Overcoming MSDE Setup Problems

Here is my experience with installing MSDE.





I'm leaning C# and ASP.NET at the same time using the book "Microsoft ASP.NET Programming with Microsoft Visual C# .NET Step by Step". In Appendix C, P 577, it says to locate setup.exe under …Microsoft Visual Studio .NETSetupMSDE and "run setup.exe to install MSDE."





This was my first mistake, because there are more recent versions available with security patches (for the slammer virus). I have been unable to successfully update the old version. The install program for MSDE has got to be a hackers delight because only a hacker can make it work. I decided to uninstall the old version of MSDE 2000 and install the latest download from the MSDN website. The new version would get most of the files installed and then rollback the install, removing all the files. When I tried to reinstall the old version, it did the same thing. At least the new version requires a password parameter for the sa user. The bad news is that the new password is ignored. Since I already installed the first version with a blank sa password by running setup.exe with no parameters the password will remain blank until I change it using the user friendly osql command line utility. More about osql later…





Here is how I solved the rollback problem:





I first (after many hours trying to modify the registry to clean up the mess Windows uninstaller left there) used the command line switch /L*V <your logfile name> to get a verbose log file. I noticed a property listed called "Disablerollback" this was set to 0. So, I ran setup on the command line as below (all one line):





>setup DisableRollback=1 /L*V "C:Program FilesMicrosoft Visual Studio .NETSetupMSDEsetupbat.log" SAPWD="ignored password"





The setup still failed, but its tracks were preserved for XP to complain about on system restart.


I then restarted the system and logged in. XP threw an error dialog box with the message "Your server installation is either corrupt or has been tampered with (unknown package ID)…" I clicked OK and waited a few extra minutes for XP to finish logging me in.





After logging in, I closed the Service Manger from the taskbar notification area. I then deleted the folders 80, and MSSQL (name of default instance) from the target install directory. Finally, I ran setup.exe again as shown:





>setup /L*V "C:Program FilesMicrosoft Visual Studio .NETSetupMSDEsetupgood.log" SAPWD="ignored password"





This time, after restarting, my old MSDE worked. This approach seems to only work with the first old version of MSDE that was shipped with Visual Studio .NET. I still have yet to figure out how to upgrade and get MSDE to work again.





Once you get MSDE to work, here are some tips on how to administer it using the osql command tool.


To change the sa password do the following (use null for a blank password):


>osql -U sa


Password:


1> sp-password @old=null, @new='newpassword', @loginame='sa'


2> go


Password has been changed


3> quit





On page 113 of the authors' first attempt with the book "Microsoft ASP.NET Programming…", the hacks wrote:


Set up the SQL Server session state database by running the InstallSQLState.sql batch (located in …) against the SQL Server you plan to use. (For more information about running batch statements, check with your database administrator or the SQL Server Books Online.)





Here is how to do it with osql:





> osql -S MSSQLSERVER -U sa -i InstallSQLState.sql





For less characters than it took to write the last parenthetical sentence, they could have just given the same example I supplied here.





If you want a graphical interface to administer you MSDE server, try downloading the small package for "Microsoft SQL Web Data Administrator" from Microsoft's website. This even comes with a modern installer. Here are some tips on how to connect to your locally installed MSDE using this utility:





The main dialog just requires that you click the start button. A login page comes up. To log in as sa, do the following:





? Click the "SQL Login" radio button.


? Under "Please enter a SQL Server name:" fill in the following text boxes:


? Username: sa


? Password: [your password | leave blank if no password is set]


? Server: (local)





This should get you to the server tools page. Click "Security", then Logins. Now, on the Logins page, you can add new users. If you install MSDE for mixed mode, you can add "Windows Integrated" user accounts. This best since you won't have to put passwords in your code to allow database access to these users. To add a user, click on "Create New Login". Set Authentication Method to "Windows Integrated" in the combo box. For Login Name you need to use the form <computername><username> . For example, "MSSQLServerDan".





If you did like I did, and installed MSDE in SQL login mode only, you can do the following registry hack to change it to mixed authentication mode:





1. Locate either of the following subkeys (depending on whether you installed MSDE as the default MSDE instance or as a named instance:


HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftMSSqlserverMSSqlServer





-or-





HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftMicrosoft SQL Server<Instance Name>MSSQLServer





2. In the right-pane, double-click the LoginMode subkey.





3. In the DWORD Editor dialog box, set the value of this subkey to 1. Make sure that the Hex option is selected, and then click OK.





4. Restart the MSSQLSERVER and the SQLSERVERAgent services for this change to take effect.





Try this link for more details:


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q322336