Monthly Archives: January 2011

Getting to grips with articles

Articles in the English Language.

The three most common articles in English are a, an and the.

A and an are indefinite  articles.

the is a definite article.

To explain  indefinite in simple terms, it means the noun that the article precedes is not know to the audience/recipient of the sentence. For example  in the sentence 'A cat sat on the wall.' we have no idea which cat on the wall,, only that is was a cat.

We use the article the in front of a noun if the noun has been mentioned before in the conversation or the audience/recipient knows

which particular person/object is being spoken about. For example, 'The house on the left'.

Rules for using articles.

Definite Article A and An

Use a in front of nouns that begin with a vowel but which sound like they begin with a consonant. For example: a user (sounds like 'yoo-zer,' i.e. begins with a consonant 'y' sound, so 'a' is used); a university; a unicycle.

Use an in from of nouns that have a silent h for example. an hour, an heiress. An exception is the word historical.

If the noun is modified by an adjective, the choice between a and an depends on the initial sound of the adjective that immediately follows the article. For example::

a broken egg
an unusual problem
a European country (sounds like 'yer-o-pi-an,' i.e. begins with consonant 'y' sound)

Indefinite Article The

The definite article is used before singular and plural nouns when the noun is specific or particular. For example: 'The cat that scratched me ran away' Here we are referring to a specific cat, that is the particular cat that scratched me.

'The girls go home by bus.' Here we are referring to a specific group of girls who go home by bus.

Use the when referring to islands, groups of states, names of rivers,forests,gulfs,points on the globe and geographical areas. For example 'The Bahamas', 'The United States of America', 'The West'.

Exercise

Pull in the correct articles a, an or the where necessary, in the following sentences.

  1. hamster is better pet that mouse.
  2. dog that bit me was brown with white spots.
  3. Rome is capital of Italy.
  4. visit by the President was historical occasion.
  5. Seychelles islands are tropical paradise.
  6. boy loved friendly elephant at zoo and gave elephant apple.
  7. man and woman make a couple.
  8. Amazon is mighty river.
  9. Gulf of Mexico is rather warm.

Re-installing Monitoring on SBS 2003 SP2

Re-installing Monitoring on Small Business Server 2003 Sp2

I had to re-install WSUS 3.) Sp2 and Monitoring on my SBS 2003 server after it broke when I tried to upgrade WSUS fro version 3.0 Sp1 to 2.0 Sp2.

These are the steps I followed:

Steps to Re-install SBS Monitoring

1. Control Panel -> Add Remove Programs -> Windows Small Business Server 2003 -> Change Remove ->
Set Server Tools to Maintenance. Set Monitoring to Remove and continue the setup process.

2. Control Panel -> Add Remove Program -> Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine (SBSMonitoring) -> Remove.

3. Delete IIS Virtual Directory

Open IIS, expand servername, Web Sites, Default Web Site
Deleted Monitoring. Backed up files in the virtual directory first.

4. Renamed the C:\program files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL$SBSMONITORING Folder.

5. Deleted the registry keys relating to Monitoring

A. Deleted HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SmallBusinessServer\Monitoring
B. Deleted HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL
Server\SBSMONITORING

6. Reboot the server.

7. Control Panel -> Add Remove Program -> Windows Small Business Server 2003.
Set Server Tools to Maintenance. Set Monitoring to Install and continue the setup process. I had an error message that

the system was unable to install MS SQL SP4. An error showed up on the install option.

8. 6. Rebooted the server.

9. 7. MSSQL$SBSMONITORING and SQLAgent$SBSMONITORING services started up on reboot.

10. 8. In Server Management Console -> Monitoring and Reporting: run the "Set Up Monitoring Reports and Alerts wizardâ€

Monitoring is now running but I have two errors relating to it in my system log file.

These are:

Event ID 120

The report server cannot decrypt the symmetric key. Most likely, the service account or password has changed. To continue, run rsconfig.exe to update the report server account information.\r\n
Event ID 140

The application domain WindowsService_5 failed to initialize. Error: Microsoft.ReportingServices.Diagnostics.Utilities.KeyStateNotValidException: The report server cannot access the private key for the service account. This key is used to decrypt the symmetric key that protects content in the report server database. This condition might occur after the password is reset for the report server service account. You must either restore a backup key or delete all encrypted content. ---> System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0x8009000B): Key not valid for use in specified state. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8009000B) at System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ThrowExceptionForHRInternal(Int32 errorCode, IntPtr errorInfo) at RSManagedCrypto.RSCrypto.ExportPublicKey() at Microsoft.ReportingServices.Diagnostics.DataProtection.PreparePublicKey(Boolean repair) at Microsoft.ReportingServices.Library.ConnectionManager.<GetEncryptionKey>b__2() --- End of inner exception stack trace --- at Microsoft.ReportingServices.Library.ConnectionManager.<GetEncryptionKey>b__2() at Microsoft.ReportingServices.Diagnostics.RevertImpersonationContext.<>c__DisplayClass1.<Run>b__0(Object state) at System.Security.SecurityContext.Run(SecurityContext securityContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state) at Microsoft.ReportingServices.Diagnostics.RevertImpersonationContext.Run(ContextBody callback) at Microsoft.ReportingServices.Library.ConnectionManager.GetEncryptionKey() at Microsoft.ReportingServices.Library.ConnectionManager.ConnectStorage() at Microsoft.ReportingServices.Library.ServiceController.ServiceStartThread(Object firstStart).

I tried using the RSKeyMgmt tool but it just could not find the instance of MS SQL server on my machine. i.e <severname>\SBSMonitoring If any one has some bright ideas, I'd be happy to hear from them.

WSUS 3.0 SP2 installed without any problems after this.