2003 Web Edition and SQL Server
What a weekend it has been. I have spent most of the weekend tweaking servers and server software just to get MS SQL installed. I got it working finally after a whole lot of nail biting, fretting. In my home server I use Windows 2003 Web Edition. It was chosen simply because it was a cheep alternative compared to the advanced versions. When I installed it several years ago, I figured I had read the documentation and understood what it was capable of. Well Turns out I didn't. Not at all.
I have used MS Access as a database for all my personal sites for years. It has served me well. I would not want to use it for a client site and use MS SQL for that. Well today I wanted to install an application that requires SQL so I grabbed my SQL 2000 Disk and tried to install. I launched the installer and tried to install the server and client tools and poof the installer quit. I tried a few more times to install the software with the same result. After spending most of the day doing research turns out SQL Server Standard is not supported on 2003 Web Edition.
WTF!? That is exactly what I was thinking. Now I understand that your not supposed to run your database server on the same box as your web box but this is a personal blog server and has fewer than 500 hits per month at best. I can not see Microsoft's justification in deliberately breaking this feature in the web edition just to generate sales for higher caliber server software.
After more research I found SQL Server 2005 Express was supported by Web edition. Yippee I thought. That is until I had to download a myriad of applications to make the whole thing work. NOTE: .NET 2.0 framework must be installed before even attempting to install the 2005 Express Server. I also installed the Studio manager while I was at it. Even though the software is free its such a pain in the butt to make work. Seams like you have to be an uber geek to make stuff work.
Well I got the software installed but getting coldfusion to talk to the server was a whole other task. When I first attempted to create a datasource I got the generic connection error saying that SQL was not available. *sigh* Turns out you have to enable TCP/IP and manually set the ports 1433 I found this article by Steve Brownlee "Connecting ColdFusion to SQL Server Express" that walked me through the whole process.
In the end it worked and that is what is important, but being a usability guy, I am left wondering, Does Microsoft ever consider the users experience when developing their software and in particular their website? Shouldn't that also be important?
Well Im no guru in the matter but I have fresh experience so if you have questions and need some help feel free to shoot me an email.
Tags: ColdFusion · General
1 comments so far ↓
As a side note, just like your years of experience with usability, operating SQL Server, or any other database for that matter, takes experience. One should not expect to install complex and highly technical software such as a database server without first reading through the documentation and studying up about it. SQL Server, even Express, is not like Outlook where you install it and run with it. it requires knowledge of how the software works and understand the changes you are making.
To be clear on Web Edition server, it is meant only to host websites, not databases. The MS docs point out what you can and cannot do with it. Ya, it's a sucky MS licensing scheme, but it has saved many companies, including myself, thousands of dollars on licensing since the web edition is about $400 less than Standard.
In any case, I'm happy you got SQL up and running, and your new blog looks kick-ass! Let me know if you need any SQL pointers.
In the future, when you want a free DB thats reliable, easy to install and operating check out MySQL.
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