Microsoft SQL Server 2008 - Installation Made Easy

SQL 2008 server is the latest in the line of Microsoft database servers and this article by Dr. Jayaram Krishnaswamy discusses the challenges one may face in installing the Developer version of this product which was released in November 2007. On a virgin machine the software probably installs without a hitch but with a history of installs, especially of the earlier versions it is anything but a joy ride.

"It is almost always true for most of the software I have installed, not necessarily limited to Microsoft. However, most of Microsoft products need entry in the Window's registry and it is almost certain that one has to follow a certain protocol if one wishes to have a successful install. In fact the unsuccessful install flags out what went wrong while the initial steps do verify the requirements during installation. Despite this help and warnings one may face problems simply because it is not possible to foresee all possible combinations of hardware, software, user created error issues at launch time of the product. Again this article does not guarantee a successful install if one were to follow the steps delineated but gives you some guidance based on the author's experience."

DotNetNuke Skinning: Creating Your First Skin

The thought of creating your first skin may be intimidating. You may believe that there are steps that will have to be done just right or there's no point even getting started. The fact is that once you understand some simple concepts, skinning is relatively easy. Ultimately, you will need to know your HTML and CSS markup and styling, but that is common in any type of web design you would do anywhere. This article by Darren Neese is geared toward those who have never created a skin, and it will get you over any anxiety you thought you had about creating a skin.

ASP.NET MVC Framework

These days, Model View Controller (MVC) is a buzzword in the ASP.NET community, thanks to the upcoming ASP.NET MVC Framework that Microsoft is expected to launch soon. The Framework allows easier adoption of the different MVC patterns in our web applications.In this article by Vivek Thakur, we discuss ASP.NET MVC Framework in detail with the help of a Sample Project. We also take a glance at Unit Testing with reference to ASP.NET MVC Framework.

The ASP.NET MVC framework was released by Microsoft as an alternative approach to webforms when creating ASP.NET based web applications. The ASP.NET MVC framework is not a replacement or upgrade of webforms, but merely another way of programming your web applications so that we can get the benefits of an MVC design with much less effort.

How to Recover from an Active Directory Failure

Active Directory (AD) failure, which includes corruption, is something that is dreaded by any administrator. Simply put, it means that the directory service can no longer read the Active Directory database that it has locally. This will prevent logon and authentication as well as any directory-dependent services. Essentially, it renders the domain controller (DC) useless. What's worse, though, is that several times, the replication keeps going so that the corrupted database spreads out to the other DCs.

In this article by Florian Rommel, we will look at the different options and approaches available to recover a DC that has a database corruption. In addition, this article outlines, symptoms, causes, and solutions for this scenario.