wow, 6 weeks without a blog post. everythign i do now is posted through twitter for updates or flickr photos/vids.

I seem now to reserve blog posts soley for my technical posts which i know annoys some of you. I'm looking to move onto WordPress in the new year, or when my designer gets his arse into gear.

We just got back from a great trip in Northland.

Oh, and we just got a new car, a gorgeous, sexy Toyata Corolla 2009 Wagon. That's right a Station Wagon, COOL OR WHAT!?

A very merry Christmas and New Year to one an all.

Contrary to popular believe you can actually run multiple ssl sites on an IIS 7 box which only has one ip address (It's easier if you have multiple ip addresses but not impossible if you don't).

This is very useful for development and test boxes running a test ssl cert but can also be used in production environments if all secure sites run under a super cert (e.g. *.mydomain.com)

Follow the guide here

http://www.sslshopper.com/article-ssl-host-headers-in-iis-7.html

However, for the certificate you can easily use a test one in non live environments

http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2007/04/06/tip-trick-enabling-ssl-on-iis7-using-self-signed-certificates.aspx

I recommend you install a single TestSSL certificate on a development machine and apply this process for any new SSL enabled sites in development.

The key I discovered is to assign the certificate to the first site in IIS before running the command line to enable the host headers for other sites.

EDIT: Please see Aaron Block's excellent guide to understanding TFS communiciation architecture along with tips to set this up. I have just added my thoughts in here on top now that i have found this doc:

Organisations may wish to expose their Team Foundation Server resources (including SharePoint Team Sites) using fully qualified domain names (FQDNs) both internally and externally. This document provides (almost) complete guidelines on how to do this, with particular focus on the TFS and SharePoint configuration to support FQDNs.

Install TFS 2010 Beta 2. This guide assumes a single server installation, but could easily be interpreted to work with multiple application tiers.

Set up your FQDN. For internal access, it's recommended that you update your DNS Server internally (e.g. Forward Lookup Zone for tfs.yourcompany.com) to ensure that the FQDN points to an internal IP Address when users are connected to the network (to avoid having to route out to the internet and back).

For external access, add an A record for the FQDN to the DNS zone file for your domain (via your ISP’s control panel normally). You will need to configure your perimeter network appropriately to route public 80 and 8080 (or 443 if you are going secure, not covered here) traffic through to your TFS server which is not covered here. (Although I intend to post separately on doing this with ISA 2006 soon).

Ensure your FQDN is working internally and externally as expected before continuing to configure TFS and SharePoint.

Disable the Loop Back Check on your TFS Server. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/926642. This is required otherwise the TFS Admin Console will throw errors as it won't be able to access your FQDN

Restart your server

Add your FQDN to the alternate access mapping of SharePoint for the TFS Web Application  using SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration > Operations >Alternate access mappings (use 'Add Internal Urls').

Change the RS & WSS locations by directly editing tbl_LocationMapping table in the TFS Configuration database, adding your FQDN in. (Aaron has advised this is definitely not necessary, as these urls can be altered in the TFS Admin Console, see below)

Restart IIS 7.0

Open TFS Admin Console, select Application Tier, then click on Change URLS.

Put your FQDN in the Public Url field and change the Server Url to continue to use the netbios machine name and then click OK. and click OK

Select Application Tier > SharePoint Web Applications, then select the top row in the list within the SharePoint Web Applications list box. Click 'Change SharePoint Web Application' and put your FQDN in the Friendly Name and Web Application Url fields and click OK.

Select Application Tier > Reporting and click Edit. Ensure that your FQDN is used for the Warehouse Database, Analysis Services Database, Report Server Url and Report Manager url.

Start all services again once this is completed.

Within the TFS Admin Console, select Extensions for SharePoint Products, then select the top row in the list within the list box.

Click Modify Access, and ensure the FQDN is added to the URL for Team Foundation Server and click OK.

Note! Excel Reports on the SharePoint sites don't work unless you open ports for Analysis Services (link to follow...)

You should now be ready to go!

Credits
This post builds on the work done in the post below, but is updated for Beta 2 and also includes additional configuration.
http://www.euri.com/Blog/tabid/85/EntryId/38/Changing-the-URL-of-Team-Foundation-Server-TFS-2010-Beta-1-to-a-FQDN.aspx

I received a fair amount of criticism at Sunday lunch from @mandamonium about my blogging style (or lack thereof).

With new found enthusiasm for the art of captioning and giving a bit of a shit about the content, here are some relevant snaps from @birdle's 29th birthday party at the Malt bar on Sunday.

I should have taken a picture of the fush n chups as they were seriously delicious.

@birdle and Ben – Shit, let’s just move to New Zealand and not tell anyone, Hi Mum!

Ever wistful and sunbursted, @darren and @mandamonium prepare for alien invasion in their own unique fashion

“This baby doesn’t have teeth at all, I do!” prooved @mandamonium, wistfully

obligatory non relevant mystery meat picture, this time of a sleeping lia, dreaming of what tommy calls “blueberries”.

Despite asking, i wasn't able to get this from the tech ed organisers and was fed up with the god awful ajax scrolling nonsense

Hopefully this will make your session planning a little easier.

Word Session List

Excel Agenda

1 month old!

We’ll never get our of here alive!

I’m going to eat you

Chuffed

TRAIN SETS!

I love the Meadowbank Toy Library