Installing July CTP, Bitten by the error beast again

We are ramping up for our production environment to switch to the latest greatest version of Team System. (We want to run production on Beta 3, but we use the CTP for verification of e.g. the work items we created)

So I decided to install the July CTP. Fist I got bitten by a known issue that I could not use my base VPC images of team system anymore. The SQL server guys just shipped a version of their product that does not install on a Domain Controller. (And you guessed right I always installed the Data Tier on my Domain controller) So I decided to take my test a little further and asked the Info Support ICT services guys if they allowed me to join the domain. And they did 🙂 Now I only needed to install a Data Tier and Application tier and that by now should be easy (installed team system a dozen times now, so I guessed it would a breeze)

Installed the data tier, without any problems. (I thought, read on and be surprised)

Now the Application tier…. I started to install in my VPC by just inserting the disk. This is the point that I should have been careful already, because in previous installs that caused me troubles already. This time this went also wrong. During the setup I got the wonderful message: The installer has encountered an unexpected error installing this package.  This may indicate a problem with this package.  The error code is 2337

Ok, so I decided to try this again but now first copy the installation image to the local disk in VPC. And that worked great again!

Then I discovered the wonderful 32000 message. You know, the message every body encounters when installing. (Have a look at the forums, and search for 32000 errors)

I decided to start reading the installation guides again, and I found that my ignorance for not reading an installation guide bit me again. I have to say that the installation manual got me puzzled. It wants me to install windows share point services, but cripple this installation on purpose! I must select a Server Farm installation (which omits the MSDE install) and then leave the portal configuration incomplete! I decided to stick with the document, but some reason why you would like to do this would be nice. (is it required, is it better to do so, or could I also use the default install with MSDE?)

I tought I was now good to go, but found the 32000 appear again. I got more information on what goes wrong by typing from the run dialog box the command %temp%. This opens an explorer with your temp folder and there you can find the log files from the installation. I found the logfile where the problem was described, setupwarehouse.log.

I got the error that a sp_addrolmember failed on the account I provided in the setup.

It appears that you need to be very careful which user account you provide in the AT setup. DO NOT USE ANY OF THE ACCOUNTS USED IN SETUP. (TFSSetup;TFSService; etc) use a random account. Otherwise installation will popup with 32000 again.

To me the user account I need to provide is somewhat blurry, but by providing just an ordinary domain user account that has access to the team foundation database server will do. (I will figure out what it does, but for now I just wanted the install to work)

So I fixed this issue, punched in a random user account and retried the setup.

Then I got an error that really made me mad!!!! I got the following message:

Microsoft.AnalysisServices.OperationException: Errors related to feature availability and configuration: The ‘Metadata translations’ feature is not included in the ‘Standard Edition’ SKU.

The setup fails on creating the data warehouse because it requires a feature not in the developer edition! It requires SQL Server Enterprise Edition. That is perfectly fine, BUT JUST SAY SO when I start installing my data tier! (And b.t.w. when you send me a set with disks, I expect this set to work with each other or get a warning note)

So Go back N again…

Now I need to upgrade the SQL server to enterprise edition before I can try it again. This will probably keep me up for quite some hours 🙁

Hope I can post that everything succeeded, but man this thing is taking up a way to much time. I know I can’t expect everything to work as good as with a Beta or RTM product. And believe me I have workt with the most early drops you can imagine and have gone trough quite some rough installations already. But providing a few words of advice before you start installing would not have hurt.