SharePoint Server 2007 on Windows Server 2008 – Part 4: Installing SQL Server 2008

In this post of the post series SharePoint Server 2007 on Windows Server 2008, I’m going to explain how we install a SQL Server 2008 instance on our back-end server. I’m using SQL Server 2008 standard, but feel free to use any 2008 version that you prefer. You have only to consider the limitations of the different SQL versions and that you have to install at least SP1 on SQL Server 2008.

We already prepared our back-end server in this post. Now proceed with the SQL Server 2008 installation and follow those steps: In the SQL Server Installation Center go under Installation and execute New SQL Server stand-alone installation or add features to an existing installation:

Product Key: enter here your product key if necessary
License Terms: Accept the license terms and press next
Setup Support Files: press install
Support Setup Rules: the support rules should light up green. In our case we have two warnings that should be solved. Follow the instructions for the warnings that presumably light up yellow under firewall rules should be added and .net application security
Feature selection: select the database engine node and its children
Instance Configuration: press next
Disk Space Requirements: you should have enough disk space to install SQL Server 2008. Everything should light up green and press next
Server Configuration: use the same account for all SQL Server services (e.g., NT AUTHORITYNETWORK SERVICES). Change the startup type of the SQL Server Browser from disabled to automatic
- switch to the collation tab and press customize in the database engine section a new window opens. Change the settings as illustrated in the screen below and then press ok:

don’t forget to setup the collation settings correctly. If one of those settings is not correctly set, you might not be able to install SharePoint Server 2007 using this SQL Server instance.