quote:

---

Originally posted by SqlFriend


This is a little tutorial on how to get started with MSDE. I hope to write a few of them on different aspects of SQL Server (and if possible, get them linked off some of the support pages of this site once they have been improved from positive criticism from people like you).

MSDE is a free version of SQL Server 2000 which they distribute in the hopes you will use it, and then eventually upgrade it to a paying version once your application hits the big time.

However, while your application has 25 concurrent users or less, you reap the rewards of decades of SQL server development.

This link will take you to the Microsoft SQL Server MSDE home page:

http://www.microsoft.com/sql/msde/default.asp

(If that link doesn't work, try going to google, and type in MSDE, you should be able to find it quickly.)

Look over this page and try the links to get a feel for the site. Then when you are ready to take the plunge click on "Downloads" over on the left.

On this page choose the latest version of MSDE listed there (at the time of this writing it is MSDE 2000 Release A). Clicking on this link almost gets you to the download page! Now, on the right side of the screen, chose the language "English" from the drop down that says "Select language" and then hit "Go".

Scroll down to the bottom of this page- there finally is the download link.

At the time of this writing it is MSDE2000A.exe. Click that link, and choose "Save it to disk". I put all of my downloads into a folder off the c: drive called "Downloads". It will download nicely down to your hard drive.

When it is completed, browse to the place where you downloaded it, and install it. It will prompt you as to the location where it should go- it is NOT installing the SQL server yet, it is installing the installer. Go figure.

Therefore, it doesn't matter too much where it goes, it defaults to c:/MSDERelA.

It uncompresses into this all of the installation materials. We are going to run the actual installation from the command prompt, so we can put some information in as command line parameters. To get to the command prompt, go to the start menu, choose "run", and type in

"cmd" for the program to run. A black box appears for commands. Type in "cd .." until you get to the root, and

then type "cd MSDERelA"

First, check out the options for setup by typing

setup.exe /?

This shows you the command line parameters. You want to run the setup with two command line parameters- the password for the administrator, and the security mode, which means if it will use Windows NT system permissions or use vanilla SQL username and passwords. Use vanilla SQL security checking unless you want to spend some effort getting familiar with Microsofts NT permission structure. Choose your password, which will be denoted as 'password' from here on out.

Start the setup with

setup.exe SAPWD="password" SECURITYMODE=SQL

Now SQLServer will install itself, and ask to reboot your computer to be sure anything important you are working on otherwise gets erased. Let it choose the default directories which will make it easy to find where everything is placed.

To get SQLServer to work, you have to run the server itself, and a program to run commands. Both have been installed.

In this command line prompt, browse to the SQLServer executable directory
cd ..
cd Program Files
cd Microsoft SQL Server
cd MSSQL
cd Binn

Then run SqlServer by typing in

sqlserver.exe

Congratulations! You are running SQL server!

Now open ANOTHER command window (use the start menu to run "cmd")

Again, browse to the SQLServer executable directory
cd .. (until you reach the c: by itself)
cd Program Files
cd Microsoft SQL Server
cd MSSQL
cd Binn

Now you are going to run osql.exe- this program allows you to run Transact SQL

statements. Try running

osql /?

To see all of the command line arguments. We are going to log in as system administrator, using the password you created above. So type in

osql -U sa -P password

It will bring up "1>" if you are successful. This is the working area where you will create Transact SQL statements. It will not "run" any of your statements until you give it a "GO" command. Lets create a database, make a table for it, and populate it. Type in

CREATE DATABASE Trial
GO

It should come back telling you about the new database Trial. Now, you will tell it that all future statements will be against this new database.

USE Trial
GO

Now we create a table

CREATE TABLE tblString (line VARCHAR(30))
INSERT INTO tblString ('alpha')
GO

And look at the values in it

SELECT * FROM tblString
GO

You have done it! Now you can see how to interact with Transact-SQL. Feel free to add as many tables and columns as you like. To get rid of that table, type in

DROP TABLE tblString
GO

And finally, to exit the program, type in

EXIT

Congratulations! You have successfully installed SQL Server, created a database, and utilized it.

To learn more about OSQL.exe read this article

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q325003

---