How to Install SQL Server

You can install all the SQL Server 2012 services by following the installation wizards launched from the Installation Center. Some of the services and features that can be installed using Installation Center include Database Services, Integration Services (SSIS), Analysis Services (SSAS), Reporting Services (SSRS), Master Data Services (MDS), and Data Quality Services (DQS). Additionally, management and development tools such as SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) and SQL Server Data Tools (formerly BIDS) can be installed through Installation Center. Additional settings and configurations may be necessary after the core installation process completes.

The Installation Center provides a graphical user interface that groups common installation tasks and resources in seven logical sections:

— Planning

— Installation

— Maintenance

— Tools

— Resources

— Advanced

— Options

To launch the Installation Center, locate and execute the Setup.exe application in your installation media. The initial section of the Installation Center is the Planning section. The Planning section provides shortcuts to important documentation, links, and applications that facilitate a successful SQL Server installation, upgrade, or migration.

The installation section provides shortcuts to launch the following installation wizards:

— New SQL Server standalone installation or add features to an existing installation.

— New SQL Server failover cluster installation.

— Add a node to a SQL Server failover cluster.

— Upgrade from SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2008, or SQL Server 2008 R2.

— Search for product updates.

Installation Center is the Planning section

 

The Tools section provides shortcuts to the following four tools:

■ System Configuration Checker

■ Installed SQL Server features discovery report

■ Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit for SQL Server

■ PowerPivot Configuration Tool

The Resources section provides shortcuts to SQL Server 2012 documentation, product registration, and community resources such as blogs, forums, Books on Line, License

Agreement, and Microsoft Privacy Statement. The Advanced section provides shortcuts to additional installation, configuration and deployment tasks including:

– Install based on a configuration fi le

– Advanced cluster preparation

– Advanced cluster completion

— Image preparation of a standalone instance of SQL Server

— Image completion of a prepared standalone instance of SQL Server

The Options section allows you to specify the architecture of SQL Server 2012 to install, either 32-bit or 64-bit processor architecture. Additionally it allows you to specify the location of the SQL Server installation media.

Installing SQL Server 2012 Through the Installation Center

The Installation Center is perhaps the easiest and most common way to install and modify any SQL Server installation. To initiate the installation of a new SQL Server 2012 standalone instance trough the Installation Center, follow these steps:

From the Installation Center, select the Installation tab, as shown in Figure

1.  Select the New SQL Server StandAlone Installation or Add Features to an Existing Installation option. The first step in the SQL Server 2012 setup process involves examining the server using the System Configuration Checker for conditions that prevent a successful SQL Server installation. The System Configuration Checker runs a series of tests known as the Setup Support Rules that confirm the following:

■ The computer that Microsoft SQL Server is installed on is not pending a reboot.

■ The Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) service is running and is accessible.

■ The registry keys are consistent and can be used for a SQL Server installation.

■ The pathname to the installation media is not too long.

■ The product installation is compatible with the operating system.

The No-Reboot package is installed.

2. If you detect any problems, they must first be corrected before the installation process can continue. After the test completes, you may see the results by selecting the Show Details button, or you can review a more detailed HTML report by selecting the View Detailed Report link, as shown in Figure

3. After reviewing the results, click the OK button. If you perform the installation on a server with access to the Internet, the Setup Wizard can check for product updates. If updates are found they display, as shown in Figure

4. After reviewing the product updates list, click the Next button. The Setup Wizard launches the System Confi guration Checker one more time to run the Setup Support Rules test to identify any condition that might prevent the installation of the SQL Server setup support fi les. If you detect any problems, they must first be corrected before the installation process can continue. After the test completes, you may see the results by selecting the Show Details button, or you can review a more detailed HTML report by selecting the View Detailed Report link, as shown in Figure

 

5. After reviewing the results, click the Next button. The next screen displays the Product Key validation. In this screen you can enter the SQL Server 25-character key assigned to your organization as part of a licensing agreement with Microsoft or from the certificate of authenticity or product packaging. You may also specify a free edition such as Evaluation or Express Edition. Figure shows the Product Key screen.

6. After entering the product key or specifying a free edition, click the Next button. In the next screen, you are required to read and accept the Microsoft Software and License Terms to continue with the SQL Server installation. Check the I Accept the License Terms check box, and click the Next button.

7. In the next screen, select the option SQL Server Feature Installation, and click the Next button. Figure 3-7 shows the options available to install SQL Server features.

8. The next screen enables you to select the features you want to include in the SQL Server installation. Select Database Engine Service and Management Tools Basic You may change the installation paths for the shared featured directory in this screen as well. After you select the features to install, click the Next button. Figure shows the feature selection list and shared feature directory default paths.

 

9. The Installation Rules screen opens. In this screen, installation rules are tested to make sure that the installation process is not blocked. After the test completes you may see the results by clicking the Show Details button. Click the Next button.

SQL Server Feature Selection

 

10. After reviewing the results, click the Next button. The next screen allows you to specify the name, instance id and root directory of the SQL Server instance. If there are other SQL Server instances installed, they appear in the Installed Instances section, as shown in Figure

SQL Server Instance Creation

 

11. Click the Next button. The Setup Wizard evaluates current disk space available and calculates required disk space to install selected components. The Disk Space Requirements screen provides a breakdown of available and required disk space, as seen in Figure.

12. Click the Next button. The next screen enables you to specify service accounts and collation configuration. You can use individual accounts and startup types to start each service, as shown in Figure.

SQL Server Disk Space Requirements

 

13. Click the Next button. The Database Engine Confi guration screen opens. In this screen you can define some of the most critical configurations in the setup process, such as:

■ User authentication mode

■ SQL Server Administrators

■ Data, log, and backup fi le default directories

■ Filestream configuration

14. Click the Add Current User to add your Windows login to the sysadmin role. You may add additional Windows users to the sysadmin role by clicking the Add button.

 

 

 

15. Click the Next button. The next screen enables you to opt-in to send Windows and SQL Server Error Reports to Microsoft or a corporate report server.

16. Click the Next button. The Setup Wizard runs the Installation Configuration Rules step to determine if specific components are missing or installed that might prevent the installation process to complete. If there are any problems detected, they must first be corrected before the installation process can continue. After the test completes, you may see the results by selecting the Show Details button, or a more detailed HTML report can be reviewed by selecting the View Detailed Report link below the Show Details button.

17. After reviewing the results, click the Next button. At this point, the Setup Wizard has gathered all the necessary information to install the SQL Server 2012 features selected. The next screen provides a summary of all configurations provided, as shown in Figure

 

 

18. After reviewing the configuration summary, click the Install button. The installation process starts.

29. When the installation process completes, the Setup Wizard displays the list of selected features with the corresponding installation status, errors, or additional

required configuration steps, as shown in Figure.

20. After reviewing the installation results, click the Close button to close the SQL Server 2012 Setup wizard. At this point you have completed the steps necessary to install a SQL Server 2012 Database Services instance.

To verify that SQL Server 2012 Database Services has been installed successfully, open SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) and connect to the Database Engine.

 

 

If SQL Server 2012 Database Services were installed as the default instance, you can connect via SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) by providing the computer name or IP address where the SQL Server 2012 instance was installed. If you connect within the computer where the SQL Server instance was installed, you can connect using localhost, (local), or “.” in the server name field.

If SQL Server 2012 Database Services were not installed as the default instance, then you need to provide the server name in the form of servername\instancename or IPaddress\servername. In addition, you could provide the server name as localhost\instancename, or .\instancename.

 

 Installing SQL Server 2012 Through the Command Line

 

In addition to installing SQL Server using the Setup Wizard as shown in the fi rst part of this chapter, SQL Server can also be installed via the command line. Command-line installations of SQL Server enable you to install, upgrade, or remove SQL Server instances with little or no user interaction by specifying silent, basic, or full user interface.

Every option available in the graphical user interface using the Setup Wizard can also be confi gured via command-line parameters. Sixty-eight parameters are available when running Setup.exe from the command line to confi gure SQL Server features and services. You can find the complete list of command line parameters at here.

Only a handful of these command-line parameters are required to complete a SQL Server 2012 installation. Errors may generate for required confi guration options if no value is specifi ed for the corresponding parameter. For some parameters, default values are automatically set when a value is not explicitly defi ned. You can use the following script to install a standalone SQL Server 2012 instance with all Database Services components:

Setup.exe /q /ACTION=Install /FEATURES=SQL /INSTANCENAME=MSSQLSERVER /SQLSVCACCOUNT="<<DomainName\UserName>" /SQLSVCPASSWORD="<MyPassword>" /SQLSYSADMINACCOUNTS="<DomainName\UserName>" /AGTSVCACCOUNT="NT AUTHORITY\NetworkService" /IACCEPTSQLSERVERLICENSETERMS

Command-line installations can also use confi guration fi les to reduce the number of command-line parameters and standardize SQL Server deployments. Confi guration fi les are created during the installation process using the SQL Server installation wizard.

Use the following script to execute an unattended installation of SQL Server:

Setup.exe /ConfigurationFile="<MyConfigurationFile.INI>"

 

Installing SQL Server 2012 Through PowerShell

You can also use PowerShell to perform unattended installs. Simple PowerShell scripts can be written to execute SQL Server 2012 Setup through its command-line interface. For example, you can execute the command-line script used in the previous section from the command line as follows:

$cmd = "d:\setup.exe /ACTION=install /Q /INSTANCENAME="MSSQLSERVER" /IACCEPTSQLSERVERLICENSETERMS /FEATURES=SQLENGINE,SSMS /SQLSYSADMINACCOUNTS="YourDomain\Administrators";

Invoke-Expression -command $cmd | out-null;

More complex PowerShell scripts can be written for larger SQL Server 2012 deployments. A common approach is the use of PowerShell functions that accept the setup parameters necessary to perform unattended installations. These PowerShell functions are then executed in batches or inside a process that loops through a list of server names with corresponding parameters.

For example, a PowerShell function can be saved in a PowerShell script file and called along with setup parameters to perform a large scale unattended deployment of SQL Server 2012.

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