Installation and Upgrading

System Requirements

Determining the system requirements for SQL Server 2000 system requires the analysis of what you intend the function of the system to be. One computer may be adequate in small volume database environments. Alternatively, you might find that you need several computers if the system will be operating in an environment containing several thousand users.

Hardware Requirements

SQL Server is designed to run on any Windows NT or Windows 2000 system. Hardware requirements are as follows:

• Pentium 166 MHz or higher processor
• 64 MB RAM minimum, 128MB recommended
• 95 to 270 MB hard drive space for server database components only. Data files will require more space.
• VGA or higher resolution monitor

Software Requirements

SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition is designed to run on a system using Windows NT 4 Server (with Service Pack 5) or Windows 2000 Server. SQL Server Enterprise Edition cannot be installed on a system running Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0 Workstation, or Windows 2000 Professional. To install SQL Server you must have administrator privileges on the target computer. After installation SQL Server Service and SQL Server Agent will, by default, run in the context of a domain administrator account.

SQL Server will require a security context that will allow it to perform the tasks that you plan for it. The security context of a domain administrator account allows the programs to perform tasks that require an external security context more easily. If it is not possible for SQL Server to run under a domain administrator account, SQL Server should be configured to run under the context of a local administrator account.

Initial Configuration and Setup

Network Protocols (Network Libraries) When SQL Server is first installed, it automatically installs the shared memory, TCP/IP, and Named Pipes Net- Libraries. NWLink, AppleTalk ADSP, Multiprotocol, and Banyan VINES can be enabled during and after installation. To enable another network protocol after installation, start the Server Network Utility. Under the General tab you can enable or disable any supported protocol. To configure an enabled protocol, highlight the protocol and click properties.

Collation When the server is installed, you must choose the default collation for your server. The collation you choose will determine the way that SQL Server will organize and compare data. There are several considerations when deciding on the collation method.

A character set is a standard way to identify characters as integers. Character sets are defined lists of characters that are assigned values that are recognized by hardware and software. The default character set installed in SQL Server is the Western Hemisphere and Western Europe character set which, like most non-Unicode character sets represents a maximum of 256 unique characters and stores them in eight bits or one byte. Since there are more than 256 characters in all the languages of the world, Unicode is an attempt to define all these characters as integers in the same character set. Unicode stores characters in two bytes or 16 bits and data in that format takes up twice as much space than most non-Unicode character sets. Unicode is not compatible with other 256 character sets.

Sort order determines the way that data is compared and assigned. Sort order determines if the operations that the server performs are case sensitive or accent sensitive. There are different sort orders for Unicode characters and non-Unicode characters. When you are installing SQL Server, you must choose the default collation for all data. This collation will encompass sort orders and character sets on the data that you use unless you specify a different collation later.

Instances You can run multiple copies of SQL Server 2000 on the same computer. Each instance is a separate entity with its own settings, valid users, and databases. There is only one default instance, and instances other than the default instance are called named instances. Multiple instances must have different names and are accessed through the name they are assigned. There is a recommended maximum of 16 instances per machine. While AppleTalk, Multiprotocol, and Banyan VINES are supported in the default instance, these protocols are not supported in named instances.

Upgrading from SQL Server 6

When installing SQL Server 2000, if the installer detects an installed SQL Server 6.5, you will be given the choice of making the new installation a named instance of SQL Server or upgrading to SQL Server 2000. If you plan to use the databases that you used with SQL Server 6.5, the data must be totally rebuilt to be used with the new installation of SQL Server 2000. If you choose not to create a new named instance, the new installation of SQL Server 2000 will set itself as the default instance. SQL Server 6.5 can only run as the default instance; therefore you can only run either the SQL Server 6.5 or Server 2000 at any given time.

Upgrading from SQL Server 7

If you are installing SQL Server 2000 on a computer that already has an installed instance of SQL Server 7, you will be given the choice of making the new installation a named instance of SQL Server or upgrading the current installation. If you plan to upgrade the installation of SQL Server 7, the installer automatically rebuilds all of the system stored procedures and performs a slight modification of the database files. The installer performs the rebuild to ensure that the most current versions are available. If you plan to use a named instance of SQL Server 2000 with a SQL Server 7 database, you can load database backups from SQL Server 7 and use the sp_attach_db stored procedure to connect the database to your installed instance of SQL Server 2000.

Linked Servers

Using linked servers allows the SQL Server to execute commands OLE DB data sources on different sources. Typically linked servers are used to enable SQL Server 2000 to query several different databases from multiple database providers. There are two ways to create a linked server. To create a linked server through stored procedures, execute the sp_addlinkedserver stored procedure. To create a linked server using the Enterprise Manager, use the SQL Enterprise Manager Console Tree and the linked servers node under the Security tab.

SQL Mail and SQLAgentMail

SQL Mail allows a SQL Server to send e-mail. SQL Server 2000 uses two services to send mail, MSSQLServer and SQLServerAgent. MSSQLServer deals with mail for stored procedures. SQLServerAgent uses its own mail resources, SQLAgentMail, to send mail and is configured independently from SQL mail. Mail can be sent by a trigger or a stored procedure.

SQL Mail requires a domain user account, a mail profile, a post office connection, and a mailbox. A mail profile created under the same domain account used to start SQL Server 2000 is required for SQL Mail to run. SQLAgentMail runs under a domain account that is different from the SQL Mail domain account.