MySQL Remote Connections for Replication

Here is another interesting problem:

When trying to set up master to master replication from Server A to Server B, the replication user can login from A to B, but not the other way. The error thrown out by MySQL:

ERROR 1130 (HY000): Host '' is not allowed to connect to this MySQL server

Things to check:
1. Replication user password and host
2. Ability to ping the remote server
3. nslookup the remote server and then nslookup the ip for the reverse lookup

The last one solved the problem.

Much Ado about a space

After upgrading SQL Server 2005 to SP3 I had difficulty bringing SQL server back online. The error message indicated a problem when opening 'master.mdf' or a problem with start up parameters. The parameters looked ok and I did not want to reinstall the SQL server.... Online research pointed to potential master database corruption, however the problem turned out to be a simple one -there was an extra space infront the start up parameters in the Configuration Manager. SQL server started up after the extra space was removed.

Error occurred while opening file 'master.mdf' to obtain configuration information at startup. An invalid startup option might have caused the error. Verify your startup options, and correct or remove them if necessary.