Allen White

Installing SQL Server 2005 on Windows Server 2000 SP4

There's one interesting thing I found when attempting to upgrade SQL Server 2000 running on Windows Server 2000.

My company has a volume license agreement with Microsoft, so we get installation media with that nasty product key already embedded in the installation program, which is very cool. I've created a directory on a file server where I've copied all my installation files so I don't have to put the CD/DVD for software I'm installing into the drive on servers I'm upgrading. (This is a good thing, especially since a lot of my servers don't have DVD drives, and the new version is distributed on DVD media.)

The thing I found out, though, is that on Windows Server 2000 you CAN'T install from a mapped network drive. It works fine on Windows Server 2003 (and Windows XP, for the Developer's Edition) but I've had to copy the installation files to one of the fixed drives on the Win2000 servers I'm upgrading for the setup program to work.

Allen White - Marathon SQL Guy
Sr. Database Administrator