Windows Server 2012 Beta “Core” and SQL Server 2012

The quickest way to a failed installation of SQL Server 2012 is not to add the .NET 3.5 Framework feature and make sure you have your media or internet access for the server. 

In the example below I have the ISO mounted in “D:”

dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:NetFX3 /All /Source:d:\sources\sxs /LimitAccess

or using PowerShell

Add-WindowsFeature –name NET-Framework-Core –source d:\sources\sxs

On Windows Core you cannot use the GUI to perform the install so here is an example command-line which I used to install SQL Server Database Engine, Full Text and Connectivity Components.

Setup.exe /qs /ACTION=Install /FEATURES=SQLEngine,FullText,Conn
/INSTANCENAME=MSSQLSERVER /SQLSYSADMINACCOUNTS="contoso\administrator" 
/TCPENABLED=1 /IACCEPTSQLSERVERLICENSETERMS

More information about the command line is located here.

Don’t forget to open the Firewall ports for SQL Server on Windows Server

The commands (No GUI under Windows Core, or you could enable Remote Management and do it remotely) required to do this are as follows:

• netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name=”SQL Server Database Engine” protocol=TCP localport=1433 dir=in action=allow
• netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name=”SQL Server Agent” protocol=TCP localport=1434 dir=in action=allow