What’s the bare minimum that you can get away with when installing SQL Server for running BigFix? When you install SQL there a ton of features to select.
I’m not interested in messing with SQL, just want the most lightweight installation possible.
A follow up question would be: with this type of minimal setup would it affect the ability to setup a DSA for replication to another BigFix server?
Is this for production or for testing only?
In the case of testing, just about anything should work. BigFix doesn’t really use much that is special about MSSQL as far as I know.
What version of SQL are you installing and what are the set of features available you are considering installing?
Plain, basic MS SQL is all you need, I recommend MS SQL 2014 to build in as much longevity as possible. You don’t need any of the extras like Reporting Services.
For production. I’m trying to create an installation that is as streamlined and light as possible. The idea is to make the VM as portable as possible, so that it can be hosted on my local server and then possibly moved up to a cloud provider like Azure, AWS, etc. in the future.
I would like to go with SQL 2014, but I don’t see it being officially supported yet, so I may need to stick with 2012 for now.
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SS6MER_9.2.0/com.ibm.tivoli.tem.doc_9.2/Platform/Adm/c_database_requirements.html?lang=en
Since I am not a DB admin, I want to minimize the upkeep and overhead when installing SQL and just start with a bare minimum approach that will cause me the least amount of problems down the road. Thoughts? Any best practices that you observe when installing SQL?
I don’t know much about installing SQL really, but BigFix doesn’t require much in terms of features.
Even though SQL 2014 isn’t officially supported, it should work fine.
You should be able to migrate the database between versions of SQL, which you should do just for DR practice. You should be able to shut it off, take a snapshot, migrate, then roll back and do it again. You should also be able to stand up a new VM and migrate it from one to the other.
Have good backups, and don’t be too tied to keeping the same install around forever and instead plan to migrate it between Windows Server version and SQL versions over time, both for DR and for upgrades.
SQL 2014 is supported for 9.2.3 and higher. The most up to date info on platform support is here:
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=1015&uid=swg21684809
http://www-969.ibm.com/software/reports/compatibility/clarity-reports/report/html/softwareReqsForProduct?deliverableId=CFE47F60633211E3A11D923472D26C14&duComponentIds=Server_CFED31F1633211E3A11D923472D26C14