On pshell.info, I posted an article about SharePoint and PowerShell that shows how to use PowerShell with stsadm.exe. If you have worked with SharePoint a lot, you probably know stsadm. It is used for command line administration of SharePoint and to obtain information about users, sites, installed web parts, etc...

The problem with stsadm is that it returns XML that can be difficult to interpret and work with. PowerShell can help there with its support for XML as a datatype. Take a look at the article to find out more.

And by the way, credit where credit is due, I got inspired by this post on the Adventures in SPWonderland blog. Great blog so check it out. 

When you deploy MOSS 2007, you need to have a SQL server in place for the configuration database, content databases and various other databases. But what if you need to change that SQL server later? In theory, there are several options:

• Use connection aliases and change the alias to use another server.
• Use the stsadm utility with the renameserver option.

A connection alias is setup using the SQL Server Configuration Manager utility. I usually install the SQL management tools on the MOSS server which makes the tool available. Normally, you use aliases for security reasons as documented here.

In the diagram above, there is a simple farm with a MOSS server and a SQL server. The SQL server is configured to listen on TCP port 40000 with SQL Server Configuration Manager. The MOSS server is configured to connect to the SQL server using TCP port 40000. To let the MOSS server connect using TCP port 40000, you need to create an alias on the MOSS server. When you create an alias with SQL Server Configuration Manager, it will store the alias definition in HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSSQLServer\Client\ConnectTo. For the example above, you would find the following value:

• Name: sql
• Type: REG_SZ
• Value: DBMSSOCN,sql.test.com,40000

From practical experience, I do not recommend using an alias to change the SQL server in a MOSS farm. Instead, use the stsadm command as follows:

stsadm -o renameserver -oldservername <oldname> -newservername <newname>

After running this command, restart all services or reboot the server.

Of course, you need to migrate all data from the old SQL server to the new one. You can restore backups to the new server and recreate logins to achieve that goal.

In summary, when you need to change the SQL server in a MOSS 2007 farm, use the stsadm command instead of SQL connection aliases. Use connection aliases to meet security requirements like connecting to SQL with a different port number.

While reading virtualization.info, I noticed Veeam released the next version of FastSCP. If you need an easy and free tool to tranfer data to and from your ESX servers, you should give it a go. Some of the features:

• Add multiple ESX servers to the console for easy navigation.
• Copy files between ESX servers: files are copied directly from server to server without involving your management workstation.
• Edit files on your ESX servers: no need to use ssh and nano or vi to edit ESX configuration files.

Download it from here. If you run the tool on Vista, run it as an administrator. That is required because the tool uses a TEMP folder somewhere under c:\program files.

On Monday, Microsoft revealed Windows Mobile 6 at the 3GSM conference in Barcelona, Spain. Formerly known as Crossbow, the new mobile operating system has many interesting features. Some of the features that interest me most are:

• Better support for Office applications like Excel, Word and PowerPoint. The mobile versions of these applications are available on SmartPhones as well.
• Extra security features like storage card encryption and the possibility to wipe a storage card with Exchange's remote wipe feature.
• Exchange 2007 AutoDiscovery support.
• Support for HTML e-mails and hotkey support.
• Easier to use your phone as a modem for your computer. Although I have no issues connecting my HTC MTeoR (Windows Mobile 5) to my laptop using bluetooth.
• Easy to search e-mails on the device but also on the Exchange server (requires Exchange Server 2007).
• Sending v-cards to others using an SMS. This should have been part of Windows Mobile from day one though.
• Much easier to add trusted root certificates. This was definitely a pain with Windows Mobile 5.

A great resource for Windows Mobile 6 information is Jason Langridge's blog. Check out the post about the new features, and the video.

Devices with Windows Mobile 6 should start to appear in Q2 2007. I really hope HTC releases an update for the MteoR!

I recently got my hands on an HP nw8440 mobile workstation with a dual-core Intel Core 2 Duo processor (T7400 @ 2.16Ghz). Those processors have EM64T and Virtualization Technology (VT) support. Those two technologies make it possible to run 64-bit guests with VMware Workstation. I am running Windows Vista Ultimate so I decided to install VMware Workstation 6 on it.

At first it did not work because, for some unknown reason, HP ships these laptops with VT disabled and without an option in the BIOS to enable it. After downloading and installing the latest BIOS from hp.com, I could enable VT in the BIOS. After enabling VT, you have to power down the system and start it again for VT to become active.

With VT active, VMware Workstation 6 was able to run a 64-bit guest without issues as expected. See the screenshot with Windows XP x64 running as a guest on Vista as a host (click to enlarge).

Microsoft released four deployment guides for several types of organizations:

• Simple organization
• Standard organization
• Large organization
• Complex organization

Naturally, there is quite some overlap in all four guides. The guides also contain an introduction to Exchange Server 2007 management with PowerShell.

All of this documentation is also available in the Exchange help files but they are more convenient to read in Word format.

While reading the blog of Serge van den Oever, I read about Console2. It's a tool that enhances how you work with a console application like cmd.exe or even powershell.exe.

Some of the features are transparent windows, tabs for different command line applications (e.g. one for cmd.exe, one for PowerShell, ...), easy cut and paste, automatic adjustment of rows and columns when the window is resized, etc...