Easy Workaround for Oracle Linked Server Problem with TIMESTAMP(6) Column

I've got a lot of SQL servers at work. And those servers link to a lot of other servers. MySQL, Oracle, SQL 2005, 2008, etc.
For the most part linked servers are frowned on from my perspective but I can't keep people from getting things done so they do get setup. Most of the time the four part naming convention works just fine although MySQL in particular seems to need OPENQUERY Oracle never has... until today.

For some reason running a query against an 11g R1 Oracle DB kept returning this:
Msg 7354, Level 16, State 1, Line 1557
The OLE DB provider "OraOLEDB.Oracle" for linked server "XYZSERVER01" supplied invalid metadata for column "CREATEDDATE". The data type is not supported.

The column type in Oracle was timestamp(6) and no matter of cast or convert would avoid the problem. Selecting without the offending column still produced the error. I was about to start looking for newer OraOLEDB drivers when I thought about the MySQL issue. I also did a little checking and found this KB:
SELECT
*
FROM OPENQUERY(XYZSERVER, 'SELECT COUNT(foobar) FROM XYZSCHEMA.XYZTABLE')

Worked great; problem solved :)

I'm also going to pose the solution to the forum post below as it seems to be related...
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en/transactsql/thread/fd1cb0c8-efb5-4a94-b00d-b2aeb91dd771

Subaru Part Review: GrimmSpeed Up Pipe for 02-10 WRX

I got a GrimmSpeed uppipe today and I'm very impressed with the quality. I already have a GrimmSpeed crosspipe and this is right on par with the quality I expect. The welds are perfect, the flanges are thick and straight, and the coating is perfect. It's boderline artwork.
I was so impressed I decided to get some specs on it and post them up.
The inlet port to the upipe (exhaust manifold outlet) has a radius nearly 10mm larger than stock. The pipe tapers smoothly to the outlet (turbo inlet) where its radius is about 4mm larger than stock. The stock uppipe weighs in at about 7 - 7.5lbs and the GrimmSpeed piece is about 3 lbs lighter.

The lowdown:

• thicker flanges
• ceramic coating for to keep the heat in
• mandrel bent pipe vs. stock crush bends
• ~20mm diameter larger inlet (94.56mm) & ~8mm larger outlet (86.76mm)
• 3lbs weight savings

An STI uppipe will weigh less than the stock WRX as the catalytic converter, but no one would be buying this piece for the weight savings. I'm actually replacing an STI uppipe I put in because the heat sheild on it has rusted and it's loose and banging around. I think it may also have a leak.

If you're on the fence about this part hopefully this info plus the vendor info pushes you over the edge. It's a solidly built piece and you won't be disappointed.

If you're in Canada, support Touge Tuning. I've had nothing but excellent experiences with them and from what I can tell their prices can't be beat!

MS DTC Problems With Oracle Linked Server & Windows 2008 x64 R2 Cluster (Server: Msg 7391, Level 16, State 1)

If you are getting this error (Server: Msg 7391, Level 16, State 1) trying to run a transaction using a linked Oracle server then I may have the fix you're looking for. I had to troubleshoot a problem with a new Windows 2008 Enterprise R2 x64 cluster today that was a real pain.

To get things ready normally you need to at least do the following:

• install the Oracle drivers & reboot
• set "allow in process" on the provider in SQL
• ensure the default DTC is the clustered resource
• enabled DTC for network access and set correct authentication.

Normally things would work at this point. No such luck today though! No matter what I did I couldn't get a specific stored procedure a user wrote to without firing off the "unable to enlist" error. Other DTC transactions worked just fine.

The solution was simple (but tricky for non-Oracle DBAs); I had to install the "Oracle Services for Microsoft Transaction Server 11.1.0.7.0" service and reboot.
Now, I *could* have re-written the query but since it was already working on another QA box and the user is going to be re-working the whole solution shortly I didn't see much point. Plus I wanted to know HOW or IF it could be made to work on this cluster! ;)

Hope this helps someone else out there!
-A

FreeNAS Magic Sauce: Getting Transmission to play nice with Samba

I love my FreeNAS setup. I can download torrents on it faster than with my Windows boxes and it's about as close to "set it and forget it" as it gets. Love it.
I did have one problem though. From some reason transmission got in the habit of downloading files with permissions that let me read them but not write or modify. It would get worse if I tried to move them around via Samba.
As I'm not keen on running scripts to constantly do the same thing (like reset permissions) over and over again with little regard for what they're doing I found another solution. Tell Samba how to behave!
Adding these commands to the "Auxillary Parameters" of the CIFS/SMB config will make all your problems go away. Is it secure? Probably not. Is my network secure? Yes. Good.

force group = wheel
force user = transmission

Bounce the service and you'll never have permission problems again! :)