So, after a fairly lengthy install process on my work machine yesterday, running Windows XP, I got to the point to begin some serious testing.

I took a version of our SQL2005 database and restored it to the 2008 instance. Probably not the way we'll do the actual upgrade but a good start nonetheless.

Which leads me to a couple of key points that I learned. The first applies to both installs and upgrades if you are using Full Text Search (FTS). Make sure that the account that the new Full Text Dæmon Launcher service is running under is a member of the SQLServerFDHostUsers$InstanceName Group on the machine. If it isn't, you will continue to run into the following error:

SQL Server encountered error 0x80070218 while communicating with full-text filter daemon host (FDHost) process. Make sure that the FDHost process is running. To re-start the FDHost process, run the sp_fulltext_service 'restart_all_fdhosts' command or restart the SQL Server instance.

Adding the user that the service is running under to the group will fix that problem. (Info from MS here)

Next, if you are upgrading,  make sure you run DBCC UPDATEUSAGE (databasename) to keep everything up to date. Otherwise your sub second queries may take 10 (as mine did before running the command).

Also, if you are using Full Text Search, you will need to repopulate your index. This is because there are some major changes in how SQL Server handles FTS, which I'll cover in another blog post soon as I figure out how to make everything work together.