Silent Installation of SQl Express 2005

Question

Can anyone please let me know the procedure to perform silent installation of SQL Server Express 2005 and the way to specify the installation parameters.

Answer 1

Get the MSI and do

string InstallFile = "SSCERuntime-ENU-x86.msi"
string LogFile = "C:\Install.log"

Process proc;
proc = Process.Start("msiexec", "/l " + LogFile + " /quiet /i " + InstallFile);

Answer 2

If you are doing this to support deployment of a desktop application, it's a bad idea.

Use the Compact Edition of SQL Server rather than Express Edition. It's more suited to in-process situations, and it's much easier to deploy.

Answer 3

Thanks for a prompt reply , I would try it , but i am loooking something like this for SQL EXPRESS http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms144259.aspx

Answer 4

You can find the variables here, http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms345154(SQL.90).aspx

You should be able to install silently using msiexec /qn REBOOT=ReallySuppress ADDLOCAL=ALL INSTANCENAME= SAPWD=

You may want to set some other vars that you can find in the above link lik SQLAUTOSTART and DISABLENETWORKPROTOCOLS.