Installing SQL Server 2008 on Windows Server 2008 R2

I was recently installing SharePoint v3 on a Windows Server 2008 R2 machine using SQL Server 2008 for database storage when I came up with a problem.

Now that’s interesting, I thought, SQL Server 2008 has issues running on Windows Server 2008 R2. The latest version of SQL has problems on the latest version of Windows Server. Go figure. No major issue, I mistakenly thought, I’ll just follow what it says to do on the Compatibility Assistant and I should be right. Famous last words.

Turns out that even when you install SQL Server Service Pack 1 directly after installing SQL Server 2008 you can’t get access to the SQL instance on the machine. I did some Googling and came up with the following article which provided the resolution:

http://wadingthrough.wordpress.com/2009/09/14/problem-installing-sql-server-2008-on-windows-2008-r2/

So what I’ll do here is go into the resolution in a little more depth for people.

Before installing SQL Server 2008 RTM on Windows Server 2008 R2 you need to install SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1 as this will install updated SQL Setup Files which “know” about Windows Server 2008 R2. So download the service pack and double click on the download to start the install.

Follow the installation through and allow the Setup Support files to install after which the Service Pack installation will exit and you will be returned to the desktop. Now commence the SQL Server 2008 RTM install.

You will receive the same compatibility warning you always receive.

Simply click on Run program to proceed. You can now install SQL Server 2008 RTM as you normally would from the menu.

During the install you may again be prompted about compatibility issues but just continue through until the installation of SQL Server 2008 is complete.

Once the installation of SQL Server 2008 is complete you need to install the SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1 to update all the SQL files (you only did the setup files before).

With SQL Server 2008 RTM and SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1 now installed, your installation on Windows Server 2008 R2 should be good to go.

Just an observation

A while back I tried to do an in place upgrade of my http://supportweb.ciaops.net.au SharePoint site to SharePoint Foundation server beta. It didn’t go very well as I noted in this blog.

An in place upgrade is not the only migration option you have in SharePoint, you can do a database migration, which I have found to be generally the best way to go from SharePoint v2 to SharePoint v3. I thought that I’d be able to the same thing from v3 to SharePoint Foundation, however as you can see from the above screen shot the upgrade failed again.

It is interesting to note that my http://supportweb.ciaops.net.au isn’t a very complicate SharePoint site. It has a few standard Microsoft templates but nothing else really. Given that I haven’t been able to easily upgrade it worries me a bit that upgrading existing SharePoint v3 sites to SharePoint foundation is going to be more difficult that has been made out.

Back to the drawing board.

Shared OneNote notebooks

For those who have not as yet experienced the joy of OneNote I’d suggest you give it a try. You can download a 60 day free trial from:

http://us20.trymicrosoftoffice.com/default.aspx?culture=en-US

Basically, OneNote is a digital notebook that allows you to save just about any form of digital information. You can use it to save text, images, web sites, files and more.

You can even print to OneNote from any application and send information directly from Internet Explorer and Outlook. Best of all, any information in OneNote is not only backed up but it is also indexed, which means you can search through all your notes quickly and easily.

Now this isn’t a blog post on the benefits of OneNote it is about how you can connect OneNote to SharePoint to provide shared notebook access. This enables a single notebook to be shared between multiple people. If you have a SharePoint site that is hosted on the Internet you can share this information between people just about anywhere.

So how do you go about doing that? First you’ll need to have a SharePoint site with a document library people can get access to. I normally like to create a separate OneNote document library to keep all the OneNote files together but there is no need to do that. You’ll also need to have OneNote installed on every machine that you wish to access the notebooks with.

Once you have all that in place and have launch OneNote complete the following to create a new notebook.

Select File | New | Notebook from the menu.

Give the new notebook a name and select a OneNote template.

To allow a shared notebook select the Multiple people will share the notebook option and then On a server.

In the path field enter the URL of your SharePoint document library.

If SharePoint is hosted on the Internet you will need to logon to the site.

The new notebook should appear. Now all any other user needs to do to connect and share the notebook is launch OneNote on their local machine and open the notebook from the URL you used to create the notebook.

Next time you open OneNote you will see some text at the top of the notebook indicating that you need to login to get the latest updates to the file. Simply click on this link and enter your login details. Any changes will then be automatically sync’ed.

If you don’t have a hosted SharePoint site you can still achieve the same result using Office Live. Information about how to configure that can be found in a free document I created a while back which can be found at – http://www.slideshare.net/directorcia/onenote-and-office-live.

The good thing about sync’ing OneNote is that not only do you retain a local copy but there is always an offsite backup. So you can keep using OneNote on the road and when you connect back to the Internet all changes in all notebooks are synchronized. It makes it a very easy process for any team collaboration.

So there you are. If you haven’t looked at OneNote I’d recommend you do and if you can link it to SharePoint to provided shared notebook access I’m confident that it’ll prove a winner with most teams.

CIAOPS email lists

The facts are that most people still prefer email to other forms of information delivery, be they Twitter, Facebook, blogs and so on. In recognition of that fact I’ve create two mailing lists that people can use to keep up to date with what’s on offer from the CIAOPS.

1. CIAOPS Webinars

Subscribing to this list will keep you up to date on when we run our regular webinars. Emails will be sent prior to each webinar so you have plenty of time to indicate your interest. You can also visit the archive of these webinar announcements at any stage also. If you haven’t seen any of our webinars head over to the CIAOPS You Tube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/directorciaops) for some examples.

2. CIAOPS Newsletter

We announced this a while back but it seems appropriate to once again provide people with the details of how to obtain our regular newsletter. The newsletter is aiming to come out each month with technology information and productivity tips aimed at helping you get things done. You can also view the archive of these emails as well at any time.

Information about the webinars and the newsletter will still be published here, so if you are a regular reader of the blog then there is probably no need to sign up for either. However, if you know of anyone else who may benefit from what we offer via these emails lists then I’d ask you to send the link and get them to sign up.

Work/life balance

For those who are interested in an experiment on lifestyle design and the work/family balance then I would suggest you have a look at the TV show “The Nest” which is shown on SBS Australia currently on Friday nights from 8.30pm.

As with all TV shows these days there is also a web site you can visit:

http://www.sbs.com.au/shows/thenest/episodes/page/i/1/h/Episodes/

that allows you to watch past episodes (although you only seem to be able to watch the very last one).

If you are interested in productivity then it is not only worth watching but also reading some of the comments that are made about the episodes by web site visitors.

SharePoint Guide on special

If you are interested in purchasing my Windows SharePoint Operations Guide (www.wssops.com) I notice that SMB Books has a discount running:

Super Amazing Sale Through January 31st:
Party Like It’s $19.99 Off !

A Bunch of Great Offers from SMB Books
– Our Newest Books
– Our Greatest Books
– All Rolled Into One Sale!

Just enter the code
PARTY1999 and you will receive $19.99 off EACH ITEM you order.

(All Deals Expire January 31st, 2010. Place as many orders as you wish. Books make great Valentine’s Day gifts!)

You’ll find my SharePoint Guide at:

http://www.smbbooks.com/products/procra01.htm

and if you enter the code PARTY1999 when you purchase you’ll get $19.99 off. So if you have been thinking about it you have until January 31 to take advantage of this offer.

SharePoint Guide DVD

Part of the Windows SharePoint Operations Guide is a DVD that not only contains my own documentation but also other SharePoint documents. It also contains a number of SharePoint videos, installation files to allow you to get SharePoint up and running quickly without all the downloading as well as links to many other SharePoint resources.

You can now download a document that shows exactly what the DVD includes. Because the DVD is part of the Windows SharePoint Operations Guide subscription it also gets updated as new content becomes available but at least the download will give you some idea of what the DVD contains.

Don’t forget that you don’t have to purchase the Windows SharePoint Operations Guide to benefit. Referral incentives are also now available. You can download this brochure and send it to people who maybe interested.

For more information about the Windows SharePoint Operations Guide please don’t hesitate to contact me via director@ciaops.com.