I recently had a rather sick server that was exhibiting all sorts of weird behaviour. Applications pools under IIS were shutting down as soon as the site was hit. All sorts of weird stuff was happening. Event logs were providing nothing useful. Even trying to install IIS diagnosis tools failed.

Clearly a very sick machine.

Diagnosis

One of the challenges was what to trust. Clearly there were some underlying issues with the operating system. Once you go down that rabbit hole, where do you stop? Is the event log still working?

Where do you start?

I had the following info:

1. A web application that was working 6 hours before was now failing, without any useful errors in the event log. There was an exit code but I couldn’t find any info.
2. Diagnosis tools were failing to install
3. A colleague was reporting that some apps wouldn’t run

My best guess was that some of the operating system was corrupted in some way.

Solution!

Resolution

The scan indicated an issue with a specific dll. I passed this onto a colleague who was able to fix the issue by uninstalling and re-installing windows updates. It’s a great tool to add to the toolbox.

The 

System File Checker

System File Checker

Before – oh the mess!

1. 12mm thick mdf board
2. Screws to match the depth of the board (I chose 6G x 15mm)
3. Jigaw to cut it out
4. Drill + bits to put a nice neat hole in the top to hang it
5. Sandpaper to clean up
6. Tape Measure

You need this

1. Mark the board

Measure the items you want to mount. Add a centimetre for the space between each one, and 5cm for space at the top. Mark the board up. Don’r forget: measure twice and cut once.

2. Cut out your board

Using your handy jigsaw, cut out the board.Coffee table and jellybean dropsheet are optional accessories.

Jigsawing

Clean this up with the sandpapaper, jigsaws tend to leave rough edges

Sanding

3. Drill a hole

It’s a hole! In a piece of wood!

4. Start mounting things

First set of screws

Problem 1: The little linksys box didn’t neatly handle the screws, so I had to scrape the plastic away a little.

Thank goodness it will all be out of sight in time

First one mounted, blurred for effect

All of them mounted on the board

With the cables wired in

You might notice that I didn’t do a great job of spacing these apart very well. The modem on the far left overhangs the end of the board slightly and there isn’t a huge gap between that and the switch (in the middle). I should follow my own advice on measure twice cut once.

Conclusion

• Serving without Sinking – John Hindley
• Documenting Software Architectures: Views and Beyond (2nd Edition) – too many authors to name
• Simply Jesus: A New Vision of Who He Was, What He Did, and Why He Matters – N T Wright
• 64 Things You Need to Know Now for Then – Ben Hammersly

• 64 Things You Need to Know Now for Then – Ben Hammersly
• Documenting Software Architectures: Views and Beyond (2nd Edition) – too many authors to name
• Simply Jesus: A New Vision of Who He Was, What He Did, and Why He Matters – N T Wright

I just downloaded Visual Studio 2012 Express for home use.

Similar to the 2010 version, you are basically downloading ‘evaluation software’ until you register. This is silly, but Microsoft have managed to take this to a new level.

The new version of VS.Net 2012 Express will not let you register until you enter:

1. A business name
2. A business phone number
3. An address
4. Technologies you are interested in

I’m using this for personal use, mostly to play with new .Net technologies. This is related to any company. Thanks for making it all a bit more painful than it needs to be.

I’m guessing this was an attempt to gather more information about who is using the express version.

As a result for Microsoft’s purposes I’m now a developer from Tajikistan, interested in classic ASP (a language I haven’t touched in well over 5 years).