SQL Server Installation

Steps to install SQL server

• Installation decisions
• Design the storage for new databases
• Plan for growth and capacity
• Service account configuration

Installation Decisions

• Determine the appropriate hardware
• Select the appropriate windows operating system edition
• Select the appropriate edition of SQL Server
• Determine if a separate instance is required
• Select the appropriate collation

Appropriate hardware

• To virtualize or not to virtualize?
• CPU sockets and cores
• Memory
• Memory support is a function of the Windows operating system or the chosen edition
• Storage considerations

Appropriate OS

• Specific editions of SQL Server are supported on specific versions and editions of Windows Client and Windows Server
• One way or another, the following operating systems are supported:
  • Windows Server 2012
  • Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2008 SP2
  • Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8
• SQL Server 2012 core is supported on Windows Server 2012 core and Windows Server 2008 R2 core

Editions of SQL Server 2014

• Editions to choose from are:

  • Principal Editions

    • Enterprise
    • Business Intelligence
    • Standard
    • Evaluation

  • Specialized Edition(s)

    • Web

  • Breadth Editions

    • Express
    • Developer

  Server instances

  • Each instance will have its own set of services and service settings
  • Separate administration requirements
  • Separate instance-level configuration settings
  • Support for multiple versions of SQL Server
  • Know which features can be installed as instances

  Files and Filegroups

  Three types of files

  Primary
  • contains the startup information for the database and points to the other files in the database
  • Every database has one primary data file
  • The recommended file name extension for primary data files is .mdf
  Secondary
  • optional, user-defined, and store user data
  • recommended file name extension for secondary data files is .ndf
  Log
  • hold the log information that is used to recover the database. There must be at least one log file for each database
  • Recommended file name extension for transaction logs is .ldf

  System Databases

  • Master – records all system level information
  • Model – contains templates for creating new objects in the server
  • MSDB - used by SQL Server Agent for scheduling alerts and jobs
  • TempDB – automatically created and hold temporary data

  Working with database properties

  • Database growth
  • Database auto growth
  • Database shrinking
  • Other database properties

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