Category Archives: SQL Server 2014

Installing SQL Server 2014 CTP1 – Step by Step

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Great news !!! SQL Server 2014 CTP1 is out and the wait is over. Drop everything(Except the databases !) and download your fresh copy from here.

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Here is the official announcement with some high level details.

In this post we will do a quick step by step walk through of the whole install process and see if there are any changes from the prior installs.

* Note  – The below point from the download page should be noted

Microsoft SQL Server 2014 CTP1 is pre-release software and should be installed only on a clean machine. It does not support upgrade from or side-by-side installations with any previous version of SQL Server, including SQL Server 2012.

Below is the step by step install process –

[Please click on the images for a better resolution]

Step 1 –  

We will run the setup.exe to get the regular install screen.

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Step 2 – 

We will choose stand-alone install and the wizard will do the initial checks

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Step 3 – 

We will specify the product key and accept the terms

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Step 4 – 

The wizard will now do some real checks and will provide you with a list of details which are either passed or failed.

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Step 5 –

We will proceed with Feature install selection once the check phase is completed.

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The wizard will do couple more checks as we proceed

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Step 6 – 

In this step we will do the Instance configuration,Server configuration and the Database Engine configuration.

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Step 7  – 

Wizard will do one final round of checks before doing the install

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And finally we are ready to do the install

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Its always a pleasure to get the below set of messages once the wizard completes its work

SQL2014Install15 Thats it and SQL Server 2014 CTP1 is all yours.
/* Microsoft SQL Server 2014 (CTP1) – 11.0.9120.5 (X64)
Jun 10 2013 20:09:10 
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation
Enterprise Evaluation Edition (64-bit) on Windows NT 6.1 <X64> (Build 7601: Service Pack 1) (Hypervisor) */

Conclusion

SQL Server 2014 installation wizard doesn’t have any major changes,and everything looks just same as the earlier version.

Thanks for reading and keep watching this space for some real fun with SQL2014.

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SQL Server 2014 – A new and exciting journey !!! “Into the cloud”

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Today Microsoft announced their next major version of SQLServer, SQL Server 2014 at Tech-Ed NA 2013.

This version of SQLServer is indeed a reflection of Microsoft’s vision towards the future computing. A bright and colorful “In to the Cloud” future !

The journey of SQLServer from SQL2000 – SQL2014 is just amazing. On a related note,Its worth reading this post by Quentin Clark which explains this journey with the help of a neat diagram.

So when can I start exploring the new features? Where can I download the same to evaluate it ?

Thinking boy

Here is the answer for you  –

Go to http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlserver/sql-server-2014.aspx  and choose option Get-Notified >

You will be asked to enter few details and you can sit and wait for that “email” which will eventually allow you to download the bits and do some testing.

What’s new in SQL2014 that I am excited about ? Lets do a quick walk through of my favorite features –

Note- This is not an extensive list of features which SQL2014 will provide you.I will write about that altogether in a different post.These are some of the features which I really like about.
  • In Memory OLTP(Code named Hekaton) – 

This is one of my favorite features that I’m really looking forward to work with. This feature will be called as SQLServer In-Memory OLTP Engine for SQL2014.

SQLServer In-Memory OLTP Engine will boost  OLTP workloads to perform remarkably better. The beauty of this feature is you can now pick tables and define it as memory optimized and these tables are fully transactional.

Anytime I will suggest you to download and read the white paper ‘SQL Server In-Memory OLTP Project “Hekaton” Internals Overview for CTP1’ by Kalen Delaney(B/T) to understand this feature really well.

  • 8 Readable Secondaries –

With SQL2014 we will have the ability to add up-to 8 readable secondaries for our read-only workload(Mainly reporting queries).

  • Always on to Windows Azure Virtual machine – 

This is one feature which I’m really looking forward. This will enable us to add a secondary replica directly in Windows Azure Virtual Machine. This is one feature which the CIOs would love, as you pay per use for Windows Azure VMs.

  • Buffer pool extension using SSDs – 

This can improve query performance by allowing the use of non-volatile solid-state drives to reduce SQLServer memory pressure with no risk of data loss.

Brent Ozar(B/T) has a great post explaining this and you can read it here.  He also have provided a great deal of information about other SQL2014 features too. Always a great read.

  • Performance Data Collector – 

I’m also looking forward for the enhancements which Performance Data Collector module will come with. The details are not yet out on what is new, but I definitely hope that there will be some good changes here and there will be deep integration with SSMS for this module.

Conclusion

With SQL2014 I’m pretty sure that your move towards the cloud will be more easy and a nice experience and I’m really looking forward for it.

Thanks for reading and keep watching this space for more(Lot of SQL2014 for sure !)