Mark's Stuff

My Foray Into Weblogging. Using this to store interesting items for later review.

Sunday, June 20, 2004

Coffee, anyone?

From my sister, Beth;

You'll never look at a cup of coffee the same way again...

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life, how things
were so hard for her. She didn't know how she was going to make it, and she
wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as
one of her problems was solved, a new one popped up.

Her mother took her into her kitchen, where she filled three pots with
water. In the first pot, she placed some carrots, in the second one, she
placed some eggs, and in the third pot, she placed some ground coffee beans.
She let them sit and boil without saying a word, then in about twenty
minutes, she turned off the burners.

She fished out the carrots and placed them into a bowl. She pulled the
eggs out and placed them into another bowl, then she ladled the coffee into
yet another bowl. Turning to her complaining daughter, she asked, "Tell me,
what do you see?"

"Carrots, eggs, and coffee," her daughter replied.

She brought her daughter closer, and asked her to feel the carrots. She
did, and noticed that they were now soft. She told her daughter to break an
egg, which she did, and after removing the shell, she saw that the egg was
now hard-boiled. Finally, she told her daughter to sip the coffee.

The daughter smiled as she tasted the rich flavor, then asked, "What's the
point, mother?"
Her mother explained that each of the three objects had faced the very
same adversity, -- boiling water, -- but each had reacted differently:

The carrot went in strong, hard and unrelenting. However, after being
subjected to the boiling water, it softened, and became weak.

The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid
interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its insides became
hardened.

The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the
boiling water, they had changed the water!

"Now, which are you?" she asked her daughter, "when adversity knocks on
your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?"

Think of it like this.......Which am I? Am I a carrot that appears to be
strong, but with pain and adversity, do I wilt, and become soft and lose my
strength?

Am I an egg, that starts out with a malleable heart, but changes with the
heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial
hardship, or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my
shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter, and tough, with a stiff
spirit and a hardened heart?

Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually CHANGES THE WATER!! The
very circumstance that brings the pain!! When the water gets hot, it
releases its fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are
at their worst, you get better......and change the situation around you!

When the hours are the darkest, and trials are their greatest, do you
elevate to the next level?

How do you handle adversity?

ARE YOU A CARROT, AN EGG, OR A COFFEE BEAN?

Coffee, anyone?

Friday, June 18, 2004

Performance Monitoring of SQL Server 2000(CRM)

Performance Monitoring of SQL Server 2000
Microsoft CRM depends heavily on Microsoft SQL Server 2000. You should ensure that you measure the Windows 2000
and Windows Server 2003 counters previously mentioned, but also the SQL Server counters. As a matter of course, you
should monitor the following settings on SQL Server.
Object Counter Comments
SQLServer:Access
Methods
Full Scans/sec When the number of full scans is significantly
greater than a baseline comparison, it may indicate
index statistics are out of date.
SQLServer:Buffer
Manager
Buffer Cache Hit Ratio If this value is less than 80 percent, your system may
need additional memory resource for SQL Server.
Ideally this value is at or near 100 percent. When
this percentage is near 100 percent, your server is
operating at optimal efficiency (as far as disk I/O is
concerned).
SQLServer:Databases Log Growths (run against
your application database
instance)
Log files growing during times of heavy system
usage will result in poor performance.
SQLServer:Databases
Application Database
Percent Log Used (run
against your application
database instance)
If the percentage of log space used approaches 100
percent, transaction log backups should be
performed more often or the transaction log files
should be increased in size.
SQLServer:Databases
Application Database
Transactions/sec (run
against your application
database instance)
The number of transactions started for the database.
SQLServer:Locks Lock Waits/sec Although blocking locks are inevitable, a value
significantly greater than a baseline comparison for
an extended period of time indicates a performance
penalty due to blocking locks. Blocking locks occur
when read operations block writes, writes block
reads, or writes block other writes.
SQLServer:Locks Number of Deadlocks/sec Although deadlocks are inevitable, a value
significantly greater than a baseline comparison for
an extended period of time indicates a performance
bottleneck. Deadlocks occur when operations each
want a resource the other has locked. If the
operations both involve writes, SQL Server must
choose one of the transactions and roll it back in
order for the other transaction to proceed. The undo
and subsequent re-do operation are the causes of less
than optimal performance.
SQLServer:Memory
Manager
Memory Grants Pending Defined as the current number of processes waiting
for a workspace memory grant. This counter, along
with Buffer Cache Hit Ratio can confirm a memory
resource bottleneck.

Thursday, June 17, 2004

APC Product - WMR1000B

APC Product - WMR1000B

Wish List!!!

839980 - How to use a script to programmatically open ports for SQL Server to use on systems that are running Windows XP Service Pack 2

Wednesday, June 16, 2004

319188 - How to use recipient policies to control mailboxes in Exchange 2000 and Exchange 2003