MS Virtual PC: Virtual Machine Network Services driver

My desktop is running Vista Ultimate x64 with SP1. I built a virtual machine using Microsoft Virtual PC x64 SP1 to host my SharePoint development environment. The VM is running Windows Server 2003 SP2 and SharePoint 2007 is installed as a single server farm. I've also installed Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007, Visual Studio 2008 with SP1, and Visual Studio 2008 Extensions for WSS 3.0 (v1.2). Occasionally, after changing the configuration of my physical workstation (for example installing software or changing hardware), I receive the following error when starting the VM:



"Virtual PC could not open the Virtual Machine Network Services driver." This is not a big deal unless you want to access the farm from another host (such as your workstation) or need to connect to the internet to apply patches and install additional software. I've come across several references on the internet that recommend installing SP1 for Virtual PC in order to resolve this. I had already done this but the problem was still appearing. Next I tried uninstalling VPC, rebooting, and reinstalling. Same problem. Finally after a number of unsuccessful attempts, I determined that the following sequence of events will reliably fix the problem each time the message appears...

1. Disconnect the VM from the virtual network. In the VPC console select the VM image and click Settings. Select "Networking" from the list on the left. Select "Not Connected" from the drop-down list for Adapter 1 on the right. Click OK to save. You should be able to start your VM without any errors at this point, however you are no longer connected to your workstation or the network.
2. Disable the Virtual Machine Network Services service. Open the Network Connections window. In Vista, Start > Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network and Shareing Center > Manage network connections. Right-click your local area network connection and select "Properties". Uncheck "Virtual Machine Network Services" and click OK.
3. Reboot your workstation.
4. Enable the Virtual Machine Network Services service. Open the Network Connections window. In Vista, Start > Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network and Shareing Center > Manage network connections. Right-click your local area network connection and select "Properties". Check "Virtual Machine Network Services" to enable the service and click OK.
5. Reconnect the VM to the virtual network. In the VPC console select the VM image and click Settings. Select "Networking" from the list on the left. Select your network driver from the drop-down list for Adapter 1 on the right. Click OK to save.

The VM should start without any errors. If I determine exactly what the issue is I will update this post.

Passed Final SharePoint Exam

Whew! I passed my final SharePoint 2007 exam today (MOSS 2007 Application Development, 070-542). Now all I need to do is get another SharePoint Job...

Passed the WSS 3.0 Developer Exam

Three down, one to go.

ALM Summarized

There is an article in this month's SD Times about Application Lifecycle Management suites. An ALM suite is any set of software packages that proposes to cover the entire Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC). An ALM suite might include for example a requirements tool, a use case tool, a project management tool, a software architecture design tool, an IDE (Integrated Development Environment), a source code control tool, a testing tool, and a build & release tool. Rational (now IBM) and Borland were two companies that developed early ALM suites with some real depth. There are many others.

What is the value of an ALM? Interested parties (project managers, business owners, etc.) can determine the health of a software project. Some questions that an ALM package would help to answer include the following: How far along is the project? [A dashboard view or report can be produced from the suite.] What is the soonest date a production release could be made? [Hopefully always within a few days if CI (Continuous Integration) principals are being followed.] Were all of the requirements met? [There is often some traceability aspect in ALM suites that allows the user to see whether all requirements have been met and how.] Ultimately all of this reduces risk and improves the quality of the project.

Back to the SD Times article mentioned above: I thought one of the most interesting and salient points Lisa Morgan (author) made was that "Not one of the software companies we've talked to claims to offer a totally complete ALM solution and they say that no one currently does." I believe that standard protocols may have to be in place for vendors to play nice but this may take awhile. Look at the state of the ERP (SAP, PeopleSoft, etc.) marketspace to see what I'm talking about. Customers want "best of breed" but vendors want to lock them in.

Also in the print edition of the article, there is an executive summary box titled "What Does ALM Include?" The list is impressively comprehensive...

• Requirements planning


• Visualization management


• Modeling


• Design


• Feature management


• Build management


• Configuration management


• Change management


• Project management


• Release management


• Testing/QA


• Deployment


• Monitoring and reporting


• Workflow


• Collaboration


• Team communication

Passed the MOSS 2007 Configuration Exam

Two down, two more to go!

Passed the WSS 3.0 Configuration Exam

On Friday, 9/19 passed the first exam for SharePoint 2007: 070-631. I am now an MCTS for WSS 3.0! I have 070-630 (MOSS 2007 Configuration) scheduled for Wednesday, 10/1. After this there are two other SharePoint MCTS certifications to achieve: 070-541 (WSS 3.0 Developer) on 10/10 and 070-542 (MOSS 2007 Developer) on 10/22.

SharePoint Training

About a week ago I finished a 5-day course for Microsoft SharePoint administration. SharePoint is a collaboration platform that encompasses functionality including content management, wikis, blogs, files sharing (including file check-in/check-out/versioning), workflow/BPM (Business Process Management), BI (Business Intelligence) integration with MS Outlook/Exchange, integration with other third party ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) platforms such as Oracle and SAP via the BDC (Business Data Catalog), and an amazing search engine to crawl and index all of these data sources.

The convergence of all of this functionality into a single platform is aggressive. There is room for improvement in some of these areas. For instance a comparison of the document management in SharePoint may not quite be on par with Stellent but it's pretty good.

MindSharp is just a fantastic organization as well. If you need SharePoint Training I can't stress this enough: you need MindSharp. Ben Curry was the trainer for the class I took and he is the most knowledgible, dynamic, student-focused trainer I've ever had the pleasure of listening to. In addition to being a first class teacher his books on Microsoft Press are on par. His titles include Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies Administrator's Pocket Consultant and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Best Practices (just published). In addition he contributed material to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Administrator's Companion by Bill English (founder of MindSharp).

Continuous Integration

Hands-down best Continuous Integration book on the market today. Continuous Integration is an implementation whereby every time a code file is checked into source control a series of actions is automatically kicked off. For example:

1. Compile the code contained in the files being checked in. If it doesn't compile an email is fired off to the developer who checked in the offending code, asw well as the tech lead, etc.


2. Run all unit tests written for the code being checked in.


3. Run integration tests between the code being checked in and the rest of the application or component.


4. Run QA tests on the code being checked.


5. Run code review tests on the code being checked in.

Most likely you would not do all of the above with every check-in. For a .NET application you might use CruiseControl.NET and NUnit. The seminal CI article can be found here. It is considered an integral part of many Agile approaches but clearly holds great value in just about any development/SDLC environment.

Great Classical Music Site

If you're into Classical music Deutsche Grammophon has a great online music store.

2007 Lists from SD Times

SD Times recently published several lists for 2007, including the following...

1. Catching Up With Recommended Reading.
   
   
2. The Best Sites for Developers.
   
   
3. Best Blogs of 2007. I'm adding most of these to my Bloglines.

New Rationalist Videos

Two new fantastic sets of secularist/atheist videos are now available. The general focus of both of these efforts is general apprehension over the rise of fundamentalism in the world today. Specifically, concerns include the prominence of religiously motivated terrorism, politically

1. The so called "Four Horsemen" (Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris & Christopher Hitchens) are available here.
   
   
2. The Second annual Beyond Belief symposium is a refreshing followup to the first, whose focus seemed to be "the new atheism". Beyond Belief is a consortium of well-known academics and scientific professionals focused on faith in an age of reason. My favorite sessions are those focused on recent research, in particular David Sloan Wilson (partly a response to Dan Dennett's presentation), Jonathan Haidt, Gregory Clark, and Pat Churchland. John Allen Paulos' presentation was enlightening. I was particularly interested in Scott Atran's presentation regarding terrorism. Sam Harris' speech was excellent as well.