I was hoping to have a case of the Mondays the other day. Whenever one hopes for “the Mondays”, Monday will always deliver. I was using a new PC at a client and installing some tools for an assessment that I was working on.
After some download and installing, Best Practices Analyzer 2005 was installed and ready to go. I got the tool fired up and pointed it at the server I needed to look at and pressed go.
And then it stopped… I had an unhandled exception error.
Not a big deal. I can handle exception error because I can read. After opening up the details window, the following was presented to me:
See the end of this message for details on invoking just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box. ************** Exception Text ************** System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. at Microsoft.WindowsServerSystem.BestPracticesAnalyzer.UserInterface.BPALink.LinkClicked(Object sender, EventArgs e) at System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnClick(EventArgs e) at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks) at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m) at System.Windows.Forms.Label.WndProc(Message& m) at System.Windows.Forms.LinkLabel.WndProc(Message& msg) at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m) at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m) at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam) ************** Loaded Assemblies ************** mscorlib Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0 Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3082 (QFE.050727-3000) CodeBase: file:///c:/WINDOWS/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v2.0.50727/mscorlib.dll ---------------------------------------- SqlBPA2005 Assembly Version: 9.0.242.0 Win32 Version: 9.00.1009.00 CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/Microsoft%20SQL%20Server%202005%20Best%20Practices%20Analyzer/SqlBPA2005.exe ---------------------------------------- System.Windows.Forms Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0 Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3053 (netfxsp.050727-3000) CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll ---------------------------------------- System Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0 Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3053 (netfxsp.050727-3000) CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll ---------------------------------------- System.Drawing Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0 Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3053 (netfxsp.050727-3000) CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Drawing/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll ---------------------------------------- BPA.UserInterface Assembly Version: 9.0.242.0 Win32 Version: 9.00.1009.00 CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/Microsoft%20SQL%20Server%202005%20Best%20Practices%20Analyzer/BPA.UserInterface.DLL ---------------------------------------- BPA.Common Assembly Version: 9.0.242.0 Win32 Version: 9.00.1009.00 CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/Microsoft%20SQL%20Server%202005%20Best%20Practices%20Analyzer/BPA.Common.DLL ---------------------------------------- SqlBPA.Shared Assembly Version: 9.0.242.0 Win32 Version: 9.00.1009.00 CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/Microsoft%20SQL%20Server%202005%20Best%20Practices%20Analyzer/SqlBPA.Shared.DLL ---------------------------------------- System.Xml Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0 Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3082 (QFE.050727-3000) CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Xml/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Xml.dll ---------------------------------------- System.Configuration Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0 Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3053 (netfxsp.050727-3000) CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Configuration/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Configuration.dll ---------------------------------------- ************** JIT Debugging ************** To enable just-in-time (JIT) debugging, the .config file for this application or computer (machine.config) must have the jitDebugging value set in the system.windows.forms section. The application must also be compiled with debugging enabled. For example: When JIT debugging is enabled, any unhandled exception will be sent to the JIT debugger registered on the computer rather than be handled by this dialog box.
Great. I can read – but not this. I like error messages that are a little more direct that this.
Fortunately, after a little digging I found a similar issue over at MSDN forums. To solve this issue I needed to install both of the following SQL Server 2005 components:
- Microsoft SQL Server Native Client
- Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Management Objects Collection
I hadn’t expected this issue since I had SQL Server client tools installed on the PC that I was using. The catch was though that I had the SQL Server 2008 tools installed, not the SQL Server 2005 tools.
Where, oh where would I get these components? Alas! They are available in the SQL Server 2005 Feature Pack.
Now that I’ve got BPA installed it’s time to use it. My question for you is do you use BPA?
Strate SQL 