Installing SQL 2008 Express on 64-bit platform...

[Greg]

I have a couple of questions regarding which version of SQL Express
2008 we should install for our 32-bit application.

1) Can the SQL Express 32-bit installation (silent install needed) be
installed to a 64-bit operating system, or of the SQL Express 2008
downloads available, does the 32 have to be installed on a 32-bit
system and 64 has to be installed on 64-bit system?

2) Our application is a 32-bit app that can run on a 64-bit operating
system, but is there any advantage (or compatibility issues) with
running the 64-bit version of SQL Express 2008?

Thanks for any help,

Greg

[Erland Sommarskog]

Greg (gr...@ram-software.com) writes:
> 1) Can the SQL Express 32-bit installation (silent install needed) be
> installed to a 64-bit operating system, or of the SQL Express 2008
> downloads available, does the 32 have to be installed on a 32-bit
> system and 64 has to be installed on 64-bit system?
>
> 2) Our application is a 32-bit app that can run on a 64-bit operating
> system, but is there any advantage (or compatibility issues) with
> running the 64-bit version of SQL Express 2008?

You can install 32-bit SQL Express on a 64-bit operating system.

Your application can talk to 64-bit SQL Server without problem. The fact
that the application is 32-bit has nothing to whether to install 32- or
64-bit.

The only reason to install 32-bit SQL Server is that you use linked servers
against data sources for which there are no 64-bit OLE DB or ODBC drivers.

--
Erland Sommarskog, SQL Server MVP, esq...@sommarskog.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

[Greg]

I'm running into problems trying to install the SQL Express 2008 (32
bit) image on a 64-bit operating system (Windows Server 2003 SP2) - I
get the following error message:

Rule "Edition WOW 64 platform" failed.
SQL Server Setup is not supported in WOW64. This setup program
can only be run on a 32-bit system.

I am running the SQLExpr32_x86_enu I downloaded from Microsoft. Is
there a parameter or something I need to make this work?

Thanks,
Greg

On Oct 18, 5:30 pm, Erland Sommarskog <esq...@sommarskog.se> wrote:

> Greg (g...@ram-software.com) writes:
> > 1)  Can the SQL Express 32-bit installation (silent install needed) be
> > installed to a 64-bit operating system, or of the SQL Express 2008
> > downloads available, does the 32 have to be installed on a 32-bit
> > system and 64 has to be installed on 64-bit system?
>

[Erland Sommarskog]

Greg (gr...@ram-software.com) writes:
> I'm running into problems trying to install the SQL Express 2008 (32
> bit) image on a 64-bit operating system (Windows Server 2003 SP2) - I
> get the following error message:
>
> Rule "Edition WOW 64 platform" failed.
> SQL Server Setup is not supported in WOW64. This setup program
> can only be run on a 32-bit system.
>
> I am running the SQLExpr32_x86_enu I downloaded from Microsoft. Is
> there a parameter or something I need to make this work?

Where/when you did you download this file? I recognize the error, but this
was a bug that occurred with RC0, that is when SQL 2008 was in beta.

When I look at
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=01af61e6-2f63-4291-bcad-fd500f6027ff&displaylang=en
where this file available, I see this: "SQLEXPR_x86 is the same product
but supports installation onto both 32-bit and 64-bit (WoW) operating systems".

[Greg]

I see the problem - I was getting it from http://www.microsoft.com/express/Database/
which has SQL Express 2008 R2, that only has a SQLEXPR_x64_ENU.exe &
SQLEXPR32_x86_ENU.exe download but not the SQLEXPR_x86_ENU.exe
download that is available on the SQL 2008 Express SP1 or SP2.

On Oct 19, 5:23 pm, Erland Sommarskog <esq...@sommarskog.se> wrote:

> Greg (g...@ram-software.com) writes:
> > I'm running into problems trying to install the SQL Express 2008 (32
> > bit) image on a 64-bit operating system (Windows Server 2003 SP2) - I
> > get the following error message:
>
> >     Rule "Edition WOW 64 platform" failed.
> >     SQL Server Setup is not supported in WOW64.  This setup program
> > can only be run on a 32-bit system.
>
> > I am running the SQLExpr32_x86_enu I downloaded from Microsoft.  Is
> > there a parameter or something I need to make this work?
>
> Where/when you did you download this file? I recognize the error, but this
> was a bug that occurred with RC0, that is when SQL 2008 was in beta.
>

> When I look athttp://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=01af61e6-...