SQL Server 2005 – Unattended installation – Part I

Client Components

Automating the installation of SQL Server was made simple in SQL Server 2005. SQL Server 2005 can be installed using a GUI, an ini file or just run setup.exe with a bunch of parameters.


If more than three installations need to be done, it is not worth it to spend time clicking a lot of buttons to install a few or selected components. Unattended installation is the way to go.


In this series of articles, you will learn how to do unattended installation of different server components, client components and tools of SQL Server 2005.


In this article, you will learn how to install SQL Server 2005 client components required by any SQL Server 2005 developers. As we all know, developers need client tools to access the server, management tools and books online.


Step 1


Place the installation DVD on the DVD drive or copy the entire DVD on to a network shared drive and share that network drive.


Step 2


Click on the Start button on the task bar, click run, type the command CMD.exe, which opens the MS-DOS shell command prompt.


Step 3


Type the following command if you are using the shared drive. Refer Figure 1.0.

C:\>Start /wait H:\Tools\setup.exe /qb
ADDLOCAL=Client_Components,Connectivity,SQL_Documentation,SQL_Tools90



Fig 1.0


Type the following command if you are using a network shared drive.


Note: H:\ is the drive letter of my computer’s DVD drive

C:\>Start /wait \\fileserver\shareddrive\Tools\setup.exe /qb
ADDLOCAL=Client_Components,Connectivity,SQL_Documentation,SQL_Tools90

Note: \\Fileserver should be replaced with your file server name and shareddrive should be replaced with your actual shared drive name.


You would see the following screen [Fig 1.1, Fig 1.2, Fig 1.3, Fig 1.4 and Fig 1.5]




Fig 1.1



Fig 1.2



Fig 1.3



Fig 1.4



Fig 1.5


You would see the following items in the Add/Remove programs under control panel. [Fig 1.6]




Fig 1.6


When /qb is used as a switch when running setup.exe, it provides a display of basic Setup dialog boxes. Error messages are also displayed, when using /qb as switch.


In addition, the log files are written to %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Setup Bootstrap\LOG folder. Setup writes the summary of the installation in


“C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Setup Bootstrap\LOG\summary.txt” and it would look like as shown below.

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 9.00.1399.06
==============================
OS Version : Microsoft Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 (Build 2600)
Time : Tue May 30 23:54:19 2006

Machine : A
Product : Microsoft SQL Server Setup Support Files (English)
Product Version : 9.00.1399.06
Install : Successful
Log File : C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Setup Bootstrap\LOG\Files\SQLSetup0001_A_SQLSupport_1.log
——————————————————————————–
Machine : A
Product : Microsoft SQL Server Native Client
Product Version : 9.00.1399.06
Install : Successful
Log File : C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Setup Bootstrap\LOG\Files\SQLSetup0001_A_SQLNCLI_1.log
——————————————————————————–
Machine : A
Product : Microsoft Office 2003 Web Components
Product Version : 11.0.6558.0
Install : Successful
Log File : C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Setup Bootstrap\LOG\Files\SQLSetup0001_A_OWC11_1.log
——————————————————————————–
Machine : A
Product : Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Backward compatibility
Product Version : 8.05.1054
Install : Successful
Log File : C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Setup Bootstrap\LOG\Files\SQLSetup0001_A_BackwardsCompat_1.log
——————————————————————————–
Machine : A
Product : MSXML 6.0 Parser
Product Version : 6.00.3883.8
Install : Successful
Log File : C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Setup Bootstrap\LOG\Files\SQLSetup0001_A_MSXML6_1.log
——————————————————————————–
Machine : A
Product : Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Tools
Product Version : 9.00.1399.06
Install : Successful
Log File : C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Setup Bootstrap\LOG\Files\SQLSetup0001_A_Tools.log
——————————————————————————–

Setup succeeded with the installation, inspect the log file completely for status on all the components.
Time : Tue May 30 23:56:47 2006


You can verify all the log files for installation status and history of details in:


“C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Setup Bootstrap\LOG\Files”


Please refer Fig 1.7




Fig 1.7


If you use /qn as the switch, instead of /qb, then setup suppresses all Setup dialog boxes and error messages. If the /qn switch is specified, all Setup messages, including error messages, are written to Setup log files.


In addition, you will see all the related client tools, configuration tools and management tools under the windows program files.


Conclusion


As I mentioned, automating the installation of SQL Server was made simple in SQL Server 2005. SQL Server 2005 can be installed using GUI, ini file or just run setup.exe with a bunch of parameters. In this series of articles, you will learn how to do unattended installations of different server components, client components and tools of SQL Server 2005.


Successive articles will describe how to do unattended installation on the server components as well.


» See All Articles by Columnist MAK

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