ILM 2007 FP1 and SQL 2008 as backend
- As of today, SQL Server 2008 is officially supported as backend for the synchronization component and the certificate management component in ILM 2007 FP1.
Markus Vilcinskas, Technical Content Developer, Microsoft Corporation
All Replies
- Thank you, that is much appreciated.
David Lundell www.ilmBestPractices.com - Is there a specific ILM version number that supports this? or is everything ILM 2007FP1 and after considered supported? Also does this mean SQL 2008 is supported with the SQL ma?
Joe
Joe Stepongzi - Identity Management Consultant - ILM MVP - www.microsoftIdM.com,ilmXframework.codeplex.com - So what has to be done to get it to install? I tried this in a lab and during install got the "Install the correct SQL version or SP" error.
- Unfortunately, the answer is that you need to install SQL 2005, install ILM 2007, then upgrade SQL to 2008. At this time a new installer just to get past this issue is not in the plans for ILM 2007.
Mike - OK - this is most unfortunate and is certainly not a sustainable work-around in a large corporate environment where standards need to be set, or DR situations need to be repeatable. Hence I have a couple of questions:
1. Are performance improvements in SQL 2008 worth the effort to carry out the upgrade or is SQL 2005 just as good?
2. If we had the database separate (yes I know - faster if on same box) and ran SQL 2008 on 64 bit O/S with lots of RAM, will there be major performance improvements?
3. Is there another repeatable set of steps that is formally published to anable SQL 2008 to be used (aside from performing an upgrade from 2005 that is acceptable)?
4. What happens if we get a hotfix / service pack, etc. Will the installer on these crash and burn if we have SQL 2008 at the back-end?
5. What other DR limitations (e.g. warm standby, etc) exist. I assume if we have a Warm Standby, it also needs to follow the install path of upgrade / other server, etc.
regarding point 3, could we do something like:
- Have a SQL Server 2006 floating around somewhere to use as a temporary install point
- Install ILM and point to SQL 2005 server.
- Shut down ILM and back-up and restore database to 2008 host - Add other permissions as required to match what the service account was granted on the DB
- Configure (in the registry) ILM 2007 to point to the SQL server. Assuming permissions are all good, the restore should work and ILM start.
- Will point 4 cause us grief (patchins, hotfixes, etc)
thanks,
Craig Gilmour Markus,
Can you please provide a clear statement as to the following question as it has a large impact on a major ILM 2007 deployment:
We wish to use SQL 2008 as the ILM 2007 Sync Engine backend. We believe that it will provide improved performance and additional features. It also makes sense from a corporate standards perspective. You have stated that SQL 2005 needs to be installed, ILM installed then SQL upgraded to 2008. There was also a further clarification that there were no plans to change the installer for ILM 2007 to allow direct installation against SQL 2008. Can you please let us know what limitations might exist if we go down this path:- Can you please let me know what happens if a hotfix or patch needs to be deployed? Will this able to be deployed if SQL 2008 is the backend?
- If there is a requirement to re-run the installer (e.g. repair / configure mode) at any time to resolve any problems, change service accounts, etc, will this fail due to the default installer is not supported against SQL 2008?
- What other general operational and support limitations exist with this configuration.
I would also be interested in any anecdotal or impirical evidence around any performance improvements that SQL 2008 would provide to an ILM 2007 solution over SQL 2005 in the following configurations:
- ILM2007 Sync Engine and SQL2008 on the same server
- ILM2007 and SQL 2008 on different servers. Looking at having SQL 2008 cluster installed on 64 bit O/S with a bucket load of RAM
I am trying to make a decision as to the platform in a major deployment. I need to understand if the utilisation of SQL 2008 will truly provide benefits to a large deployment, and also identify any support and operational obstacles.
thanks,
Craig Gilmour- Just to let you know, we are working on this.
Unfortunately, I don’t have anything at this point I can share since we are still in the planning phase.
Cheers,
Markus
Markus Vilcinskas, Technical Content Developer, Microsoft Corporation - Hello Markus,
Is there any progress on this you can share?
Thank you.
Danny Alvares, Technical Solutions Architect IAM There is a Service Pack under development to address this.
A release date for the SP has not been communicated yet.
It is possible that the SP ships within the next three weeks; however this is at this point just a voiced guts feeling.
Cheers,
Markus
Markus Vilcinskas, Technical Content Developer, Microsoft Corporation- Thank you Markus. I have an Alert on this thread so hopefully when the moment comes you can post an update here.
Best regards,
Danny Alvares, Technical Solutions Architect IAM - Can someone elaborate on the actual problem here that is being addressed? I have installed ILM 2007 FP1 on top of a fresh SQL 2008 install numerous times without issue. The only caveat I've found is that the account that's actually being used to do the install needs to be a sysadmin in SQL (lesser permissions may work, but I haven't tested that). If I use the same account to install both SQL and ILM, I don't need to change any permissions. Above, it sounds like the official Microsoft supported method is to install SQL 2005 first, then ILM, then upgrade to 2008. Am I doing something incorrectly, or am I misunderstanding the issue being discussed here?
Thanks,
Steve
SharePoint List Management Agent for ILM 2007 - http://www.codeplex.com/SharePointListMA Please see BFundy's post above.
One aspect of being supported is a “guarantee that it works”.
On the contrary, not supported doesn’t mean “doesn’t work at all”.
For something to be supported, it has to be tested in a representative set of various configurations, which is one aspect that makes test so incredibly expensive.
There are many examples for cases where someone got something to work in his / her environment that was officially not supported.
How satisfied would you be with a statement like “we think it should work” :o)
Makes sense?
Cheers,
Markus
Markus Vilcinskas, Technical Content Developer, Microsoft Corporation- Markus,
thanks for your response, but unfortunately I am now a little confused. You made a very clear statement on the 8th May 2009 as follows:
As of today, SQL Server 2008 is officially supported as backend for the synchronization component and the certificate management component in ILM 2007 FP1.
However, your response above seems to imply the opposite. So can you please clarify whether "at this point in time" Microsoft officially supports (“guarantee that it works”) SQL Server 2008 as a backend for the synchronization component and the certificate management component in ILM 2007 FP1?
thanks,
Craig Gilmour - My comment is in conjunction with the upgrade path and not the general support of SQL 2008 as backend...
It is not always possible to directly install FP1 on a fresh SQL 2008 install like Steven did this.
Cheers,
Markus
Markus Vilcinskas, Technical Content Developer, Microsoft Corporation Please see BFundy's post above.
One aspect of being supported is a “guarantee that it works”.
On the contrary, not supported doesn’t mean “doesn’t work at all”.
For something to be supported, it has to be tested in a representative set of various configurations, which is one aspect that makes test so incredibly expensive.
There are many examples for cases where someone got something to work in his / her environment that was officially not supported.
How satisfied would you be with a statement like “we think it should work” :o)
Makes sense?
Cheers,
Markus
Markus Vilcinskas, Technical Content Developer, Microsoft Corporation
Got it. The recommended route of installing on 2005 and upgrading to 2008 is the only way you can guarantee that it will work. That makes sense.
Thanks as always!
Steve
SharePoint List Management Agent for ILM 2007 - http://www.codeplex.com/SharePointListMAUnfortunately, the answer is that you need to install SQL 2005, install ILM 2007, then upgrade SQL to 2008. At this time a new installer just to get past this issue is not in the plans for ILM 2007.
Mike
Hello Mike, others,
It seems that installing ILM2007FP1 against SQL 2008 (which was upgraded from SQL2005) puts the ILM2007 backend database in SQL Server 2005 Compatibility Level. This is done by the ILM installer.
When I upgraded the (restored MIIS2003SP1/SQL2000) database in SQL 2005 to SQL 2008 I explicitly set the upgraded database to SQL Server 2008 Compatibility Level, but it seems the ILM installer downgrades the compatibility level...
May I assume that ILM2007FP1 expects it to be at that level?
I am just making sure to get my customer documentation straight.
Thanks,
Danny Alvares, Technical Solutions Architect IAM
