Below is the checklist I’ve used over the years for installing and configuring Microsoft SQL Server. It is by no means complete and there are certainly scenarios where additional steps will be required. It is intended to be a starting point, enabling somebody to not only standardize SQL Server installations but also to make sure that no critical steps will be missed.

Hopefully others will find it useful as well.

Before SQL Server Installation

install and patch the OS (minimum 100 GB for system drive)

BIOS, firmware & driver updates check power management settings BIOS power management should be set to OS control or disabled Windows Power Plan set to ‘High Performance’

check processor speed using Task Manager and CPU-Z utility (make sure CPU runs at max speed)

RAID 1 for OS, logs and backups (but each on a separate volume), RAID 10 for data files

format drives for data & logs to use 64 KB allocation unit size (ideal for SQL Server) – full format, not quick

test drive performance with CrystalDiskMark & SQLIO / save screenshots/results for future reference

configure anti-virus scan software (if any) to not scan any database related files such as MDF, NDF, LDF, BAK or TRN

create regular user/domain accounts for each SQL Server component – main SQL service, agent, reporting, analysis, integration (SQLServiceAccount, SQLAgentAccount and so on) for a dev server: probably ok to use just one SQL user account for all SQL services use gpedit.msc to grant appropriate rights to the user for SQL Server Service (Computer Configuration -> Windows Settings -> Security Settings -> Local Policies -> User Rights Management) Perform volume maintenance tasks Lock pages in memory if this is done then set sp_configure ‘max server memory’ to make sure the OS is left with enough memory to function might want to not enable this on a dev server with shared duties (such as a webserver) so we don’t end up in the scenario where SQL Server will starve out the other processes for memory

prepare directories (on separate drives): SQLData, SQLLogs, SQLTempDB, SQLBackups folder permissions the install process will properly assign folder permissions to custom folders if they’re all specified initially in the SQL data directories configuration starting with SQL Server 2012 permissions are assigned to the per-service SID for each of its services – https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj219062.aspx remove “Everyone” (if set) from non-C drives where SQL-related folders will exist for SQL Server main service user account: give full permissions to folder where SQL will be installed and the SQLData, SQLLogs, SQLTempDB, SQLBackups folders for SQL Server agent user account: give full permissions to folder where SQL will be installed and SQLBackups



During SQL Server Installation

only install features that are really needed (especially on a production system) – don’t install something “just in case it might be needed it later”

use the proper user accounts (created above) for each service set SQL Server Agent to auto start most likely disable the SQL Server Browser service

on the Database Engine Configuration tab be sure to set the Data Directories to the custom ones we plan to use (not the defaults where everything is stored on the C drive)

After SQL Server Installation