Wrong MOM Operator Console Scope

Having recently installed the MOM 2005 Operator Console on a colleague's PC, I was completely confused as to why he was presented with the default scope, i.e. everything.

As he only needed access specifically to SQL Server related alerts, this was a potential blocking point to using the tool as hoped, with each sysadmin having control over their own area.

At the point of giving up and resorting to using the more limited web version, I discovered a Microsoft article that led me to the solution - basically this issue will arise if the name of the PC matches the name of the user. So, after a quick rename and reboot of the PC, it now works perfectly!

SQL Server GMT Function

I have recently had to deal with an issue of comparing a datetime field to the current datetime in SQL server, the issue being that the stored value was recorded as GMT, whereas the function GetDate() which I have used for years returns the local time which is currently returning BST.

So, after some extensive research (or rather 2 mins on Google!), I found there is another function that returns GMT - GetUTCDate(). Something you may never need to use, but might just come in handy one day!