This article describes the installation and configuration of SQL Server 2008 required for deploying SharePoint Server 2010 and is a part of a series describing the complete installation of SharePoint Server 2010 on Windows Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2008 R2. Please have a look at

• Installing SharePoint Server 2010 on Windows Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2008 R2 - Part 1: Overview

There you can find an overview of the complete series and of course the farm topology and the deployment scenario.

SQL Server 2008 installation

The installation of SQL Server 2008 compared to SQL Server 2008 R2 is almost the same and described below. If you get a compatibility warning while trying to install SQL Server 2008 on Windows Server 2008 R2 you can proceed with install. Before running SQL Server you need to apply Service Pack 1.

SQL Server 2008 R2 installation

• If you haven’t done yet  install .NET Framework 3.5 SP1.
• On the left side click “Installation” and on the right side click "New installation or add features to an existing installation".

• Install the setup support files.

• Select “SQL Server Feature Installation”.

• Select the “Database Engine Services” feature and the “Management Tools – Basic” feature. Check additional features if needed.
• Click next at the installation rules.

• Keep the default instance and default folders.

• Use the same account for the services and select the sqlSvcAcc you created in Active Directory.
• Keep the collation settings you can see in the screenshot.

• Add the SharePoint 2010 setup administrator user as a “SQL Server Administrator”.

• Click next at the “Installation Configuration” Rules screen.

• Start the installation of SQL Server 2008 R2.

SQL Server 2008 R2 configuration

There are 2 configuration steps you need to do: assign permission to the SharePoint 2010 setup administrator and configure networking.

Assign permission

The SharePoint 2010 setup administrator needs to have the securityadmin and dbcreator role. The sysadmin role is assigned if you decide during SQL Server 2008 installation that your SharePoint 2010 setup administrator should be the SQL admin. I decided to do so in my Hyper-V development environment.

Configure networking

At the end you need to configure networking if you are planning to deploy a farm with multiple SharePoint Server 2010 servers.

According to TechNet [1] you need to “ensure that SQL Server 2005 or SQL Server 2008 is updated to the required level and configured as follows”:

• SQL Server 2005: Local and remote connections are enabled and are configured to use the TCP/IP protocol.
• SQL Server 2008: The TCP/IP protocol is enabled for the network configuration.

Difference to SharePoint 2007

In SharePoint 2007 you needed to configure named pipes which isn’t necessary in SharePoint 2010.

Resources

Here are the resources used in this article:

• [1] Multiple servers for a three-tier farm

Next steps

Please take a look at Part 8: SharePoint Server 2010 installation.