News & Opinion
Breaking News: Hold Off on SSMS 22.11.0
There’s a new SQL Server Management Studio update out today.
I’d hold off on it for now.
I had problems with the upgrade, and when I mentioned it on LinkedIn, a couple other folks chimed in that they’re having problems with it, so I figured I should blog about it as well.
If you do update it, do not use the built-in check for updates. That’s completely hosed 2 of my SSMS setups, breaking them to the point where I had to uninstall SSMS entirely, reinstall it, and lost my settings, saved connections, Copilot chat & logins, etc.
If you update it, try the standalone Visual Studio installer instead.
Or, maybe just sit this round out. The SSMS team is usually pretty good about this kind of thing, and hopefully they’ll have a fixed version out shortly.
Free, 3× a week
Get my new posts by email
Three posts a week, plus a Monday roundup of the best database news from around the web.
Our deployments of SSMS involve creating a layout (for machines that don’t have internet access) and deploying that layout. It then use the Visual Studio installer on the target to upgrade/install SSMS.
On my laptop with internet access, since there are normally updates to Visual Studio and SSMS, and I can update both using the same VS Installer, I don’t use the SSMS built-in [check for updates] feature anymore.
I haven’t had any issues with this methodology with the new SSMS v22.11.0.
Just confirming your findings that the VS installer update method seems to work for SSMS v22.11.0.
Why don’t you use the built-in check for updates feature anymore? Have you had issues with it?
I haven’t had any issues with the built-in feature. I just like using a single update s/w (VS Installer) since it performs update checks and installations on multiple products [VS and SSMS] that I have installed.
It is especially handy as I have multiple VS versions installed and it picks up available updates on everything all at once.
What happens if my SSMS auto update fails, SSMS won’t launch, and I can’t connect to SQL Server during an incident?
I always install the version that comes with the SQL installer in addition to any other version I want.
There used to be some major issues with other components like SSIS not being backwards compatible between versions of SSMS.
Anyway, multiple reasons!
Totally fair. I’ve had bad experiences with side-by-side SSMS installations of different major versions, so I tend to only have one installed at a time. If I need an old SSMS version to manage an older server, I keep a separate VM with those tools. I’ve seen instances where a newer SSMS version caused parts of the older version to fail, and I wouldn’t want that conflict again.
Found this bug submitted with the same issue on the Microsoft support site.
https://developercommunity.microsoft.com/t/When-upgrading-SSMS-to-2211-got-the-er/11166107
Cyber Security teams have become too flushed with their own self-importance in recent years such that DBAs are regarded as the same security “risk” as normal users with no access to anything.
They also have very little concept of data security so, when advised of such issues (like: a linked server connection that allows a user-with-absolutely-NO-access on one side to get sysadmin on the other), it’s blank stares and disinterest.
As such, I’m not allowed to update SSMS, so I stay with the version I have until it becomes viable to go through the process to upgrade.
(Yes, I’m looking to move on….)
Picking up on your note about the Visual Studio Installer, I launched it and was able to invoke the roll back to previous version option, and it kept my settings and registered servers.
Thanks Brent, appreciate the heads up!
Install, using the check for updates, worked for me yesterday. I may just have been lucky
Same problem as Brent. I used Visual Studio Installer to roll back to 22.10.1 and that solved my morning. Good luck!