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The Rambling DBA: Jonathan Kehayias

The random ramblings and rantings of frazzled SQL Server DBA

SQL Server Enterprise Edition and Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7

I’ve seen this a couple of times now online so it’s worth blogging about.  The Enterprise Edition of SQL Server is not supported on client OS's like Vista, XP, or Windows 7. Developer Edition is supported on the client OS's and allow you to develop with Enterprise features, but Enterprise Edition is only supported on Window Server Installations as per the BOL:

Hardware and Software Requirements for Installing SQL Server 2008
Hardware and Software Requirements for Installing SQL Server 2005

If you want to use the Enterprise Features for development on a client OS, you need Developer Edition, the Enterprise Edition Trial won’t work unless you spin up a Virtual Machine and also install an Trial version of the Windows Server OS, or download the Evaluation VHD from Microsoft that includes the OS and SQL preinstalled for evaluation purposes.

Published Thursday, January 28, 2010 8:00 AM by Jonathan Kehayias

Comments

 

bak said:

I'm interested in hearing your thoughts on this: most of my customers over the years have been using Standard edition SQL instead of enterprise edition: go figure, the cost difference is substantial.  That in mind, when you use developer edition you get the enterprise edition features.  Real cool, until you try to implement your solution in production and realize those nifty indexing features you've been toying with don't work in standard edition.  

Me, I don't recommend developing with developer edition.  Put the edition you use on a server and develop against that.  

Your thoughts?

January 28, 2010 9:50 AM
 

James Kerr said:

Actually, you can partially install SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition on Windows XP, Vista, 7.  My work laptop has Enterprise Edition x32 Workstation Tools installed, just not the database engine.  Our company decided that employees should not run the engine itself on our laptops (which I completely support).  The only time that I would like an engine installed is for a large event, like PASS, but I can just as easily install a VM and use that instead.

My point is that unless you really must have the database engine on your local machine, then you can just install the Workstation Tools and get SSMS, BIDS, Profiler, and the rest of the configuration tools.

January 28, 2010 4:38 PM
 

Jonathan Kehayias said:

James,

I guess I could have been a bit more clear about that, but I was only refering to the Server Services and not the tools.  You are absolutely correct that the tools can be installed on the Client OS's.

January 28, 2010 6:04 PM
 

Ekrem Önsoy said:

Even though Enterprise Edition is not supported on Client OSs, its installation is no longer blocked by the SQL Server Setup to install this edition of SQL Server on Client OSs such as Windows Vista.

February 3, 2010 11:40 AM
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