Longhorn

Developer, Meet Server - Transactional NTFS and WCF

Jason Olson — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 21:19:00 GMT

I recently posted the second screencast in my new "Developer, Meet Server" screencast series. This latest screencast covers using Transactional NTFS in a service-oriented environment via WCF.

Enjoy!

Transactional NTFS and Free Disk Space

Jason Olson — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 21:15:00 GMT

Andrew recently watched my screencasts and had some great questions that came up around how Transactional NTFS behaves with the file system. So, I figured I would answer them here. So, if you want to see the context around his questions, check out his post.

Here's the paragraph with the questions:

I wonder what happens to files that never get committed - ala a long running transaction. They have to be taking up file space. Jason says not even Windows Explorer knows about them, but they have to exist somewhere. What if they overflow? Is there a way to clean house? If the poop is invisible, does it still stink?

Great observations and questions Andrew! In the case of a long running, open transaction, the files will exist on the disk. Hence, they are certainly taking up space on the disk. If you have 256 MB of free space on your disk, and try to write 257 MB of data to the disk within a transaction, you will get an "out of space" error like you would outside of a transaction.

Is there a way to clean house? Yes, rollback or commit the transaction. On rollback, any changes made within the transaction are rolled back, and then consequently removed form the disk.

But what if my server crashes in the middle of a transaction. Would I have turds floating around the file system? No, you would not. When an NTFS-formatted volume is mounted in Vista or Windows Server "Longhorn", any transactions that are "in-doubt" (the transaction manager is no longer around and we have no clue on the status of the transaction) will be rolled back automatically, effectively removing all the changes from disk. So, in that sense, you would not have any file turds you have to clean up after a system crash (like you would have if you were doing a "temp file -> rename" type of methodology.

Now, as is usual in transaction systems, you have to be _very_ aware and _very_ cautious of long-running transactions as it could cause some long-term problems that you don't want to deal with. So, there certainly are scenarios where Transactional NTFS just is not a good fit. As tends to be the case with all technology, make sure you are using the right tool for the right job :).

Announcing: New "Developer, Meet Server" Screencast Series

Jason Olson — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 19:28:00 GMT

Welcome everybody to the inaugural, first ever, grand opening, “opening the doors to the public” celebration day kick-off for the new “Developer, Meet Server” screencast series. I am your sincere, humble (as ever), gracious and wonderful host/chef/tour guide Jason Olson.

In this series of screencasts we will be diving through all the various cool developer-oriented enhancements on the Windows Server "Longhorn" platform that developers can leverage to build robust and powerful applications. Specifically, in this first screencast, we will take a quick peek at Transactional NTFS. In future screencasts, we will go into a more detailed look at Transactional NTFS, so think of this as a quick introduction.

The screencast can be found in one of the main tubes on the Intarw3b known as the ever-lovely Channel 9: http://channel9.msdn.com/Showpost.aspx?postid=289816.

So sit back, grab a cup of coffee/tea/InsertYourFavoriteLocalTastyBeverageHere, and enjoy this screencast.

LHS Feature Of The Week #11 - Transactional NTFS + USB Flash Drive

Jason Olson — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 19:03:00 GMT

Hello everyone, and welcome back to the “Feature Of The Week” newsletter. This week, we will revisit a prior Fear Of The Week technology that we discussed in order to show off a cool capability of that technology. If you are a developer wanting to mess around with TxF (Transactional NTFS), you should especially read on :).

Did You Know? Did you know that on Vista, Transactional NTFS will work with an NTFS-formatted USB Flash Drive? It’s true! If you want to play around with Transactional NTFS and how it can interact with SQL, for instance, but you only have one hard drive, you don’t have to worry about Secondary Resource Managers and all that hubbub, gizmos, doodads, and what-cha-ma-call-its. Just pop in that NTFS-formatted USB Flash Drive, and play around until your heart’s content.

Since the USB Flash Drive is not the system drive (well, we hope it’s not the system drive in this case :P), you can circumvent the need for secondary Resource Managers when wanting to test out interoperability scenarios with Transactional NTFS (like TxF + WCF, TxF + SQL, TxF + MSMQ, etc.).

Happy Coding :).

Generic Transactional NTFS Links...

Documentation

Windows SDK

Videos/Webcasts

[Video] Vista Transactional File System
[Webcast] The Revolutionary Vista TxF Infrastructure
[Webcast] Developing Apps For Vista With TxF

Blogs

Vista-Only Features for Managed Developers

Jason Olson — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 22:07:00 GMT

[Crosspost from Managed World]

I recently came across a bunch of stuff done by Daniel Moth, a Developer Evangelist for Microsoft UK. If you are a managed developer and want to see the new stuff you can leverage on Vista, be sure to check out his stuff.

If you want to digest some of these new features in Screencast format, be sure to check out some of these screencasts that Daniel Moth has also done:

Enjoy! And thanks go to Daniel for all of these :).

EasyBCD - A GUI for BCDedit

Jason Olson — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 21:55:00 GMT

[Crosspost from ManagedWorld]

Rob Atkinson recently blogged some screenshots from a new tool from NeoSmart called EasyBCD. What is EasyBCD? Directly from the horse's mouth:

EasyBCD is NeoSmart Technologies' multiple award-winning answer to tweaking the new Windows Vista bootloader. With EasyBCD, almost anything is possible. Setting up and configuring Windows boot entries is simple, and there is no easier way to quickly boot right into Linux, Mac OS X, or BSD straight from the Windows Vista bootloader - on the fly, no expert knowledge needed!
EasyBCD is geared for users of all kinds. Whether you just want to add an entry to your old XP partition or want to create a duplicate for testing purposes; if you're interested in debugging the Windows Kernel or hectuple-booting your seven test operating systems, EasyBCD is the key.
Automated MBR and BCD backups, boot sector restore kits, support for a dozen+ operating systems, detailed configuration of all boot entries, and award-winning guaranteed technical support is what makes EasyBCD stand out - all for free!

Give it a shot!

LHS Feature Of The Week #9 - Restart Manager

Jason Olson — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 21:21:00 GMT

Hello everyone, and welcome back to the “Feature Of The Week” newsletter. In this week’s edition of the “Longhorn Server Feature of the Week”, we will be taking a look at a new feature in Vista and Longhorn Server: the Restart Manager.

What is the Restart Manager? The primary reason software updates require a system restart during an installation or update is that some of the files that are being updated are currently being used by a running application or service. The Restart Manager enables all but the critical system services to be shut down and restarted and guarantees that blocking DLLs and resources are unloaded. This frees files that are in use and allows installation operations to complete.

Using the Restart Manager DLL, an installer can use the Restart Manager to register files that should be replaced during the installation of an application or update. Then during a subsequent update or installation, the installer can use the Restart Manager to determine which files cannot be updated because they are currently in use. Installers can direct the Restart Manager to shutdown and restart applications or services based on the file in use, the process ID (PID), or the short-name of a Windows service.

What scenarios does this enable? The Restart Manager API can eliminate or reduce the number of system restarts that are required to complete an installation or update.

Notes – Applications that use Windows Installer, version 4.0, for installation and servicing automatically use the Restart Manager to reduce system restarts. Custom installers can also be designed to call the Restart Manager API to shutdown and restart applications and services.

Resources

Documentation

LHS Feature Of The Week #8 - Windows Error Reporting

Jason Olson — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 21:19:00 GMT

Hello everyone, and welcome back to the “Feature Of The Week” newsletter. This week, we take quick dive into some of the enhancements that have been made to Windows Error Reporting (WER) in Vista and Longhorn Server.

What is Windows Error Reporting (WER)? Windows Error Reporting enables users to notify Microsoft of application faults, kernel faults, and unresponsive applications. Microsoft can use the error reporting feature to provide customers with troubleshooting information, solutions, or updates for their specific problems. Developers can use this infrastructure to receive information that can be used to improve their applications.

What’s new in Windows Error Reporting? Windows Error Reporting isn’t actually new to Vista and Longhorn Server. However, there are some pretty cool enhancements to Windows Error Reporting that you can find in Vista and Longhorn Server. Developers can use the new API to create reports for many types of events, not just applications crashes and hangs. Also, developers can now create custom reports, customize the reporting user interface, and submit reports to Microsoft. Using Windows Quality Online Services, they then can access their report data, create solutions, and deliver these solutions to their users.

Resources

Documentation

LHS Feature Of The Week #7 - Boot Configuration Data

Jason Olson — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 21:15:00 GMT

Hello everyone, and welcome back to the “Feature Of The Week” newsletter. This week, we will be looking at the robust replacement for boot.ini in Windows Vista and Longhorn Server: Boot Configuration Data.

What is Boot Configuration Data? Boot configuration data (BCD) provides a store that is used to describe boot applications and boot application settings. The objects and elements in the store effectively replace Boot.ini. The data in the store can be managed by a command-line utility, bcdedit.exe, or using the classes implemented by the WMI provider.

How does Boot Configuration Data work? When you start your computer, the first code that executes is the BIOS. The BIOS reads the master boot record (MBR) from the boot device and transfers control to the boot code stored in the MBR. The boot manager reads the boot entries from the Boot Configuration Data store so they are available to the loader and displays a boot menu to the user. The boot environment provides a native API for primitive graphics and other system support. Boot applications are pieces of code that are located on a boot device and run in the boot environment.

The following are examples of application objects:

• The Windows Boot Manager

• The Windows OS Loader

• The Windows Memory Tester

Example – Now, with the absence of the boot.ini file, this is how you would enable Kernel debugging on a system as a boot option: “bcdedit /debug true”

Resources

Documentation
- Windows SDK

LHS Feature Of The Week #6 - Windows Remote Management

Jason Olson — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 21:13:00 GMT

Hello everyone, and welcome back to the “Feature Of The Week” newsletter. This week, we will take a short little peek at the new Windows Remote Management infrastructure in Vista and Longhorn Server.

What is Windows Remote Management? Windows Remote Management (WinRM) is the Microsoft implementation of the WS-Management protocol, a standard SOAP-based, firewall-friendly protocol that allows hardware and operating systems from different vendors to interoperate.

The WS-Management protocol specification provides a common way for systems to access and exchange management information across an IT infrastructure. WinRM and IPMI (Intelligent Platform Management Interface), along with the Event Collector, are components of the Windows Hardware Management features.

What scenarios does this enable? Using WinRM scripting objects, the WinRM command-line tool, or the Windows Remote Shell command line tool, you can obtain data from local and remote computers. You can also obtain hardware data from WS-Management protocol implementations running on non-Windows operating systems. WinRM can also supply standard WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) data, but it handles remote connections via the SOAP-based WS-Management protocol rather than DCOM.

Resources

Documentation
- Windows SDK