Some services stop automatically if they have no work to do:

For last few days I was not able to start a .Net Windows Service that I created. It gets installed properly and when start it from Services window, I pops up a message saying:

“ MyTestinSvc service on Local Computer started and then stopped. Some services stop automatically if they have no work to do, for example, the Performance Logs and Alerts service."

Well, after lot of trial and error I found these are the main reasons for such an error:

1.You need to have a serviceController in you class:

private System.ServiceProcess.ServiceController serviceController1;

2. You need to have a Main method

static void Main()
{
ServiceBase[] ServicesToRun;
ServicesToRun = new ServiceBase[] { new ApproStubSvc1() };
ServiceBase.Run(ServicesToRun);
}

3. You must have InitializeCopmponent methd

private void InitializeComponent()
{
this.serviceController1 = new System.ServiceProcess.ServiceController();
this.serviceController1.ServiceName = "MyTestSvc";
this.CanPauseAndContinue = true;
this.CanShutdown = true;
this.ServiceName = " MyTestSvc ";
}


4. You must call InitializeComponent method in the class constructor

public ApproStubSvc1()
{
InitializeComponent();
}


It should solve the problem.

Back up the master secret

Back up the master secret:

I was facing an issue of repeated event log entry of not backing up SSO master secret after I installed and configured the BizTalk server 2004. The log entry looks like this:




Here is the step of how to back up you master secret for SSO

At the command line, go to the Enterprise Single Sign-On installation directory.
C:\ Program Files\Common Files\Enterprise Single Sign-On\
Type the following syntax at the command prompt to backup the master secret key:
ssoconfig -backupsecret "C:\Backup\master-secret.backup
(or any other name in any other folder)
That’s all. No more error logs.!

UPDATE:
Here is the link from MSDN where you can generate, backup & resotre SSO Master Secret for BizTalk.
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms942701.aspx

Getting in BizTalk Explorer in Visual Studio 2003

Getting in BizTalk Explorer in Visual Studio 2003:

Neither BizTalk Explorer is available nor you can create BizTalk Projects in Visual Studio.Net 2003 if you install Visual Studio 2003 after you have installed BizTalk Server 2004.

You can rectify this if you Reinstall and Modify BizTalk Server 2004. Here are the steps:
Open C:\Program Files\Microsoft BizTalk Server 2004\ and DblClick Setup.exe

It will launch BizTalk Installation Wizard: Click Install

Click Modify

Click SDK under Development checkbox.
Note: When you install BizTalk in a box where Visual Studio is not installed, the installation process skips SDK installation.

And click next and complete the install process. Once installation process completes, you can see BizTalk Explorer in VS2003 as well as you can create new BizTalk Projects.
Neither you need to uninstall and reinstall BizTalk Server, nor you need to reconfigure it.

BRE Business Rule Composer Error

The other day I came up with the awkward error when I tried to load a BRE Policy version in Business Rule Composer. The Error looked like this.

Well, I still dont know why it came up. Generally these kind of errors came up when you try to open or load a policy which is using many vocabularies and some of the vocabularies are not deployed or deleted acciently. This also applies to different versions of same vacabularies where the Rule within the policy are reffering to a vocabulary version which is deleted and you have a later version of same vocabulary available. It may also happens if you have used .Net helper class facts in the policy/vocabulary and you have not deployed the reffered version of the helper class in GAC. These are among many other things which needs to be exmined but there are some behaviour still mysterious to me. This is an example of such a mystry of BRE:

We 3 developers were working on a BRE project and each one is assigned a single Policy to develop and separate vocabularies for each policy. And finally when all were done, we need consolidate in one machine and I have got the exported version of each Policies and reated vocabs from my peers. I imported all of them successfully in my machine and also successsfuly deployed and published. After that, when I tried to open one such Policy in BRE composer, it bombed out thowing an error as above.

I analyzed and could see nothing wrong in it. All vocabularies are imported, deployed and published properly. If the artifacts got deployed and published, then how come there could be an error!!! I dont know... I scratched my head for 2 days, rebooting the box many times.
The interesting things is, it worked after 2 days!!! When I tried to open same policy after 2 days... WOW it opened. I still wonder.. is there a GHOST in my machine ?? :-)

Well, I got a reply from a senior .Net guy.... and he said that the Policy got deployed as all the files/vocabs are there, and BRE Runtime engine would have worked normally. But BRE Composer was still searching the .net assembly in its original .net project location where the reference was made to BRE composer initially. This sounds a good anwer, but its not correct as the policy and all its dependencies(vocabs/helper classes) were created by my peer in diff machine and were imported into my machine, deployed and published.... Mysterious...isnt it.

Using VSS2005 Internet Plug-in for VS.NET 2003

If you have an environment where your dev server is located in one side of the world and you are developing software apps sitting in the other side of the world, you must be having tough time in getting your code checked in and checked out using VSS.
VSS2005 gives you the power accessing you source files over internet using with HTTP or HTTPS.
VS.NET 2005 is the ideal tool for VSS2005, but you still can use VSS2005 for VS.NET 2003 or VS6.0 only thing you need to do is a very small configuration changes
Here is how I could use VSS2005 internet plug in for VS.NET 2003:
Setup Steps (Assuming the you have already installed VS.NET 2005 or VS6.0):
1. Install VSS2005
2. Install VSS Client Certificate (if you are using HTTPS connections to access your VSS database)
3. Install VSS Switcher program available freely.
4. Setup/Configure you VSS client on VS.NET2003 or VS6.0

Step#1 is pretty simple, assuming you can do it.
Step#2:
In Internet Explorer go to URL
https:///SourceSafe/VssService.asmx

Select View Certificate

Select Install Certificate and follow wizard to install


Select Finish

Select Yes.
Select OK
Select Yes
If all was successful you will get a "Server Error in /SourceSafe application" page. This is expected; for security reasons, VSS Web Service is configured to disallow browsing the service functions. It is recommended to leave these settings unchanged.



Step#3: Download the VSS switcher program from web
The free version of VSS switcher program is available at http://www.codeproject.com/tools/sccswitcher.asp download the binary and run it. Once you run it, you will be able to switch between the SSC providers – Microsoft Visual Source Safe or Microsoft Visual Source Safe(Internet)
The icon will be added at the right corner of the task bar.
Either, Right click to see the below context menu, and you can select which provider you want to use.
Or, click to select from the context menu with 2 options.

Once Start Microsoft Visual SourceSave (Internet) is started, you can open your codes from remote VSS server.
Steps:
Open Visual Studio . Net 2003
From File Menu -> Source Control, select Open From Source Control

it will show Open Source Safe Database dialog box.

Click Add button to show up "Open SourceSafe Database Wizard"

Click next to show up

And you give the path of the ASMX url of the VSS server webservice
(eg. https:////xyz.asmx)
and the virtual folder of the database (eg. \\xyz\abc)
On clicking next, will ask you the database name. and next will take to to project folders.
And you are all set to go. J


Now, if you are not using SSL for remote VSS connection, you don’t need to select SSL.
Go to Tools menu in Visual Studio 2003, got Options in the Tools menu, it will show Options dialog box.
Select Source Control in left tree view, select SSC Provider.
Then you click Advanced button on the dialog box to show up "Visual SourceSafe internet Plug-in Advance Options" dialog box where you can unselect the check box "Always use SSL to connect to the server"
Thats it.
Now, if you want to go back to your conventional VSS connection. Select "Start Microsoft Visual SourceSafe" from clicking Switcher icon on the task bar.

Now, if you try to open a project from source control using
File Menu -> Source Control -> Open from Source Control, you will see they wizard and if you go next you will see the other screens as below.
THANKS for reading this ill-prepared doc. :-(

BizTalk 2004 installation guide on Virtual PC: Steps and Configuration issues

Installation steps: (After you have installed your Win2003 server)
1. Install SQL server 2000
2. Install SQL Server 2000 Analysis service.
3. Install SQL Server 2000 SP3
4. Install SQL Server 2000 SP3a (install all the 3 SPs available – for database, for analysis service & desktop-MSDE)
Pls. note that you need to unpack those service pack those and manually rerun by double clicking the setup.exe, or .bat or .msi file.
5. You can install SQL Server 2000 SP4 as well. But SP3a’s are critical, they must run.
6. Install Visual Studio 2003.
7. Install all the prerequisite of BizTalk Server 2004, they include, SQLXML3.0, MSXML(Ver 3.0 with SP5 and Ver 4.0 with SP2), Office XP Tools - Web Components (owc10.exe), etc.
8. If you have, install SQL KB articles – 838166, 875540.
9. Install BizTalk Server 2004
10. Install BizTalk Server 2004 SP1. (Extract and manually run – just make sure it ran)
11. Install BizTalk Server 2004 SP2. (Extract and manually run – just make sure it ran)
12. Configure.
Configuration issues:
1. While configuration, you may get stuck up in the BAM Database creation step in the Config Wizard (sorry for not capturing the screen-shot). This means, that your SQL Analysis Service is not running or not installed .
Check for the Analysis Service in program files – SQL Server – Analysis Service

You need to install SQL Analysis Service and also the SP3a’s. This will solve that particular issue.
2. You may see problem in WMI configuration steps in the config Wizard. The error messages could be as below:

And so on like this.
This basically means that the network account is not able to write something in C:\WINDOWS\TEMP folder.
Go ahead and give write permission on this folder for Network user and retry.
Before re-configuration, pls. un configure all the information you already did in your failed attempt. Use ConfigFramework.exe /u to un configure. Also, delete all the BizTalk related databases created in your SQL Server and SQL Analysis Server.
3. Once doing this, you might get error like below in WMI step in the config wizard:

This time you are clue less. L And after clicking Retry you see the message to un configure the BizTalk using ConfigFremework.exe /u

It is likely that you will continue to get this error even after you un configure it (ConfigFramework.exe /u) and also deleting all the BizTalk related databases that got created (in SQL Server as well as SQL Analysis Service) during the failed configurations.
Well, I don’t know how it happened, not got any clue from any web search. I could get rd of this problem by fully un installing and re installing the BizTalk servers.
a. Uninstall BizTalk Server SP2
b. Uninstall BizTalk Server SP1
c. Uninstall BizTalk Server
d. Reinstall BizTalk Server
e. Reinstall BizTalk Server SP1
f. Reinstall BizTalk Server SP2
And reconfigure. This time it should work. J All the best and Thanks for reading this ill-prepared doc. L

HTTP with SSL certificates using BizTalk

HTTP posting from a BT HTTP send port may fail due to 3 reasons: Wrong config at HTTP port, Wrong certificate location or Wrong certificate installation.
To Receive http post (decryypt) with SSL you need to have you own private certificate installed in your Local Machine Personal folder under Certificate snap-in in MMC. To Send http post (encrypt) with SSL, you need to have the trading partner public certificate installed in the Other People folder in MMC-Certificate store.

Note: You need to log in to the server using the BizTalk Service Acc (the acc under which BT runs) to install the certificate both own private certificates (into Personal folder) or trading partner public certificates(into Other People folder.... if not in Personal folder)

All the information is available on MSDN, here is the coolest link.
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa953654.aspx

How to install Trading partner Public Certificates in server:
Open the trading partner URL (eg. https://xyz.abcd.com/pqr/lkj.aspx) in IE and it may ask for userid and password. Once the page opens go to File menu -> Properties ->Click Certificate Button ->Click Install Certificate button. (You can get the Thubmprint of the certificate there at the Detail tab) It will open the cert installation wizard. Used default settings and istall it. You can also change the folder location of the certificate to istall in a diff folder.
The thumbnail needs to be put in the HTTP send port configuration while configuring the BT HTTP send port.

How to install Own Private Certificate:
Get the certificate file copied to you local hard disk. Opwn MMC-Certificate snap-in, the right click on Personal folder and Import the certificate.