Default instance vs Named instances - best practice?

  • Hi,

    I am looking at combining 3 physical SQL servers onto 1 physical box with 3 instances. Is there harm in not installing one of these "servers" as the default instance? I've installed the three instances and am not using a default instance at all. Does anyone know of any issues with this kind of set up? Thanks so much!

  • The one problem I've had with something like that was when a lower-license version of SQL Server was installed on a machine with higher-license instances.

    Specifically, it had an instance of Standard Edition, and an instance of Dev Edition, and they were working, but then a default instance was installed of Workgroup Edition. Workgroup Edition doesn't support SSIS, so suddenly all the SSIS packages on the server that did anything other than SQL data manipulation or backups, ceased working. The only way to get them to start working was to uninstall and then install a version that did have SSIS in it. It was very strange, and MS support wasn't sure why it did that, but it most certainly did.

    Watch out for that kind of weirdness, and you should be fine.

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