Step By Step Installation Of Microsoft SQL Server On Windows System

Introduction

In this article, we are going to install Microsoft SQL Server on windows machines step by step. In this tutorial, we are going to use SQL Server 2019 Developer edition and Windows Server 2019.

Pre-requisites

  • Windows machine having 2 core and 4 GB RAM configuration

Download SQL Server 2019 Developer Edition

First, let’s download SQL Server installation media from the official website.

Step 1. Download installation media from this link.

Step 2. Run the downloaded file and you will see the below screen. Now select the third option – Download Media.

Start Window

Step 3. Now you will see the below screen. Please select the language you prefer and select the ISO radio button to download the ISO file. In addition, select the download location of your choice. I will go with the default location. Now press the Download button.

Select Language

Step 4. Now it will start downloading SQL Server installation media. It will take some time based on your internet connection speed.

Media Download

Step 5. After successful download of installation media, you will see the below screen. Click the Close button.

Download Success

Install SQL Server 2019 Developer Edition

Now that we have installation media, we can start the installation of the SQL Server. Let’s see how to install SQL Server step by step.

Step 1.Run install media file (ISO file) downloaded in above section by double-clicking on it. It will extract/mount all the contents in a new temporary drive.

ISO File
Image 1. ISO file

Extracted COntent
Image 2. Extracted contents

Step 2. Once extraction is completed, double click on the setup.exe file and you will see the below screen. Click on the Installation option in the left panel and then click on New SQL Server stand-alone installation or add features to an existing installation option from the right panel.

Select SQL Server

Step 3. Now you will see the Product Key window. Select the Developer option from the dropdown and click on the Next button.

Specify Edition

Step 4. Now you will see the License Terms window. Just select the checkbox and click on the Next button.

EULA

Step 5. Now you will see the Microsoft Update window. It is not compulsory to check for the latest updates but it is recommended. So, select the checkbox and click the Next button.

Check Updates

Step 6. Now it will check for updates and install them if any.

Installl Setup Files

Step 7. After that, it will check some rules or prerequisites for the installation of SQL Server. Once all the rules passed, click on the Next button. Sometimes you may face an error at this stage. You can find some known errors at the end of this article.

Instaling Rules

Step 8. On the Feature Selection window, select features as shown in the below screenshot. You can also change the location for SQL Server instance installation but I will go with the default location. After feature selection please click the Next button.

Iinstance FEatures
Instance Features 2

Step 9. It will check some feature rules/prerequisites and then you will see the Instance Configuration screen. Here you can choose between Default Instance and Named Instance. Here I will go with Named Instance.

Instance Configuration

Default Instance

When SQL Server is installed in the default instance, it does not require a client to specify the name of the instance to make a connection. The client only has to know the server name. For example, HARDIK-PC.

Named Instance

A named instance is identified by the network name of the computer plus the instance you specify during the installation. The client must specify both the server name and the instance name when connecting. For example, HARDIK-PC/MSSQLSERVER.

Step 10. Next, you will see the Server Configuration window. In Service Accounts tab, select Automatic in Startup Type for SQL Server Agent, SQL Server Database Engine, and SQL Server Browser services.

Server Config

In the Collation tab, select collation as per your preference.

“Collations in SQL Server provide sorting rules, case, and accent sensitivity properties for your data. Collations that are used with character data types, such as char and varchar, dictate the code page and corresponding characters that can be represented for that data type.” – Microsoft.

config Done

Step 11. Next, you will see the Database Engine Configuration window. In the Server Configuration tab, choose Mixed Mode in the authentication mode section and enter a strong password. In Specify SQL Server administrators section, your current windows user should already be added automatically. If not, click on Add Current User button.

DB Config

In the Data Directories tab, specify locations for database files and backup files. By default, it saves all the files on a C drive but it is not recommended to store database files on an OS drive because if any OS-related issue occurs then we may lose our data. Therefore, I choose D drive on my local machine.

Data Directories

In the TempDB tab, there are configurations for the temporary database file(s). There are some best practices on how to configure temporary database files locations, the number of files, and their file sizes. Ideally, the number of the TempDB data files should match the number of logical processors. So I have a number of files to 2. If you are interested in deep pe into TempDB best practices, here is a very good article on it.

Temp DB

Next, in the MaxDOP tab, the maximum degree of parallelism (MAXDOP) is a server configuration option for running SQL Server on multiple CPUs. It controls the number of processors used to run a single statement in parallel plan execution. By default, the setup will suggest value based on the system configuration. For more information and best practices see here.

MAX Dop

Next, in the Memory tab, we can configure how much memory SQL Server instance can consume. By default, the installation process will recommend you min and max memory allocation based on the system configuration on which it is going install. However, you can change it. Here you can find best practices for SQL Server memory configurations.

Memory Tab

In the FILESTREAM tab, leave the checkbox unchecked because we are not going to enable this feature. FILESTREAM, in SQL Server, allows storing these large documents, images, or files onto the file system itself. For more information, see here.

FileStream

Click on the Next button.

Step 12. Next, the setup will check some feature configuration rules, and then the Ready to Install window will appear. This window shows the summary of all the features and configurations which we have done in the above steps. Once review the summary and click on the Install button.

Ready To Install

Step 13. Now, the installation will start and it may take some time based on our configurations.

Installatioin Progress

Step 14. After installation, it will show you the list of features and their installation status. If any error occurred, it will show here.

Complete

Congratulations! We have successfully installed SQL Server 2019 Developer edition on Windows machine. Next, you can install SQL Server Management Studio to connect SQL Server and query SQL databases. Please follow below steps to install SQL Server Management Studio.

Install SQL Server Management Studio

First, let us download SQL Server installation media from the official website.

Step 1. Download installation media from these link.

Step 2. Below file will download.

Step 3. Run the downloaded file and you will see below screen. Just click on the Install button.

Server Management

Step 4. It will start installing management studio. It will take some time.

Installation

Step 5. Once installation finished, close the installation wizard and open start menu and search for SQL Server Management Studio. You will see below application. Now, click on it to open the application.

Step 6. Next, you will see below screen. In Connect to Server window, you can see the SQL instance name, which we have just installed. (Ref. Step 9). You can connect an instance with either Windows Authentication or SQL Authentication, which we have created in Step 11.

Connect SQL Server

Step 7. Once you successfully authenticated, you can see Object Explorer in which you can find database list and other SQL objects.

Object Explorer

So, hope you understand how to install and connect SQL Server using SQL Server Management Studio.

Expected errors/issues

Sometimes you can face some issues/errors at the time of installation of SQL Server. Below are some known errors.

Configure Named Pipe and TCP/IP Settings to access SQL Server Database Instance from outside or from other computers in the local network. Please check my article for here.

Conclusion

As you can see, It is very easy to install SQL server 2019 Developer edition and SSMS, if you follow steps accurately. It is a very user-friendly and smooth installation. So now, you can also install SSMS or other add-ons, which can help you to boost SQL coding productivity.


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