How To Rename A SQL Server

Microsoft SQL ServerLike some other posts recently, this one is the result of a conversation with a colleague at my new company, where I found they were unaware of something I took for granted; the ability to easily rename a comuter which has a stand alone instance of SQL Server installed.

I do this fairly often as I use quite a lot of Virtual Machines for testing different configurations, but I don’t want to have to build a new one every time, so I make copies of a base VM and rename it each time I want a new one (there is often more than one running at any one time and I want to avoid conflicts).

As well as renaming the machine inside the VM, I also rename the SQL Server to make sure it matches the name of the machine; I’ve had problems before with Microsoft Dynamics GP when I’ve not done so.

Doing this is actually very simple. Continue reading “How To Rename A SQL Server”

Copy Microsoft Dynamics GP Live Company To Test Automatically

Microsoft Dynamics GPBacking up the a Microsoft Dynamics GP company to test is, unfortunately, not as simple as backing up one database and restoring it to the Test one. There are two scripts which need to be run after doing so; the first changed the INTERID and Company Name and the second changes the database owner to dynsa.

At my last company, we decided to make this process as easy as possible for clients, so we started creating a SQL Agent Job which would do the backup, restore and run the scripts with minimal effort or could even run on a scheduled basis. The basic purpose was to give the client a test or training system which was always, or could very quickly be, up to date. Continue reading “Copy Microsoft Dynamics GP Live Company To Test Automatically”

Selecting The Correct Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Collation For Microsoft Dynamics GP

Microsoft Dynamics GPAfter initial acclimatisation pains with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 (I largely skipped 2005 and 2008 RTM) I have become used to Management Studio and do now prefer it to Enterprise Manager and Query Analyser.

One of the things I really like about SQL 2008 R2 is the installation process where you pick the collation. Dealing with Microsoft Dynamics GP so much means I need to be careful with server and database collations as GP, once installed, cannot have it’s database collation changed.

We typically install SQL Server for Microsoft Dynamics GP using the SQL_Latin1_CP1_CI_AS (case insensitive, accent sensitive), which is very easy in SQL 2008 R2 Continue reading “Selecting The Correct Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Collation For Microsoft Dynamics GP”

Error: Attempting To Log In From A Data Source Using A Trusted Connection

Microsoft Dynamics GPI’ve been building a test environment in a virtual machine the last few days to do a migration from Microsoft Dynamics GP 9 SP3 to 2010 R2.

After completing the upgrade I tried to log into GP and received the following error;

You

Continue reading “Error: Attempting To Log In From A Data Source Using A Trusted Connection”

Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 R2 On Windows 8 Developer Preview

Microsoft Dynamics GPWell, I’ve just finished installing SQL Server 2008 R2 and Microsoft Dynamics 2010 R2 on the Windows 8 Developer Preview and GP is exactly like it is on Windows 7. Continue reading “Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 R2 On Windows 8 Developer Preview”