Microsoft comes with Visual Studio 2013 Community Edition

That's a good news Microsoft is now offering Visual Studio 2013 Community Edition.  They announced this yesterday in their Connect() event. 

Visual Studio Community 2013 includes all the functionality of paid versions like Visual Studio Professional 2013. Now individual developers, students, open source contributors and small teams can use this product with zero-cost.  MS intends to replace Express editions with this new Product. 

Community edition supports Visual Studio extensibility which was not available with express editions.  Now we can use third-party add-ons and extensions with this new release.

Compared to different express editions, Community Edition is an all-in-one product which is capable for developing applications for Desktop, Phone, web etc.

Community Edition supports Cross-platform mobile development targeting Android, iOS and Windows Phone mobile platforms using Visual Studio Tools for Apache Cordova extension.  ie, now a mobile developer can use Visual Studio to access native device functions like camera, location service, barcode scanner etc!.  (Microsoft tells they still continue to partner with Xamarin to enable cross-platform mobile development using C# and F#.).


Another important announcement came in the Connect() event was the release of Visual Studio 2015 Preview and .NET 2015 Preview. 

The new open source .NET server stack can be run on Linux and Mac OS platforms.  With the release of the next generation Visual Studio and .NET, Microsoft brings new enhancements to IDE, cloud and mobile development.


Along with Visual Studion 2015, Microsoft also releases a high-performance x86-based emulator for Android platform which supports location, accelerometer and networking.


Today we have the opportunity to develop for all platforms from our favourite Visual Studio, no matter it is Mobile, web or Desktop.

Attended Microsoft event on Server 2012

Just attended an event organized by Microsoft and Neural Networks Cochin at The Dream Hotel Cochin.  The session delivered by Prabhu Paulson from Microsoft on Modernizing the Datacenter was interesting.  He explained the features of System Center 2012 and Windows Server 2012 and managing the traditional, virtualized, Private cloud and public cloud environments.

I got a chance to discuss about some Windows Server 2012 features  that I was looking for and upcoming session on SharePoint products with Paul and Sasikumar Chandran. 

Windows Server 2012 now comes with Standard and DataCenter edition only and there is no Web Server edition.  The new Hypervisor helps to eliminate unnecessary investment in hardware and software.

System Center 2012 comes with lot of components like Orchestrator, Configuration manager etc.  The orchestrator features shown in the demo was excellent.

Cougar vs Bear - This is an amazing video

Cougar vs Bear - This is an amazing video.

Valpara Photos

Chalakkudy - Athirappally - Vazhachal Road, Kerala

 Sholayar, Kerala

Malakkappara, Kerala-Tamil Nadu Boarder

Valpara, Tamil Nadu

Aaliyar Dam

Kerala Assembly Election 2011

To Know your polling booth details by SMS

Send SMS to 54242 or 537252

Format :       ELE space voter_id_card_number

eg:     ELE KL/10/011/874568


Search Your Electoral Details

Visit : http://ceo.kerala.gov.in/rollsearch.html

Get Assembly ProductName and CompanyName using Reflection

Twitter status update from C# application

Download Twitterizer Framework from :


http://twitterizer.googlecode.com/files/Twitterizer.Framework-1.0.1.146.zip

The zip file contains 'Twitterizer.Framework.dll'.  Extract it to a folder.


Design your application interface with the text boxes for Twitter user id and password and the status text.

Project -> Add Reference -> Browse -> Select Twitterizer.Framework.dll

Import the Framework with using keyword and write in Button click event.


Complete Code
 
using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using Twitterizer.Framework;



namespace TwStUpdate

{

public partial class Form1 : Form

{

public Form1()

{

          InitializeComponent();

}



private void btnUpdate_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

          Twitter tw = new Twitter(txtUserId.Text, txtPassword.Text);

          tw.Status.Update(txtStatus.Text);

}

}

}

Active Directory Installation

  

I know this is an old subject, but still I 'm getting queries like:

 

How can I install Active Directory on my Server 2003 box?
I have installed Active Directory but client login is too slow?

So I thought to write about the installation of DNS and Active Directory Service and making the server a Domain Controller.

 

 

Prerequisites

1. Connect the Server to a switch with straight through cable or to another computer with cross-over cable. If a physical layer connection is not detected you cannot run DCPROMO command for AD installation.
2. Make sure your OS partition is NTFS. If it is FAT, convert to NTFS using the CONVERT command.

           C:\> CONVERT c: /FS:NTFS (assumes that your OS is installed in C drive)

 

Prepare your Server for AD

 

This is the details I ‘m using for the setup:

Computer Name : vmw2k

IP Address : 192.168.1.100

Subnet Mask : 255.255.255.0

Default Gateway : 192.168.1.1 (assign your router’s LAN interface IP address here / if you are not sure, leave this field blank for the time being)

 

Preffered DNS Server: 192.168.1.100

Alternate DNS Server: Leave this blank

Domain Name : mycompany.net

 

• Right-click on ‘My Computer’ icon on desktop and select properties.
• Select ‘Computer Name’ tab. Click ‘Change’ button.

  

  

• Click ‘More’ button.
• Enter ‘mycompany.net’ for ‘Primary DNS suffix of this computer’
• Keep the check box ‘Change primary DNS suffix…’ checked.

• Click OK and restart your computer to accept the changes.

IP Address Assignment

 

A proper IP address and DNS server setup is required for AD installation. So let’s get started with IP assignment.

• Open Network properties (Start -> Run -> ncpa.cpl -> OK)
• Select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and click ‘Properties’
• Set the IP Address and other details as follows:

 

DNS Server Installation

• Insert the Server 2003 CD
• Open Add or Remove Programs (Start-> Run -> appwiz.cpl -> OK
•  Click Add/Remove Windows Components. From the components list, select 'Networking Services' and click 'Details'
• From the Networking Services screen, check 'Domain Name System (DNS)' and click OK
• Click Next to continue the installation (Windows Server 2003 required for this step)
• Click Finish and close Add or Remove Programs

 DNS configuration

 

Click Start -> Programs -> Administrative Tools -> DNS and open DNS Management console. You can see a snap-in with ‘Configure a DNS Server’ message

 

Expand the computer name and select ‘Forward Lookup Zone’

 

 

 

Right-Click on ‘Forward Lookup Zone’ and select ‘New Zone…’ command

Click Next in the ‘Welcome to the new Zone wizard’ dialog.

 

For zone type, select ‘Primary zone’ option and click Next

  

 

 

For Zone Name, type ‘mycompany.net’ and click Next

 

For Zone File, accept the default zone name (mycompany.net.dns) and click Next

 

For Dynamic Update, select ‘Allow both nonsecure and secure dynamic updates’ and click Next

 

Click Finish.

 

Now your forward lookup zone is created, you can see ‘mycompany.net’ under ‘Forward Lookup Zone’

 

 

Right-Click on ‘Reverse Lookup Zone’ and select ‘New Zone…’ command and click Next

 

For zone type, select ‘Primary zone’ option and click Next

 

At the ‘Reverse Lookup zone name’ screen, enter Network ID : 192.168.1 and click Next

 

 

For Zone File, accept the default zone name (1.168.192.in-addr.arpa.dns) and click Next

 

For Dynamic Update, select ‘Allow both nonsecure and secure dynamic updates’ and click Next

 

Click Finish.

 

 Now our Forward and Reverse Lookup zones are ready. Next we need to create a Host Record for our Domain Controller. For this, right-click on the zone ‘mycompany.net’ and select ‘New Host (A)…’ command.

 

 

 

You will get ‘New Host’ dialog, enter the values as follows:

Name : vmw2k3 (or whatever the name of your server)

IP Address : 192.168.1.100

Check ‘Create associated pointer record’ check box.

 

 

Click ‘Add Host’. And click ‘Done’

 

 

Refresh both zones, you can see the newly created Host (A) record of your server under Forward Lookup zone and the associated Pointer (PTR) record under Reverse Lookup zone

 

 

Verify your DNS installation from Windows command line by pinging with the computer's NETBIOS name (vmw2k3) and Fully Qualified Domain Name (vmw2k3.mycompany.net).

 

Start -> Run -> CMD -> OK

 

C:\> PING vmw2k3

C:\> PING vmw2k3.mycompany.net

 

Both PING commands should resolve Server's IP address to 192.168.1.100 without errors if your DNS setup is correct.

 

Now check with NSLOOKUP command line tool.

 

C:\> nslookup

> vmw2k3

 

> vmw2k3.mycompany.net

>exit

 

 

Both NSLOOKUPs should resolve your server's IP address.  Now you can continue with AD installation.

Active Directory Installation

 

 

For installing the active directory, we need to make the server a Domain Controller. For this, Click Start -> Run -> dcpromo -> OK

 

Click Next twice

 

For Domain Controller Type, accept the default option ‘Domain Controller for a new Domain’ and click Next.

 

Type of Domain : ‘Domain in a new Forest’. Click Next

 

For Full DNS Name for new domain, enter ‘mycompany.net’ and click Next

 

At the screen, DCPromo will search and check whether the netbios name MYCOMPANY already exists on the network. If it not exists, DCPROMO will come up with MYCOMPANY as domain NETBIOS name.

 

Accept the default Database and Log folder locations and click Next.

 

 

Accept the Shared System Volume location and click Next.

 

 

If DNS and all other things are fine, you will get a successful message at the diagnostics screen.

 

Click Next

 

For Permission, accept the default option.

 

 

Enter a password for Directory Service Restore Mode and click Next

 

 

Click Next to start the installation

 

 

Click Finish to complete the installation

 

 

DCPromo will prompt to restart. After the restart you can verify the installation by checking the following things:

 

i. Right-click on My Computer icon on desktop, select ‘Manage’ command to open Computer Management snap-in. You can see your ‘Local Users and Groups’ disappeared from Computer Management. (It is replaced by Active Directory Users and Computers)

 

ii) If the installation was successful, you can see the following snap-ins under Start -> Programs -> Administrative Tools

a. Active Directory Users and Computers

b. Active Directory Sites and Services

c. Active Directory Domains and Trusts

 

DNS and Active Directory is up and running.  Now integrate the DNS to Active Directory and accept secure dynamic updates only.  For this:

1. 
   
   Open DNS management snap-in  from Program Files -> Administrative Tools -> DNS
   
   
   
    
2. 
   
   Expand Forward Lookup zone and select 'mycompany.net' zone.
   
   
   
    
3. 
   
   Right-click on 'mycompany.net' and select Properties.
   
   
   
    
4. 
   
   On the General tab, click 'Change' button.
   
   
   
    
5. 
   
   In the 'Change zone type' dialog box, check 'Store zone in Active Directory' check box
   
   
   
    
6. 
   
   Click OK and confirm by clicking 'Yes'.
   
   
   
    
7. 
   
   Select 'Secure only' option for Dynamic updates and click OK.
   
   
   

• 
  
  Expand Reverse Lookup zone and select 'mycompany.net' zone.
  
  
  
• 
  
  Right-click on '192.168.1.x Subnet' zone and select Properties.
  
  
  
• 
  
  Repeat the step 4 to 7
  
  
  

To manage your domain user accounts and computers use Active Directory Users and Computers console.