We recently performed an installation of Proclarity Desktop Professional 6.3 for one of our clients and ran into an installation issue. When installing Proclarity Desktop on a system running Windows Xp Service Pack 3 the installation can get stuck in a loop when attempting to install the prerequisite services. The install program informs you that in order to proceed with the install you must reboot your system, but when the system is rebooted it asks to be rebooted again, and again, and again. In order to get past this issue it is necessary to install two of the prerequisite services manually, namely Microsoft Pivot table services for SQL 2000 and Microsoft Pivot table services for SQL 2005. The installation programs for these services can be found here, www.microsoft.com. The patch for SQL 2000 is obvious, however the patch for SQL 2005 is contained within the Microsoft SQL server 2005 Analysis Services 9.0 OLE DB provider package. Once these services are installed it is necessary to run the Proclarity 6.3 Windows Installer Package from within the \desktop install\install folder on the Proclarity installation disk. Proclarity Desktop Professional should now install successfully.  

Over the last few weeks we've noticed a recurring issue with several Small Business Server 2008 systems. Intermittent DNS issues particularly related to resolving .co.uk domains. DNS logs showed nothing amiss and a restart of DNS services would provide a temporary fix, with the issue returning a few days later.

Turns out the problem affects Windows 2008 Servers configured to use root hints for name resolution (which is the default), attempting to resolve .co.uk, .cn, or .br (and possibly other) top level domains.

There are two solutions, 1) Change DNS to use forwarders, 2) Increase the DNS cache lifetime (full details at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968372)

Ladarnas is pleased to announce their recent award of Microsoft Gold Certified Partner status. Microsoft Gold Certified Partner status represents the highest levels of expertise with Microsoft technologies and a proven track record in meeting customers’ needs.

As Microsoft Gold Partners, Ladarnas have access to a wealth of resources, tools and detailed information about Microsoft technologies and systems. Gold Partner status also provides direct training and support from Microsoft on the latest technologies.

Managing Director Neil Ballantyne said: “We are delighted to have achieved Gold Partner status. This allows us to clearly demonstrate our depth of knowledge and our relationship with Microsoft. Having Gold Partner status will give us the ability to add value and continue to enhance the offerings that we provide to our clients.”  Neil added: “We could not have attained this status without the positive and constructive support from our clients. I would like to take this opportunity to say a big ‘Thank You’ to them all.”