Playing in the lab

Today I've been setting up the lab for some product testing at work next
week. Installing SQL 2000 w/ Reporting Services on Windows 2003. Gotta
love the instructions from the vendor.

Our server image is built from 2003 R2 with SP slip streamed. They
require .Net 1.1, 2.0 & 3.0. My first problem was that our build told me
it didn't need .Net 1.1 becayse the service pack version is newer... go
figure.

Pressing on, they have me install SQL 2000, but then mention later to
configure it for mixed authentication... could have told me that in the
first place...

Or I guess I should have read the directions. But if I did, the next
step is to check that SQL is installed by right clicking on the server
to see if stop, pause, restart are there.... this is after I just right
clicked on the server to check properties for authentication mode!

Now I'm downloading SP4 & SQL XML to get things ready.

Unfortunately the vendor couldn't use the SQL/Reporting Services server
I already have in the lab for MOM.

I just wanted their product on a separate server... but no. I'll
re-arrange that after they leave.

Getting Started

I've had fits & starts for creating blogs in the past. I think this one will stick. I was an IT professional before there was http. I've worked mostly around Windows systems the last 10 years, but have been picking up Linux the last few years and most recently OSX.

I'm running this from my laptop running ubuntu ... finally, because I played with too many wireless tools and wacked it. its running again so I should be able to stick with it.

The other thing I did recently was get an iMac for the family and will post on the transition from XP to OSX.... I was getting push back from my wife & kids on Vista... they wanted to stay with XP go figure, they'd never even seen it!

Professionally, I'm working in the MS Security Engineering department for a large company. Being the old salt, I'm getting to look at several things people have passed on over the years.

I'll plan to post about my experiences learning things in Windows, Linux and OSX. Lets see who shots me first.