My feedback for SQL Server 2008 February CTP-6.

I invested my time downloading and installing this latest CTP (February 2008 release). This to make you understand why I really felt embarrassing from the beginning I installed this release. Initially I downloaded to install the 1.5 GB huge CTP on 29th of Feb. While installing the splash screen displayed November Release, I was mislead by the information that I had downloaded a wrong setup file by chance. But infact I was wrong to realize it was the same copy that I downloaded once again. Imagine that there is no means that you can help yourself saying that it's a february release and Do not worry, Refresh build will also mislead you by initially giving you a splash screen saying it's a feb release but on the main Installation page, you still see as November CTP Edition.. confusing don't you.

Suddenly on 2nd of March, the Sql server and Sql Server agent stopped working and you cannot start them no matter you try hard attempts for resoluton. I thought that the problem was with privileges, but not until too late that I found the solution here that we need to install the build available after 29th of feb. I re-installed the fresh build and got ultimately disappointed when I saw that Installation failed - Database Engine and Reporting Services failed. Then I scanned through the logs to understand all the internal things that went on during installation and reason why Pre CTP-6 didn't actually do a clean uninstallation. So I had to clean up everything manually to do a fresh install successfully.

I greatly appreciate those who are competing to submit their bugs to win a prize in Bug bash contest . You may watch some comments provided by Microsoft for the feedback (bugs and suggestions) I submitted about the installation failure below.

1 ) Katmai CTP-6 Refresh Build: Reporting Services and Database Engine Services and Reporting Services Fresh Installation failure

Further let me take you through some of the bugs in Katmai CTP-6.

My friend Pedro has recently identified a bug about warning that is missing in SSIS 2008 which was prevalent in SSIS 2005

The next part of the story is about pretty open blocking issues in SSAS and SSRS 2008 when I started working with reporting Services Project, you may look at them here:

2) Katmai CTP 6: Analysis Services 2008 Migration Wizard cannot recognise Analysis Services 2005 Default Instance as a Source

3) Katmai CTP-6: SSRS 2008 MDX Query Builder issue while choosing (Critical) .NET Framework for Analysis Services as a Datasource

4) Katmai CTP-6: Reporting services Project crashes in BIDS often unexpectedly and recovery does not reflect changes done during the last 5th min

5) Katami CTP-6: SSRS 2008 Datasource Wizard pops up T-SQL Query editor in place of MDX Query Builder after choosing OLEDB 9.0/10.0 Provider

I also added a couple of suggestions for improvements in SSRS 2008 (6th one is very much an essential need from developer's perspective). You may look at them here:

6) Katmai : Require list of MDX Query Designer / Builder and MDX Query Editor Improvements

7) Katmai: Require Dundas Maps and Calendar for the RTM or commercial release.

One thing to note here - "I'd rather expect not to hurry in releasing a product, boasting about it's features before ensuring that things are in place and they perfectly work as the way I boasted earlier.. Well Positively, I believe the reason behind Bug bash that helps me understand more..Gr8.. "

Guys, wishing you all the best for the contest and BTW be open about your opinions to comment them out here and take a few minutes to rate my feedback submissions, if you think they are important from your perspective.

Keep looking at this post for new bugs and suggestions submitted by me.

Thanks, Subhash Subramanyam