SQL Server New Version - Denali - Step by Step Installation

SQL Server 2011 – Denali CTP 3 is recently released and as usual there are many new features which will enhance SQL Server footprint in Enterprise Database arena. The main advantage with Microsoft what I see is, they have all three layer in their control ie. Operating system , Database and Programming languages. They can leverage this freedom and integrate all these three layer well and come up with good end products which of course have a limitation of Only on Windows platform. This is the reason why we have great tool like Management Studio which is powered by Visual Studio and makes database administrators /developers/users life easy.

The major new configuration change in installation process is Distributed Reply Component Configuration. This component enable Realtime stress Workload testing against your database server. If you don’t want to install this option while selecting services don’t opt “Distributor Replay Controller” and “Distributed Replay Controller Client”

Another new service you can see while installation is “Data Quality Service”. This is a new feature added in Denali for knowledge-driven data cleansing solution.
You may want to see the FAQ link for DQS…

For any installation you must be aware of the Hardware and software requirement. So for Denali. Here is the link for Pre-requisite

Once you ensure that you have a system which meets the mentioned hardware and software requirement , here is the next steps

SQL Server Code-Named “Denali” Evaluation Edition is supported on the Windows Vista SP2, Windows Server 2008 SP2, Windows 2008 R2 SP1, and Windows 7 SP1 operating systems.

Pre-Installation Steps
• Refer the above mentioned sites and ensured that your system meet all the requirements
• Ensure that you have planned your Instance name if it is a named Instance
• Ensure that you have planned all the Data Directory. Ie. Where to keep System Databases, TempDB, and User Databases.(if not you can go by Default but it is not generally recommended).
• Ensure that you have planned Startup Account for all the services. (if not you can go by Default but it is not generally recommended.)
• Ensure that you have a list of features that you wants to install. Like if you are not going to use Filestream no need to configure that during installation

My System Configuration
• Operating System : Windows Vista SP2
• Existing SQL Server Instance
o Default Instance : SQL Server 2008 SP 1
o Named Instance 1: SQL Server 2008 RTM
o Named Instance 2 : SQL Server 2008 R2 RTM
Named Instance 3 : SQL Server 2005 Express Edition SP3

Step 1 : Download the Binary from http http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/en/us/future-editions.aspx

Step 2 : Extract the downloaded binary and start installation as shown below

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Summary : I had SQL Server 2005 Express Edition, SQL Server 2008 Developer Edition, SQL Server 2008 R2 Evaluation Edition on my Machine and all of these instance in the first look working fine. Not found any abnormal behaviour so far. Hope all these versions can co-exists. My SQL Server 2011 CP3 is installed and good to go