Troubleshooting Oslo M Repository Deployment Issues

I am convinced that the next big Microsoft thing after PowerShell and ASP.NET MVC is the secret that hides behind the code name “OSLO”. Particularly M will take software construction to a whole new level. We will go from shoveling bytes to bulldozing complete meals. Let’s wait and see!

Figure 1: Doing the Oslo setup dance

In this little blog post I am going to describe one issue that I ran into while installing the Oslo M May 2009 CTP. I ran the setup on my laptop that runs Windows Vista Ultimate 64 bit SP1. First everything went according plan, but at the end I faced a problem with the deployment of the Repository database.

The Problem

At the fourth and last step of the Oslo setup I got the following error: “Creation of repository database failed. The setup didn’t complete”.

Where to look for information

The error message had to do with the Repository database, so I was wondering whether I would find some more details in the SQL Server logs. I opened the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Management Studio and looked at the log messages.

Figure 2: Why is the Oslo repository database deployment failing?

SQL Server Logs

Sure enough I found a helpful error message related to the creation of the RepositoryData.mdf. The SQL Server error said: "Operating system error 112(There is not enough space on the disk.) encountered." I looked at the free disk space on my laptop and yes, this was the problem. I didn't have enough space left on my c: drive.

Oslo Installation Log

Later, while reading the Oslo Readme, I found that there is also a log file that records the progress during the installation of Oslo. The log file is called "OsloSetup.log" and is located in The install log is saved in %temp%\OsloSetup.log. This log provided also very useful iinsights about the failure: “ERROR: Creation of repository database failed.” and “MODIFY FILE encountered operating system error 112(There is not enough space on the disk.) while attempting to expand the physical file 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\DATA\RepositoryData.mdf'. CREATE DATABASE failed. Some file names listed could not be created. Check related errors.”

The Solution

After I discovered the reason why the database deployment failed, I looked at the readme.htm file to hopefully get some information about how to re-run the deployment of the Repository Database. The readme.htm was located on my machine under C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Oslo\1.0. I was in luck again. I found the following command line scripts that will manually create the Repository database. I made same space on my c: drive and ran the manual setup of the Repository database.

   1: #My Oslo bin directory

   2: cd C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Oslo\1.0\bin

   3:  

   4: #Command template for creating the repository database

   5: mx create /database:Repository /dataFile:"<Path>/Repository.mdf" /dataFileInitialSize:1GB /dataFileMaxSize:"unlimited" /logFile:"<Path>/Repository.ldf" /logFileInitialSize:800MB /dataFileGrowth:100MB /logFileMaxSize:"unlimited" /logFileGrowth:100MB /force

   6:  

   7: #My SQL Server Data Path

   8: C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\DATA

   9:  

  10: #Actual Commands

  11: mx create /database:Repository /dataFile:"C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\DATA/Repository.mdf" /dataFileInitialSize:1GB /dataFileMaxSize:"unlimited" /logFile:"C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\DATA/Repository.ldf" /logFileInitialSize:800MB /dataFileGrowth:100MB /logFileMaxSize:"unlimited" /logFileGrowth:100MB /force

  12: mx install Repository.mx /database:Repository /property:RepositoryChangeTracking=+

Ausblick

All in all the Oslo setup was quite a pleasant experience, considering that the Repository database creation failed at the end. The good thing was that the readme.htm provided all the information necessary to troubleshoot and fix my setup problem.