Upgrading SQL Server 2008 to SP1 should not require a blog post. Any upgrade should be a matter of clicking Next, Next, Next, Finish; but alas, SQL Server SP1 update thinks otherwise. This is what I’ve been getting when trying to run the SP1 update for an x64 instance from the network:

In order to fix this error, I followed these steps:

1. Copied the SQLServer2008SP1-KB968369-x64-ENU.exe file to my documents folder
2. Open an administrator command prompt
3. Change dir to “My Documents” folder
4. Extract the files by typing “SQLServer2008SP1-KB968369-x64-ENU.exe /extract”
5. You will be prompted to select a folder to extract, I selected C:\SQL-2008-SP1
6. Launch the file Setup.exe as administrator from the folder you specified in the previous step
7. No more “Invoke or BeginInvoke cannot be called on a control until the window handle has been created” errors.

Today I really wanted to kick myself for trying to get around a problem when trying to make a C# console application instantiate a COM DLL. I had created these 2 projects under the same solution, but when I was debugging, a COM exception exploded in my face:

System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException was unhandledMessage=”Retrieving the COM class factory for component with CLSID {20156CB7-8B2F-4B55-9F79-0DE4E8E04145} failed due to the following error: 80040154.”

I was baffled as the COM component was registered successfully.

After looking for CLSIDs in the registry, and toying around with the OLE COM Object Viewer, it struck me.

I had created the C# and COM projects under the same solution. C++ projects on Visual Studio are created to target x86 by default whereas managed projects are created to target AnyCPU by default.

Since I was running this on a 64-bit OS, the C# app ran as a 64-bit process and was looking under the 64-bit registry section to find info on the InprocServer, which had been registered as a 32-bit component.

I changed the C# application to target 32-bit, and the COM error was gone.

I can only help but feel foolish for stumbling onto this mistake. I think I spent about 2 years training people on how to avoid these pitfalls, and yet, here I was in too deep…tsk tsk.

On to the next thing…

When you uninstall the HPC 2008 Compute Cluster Pack and try to install it again, you might be faced with the following error:

This usually happens when for whatever reason, the SQL instance that HPC Server 2008 uses is left behind; thus, when installing the pack for a second time, it will fail because it cannot overwrite the instance. The bad part is that you cannot uninstall it, because you already did. In order to fix this issue here is what I did:

1. Install SQL Server Express (stand alone, it must NOT be R2, use this one)
2. Once installed, uninstall SQL Server, it will let you select the instance that did not get uninstalled
3. It will complain about SQL process running, you MUST kill the sql process\
4. Uninstall other SQL components
5. Once uninstalled, install the HPC pack again, the DB will be created and HPC PAck 2008 will be installed without problems

Hope this helps someone in the future.

Ever since the introduction of WDS services in Windows Server 2003 R2 SP1, creating images for deployment on the Windows platform is extremely easy and straightforward. In the past, I have managed to create clusters of machines (about 52) in one afternoon by automating the whole process with a single WDS server (without multicast, mind you). We can all agree that WDS is amazing – but what about those ocasions when you want to image something and you do not want to sysprep the source computer?

In case you are not familiar with the process syspreping a machine: sysprepping a machine is the procedure in which you convert a source machine into a generic one, stripping away all SSIDs so that on next boot, it will have a new ’soul’, so to speak. This is a must if you plan to deploy images that will be used in an active directory environment, else you are in for a treat when your DC starts seeing all these machines that have the same properties.

Anyhow, in order to use WDS to create an image, the source machine needs to be syspreped – period, there is (AFAIK) no way around this. So if you have a perfect demo and you want to have an image in case you need to restore – what can you do? You obviously do not want to sysprep a demo machine, who knows what might happen.

You can always use Ghost, like I did. You create the image, restore the image and…

Whoa…not quite what you were expecting, huh? The problem is that (I think) some of the boot partition is lost during the restore. Repairing with Windows Server 2008 will take you nowhere, trust me.

After looking all over, I decided to give the Windows Vista Repair Disk a try. After booting from the DVD, Vista said that something was wrong with the disk. It then asked me if I wanted to repair, which I said “Yes. Please. Thank You”. After rebooting the machine, I saw the Windows loading green progress bar and everything was back to normal.

Where do you get this magical Windows Vista Repair Disk, you ask? I found them posted on the Neosmart Files web page, it’s a legit torrent download. AFAIK, the download is legit and does not break copyright laws, please let me know if I am wrong.

Let me know if this works for you, I have searched all over and never found a site that documented how to get this working.

Sometimes I wonder if the fixes we find on the Internet are a timebomb. This post will hopefully fulfill two purposes:

1. Help someone who cannot prestage machines using “Active Directory Users and Computers” in Windows Server 2008
2. Find someone who can give a better solution for this problem, because this hack really worries me

The problem:

When trying to presage a machine in Active Directory in Windows Server 2008, you do not have the option to click Next and specify that it is a managed computer:

By specifying that it is a managed computer, you are able to prestage it Active Directory and specify the WDS server that will manage this computer.

The solution:

Thanks to djseppie at the end of this forum, I read that things were fixed by installing adminpak.msi. I thought that was far-fetched since there was no 2008 version of adminpak.msi, so I ignored it completely. After trying a gazillion solutions that did not work, I decided to give adminpak a shot. When I re-opened the MMC snap-in, my jaw dropped:

So the fix does work. However, I am not comfortable in installing a Windows Server 2003 admin pak to a Windows Server 2008 DC just like that and pretend that everything is perfect. If something breaks, I will post.

While doing some cleaning in one of my VMs, I found a script that created 30 user accounts automatically in an active directory. It had 30 accounts being created, and when I created it was racing against time so did not had the chance to create a script that would iterate. Here is the updated script:

Run this in your AD and you will have the accounts created for you. This is very useful in lab environments. Notice that in the script, every account will be a domain admin, research a bit more on the net group command to understand how to add to other groups instead.

BTW, here is a link on for loops on batch files: http://www.ss64.com/nt/for.html

Or was putting these two fellows right next to each other something completely irrational:

I know you will receive confirmation on whether you want to format and so on, but I really don’t see any relation in having them side by side. Call me naive, but I just don’t see how destroying information on a disk and ejecting a disk is related in any way whatsoever.