As virtualisation software becomes more the norm in server environments everywhere people want to do more with less. Specifically running Project Server 2010 (which runs on top of Sharepoint 2010) in VMWare..

Now while this is possible (make sure you have lots of RAM for this VM – 4GB’s is a good start) you are more than likely going to run up against the Sharpoint Time Service maxing out your CPU, or thrashing your disks, to a point where the whole VM Server is completely trashed and won’t do anything whatsoever. This is a fairly common occurrence and I have seen it on a few Sharepoint 2007 Servers also.
(more…)

VMWare Server is a great product for running multiple virtual machines on top of a host system (in my case Windows 2003 Server) but the Web Interface is sluggish and poorly designed. But for a free product i’m definitely not complaining..

On the weekend while doing some routine maintenance I hit a point where from any machine I was unable to access the Web Interface for any longer than a few seconds before it started returning ‘timed out: cannot communicate with host’ errors. I would be returned to the VMWare login screen, log back in, and immediately get the same error – around and around we go..
(more…)

If you ask Microsoft there is no clear database migration path backwards to SQL Server 2005 from 2008..

Talk about painful!

Sometimes it just needs to be done unfortunately..

However there is a solution, while a touch annoying, that should solve your problems.

Open up Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Management Studio Express (there is a free express version located here)
(more…)