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Microsoft has released the new version of the ASP.NET Deployment Guide which is targeted for ASP.NET 3.5. This guide is meant to be used by the Hosting Providers but nothing is stopping us, the developers, from reading the intricacies of the ASP.NET deployment.

Check out the ASP.NET 3.5 Deployment Guide.

Back in 2005, Microsoft had released the similar guide for ASP.NET 2.0. I could not find that link on the MSDN web site so I have uploaded that document for you all to download. Check out ASP.NET 2.0 Deployment Guide.

Let me know if someone finds the link to the ASP.NET 2.0 guide and I will point the above link to that.

Microsoft has recently released the updated version of the WSS/SharePoint Hands on Labs and PPTs and Demos for Introductory SharePoint Developer Modules.

You can also download a WSS 3.0 SP1 VPC if you don't already have the development environment.

Following are some of the free SQL Server 2008 resources available from Microsoft. Check them out before they are gone!

eBook – Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2008

Clinic – What's New in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 for Enterprise Data Platform

Clinic – What's New in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 for Business Intelligence

Clinic – What's New in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 for Database Development

Clinic – New Features of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services

Or better yet book mark the SQL Server 2008 Learning Portal.

Today I installed SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition and following is my experience with the installation process.

Running the Setup.exe resulted in the new SQL Server Installation Center screen.

On the left-hand side of the screen is the list of categories; each of those has the options which are shown on the right-hand section of the screen. In order to install SQL Server, you would have to go to the Installation category which is shown below.

Clicking the New SQL Server stand-alone installation or add features to an existing installation link resulted in the following screen.

The next screen either let's you install an evaluation version if all you are doing is exploring SQL Server otherwise enter a valid product key to install the version that would not expire after 180 days.

Accept terms and conditions.

Clicking Next resulted in the following screen which displays the list of features which are needed by the setup. Clicking Install would install the setup support files.

After installing the setup support files, the setup checks for the following rules.

As you can see, two of the rules failed on my machine because my machine is a domain controller and has Windows Firewall enabled on it. The setup showed the following Warning dialog box upon clicking the Warning link next to each failed rule.

Check out the following article for more information about setting up the firewall for SQL Server to work properly http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc646023.aspx

Those warning did not stop me from installing SQL Server. Clicking the Next button took me to the Feature Selection screen which allows one to select the features that need to be installed.

I selected the features that I wanted to install and clicked on Next which took me to the following screen which allowed me to specify the SQL instance related values. I decided to install SQL Server 2008 as the named instance SQL2008.

Clicking Next checks for the disk space.

The next screen shows different SQL Server services which will be installed and allows one to change each service's Account Name and the Startup Type. I used the same account for all of the services and set the Startup Type to Manual because I did not want those services to start automatically; rather I would start those services myself whenever I need to play with SQL Server 2008.

The 2^nd tab let you change the database Collation which I left as is.

The next screen asks for the Authentication Mode and the SQL Server administrators. I chose Mixed Mode authentication and added two users as the SQL Server administrators.

I left the Data Directories tab unchanged and enabled the FILESTREAM feature.

The next screen was about setting up Reporting Services. I was presented with this screen because I chose to install the SQL Server Reporting Services. Since I have MOSS 2007 installed on the same machine, hence I chose the 2^nd option.

On the next screen I enabled both of the options. It is always good to help our friends in Redmond so that they could come up with improved applications.

The next screen checks a different set of installation rules.

The next screen shows a summary of all of the features selected and this is your last opportunity to go Back and change any options that you need to change.

Clicking Install started the installation process which took a long time to complete. All of the components were installed successfully.

Clicking Next took to the following screen! Finally the SQL Server 2008 is installed on my machine.

I ran the SQL Server Management Studio.

SQL Server Management Studio detected that I already have SQL Server 2005 running on the same machine, so it gave me an option to import the settings from SQL Server 2005. I chose No.

After that it gave me an option to add the SQL Server 2005 instance to the new version of the Management Studio and I chose Yes.

After starting the SQL Server 2008 service and login to the database, I was able to run the SQL Server Management Studio. Note that I have both the SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008 instances listed in the new SQL Server Management Studio.

Now I can't wait to see what new developer features are offered by Microsoft in this version of SQL Server!

Following are some of the upcoming In Person MSDN/TechNet events in Virginia. Check them out. I am planning to attend the Richmond events.

Richmond

TechNet Events: Windows Vista, Windows Power Shell and Group Policy

MSDN Event - Visual Studio 2008, WPF and Vista Security

Reston

TechNet Events: Windows Vista, Windows Power Shell and Group Policy

MSDN Event - Visual Studio 2008, WPF and Vista Security

Roanoke

MSDN Mid-Atlantic Roadshow

Subscribe to the RSS Feed for the upcoming In Person events in Virginia.

I just got an email from Ted Pattison Group about the new article which is available on their web site. This article is about implementing branding in a Publishing Site. Could you guess the author without reading the article first? Of course, it is nobody else but the WCM Guru Andrew Connell.

Check it out @ Implementing a brand in a SharePoint Publishing Site

I have been using the Oracle Developer Tools for quite some time now but I admit I have not used those tools quite extensively. I think it's about time I should take those tools seriously.

Oracle has just published a developer's guide for the .NET developers who want to use the Oracle Developers tools for Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008. It's called Oracle Database 2 Day + .NET Developer's Guide. Download the PDF version here and browse the HTML version here.

I also found the following guides which I find very useful as an SQL Server developer.

Oracle Database 2 Day Developer's Guide - PDF Version - HTML Version

Oracle Database 2 Day DBA – PDF Version – HTML Version

For developers who have not worked with Oracle PL-SQL before, I would suggest to read the 2 Day Developer's Guide first to get some basic understanding about PL-SQL, its constructs, etc and then read the Oracle .NET Developer's Guide.

All of the Oracle 11g books can be found here.

For those who are still working with Oracle 10g, see the books here.

Microsoft has just released the F# CTP. The neat feature rolled up in this version is its integration with Visual Studio 2008!

Download the CTP from the following URL: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=61ad6924-93ad-48dc-8c67-60f7e7803d3c&DisplayLang=en

For those who are not familiar with F#, check out the F# Developer Center.

I came across this jewel last week. A must have for a MOSS developer. Following is the excerpt from the download page.

Learn how to build a business solution leveraging a broad range of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Enterprise capabilities. This white paper focuses on the real-world example of an application to help consulting companies track client engagements and business performance. But the insightful lessons learned and best practices will apply wherever your next SharePoint development project takes you.

Topics include Office SharePoint Designer 2007, workflows, Excel Services 2007 and the Enterprise Search API. Whether you are a SharePoint development guru or a Microsoft .NET developer evaluating the platform, this white paper has something for you.

Check it out @ Developing Custom Applications with SharePoint Server 2007

After a long time I am able to launch my own technical articles' web site @ http://www.techconception.com

I have just published the very first article so check it out here

Don't forget to leave your comments and/or suggestion on this blog about the web site.

I just received this email from a co-worker about the upcoming live event in Richmond VA. Check out the events web site @ http://www.msdnevents.com/ or register here for the event.

In a nut-shell, some of the new technologies such as WPF, ADO.NET Entity Framework and ADO.NET Data Services will be covered. The event is on Thursday September 18. The developer sessions are from 1:00 P.M. – 5:00 P.M.