SQL Server graphical tools require VGA or higher resolution: at least 1,024x768 pixel resolution.

A Microsoft mouse or compatible pointing device is required.

A DVD drive is required for installation from DVD media.

On 32-bit and 64-bit platforms, eight-node cluster installations (that is, the maximum number of nodes supported by Microsoft Windows Server 2003) are supported. For more information on high availability solutions, see the topics for "Configuring High Availability" and "Before Installing Failover Clustering" in SQL Server 2005 Books Online.

Network software requirements for the 64-bit versions of SQL Server 2005 are the same as the requirements for the 32-bit versions. Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows 98, and Windows ME have built-in network software.

Stand-alone named and default instances support the following network protocols:

• Shared memory
  
  
• Named pipes
  
  
• TCP/IP
  
  
• VIA
  
  

Note   Shared memory is not supported on failover clusters.

New type of endpoint

SQL Server 2005 introduces a new concept for SQL Server connections: the connection is represented on the server end by the concept of a Transact-SQL endpoint. Permissions can be granted, revoked, and denied for Transact-SQL endpoints. By default, all users have permissions to access an endpoint unless the permissions are denied or revoked by a member of the sysadmin group or by the endpoint owner. The GRANT, REVOKE, and DENY ENDPOINT syntax uses an endpoint ID that the admin must get from the endpoint's catalog view.

Transact-SQL endpoints created by SQL Server Setup are as follows:

• TSQL Local machine
  
  
• TSQL Named Pipes
  
  
• TSQL Default TCP
  
  
• TSQL Default VIA
  
  

For more information on managing Transact-SQL endpoints, see topic for "Net-Libraries and Network Protocols" in SQL Server 2005 Books Online.

Internet requirements for both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of SQL Server 2005 are the same. The following table lists the Internet requirements for SQL Server 2005.

¹Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 SP1 or later is required for SQL Server Management Studio, Business Intelligence Management Studio, and the Report Designer component of Reporting Services.

SQL Server Setup requires Microsoft Windows Installer 3.0.

SQL Server Setup installs the following software components required by the product:

• Microsoft Windows .NET Framework 2.0
  
  

• Microsoft SQL Server Native Client
  
  
• Microsoft SQL Server Setup support files
  
  

Each of these components is installed separately; only the Microsoft SQL Server Setup support files are automatically removed when you uninstall SQL Server 2005. For more information on uninstalling this release, see the topic for "How to: Uninstall an Existing Instance of SQL Server 2005 (Setup)" in SQL Server 2005 Books Online.

In addition to the required software components installed by Setup during the component update installation, the following SQL Server components have additional software dependencies:

• Reporting Services has a dependency on MDAC 2.8 for systems running Windows 2000. You can download MDAC 2.8 from this Microsoft Web site.
  
  
• SQLXML depends on MDAC 2.6 for systems running Windows 2000. Notification Services has a dependency on SQLXML, so MDAC 2.6 or higher is required to run Notification Services on Windows 2000. You can download MDAC 2.6 from this Microsoft Web site.
  
  

After installing required components, SQL Server Setup will verify that the computer where SQL Server will be installed also meets all of the other requirements for a successful installation. For more information, see the topic for "Check Parameters for the System Configuration Checker" in SQL Server 2005 Books Online.

SQL Server 2005 failover clusters require Microsoft Cluster Server (MSCS) on at least one node of your server cluster. MSCS is only supported if it is installed on a hardware configuration that has been tested for compatibility with the MSCS software. For more information, see the topic for "Before Installing Failover Clustering" in SQL Server 2005 Books Online.

This table shows hardware requirements for installing and running SQL Server 2005 on the 32-bit platform.

¹System Configuration Checker (SCC) will block Setup if the requirement for processor type is not met.

²SCC will warn the user but will not block Setup if the minimum or recommended processor speed check is not met. No warning will appear on multi-processor machines.

³SCC will warn the user but will not block Setup if the minimum or recommended RAM check is not met. Memory requirements are for this release only, and do not reflect additional memory requirements of the operating system. SCC verifies the memory available when Setup starts.

⁴SQL Server 2005 Evaluation Edition supports the same feature set as SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition.

Actual hard disk space requirements depend on your system configuration and the applications and features you choose to install. The following table provides disk space requirements for SQL Server 2005 components.

This table shows the operating systems that run the server software for each 32-bit version of SQL Server 2005.

¹SQL Server 2005 Evaluation Edition supports the same feature set as SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition, but Enterprise Edition is not supported on all of the operating systems that support Evaluation Edition.

²You can download Windows 2000 SP4 from this Microsoft Web site.

³These editions of SQL Server 2005 can be installed to the Windows on Windows (WOW64) 32-bit subsystem of a 64-bit server.

The following limitations or issues affect installations on supported operating systems:

• Native Web Service (SOAP/HTTP) support is only available for instances of SQL Server 2005 running on Windows Server 2003.
  
  
• Individual topics in Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Integration Services (SSIS) programming, Analysis Management Objects (AMO), and ADOMD.NET documentation may indicate support for earlier versions of Windows, such as Windows 98, Windows ME, or Windows NT 4.0. However, for this release, these three programming interfaces are only supported on Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows Server 2003.
  
  
• SQL Server 2005 failover clusters require Microsoft Cluster Server (MSCS) on at least one node of your server cluster. MSCS is only supported if it is installed on a hardware configuration that has been tested for compatibility with the MSCS software. For more information, see the topic for "Before Installing Failover Clustering" in SQL Server 2005 Books Online.
  
  

SQL Server 2005 32-bit client components can be installed on Windows 2000 Professional SP3 or later.

This table shows hardware requirements for installing and running SQL Server 2005 on the 64-bit platform.

¹System Configuration Checker (SCC) will block Setup if the processor type requirement is not met.

²SCC will warn the user but will not block Setup if the minimum or recommended processor speed check is not met.

³SCC will warn the user but will not block Setup if the minimum or recommended RAM check is not met. Memory requirements are for this release only, and do not reflect additional memory requirements of the operating system. SCC verifies the memory available when Setup starts.

⁴SQL Server 2005 Evaluation Edition supports the same feature set as SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition.

This table shows the operating systems that run the server software from each 64-bit version of SQL Server 2005.

¹SQL Server 2005 Evaluation Edition supports the same feature set as SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition, but Enterprise Edition is not supported on all of the operating systems that support Evaluation Edition.

²IA64 = Intel Itanium architecture.

³X64 = AMD architecture / Intel Extended Systems architecture.

⁴Tools native/WOW64. For more infromation on WOW64, see Extended System Support.

SQL Server 2005 64-bit client components can be installed on Windows Server 2003 (64-bit).