This weekend I read "Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2012" which is a free download you can get here. It is also available from kindle books.
The book outlines the new features available in SQL server 2012 ranging from improvements in reporting and management, database administration and new application development capabilities.
I enjoyed the read and now have a comfortable understanding of the new features that are available.
I downloaded the this new CPT, with the intention of replacing the SQL 2005, which currently resided on my Vista Ultimate machine. The following is a brief summary of the issues I experienced.
Unable to find ‘Setup100.exe’
I was experiencing difficulties early in the piece as the install did not appear to be writing to my Program Files folder. I tried “Run as Administrator” and whatever else I could think of to overcome the problem, all to no avail? In the end I decided to reinstall Vista and presto the problem went away.
Version Support
Having successfully installed SQL 2008, I created a test database using the “Server Management Studio” – no problems. When I loaded the “SQL Server Business Intelligence Development Studio” and tried to access the new database I received the error message “This server version is not supported. Only servers up to Microsoft SQL Server 2005 are supported.” This was apparently a known issue and the solution can be found here.
Remote Access
There is no Surface Area Configuration tool. So I had to figure out a different way to allow Remote access. The answer was found here .
I enabled Named Pipes and TCP/IP and then I was able to access SQL from other machines on the network.