SQL 2000 Install

Installing Microsoft's SQL 2000 server is a pretty simple job.  However any installation of a database needs a few minutes to plan; the old saying that 7 minutes of planning saves an hour of rework is never more true than with an installation.  The most important part is the post-installation check list to verify everything is working properly.

• Plan the installation of your production database
• Post installation Checklist
• Install THE test database called Northwind

Plan the installation of your production database

Compared with installing Exchange 2000, the actual install of SQL 2000 is straightforward.  That said, every install benefits from a checklist.

1. Accounts - Just as horses need a jockey's to steer them, so SQL needs an account to operate its services.  This account needs to be member of the local Administrator group, so make sure that it has a difficult password, and check that box that says 'Password never expires'.

2. Disk space.  Give some thought to the size that the database will grow to.  Take two approaches, previous experience of similar databases and theoretical size based on the bytes in the fields and number of rows.  If you double the bigger of the two estimates that should be about right!

3. Logs are important for many programmes, but never more than databases so consider their size and place the logs on not just a separate partition but a separate disk.  You have an eye on how you would recover from backup should you lose the main database.

4. New Filegroups - use them with an eye for maintenance and performance.  This new feature is NOT a substitute for hardware RAID.

5. Collation - Language Latin1_General (Code Page 1252)

6. Install options - OLAP, OLTP, English Query, Named Instance

Post installation Checklist

Integration with Windows 2000 and Exchange

• Active Directory for account security

• Exchange 2000 needed to configure Alerts and Jobs

• IIS needed for XML queries

SQL Services

• Distributed Transaction Co-ordinator  - Needed for Import / Export packages

• MSSQLSERVER - The main SQL service Check 'logon as'

• SQLSERVERAGENT - Needed for Jobs and Alerts

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Stop restart service.  Do this to a) Save a reboot, b) Get something working that should be working.

Install THE test database - Northwind

SQL comes with the most wonderful test database called Northwind.  Its classic design allows you to see and experiment with a relational database.  Install SQL on a test machine and use the built-in Northwind database to build up your SQL skill and confidence.

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