Install SQL Server from the Installation Wizard (Setup)

This article explains how to install SQL Server with the Installation Wizard.

The installation experience depends on the version of SQL Server. Select your version.

* SQL Server 2016 & SQL Server 2017 *

* SQL Server 2019 *

* SQL Server 2022 *

This article provides a step-by-step procedure for installing a new instance of SQL Server by using the SQL Server Setup Installation Wizard. The Installation Wizard provides a single feature tree for installation of all SQL Server components so that you don't have to install them individually. To install the SQL Server components individually, see Install SQL Server.

For other ways to install SQL Server, see:

Get the installation media

The download location for SQL Server depends on the edition:

Prerequisites

Before you install SQL Server, review Plan a SQL Server installation.

For local installations, you must run Setup as an administrator. If you install SQL Server from a remote share, you must use a domain account that has read and execute permissions on the remote share.

Install patch requirement

Microsoft identified a problem with the Microsoft Visual C++ 2013 runtime binaries that are installed as a prerequisite by SQL Server 2016 (13.x) and SQL Server 2017 (14.x). An update is available to fix this problem. If this update to the Visual C++ runtime binaries isn't installed, SQL Server could experience stability issues in certain scenarios. Before you install SQL Server, follow the instructions in the SQL Server release notes to see if your computer requires a patch for the Visual C++ runtime binaries.

This problem isn't applicable to SQL Server 2019 (15.x) and later versions.

Install SQL Server 2016 and SQL Server 2017

1. Installation media

Insert the SQL Server installation media. From the root folder, double-click setup.exe . To install from a network share, locate the root folder on the share, and then double-click setup.exe .

2. SQL Server Installation Center

The Installation Wizard runs the SQL Server Installation Center. To create a new installation of SQL Server, select Installation in the left navigation area, and then select New SQL Server standalone installation or add features to an existing installation.

3. Product Key

On the Product Key page, select an option to indicate whether you're installing a free edition of SQL Server or a production version that has a PID key. For more information, see Editions and supported features of SQL Server 2022.

To continue, select Next.

4. License Terms

On the License Terms page, review the license agreement. If you agree, select the I accept the license terms check box, and then select Next.

SQL Server transmits information about your installation experience, as well as other usage and performance data to help Microsoft improve the product. To learn more about SQL Server data processing and privacy controls, see the privacy statement and Configure usage and diagnostic data collection for SQL Server (CEIP).

5. Global Rules

In the Global Rules page, Setup automatically advances to the Product Updates page if there are no rule errors.

6. Microsoft Update

The Microsoft Update page appears next if the Microsoft Update check box in Control Panel > All Control Panel Items > Windows Update > Change settings isn't selected. Selecting the Microsoft Update check box changes the computer settings to include the latest updates for all Microsoft products when you scan for Windows updates.

7. Product Updates

On the Product Updates page, the latest available SQL Server product updates are displayed. If no product updates are discovered, Setup doesn't display this page and automatically advances to the Install Setup Files page.

8. Install Setup Files

On the Install Setup Files page, Setup provides the progress of downloading, extracting, and installing the Setup files. If an update for Setup is found and you specify to include it, that update is also installed. If no update is found, Setup automatically advances to the next section.

9. Install Rules

On the Install Rules page, Setup checks for potential problems that might occur while running Setup. If failures occur, select an item in the Status column for more information. Otherwise, select Next.

10. Azure Extension for SQL Server

If this is the first installation of SQL Server on the machine, Setup skips the Installation Type page and goes directly to the Feature Selection page. If SQL Server is already installed on the system, you can use the Installation Type page to select either to perform a new installation, or to add features to an existing installation. To continue, select Next.

11. Feature Selection

On the Feature Selection page, select the components for your installation. For example, to install a new instance of SQL Server Database Engine, select Database Engine Services.

A description for each component group appears in the Feature description pane after you select the feature name. You can select any combination of check boxes. For more information, see Editions and supported features of SQL Server 2022.

The prerequisites for the selected features are displayed in the Prerequisites for selected features pane. Setup installs the prerequisites that aren't already installed during the installation step described later in this procedure.

You can also specify a custom directory for shared components by using the field at the bottom of the Feature Selection page. To change the installation path for shared components, either update the path in the field at the bottom of the dialog box or select Browse to go to an installation directory. The default installation path is C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\nnn\.

The path specified for the shared components must be an absolute path. The folder must not be compressed or encrypted. Mapped drives aren't supported.

SQL Server uses two directories for shared features:

The path specified for each of the above options must be different.

12. Feature Rules

The Feature Rules page automatically advances if all rules pass.

13. Instance Configuration

On the Instance Configuration page, specify whether to install a default instance or a named instance. For more information, see Instance configuration.

Note Typical standalone instances of SQL Server, whether default or named instances, don't use a nondefault value for the instance ID.

The workflow for the rest of the installation depends on the features that you specified for your installation. Depending on your selections, you might not see all the pages.

14. PolyBase Configuration

Selecting to install the PolyBase feature will add the PolyBase Configuration page to the SQL Server setup, displayed after the Instance Configuration page. PolyBase requires the Oracle JRE 7 Update 51 (at least), and if this isn't already installed, your installation is blocked. On the PolyBase Configuration page, you can choose to use the SQL Server as a standalone PolyBase-enabled instance, or you can use this SQL Server as part of a PolyBase scale-out group. If you choose to use the scale-out group, you need to specify a port range of up to six or more ports.

15. Server Configuration

Use the Service Accounts tab on the Server Configuration page to specify the accounts for SQL Server services. The actual services that you configure on this page depend on the features that you selected to install. For more information about configuration settings, see Installation Wizard help.

You can assign the same account to all SQL Server services, or you can configure each service account individually. You can also specify whether services start automatically, start manually, or are disabled. We recommend you configure service accounts individually to provide the least privileges for each service. Make sure SQL Server services are granted the minimum permissions they must have to complete their tasks. For more information, see Configure Windows service accounts and permissions.

To specify the same account for all service accounts in this instance of SQL Server, provide the credentials in the fields at the bottom of the page.

Do not use a blank password. Use a strong password.

In SQL Server 2016 (13.x) and later versions, select the Grant Perform Volume Maintenance Task privilege to SQL Server Database Engine Service check box to allow the SQL Server Database Engine service account to use database instant file initialization.

Use the Collation tab on the Server Configuration page to specify non-default collations for the Database Engine and Analysis Services.

The default installation setting is determined by the operating system (OS) locale. The server-level collation can either be changed during setup, or by changing the OS locale before installation. The default collation is set to the oldest available version that is associated with each specific locale. This is due to backward compatibility reasons. Therefore, this isn't always the recommended collation. To take full advantage of SQL Server features, change the default installation settings to use Windows collations. For example, for the OS locale English (United States) (code page 1252), the default collation during setup is SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS and can be changed to its closest Windows collation counterpart Latin1_General_100_CI_AS_SC.

16. Database Engine Configuration