Downloading & Installing SQL Server 2012 Express

Download a copy…

This post intends to give you a quick start guide to getting SQL Express installed on your machine. This does not aim to optimise SQL performance or cater for other potential concerns; it's about getting an instance of SQL onto your machine so you can start using it and learning to program/query databases using T-SQL.

1. http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29062
2. Click Download
3. Select ENU\x64\SQLEXPRADV_x64_ENU.exe, next

4. If the download doesn’t start within 30 seconds, click the Click Here link on the page for such a scenario.
5. Click Save
6. Wait whilst file downloads…

Installing

1. Run the install file from your local machine
2. Click Yes to prompt for admin rights (if prompted)
3. Select Planning, System Configuration Checker (and wait for results)
o Click Show Details o Resolve any issues o (NB: if no issues it’s possible the screen will close without any message to say things are OK)
4. Click Installation, New SQL Server Stand-Alone…
5. Check I accept the license terms and send feature usage data to MS.
6. Click Next.
7. Wait for setup file installs to complete, then click Install
8. Click OK if prompted to restart on completion of install.
9. Select all, next

10. Next

11. Next


12. Change authentication to Mixed Mode (this means you can use your windows account and you can create accounts within SQL which are not part of AD/Windows).
Enter a password for your SQL admin (username: sa) account. Click Next




13. Install Only for SSRS, Next.

14. Send Error Reports, Next

15. Wait…
16. Complete – lots of green ticks – click close

17. Restart windows

Optimising Performance

SQL uses a lot of your machine’s resources when running. As a result if you’re not using it you probably don’t want it running.

Changing Start up Type to avoid running when windows starts:

1. Start, Run, Services.msc
2. Find any services beginning SQL Server and changing their start-up type from Automatic to manual

Starting Services (i.e. for when you want to use SQL)

1. Right click on SQL Server (Express) and select Start (or double click and select start)

Stopping Services (i.e. for when you’ve finished using SQL)

1. Right click on SQL Server (SQLEXPRESS) and select STOP (or double click and select stop)

Amending resource allocation

SQL Server’s designed with the expectation of running on a dedicated server, so when running it tried to claim any available resources. In order to give it only what it needs, whilst allowing other applications resources of their own, use the SQL Server Configuration Manager to amend the application’s resource limits.

1. Ensure the SQL Service is running (as above)
2. Click Start, Programs, MS SQL Server 2012, SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
3. In Server Name select Browse, then look for the SQL Express DB instance on your local server. Select this then click OK.
4. Leave authentication as Windows – this will use your current user account and password to log you into SQL. Click Connect.
5. In Object Explorer right click on your instance name and select Properties.
6. Click on the Memory page.
7. Change the maximum server memory to 1024 (1GB). Allocating more memory to SQL will allow it to perform better, but will move resources away from other applications on your machine. If you have a significant amount of spare capacity please feel free to set this value as you see fit.
8. Click OK
9. If you’re planning on doing anything CPU intensive in SQL Server which you wish to leave running in the background you may wish to limit it to only using some of your available processors (i.e. to avoid SQL taking all CPU resource. You can amend that by turning on processor affinity for only those CPUs you wish for SQL to use. For the exercises we’re doing there’s nothing intensive, so you can leave these values as defaulted.

Using SQL

1. Load and log into SSMS as above.
2. … this is where the tutorials will kick in …