Microsoft introduced a ‘Server Core’ version of Windows
Server 2008 as basically a stripped down minimal installation option for the
higher editions such as Standard, Enterprise and Datacenter. It contains the features that are necessary
to provide your users with all the usual Microsoft services such as Sql Server
or Active Directory.
Here is a picture of the much simplified GUI in Windows
Server 2012.
There are many reasons why Microsoft has provided us with
this including reduced resource consumption, better security and less
management. On the flip side, quite
often IT shot callers are sometimes reluctant to adopt this new version because
it can seem scary to learn something new or a fear that troubleshooting an
emergency with limited GUI could be risky.
Regardless of the pros and cons, I wanted to share a way of
installing SQL Server 2012 that works well with Server Core or even on a full
GUI Server version in a way that makes the install process of SQL Server much
faster and as easy as clicking a batch file for users who don’t have much
experience installing SQL Server 2012.
This method uses a file called the configuration file and this file is
referenced at the command line prompt.
Where does a person get one of these configuration
files? A configuration file is just a
text file that provides instructions on how the install should look. It contains name/value pair parameters with
comments that describe each line.
The file can be generated by stepping through a normal
installation using the regular installation media but an option to completing
the install is to just stop at the ‘Ready to Install’ page and noting the path
to the config file at the bottom of the page as seen below.
Once you cancel the installation, the INI file is generated. Move the newly created config file to the
location where you want to start the installation.
The only way to install SQL Server by using the config file
is at the windows CMD prompt.
At the CMD prompt type in the following command referencing
the config file you just generated.
Setup.exe
/ConfigurationFile=MyConfigurationFile.INI
Obviously there are many flags and switches and options that
a person can include in this command to change things like the Silent Mode or
to accept the licence term etc. You can
edit the config file as needed and once you start the install then it will
complete unattended if you include the QUIET =’True’.
You can see where this would save a DBA responsible for
installing SQL Server on many hosts a lot of time.
You can learn more on this topic at Technet.
Thanks for reading,
SQL Canuck
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