SQL Server 7.0 Installation

Alexander Chigrik
chigrik@hotmail.com

Introduction

Hardware and Software Requirements

SQL Server Editions

Installation Types

Testing an installation

Literature

Introduction

In this article I want to tell you about some general details of
SQL Server 7.0 installation.

I also described hardware and software requirements for SQL Server 7.0
and SQL Server 7.0 editions.

Hardware and Software Requirements

Hardware requirements:

Alpha AXP, Intel or compatible platform
Pentium 166 MHz or higher (Pentium Pro, Pentium II and compatible)
32MB RAM (minimum), 64MB RAM and more (recommended)
180MB (full installation), 170MB (typical), 65MB (minimum),
  90MB (management tools only) plus 50MB for OLAP Services
  and 12MB for the English Query

By the way, there is no hardware restriction on the processor speed
(you can run SQL Server 7.0 on the Pentium with minimum mhz), I have
checked it on Pentium 120, but don't use this hardware on production
server, only for the test purpose.

SQL Server 7.0 will run under Windows 95, Windows 95 OSR2, Windows 98,
Windows NT Server/Workstation 4.0 with Service Pack 4 and Windows 2000
(all editions).

SQL Server also requires Internet Explorer 4.01 with Service Pack 1
or later, or Internet Explorer 5.0 or later. You can install Internet
Explorer 4.01 with Service Pack 1 from the SQL Server CD-ROM.

SQL Server Editions

There are three SQL Server Editions:

Desktop Edition
Standard Edition
Enterprise Edition

Desktop Edition can works on the Windows 95, Windows 95 OSR2, Windows 
98,
Windows NT Server/Workstation 4.0 with Service Pack 4, Windows NT Server
Enterprise Edition and on the all editions of Windows 2000.

This edition has some restrictions:

maximum 2 CPU
no publishing for transaction replication
no SQL Server Failover Support
no Full-text search
maximum 2Gb RAM
maximum 4GB per database

Standard Edition can works on the Windows NT Server 4.0 with
Service Pack 4, Windows NT Server Enterprise Edition and on the
Windows 2000 Server/Advanced Server/Datacenter.

This edition has the following restrictions:

maximum 4 CPU
no SQL Server Failover Support
maximum 2Gb RAM

Enterprise Edition can works on the Windows NT Server Enterprise
Edition and on the Windows 2000 Advanced Server/Datacenter
(as far as I know).

This edition can uses 32 CPU and more than 2Gb RAM, it also supports
Full-text search and SQL Server Failover Support.

Installation Types

There are three SQL Server 7.0 installation types:

Typical
Minimum
Custom

Typical
The Typical installation option is recommended for most users. This is
the default installation options. The Typical option installs the upgrade
tools, replication support, client management tools, online documentation
and so on.

Minimum
This installation can takes only 65Mb on your hard drive and contains
the minimum configuration necessary to run SQL Server.

There are no upgrade tools, full-text search, client management tools,
online documentation, development tools and code samples.

Custom
This type of installation allows you to change any or all of the default
options. Custom installation is recommended for advanced users. You can
choose full-text search (if you have Standard or Enterprise edition), you
can install code samples, choose to install the development libraries and
so on.

Testing an installation

There are several ways to test SQL Server 7.0 installation. When the
installation is complete, you can verify SQL Server installation with
osql (or isql) utility. This is the description:

1. Start MSSQLServer service.

You can start MSSQLServer service by entering from a command prompt:

net start mssqlserver


or by run SQL Server Service Manager and start MSSQLServer service
manually.

2. Run osql utility.

Once the server is running, type the following command-line options:

OSQL -Usa -P


If successful, this osql prompt appears:

1>

Now you can verify SQL Server 7.0 installation by entering this simple
query:

SELECT @@SERVERNAME
GO


If successful, this query returns the name of the server on which SQL
Server is running. Now you can exit by typing exit command.

Literature

1. SQL Server Books Online

2. Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 Unleashed
   http://www.mcp.com/catalog/sc/0672312271s.html