SQL Server 2008 R2 in a task sequence

When packaging up software for SCCM I like to find a silent install switch that shows some kind of progress bar. This has the obvious benefit of providing feedback during testing, but can cause unexpected problems. Like when installing SQL Server 2008 R2 Express.

There are 2 silent install parameters for SQL Server 2008 R2-

• /Q - quiet install with no user interface
• /QS - quiet install but with progress dialog

I'd normally prefer to use /QS so I can see what is going on during testing. However, this is the result of my testing with SCCM-

• /Q - works fine in a Task Sequence
• /QS - doesn't work at all

So, if you're having an issue with installing SQL Server 2008 R2 (and 2008 R2 Express), try using /Q instead of /QS.

The other issue that I saw with the install is that the command line can be longer than 255 characters and this is a hard limit in the Program Command Line box in SCCM. The solution to this is to copy the command line into an install.cmd file and run that instead. This allows you to have command lines like this-

SQLEXPR_x86_ENU.exe /ACTION=INSTALL /FEATURES=SQLEngine /INSTANCENAME=MyInstance /SQLCOLLATION=Latin1_General_BIN /SQLSVCSTARTUPTYPE=Automatic /SQLSVCACCOUNT="NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE" /SQLSYSADMINACCOUNTS="BUILTIN\ADMINISTRATORS" /IAcceptSQLServerLicenseTerms="True" /Q