Chapter 1: Installing SQL Server Components

I've installed SQL Server a few times, so there wasn't much new in this chapter for me.  Important notes:

• Different versions of SQL Server support different levels of the Business Intelligence components.  A full list of differences is here: Microsoft SQL Server 2005 SQL Server 2005 Editions (or here for 2008: Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Editions)
• Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS) is Visual Studio.  Visual Studio 2005 is installed to support SQL 2005 Business Intelligence solutions.
• .NET Framework 2.0 is a prerequisite.
• Only the Standard and Enterprise versions support clustering, and only with Microsoft Clustering Services (MSCS).  Standard version only supports two nodes.  Clustering uses a shared-nothing model, in which only one node is active at a time.
• SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) only supports Windows Authentication and not mixed mode.
• SQL Server Service Packs are applied at the database instance level, so difference SQL Server instances can be at different service pack levels.  This would be useful for test environments, where you would want to test a service pack in a new instance without disturbing your tried-and-true test environment.

One additional interesting note: If you want to rename an Analysis Services instance, use the "ASInstanceRename.exe" executable, found by default in C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Tools\Binn\VSShell\Common7\IDE.