How To Install SQL 2008 R2 on Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 For Use With SCVMM 2008 R2 SP1

Before I get deep into SQL Installation let me tell you where we are starting…

I am walking through the installation of SCVMM 2008 R2 SP1 on a new server that I just setup in my demo environment. I want to use SQL Server 2008 R2 for my deployment so I need to set that up as a prerequisite. I figured this is a good opportunity to document the process.

I am starting with a sysprep’d Windows Server 2008 R2 Server. I have allocated 2 processors and 512mb memory to the guest using dynamic memory. Once I get the system up and running, I will bump up the memory to be close to what I actually need but I will leave it dynamic.

• I need to install some prerequisite software before I can install SQL Server. Because I plan on using reporting services, I am going to setup IIS on this machine. I created a detailed step by step post on how to do this. You can find it at How To Install IIS 7 on Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 For Use With SCVMM 2008 R2 SP1.
  • A supported version of Microsoft SQL Server is needed. For more information about supported versions of SQL Server, see System Requirements: VMM Database. The SQL Server 2005 Express Edition database size is limited to 4 GB and is not supported for integrating VMM with System Center Operations Manager 2007 for Reporting and Monitoring features in VMM. Therefore, it is recommended that you use a full version of SQL Server when you are managing more than 150 hosts or when you want to integrate VMM with Operations Manager. For more information about integrating VMM with Operations Manager, see Configuring Operations Manager Integration with VMM (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=125948). If you use the SCVMM Setup Wizard to install SQL Server, the VMM 2008 R2 Setup Wizard installs SQL Server 2005 Express Edition SP3 (the VMM 2008 Setup Wizard installs SQL Server 2005 Express Edition SP2). I want to integrate my implementation with SCOM so I will NOT use Express. Instead I am going to install SQL 2008 R2. To use SQL Server 2008 or SQL Server 2008 R2 for the VMM database, SQL Server Management Tools must be installed on the VMM server. In my case, I will put SQL Server 2008 R2 right on my VMM server.
  • I want to minimize putting data on the C-Boot drive so I added an additional drive on my guest. With Windows Server 2008 R2, you can actually do this while the machine is running. For Step-By-Step instructions see How To Hot Add Storage To A Hyper-V Guest–Super Simple And No Service Interruption.
• Let me also give you resources that came in handy as I wrote this article

• Configuring a Remote Instance of SQL Server for VMM http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc764295.aspx
• For more information about configuring remote connections for SQL Server 2008, see Connecting to the SQL Server Database Engine (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=127719) and Configuring the Windows Firewall to Allow SQL Server Access (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=128365).
• SQL Server 2008 R2 System Requirements

Great… Now Let’s Get Started!!!

• I put the DVD into a drive (actually, I am using an ISO that I attached to the virtual machine) and right-clicked on the drive in My Computer and clicked “Install or run program from your media” SQL Server Setup installs the following software components required by the product:
  • .NET Framework 3.5 SP1
  • SQL Server Native Client
  • SQL Server Setup support files
• The first thing that happens when you launch the installation of SQL Server 2008 R2 is it checks for the proper framework. if it is not installed, it will install it for you. In my case, it adds .NET Framework 3.5 SP1

• On the next screen, click Installation on the left to display the installation options. We are then going to select New Installation or Add Features to an existing installation.

• On the Setup Support Rules you should be able to just click OK. If you click Show Details it will look something like this…

• Enter your product key then click Next
• Accept the license agreement click Next
• On the Setup Support Files click Install
• On the Setup Support Rules screen, you can see that I have a couple warnings

• The .NET warning is that I do not have Internet access on this computer. Not a problem so I am just moving on.
• The Firewall warning will be ignored as well. I will go back and modify the firewall later.
• I will just click Next and move on
• On the Setup Role – I will keep the default SQL server Feature installation and click Next
• On the feature selection, I am going to make many changes…

• To use SQL Server 2008 or SQL Server 2008 R2 for the VMM database, SQL Server Management Tools must be installed on the VMM server. I also want to change the default installation location. I am moving it to the E-Drive. I am running in a virtual machine on Hyper-V and the SCSI bus drives are faster than the IDE Bus drives. I also do not like putting a bunch of stuff on the OS drive.
  • Turn On Database engine Services
  • Turn on Reporting Services (If you use reporting services, you will need to setup IIS)
  • Turn on Client Tools Connectivity
  • Turn on Client Tools SDK (I do not think this is needed but I am adding it anyway)
  • Turn on Management Tools – Basic
    • Turn on Management Tools – Complete
  • I am also changing the location to my “E” Drive
• On the Installation Rules you can click “Show Details” if you like then just click Nex
• Next is the Instance configuration…
• for this section, I am going to tell the installer to put my instance on my E Drive. If you do not yet have an E drive defined you can add it on the fly. For instructions on how to do this see How To Hot Add Storage To A Hyper-V Guest–Super Simple And No Service Interruption

• I am not using the default instance for my deployment. You can just leave the defaults if you like to keep things simple. I want to create an instance called SCVMM because this will be dedicated for my SCVMM database. If you do pick your own name make sure SQL Server name does not contain more than 15 characters
• Notice I also changed the Instance root folder to my E drive
• Once making any changes you like, just click Next

• On the Disk Space Requirements Screen just click Next
• 
• The next screen is the Server Configuration. We need to do a few things here
• If remote SQL Server is running under the Network Service account or a domain account, you must create a Service Principal Name (SPN) for the SQL service as described in article 811889 in the Microsoft Knowledge Base at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=88057.
• On the Service Accounts Tab change the SQL Server Agent to Automatic startup. The agent is used for backup. Perhaps later I will do a blog post on how to setup the agent to perform backups of the databases.
• We are are going to use the same account for all of our services. just click on the Use the same account for all SQL server Services button to bring up a small dialog box. In the Account Name field select NT AuthoritySYSTEM then click OK
• We will keep the defaults for Collation so just click Next

• On the Database engine configuration Page we have much to do…
• On the Account Provisioning tab I am changing to Mixed Mode. This gives me the capability to manage users from inside of SQL. Without it users have to use Windows authentication. Once you change to mixed mode you will need to put in a password for the “SA” account which is the internal SQL Administrator account. You will need to use a complex password for this. If you do not need mixed mode, you can just leave Windows authentication mode turned on.
• You have to specify SQL Server administrators. In my case, I clicked “Add Current User” which added ATLANTAAdministrator. I also clicked Add to add WoodgrovebankDomain admins and WoodgrovebankSQL2008R2Service which is a user account I created for SQL Server. I am not initially using this account but I want to go ahead and make it an administrator.
• In my case I want to change the location that SQL stores my data so I am going to move to the data Directories tab

• On the data Directories tab I am going to change the location of my data root directory. If you have not created this drive see How To Hot Add Storage To A Hyper-V Guest–Super Simple And No Service Interruption. Once you create the drive, you should add the folder. In my case I like to create a folder called SQLData so I just toggled out to create the folder on my data disk. I strongly recommend you do not put SQL Data on the C drive. Even if you have plenty of space available. You have been warned!!!!
• I also changed the User database directory to be E:SQLdataData
• I changed the backup directory to be E:SQLDataBackup
• when I changed the Data Root directory, the Temp DB directory changed so I just kept it as is.
• We do not need to make any changes on FILESTREAM tab so we can just click Next

• In the Reporting Services configuration, I will leave Install the native mode default configuration and then click Next

• No Error reporting for me so just click Next

• Almost done. You can show the details on the Installation Configuration Rules if you like
• All applicable tests should be passed so just click Next

• On the Ready To install screen you can review your configuration and then just click Install
• Then just let it chug for about 20 mins or so (depending on performance of your machine it could be longer)

• We are done with the installation of SQL. You may want to take a few minutes to read the supplemental information. Also notice that a log file was left on the system in case you want to refer to it. When finished, you can just click Close. You probably still have the SQL Server Installation center open. You can close that by clicking the X in the upper right corner.
• We still have a few configuration changes we need to make. Remember those warning messages we had in the beginning? We need to open up a firewall port to allow SQL Traffic to pass to this computer. There is a TechNet Article on how to do that. Configuring the Windows Firewall to Allow SQL Server Access. More specifically, I need to open the firewall for Database Engine and Reporting Services

• If you would also like to open other ports like ICMP (Ping) and remote management you can find step by step instructions at Allow Remote Desktop Services and Ping Through Firewall on Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows 7

• Also if you are using this SQL Server for VMM ensure that TCP port 445 is not blocked. VMM uses port 445 to populate the database instances from the remote server. If port 445 is blocked, you can enter the name of the SQL instance manually so it is not a big show stopper.

After you open the port and before you confirm whether remote users can access the report server on the port that you open, you must grant user access to the report server through role assignments on Home and at the site level. You can open a port correctly and still have report server connections fail if users do not have sufficient permissions. For more information, see How to: Grant User Access to a Report Server (Report Manager) in SQL Server Books Online.

You can also verify that the port is opened correctly by starting Report Manager on a different computer. For more information, see Report Manager in SQL Server Books Online.

To enhance the security of your SQL Server connection, it is recommended that you enable SSL encryption by modifying the connection string as described in article 316898 in the Microsoft Knowledge Base at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=89722.

When connecting remotely to SQL Server using a port other than the default port (1433), you must append the port number after the instance name using the following syntax: instance name, port.

Long post… I hope you find it useful! Please feel free to comment!