Welcome to the third article in my series SQL Administration in 15 Minutes a
week. Up to this point we have gone over the requirements for installing SQL
Server and we have performed a basic installation. This week I will show you
more advanced issues when installing SQL Server. The topics for this article
include:
– Performing an Unattended Installation
– Remote Installations
– Types of Clusters
– Service Accounts
Performing an Unattended Installation
If you have ever deployed Windows 2000 in an environment with hundreds of
systems you know about the benefits of performing Unattended Installations.
Using a setup file, containing the installation parameters, you can automate the
installation of Windows 2000. This same capability to automate an installation
of Windows 2000 is available for SQL Server 2000. Using an Unattended
Installation you can install the components needed for SQL Server, the Client
Tools, or Connectivity Only. However, you can’t use an Unattended Installation
to perform tasks such as setting up Failover Clustering or Change the Optional
Components that are already installed.
SQL Server uses a batch file (.BAT used to begin the installation) and an
Installation Setup Initialization file (.ISS that contains the information
needed during the installation) to perform the Unattended Installation. Both the
Batch and the Installation Setup file can be edited with a simple text editor
such as Notepad. SQL Server even provides you with sample Batch and Installation
files that can be edited and used as needed. The example files can be located on
the root directory of your SQL Server 2000 CD.
There are three ways to create an Installation Setup Initialization file:
– Use the file created after installing SQL Server 2000
– Use the SQL Server 2000 Setup program
– Create a file by hand or edit an existing file
The first way to create an .ISS file is to perform a normal installation of SQL
Server 2000. Each time you install SQL Server 2000, setup automatically creates
a setup.iss file located in the <SQL Program Files Directory>\Install folder.
You can copy this file and then use it to install SQL Server on another system,
back up the file in case you need to reinstall SQL Server, or use the file as a
beginning template that can be edited by hand.
The second option available is to use the SQL Server Setup program to create an
Installation Setup Initialization file for you without actually installing SQL
Server. The process is very similar to installing SQL Server 2000, except the
final stages of adding registry keys and copying files are skipped. To create
your own .ISS file, start the SQL Server 2000 installation as you normally would
on the local computer. When you are prompted to select an Installation Option
choose “Advanced Options.”
Once you have selected “Advanced Options” click Next.
The Advanced Options screen can be used to
perform several different tasks:
– Record Unattended .ISS file: Allows you to record an Installation Setup file
that can be used to perform an unattended Installation of SQL Server. We will
take a closer look at this option shortly.
– Registry Rebuild: Allows you to recover your SQL Server installation if your
registry becomes corrupted. You will need to provide setup with the installation
options you chose when you originally installed SQL Server.
– Maintain a Virtual Server for Failover Clustering: Allows you to maintain your
SQL Server 2000 clusters including adding and removing nodes from a cluster.
Note that this option is grayed out because the computer I used does not have
clustering enabled.
Select Record Unattended .ISS file” and click Next.
From this point on the setup process will proceed as normal. However, once you
reach what would be the final step of a normal installation, copying files to
your hard disk, setup will exit without installing SQL Server. You can then
locate the .ISS file SQL Server 2000 setup has created in the SystemRoot (ex:
C:\WINNT) folder on your hard drive. The file will be named setup.iss.
Page 2: More on Unattended Installations
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See All Articles by Columnist Michael Aubert
