This post is a bit of a rant; I spent the whole day trying to resolve a curious chain of events. Basically, I wasted a day of development troubleshooting something stupid; hopefully, others will learn from my mistakes, and avoid the pain and suffering I experienced.
It all started with SQL Server 2008; we’re looking at migrating to it sometime this year, and I finally begged the production guys into letting this developer get a copy of it installed on my machine. Seems to make sense, since I don’t know, I WRITE THE CODE THAT THEY RUN. (sorry, a bit tense). Anyhoo, I started the install. All was going well, apart from the unusual hiccup with my Logitech web cam. I eventually got it installed, started to play around with it, and then I noticed that I only had 1 GB of disk space free.
Sidebar: remember when 1GB was a HUGE amount of space? Unfortunately, it ain’t much now, and my laptop is starting to suffer from too-much-crapitis.
Realizing that I was running out of space, I made the extremely stupid decision to uninstall SQL Server 2005 from my hard drive and free up a few gig. SQL 2008 should be sufficient right? I do very little development on my local box (we have dev servers for that), so I thought I would be safe. How wrong I was. The uninstall took about 30 minutes, a reboot later, and I get bugged by Dan about an issue with one of the database projects I checked in using VSTS:Database Professional. I fire up Data Dude, and basically my laptop shot me the bird. Apparently, VSTS REQUIRES an installation of SQL Server 2005 to run; SQL 2008 won’t do.
Sidebar: I realize that there is a new version of VSTS:Database Professional that doesn’t have this requirement, but until it’s official, I can’t have it (company policy). Make it official, Microsoft, and you won’t get rants like these. I’m warning you! (insert mental picture of an ant shaking his fist at an elephant).
Since I had limited space to install, I chose to install SQL Server 2005 Express edition. All went well, until the installer required a version of MSXML 6, and then it puked. Why? Because Windows XP Service Pack 3 installs a higher version of MSXML 6 then SQL Server 2005 does, and the SQL Server 2005 can’t write over the newer version, but nor will it accept the newer version as valid. This is the computing equivalent of saying “I like cherry pie and I like whipped cream, but I don’t like cherry pie with whipped cream”. I couldn’t install SSE 2005 until I uninstalled MSXML 6, and I couldn’t uninstall MSXML 6 without uninstalling Windows XP SP3.
Sidebar: Insert mental picture of ant and elephant again, only this time the ant is banging his head on the desk and crying while the elephant leaves a large steaming deposit nearby; the elephant’s not cruel, just oblivious to the ant’s peril.
Luckily, I found this post at support.microsoft.com, describing the use of the Windows Installer CleanUp utility to remove MSXML 6, without uninstalling XP SP3. Dodged a bullet there, I thought to myself; instead, I stepped into a lawnmower blade. I got SQL 2005 Express installed, fired up VSTS:DB Pro, and realized that I HAD THE WRONG VERSION (missing service packs; I had version 611, VSTS:DB Pro needed 612). No big deal, right? I’ll run Windows Update, get the missing service packs (since I was now on an old version of MSXML 6 anyway); bad idea.
Apparently, there’s been a lot of patches since XP SP3 was released, including a Service Pack for SQL 2008 (the cog that started this pinwheel); 900 Meg of patches to download, which wouldn’t be such a big deal except for the fact that my company has my connection capped at 512K.
Sidebar: The ant has just realized that it’s not entirely the elephant’s fault. The queen ant has also made some strange policy decision that must be followed. However, it’s much easier to blame the elephant, because it’s lonely without a job or an ant hill. Stupid elephant; wise queen ant.
Anyway, at 3PM this afternoon (I clock out at 4PM), I was able to answer Dan’s question. Looking forward to another productive day tomorrow.
After reading this rant, which reminds me of more than one failed collaboration-type softwarwe upgrade that stole many hours from me because of unforseen software incompatibilities, I am oh so glad that the “software” I will soon be responsible for has been around for thousands of years and has yet to undergo an upgrade (save some Darwin-type minor modifications).
It’s always my fault, isn’t it?
Or am I just the one to point out the flaws in your schemes?