In V2, it was a simple matter of using the SPConfigDatabase object within the Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration namespace, but with V3, this was marked obsolete, with no reference to  what you can use in V3.  Another issue is that the new object type for the configuration database (SPConfigurationDatabase) is not exposed publicly in the object model.

I’ve seen a few posts that drive you to towards deriving it using crazy nested reflection by first starting with the ProcessIdentity object of the farms TimerService, but I recommend a clearer and simpler approach as follows

// Code Begins

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using Microsoft.SharePoint;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration;

namespace SPTest
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {

            // Get the Database Service class within the farm
            SPDatabaseService dbService = SPFarm.Local.Services.GetValue();

            // Enumerate the service instances
            foreach(SPDatabaseServiceInstance instance in dbService.Instances)
            {
                // enumerate the databases within this service instance
                foreach (SPDatabase database in instance.Databases)
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("Database Server: {0} :: Database Name: {1}",database.Server.Name, database.Name);

                    object oDB = database.GetType();

                    Console.WriteLine("Object Type: {0}", oDB.ToString());

                    // If the objects type is "Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPConfigurationDatabase, you've found the Config DB.
                    if (oDB.ToString().CompareTo("Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPConfigurationDatabase") == 0)
                        Console.WriteLine("You found the config database oDB.ToString(): {0} ",oDB.ToString());
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

// Code Ends
 

HTH!

– Keith

During my tenure with Barracuda, I had the pleasure of meeting and working with Paul a few times, and it’s exciting to be working with him again .

You can read his announcement at http://sharepoint.mindsharpblogs.com/PaulS/default.aspx

Welcome Aboard Paul!

– Keith

I told myself I was going to watch 2010: The Year We Make Contact on New Years Eve weekend, but I didn’t.  If you haven’t seen it, it’s movie based on Arthur C. Clare’s second part of his 4 part Odyssey series beginning with 2001: A Space Odyssey. (I’ve read all four parts of the series, and they’re definitely worth the read btw).  The reason I bring this up, is that I always love  watching movies that predict where we’ll be at a given point in time.  They always seem to predict we’ll be further along than where we actually wind up.  The same goes for me over the past few years and where I predicted I would be at this point in my life.

What I’m about to say, is not to attract people to a perceived pity party, because that’s definitely not what this post is all about.  I’m just giving some background on what’s happened and what I plan to do about it ; to set things in motion for myself; to reflect on where I’ve been;where I plan to go, and to predict where I’ll be in the future.

Pre 2007

Working for Microsoft was an absolute pleasure, and my decision to move to SharePoint vs. Exchange/Outlook was probably the most important decision I ever made in my professional career.   I absolutely loved working with this product.  It gave me the opportunity to to slowly move back into a development “Like” position which was something I truly missed.  So many great things were going on such as:

• My oldest daughter had recently graduated High School, and was attending College. 
• My Wife at the time, and I had recently adopted a second child. 
• I began to realize the impact that some of the technical contributions I made to the community was quite larger than I had anticipated
• I finally got back to writing/composing music and publishing a few CD’s
• Ideas for blog posts; helping the community; and inspiration was plentiful.

There were great things happening, and I think 2005/2006 were probably the best years of my life up to that time.

Mind you, there were certainly things I was NOT happy for such as

• Working literally an average of 70 hours a week most times
• Life’s own dramatic interruptions
• Trying to launch a new Church

2007

My desire to get back into full time development was really making me consider what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, and eventually I made the decision to leave Microsoft, and then a flood of life impacting things occurred.

• My oldest daughter decided to Join the Army.  Something I’m VERY PROUD OF, but was truly a scary time;
• My marriage technically ended, and I began the process of going through a divorce
• My oldest daughter was deployed to IRAQ
• What I thought was going to be an amazing career move for me, turned out not to be quite so; I could see myself drifting further and further away from SharePoint.
• People I thought were “True” friends, basically showed their true colors.  When you confide in someone and they immediately turn around and disclose things to others, is the absolute worst thing you can do, and when you do it to me, well….. Don’t bother speaking to me again buddy .
• People I “Knew” were “True” friends, also confirmed their true colors.  They proved themselves to be true friends; and my list of friends grew smaller, but also closer and more tight.
• My desires and aspirations and love of life were at an all time low.
• Most people didn’t have encouraging things to say; and I was constantly brought down rather than being encouraged.

Where 2005/2006 were the best years of my life, 2007 was probably the worst.

This was NOT where I predicted myself to be.

2008

2008 wasn’t entirely horrible; but it was certainly a close runner up to 2007.

• My mothers health began to deteriorate
• I was doing literally NO SharePoint work.
• I was living in a home I did not want to be at nor even wanted, but due to the economy, couldn’t do a thing about.
• Other pathetic things I don’t even care to mention
• My divorce was finalized
• I did however begin to make some new close friendships, but learned to keep my guard up even higher.

So again I’m not saying these things to attract people to a perceived pity party.  I’m just simply putting them out there to lead up to something later.

2009

Finally, things started turning around.  I had plenty of time to do plenty of thinking in the previous years and did the following things

• Took time to inspect and choose a job I felt I could really excel at.
• Moved out of my house for a brief period.  Initially to sell it; but primarily to just start anew.
• Moved “back” to my house .
• Started investing back into “Me, something I had not had the opportunity to do for a very, very long time.
• Refurnished a majority of my home, to make it more “me”.
• Buried a closet full of hatchets.
• Made lots of new friends who believe in “Joy” and “Humor” like myself and that sometimes you just can’t take some things in life so darn seriously!.

Things were getting better, and I began to make predictions about the future again.

2010

Well now 2010 is upon us.  Although I’m not completely where I wanted to be at this stage in my life, I have a new found hope and belief in the future.

Moving forward I plan to get back to what I once was

• A Joyful; Helpful; Community Oriented and driven SharePoint expert.
• Get back into my music once again
• Continue to be the best father to two great children I can possibly be.

Things were not great in the past, but it’s time to put those things aside and move on!  I want this year to be “The year that I make Contact” once again, and let you know  I’m still here and quite alive!

- Keith

Rob Collie, one of the founding engineers behind PowerPivot has started a blog here and has announced the "Great Football Project” as a non-demoware PowerPivot solution, from start to finish where he’ll be taking a hardcore BI project from his past and re-implement it using PowerPivot.

I myself will be diving deep into PowerPivot over the next few weeks, and will detail all I can as the weeks progress.

Until then, be sure to visit the following links to get an overview of PowerPivot and Rob Collie

• PowerPivot
• Microsoft SQL Server PowerPivot for Excel 2010
• PowerPivotPro featuring Rob Collie

Cheers!

– Keith

http://social.zune.net/artist/Keith-Richie/79d40c00-0600-11db-89ca-0019b92a3933/albums

One thing that isn’t listed is my La famille du solénoïde release, But of course it’s available on iTunes here, as with the rest of my releases.

<sigh> I plan to get back to my music too, I’ve just had a very busy past couple of years, and no time or inspiration for it.

Anyways, just wanted to note the whole listing in the Zune Marketplace real quick, cause it was way too exciting!

- Keith

Direct download links:

• x86: http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/F/5/2F51AB71-1325-49D2-9CB9-18DEC4780E99/office2007-kb971620-fullfile-x86-glb.exe
• x64: http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/B/B/5BBD34A9-C528-42B0-8A5F-9A8997B25C32/office2007-kb971620-fullfile-x64-glb.exe

For more information on the original issue, see the following posting on the SharePoint Team Blog:

Attention: Important Information on Service Pack 2

Cheers!

– Keith

I’m not the kind of guy to just re-hash what someone else has said unless I can add additional value to it.  When I do that, I always start out with “First read what so and so has said about x”.  There are too many of the content thieves out there, and they really provide no real value back to the community.   They’re just going for self gratification in subscribers, etc.  I also don’t like just blasting links as I discover them just to make a blog post, unless they are significant.  Besides, if I come across a cool article these days, I just dump it on twitter.  What I’m saying, is that when I post something, I want to really provide extreme value.

What I’ve realized, is that the things I do want to blog about require too much time to sit down in one setting to post, and thus I never get them done, or take the time to finish them and thus, this blog just gets extremely stale.   Also, I’ve noticed a lot of blog postings recently on very very short samples, about things I figured a lot of people would know.   But I’ve had to take a step back and realize that not all my followers know all the gritty details.

So…From now on, I’m going to blog about just what’s on my mind, what I learned, what I might be able to share.   There may be some overlap in things that were already posted, but I’ve got to stop worrying about “It’s been said before” because I have to realize that my view/insight into the problem/solution may in fact add value not otherwise stated.

- Keith

Maurice has just completed the Microsoft Certified Masters training for SharePoint Server 2007 and was awarded the certification along with a small group of elite personnel. Now ShareSquared has a Microsoft Certified Master for SharePoint Server 2007 in our group, and I’m extremely happy for my company and friend.

Maurice did a great write-up on his perspective of the program here, and I encourage you to give it a read if you are considering this for your future.  As well, you can check out Spence Harbar’s write-up here.

Congratulations to the newest Certified Masters for SharePoint Server 2007!

– Keith

Today I’m happy to announce that I have joined the great team at ShareSquared The SharePoint Solution Experts, where I’ll be working with long time friend and cohort Maurice Prather as a Senior SharePoint Architect.

The team at ShareSquared is composed of expert SharePoint architects and developers who are seasoned computer science professionals with a thorough understanding of proper software construction, design patterns and best practices.  I’m so proud to be joining this team.

I want to thank ALL my friends for their support over the past couple of months while I sought ought just who I wanted to be when I grew up .  My new position will allow me to utilize my previous skills as well as further extend myself into areas I had only dreamed about before.

Here’s to new adventures in 2009!

- Keith

The purpose of the SharePoint Site Builder (SPSiteBuilder) is to assist customers with performing SharePoint Site Collection build outs for testing purposes. Primarily for load testing, etc. This sample source can be compiled to produce a tool that will allow you to easily create multiple hierarchies of site collections.

My apologies to those who followed the link before and found nothing

-Keith