Patching Team System to Service Pack 1

Microsoft recently released Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1. The update patches any version of Visual Studio, with the exception of the free Express Editions. It also patches any client edition of Team System:

  • Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Testers
  • Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Architects
  • Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Database Professionals
  • Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Developers

Service Pack 1 fixes tons of bugs in VS 2005, including many in Team Explorer, the essential client piece of Team System. I would install SP1 as soon as is practical for your team. Be warned, however: Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 can be painful to install. It takes massive amounts of disk space and memory to install successfully, and can take longer to install than Visual Studio 2005 itself! As documented on Heath Stewart's blog, these two problems are common. We've experienced them at Vertigo, and I've heard from clients who have run into them as well.

  1. You receive the error "File '...' was rejected by digital signature policy". Follow Heath's registry edit workaround.
  2. During the SP1 install you run out of disk space. Disable the patch cache to remove redundant file backups during the patch and dramatically speed up the install process. Jon Galloway put together a little batch file which automatically disables the patch cache during the install, then reinstates it after the patch. I highly recommend using this batch file to install SP1. 

    reg export HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Installer installer.reg
reg add HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Installer /v MaxPatchCacheSize /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f
net stop msiserver
start /wait VS80sp1-KB926601-X86-ENU.exe
reg delete HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Installer /v MaxPatchCacheSize /f
reg import installer.reg
net stop msiserver
del /q installer.reg 2>nul

In general, make sure you have tons of free disk space before installing SP1, and set aside a least an hour for the actual install. You do have to babysit it, because it'll prompt you for each update it installs.

There's also a companion Service Pack 1 update for Team Foundation Server as well. It is, thankfully, much easier to install than Visual Studio 2005 SP1. I've had no problems whatsoever installing the TFS SP1 patch, but I do have a few notes on the install.

  1. You do not need to patch the server and client at the same time. It's perfectly fine to have SP1 clients talk to a non-SP1 server, or vice-versa. They can be installed completely independently.
  2. You must always install KB919156 before SP1, so go ahead and download that first.
  3. If you have seperate tiers for build, data, and web, you must install the patch on each tier. It doesn't appear to matter what order you patch them in.

The full list of fixes for TFS SP1 can be found in these two posts (one, two) by Brian Harry.

Good luck and happy patching!

posted on Monday, January 15, 2007 1:00 PM by jatwood

Comments

# VSTS Links - 01/17/2007

Brian Harry on Orcas Work Item Tracking Performance Improvements.

The Teams WIT Tools blog on Internal...
Wednesday, January 17, 2007 6:48 AM by Team System News

# re: Patching Team System to Service Pack 1

Jeff,
Wouldn't you want to include the /quiet switch on the .exe? Wouldn't that remove the whole "babysitting" aspect of the install..?
Thursday, January 18, 2007 9:07 AM by Graham Harris

# re: Patching Team System to Service Pack 1


My build was running fine with <Runtest>true</Runtest>

After installing SP1 I m getting the following error(Unable to run tests)

C:\Program Files\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v8.0\TeamBuild\Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.targets(579,5): error MSB4018: The "TestToolsTask" task failed unexpectedly.
C:\Program Files\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v8.0\TeamBuild\Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.targets(579,5): error MSB4018: System.OutOfMemoryException: Exception of type 'System.OutOfMemoryException' was thrown.
C:\Program Files\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v8.0\TeamBuild\Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.targets(579,5): error MSB4018: at Microsoft.Build.Tasks.TestToolsTask.AddNewTaskCommand(Command command, String argument)
C:\Program Files\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v8.0\TeamBuild\Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.targets(579,5): error MSB4018: at Microsoft.Build.Tasks.TestToolsTask.set_BuildFlavor(String value)
C:\Program Files\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v8.0\TeamBuild\Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.targets(581,11): error MSB4026: The "BuildFlavor=$(Flavor)" parameter for the "TestToolsTask" task is invalid.
C:\Program Files\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v8.0\TeamBuild\Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.targets(579,5): error MSB4063: The "TestToolsTask" task could not be initialized with its input parameters.
Done building target "RunTestWithConfiguration" in project "TFSBuild.proj" -- FAILED.

Any clue?

Thanks
YesB
Friday, January 19, 2007 5:50 AM by Yesb

# Building a Web Site Project with Team Build


If you're still using Web Site projects, I strongly urge you to switch to Web Application Projects....
Thursday, February 15, 2007 2:23 PM by Team System