SQL Server 2008 RTM & Visual Studio 2008 Team Suite SP1

As I mentioned in the previous entry, I have been having some difficulties in my environment with respect to DataDude (Visual Studio Team System for Database Professionals) and SQL Server 2008.

As it turns out (and by the way, this is not a criticism, it’s just the result of me not reading and following directions) the SP1 bits of Visual Studio Team System will not support Schema compares against the RTM release of SQL Server 2008. if you try, you get the following dialog message:

Fortunately, there is a very easy fix for this, but at the same time you need to be very careful. The fix involves installing a small bit of unreleased “CTP” (I guess we can’t call it Beta anymore) code for the DataDude extension. The current (as of this posting, however I’m hearing rumors that a new one is out soon!) CTP of DataDude is CTP15 and it can be downloaded here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=bb3ad767-5f69-4db9-b1c9-8f55759846ed&displaylang=en but be very careful and check to see if a newer version is out before you simply take my word for this one being the latest.

My experience with the Datadude CTP15 GDR (General Distribution Release) has been pretty positive (I’ve been using it for some time now, it’s only been since upgrading VS 2008 to SP1 that I’ve had “issues”) so I don’t think you’ll have much to worry about if you place it on your workstation, but please keep in mind that it is unreleased code and therefore you are flying at your own risk.