Installing SQL Server 2008 Express

November 12, 2008

Installing SQL Server 2008 Express - you'd think it would be simple, but you'd be wrong! Here are the steps you will need to go through (on Windows XP at least!)

Now you need to set SQL Server 2008 Express to accept connections from ColdFusion by allowing connections from TCP/IP (which is disabled by default).

To enable it...

You should now be able to connect on port 2775. It is a good idea to lock TCP/IP connections down to one port (for security or to allow another instance of SQL Server to run). SQL Server 2000 used port 1433, so I like to do the same for 2008. To set the port, click on the "IP Address" tab and clear the value for “TCP Dynamic Ports” and enter the port you want to use in the “TcpPort” box. You will need to use the same port when setting up your datasource in the ColdFusion administrator.

Important: You will need to restart the SQL Server Service for it pick up your changes, which you can do from the SQL Server Services node in SQL Server Configuration Manager or from the Services Control Panel.

15 comments

  1. Thanks John. I'll remember that for when I install SQL 2008 Express soon. So what do I have to do again? Reboot? And then reboot some more? I don't view reboots as an annoyance. I've learnt over time to see them as an opportunity for a coffee break. ;-)

    Surely the installer would detect what's missing from your Windows installation and automatically offer to download and install the missing components for you? Or perhaps MS assumed SQL users don't need so much hand holding? Well we don't, but it's more of a convenience feature if it was to have it.

    Comment by Gary Fenton – November 12, 2008
  2. Hi Gary, even though Caffine is a developer's stable diet there is a limit to how many I can drink in a couple of hours ;-)

    The installer does check that you have the required elements, however it just shows a report saying it failed with no useful links to the download. It also doesn't check for all requirements in one go!

    Comment by John Whish – November 12, 2008
  3. Oh my lord... I happened to be an unfortunate victim of all this last night! I didn't even make it all the way through. By the time I finished with the 4.5 Redistributable my laptop was so low on power I powered down for the night.

    Comment by Tariq Ahmed – November 22, 2008
  4. Hi Tariq, you've made it half way through the pre-install then! With another 2 battery packs you'll have it up and running :)

    Comment by John Whish – November 22, 2008
  5. Hello John and thanks for the tips.
    I have donw all steps (with the reboots)
    when I install the Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 Express with Tools (I have it as an exe file downloaded from the link you provided) it extracts all files and opens the admin window. When I try to install a new SQL database it runs and gives an error saying that reboot required and failed. I rebooted several times and no luck.
    Any idea?
    Regards

    Comment by Mahmood – December 21, 2008
  6. Hi Mahmood, Sorry I don't know what the problem is. I'd suggest that you run a registry cleaner and if that doesn't work try installing the latest service pack. Good luck!

    Comment by John Whish – December 23, 2008
  7. Hey John, Tariq

    I've been hasseling with that sql server exp 2008 download for a good month. I also keep getting the "Needs reboot" bull. Here's what I've tried to no avail of course.

    Ran Search and Destroy, cleaned everything even the non leathal stuff.

    Rebooted

    Ran Registry Mechanic, it fixed all but 2 items and of course it won't say what it couldn't fix.

    Rebooted

    Ran Regedit, searched for everything that I could find for "restart" and "Restart". All the entries I found I modified from a value of 1 to 0.

    Rebooted again, all still well on the easter front (can't remember if I checked the western).

    Ran Registry Mechanic again, no error found

    Rebooted again

    Download and save to desktop.
    Reboot
    Install

    And needless to say the thorn in our you know whats still lives, Ba humbug.

    I'm going to give it up as a lost cause. My rear is getting sore. The end.

    Got another pain and it's byting me right now as I type this. If my cursor is on any active control for instance this comment box, there's this little box trying to tell me what to do. Can't stand taking orders from people let alone from inanimat objects. Any Ideas?

    Good luck to all of you

    Comment by Robert Harris – January 25, 2009
  8. @Robert, sounds like you've been having fun! Sorry, can't really help you. I'd try 2005 Express as 2008 Express really doesn't add much and is a world of pain to install. Good luck!

    Comment by John Whish – January 26, 2009
  9. Hi John,

    I was almost on the verge of writing a similar piece a couple of months ago, but decided not to. I vented my frustration and anger on my mountainbike instead (not kicking it, using it for a long trailrun in the woods!) ;-) I ended up not finishing the process and still only have SQL Express 2005 on my machine, next to MSSQL 2000 Enterprise Manager. I cannot seem to deinstall all the junk properly either, no matter how many times I run CrapCleaner or reboot. Everytime I want to open a sql-file it tries to do so via Express 2008 which still somewhere in the MS-jungle in my XP machine is a valid software tool to open SQL-files with. Of course it immediately comes with an error, and then I have to manually open it with Notepad or another tool.

    Bluaerk - sux bigtime! So no SQL Express 2008 testing for me, I'm a MySQL guy anyways ;-)

    Comment by Sebastiaan – February 04, 2009
  10. Sebastiaan,

    How's life vering in the bit bucket, great I hope.

    As for me, just a smidgen better. I fierd 2008
    and hired 2005, thats both the VB and the server. I had some cleanup to do after the uninstall of 2005 but that seems to be the absolute norm with anything from MS, their smart but very trashy. Come to think of it my son is like that and he is an aerospace
    engineer. I would never have guessed until now,I must have missed a class or two in collage since I'm not like that, I think.

    Anyway, I'm not out of the fire yet. Problem now is I haven't been able to figure out where to place the code for connection and extraction
    without using the Gui to write those items for me. True its much less coding but the drawback is less undstanding about what's really going on under the hood. I'm the kind of guy that needs to know or I'm not a happy camper.

    Would you know a good book that puts VB and the server together in one nice little package?
    A small sample pgm that connects to a DB, attaches a couple of related tables, greasess the data and saves it back. That would be a great thing to find.

    The internet is a great big book but its table of contents leaves a lot to be desired. I'm always finding samples that are incomplete, do all authors of tutorials work for MS? Seems like it to me.

    I've been wondering why when you switched back to vb 2005 you didn't upgrade your server? Am I missing so hidden wisdom here?

    Well catch again some time
    Robert

    Comment by Robert – February 07, 2009
  11. @Sebastiaan - I think I'm going to have to get my mountainbike out as well :)

    Comment by John Whish – February 08, 2009
  12. SqlServer2008 Express installation ... nothing 'Express' about it.

    Comment by Aninda – February 18, 2009
  13. @Aninda - you got that right! :)

    Comment by John Whish – February 18, 2009
  14. @Robert - I'm not really sure what you're saying, but I usually try NOT to engage into anything Microsoft (MS) if I don't have to. Having used CF for over 8 years now and having played around with .NET for some time, I've come to realize that CFML is *the* language for me, and that with all the nice CFML-engines out there, there's no need for any MS product (maybe a WinXP for a desktop, but Ubuntu really rocks as well).

    So to cut to the chase: I only use MS products for testing purposes, the rest is open source ;-)

    Sorry I couldn't be of more help to you!

    Comment by Sebastiaan – February 18, 2009
  15. I have tried installing both SQL Server 2008 Express with Tools and SQL Server 2008 with Advanced Services, and they both fail the same way. I am trying to do a new stand-alone installation.

    Comment by baccarat strategy – February 25, 2009

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