TFS 2012 Express fails data tier verify with SQL 2012 Express installed

Question

Summary:

Data Tier verification failed in the wizard.  I am not yet convinced that installing TFS is easy.

I have access to full TFS and SQL, but wanted to use Express so others don't need licenses.  So I installed TFS version 50727.01.  I also have VS Pro 2008 and 2012 installed.  Data Tier verification failed in the wizard (New Team Foundation Server Express Configuration).  So, I installed SQL 2012 Express, Version: 2011.0110.2100.060.  Data tier still fails verification.  Any suggestions?

Here I see the SQL server is running:

The OS this is running on is Win7 Ultimate, 64 bit.

Answer 1

Hello,

TFS includes a single server license of SQL Server 2008 Standard for use only with the TFS installation.  This usually covers the needs.

From the install guide, SQL Server express is allowed, but the version you list might not the the correct R2 version is expects or have the correct settings.

Regardless of which option you choose, your instance of SQL Server must meet the following requirements:

Supported editions	SQL Server 2008, R2 Express SQL Server 2008, R2 Standard Edition SQL Server 2008, R2 Enterprise Edition with SP 1 CU1 (Aug 25, 2011)¹ SQL Server 2012, Express SQL Server 2012, Standard Edition SQL Server 2012, Enterprise Edition
Required for Team Foundation Server	Database Engine Services Full-Text Search (or Full-Text and Semantic Extractions for Search in SQL Server 2012)
Required for reporting	Reporting Services (or Reporting Services – Native in SQL Server 2012) Analysis Services
Collation settings	Must be accent sensitive Must not be case sensitive Must not be Binary Must not be Binary - code point For more information, see SQL Server Collation Requirements for Team Foundation Server.
Authentication	Windows authentication
Service account	You can use a domain account or a built-in account.

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Ryan Hanisco, PMP, PMI-ACP, CISSP
MCSE, MCTS:TFS 2010, SQL 2005
RyanHanisco.com

Answer 2

Ryan,

Thanks for your reply.  I seem to have two server instances running, one is in the list of approved ones.  I did not seem to get a chance to chose one or the other.

I think I am out of time now, I need to get my programming task done.  Perhaps later I will try installing the full versions of TFS and SQL.

Eric

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Eric Ratliff

Answer 3

Be sure to check out http://tfspreview.com. With that you get TFS on the internet without the hassles of making sure you back up your machine (or having to sort out SQL installation issues), and you get the latest features (we update it every three weeks, so it already has features like Kanban that are not available in TFS 2012 RTM).

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http://blogs.msdn.com/buckh

Answer 4

Buck,

Thanks for your reply.  I did not notice you post about tfspreview.com until after I attacked SQL installation issues.

UNINSTALL ALL SQL:  I tried installing TFS 2012 over TFS 2012 express.  This did not help.  Then I got heavy handed with uninstalling.  I uninstalled TFS 2012 express, TFS 2012, and anything having SQL in it's description.  About 31 line items in 'install programs'.  Some, like 'data tier app framework' were duplicates.  Now I installed TFS 2012 and finally the data tier did verify.  The Basic Configuration Wizard did complete successfully.

Now I need to see what I might have broken with all the SQL uninstalling.  I now find only nine items in 'install programs' with SQL in their title.

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Eric Ratliff

Answer 5

Perhaps I should move this to MSDN blogs, since I am getting off the topic of data tier verify failure.

I have not found anything broken yet from my SQL uninstalling.  I got my instance of TFS 2012 recognized in VS 2012 Pro.  Good for practice there.  I had hoped to keep developing in VS 2008 Pro, but have not gotten it to find the TFS server.  The name as seen in VS 2012 does not work in VS 2008.

I might just bring my existing solutions into VS 2012 to get around this.  But for now, I will just practice understanding TFS with hello world solutions in VS 2012.  ALSO, I do plan to try the cloud version (Team Foundation Service), it seems an easy way to work at home and work, and share with my customer.

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Eric Ratliff

Answer 6

Hi Eric,

Thanks for sharing the experiences here.

Could you tell me if you can succefully solve the issue?

If you want to VS 2008 connect to TFS 2012, please refer to http://blog.jessehouwing.nl/2012/07/connecting-visual-studio-2008-to-tfs.html

Best Regards,

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Cathy Kong [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us

Answer 7

Cathy,

I am now using TFS (service) for source control of my production work.  I am using Visual Studio 2008.

I decided to use TFS Service instead of having an instance of TFS hosted on my machine.  The order of installation of components IS very important.  Uninstalling first if the wrong order was used is also important. 

I posted another thread, http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/TFService/thread/7fe08563-7fc5-4569-a49f-1e1f9f22661b.  There, I use a different order, and different applications (no Blend), than the blog you mentioned.

Eric

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Eric Ratliff

Answer 8

Hi Eric,

Thanks for sharing the experiences here!

Best Regards,

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Cathy Kong [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us