Blogs - Catapult Systems

Monitoring Azure in Operations Manager 2012 using the Azure Applications management pack (#SCOM, #SYSCTR, #Azure)

InfrastructureBy Cameron Fuller July 24, 2013

The Azure Applications Management pack is the same management pack that I blogged about at: https://www.catapultsystems.com/cfuller/archive/2012/11/09/kicking-the-tires-using-the-azure-management-pack-in-opsmgr-2012-scom-azure-sysctr.aspx. This blog post provides some additional detailed on this management pack such as management pack details, what the management pack adds to Operations Manager and an important note on certificates in Azure/Operations Manager. This is the first part of…

QuickTricks: SmartSizing when using Remote Desktop Connection in Windows 8

InfrastructureBy Cameron Fuller July 22, 2013

Windows 8 added a new feature to Remote Desktop Connection UI that I had not seen up to this point (Thank you to Jonathan Cowan for pointing this out to me!). Smart sizing allows you to scale the contents of the remote desktop connection to fit the boundary of the window as you change the…

XrmServiceContext Caching Issue

ApplicationsBy Catapult Systems July 19, 2013

I love using the XrmServiceContext Caching issue in order to use LINQ queries to retrieve items from our CRM implementation. So much nicer to work with than the old SOAP model!!! However, I ran into an issue pretty quickly with a custom service I created that provisions a SharePoint team site for a CRM opportunity.…

Getting started with Power Query and Power Map – PowerBI

BI & AnalyticsBy Catapult Systems July 18, 2013

Microsoft recently announced that Data Explorer and Geo Flow are being merged into the new PowerBI suite. You can download the new Power Query (formerly Data Explorer) and Power Map (formerly GeoFlow) from the link provided in the blog post below. Power Query and Power Map are two of the new Excel features for Power…

SQL: Explicitly Setting IDENTITY Key Value using IDENTITY_INSERT

ApplicationsBy Catapult Systems July 17, 2013

You may come across a need to explicitly set an IDENTITY Key value in your insert statement. I recently came across this need when I wanted to add some columns to a Dimension table to account for any NULL values I was transforming. Take into account my DimDates table: CREATE TABLE [dbo].[DimDates]( [DateKey]…

Using SQL MERGE for ETL Type 1 and Type 2 Incremental Loading

ApplicationsBy Catapult Systems July 17, 2013

There are two basic techniques for updating one table with information from another, in this example, we are updating an OLAP Dimension table with the results from an OLTP table. Flush and Fill Technique The first and easiest method is called the "flush and fill" technique. Basically, you remove all of the data from…

AD FS Setup for a Development Environment (Localhost)

ApplicationsBy Catapult Systems July 15, 2013

I recently was tasked with configuring our development environment (localhost) to work with AD FS. Unfortunately, I had a hard time finding all the steps so I compiled this documentation. Please note: Adding localhost as a relying trust is a completely safe practice. I even had a Microsoft support confirm that this…

Entity Framework Code First

ApplicationsBy William Girotti July 15, 2013

Entity Framework Code First Pluralsight course Entity Framework 4.1 – Code First by Julie Lerman General Info Code first is a very convention heavy method of describing how an application should interact with a database. It is used in place of a .edmx model file and typically implemented when there is no database to begin with, but…

July Office 365 International User Group Meeting Scheduled

CloudBy Catapult Systems July 15, 2013

With being out at Microsoft’s World Partner Conference last week I am getting this out a little late, but better late than never. The next meeting of the Office 365 International User Group is scheduled for 2pm Denver Time on July 30th. I and other members that attended WPC will be giving a recap of…

Oversized and undersized VMs plus one IT geek meltdown

InfrastructureBy Cameron Fuller July 12, 2013

Once in a while you work on something which is so cool that you have to share it. Once in a while you run into something that you want to have so badly but it just doesn’t exist yet. However this is the first example I can remember where I’ve seen where both situations are…