Roger Technology Solution Professional DataPlatform Microsoft Corporation SQL Server 2012 on Windows Server Core

What is Windows Server Core? Why Windows Server Core? Prerequisites, OS Setup and Configuration SQL Server Setup and Configuration How to manage? Q&A Agenda

What is Windows Server Core?

It is not an OS Edition Installation/configuration option of the OS with minimal GUI What is Windows Server Core?

Server Core supports the following server roles: Active Directory (AD) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS) DHCP Server DNS Server File Services Hyper-V Print Services Streaming Media Services Web Server (IIS) What is Windows Server Core? And also Failover Clustering Feature!

SQL Server 2012 on Windows Server Core Why Windows Server Core?

Benefits: Reduces OS patches by ~60% Less down time Smaller attack surface – higher security Reduces servicing and management requirements Smaller footprint: Disk and Memory The perfect platform for database workload!! You don’t need anything on the OS to run SQL Server Why Windows Server Core

SQL Server 2012 on Windows Server Core Prerequisites, OS Setup and Configuration

Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1: Installation Option = Server Core Overview of Server Core Installation Basic configuration Computer name Domain Windows Updates Network Settings >> sconfig << Windows Server Core Config

Activate Windows Server Core cscript C:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs –dli cscript C:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs –ipk XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX cscript C:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs -ato

Enable the server core.Net packages, this will prevent setup from attempting to install the full.Net package. There’s no Server Manager in Server Core. The modern is with DISM (Disk Image Service Management) which can also be used to do this to a virtual machine without turning it on: Windows Server Core Config DISM /online /enable-feature /featurename:NetFx2-ServerCore /featurename:ServerCore-WOW64 /featurename:NetFx3-ServerCore-WOW64 /featurename:NetFx2-ServerCore-WOW64 /featurename:NetFx3-ServerCore

SQL Server Setup Installs: Powershell.NET framework 4 for Server Core Package Not yet ;-) It is a “special”.NET package for Server Core only We’ll integrate this into the media package of SQL Server 2012 and ship it with normal.NET 4 in our DVD. (Express not incl.). NET 4 package Download: Windows Server Core Config

Core Configurator application available on Codeplex: Core Configurator

Setup Windows Server Core Activate Windows Server Core Integrate in Domain Configure Firewall Install.NET features/WOW Install.NET 4 Core Update with newest Patches (also to address.NET) Checklist

SQL Server 2012 on Windows Server Core SQL Server Setup and Configuration

Command-line install only (setup wizard not available) Setup automatically installs/enables pre-requisites Rules to detect unsupported features/scenarios (ex: RS,DQS, Upgrade, etc…) Online documentation with sample commands and config files SQL Server 2012 Setup Experience

SQL Server 2012 Features on Server Core All SQL editions are supported on Server Core installation including Express Supported features: Engine (including all new features in SQL Server 2012) Analysis Service Integration Service Management Tools (remote only) Management Studio SQL CMD (this is installed with SQL connectivity) XE Profiler (remote only) Connectivity SDK Distribute Replay (remote only) Sync Fx2

SQL Server 2012 Features not on Server Core Reporting Services Most SDKs will not be installed (except connectivity SDK) Master Data Service Data Quality Service Books Online Management Studio (remote only)

SQL Server Setup commands Setup.exe /q /IAcceptSQLServerLicenseTerms /Configurationfile=H:\Configurationf ile.ini

Configure Firewall for SQL Server netsh [enter] advfirewall firewall [enter] add rule name=”SQL Server default port 1433” dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=1433 [enter]

All SQL Best Practices still apply Configure SQL Server remotely via Mgmt Studio or TSQL Or enrich setup command with additional scripts for instance settings and tempdb settings Configure additional SQL Server Settings sqlcmd -S server\instance -i H:\sqlinstanceconfig.sql sqlcmd -S server\instance -i H:\tempdbconfig.sql

Change configuration file/command Setup SQL Server Open Port for SQL Server instance Configure additional SQL Server Settings Start loading your new DB server with workload Checklist

SQL Server 2012 on Windows Server Core How to manage?

Server Management: Sconfig: configure remote management Server Configs via Group Policies Server Manager Remote Registry SQL Server Management Studio already connectable Instance Configs via SQL Server Policies or T-SQL Remote Management

SQL Server 2012 on Windows Server Core Conclusion

Windows Server Core support significantly reduces Downtime due to patching Attack surface OS footprint Critical SQL Server DB Workload (security/performance/availability) should run Windows Server Core Conclusion

SQL Server 2012 on Windows Server Core Additional Resources

SQL Server 2012 Developer Training Kit SQL Server 2012 CTP3 Product Guide swissSQL Blog Installing SQL Server 2012 on Windows Server Core Links

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