Comparison of SQL Server Installation Center 2012 vs. 2008 R2

Planning Page

Obviously, 2012 has a few more items on the Planning page.

First, it adds “How to Get SQL Server Data Tools” which is a link to a web article. I think they should have called it “SQL Server Data Modeling Tools” since that’s what these Visual Studio tools are for.

Next, they’ve removed a link to “Setup Documentation”, which puzzles me, since it would seem to be very appropriate. I hope they’ll put it back, but in the meantime, here’s the link to the 2012 version of this article:

The addition of three new articles make up the remaining differences: “How to Get started with Reporting Services SharePoint Integration on a Standalone Server”; “Install SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA)”; and “How to apply SQL Server updates”.

In each of the pairs of screen shots in this document, the 2012 version is on the left, and 2008 R2 is on the right.

Installation Page

The only difference here is the removal of “Search for product updates”, but as you’ll see, they’ve simply moved it to the Maintenance page, which is a more appropriate place for it than here on the Installation page.

Maintenance Page

And the only change here is the addition of the link to launch a search for SQL Server updates, moved here from the old installation page.

Tools Page

There are three changes here:

  1. The “Upgrade Integration Services packages” link has been dropped.
  2. A link to an article on “Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit for SQ Server” has been added. MAP is a separate download, but it will let you scan your network for instances of SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle, and Sybase in addition to numerous other features.
  3. A link to “PowerPivot Configuration Tool” has been added, but is greyed out until PowerPivot has been installed first.

Resources Page

There are no changes to the items on this page. The only reason it looks a little difference is due to the change in the width of the page navigation pane.

Advanced Page

There are no changes to the items on this page. The only reason it looks a little difference is due to the change in the width of the page navigation pane.

Options Page

The only difference to the items on this page is that we have dropped support for ia64 (Itanium processors). The reason the x86 and ia64 options are greyed out in the 2008 R2 screen shot is that the installation files for those options weren’t on the computer when the screen shot was taken.