Installing SQL Server 2008 R2 on Windows Server 2008 R2

Introduction

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Release to Manufacturing (RTM) was released in

the April 2010. There are different versions of SQL Server 2008 R2 available

such as Datacenter Edition, Parallel Data Warehouse Edition, Enterprise Edition,

Standard Edition, Web Edition, Workgroup Edition, Developer Edition, SQL Azure,

Compact Edition and Express Edition. You can download the trial version of SQL

Server 2008 R2 from the following link. In this article we will take a look at how

to install SQL Server 2008 R2 on a Windows Server 2008 R2 Server. However,

the steps mentioned in this article can be followed while installing SQL Server

2008 R2 on Windows Server 2008.

If you are new to SQL Server 2008 R2 then I would recommend you to start with

the following article New Features in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2.

Prerequisites for SQL Server 2008 R2

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 requires Windows Installer 4.5 and .Net

Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 to be installed on the server. You can download

Windows Installer 4 from the following link and you can download Microsoft .Net

Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 from the following link. Once you have installed

the prerequisites you may be asked to restart the operating system.

Installing SQL Server 2008 R2

1. Database Administrator should log on to the server with administrative

privileges and then right click Setup.EXE file and choose Run as

administrator option from the drop down list as shown in the below snippet.

2. As a Prerequisite SQL Server 2008 R2 setup will require Microsoft .Net

Framework 3.5 SP1 and the latest version of Windows Installer 4.5 to be

installed. You can install the same by clicking the OK button.

3. In Windows Update Standalone Installer popup, click OK button to install

Windows Installer 4.5. You can even install Windows Installer 4.5 by

downloading it from the following link.

 

4. Once Windows Installer 4.5 is installed successfully the setup may ask you to

restart the server. Once the server is up after the restart once again run the

Setup.EXE file. This time setup will ask you to install .Net Framework 3.5 SP1

incase if it is not installed on the server. Once the installation of .Net Framework

has completed successfully the SQL Server Installation Center will open up as

shown in the snippet below. You need to navigate to the Options screen as

shown in the snippet below to choose the appropriate Processor Type to specify

the architecture of SQL Server 2008 R2 to be installed.

5. In SQL Server Installation Center’s Installation Screen you need to choose

New Installation or add features to an existing installation option as highlighted

to install a standalone instance of SQL Server 2008 R2

6. It will open up Setup Support Rules window which will identify problems that

might occur when you install SQL Server Setup support files. You must correct

the failures if there are any before the setup can continue. If there are no issues

identified then click OK to continue with the installation.

 

7. In Product Key window you can choose to install SQL Server 2008 R2 as an

evaluation edition or else you can enter the Product Key to install the version

specific to the Key. If you are installing the Evaluation Edition then you can

upgrade to another edition using the Edition Upgrade Wizard. As like in SQL

Server 2008 even SQL Server 2008 R2 also has a single installation for all

editions of SQL Server 2008 R2. Once you have entered the Product Key or

choose the free edition (Evaluation) then click Next to continue with the

installation.

8. In the License Terms screen, you can go through the license agreement and

then select the check boxes at the bottom of the screen to accept the license

terms and conditions and then click Next to continue with the installation.

9. In Setup Support Rules screen it will identify problems that might occur when

you install SQL Server Setup support files. In case if there are any issues

identified then you need to fix the same before continuing with the installation.

If you want to avoid getting Windows Firewall error then you can disable the

windows firewall before the installation and enable the same once the

installation is complete.

10. In Setup Role screen you can click the SQL server Feature Installation option

to individually select which feature components to install or you can click a

feature role to install a specific configuration. The different chooses available in

this screen are:-

SQL Server Feature Installation: - Install SQL Server Database Engine

Services, Analysis Services, Reporting Services, Integration Services and other

features.

SQL Server PowerPivot for SharePoint: - Install PowerPivot for SharePoint

on a new or existing SharePoint 2010 server to support PowerPivot data access

in the farm. To use the New Server option, SharePoint must be installed but not

configured.

All Features With Defaults: - Install all features using default values for the

services accounts.

In the above snippet you need to choose SQL Server Feature Installation option

and click Next to continue with the installation

11. In Feature Selection screen you need to choose the features which you

would like to install. The different components which are available for

installation with SQL Server 2008 R2 are:-

Database Engine Services: - Includes the Database Engine, the core service

for storing, processing and securing data. The Database Engine provides

controlled access and rapid transaction processing and also provides rich

support for sustaining high availability. The Database Engine also provides

support for the utility control point in the SQL Server Utility. Only Database

Engine Services and Analysis Services can be clustered.

SQL Server Replication: - Includes the Database Engine, the core service for

storing, processing and securing data. The Database Engine provides controlled

access and rapid transaction processing and also provides rich support for

sustaining high availability. The Database Engine also provides support for the

utility control point in the SQL Server Utility. Only Database Engine Services and

Analysis Services can be clustered.

Full – Text Search: - Includes the Full-Text Search engine, for fast text search

on content stored in SQL Server.

Analysis Services: - Includes Analysis Services and tools used to support

online analytical processing (OLAP) and data mining. Only Database Engine

Services and Analysis Services can be clustered.

Reporting Services: - Includes Reporting Services, a server-based application

for creating, managing, and delivering reports in paper-oriented and interactive

Web-based formats. Reporting Services cannot be clustered.

Integration Services: - Includes the designer, runtime, and utilities that enable

Integration Services to move, integrate, and transform data between data

stores.

Shared Features: - Some shared features are shared across all versions of SQL

Server on a computer. Shared features for a major release are used only by

multiple instances of the same version of SQL Server; other features are shared

only across minor version instances.

Redistributable Features: - SQL Server redistributable and shared features

are installed when needed: Error and Usage Reporting, SQL Server Native Client,

MSXML version 6.0, SQL Server Compact Workbench, SQL Server Compact

Runtime, Sync Services for ADO.NET, and SQL Server Browser.

12. In Installation Rules screen the setup is running rules to determine if the

installation process will be blocked. Click Next to continue with the installation.

13. In Instance Configuration screen you need to specify the name and the

instance ID for the instance of SQL Server and click Next to continue with the

installation.

14. In Disk Space Requirements screen you will be able to see the amount of

disk space which is required for the installation of SQL Server 2008 R2. Click

Next to continue with the installation.

15. In Server Configuration screen you can specify the Service Account and the

Collation. In the Service Accounts tab, you need to specify the Service Account

under which SQL Server Services should be running. Here you can also specify

the Startup Type for each of the SQL Server Services.

In the Collations tab, you can specify the collation for Database Engine and

Analysis Services or else you can leave the default values as per the operating

system. Click Next to continue with the installation screen.

 

16. In the Database Engine Configuration screen, you can specify authentication

mode and administrators for the Database Engine, Data Directories and

FILESTREAM. 

In the Account Provisioning Tab you can specify the Authentication Mode. It is

always a best practice to choose Mixed Mode (SQL Server and Windows

Authentication). You can then specify the password for the SQL Server system

administrator (SA) account and also add Specify SQL server administrators as

shown in the snippet below.

In the Data Directories tab, you can specify the path of where user database

data and log file should be stored. You can also specify the path where TempDB

data and log file should be stored. It is always a good practice to store TempDB

data and log file on different drives to improve performance. In this screen you

can also specify the database backup directory as shown in the below snippet.

In the FILESTREAM tab, you can configure the FILESTREAM feature of SQL Server

2008 R2. There are basically three different FILESTREAM configuration options

such as:-

• Enable FILESTREAM for Transact-SQL access

• Enable FILESTREAM for file I/O streaming access; here you can specify the

windows shared folder name

• Allow remote clients to have streaming access to FILESTREAM data.

17. In the Analysis Services Configuration screen you can specify the analysis

services administrators and data directories. In the Account Provisioning tab you

can specify which users have administrative permissions for Analysis Services

In the Data Directories tab, you can specify the Data directory, Log file directory,

Temp directory and Backup Directory for analysis services. Click Next to

continue with the installation.

18. In the Reporting Services Configuration screen there are three different

choices available to specify the reporting services configuration mode.

Install the native mode default configuration: - Setup will install the report

server and configure it in Native mode to use the default values. The report

server is usable as soon as setup is finished.

Install the SharePoint integrated mode default configuration: - Setup will

create the report server database in SharePoint integrated mode and configure

the report server to use the default values. However, integrated operations will

not be supported until a minimal installation of a SharePoint product or

technology is deployed on the report server computer and the Reporting

Services Add-in for SharePoint Technologies is installed and configured on the

instance of the SharePoint product or technology you are using. 

Install, but do not configure the report server: - Setup will install, but will

not configure, the report server software. After installation is finished, you can

use the Reporting Services Configuration tool to set options that are required to

run the report server. 

 

19. In the Error Reporting screen you can select the checkbox to automatically

send logs to Microsoft to improve future releases. Click Next to continue with the

installation.

20. In Installation Configuration Rules screen the setup will run rules to

determine if the installation process will be blocked. In case if there are any

issues encountered then you need to fix the same before continuing with the

installation.

21. In Ready to Install screen you can quickly review the features which you

have selected so far for installation and then click the Install button to begin the

installation of SQL Server 2008 R2.

22. In the Installation Progress screen you can monitor the progress of SQL

Server 2008 R2 installation. Click Next to see the Installation Summary

23. In the Complete Screen the location for the summary log file is mentioned.

You can click on the link to review the SQL Server 2008 R2 installation summary.