SQL Server 2005 is arguably the most important release of SQL Server in Microsoft’s history. It has been through numerous public test releases in addition to extensive internal testing.
Yesterday I had a chance to install the RTM version and start poking around through the final client apps. Unfortunately, I found a repeatable way to crash one of them, the Database Engine Tuning Advisor, within the first hour!
Here are the steps, which assume you’re executing them locally on a SQL 2005 machine:
- Start the Database Engine Tuning Advisor
- Drop down the “Server name” listbox and choose “Browse for more…”
- Click the Network Servers tab
- Immediately click back to the Local Servers tab, double-click Database Engine, click your server name and the OK button
- Drop down the Authentication listbox
- Wait a few seconds … until the application crashes!
This was discovered and repeated on Windows Server 2003 SP1 and SQL 2005 RTM.
Just a guess, but I’m thinking they start a server discovery thread when you go into Network Servers, and if you don’t wait for it to finish and go back to another place in the UI, the discovery thread does something bad when it finishes. The joys of multithreading.
