How to build a System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 R2 lab - part 7

In the last post I showed you how to connect the ISCSI initiators to the ISCSI targets. The next step of your System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 R2 lab is to setup a database server running Microsoft SQL Server.

There is something important to tell here since I have already been asked about it: SCVMM 2012 R2 doesn’t ship with an embedded SQL database, so you have to setup a separate SQL Server machine to host this functionality. The following list shows the SQL Server editions that are compatible with this version of VMM:

• SQL Server 2008 R2 Standard and Datacenter (64-bit) with Service Pack 2 or greater
• SQL Server 2012 Enterprise and Standard (64-bit) with or without Service Pack 1

Also, when installing SQL you must configure a case-insensitive instance and the following features must be installed:

• Database Engine Services
• Management Tools

Let’s see this in detail. You will proceed to the installation of a virtual machine named LAB2013SQL01 running Windows 2012 R2 configured with a GUI.

During the setup of the virtual machine under VMWare workstation, you better had a 100GB (or less if you don't have that space free)  secondary disk to host the database:

The installation proceeds as usual:

Same as for the other virtual machines, define a password for the local administrator, install the VMWare tools, restart. Once restarted; here are the precious commands to run in order:

Get-NetAdapter -Name Ethernet0 | % {
  $_ | Set-NetIPInterface -Dhcp Disabled
  $_ | New-NetIPAddress -IPAddress 192.168.134.16 -PrefixLength 24 -DefaultGateway 192.168.134.2
  £_ | Set-DnsClientServerAddress -ServerAddresses 192.168.134.10
}

Rename-Computer –NewName LAB2013SQL01 –Restart

netsh advfirewall set allprofiles state off

cscript C:\Windows\System32\Scregedit.wsf /ar 0

Add-computer –DomainName LAB2013.local –Restart

Get-Disk –number 1 | % {
  $_ | Set-disk  –isreadonly 0
  $_ | Set-disk –isoffline 0
  $_ | initialize-disk –partitionstyle GPT
  $_ | new-partition –driveletter “G” –usemaximumsize
  Initialize-volume –driveletter “G” –filesystem NTFS –confirm:$false
}
   Disk Number: 1

PartitionNumber  DriveLetter Offset                                        Size Type
---------------  ----------- ------                                        ---- ----
2                G           135266304                                 99.87 GB Basic

DriveLetter     : G
DriveType       : Fixed
FileSystem      : NTFS
FileSystemLabel :
HealthStatus    : Healthy
ObjectId        : \\?\Volume{29917e16-05b7-46f9-ba33-96eba86201d0}\
Path            : \\?\Volume{29917e16-05b7-46f9-ba33-96eba86201d0}\
Size            : 107237863424
SizeRemaining   : 107121639424
PSComputerName  :

Now mount the SQL Server iso file (mine is named en_sql_server_2012_enterprise_edition_with_sp1_x64_dvd_1227976.iso). Before starting the actual installation, run SQL System Configuration Checker to be sure that everything is ok with your VM:

Once the Configuration Checker has finished, start the installation for real:

When asked for, choose the features we mentioned before:

Modify the instance root directory to reflect the partition you set up (should be G:\):

Review the disk space requirements for SQL Server 2012:

Configure the services accounts (feel free to create specific account in the Active Directory for your SQL installation):

Specify the authentication mode to Windows Authentication Mode and specify the name of the SQL administrator:

Check that the data directories are properly set:

Wait for the installation to finish and you’re done with the SQL Server VM!

Fine, we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel: in the next post you will go through the prerequisites for the actual System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 R2 server installation. Stay tuned!