Friday 13 April 2012

Generic SQL Server 2008 R2 Installation

I recently had to create some virtual machine tempaltes which needed Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 installed on it, so I thought I'd document it as I went along.

In the example shown below, I'll be installing SQL Server on a machine running Windows Server 2008 R2 (Entreprise Edition). I'll be doing a very generic installation however if you need to customise it, it should not be too difficult.

Before You Begin

Before you begin, you will need the following:
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 - ISO/DVD 
  • Visual Studio 2008 (With Service Pack 1 installed)

Installation Steps

  • On mounting the image you should get an autorun prompt which will bring up the setup application. If it does not show up, navigate to the base folder of the image and click on setup.exe
  • This should open up the SQL Server Installation Center as shown below
  • Click the Installation tab as shown below. This should open up the Setup Support Rules 
  • Now click the New installation or add features to an existing installation link as shown below
  •  Click OK and procees to the next step as shown below
  •  The installer should now prompt you for your Product Key. You can either enter a valid product key or choose the Evaluation edition as shown below. You then need to click Next.
  •  The install will then list the License Terms. Click the I accept the license checkbox as shown below and then click Next.
  • The installer will then try to install the Setup Support Files.  You need to click Install as shown below.
  • A new Setup Support Rules window will now pop up as shown below
  • Keep clicking Next till you reach the Setup Role window. Select the SQL Server Feature Installation radio button as shown below. (Note: If you want to add features to an existing installation, you need to select the last option and it will prompt you for an Instance Name. This option only shows up if you have an existing instance of SQL Server installed.)
  • Now choose the Select All check box and click Next. You then need to specify the Instance Name in the Instance Configuration section as shown below. (Note: By default the instance name is MSSQLSERVER but you can change this if you wish.)
  • The installer will then show you a Disk Usage Summary as shown below. Click Next & move on to the Server Configuration section.
  • In the Server Configuration section you need to click the Use the same account for all SQL Services button and choose NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE. This account does not need a password to be entered.


  • In the Database Engine Configuration section select the Mixed Mode (Sql Server authentication and Windows authentication) option.
  • Enter a password for the SQL Server Administrator account (Note: The user name is sa) and also add your Windows account to the list of administrators by clicking the Add Current User button as shown below and click Next. You also need to add your Windows account in the Analysis Services Configuration section. (Note: You must remember the password that you typed in for the sa account!)

  • In the next section, select Install the native mode default configuration option to configure Reporting Services. Click Next. This should bring you to the Error Reporting section, click Next  again.

  • You should now see the Installation Configuration Rules screen. Click Next and proceed to the Ready to Install section as shown below. Now all you need to do is click Install.

  • This should start your installation. This will take a good 10 to 15 minutes depending on your machine so this would be a good time to get some coffee :) ...
  • The installer will prompt you when your installation has completed. You can now test you SQL Server by logging in using either your Windows credentials or your SQL Server credentials that you configured earlier. (Start - All Programs - Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 - SQL Server Management Studio)  


References: SQL Server Installation (SQL Server 2008 R2)

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