I wanted to try out SQL 2008 for the upcoming Madison DotNet Code Fest. I had downloaded the February CTP last week, and started out with that. I actually got everything installed and went out to find the sample databases on CodePlex, and discovered that RC0 had been released this week. Oh well, just revert the virtual machine to it’s pre sql state and start over with RC0.

Pre-Installation

Pre Requisites

The following pre requisites were installed without issue as part of the setup process. All pre requisites were included with the ISO.

• .Net Framework 3.5
• .Net Framework 3.5 SP1 Beta 1
• Hot fix for Windows Server 2003 (KB942288-v2)
• Reboot

My base Windows 2003 VM has only an 8 GB system drive, so I install everything to a second virtual hard drive which usually has a drive letter of E, as it does in this case. So all of my install paths are to E:\, but the folder structure remains the same.

SQL Server Installation Center

The SQL server setup has been completely revamped from SQL 2005, and there are some noticeable additions from the February CTP as well (the most prominent is the addition of a GUI option to use an existing configuration file).

Planning: Requirements, documentation, system configuration check, upgrade advisor

Installation: New stand alone, new fail-over cluster, add node to cluster, upgrade from SQL 2000 or 2005, search for production updates

Maintenance: Edition Upgrade (like changing from developer to Enterprise), repair, or remove from cluster

Tools: System configuration checker, installed SQL server features discovery report, upgrade integration services packages

Resources: Documentation, community, CodePlex samples

Advanced: Install based on configuration file, Advanced cluster prep and completion

Options: Platform (x86, x64, ia64)

Installing

I went ahead with and chose the stand alone installation. Five items were checked before I was allowed to proceed: Minimum OS version, setup administrator, restart computer, WMI service, validation for SQL server registry keys. All items passed and I proceeded to the product key.

The installation media seems to have all of the files for evaluation, express and express with advanced services. I didn’t have a product key, so I just went with the evaluation version, which should give me 180 days to evaluate. After selecting the edition, I had to accept the EULA and then have some setup support files installed.

Another system check was run, and everything passed except I received a warning notification because I had enabled the windows firewall. A message indicated I should check out a page at Microsoft, but the page had no mention of firewall configuration. Clicking next, I was brought to the Feature Selection page, and the main portion of SQL 2008 setup.

Feature Selection

These are the options I chose, and is not an all inclusive list.

• Instance Features
  • Database Engine
  • Reporting Services (I’m interested to see how the non-IIS reporting services works)
• Shared Features
• Business Intelligence Development Studio (to create some sample reports)
• Client Tools Connectivity
• Integration Services (Was required in Sql 2005 for maintenance plans)
• Client Tools Backwards Compatibility
• SQL Server Books Online
• Management Tools – Basic (Management Studio, SQLCMD, and SQL Power Shell provider)
• Management Tools – Complete (Support for Reporting Services, Analysis Services, and Integration Services, SQL Profiler and DB Tuning Advisor)
• Microsoft Sync Framework (interested to see how this works with mobile devices)

Instance Configuration 

• Default instance
• Instance ID: Default of MSSQLSERVER, however you can change this, and it automatically updates the install paths
• Instance root directory: E:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\
• Computed SQL Server Directory: E:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.MSSQLSERVER
• Computer Reporting Services Directory: E:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSRS10.MSSQLSERVER

I do like how you can change the instance id for the default instance, as well as choosing a named instance (which you’ve always been able to do).

Disk Space Requirements

After selection your options and installation drives, you are presented with a screen that shows drive space requirements. Unfortunately, even with changing all install options to E, half of the required disk space is still targeting my C drive.

• C:\windows: 1188 MB Required
• Shared Features (E): 724 MB Required
• Instance Directory: 267 MB Required

Server Configuration

Here you configure the user accounts for each service. Sql Server Browser defaults to Local Service. Sine I am not running in a domain, nor do I need access to any domain resources, I created a local user account and used that for the Sql Server Agent, Database Engine, Reporting Services, and Integration Services service.

You can also change the collation, but I left it as the default: SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS

Database Engine

Account Provisioning: Windows Authentication or Mixed mode. I went with integrated, and added two users to the server admin role.

Data Directories:  Here you can choose the root data directory, as well as where user data files, log files, and the system databases are installed to, wow, that is a nice change. I’m using the default of E:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\Data, but in our production systems, this would defiantly change. Being able to specify this stuff at install time is awesome, and I can defiantly see the need for some install scripts.

Filestream: Here you can enable FILEStream for T-SQL access. I have no idea what this means, so I will leave it off for now. You have to specify a windows share name when you enable to, so I am curious to find out more. You can also allow remote clients to have access (via the share?).

Reporting Services

You have three options, Native mode with default configuration, SharePoint with default configuration, and install but do not configure. I’m going with the native with default configuration in the essence of time.

Installation Progress

Prior to starting the install, a final system check is performed, and all checks passed. Before clicking install, you are presented a summary of what will be installed, as well as given the path to the .ini file that contains the configuration. I have included my path below, but it will very from install to install as the path includes a date stamp: C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Setup Bootstrap\Log\20080618_142128\ConfigurationFile.ini

The installation process took longer then I remember to install the February CTP, but other then that, the install wen smoothly and no errors were encountered.

Post Install

I went into the SQL server Configuration manager, and under Sql Server network Configuration, I enabled TCP access so I could remotely connect to the SQL server. I also opened up port 1433 to my local subnet in the Windows Firewall.

First Thoughts

I tried connecting with SQL Management Studio 2005 to my new SQL 2008 instance, and it failed, so that is a little disappointing, but not unexpected. Same goes for Visual Studio 2008 pre-SP1 (since SP1 is still beta I have not installed it on my main machine), but SP1 beta 1 fixes this issue.

Management studio looks pretty much the same, just that there are new options in the navigation tree such as auditing and resource governor. I was able to connect to a SQL 2000 database without issue. I noticed a new publish to web service option when right clicking on a database, but I’m not sure if this is part of SQL or the Sync Framework.

The report manager site came up ok, but the reports site threw a permissions error indicating my service account did not have the proper permissions.