RunAs Radio

Richard and Greg talk to Chris Stoneff of Lieberman Software about the challenges of passwords. The discussion ranges from password alternatives to complexity policy and privileged account password management.

Richard and Greg talk to Clint Huffman about the Performance Analysis of Logs (PAL) Tool. The tool can be downloaded at http://www.codeplex.com/PAL. PAL helps identify what performance counters to monitor and what are reasonable thresholds for Microsoft products like IIS, MOSS, SQL Server, Exchange and Active Directory. Clint has a blog at http://blogs.technet.com/clint_huffman/.

Richard and Greg dig deep into PerfMon with Shane Creamer. Shane works with Microsoft Premier Field Engineering and runs the Vital Signs workshop, a three day course teaching everything the administrator needs to know about performance monitor. Download the video Here. Also, a link to the 25 key perfmon counters is in Stephen Choy's article at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc718984.aspx?pr=blog.

Richard and Greg talk to Itzik Ben-Gan about all things T-SQL in SQL Server 2008. Itzik doesn't just talk about what's new, he talks about what's missing (in his opinion). This is a must-listen for serious SQL geeks! Check out Itzik's web site at http://www.sql.co.il/

Michael Anderburg returns to talk to Richard and Greg about code security. Focused around the book The Security Development Lifecycle (http://www.microsoft.com/mspress/books/8753.aspx), Michael describes the role of IT in making code security work. While it sounds like a topic for developers, the book is equally applicable to IT Pros and what they can do to help development and even third-party applications be more secure.

Richard and Greg bring back Wes Miller to talk about Windows Rights Management Services (RMS). RMS secures email and other Office documents to have precise security options, limiting the ability to view, print, copy and so on.

Richard and Greg talk to Stephen Choy about measuring and managing server performance. Stephen digs into the intricacies of performance monitor and other tools for measuring server performance. One of the tools mentioned is Performance Analysis of Logs (PAL) Tool at http://www.codeplex.com/PAL.

Richard and Greg talk to the illustrious Kim Tripp, in a rare interview without her husband Paul Randal. The conversation delves deep into the wonders of indexes in SQL Server, including the value of clustered indexes, their impact on non-clustered indexes and a huge number of details on why some indexes rock and other suck. Check out Kim's blog at http://www.sqlskills.com/blogs/kimberly.

Richard and Greg talk to Michiel Wories about Powershell for SQL Server 2008. The latest version of SQL Server implements several object models through Powershell to let folks manage SQL Server without using the management tools. Michiel's blog is at http://blogs.msdn.com/mwories/

Richard and Greg talk to Paul Randal about the new file stream technology in SQL Server 2008. File streams provide a solution to very large files being connected with SQL Server transactionally while still storing the files themselves in the file system, rather than the database. Check out Paul's blog at http://www.sqlskills.com/blogs/paul