-
Recent Posts
Personal Links
SQL Server Links
Windows OS
Meta
Category Archives: Windows OS
Powershell file mover
Pretty simple script I wrote a while back. Moves files between two paths. For example, to sweep files from a DMZ server. Optionally renames files on the target system by appending a date code. This is to avoid name collisions. … Continue reading
Posted in Powershell, Windows OS
1 Comment
Deduplicating files with LogParser and SQL Server
Perhaps this should be categorized as a stupid people trick. On the other hand, it’s a good, cheap way to deduplicate files assuming you’re running SQL Server and LogParser. This post assumes at least a basic knowledge of T-SQL and … Continue reading
Posted in T-SQL, Utilities, Windows OS
Comments Off on Deduplicating files with LogParser and SQL Server
PowerShell Script to Clean Up Old Files Based on Age
Here’s an extremely simple PowerShell script to remove old files based on age. You could use it to enforce a policy that keeps 90 days of ETL input files on a server. Files older than that would purged with this … Continue reading
Posted in Utilities, Windows OS
3 Comments
Quick and Dirty CSV import to SQL Server
You can use LogParser (a free, unsupported utility from Microsoft) to quickly import a CSV file into a SQL Server table using syntax like this: logparser “SELECT * INTO MyTable FROM d:\MyFile.csv” -i:csv -o:SQL -server:MyServer -database:MyDatabase -createTable:ON There are many … Continue reading
Posted in SQL Server, Windows OS
Comments Off on Quick and Dirty CSV import to SQL Server
Converting an existing Perfmon .BLG file to CSV
You may run across the situation where you need to import an existing Perfmon (or System Monitor) binary log file into and Excel spreadsheet or SQL database. The obvious first step is to convert it to CSV format. It took … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized, Utilities, Windows OS
Comments Off on Converting an existing Perfmon .BLG file to CSV
How to determine if TCP Chimmney Offloading is working
The TCP Chimmney Offload feature was introduced in Windows Server 2003 SP2. It can offload certain functions from the OS to the network adapter card. A lot of our newer HP Servers have a Broadcomm Ethernet chipset that supports this … Continue reading
Posted in Windows OS
Comments Off on How to determine if TCP Chimmney Offloading is working
Remote Reboot
Today while applying patches to a couple of mission-critical servers, I was reminded of something: reboots issued through the terminal services client are not always successful. The server can get stuck in an odd state where it is running but … Continue reading
Posted in Windows OS
Comments Off on Remote Reboot
Ongoing Lessons from the Cluster Lab
It’s been a while since I worked on my cluster lab. The first thing that I did was to tear down the old cluster and start over from scratch. The first lesson from this round of testing came when the … Continue reading
Posted in Windows OS
Comments Off on Ongoing Lessons from the Cluster Lab
Using Diskpart to Align a Windows Disk Partition
There is an EMC whitepaper titled Using diskpar and diskpart to align partitions on Windows Basic and Dynamic Disks. This paper describes how legacy Windows issues cause a single disk I/O to span multiple tracks. This puts an unnecessary load … Continue reading
Posted in Performance, Windows OS
6 Comments
Starting Windows Performance Logging at boot time
Performance logging will not start on its own at boot time. Here’s how to get around that problem. Applies to: W2k3, XP Using the Performance MMC, create a set of counter logs. Use a specific name to save the … Continue reading
Posted in Performance, Windows OS
Comments Off on Starting Windows Performance Logging at boot time
SQL Server Best Practices Analyzer (BPA)
A new version of the SQL Server 2005 Best Practices Analyzer (BPA) is here. On a related note, the BPA reported several operating system issues that I was unaware of, including an issue where SQL Server’s working set gets paged … Continue reading
Posted in SQL Server, Windows OS
Comments Off on SQL Server Best Practices Analyzer (BPA)
Windows shell script: putting date & time into a file
SET mydate=%DATE:~4,2%_%DATE:~7,2%_%DATE:~10,4% echo mydate >> somefile.txt
Posted in Windows OS
Comments Off on Windows shell script: putting date & time into a file
Clustering Lab
I recently built an Windows Server 2003 cluster lab using a couple of PCs, two Adaptec AHA2940UW controllers and an old SCSI drive. When configuring the SCSI HBAs, it is important to remember to disable SCSI resets. Note that when … Continue reading
Posted in Windows OS
Comments Off on Clustering Lab
Tarpits
While working on a client’s Exchange server, I stumbled across an interesting knowledgebase article: SMTP tar pit feature for Microsoft Windows Server 2003. Tarpits insert a delay into certain SMTP communications that are associated with spam or with other unwanted … Continue reading
Posted in Windows OS
Comments Off on Tarpits
Automated, Scheduled Domain Controller Diagnostics
Wouldn’t it be nice to have the time once a week to run the dcdiag against all of your domain controllers and review the results? (yeah, right) Well, I wrote a script to automate that process. It works like this: … Continue reading
Posted in Windows OS
Comments Off on Automated, Scheduled Domain Controller Diagnostics