Tuesday, December 1, 2009

SQL Server and a Domain Service account

In my last post I described setting up a new server. Well, I also wanted to try learning ASP.Net with IIS and with SQL Server 2008 express. The SQL Server 2008 install documents recommend using a domain user, in fact they require it if installing on a Domain Controller. It took me a couple tries to get an account with the correct privileges to run the SQL Server service. I used the Group Policy Management tool to edit the Group Policy Objects (GPOs) of the domain.

The Web Install wouldn't work, so I downloaded the large file. I then failed the first install, tried to repair, then uninstalled and started over. I messed up the user account and permissions the first time and managed to get them correct the second time. The following two pages help explain what permissions the user (or group the user belongs in) needs.
Finally I had to enable TCP and open the firewall so I could access it from my other computer. As explained in Configuring the Windows Firewall to Allow SQL Server Access.

Windows Server 2008 on old hardware

I thought I would use a computer from 1999 for a server at home. It was a Dell workstation designed for two CPUs. I bought it with just one and a few years later added a second CPU and more memory, later I added a second hard drive. I managed to have one of the fastest computers on my floor in college for at least two or three years.

Now with two 450 MHz Pentium III processors and only 512MB of memory, I decided that the minimums for Windows Server 2008 didn't matter and I would try it on this computer. I wanted to learn more about managing a server. I also wanted to move my other computers at home to a domain so inter-computer sharing would be better managed.

I experience using roaming profiles at work and thought it might help with using multiple computers here at home (my desktop and my laptop).

Here are some websites that I found helpful in this endeavor:
The reason for the middle one is that it seemed to a more correct listing of the security settings for the redirected folders share.