SQL Server 2012 evaluate installation requirements

In this blog post I will discuss Exam 70-462 Administering Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Databases requirement SQL Server 2012 evaluate installation requirements.

Who is it for?

• People who need to choose the right SQL Server 2012 Edition
• DBAs that need to install SQL Server 2012 
• Those who are preparing for Microsoft certifications and need to cover this topic.
  • Exam Guide 70-462 Administering Microsoft SQL Server 2012

This blog will contain summary of the topic and provide links to Microsoft pages for details.

SQL Server 2012 Features by Editions

SQL Server 2012 costs varies significantly but you can still get a lot out of SQL Server 2012 Standard and BI edition with very low investment (comparing to other costs) so it is particularly important to know which edition give you certain features or more importantly what you don't get if you got with lower edition in other words what are the limitations.

Before I provide with link to Microsoft site with all details let's summary the most important features:

SQL Server 2012 Hardware limitations

• Database size is 524PB for all paid versions of SQL Server 2012. For Express edition limit is 10GB.
• Socket and cores
  • Enterprise edition - OS Max
  • BI & Standard & web editions - 4 sockets or 16 cores
  • Express - 1 socket or 4 cores
• Memory
  • Enterprise Edition - OS Max (which I believe is 2TB)
  • BI & Standard & Web edition - 64GB (I hope Microsoft will increase BI Edition memory limit at some point as using in-memory SSAS Tabular Model may require more than that.)
  • Express - 1GB

SQL Server 2012 Features limitations

• High Availability (AlwaysOn)
  • Log Shipping - Not available in Express edition
  • Database Mirroring
    • Enterprise - Yes
    • BI & Standard - Yes (Safety Full Only)
    • Web & Express - Witness only
  • Failover Clustering
    • Enterprise - Yes (Node Support: OS max)
    • BI & Standard  - Yes Node Support: 2
  • Backup compression
    • Enterprise & BI & Standard edition
  • Below are some other features that are available only in Enterprise Edition
    • Database snapshot
    • AlwaysOn Availability Groups
    • Online indexing
    • and several other features
• Scalability & Performance - Enterprise only. This includes:
  • Table & Index Partitioning
  • Data Compression
  • and several other features
• Security - Most edition are the same but Enterprise additionally includes:
  • Fine Grained Auditing
  • Transparent database encryption
  • Extensible Key Management
• BI Features
  • ?SSIS 
    • ?Enterpise - Yes
    • BI & Standard - Standard without advanced SSIS features
    • Web & Express - Import and Export Wizard
  • SSRS
    • Enterprise & BI - All
    • Standard - Most but without for instance PowerView
    • Web and Express - Basic
  • SSAS
    • Enterprise & BI - all
    • Standard - most of it apart from Scalable Shared Database

Below is link with full list

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc645993

SQL Server 2012 Software and Hardware requirements

The important (for me) is that you need .net 4.0 framework (some of features run on 3.5). You need to choose Operating system. Enterprise edition support only Windows Server 2008 SP2, Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 and Windows Server and most likely future versions.

For more information visit http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms143506.aspx

Take care

Emil