Suddenelfilio’s Weblog

I was trying to install the new Team Foundation Server 2008 the other day. I wanted to install it in an dual machine configuration, meaning that I wanted to separate the database from the application server. 

To do this I downloaded the new Vmware Server 2.0 which is actually a “light” version of the VmWare Infrastructure 3.0. I’ve installed 2 guest machines running both Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition.

An additional requirement is that the TFS server uses the new Sql Server 2008. And here is the problem. “To use Sql Server 2008, you must install Team Foundation Server Service Pack 1″. But how can you do this when all you’ve got is the RTM version of TFS and a separate download of the service pack…

Well if you download the latest TFS installation guide from Microsoft (version 8.0.080908). Somewhere in there you’ll find a small entry on how to merge the service pack with the tfs installation files. When you follow this guide like I did you might encounter an error from MSI with error code 2203. When this is happening you should try to do the following:

- Run the command from a command prompt with elevated privileges
- Grant Full Controll permissions to the SYSTEM user on the folders where you’ve copied the installation files from the dvd.

And finaly the very important make sure that the installation files you’ve copied from the dvd are NOT marked as read-only!!! This last thing solved the problem for me.