2012-10-09

SQL Server 2008 on virtual Windows 8


As preparation for a study group at work for MCTS 70-448 „Microsoft SQL Server 2008 – Business Intelligence Development and Maintenance“ I install SQL Server 2008 R2 Developer Edition on a virtual Windows 8 Enterprise Edition.
The virtualizer is VMware Player. Not because I have evaluated the possibilities on other products, but because I am used to VMware products.

I choose not to use Easy Install
I once tried to map the ISO file in the wizard but even the wizard recognizes Windows 8 and I copied the license code in the VMware Player Easy Install, I get this error message from Windows Setup several times:
I guess that the issue is that Windows 8 is validating licence key against a licence server, and I don't have such one in my study.

The guest is defined with a larger virtual disk than default and in one file on host.
Also the guest is given 5120 MB (5 GB) of guest memory.

After the guest is defined the guest CD drive is mapped to Windows 8 ISO file and the installation when the guest is started.

The Windows 8 Action Center tells me that the installation it must be activated, but this fails with a error message about a DNS name:
The real issue is that I do not have a Key Management Server (KMS) in my study. This is described in KB929826, where some solutions also are given. In my case method 1 works fine.
Actually I started a PowerShell as administrator, but still it works.
Microsoft is talking a lot about PowerShell, but slmgr is a vbs-file executed by Windows Script Host (WSH). This is indicated by the success message, where the title of message box is „Windows Script Host“.

From then it is a normal SQL Server 2008 installation with the components described in the MCTS 70-448 Training Kit.


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