Hey folks - while flying through different timezones and working away on my VPCs I came across the problem below.
Basically no further work could be done on the Application within the BizTalk Admin Console.
Couldn't stop/start, undeploy...delete etc. 

The only thing I had done was to adjust my time to reflect local time....which as I found out causes the problem.

I adjusted my clock back to Sydney time and we're good to go!!!

Trap for young players......

SSO AUDIT
Function: SetConfigInfo
Tracking ID: df1dd0b0-c9d5-4012-bb97-336aa8df78b3
Client Computer: BTS06-Platform.contoso.com (mmc.exe:1884)
Client User: BTS06-PLATFORM\Administrator
Application Name: {D2241406-0767-4C13-98EB-43EECE80F8A0}
Error Code: 0xC0002A40, The external credentials in the SSO database are more recent.

UPDATE: Running this script against your SSODB cures this problem.
update SSODB..SSOX_ExternalCredentials set ec_timestamp = dateadd(m,-1,ec_timestamp) where datediff(hh,ec_timestamp,getdate())<>0

We've now got official Management Pack support for R2 and the newer things in R2 such as EDI and RFID.

I've had many students come up to me and say "Mick - what in the world are you talking about?"
(mind you I get that at home as well - but let's not go there)

Have you ever asked the question:
I wonder how our BizTalk (et. al.) servers are going?
(this is where you could send the work experience kid around to all the servers gathering details and report back to you by lunch.....but not all of us have work experience kids)

The answer to this is relatively complex - as you'll need know things like:

1. Services - stopped, started, uptime. BizTalk Services, SQL Services, WCF/IIS Services etc.
2. Database sizes, Spool table lengths
3. Queue Lengths - disk etc.
4. Memory details
5. BizTalk Orchestration details
6. Messaging Details
7. .... and the list goes on.
   

SCOM2007 with the management pack gives you that - in near enough realtime with all sorts of graphs and charts.

One of the *best* things I like about SCOM2007 is that you install the Management Pack(s) only on *one* machine - usually the SCOM2007 Central Administration machine, and as more applications are installed on servers on the network, the appropriate management bits are 'auto-deployed'.

Grab it here -

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=389FCB89-F4CF-46D7-BC6E-57830D234F91&amp;displaylang=en&displaylang=en

I've got a RFID project in the pipeline and I'm doing a 'little playing' at this point - seeing how far I can go through the APIs given this certain Reader and BizTalk RFID Client APIs. (I'm home and hosed on the BizTalk RFID APIs, but the questions are more around the particular Provider AND what the device can/can't do)

So I decided to venture a little further...........

Fired up a VPC and seeing this Reader is a USB connected device, (and as we know that VPC/Virtual Server/Hyper-V 2008 does not share USB ports!!! After a little pain I found a 3rd party software piece that did the job!) had to share it from another physical host where the Reader is plugged into.

After a little playing with Provider/Device Settings within BizTalk RFID Manager - away we go.

I decided to cut some code and do a GetDeviceCapabilities(...) sort of call.

Check this out!!!!!

Line 25 - was my call on the Open Connection.

** I decided to run the code in debug mode and entered the same command in the Intermediate Window

This was the part that took the cake....it's got a whole collection of ENGLISH TEXT as to what the device does!

If you're like me...so many of these things fall down to byte structures with certain bits here and there indicating different capabilities.

HOW GOOD IS THIS!!!! Well done to the RFID Team.....it's great to have APIs that make sense.... :) (mostly )

I came across this Microsoft Page while on my travels which lets you browse for your VHD by product!!!!!

e.g. SQL 2008, BizTalk, SharePoint, VS2008 etc etc. Grab the VHD for your needs.

They are public domain VHDs so I'm guessing they're 'limited' in some way (probably time) - which means don't go building your VOIP/RFID Corporation on them :)

Have fun!

BizTalk RFID 'v2' is in early TAP (Technology Adopter Program/phase) and runs on Windows Mobile Devices...pretty cool!

Now Microsoft have moved RFID not only into the common household framework, but also provided the reach with Mobile devices.

Rather than in the classic RFID model where tags move and Readers are *fixed*. We now can have Readers that move and tags that are *fixed*.
(lots of ideas for this one!)

Check out a stream of RFID 'stuff' from YOUTUBE

RFID goes Mobile...

What is RFID....

Future Supermarket!

Christmas has gone, Easter too.....but here's something to smile about. There's some HUGE things cooking on the horizon in the land of BizTalk.

We want SQL2008....we want VS2008 and we want the world of connectivity to/from BizTalk to be *easy*. Also as BizTalk RFID goes mobile....we want to go there too! Control, manage, deploy/stop/start processes etc etc.

Here's a start....

Steve Martin (heads up the Connect Systems Division - CSD at Microsoft in Product Management) spilt the beans and let me tell you....when are the betas coming out!!!!!!!

http://blogs.msdn.com/stevemar/archive/2008/04/23/biztalk-server-platform-updates.aspx

Enjoy