How to Install SQL Server 2022

Cloud Computing and Security

SQL Server 2022, the latest release of Microsoft’s relational database product is nearing the finish line. In this guide, we’ll show you how to install SQL Server 2022 with the default, typical setup configuration.

Planning and prerequisites

Before we get started with the installation of SQL Server 2022, the first thing to accomplish is to register (painless) for the public preview, also known as the CTP 2.0 (Community Technology Preview) release. You can do that on this page, where you can also download the 64-bit version of SQL Server 2022 for Windows.

Downloading the SQL Server 2022 media (ISO)
Downloading the SQL Server 2022 media (ISO)

Once you have the ISO file downloaded and copied to your server, we can start the installation. For the purpose of this guide, I built a new Windows Server 2022 VM in my Windows Server 2022 Active Directory Hyper-V lab environment and joined it to my domain. My Hyper-V VM is all patched up and I allocated 4 vCPUs and 8 GB of RAM to it.

My Windows Server 2022 VM ready for installation
My Windows Server 2022 VM ready for installation!

In File Explorer, I right-clicked on the ISO and clicked ‘Mount.’

My SQL Server 2022 ISO, mounted, ready to go
My SQL Server 2022 ISO, mounted, ready to go!

In the folder, double-click on setup.exe, and away we go!

The SQL Server 2022 (CTP) Setup Program
The SQL Server 2022 (CTP) Setup Program

There is a lot of preparatory work database administrators and IT Pros need to perform to ensure a successful SQL Server 2022 install. There are plenty of documentation links in the ‘Planning’ category of the Setup program. I encourage you to read this as it will be very helpful to offer guidance, avoid unnecessary setup issues, and validate that you are performing the best installation scenario for your environment.

At a bare minimum, I also recommend running the System Configuration Checker to make sure the essential prerequisites of your server configuration are met.

My server passed the System Configuration Checker program with flying colors
My server passed the System Configuration Checker program with flying colors.

Installing SQL Server 2022

To initiate the installation, first, click the ‘Installation‘ category on the left, then choose the top choice ‘New SQL Server stand-alone installation or add features to an existing installation.’

On the Activation screen, you can keep it set as ‘Evaluation.’ In a production environment, you would likely be entering a Volume License Key (VLK) of some sort.

Activation - this is the evaluation copy
Activation – this is the evaluation copy

On the License Terms screen, check the box to accept the terms and click Next.

We need to accept the license terms
License Terms – ‘Accept’ them…or else…

The next category, Global Rules, will perform the same prerequisites checks we ran before we started setup. Nothing new to see here. 🙂

On the Product Updates page, I got an error about SQL Server Setup being unable to search for updates. I am going to assume this is an issue in the ‘CTP 2.0’ release as my server has Internet access in Edge, and I can get updates in Windows Update. We’ll let this one slide for now. Click Next.

you may encounter an error about SQL Server Setup being unable to search for updates.
A likely issue in this CTP 2.0 release checking for updates

The next categories are Install Setup Files and Install Rules. The first one is a piece of cake, but the second one will run another check on the current config.

on the Install Rules screen, check that Windows Firewall is enabled. Ports need to be confirmed for remote access
Install Rules – Mostly good. Windows Firewall is enabled. Ports need to be confirmed for remote access

The warning on the Windows Firewall section is normal. Windows Firewall is enabled on my server (default). In order for SQL traffic and remote access to SQL to function correctly, you need to make sure the appropriate ports are open and available.

Next, we have the intricate ‘Feature Selection‘ phase. There are quite a few options here, and this is definitely when we get to the meat of the setup program.

The most common feature to select here is ‘Database Engine Services.’ This literally provides the service to manage SQL databases on the server.

We select Database Engine Services on the Feature Selection screen
Feature Selection – this is where the fun begins!

There are many options available here. Click on each one to get a Feature description. For the purposes of this post, I will keep things relatively simple and choose ‘Database Engine Services‘, and click Next.

On the ‘Instance Configuration‘ category screen, I will keep the default instance name (MSSQLSERVER).

We keep the default instance name for SQL Server - MSSQLSERVER
Keeping the default instance name for SQL Server – MSSQLSERVER

On the ‘Server Configuration‘ screen, this is where you will specify SQL service accounts for the various SQL roles supporting SQL Server. I highly recommend you create a service account for the SQL Server Database Engine. Again, for my purposes here, I will keep the defaults as this configuration will still work fine.

We will keep default local accounts for our services. In production, you'll want to create specific service accounts
We will keep default local accounts for our services. In production, you’ll want to create specific service accounts

Alright, we are ready to tune the guts of the database engine service. On the Database Engine Configuration screen, we have several tabs to confirm and make changes to.

The Database Engine Configuration screen
The Database Engine Configuration screen – pay attention, quite a few items here to validate

Typically, I click the ‘Add Current User‘ button to add the account I’m logged in with to the list of SQL Server administrators. Again, this won’t be necessary or even a security best practice in your environment. For now, though, we’re good.

You can click the ‘Add...’ button to add additional SQL admins. The ‘Authentication Mode‘ options are outside the scope of this post. You can read more about these options on this support page.

Click the ‘Data Directories‘ tab on top. Again, for best practices purposes, you’ll want to isolate the User database, User log database, Backup directories, etc. on separate partitions. Separate physical volumes are even better if you have that option on your physical server or in your virtual environment (or Azure).

Next, click the ‘TempDB‘ tab, and try to specify an alternate drive to house the Temp databases. There are other options available to tune SQL Server 2022 even further to suit your needs.

On the TempDB tab, you can try to specify an alternate volume to isolate your SQL file infrastructure
Checking out the TempDB tab – try to specify an alternate volume to isolate your SQL file infrastructure

Then, click the ‘MaxDOP‘ and ‘Memory‘ tabs to further tune the amount of logical CPU (or vCPU) cores for this SQL Server instance and the amount of memory you want to allow for SQL Server 2022.

you can further tune CPU and Memory utilization on the Memory tab
Here, you can further tune CPU and Memory utilization in SQL Server

Click Next and we’re getting close. 🙂 We’re on the ‘Ready to install‘ screen where you can confirm everything you’ve entered to make sure you didn’t miss anything. You can also take screenshots here for your documentation and also find an .INI file in the ‘Configuration file path:’ field below. Once you’re done, click Install!

We make sure everything is good on the Ready to install screen
Ready to install – make sure everything is good and click Install!

Now, on the ‘Installation Progress’ screen, SQL Server is being installed.

SQL Server 2022 CTP2.0 is being installed.
SQL Server 2022 CTP2.0 is being installed.

And, we are done! A SQL Server Setup ‘Complete’ state with a whole lot of green! 😉

The setup has been completed successfully
SQL Server Setup has been completed successfully!

Congratulations! We have successfully installed SQL Server 2022 in our lab environment. Pretty slick, I must say. But really, there is a lot of power behind SQL Server. And of course, there are many SQL topologies that may fit your needs: Setting up SQL Server Replication, creating a Windows Failover Cluster to house redundant and robust SQL clusters, and the list goes on and on.

Installing SQL Server Management Studio

Before we close, I suggest you take this opportunity to install the latest version of the management tool for SQL, SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS). As of this writing, the latest version is 18.12. However, you will need the newer release, SSMS 19, currently in preview, to administer SQL Server 2022. The link to download SSMS 19 is available on this page.

We need to download SQL Server Management Studio 19 Preview
Here, we can download SSMS 19 to be able to administer our new SQL Server 2022 infrastructure

Start the Setup program and you come to this installation screen. Click Install.

Installing SSMS 19 Preview 2
Ready to install SQL Server Management Studio 19 Preview 2

And, we’re good.

The setup of SSMS 19 is complete
Setup of SSMS 19 is complete!

Let’s launch it from the Start Menu.

We launch SSMS 19 from the Windows Start Menu
You’ll find ‘Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio 19’ at the top of your Start Menu (most likely…)

With the defaults, I can click the Connect button to log in to SQL Server with my logged-in account. (If you recall, I added it as a SQL admin to grant this exact access…)

The SSMS 19 initial screen
The SSMS 19 initial screen

I right-clicked on the name of the server at the top of the Object Explorer window and clicked Properties to get that screen. You can make many configuration changes to SQL Server here.

The Properties window in SQL Server 2022
And here it is – SQL Server 2022 – Properties Window

Conclusion

Thank you for reading. I hope this helps you on your journey to SQL Server 2022 in the coming months and years. Please leave a comment or question below!

Related Articles: