SQL Server 2008 R2 Installation Guide

 

 

Software Requirements

The subsequent software prerequisites need to be installed on any server running any SQL Server edition:

 

 

Network Protocol Support

The subsequent network protocols are supported for all editions (where applicable):

 

 

Running Multiple Instances and Editions

You can install multiple editions of SQL Server 2008 on the same machine and run them concurrently. This ability comes in handy when you need to test code or other feature functionality on one edition versus another, such as when your development and deployment environments differ. In fact, you can even install and run SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Evaluation Edition on XP SP2 (not supported for the non-Evaluation Enterprise Edition) if you need to test an Enterprise Edition feature on a non-Windows Server system.

 

Step-by-Step Installation

  1. The first step in installing SQL Server 2008 or 2008 R2 is, of course, to open the SQL Server Installation Center. If you're installing from a decompressed .iso file or network share, locate the root folder and DoubleClick the setup.exe file in the root folder.

  2.  If Windows Installer 4.5 or MS .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 are not installed, the SQL Server Setup program first needs to install them before you can continue. When the prerequisites are installed, the Installation Wizard runs the SQL Server Installation Center.

  3. The first thing you'll notice is that there is a great deal of content immediately available from the SQL Server Installation Center Planning window, including documentation on hardware and software requirements, release notes, security and upgrade documentation, and the System Config Checker. You typically first want to run the System Config Checker to confirm that your system meets the minimum hardware and software requirements for installing SQL Server 2008.

  4. LeftClick on the link for the system Config Checker to bring up the screen. This is essentially the Setup Support Rules screen that also runs during the actual installation. It's better to find out now if there will be any problems with the installation before you get into the actual installation.

  5. When the SCC scan is complete, overall status of the check is in depth at the top of the main window.

  6. You can LeftClick the Show Details button to view a in depth report of the checks performed. This report notes any problems found. If any checks fail, or a warning is raised, LeftClick the hyperlink in the Status column for more in depth report with specifics and suggestions for resolution. LeftClick the View In depth Report link to see the SCC results in an HTML report format, which is also saved to a file.

  7. After you verify that the system config is sufficient to support the SQL Server 2008 installation, LeftClick OK to go back to the SQL Server Installation Center. Then LeftClick on the Installation option in the menu on the left of the SQL Server Installation Center. This brings up the installation options.

  8. To install a new instance of SQL Server, choose the New Installation or Add Features to an Current Installation option.

 

The first step of the installation is to run the Setup Support Rules to identify any possible problems that might occur when the installer installs the SQL Server Setup support files and lists any items that can need to be corrected before Setup can continue. These checks include the subsequent:

After the Setup Support Rules run for the Setup Support Files, you can LeftClick on the Show If any tests fail, you can LeftClick on the View In depth Report link to see a more in depth report file. You can also LeftClick on the hyperlink in the Status column of the failed rule to view specifics on the failed rule. If there are no failed Setup Support Rules to hinder installation, LeftClick OK to continue to the installation of the Setup Support Files. The Setup Support Files are modules that need to be installed so that the actual SQL Server product installation can continue. LeftClick Install to start the installation of the Setup Support Files. After the installation of the Setup Support Files has completed successfully, the Installer reruns the Setup Support Rules, this time running additional checks to verify that the system will support the installation of SQL Server and its features.

Again, if any of the tests fail or a warning is produced, you typically need to address this situation before continuing to confirm a successful SQL Server installation. Clicking on the Warning hyperlink in the Status column brings up a dialog with more info about the warning. In this case, the warning shows that if Windows Firewall is enabled, the network ports for SQL Server need to be opened to allow remote clients to access SQL Server on this machine. If no tests have failed and all warnings have been reviewed or determined, LeftClick Then to bring up the Product Key page to enter any necessary product keys if you are installing a version of SQL Server 2008 that is not free . After entering the product key , LeftClick Then to review the License Terms for SQL Server 2008 R2. Note that you need to accept the license agreement that follows; otherwise, you can't continue. LeftClick the check box specifying your acceptance of the license terms and LeftClick Then to bring up the Setup Role page.

The Setup Role page is new with SQL Server 2008 R2. This page was not available in SQL Server 2008. The Setup Role page lets you stipulate whether to use the Feature Selection page to select individual features to be installed or to install using a setup role. A setup role is a fixed selection of all the features and shared modules necessary to implement a predefined SQL Server config. As an example, , you are presented with three options. The SQL Server Feature Installation option lets you choose individual features and shared modules to be installed, such as DB Engine Services, Analysis Services (native mode), Reporting Services, and Service Broker. The Analysis Services with SharePoint Integration option allows you to install Analysis Services server modules in a MS Office SharePoint Server farm. This option enables large-scale query and data processing for published Excel workbooks that contain embedded PowerPivot data. The All Features with Defaults option skips the Feature Selection screen and installs all SQL Server 2008 R2 features available for the current release. All services are installed with the default system accounts, and the current user running the install is provisioned as a member of the SQL Server sysadmin role.

In majority of the cases, you choose the SQL Server Feature Installation option. After selecting this option, LeftClick Then to display the Feature Selection window. Here, you can choose which SQL Server features you can want to install. As an example, if you can want to install only the SQL Server Client Tools, this is the place you stipulate that choice. Subsequent are the most commonly available features .

 

If you are unclear about the need for a specific feature, when you LeftClick on it in this window, a description of the feature and what will be installed is displayed in the Description screen on the right. The Feature Selection page is also the place where you can change the installation location for the shared features (if this is the first time any of the shared features are being installed on the system). The default location is C:\Program Files\MS SQL Server. In most production installations, you'll most likely want the shared features to remain in the Program Files folder. After you finish making your selections, LeftClick Then to move on to the Installation Rules page.

The Installation Rules page runs a check to determine whether there are any problems that will block the installation of the selected features. From this page, you can address any problems and rerun the rules until they all pass or only warning messages are displayed. Like the Setup Support Rules page, this page enables you to get in depth info on the rule checks performed by clicking on the Show Details button. You can get more info on a specific rule by clicking the hyperlink in the Status column. A in depth HTML report can be produced as well by clicking on the View In depth Report hyperlink. When no errors are displayed on the Installation Rules page, LeftClick Then to continue to the Instance Config page. You can choose to install SQL Server as the default instance (if a default instance has not already been installed) or as a named instance. SQL Server supports multiple instances of SQL Server on a single server or workstation, but only one instance can be the default instance. The default instance can be an installation of SQL Server 2000, SQL Server 2005, or SQL Server 2008. All other instances need to be named instances. The named instances can be different versions and/or editions of SQL Server. You can run multiple instances of SQL Server concurrently on the same machine with each instance running independently of other instances. You can also install SQL Server as a named instance without installing a default instance first. If any instances are already installed, they are listed in the Installed Instances list.

Another option you can stipulate on this screen is the Instance Root Directory. This determines where the data files for the system DBs for the SQL Server will be installed. The installation path for SQL Server 2008 defaults to the system drive of the machine to which you are installing, followed by the root default folder: [system drive letter]:Program Files\Microsof t SQL Server. From here, two main subfolders branch:

After you finish configuring the instance, LeftClick Then to bring up the Disk Space Requirements page. This info screen shows only the disk space requirements for the features you've chosen to install and the available space in the drives you selected to install to. If you can want to change the install locations, LeftClick on the Back button to return to the screen where the installation directory you can want to change is specified. When you are satisfied with your selections, LeftClick Then to move onto the Server Config page.On the Server Config page, you can stipulate the specific user accounts and passwords to use for the selected SQL Server services you chose to install. To simplify matters, you can LeftClick the Use the Same Account for All SQL Server Services button to stipulate a single local or domain account dedicated for SQL Server 2008 R2 use and assign it to all services. However, for improved security it is suggested that you create multiple accounts, one for each service. This helps reinforce the least-privileged user account approach, which states that a user should have only the privileges necessary to get the job done—and no more. Having multiple accounts also makes it clearer for network administrators to determine which SQL Server services (as opposed to the multitude of other running services) are requesting access to a resource. If you don't stipulate a user account, the services are set up to run under the Local System account, which is an account with local admin privileges that does not have access to any network resources. The Installer offers warnings if you stipulate an account with insufficient privileges or credentials.

Also on the Service Accounts tab, you can choose the server startup options for the SQL Server services being installed by selecting the startup type in the drop-down selection list to the right of the service. It is highly suggested to autostart the SQL Server service so it's available when the system is started. (If necessary you can change the startup options for the SQL Server services later, using the SQL Server Config Manager.)

The Server Config page also allows you to override the default SQL Server collation settings. You do so by first clicking on the Collation tab . Collations are vital because they are used to determine case sensitivity of textual data for comparisons, sort order in indexes, and so on. If you're running Windows in the United States, the collation selection defaults to SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS for the DB Engine. The default settings should be changed only if the collation setting for this installation of SQL Server needs to match the collation settings used by another instance of SQL Server, or if it needs to match the Windows system locale of another computer. If you need to change the collation settings, LeftClick on the Customize button. This brings up the DB Engine Collation Customization dialog, where you can choose from standardized SQL Collations or customize your own by specifying a Windows collation setting and the desired sort options.

After making your selections on the Server Config page, LeftClick Then to move onto the DB Engine Config page. On this page, you can stipulate the authentication mode to use for SQL Server. This is done on the Account Provisioning tab. The default setting is for Windows Authentication only. However, Mixed Mode authentication is necessary if you plan to have any clients authenticating to SQL Server 2008 R2 but will not be authenticating to a Windows domain. If you do choose Mixed Mode authentication, you also have to enter a password to use for the built-in in SQL Server administration account (sa). A strong sa password is suggested. The Account Provisioning page also offers the opportunity to stipulate local or domain accounts to be mapped to the sysadmin role in SQL Server (you need to provide at least one). These accounts have unrestricted access to SQL Server for performing SQL Server administration and maintenance tasks. For more info on user accounts, passwords, and server roles.

On the Data Directories tab, you can configure the data root directory and default directories where the user and tempdb data and log files will be produced, as well as the default location for the Backup directory. Note that the System DB Directory can’t be changed here; you need to return to the Instance Config page and modify the Instance Root directory. In a production installation, for performance reasons, you should set up multiple drives or drive arrays to store the data and log files. Typically, you do not want the system data files stored on the C: drive, especially buried in the Program Files folder. You likely want to locate the data files on a high-performance drive setup precisely for DB files and away from the system swap file and other apps. For recoverability purposes, you also should keep your backup files on a separate drive from your data files. As a general rule, you also should place the log files on separate disks from the data files, and placing tempdb on its own disk further helps improve performance.

The final tab on the DB Engine Config tab is FILESTREAM.The FILESTREAM data type is a column property available in SQL Server 2008. FILESTREAM storage is implemented as a varbinary (max) column, but the actual data is stored as BLOBs in the file system. Because of security considerations, FILESTREAM, by default, is disabled. If you can want to use the FILESTREAM option, LeftClick the Enable FILESTREAM for Transact-SQL Access check box to enable FILESTREAM capabilities. This control need to be checked before the other control options will be available. The Enable FILESTREAM for File I/O Streaming Access check box enables Win32 streaming access for FILESTREAM. If this option is selected, you can stipulate the name of the Windows share in which the FILESTREAM data will be stored. The Allow Remote Clients to Have Streaming Access to FILESTREAM Data check box determines whether to allow remote clients to access this FILESTREAM data on this server. For more info on defining and using FILESTREAM data in SQL Server 2008, s 24, "Creating and Managing Tables," and 42, "What's New for TransactSQL in SQL Server 2008. " If you are unsure whether you need or want to use FILESTREAM data, you can leave this option disabled during the install. You can enable FILESTREAM data at any time via the SQL Server Config Manager.

Some of the remaining config screens depend on which features you selected in the Feature Selection page. As an example, if you chose to install Analysis Services or Reporting Services, you have config pages to stipulate the installation options for these features. For more info on configuring Analysis Services and Reporting Services, s 51, "SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services," and 53, "SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services." As with the FILESTREAM option, you do not have to install Analysis Services or Reporting Services during the initial install. You can always run the SQL Server Installation Center later to add these features to an current SQL Server. After you finish making your selections, LeftClick Then to move on to the Error Reporting page. On the Error Reporting page, you have the option to indicate whether you can want to have error reports sent to MS automatically for any of the SQL Server services that run without user interaction. This option, if enabled, helps MS improve future releases of SQL Server features by sending error reports to MS automatically. This process is colloquially known as "phoning home, " and you can be inclined to keep this option unchecked. Note that doing so reduces MS's capability to gather vital info that can helpful for identifying possible bugs and developing fixes in future service pack releases. Stipulate whether you can want to participate and LeftClick Then to continue to the Installation Config Rules page.

The Installation Config Rules page runs a final set of checks to determine if there are any problems that will prevent a successful installation of SQL Server 2008. If no errors are reported, LeftClick Then to continue to the Ready to Install page .This page displays a summary of the installation options chosen as well as the file locations specified. Review this info to confirm the features and file locations match what you specified during the previous screens. This page also displays the location of the Config file path where you can find the Con f igurationFil e . in i file produced by the installer. This .in i file can be used for unattended installations, which are discussed later in this . The Configuration Fil e .in i file is located in the same place where you can find the installation log files, which you can review if any problems occur during the installation.

If everything looks satisfactory on the Ready to Install Page, LeftClick the Install button to continue with the SQL Server installation.