Installing Microsoft SQL Management Tools on Citrix XenApp 6

While building out a new XenApp 6 farm, my client had requested that SQL Management tools be installed on the image (We were provisioning the servers) so that developers could do their thing.  Seemed like a pretty straight forward request.  After taking a quick copy of the vDisk and popping it into private mode, I took a shot at installing the SQL tools.  Almost immediately I was presented the following error informing me that MS Visual Studio 2008 had been detected on the system and would need to be updated to SP1.  Seemed like a small roadblock except looking at Add/Remove programs, I couldn’t find anything that needed updating.  Hmmm..

Turns out that XenApp 6 uses some components that are recognized by the Management installer that are not SP1.  Obviously, I did not want to start updating components of the XenApp farm but I did need to get these tools on the vDisk.  Enter Visual Studio’s 2008 Isolation Shell.  This package is meant to allow developers to install custom branded SQL components of different versions side by side in an isolated fashion.  Perfect.  A quick download and install of the VS2008 Isolation Shell and then another run at the SQL Management tools.  This time, everything installed without any issues.  Nice.  Here is a link to the VS2008 Isolation Shell.

Visual Studio 2008 Shell (isolated mode) with Service Pack 1 Redistributable Package download.