"Who can find the most bugs" contest

Email | at | by Mike

Thanks Ditto!

Dear beta tester;

We have made several changes to the SMS 2003 database upgrade checker since we last ran the database upgrade bug contest. Because of the positive responses we received during the contest, we are pleased to run the contest again and offer you a chance to win some more Microsoft software. This time though, we will be awarding software to only failure results from production SMS 2.0 or SMS 2003 Beta 2 site databases (test lab databases do not qualify). Your submission must meet the following criteria:

  • The database copy must be from a site that has been in production for at least 6 months
  • The database copy on which the upgrade test is run must be an SMS 2.0 or SMS 2003 Beta 2 database
  • The failure must be one that has not been previously reported (determined by the SMS product group)

Irrespective of winning software, we encourage you to run this check on a copy of your production site database to ensure it can successfully upgrade to SMS 2003.

How to run the test database upgrade:

NOTE: Running Setup.exe /TestDBUpgrade is a destructive process. Do NOT run this test on a production SMS site database.

You can test a database upgrade using a copy of your SMS site database by running Setup /TestDBUpgrade. This procedure should be performed on a copy of your SMS 2.0 SP4, SMS 2.0 SP5 or SMS 2003 beta 2 database. The procedure is as follows:

  1. Backup the production SMS site database.
  2. On a test computer running the same version of SQL Server, restore the SMS site database. Note you do not need to install SMS on this test computer.
  3. Copy the contents of the SMS 2003 RC1 CD to a local drive on the test computer.
  4. From the SMSSETUP\BIN\I386 folder, run:
    • Setup.exe /TestDBUpgrade

The TestDBUpgrade command line option runs the SQL portion of the SMS 2003 upgrade process. The results of this test are indicative of how the production database would fare during upgrade to SMS 2003. Results are logged in \smssetup.log, which is usually at the root of the C:\ drive.

How to submit your results:

Send e-mail to ????????@microsoft.com with the following

  • The smssetup.log created from the test upgrade (as an attachment)
  • In the subject line, enter "Success" or "Failed" for the outcome of your test upgrade
  • In the mail body, include your contact information:
  • Name
  • Company Name
  • Phone Number
  • E-mail address.

Note: We may request additional information about your database or SMS configuration in order to investigate any issues found.

How long is this contest open?
This contest is open from July 11 2003 until mid-night on August 1, 2003

How will winners be notified?
Winners will be notified on an on-going basis by e-mail. They will then be expected to choose a software package from the appropriate groups below:

Microsoft Office XP Professional or Home (English) Visual Studio .Net Professional (English) Microsoft Project 2003 (English) Microsoft Visio 2002 (English) Any available Microsoft PC or Xbox Game (English)