I have been waiting to deploy SQL Server 2012 RC0 on a x64bit Windows Server,and today I was able to grab a VM to start of my core testing with SQL Server 2012.All my previous deployments was on Windows 7 32 bit which had reduced potential to run SQL Server.

Below are the steps which I had followed to install and configure SQL Server 2012 RC0 –

1. Downloaded the ISO and ran setup.exe – There are no extra additions here for this screen when you compare with other versions of SQL Server.You can observe the various upgrade options which available –

 

2. Setup support rules

 

 

3. Enter the Product key – As this is an evaluation version the selection was made by default –

 

4. Accept the terms

 

5. Setup support rules – There are couple of new additions here as expected and we will be discussing about them on a different post –

6. Setup Role

7. Select Features – Again there are new features here and we will be discussing about them on a different post –

8. Installation rules

9. Instance Configuration  – I wanted to have multiple instances on the same server with a different instance name,hence proceeded with a named instance –

10. Disk space requirements

11. Server configuration – You can observe new service account options for Distributed Replay client and controller.As this is a test case I am opting Local accounts –

12. Database engine configuration – No changes for this screen and opted mixed mode with a strong SA password –

Data directories and File stream tab has no changes,hence not specifically mentioning the same here for this post  –

13. Analysis services configuration

14. Reporting services configuration

15. Distributed replay controller

16. Error for controller – I had added a domain Group for Replay controller permissions and  there was a clear error which stated that user account needs to be used  –

16. Distributed replay client

17. Error reporting

18. Config check

19. Ready to install

20. Installation completed –

I will be working on to understand the database engine of 2012 in more detail and will come up with interesting new things over the next few weeks/months.

Thanks for reading.