Thursday, May 14, 2009

Changing the name of a SQL Server

After changing the computer name on a MS SQL Server you will need to run the following SQL query:

 

sp_dropserver <old_name>
GO
sp_addserver <new_name>, local
GO

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Microsoft Virtualization

I’ve finally had the chance to play around with Windows Virtual PC and XP Mode. I must say, although it’s good to finally have an update to Virtual PC 2007, I can’t understand why Microsoft still refuses to implement certain functionality.

Windows Server 2008 R2 is only available in 64 bit, which is more than OK, but why the hell won’t Windows Virtual PC support 64bit guest systems?? You have the technology in Hyper-V, Microsoft, it’s not rocket science - why would you do this? All I want is the ability to boot a Hyper-V system on my desktop/laptop. One would think that, overall, it would be MORE work for Microsoft to have their server and client virtualization differ so much. I suppose I am stuck with VMWare Server on my laptop for another while.

On the other hand, I do like what I have seen so far in XP Mode. It’s basically a virtual XP machine which publishes its applications using RDP (any links to applications in the All Users start menu pop up in the Windows 7 start menu) – pretty neat. I can see it causing problems, though, when several applications need to be used simultaneously – XP only supports 1 RDP connection. It will be interesting to see if Microsoft makes any changes to that before the RTM.