Commission complaint validators in April 2009, about five months after I submitted the original complaint to them on December 8th, 2008. The complaint made via this government body responsible for Workplace standards was initially rejected by the Caisse, but eventually led to a mediation date five months later in July 2009 that was cancelled at the last minute by their lawyers flip-flopping on whether I was subject to conditions as a permanent employee, which means complying with the Labour Standards Act, or if I was only a lowly consultant that they can treat with disrespect repetitively (as if harassment by workplace bullies is okay?). I even wrote to their new CEO, Michael Sabia, with a personal hand delivered note in protest for their bureaucratic juggernaught response of pulling out of scheduled mediation with the Working Standards Commission, but as usual, there was no response. It is clear to me now after this long that my rights to them are not important, so I shall make this publically clear in writing. Je vais mettre ces 'maîtres' à genoux avec ma plume s'ils vont pas faire valoir mes droits !

Now for a bit of Background - What is this organisation?
The Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec - short name in English, although seldom used, is CDP Capital, and the long name Quebec Deposit and Investment Fund. This forty-three year old Quebec-based über-bank is the largest institutionalised fund manager within Canada and is entrusted with our pension monies as well as investing in businesses that create provincial wealth. As you can read from the Wikipedia link, they lost about 26% of our collective wealth during the 2008 fiscal year. This is a collossal amount of retirement investment to lose. Nobody ended up charged, but the executive board was litterally cleaned out in April 2009 after two consecutive 'interim' leadership failures, and the extent of mis-management was revealed (see Diane Francis' Train Wreck articles) - only a few members of the executive board were left including Operations Director Ghislain Parent. Did the SQ even look into where these bandits à cravates placed all their unwarranted bonuses, they were giving themselves even in 2008 for leaving while the 'perfect storm' was happening!? Sabia, the new head of this institution, has recently restructured the activities completely and abolished about 55 positions - must have been because the ship had lost its way a little don't you think? I still maintain my opinion that the Gomery Commission regarding the Federal Sponsorship Scandal, which saw us wasting years of taxpayer time and money over a couple of million dollars lost is the greatest hypocrisy in modern Canadian history because the Caisse lost almost five thousand times this amount, whilst the provincial media has only spent a few months on this subject in comparison. Moving on...

Second Image - the Job Offer itself. I met with the Senior Vice President of the department January 18th, 2008. Priorities were to deal with optimisation, backups, and alleviating production support from my former DBA colleague. The VP clearly indicated that this was for a permanent position, and I agreed that if I made it past the first six months, we'd switch over officially. I even had a meeting with the internal Human Resources Department representative (and actually a neighbour) on March 11^th 2008, to confirm their intentions.

Please note that what public details you see here are correspondent with discussions at the CRT – I have no intention of tarnishing the Judge’s decision making process. However, still outraged as I am at this continued denial of my rights, I wish to seek public aid in pressuring the organisation, which holds over two hundred billion dollars of our provincial investment in its hands (including Real Estate Assets), to remediate this situation immediately. This is a David Vs Goliath situation, and is evident by the fact that four lawyers showed up to in defense of the latter!

Just another anecdote of mistreatment - pointing out that I waited till the last minute to file a complaint: one thing my opposition in the public hearing, just last week, forgot to mention was that I tried to make an internal complaint to the CDPQ within the 90 day limit for filing with the Commission des normes du travail (Working Standards Commission) after the forced departure on September 9^th, 2008 and even had a meeting on November 12^th, 2008 with the Complaints Director herself and a junior lawyer. The end result was no action whatsoever on their part (what Daniel Laprès describes as Quebec's Laïcité stricte). All I got while leaving the meeting was a verbal sorry, but a warning that the corporation will do all it can to protect itself. I know I mentioned bureaucratic warfare before - and I thoroughly believe now after living through this debacle, that this white collar crime has contributed to hundreds of thousands of native English speaking Quebeckers to leave the province since the beginning of the 1970s (known as the Anglo Exodus). This trend has only reversed within the past years with the return/influx of many Anglo-Quebeckers, in addition to the question of sovereignty returning to a hypothetical situation (after two referendums defeated) and due to a lack of legitmacy.

I was warned beforehand that It's the Caisse - Discrimination is acceptable there when against Anglos.

I was told by a senior consultant friend before starting there that within six to eight months senior managers would find a way to force me out, as is done on a regular basis to Anglophones who work there – even confirmed to me by several security guards who work for the organisation (that wish to remain anonymous!) that it is practically modus operandi at the Caisse to do so. This is a clear violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and my Human Rights - hence my Quebec Human Rights Commission Complaint File # C1694-09. I still cannot believe this is happening in my own country – it is shameful that the Quebec Government does little to stop this itself (by not enforcing any sort of minority quotas) and is often abetted by typical Canadian complacency or an assumption that to treat English speaking Quebeckers this way is acceptable. Discrimination seems to be (proof in many posts already on this subject) okay in my own province and as a victim of it, I shall fight to the death so that my rights are recognised, whether the provincial majority (in denial) likes it or not. It is a scenario that repeats itself over and over again anywhere on the planet, and not doing anything about it only makes it worse for all minorities in Quebec. On the other hand, it is unfortunate that the Globe and Mail concerns itself with being anti-Quebec - to sell more newspapers perhaps, by not clarifying the fact that Miss Naema Ahmed was asking for unreasonable conditions with respect to men in her classroom (Julius Grey, the famous Human Rights Lawyer, has taken QC's side on this one with good reason) is sloppy. I applaud Patrick Lagacé for his réplique counter to the Mop and Pail's misunderstanding of the situation in Quebec completely.

But, hey, don`t listen to me with respect to the English speaking provincial minority, just listen to TVA.Canoe.com's analysts point out that Sabia is an Anglophone from Ontario (although his grandfather arrived in QC originally with pennies) and fact that it created a huge contraversy in the QC FR-speaking media provides clear proof to the underlying message that 'He's not one of us' - and thus, should not be on the list for the Caisse's top job (remember your detestable knee-jerk reaction André Pratte?). He even complaints about Sabia's level of French, and note that Jean-Philippe Décarie propagates and idea from the 60s that Anglophones who work in Montreal (ne faites pas l'effort) do not want/or make the effort to learn French, nor know it well - this is nothing more than prejudice since 90% (10 years ago when I arrived from Brussels, a cosmopolitian/trilingual city in itself, it was around 80%) of Anglophones around Montreal speak and work in French. But due to this prejudice we are literally shut-out of the provincial government job opportunities, whether they are for the Federal or Provincial level. What bothers me personally, is that during out first hearing the oppositions' principal Lawyer Maître l'H[mister unhappy] stated to the Commissaire (Judge) with a 'oh, not another' tone that this case was about `discrimination parce ce qu'il est Anglophone'. If this lawyer, who entitles himself to take advantage of a provincial minority and downplay the discrimination we live by means of the our local government (which we pay taxes too, just like everyone else buddy!), he's already tripping over himself. Had said such a thing be said in the United States about a minority during a public hearing it would make Front Page news. Here, as I stated above, it is considered normal. I hope the Judge recognises this and puts a stop to it on my behalf of all Anglophones, and all minorities for that matter, in the province.

On being labelled an Anglophone - Je déteste cette `labelling' employé au Québec - Je SUIS BILINGUE, je suis allé à L'école bilingue durant mon enfance à Vancouver. I'm part of both founding nations of this state, à quand la fin de cette chanson 'which side are you on boy' (Pete Seeger) - I want to be ABOVE this shite, as our Border Reivers (Anglo/Scotch Clans) ancestors where for centuries, on the Graham side, of the family http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_Reivers - you would not be surprised to know that Pierre ELLIOT Trudeau was also descended from these Clans, thus his success as one our greatest Prime Ministers. I explained this to Justin [Trudeau], but I do not believe he got/gets it [yet].

It would seem that the Quebec Government and Media are completely oblivious to the fact that Racism has its costs – the victim pays dearly. It is now fifteen months later and I have only just managed to recover my company’s finances (and during a recession too, imagine) while I went through another round of psychological harassment and defamation by the one sovereigntist bully developer controlling production in the office at my next mandate (bad news comes in threes?). The issue here is not that so many Quebeckers hold these views against the English-Speaking minority, it is simply that the one Blueneck in a group of ten QC Francophones will go out of their way behind the scenes to make someone's life miserable, while profiting from the complacency of the group.

Image Three: the call to testify last week. The recruiter is involved in this case and it is unfortunate, because they were perfectly professional during these whole events and I would still recommend them to anyone.
This image provides the case number also (CM-2009-4697).

Where does this go from here?

Next public testimony is scheduled for May 10^th and 12^th to establish that I was indeed under the conditions of an employee and not a consultant at the Caisse de Défauts. This means months of waiting again in this bureaucratic nightmare, but it is absolutely necessary - asking my company to get involved means I need representation, and prior to this step in the direction of the CDP, Intellabase was profitable for seven years. I find this completely ironic also that an organisation that is founded upon the principle of contributing to the economic development of Quebec (but from my experience they are in part responsible for Quebec's blight) is responsible for trying to destroy my business. My goal is to clearly point out how their goal is to only keep the majority in control of resources and prevent the advancement of minorities – and is clearly Racist as typical of any overly passionate and Nationalistic government organisations can become without being reminded of their folly. There is much jurisprudence with respect to cases like this (clear jurisprudence with respect to employee conditions i.e. subordination, equipment, fixed hours), so I shall be very ready with my legal councel by the time we are in the next public hearing. Only next fall, we will get into the details of the psychological harassment itself in court, if a settlement is not reached in the meantime.

It was somewhat amusing to watch lawyers wandering in and out of the room – obviously they keep trying to negotiate a settlement, but the Caisse de Défauts is not known for eating much humble pie, as experienced journalist Konrad Yakabuski noticed while covering this organisation. Thankfully new CEO Michael Sabia has played the role Charest was expecting him to do and clean out the organisation at the top (as Accountant CEOs do, and as he did at Via Rail and Bell in the past), and new Finance Minister Raymond Bachand has confirmed that Risk is managed appropriately now. Regarding the department I was serving, it has been swept under the control of the I.T. department after my departure and the Senior Consultant who forced me out was also eventually dismissed - so, yes, there is good Karma and some retribution already. And I was rather happy to thanks to the great editors at Simple-Talk.com, based in Silicon Fen, to have published the Disaster Recovery Plan (aussi en français) a generic version of what I did for the Caisse itself while there: viewership has reached over twelve thousand for this open-source DRP.

History of Government Dishonesty Repeats Itself

It is interesting to note that on Tuesday February 9th, 2010 the cases listed for public audience were incorrectly named, as if to conceal that someone was pursuing the Caisse? What bothers me the most is that journalists who regularly take aim at the CDPQ in French (mainly from La Presse), or English (Montreal Gazette, National Post and Globe and Mail) have not shown up to the public hearings, despite multiple reminders I have sent. I really don't understand this crazy complacent ear-plugging occurring, but hey call me crazy, I am suing through two government bodies (not at the same time, their is procedure, double-recourse simultaneously is not possible), the largest institutionalised pension manager in the land. They perhaps cannot believe it happened or is happening, thus publishing myself. This must not happen anymore to Quebec's minorities and I will expose as much of the truth as is revealed in the public hearings (The Caisse manages all of our Pension Money, they must be held accountable), as opposed to how my forebearer Major-General Frederick Barton Maurice, who took on publically ( via letters to the [London] Times) U.K. Prime-Minister Lloyd George in 1918 for exaggerating troop numbers on the Western Front - this is known in British History as the Maurice Affair/Maurice Papers. It was noted, after studying situations my ancestors were placed under, that taking on the government itself should not be done without another government faction involved, or better yet, two of them. See, I'm a typical DBA, I always have a backup :)

Fear Plays A Big Factor in Quebec

Many persons, during this same time period in 2008, have suffered from this type of harassment (details to come later publically and during the next meeting in May), but they gave up right away due to the size of this institution - even though several have remained unemployed ever since (15 months). Since I have witnessed too much to stand by and do nothing about this ethnic cleansing - defined as 'the planned deliberate removal from a specific territory (govt workplace in this case), persons of a particular ethnic group, by force or intimidation, in order to render that area ethnically homogenous,' and there is significant legal backing, I shall litterally drop the gloves on the CDPQ until they cede - following a hold-fast/siege strategy until justice is obtained. And for those who think that I am just attacking Quebec because the bashing has been a little too frequent lately, I am simply following a family tradition on the other side of the family at questioning government over its tendency to tyranny. Doctor John, as affectionately called by seniors in the Shebbeare family, was highly critical of Colonial Magistrates and wrote out during the American Revolution. He was also extremely critical of His Majesty King George III (the mad one), but ended up as a pamphleteer for the same King he was attacking, around the time an another ancestor became Prime Minister.

Parting words for this hopefully enlightening post: I love my job as a DBA, and nobody is going to break multiple laws in front of me without a fight – when you know you’ve got at least four, and arguably six technical reasons behind a fight, then it is rather motivating to know beforehand that you can be very cogent in the near future. I have prepared all these related posts over the past year, of which many of them were SSC front-pagers (if you read between the lines, the extent of what I witnessed made it very, very easy to thoroughly document) - here they are again if you missed them beforehand:

Segregation of Duties (Bill C-198 Compliance)
Transaction Log Files (so that you know who did what and when)
Database Compression (so that you are not wasting double the disk space unnecessarily)
Monitoring Database Activity (again, compliance, validating authorised access)
Templates for Change Management (to maintain Internal Controls)
A Letter to Government Institutions in Quebec & Especially Ex-Premier Bernard Landry

This is just another part of the series, next one will follow once the jurisprudence is settled for the conditions that place my case under the protection of the Labour Standards Act. Thank you very much for reading.

P.S. The details of this case have been documented by a trained historian, and now I can sincerely thank all the professors at Vesalius College, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, for the thousands of pages we had to write during the International Affairs and History degree between 1994-98.

P.P.S. BTW for those of you who just watched the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Opening Ceremonies, and heard complaints about the lack of French, please understand that Vancouver is FIVE AND HALF hours by plane from Quebec, and there are very few bilinguals to learn the beautiful language with, as I noticed while growing up. From reading up in La Presse recently (at least pointing out that our first Canadian Olympic Gold won at home was by the Great Alexandre Bilodeau) it seems as if the journalists were hoping for bilingual levels the equivalent of Ottawa, on the border of the province: they seem to have a complete lack of the importance of geography regarding this issue. Whatever the case, the QC media can try and rain on Vancouver's great Olympics all it wants, they have New Yorker's approval and that is far more impartial.
_______

This post is dedicated in memory of the great Anglo-Quebecker patriot William Heward Grafftey - a Champion for the Canadian social values.

Troubleshooting and Optimising SQL 2008 Reporting Services Configuration for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

2010-02-04T18:03:00Z

Recently we have been struggling with configuration and installation of SQL Server Reporting Services 2008 when there was a co-existing 2005 Reporting Services instance. The following attempts to describe how to make sure your reports work between Microsoft Dynamics CRM and SQL Server Reporting Services. This is a follow up to my previous post on optimising performance for CRM applications.

The obvious major change between the Reporting Services versions: IIS was required in SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) 2005, but no longer since SSRS has its own built-in Web Server to run reports on port 80. However, if you wish to have SSRS 2005 and 2008 co-exist on the same server (for perhaps masochistic reasons?), one has to decide which of the two Reporting Services versions will have to use a port OTHER than port 80.

Prerequisites for the data connector install
Configure your Data source so that the Report Servers Computer_name$ has DBO rights on the OrganisationName_MSCRM, then test that Reports actually work in Report Manager.
Make sure the NetworkServices account runs Reporting Services.

Before installing the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Connector, you most likely run into the Error:

Unable to validate SQL Server Reporting Services Report Server installation. Please check that it is correctly installed on the local machine.
This will involve editing your install-config.xml file:

Make sure to modify this file to the name of your specific instance, on the following line:

<reportserverurl>http://ServerName/reportserver$SSRS08instanceName</reportserverurl>-->

(where the Instance name should be written after the dollar sign)

Run the following from command line afterwards:

SetupSrsDataConnector.exe /CONFIG "D:\Downloads\SrsDataConnector\install-config.xml"

You may have to uninstall and reinstall the Data Connector if you had the ‘Unable to validate…’ error.

If you require support for your configuration, please beware that Microsoft’s Customer Relationship Management team, or Microsoft Dynamics Team, vis-à-vis the Reporting Services Support do not overlap responsibilities most likely if you report server responds http://ReportingServicesServerName/Reports

If you are able to see the above link, but form the CRM side when you look at a Report and you receive: ‘Reporting error

The Report cannot be displayed; check the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Community for solutions’ then you should try what I mention in this post before contact CRM support.

The Data Connector Optimisation

Data Source configuration should be done to get the most out of Reporting Services running with CRM Dynamics. To do so:

Click on the organisation, then right-hand side, on the toolbar, click Show Details, scroll down to the bottom and click on MS Data Source, and set up your Connection type as below.

Verify that Connection Type is set to "Microsoft CRM Data Extension" and Connect using: is set to "Credentials supplied by the user running the report"

and finally, click Apply.

Connection String: MSCRM Data Connector Connection String

Note, that if the CRM SRS Data Connector is not installed on the SRS Server, please install it and verify it is properly configured before choosing the Data Source Type above.

If the Report Server login dialogue box shows up: "Type or enter a user name and password to access the data source: ", you are going to need to identify input the user's SystemUserID GUID and their Organization GUID. To help us determine this, please run the following statement against your organization database:

SELECT SystemUserId,OrganizationId, FullName FROM SystemUserBase WHERE Domain Name = 'domain\userid'

For "Log In Name:", please copy the SystemUserId GUID from the query and paste it in the text box.

For "Password:", please copy the OrganizationId GUID from the query and paste it in the text box.

At this point if the reports do not run then transfer your case to the SQL Server Reporting Services team ( BIG THANKS TO THEM for their help! ) to continue troubleshooting.

Troubleshooting CRM/SSRS should also include a look at the Event Viewer, although at times, the ‘Please contact Microsoft CRM Dynamics Team for support’ or Reporting Services error explains little - thus check your SRS log files on the Reporting server in the following folder:

Drive:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.*\Reporting Services\LogFiles

Reflections on ‘Visibility, the Art of Being Noticed’ by Phil Factor

2010-02-02T21:58:00Z

If you have not read the Master of Phrenetic Phoughts’ article, please do so here. I enjoyed very much the illustration of Brunel employed in the beginning, a family favourite for the list of top Britons. Phil gives us an interesting anecdote of person who was not so discreet about crashing a company car while trying to shrewdly schmooze his way up the corporate ladder.

I’d like to explain more eloquently why I am starting with this post in the most abrupt (can you tell my Mother is from Yorkshire) way, but cannot right now, so jumping right in…

The best policy to recover from a terrible set of circumstances, whether your own fault or not (as has been said by many), is to be completely honest and use tact when responding to difficult questions. When someone is averse to handling tough questions, and commences by blaming others within the first few strokes, subsequently their integrity is questionable. It is up to those who have visibility, often whether they like it or not (if you are DBA, there is no choice) - or from a different part of the country, holding a different accent, being tall and blonde (physical traits unavoidable) – to act as examples because their actions are easily replicated. As certified database professionals early on in their career, and even experienced Most Valuable Professionals at a later stage, one should treat their coworkers with respect.

In front of your team, or for those of you who work with in today’s theoretically ‘flat’ environments (or Matrix organisations Vs Departmental), this is especially important. Owning up to your mistakes is paramount, and when you notice something that you have done wrong before anyone else sees it, your chances of obtaining the strength of the circle of trust are greatest when you admit the fault in front of everyone and indicate the best way to avoid a reoccurrence of the gaffe. Conversely, if you make a mistake and then an in-house competitor runs with it to blatantly defame you (whether or not with vexatious intent – subconsciously often), then one can distinguish right away who is not a team player. That is unless the work environment has developed into something so rotten it has become the norm because of complacent human resource departments, or in the worst case scenario, a perpetrator rewarded with promotion. Even if the latter case is so, what goes around comes around, and everytime I have witnessed irresponsible behavior the person responsible for it lasts between one to three months after formal complaints are made.

When there is a situation when someone repetitively makes serious mistakes that drag the rest of the team down, cost serious resources, et al., then a written trail should to be created to provide just cause for discharge – and not a series of repetitive verbal assaults, which, in turn, indicate a distinct lack or professionalism – unless your goal is to have yelling matches commonplace!? However, a one-off heated discussion is unavoidable at times and should be treated as such.

Where I disagree with Phil is the mysterious aspect of visibility. I do not see how it is mysterious – as long as you are always able to turn a usually negative situation into positive one and that it is projected throughout your relevant networks and writing, whilst maintaining a straight-forward attitude, even if it is idealistic, then it is not so mysterious.J

Please Take the Time to Donate for Haiti

2010-01-20T17:39:00Z

This morning, Haiti was shaken yet again by another aftershock of the recent devastating earthquake.

The situation has become so dire that the people are refusing to trust the buildings left around them and sleep outside now instead. Please take a moment to make a donation to help the people of Haiti out of their distressed circumstances. There is an old Dutch proverb which states ‘many hands make light work’ – in our office here in Montreal, we were able to accumulate two thousand dollars for the Red Cross.

Please donate serious bills, and not coins, by whatever means at your disposition.

Thank you.

Vancouver’s Winter Olympics Less Than 30 Days to Go (!) – But Not Without Issues

2010-01-15T17:27:00Z

There are some Februarys in Vancouver, while growing up, when I can remember wearing shorts and watching plants flowering, therefore with the latest news that the Vancouver Olympic Committee have just closed Cypress Mountain to regular skiers/boarders to preserve snow, it should not come as a surprise. Cypress is sometimes better known to locals by its old name Cypress Bowl (just see how it looks in the middle of this panoramic below to see why). Just this morning, that warmer weather rolled into Montreal too, meaning we are hovering around 0-2 degrees Celsius instead of the habitual -10/15.

This is just a temporary glitch before the Olympics arrive and I believe Plan B is sufficient - as thoroughly described here by the Globe and Mail, Canada's premier newspaper. In a few weeks, a real cold snap could hit and since there is so much precipitation on what is often know as the Rain Coast (Seattle suffers from this too), snow could easily return in abundance. Another glitch just mentioned in the Canadian Media is the fact that Intrawest (owners of Whistler-Blackcomb resort ), after having defaulted on several loan payments - Tourism also hit hard by the Global Recession - is up for auction! Just as the Olympics has arrived to save the resort town, the owners of the main hills are going out of business...

A very common confusion for visitors to British Columbia, justifiably, is the fact that Vancouver is not on Vancouver Island. Victoria is the capital of BC and is located on the Southern tip of Vancouver Island, while Vancouver is on what is known as the Lower Mainland (or more commonly being called Sea to Sky Country, after the famous Highway 99). Railroad Baron and Canadian Pacific Railway President Sir William Cornellius Van Horne, late in the nineteen century, used his clout to convince Vancouver city councillors that Granville (one of the City’s main streets still), the city’s original name, would not be as much of an attraction marketing-wise to get the potential settlers out West on the train across the country if the already known Vancouver title wasn’t employed. Perhaps also, Van Horne’s Dutch ancestry motivated him, since the great English explorer Capitain George Vancouver’s grand parents were from Coevorden in Friesland, a city my Father and I visited whilst living in Brussels, Belgium - a place I can recommend all Vancouverites to visit.

For official information from the Vancouver Olympic Committee (VANOC) please see their site.

To enjoy a time lapse video of Vancouver's City Scape check out Linda Ganzini's great work.

House of Commons Justice Committee Related to The European Union's Data Protection-Retention Directives

2010-01-11T02:47:00Z

Just this past week on Tuesday afternoon (a link to video of Parliament online, please forward to about half way through), the United Kingdom's Information Commissioner Christopher Graham spoke in the Wilson Room for the House of Commons Justice Committee. He was flanked by Stephen McCartney, Head of Data Protection Promotion, from the Information Commissioner’s Office. As mentioned in a previous post just last month, the ICO has been lobbying extensively for fines to deter serious data breaches - and it gives the impression of working quite well, since on their front page, the ICO "expects its new power to issue monetary penalties to come into force on 6 April 2010, allowing the ICO to serve notices requiring organisations to pay up to £500,000 [$1M approx.] for serious breaches of the Data Protection Act." In other words, HUGE fines: finally some real deterrents to the list brokers/reseller industry.

In the Committee, it was being recommended that the European Union enforce data protection, but not to jump into it without a comprehensive approach, in other words, reculer pour mieux sauter as Mr Graham states; take a step back first, analyse the nuances/realities of how data is exploited, and then codify the law fittingly. The HOC Justice Committee met to avoid the patchwork of current legislation involved, as well as taking into consideration the fact that [Roman and Napoleonic Civil] Codified Law are very different from Common Law practiced in Great Britain. Civil versus Common Law have very different approaches to managing data too, the former being considered in Common Law countries as unnecessarily pragmatic – too literal, too much bureaucratic overhead, whilst Canada and the United States tend to take too much of a freely flowing data approach without thinking of privacy and security considerations from the onset. In fact, the European Commission went to the extreme as to sue Sweden for its lack of action regarding the E.U. Data Retention Directive.

The Face of Data Protection in the United Kingdom: Christopher Graham - see him at the Data Protection Officer Conference on March 3^rd, 2010

As one can see in the video footage (forward to 26 minutes), Information Commissioner Graham is a man of candour as was his Grandfather Lance. Sir Lancelot Graham was known as idealistic, indefatigably hard-working and self-disciplined. He was not only a Governor of Sind (Pakistani province where Karachi is the capitol) before the partitioning of India, but also President of the Commonwealth Society.

It is clear action must be taken to discourage serious breaches of the Data Protection Act, but one of the first fundamental questions (referred to in the List of Data Protection Principles), as mentioned by Mr Stephen McCartney, Information Commissioner Graham’s experienced colleague, should be what is the data being used for? Ultimately the goal is to prevent carelessness (i.e. not encrypting, or at the least putting a password on a backup placed on easily readable media) with respect to the management of personal data within organisations, a space where the ICO has been very active lately, and even provides A Guide For Data Protection in Plain English on its site.

In sum, in the European Union, there is a need to clarify laws that are related to the management of information, and it is great to see Information Commissioner Graham giving guidance openly. We have to treat Data as the precious resource it deserves in our information-based society, merely because its mismanagement can cost us all, and not just in the E.U. With respect to a certain pension fund data management disaster I witnessed firsthand, it led, in part, to the loss of billions of dollars.

Data Stewardship and the Promotion of Data Protection – Are You Vigilant Enough to Stop A Trainwreck?

2010-01-09T06:11:00Z

If you are asked to be a Database Cop, and you follow the code of ethics of your organisation, especially a public organisation (i.e. working by the book), erstwhile assuming that you are in a hostile environment, rampant with Workplace Bullying – when, or better yet, where is a DBA supposed to stop when protecting public data? I am very passionate about our job as protector of the data - and for more on this subject, please read Brad McGehee’s DBA Code of Conduct because if you see multiple faults, and maybe four as I did, then you should do all you can to avoid a trainwreck for your respective organisation because just like an Airplane, it could only take two chains of error before the plane hits the ground. Brad lays out a clear path to follow. Also, pay special attention perhaps to my comment at the end which is in reference to the two government organisations who are working on my behalf (and provided with stacks of evidence also, being as municieux as a DBA should be) to take judicial action in opposition to our state pension plans’ violation of both Federal and Provincial laws, followed by Human Rights violations.

Much of my negative energy from that disastrous experience (a bit like what Canadian Diplomat Colvin is living through now perhaps, to the extreme of Prime Minister Harper proroguing parliament to conceal the issue during the Olympics, as well as extend our MPs holidays) has been vented out within the scrolls of this blog over this past year, and I appreciate the hundred-twenty thousand plus visitors – you comments are welcome, or you can just stop on by as I shall continue to use digital photos for eye candy too. The real world isn't so beautiful, but at least I can maintain my idealism through photographs!

Microsoft has just showed their appreciation this week by passing on the Most Valuable Professional Award for SQL Server. I have to admit that I thought it just slipped by since I didn't hear from my gracious guide, Simran Chaudry, MVP Lead for Canada, until I finally got around to catching up with my e-mail of three days today. I have needed some downtime after travelling three times within the past month or so - first of the three trips was to Cambridge as you can see below. There was lot of family to catch up with there, plus with the Simple Talk editors at a certain famous Dim Sum place on Regent Street.

Next up...The face of data protection in the United Kingdom: Chris Graham, and his recent Parliamentary Committee Hearing.

Interesting Data Stewardship References, if the subject interests you:

Data Governance Guidance from Microsoft Privacy

A Guide to Data Governance for Privacy, Confidentiality and Compliance_Part 1: The Case for Data Governance

A Guide to Data Governance for Privacy, Confidentiality and Compliance_Part 2: People and Process

Congratulations to Christopher Graham for Taking Companies to Task About Protecting Data Privacy

2009-12-02T03:50:00Z

The New Information Commissioner for the United Kingdom is Mr. Christopher Graham, he's working from Wilmslow, near Manchester, with a team of hundreds to bring responsibility back to private companies' [mis]management of customer data - and he already took on T-Mobile for a customer sell off by employees debacle that, which of course, they tried to conceal. He's out to enforce Parliament's Data Protection Act, and he's sending out warrants and private investigators as he goes! Bravo, the Database Cops are coming and they are armed with the DPAJ - too bad QC couldn't follow along and enforce Bill C-198 amongst government institutions.

Hats off to the UK government's efforts to protect data the way it should be and reinforce data stewardship, for more details please see: http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2009/11/27/239490/ICO-publishes-guide-to-quash-business-ignorance-on-data.htm

Here's an excerpt from the BBC article, which states that T-Mobile's employees were simply: 'Exploiting data'

The Ministry of Justice has been consulting on tougher penalties for illegal trade in personal information.

The Data Protection Act bans the selling on of data without prior permission from the customer and a fine of £5,000 can be imposed following a successful prosecution."

It is truly amazing to see such a brave man publically speaking out against things that simply have to be stopped - data protection must be taken more seriously by the business community, as well as government bodies themselves. Environments, for instance, that do not adhere to Auditing Compliance, the principle of least privileges or the Segregation of duties are a clear target for the Information Commissioner to start, and I have let Christopher know personally :)

Please note that I am in transition to a permanent job currently with Canadian media giant Transcontinental, and am training on Oracle 11g, Release 2, thus I shall resume more frequent blogging in the New Year. Final French version of the DRP for SQL Server was submitted last week to Simple Talk also.

For further reading: Security Breaches by Sector and How Data was Disclosed courtesy of the Information Commissioner's Office.

Troubleshooting SQL Server Database Mirroring Problems with Best Practices: Requirements, and the 64-bit Benefit

2009-11-12T05:04:00Z

As mentioned in previous disaster recovery posts and article, during my current mandate I have been tasked with what will ultimately be mirroring between redundant data centres. Mirroring has been chosen thanks to its easy setup and automatic failover option. The following is an overview of what should be taken care of to ensure a stable Mirroring setup.

Prerequisites for Mirroring are that you ensure that your database is optimised already, because mirroring an unoptimised database is just double the potential problems (in terms of file space). In this way, expected disk space growth should be analysed thoroughly. As for the build level, I am just waiting to apply SQL 2005 sp3, cu6(?) before running a mirrored set up in production. I figure having the same highest-available build level is the best way to start a mirroing infrastructure.

Initially there were rumours that there was a maximum value to the number of databases mirrored, but that turned out to only be applicable to 32-bit systems (which is a platform you probably woudn't wan to have heavily used databases on still anyway), which has a limit of ten. On 64-bit database systems there is no documented limit, therefore instances that hold many databases are without issue, apart from the typical I/O, network, and processor utilisation. In 2008, there has been an improvment on the compression of the log before it is applied to the mirror, but after testing with three times the average traffic with SQL Stress and RedGate's Data Generator, e.g. pumping three million inserts across with a bunch of large selects on the worst tables, we had only a max wait time to apply the log of only 1.2 seconds as the exception, whilst the Database Mirroring Monitor reported mostly under 200ms.

Start with a general verification that the ports are open on the remote EndPoint by running from the Run dialog box/cmd line:
telnet RemoteServerName 5022

Verifying Port Availability - When you are configuring the network for a database mirroring session, make sure the database mirroring endpoint of each server instance is used by only the database mirroring process. If another process is listening on the port assigned to a database mirroring endpoint, the database mirroring processes of the other server instances cannot connect to the endpoint.

To display all the ports on which a Windows-based server is listening, use the netstat command-prompt utility. YOU can identify the listening ports and the processes that have those ports opened, follow these steps:
1. Obtain the process ID of the respective instance of SQL Server, connect to that instance and use the following Transact-SQL statement:
SELECT SERVERPROPERTY('ProcessID')
2. Match the process ID with the output of the following netstat command:
netstat -ano

If ever you arrive with an error like this: Database Mirroring login attempt failed with error: 'Connection handshake failed. There is no compatible encryption algorithm. State 22.'. [CLIENT: IPaddress...]
This is probably happening because your encryption is setup differently on the mirror/principal. The system table sys.database_mirroring_endpoints will show different algorithms- Mirror-encryption_algorithm_desc=RC4 and Principal- encryption_algorithm_desc=NONE
Therefore it is best to issue a:
Drop Endpoint Mirroring
command on both mirroring parters (to start from scratch, beware, this blows away all mirroring on the endpoing), so that when you try and set up mirroring again, you are not stopped by a difference regarding encryption. If DROP ENDPOINT is not possible, meaning you have other database Mirroring established already with another server, and then the other option would have been to run ALTER ENDPOINT on both instances For more information regarding Mirroring, check out the System Tables:

select * from sys.database_mirroring_endpoints

SELECT

e.name, e.protocol_desc, e.type_desc, e.role_desc, e.state_desc, t.port, e.is_encryption_enabled, e.encryption_algorithm_desc, e.connection_auth_desc
FROM sys.database_mirroring_endpoints e JOIN sys.tcp_endpoints t ON e.endpoint_id = t.endpoint_id

select * from sys.endpoints

select * from sys.database_mirroring where mirroring_state is not null

-- which ones are in the mirroring state

--to see who has granted Mirroring and the grantee

SELECT

EP.name, SP.STATE, CONVERT(nvarchar(38), suser_name(SP.grantor_principal_id)) AS GRANTOR, SP.TYPE AS PERMISSION, CONVERT(nvarchar(46),suser_name(SP.grantee_principal_id)) AS GRANTEE
FROM sys.server_permissions SP , sys.endpoints EP
WHERE SP.major_id = EP.endpoint_id
ORDER BY Permission,grantor, grantee;

I shall be updating this further once I have had success in production. I hope this helps, if you are aiming on taking advantage of this great functionality

References and Recommendations from MSDN: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms366349(SQL.90,printer).aspx

A great step by step script-based tutorial: http://www.mssqltips.com/tip.asp?tip=1705

Dell’s guide to Mirroring

Montreal as a City State: Can a DBA Go Beyond their Workplace to Provoke Change in their Region?

2009-11-06T12:30:00Z

I am very impressed with Michel David’s work, and openly endorse much of his great piece of work at MontrealCityState.ca – the following is personal take on his propositions, or simple re-iteration, and if I have more to add, or issue with the specific point (which I shall throw in anecdotes to make a point, or give specific technical experience for persuasion when necessary). The main difference I would like to see as a result of this proposal is that we look at this separation of Montreal from the rest of Quebec as a Logical one, in addition to the obvious Physical separation that exists. If Quebeckers want a large city that is more Quebec City-like in mentality, then they would be happier in Laval(?), but we must respect Montreal’s multi-cultural constitution and allow it to flourish without the constant negative judgementalism from the rest of Quebec, which frets over the city’s diversity and anguishes over losing the French language (as mentioned before, still here after 400 years, so why are discriminatory laws from the 70s still existing – as if many politicians are still stuck in the seventies, and forgetting to concentrate key issues such as education). As immigrants arrive, they are more likely to be favourable to the Lingua Franca, which some in the government view as an attack on the French Language, or an attack on the [broken] Quebec Model, but this passion is misplaced in the Montreal context due to a combination of many of the following reasons.

Negative Consequences of Separatist Movements and their Repetitive Attempts to de-Anglicise Montreal Completely

I am not going to justify and give lengthily discussion on the exodus of English-speaking Canadians (hundreds of thousands of Anglo-Quebeckers), that is covered quite effectively by a series of YouTube videos (many individuals interviewed, for those in QC spread lies and think that Anglos who left did it out of their own volition ). Early last Spring, about the same time as Michel David was composing this work, I spoke out in a letter to Government Institutions in Quebec, especially ex-Premier Bernard Landry, about workplace discrimination by race/ethnicity and psychological harassment.

I am an Anglo-Quebecker, who even married in Ayer’s Cliff, just eight kilometres down the road from where Great Grandfather Robert Austin was married in the Eastern Townships (Coaticook). Although born in Vancouver, and went to bilingual school in the beginning, I came back East in `98 to return to some centuries-old roots in Quebec, although only really becoming fluent in French in Brussels, Belgium during the four years at Vesalius College, VUB, between `94-8. Initially, my 'boot camp' in French was at the Université Libre de Bruxelles in the Institut Phonétique, but the real fluency came mostly by hanging out with the Motquin family here below in Freyr, Rock Climbing by the side of the great Meuse River that runs through much of North Western Europe:

Climbing with Serge, Ben and Lilliane really helped learning the language quick, although it puts a heavy hint on the vocabulary related to climbing first: La voie, le relais, s'assurer, le baudrier, le noeud huit, les chaussons...etc. All this say that I feel rather linked to this land since it has the best of Europe and Canada at the same time for me personally - we can use three languages a day here fluently, for me that`s a privilege.

Now back to MontreaCityState.ca - I agree very much with the statements regarding small business and start ups on page seven, although costs are very low, it is obvious what creativity and innovation with respect to business is not helped much by the government, since we have widespread mafia-like corruption running through the officeplace or blatant unprofessionalism, and if it is not that, we are subject (coming from a profitable 6 years + small biz myself) to this because even in the best conditions are expected to work on steam, meaning absolutely bank overdraught for up to six months at a time – even when you are on a government project.

This is fundamentally flawed, since now that it has come to a crisis (greatest financial hiccup for a century), all those who forced others to run on fumes have had their respective revenue sources be forcefully placed on hold for what it seems like about six months - imagine not being paid in full for six months, and somehow surviving with only twenty percent of your earnings given to you at a time? This is the pressure small businesses have to endure - because veut veut pas the attitude is that someone else will pay for your problems (see the points behind the great work Illusion Tranquille). This goes back to another point which is inconturnable here in Quebec: sometimes you come across those whose mentality is founded upon a notion that they are entitled to make decisions for you (la raison pour laquelle je dit que le gouvernement nous traite d’esclaves assez souvent, et quand on retire nos droits, ce n’est plus une société libre, pensez au francophones qui veulent mettre les élèves en école en anglais laissez faire la Loi 104 SVP), as if it’s okay to violate your rights and unapologetically at that (and people wonder why there are such shameful outmigration levels, even deplored by guests at the Sunday-night institution Tout le Monde en Parle hosted by the great Guy A. LePage). My most serious anecdote involves a [now thrown out] Senior Vice President at the Caisse de Défauts, who not only hinted that minorities did not have the right to work for the Government (are you surprised Landry ranted on about Anglos working for the CDP(?)still people?), but harassed many persons until they left and even had the audacity to say loudly from their open offices how easy it is to kick out the English. And people wonder why there are ‘Angry’phones? When will these ‘which side are you on’ divisions ever end? What possible way of foreward thinking would lead anyone to envisage that you can get away with such socially unacceptable behaviour?

Horror Stories Aside, Lessons Learned – Montreal’s double-whammy Neverdum Post-Mortem

How can we apply these principles and arguments brought forth by Mr. David’s great work? Think of the current situation and what brought it about. Currently, a re-elected Mayor for the third time who has been trying to stand up to the inherent massive corruption system at the risk of his life, although turning a blind eye to is for long. The circumstances are so ominous that even The Economist took notice to comment about Graft, that has established itself as, in one instance, a network of 14 companies for city construction contracts (this system, in actual fact, a mafia organization chiefly, was openly exposed by a famous whistleblower, our brave Mr. Beaudry). More persons have to step forward to put an end to this, and by writing I hope to contribute.

Diversity has to be allowed in Montreal to prosper as it was before the referendums and separatists ruined outside investment, especially after the second referendum in 1995 (see Montreal reborn) without the projection of the modèle Québécois onto the City of Montreal (and many bilingual regions, in the Greater Montreal Area).

When Michel David mentions governance, he is hitting the mark, and I agree with him clearly about the Negative Interdependence Quebec has on provinces surrounding it, resulting from the political instability due to the failed threat of separation, Anglo Exodus, Separatist Propaganda (thanks Daniel Laprès for your note) and business’ HQs departure to Toronto. A common way to really create wealth here (and one of the only ways it seems) is by Real Estate, thus, no wonder the real booming market we are seeing in Montreal now that the interest rates have stayed low. This is another counter-current to the economic downturn, the reason that we are seeing construction and renovation (Federal govt.s Action Plan induced also), since many people who are able to sell (since we have a minimum 25% mortgage down payment requirement by Canadian banks, and applauded by economists as a reason our banking system is strong still, quite different from the huge Foreclosure Crisis in the U.S.A).

How Not to Promote Growth - Promoting the Chamber of Commerce as Unilingual

To be honest, despite loving to live in French most of the time, and even Blogging in French, the Chamber of Commerce has really turned me off with its repetitive message that it wants a French Only Business environment in Montreal (hence the reasons behind the negative growth of the networks here, promoting division instead of the actual bilingual workplace, which was even supported by the Premier), meaning that obviously we have to be ignored because we speak another language (wtphrack?) – of course, this is a worst case scenario, but I could provide several anecdotes. Is this not yet another sociological propaganda message to not create a pro-diversity board of trade, but a francophone only one? Could they be more blatant with having the Premier okay the message too? Does Charest (with his pro-nationalist-goggles on) even realise what this means to the large percentage of businesses that operate in English due to their out of province ties, or the fact that they might be run by 20% of the island population who are native English Speakers, or the other 30-35% of 'allophones' who use English? Does this not mean that we have business networks, that control the flow of money, when it trickles down from the government or their big untendered contracts (where minorities are represented only in pathetic numbers, less than a percentage point say twenty percent Anglophone population?), and minorities are cut off from the source of this wealth, as if to accept the majority's sense of entitlement? David states that ‘…to protect the French language and culture and to nurture a Québécois set of values’ from the top of the government down means that ‘for Montreal, however, a modern, dynamic city, this defensive and past-oriented strategy has been toxic: Montreal needs a very different forward-looking, proactive strategy.’ I have mentioned this stuck in the sixties/seventies mentality thoroughly in a post to Government Institutions last Spring, and I am glad to see someone like this man has independently come to much of the same conclusions!

Time to Patch up Some Wounds and Establish Equality Amongst the Island's Inhabitants

For this whole strategy to work, might I suggest that there be reconciliation with the Anglophone community who has been the scapegoat for much of the post Quiet Revolution, now (Grand Illusion) illusion tranquille era. Many, such as myself, are uneasily happy with declaration of the nation we all knew existed in our multi-nation state, because of the exodus from the province and the exclusion of French Canadians from the boundaries of the nation they are supposed to be a part of too, but have caused a clear internal rift since the pro-independence movement now in decline thanks to acceptance of nationhood. Many splinter extremist groups have resulted, which attempt to attract attention to their lost sovereigntist cause by screaming ever louder and louder (hence the term Bluenecks, QC’s Redneck equivalent , described thoroughly here), even to the point of threatening the Family of the head of State touring the Country (HRH Prince Charles was harassed by the Réseau de Résistance Québécois and Anti-Royalist League while trying to give thanks to Canadians who served in Afganistan), or bringing back sloppy seconds from the PQ songbook or demonising anything English (even education in EN) that has any open character flaw (as if nobody can be perfect, except for those from the their own side of history…a cheap tactic to get the Anglophobes to follow easily and their obvious disdain). In France, one only has to see LePenn’s speeches and attitude to understand this strain of xenophobia, even Sarkozy was harassed by persons who share this mentality clanniste before he won the presidency.

This mans' comment regarding the Bill 104 contraversy summarizes the mistreatment of the Anglophone community very well:
Damien
November 13, 2009 - 2:23 PM

'Quebec is still a part of Canada, so Quebec is not French ONLY; Quebec was and is French and English....Some think Quebec is French period; only if you're a closed minded xenophobe. Some say Immigrants who choose to educate in English, violates Francophone rights; only if your a hypocritical racist. Others say the French language is threatened and the burden of protection falls on the sacrificial Anglophone; only if you're fully indoctrinated with Franco supremacist lies and can't count high enough to realize Francophones are an overwhelming majority, which shamelessly abuses their power at the expense of the Anglophone and Allophone minorities. I say if Francophones can't maintain or preserve their own language without trampling the rights of other, that's not my problem. It is not the responsibility of Anglos to sacrifice themselves to save the French language, especially when the Francophones think nothing of killing the English language where ever it is found. The politicians and bureaucrats will never save the French language in Quebec. If the people can't do it on their own, the language will die in N. America. The more they tighten the screws, the more tension they will create and the closer we all come to the breaking point. I used to care about Quebec and the future of the Quebecois, but no longer. They have disrespected and abused the Anglos poeple too many times. There is no going back.'

The Way Forward, Break Montreal’s Immobile State

As mentioned before I shall always remain optimistic and straight forward as Mr. David, because maintaining a cheerful disposition, despite being under immense financial pressure due to the highest level of taxation in North America, and multiple attacks on the welfare of my family due to exposure by contract (with a dose of minority mistreatment, which typical during an economic downturn anywhere). His goals are the same as mine, since we both love this city despite its mismanagement, we need to brake away from the status quo by clearly pointing out the blockage (immobilisme) that comes from the culture of français avant tout entitlement currently instilled, to a proactive, change-driven entrepreneurial culture, that creates autonomous individuals instead of those dependent on the state for hand-outs (for projects, etc.). Why doesn’t the Caisse de Défauts take an example from success and hire street smart entrepreneurs instead of complacent, incompetent permanents that reinforce state dependence. It would result in, as Michel David states on page twelve, in the wide-spread bottom-up individual or enterprise initiative, by allowing the money to flow to persons who are creating the jobs (small business in general creates eighty percent of jobs).

Also, one of the incremental strategy examples would be the positive reinforcement of the mandate of the Working Standards Commission, since this major improvement in the workplace will be a great benefit to diversity. Minorities would not have to live in fear of unwanted repetitive harassment by the 'Bluenecks' in the office, as I have sustained multiple times - unfortunately, due to the recession, workplace tensions have risen significantly...

Montreal is Distinct from the Rest of the Province - Don’t Crimp It’s Style!

A defensive stance for the physical island of Montreal should not be taken as is done for the rest of QC, trying to survive in a Anglo sea of contiguous states. The Island has always been shared territory, but the nationalist / franco-separatist zealots (although their numbers are very few, as we noticed from the less than one hundred that showed up to protest in front of Brent Tyler’s Office over the fight against Bill 104) are trying to re-write history continuously as if to justify the ethnic cleansing of Anglos from the Island (gladly returning, a revived community with population levels of just under 800,000), to the point of convincing multi-nationals that English isn’t worth posting anymore in retail establishments (even if multi-national companies!). This is quite disgusting considering Canada is a bilingual country. These wrongs have to be reversed, thus my awareness and standing up to the sources of this immobile bullydom.

Another aspect Michel focuses on is the proverb ‘less liberty, less wealth,’ Tasha Kheirriddin pointed out Les Affaires in August last year. One thing is for sure, the anti-English repressive laws here, often only of a psychological nature aimed at forcing a homogenous society (simple anecdote, Louis Harel’s attack on what she called Ghettos on the Island of Montreal), are enough to turn investment away from Quebec not to mention huge CDPQ losses (47BN and counting). In this way, if the top of the heap cannot even get it right, despite 5/7 things done perfectly well, not willing to admit fault ('denial', not only a river in Egypt) for obvious things to those who have survived the ridiculous mismanaged and vicious government environments. Who would willingly go to set up a business in a place where they risk harassment and being fined for being different from the provincial mould? Why does the main supporter behind Quebec Inc., the Caisse de Depot, give such preferential treatment to one ethnicity as opposed to all Quebeckers? I’m sorry, but who made up all these rules (ah, right only majority’s elite), and convince the majority to follow this like fools. Does this mean stealing opportunities from those who do not fit the homogenous mould of the rest of Quebec is justified? It’s not to say that all business that has been helped by the CDP isn’t good, but the cumulative effect of restrictions based on ethnicity, favouritism to pro-sovereigntists (the CDPQ being a bastion set up by Parizeau himself), high taxes significantly contributes, the widespread mafia-like construction cartel, and lack of internal investment into the province means we have an immobile economy (Mr David describes this on page 12/3 Immobilisme again). Honestly, it feels like we are living in a quasi bullydom sometimes after have been thrust upon several persons of various degrees – where schoolyard politics are the norm in the government and in a few private companies, with the tools that support their control.

Solutions, Solutions, Solutions

The solutions to this blockus are bilingualism, forced minority quotas by the Working Standards Commission (Commission des normes du travail) and lower taxes on the island (similar to what was done to promote people to move back onto the island at the start of the millennium), and the promotion of diversity, by perhaps rekindling of the Vivre Ensemble / Living Together, pro-diversity campaigns of the past by the government (thinking of the posters still up in Serrano's resto in the Mile-End of Montreal, on St-Zotique Street).

The new proposed Model for Montreal, is to, firstly, respect the city’s history (meaning a return of the great Scottish, Irish and English history ALSO, the other three corners of the flag! please), as it was a great city and can become once again once we reach out to the rest of the world. We have to minimise the influence of what has left us in this immobile state (see above), and in turn support wealth creation, entrepreneurialism, and international orientation (instead of only inward looking, as in the modèle Québécois – which can work for many, but should not be treated as the only route to success). Celui qui cri le plus fort (the one screaming the loudest) is not the way to set examples, it’s the way to establish Losership, this must be dropped to focus on the best ideas instead (Quebec’s equivalent of the Metro Vs. Retro struggle).

I would support his proposal about uniting Montreal’s various politically, but the lack of trust in the city is at an all time high with another scandal exposed monthly. When diversity is essentially enforced in the government workplace from the top down, then maybe we can talk about this suggestion, until then, the demerged cities will not be keen on allowing another forced merger. Those who have been labelled as Allophones or Anglophones must be filtered from the infamous provincial modèle québécois – unless the ethnocentric Ville de Montréal accept bilingualism and the right to a minority veto to ensure wake is not damaging to the point of ethnic cleansing, as we have lived through in the past, because without actions in this direction, the decline of the city and the province shall continue.

Happy Halloween to the DBA - Pumpkin Carving as a Team Building Exercise

2009-10-30T20:47:00Z

The past couple of days we have had some fun with a Team Building exercise by means of designing our Pumpkin for an internal competition between teams. Unfortunately we did not win anything, nor even make the top three, but we certainly did have some fun – and watching this Japanese toy bunny's LED light change colors has made for a few wicked photos. Enjoy :)

Notes on a Migration from Oracle to SQL Server

2009-10-27T04:32:00Z

I have to admit, when asked to perform a migration from Oracle to SQL Server over the past couple of months, I was a bit apprehensive. After having passed an all-nighter to finish the project off recently, starting at 3pm, and finally heading home around 6:30am, there was an unsuccessful attempt by the ‘I don’t use a plan for my project’ person on the other end of the line to get me to turn around to fix a single column size because one report did not work (which of course, was not noticed in pre-production/test environment, and later was fixed without my intervention). Luck won at that stage, but it is not always that way as a DBA without doubt.

First of all, to anyone who has just worked two shifts in a row; do not attempt to call them back to fix a minor thing (respect?), especially a column size fix that at least two other people (in this case) can do, not just because I’m a windging, grumpy, even zombie-like DBA at 6am in the morning, but most importantly, the due to the high risk of messing something up in production. There are physical limitations that we must respect of any employee or contractor performing their duties while manipulating a critical production database instance - sleep is not negotiable. This should be needless to say, but after repetitively being asked to forego this basic need, I am blogging it!

Secondly, as with all migrations, one should constantly try and adhere to the keep it simple rule (K.I.S.S.) – this migration was no exception, so what we did from the very beginning was create insert scripts of all the data into the tables (not a huge database, in the tens of megabytes only), since the schema export was already done for us by a vendor (to which I only had to do minor tweaks to appreciatively). Before actually going through each table insert script one by one to adjust the fully qualified table names, add Set Identity_Insert On/off statements, with a quick truncate before the begin tran/inserts/commit batch, I had scripted out, in a previous step, all the drop/create foreign key and constraints statements to bring all the data in quickly without per-table FK/Constraint drop/recreation.

Finally, I created a checklist with all the table row counts printed out for manual check-off as I made progress through the 50+ tables to load into SQL Server 2008. It took all night, as mentioned before, so running in the background Youtube’s links to three long series on Franco-Norman history, around and just after the Invasion, permitted my non-technical historical enrichment to benefit at the same time J

Now, I can honestly say that I look forward to migrating more databases over from Oracle.