SQL Express installation problems

[rbelliveau]

I have been wrestling for days with creating a setup that installs SQL Express 2014, creates my application database, executes a script on the new database and then copies my application files. I am choosing the application runtime for SQL Express and going into the MSIcode area and editing the MSSQL2014_COMMAND_LINE_X86 variable to the following:

/q /ACTION=Install /FEATURES=SQL,SDK /INSTANCENAME="MYINSTANCE" /SQLSVCACCOUNT="NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE" /SECURITYMODE=SQL /SAPWD="Sq1S#rv$r"/SQLSVCPASSWORD="Sq1C#ep$q" /SQLSYSADMINACCOUNTS="$SQL_COMPUTER_NAME$\$SQL_USER_NAME$" /AGTSVCACCOUNT="NT AUTHORITY\Network Service" /IAcceptSQLServerLicenseTerms

If I compile and run the setup SQL Express will install however the sa password is NOT Sq1S#rv$r and I can only connect with Windows Authentication. Additionally I cannot seem to find the right entries on the SQL Databases section to actually create a database and run a script. I even tried using the actual machine name as opposed to a variable for the server name without success. This really should not be this hard. Any help would be appreciated.

[FrancescoT]

Dear Roger,

did you follow the description about the the required MS SQL 2014 parameters?
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms144259.aspx#Install

InstallAware doesn't use any trick or mysterious way to install any third part runtime.
Any InstallAware Runtime script simply emulates a standard Command line installation.

The problem you are having is not caused by IA, but certainly, on the parameters you are passing in.
I am not a MS SQL expert but for sure there is something wrong with them!

The best way to solve your problem (that's exactly the same I use), it's to try to install them manually from command line to verify which are the correct parameters to use. At this purpose you can either use the official MS SQL 2014 express installer available from the Microsoft distribution (it's the same we use) or the one we supply under the "Runtime" sub-folder of the InstallAware install directory (we use them in extracted form to increase package compression ratio at build time).

Once you found the correct required install parameters sequence, you can easily apply and use them in your setup script.

In addition, with one of my project where I had to install the 2012 version of MS SQL I used the following;
/q /ACTION=Install /SECURITYMODE=SQL /SAPWD="$SQLPASSWORD$" /INSTANCENAME="$SQL_INSTANCE$" /FEATURES=SQLEngine,Replication,SDK
/SQLSVCACCOUNT="NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE" /SQLSYSADMINACCOUNTS="$SQL_COMPUTER_NAME$\$SQL_USER_NAME$"
/IAcceptSQLServerLicenseTerms=TRUE /UpdateEnabled= FALSE /TCPENABLED=1 /BROWSERSVCSTARTUPTYPE=Automatic

...but of course, I don't know if the ones above can be used to install MS SQL 2014 without modifications.

Hope this helps you.

Regards