I'm trying to install 2008 on a new server.

Hardware: HP DL380 G5
Windows 2003 sp2

The install goes through a number of preliminary checks, all of which
are passed, but then fails without giving any reason.

The hardware is new with no other applications installed. HP
diagnostic tools report no errors. I've tried the install from 2
independently sourced CDs.

Could anyone advise on how to proceed?

Does the install procedure write an intelligible log anywhere that
would help me locate the problem?

Regards
Richard

(richard (AT) tortoise (DOT) demon.co.uk) writes:
Exactly where does it fail?

You find the logs in
C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Setup Bootstrap.

Whether they are intelligible can be disputed. They very verbose.


--
Erland Sommarskog, SQL Server MVP, esquel (AT) sommarskog (DOT) se

Links for SQL Server Books Online:
SQL 2008: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlserver/cc514207.aspx
SQL 2005: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlserver/bb895970.aspx
SQL 2000: http://www.microsoft.com/sql/prodinf...ons/books.mspx

Thank you for your reply Erland

Problem solved. Looking at
WatsonX86_Cpu32_1_ComponentUpdate.log
I could see that the server wouldn't allow installation of the
software directly off the cd. Do you know if that's how Win 2003
server installs by default?

Anyway, I just copied the cd to one of the hard drives and installed
from there.

Thanks again for your help.

Richard

(richard (AT) tortoise (DOT) demon.co.uk) writes:
Never heard that before.

Great to hear that you found the root cause and the workaround, but it's
crap that you have to hunt around to find it.


--
Erland Sommarskog, SQL Server MVP, esquel (AT) sommarskog (DOT) se

Links for SQL Server Books Online:
SQL 2008: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlserver/cc514207.aspx
SQL 2005: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlserver/bb895970.aspx
SQL 2000: http://www.microsoft.com/sql/prodinf...ons/books.mspx