Tonight I took my first crack at getting SQL Server Denali up and running on my machine. From what I had read so far there are no longer issue with installing a side by side instance of Denali with an existing SQL Server install so I went that route. The previous CTP caused issues with BIDS because the old CTPs still used Visual Studio 2008. Now in CTP 3 all Business Intelligence development is done is Visual Studio 2010 removing that previous flaw.
Some initial thoughts about the installation process (keep in mind I’m a BI guy so this is what interest me):
· Some minor UI changes with installing PowerPivot with SharePoint (very minor)
· Major changes with Analysis Services
· Some minor UI changes with installing Reporting Services
Marco Russo details the major Analysis Services change here. Essentially there are now two separate installations for Analysis Services now. First, there is the OLAP and Data Mining install for Analysis Services which is the traditional UDM Analysis Services. This is Analysis Services as you know it today. Then, there is the BI Semantic Model which is the new modeling layer that will be used as the backend tools like Excel Services, Reporting Services and Crescent. You can read much more about BISM here. The interesting part that I’m hoping changes in the final install is that they cannot be installed at the same time. Currently, if you want both installed then you must run the installer twice.
Just wanted to share this information at this point because my installer eventually failed but I thought this change was very interesting.
