Installing and upgrading SQL Server 2008 : Preparing for installation

In this section, we'll cover the importance of a preinstallation checklist before looking at some additional preinstallation tasks, such as the creation of service accounts and directories.

1. Preinstallation checklist

Creating a preinstallation checklist is a great way to make sure appropriate attention is paid to the important elements of an installation. A checklist is particularly useful in environments where DBAs aren't involved in the installation of SQL Server. By creating and providing thorough checklists, you ensure that the chances of a successful deployment are significantly improved.

Figure 1 shows an example of a preinstallation checklist. The important point here isn't necessarily the contents of the checklist, but the fact that you create one and tailor it to the needs of your environment.

Figure 1. Along with other strategies such as policy-based management, a preinstallation checklist enables a SQL Server installation to have the best chance of meeting best practice.
 

2. Service accounts

A SQL Server installation will create several new Windows services, each of which requires an account under which it will run. As we'll see shortly, these accounts are specified during installation, so they need to be created in advance.

Depending on which features are installed, SQL Server setup creates the following services for each installed instance:

• SQL Server

• SQL Server Agent

• SQL Server Analysis Services

• SQL Server Reporting Services

• SQL Server Integration Services

Prior to installation, you should create service accounts for each of these services with the following attributes:

• Domain accounts—While you can use local server accounts, domain accounts are a better choice as they enable the SQL instance to access other SQL Server instances and domain resources, as long as you grant the necessary privileges.

• Nonprivileged accounts—The service accounts do not, and should not, be members of the domain administrators or local administrator groups. The installation process will grant the service accounts the necessary permissions to the file system and registry as part of the installation. Additional permissions beyond those required to run SQL Server, such as access to a directory for data import/export purposes, should be manually granted for maximum security.

• Additional account permissions—Two recommended account permissions that SQL Server doesn't grant to the SQL Server service account are Perform Volume Maintenance Tasks, required for Instant Initialization , and Lock Pages in Memory, required for 32-bit AWE-enabled systems and recommended for 64-bit systems .

• Password expiration and complexity—Like any service account, the service accounts for SQL Server shouldn't have any password expiration policies in place, and the passwords should be of adequate complexity and known only to those responsible for service account administration.

• Separate accounts for each service—Each SQL Server service for each installed instance should be configured with a separate service account. This allows for the most granular security.

3. Additional checks and considerations

Before we launch into an installation, let's discuss a number of other important preinstallation checks and considerations:

• Collation—Like Windows, SQL Server uses collations to determine how characters are sorted and compared. As we'll see shortly, a collation is chosen during installation, and by default, SQL Server setup will select a collation to match the server's Windows collation. An inconsistent collation selection is a common cause of various administration problems, and a well-considered selection is therefore a crucial installation step. In almost all cases, you should accept the default collation during installation; if you choose a custom collation, take into account the potential collation conflicts when dealing with data from another instance with a different collation.

• Storage configuration—. Prior to installation, you must ensure partitions are offset^[] and formatted with a 64K allocation unit size. Further, run SQLIO and SQLIOSIM to validate storage performance/validity and driver/firmware versions are up to date. Additional checks include ensuring multipathing software is installed and working, and consider NIC teaming for maximum performance and redundancy for iSCSI installations.

  ^[] Windows Server 2008 does this automatically.

• Directory creation—One of the installation steps is to specify locations for the database data and log files, backup files, and the tempdb data and log files. For maximum performance, create each of these directories on partitions that are physically separate from each other—that is, they don't share the same underlying disks. Directories for these objects should be created before installation. 

• Network security—SQL Server should be secured behind a firewall, and unnecessary network protocols such as NetBIOS and SMB should be disabled.

• Windows version—SQL Server 2008 requires at least Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 as a prerequisite for installation; Windows Server 2008 is recommended for the best performance and security. Further, SQL Server shouldn't be installed on a primary or backup domain controller; the server should be dedicated to SQL Server.

• Server reboot—SQL Server won't install if there are any pending reboots;^[] therefore, reboot the server prior to installation if appropriate.

  ^[] Open the registry editor and navigate to HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager. The existence of PendingFileRenameOperations is an indication of a pending reboot.

• WMI—The Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) service must be installed and working properly before SQL Server can be installed. This service is installed and running by default on both Windows Server 2003 and 2008.

Now that we've covered the important preinstallation checks and planning, let's walk through an actual installation of SQL Server 2008.