Visual Studio 2012 and SQL Server Data Tools

OR: Are you Fucking Kidding Me?

So, let's ignore the fact that Microsoft insists on on installing a previous version of Visual Studio so you can work with your current version of SQL Server, or that as part of the installation of SQL Server, you are given the option to install something called "SQL Server Data Tools". Which is, of course, a completely different product from what Microsoft aptly calls "SQL Server Data Tools". I swear to God. Instead let's focus on the fact that when you download the SQL Server Data Tools (not the SQL Server Data Tools that you just installed, but the other SQL Server... uh... never mind), it simply will not install. Why? Because of a certificate error ("A required certificate is not within its validity period"). There is little other assistance available with this error, and one is left to wander the web searching to root certificate updates or binary chickens to sacrifice.

The answer, of course, is to set your system clock back to late 2012. Are you fucking kidding me?

I also learned, after many hours and many false starts and after reading many pages which indicate the install order does not matter that it does, indeed, matter during the preparation of a sysprep image.  You will be unable to install SQL2012 in sysprep mode if another installation (Data Tools?) installs SQL components in a non-sysprep supported mode.

Steps to install a sysprepped image with VS2012, SQL2012, SSDT + SSDTBI

1. Install OS, boot to audit mode, update
2. Install tools, vmware tools, common utilities, Office, etc.
3. Install SQL Server 2012 in sysprep mode
4. Install Visual Studio 2012

At this point, you cannot proceed with any more image preparation.  Installing SSMS, Data Tools, etc. seems to put SQL Server Image Prep into an unsupported state, and any attempt to complete the SQL Server installation will end with an error.  So, pull set the system/virtual machine to boot into OOBE, and pull the image or save the VM as a template.  After configuring the system as a usable workstation, you can proceed to the final steps:

1. Install SSMS
2. Install SQL Server Data Tools Business Intelligence
3. Set system date/time back to Nov. 2012
4. Install SQL Server Data Tools

There is an excellent blog on SSDT and the miasma of confusion surrounding it here:

http://blog.nwcadence.com/sql-server-data-tools-clearing-up-the-confusion/



Cheers,
Kurt