You have been requested to provide an SQL Server environment to host the database/s of Application123. Once you’ve identified the server onto which the instance will be installed there are a number of checks I would suggest, or at least these are the ones I follow. You will observe that most relate to the operating system environment and might or might not be directly related to SQL Server. I am also assuming that the operating system has been installed by a knowledgeable technical person and the server has been certified for use in a production environment.

  • Operating System is Windows 2008 Server R2 or later;
  • OS architecture is 64-bit;
  • The most recent service pack and required patches have been installed;
  • The server is joined to a domain;
  • The server name is resolved by the DNS;
  • There are no HOSTS file entries;
  • Adequate swap/page file size has been allocated;
  • Antivirus (not) installed – might depend on company policy;
  • Network interfaces have been configured appropriately;
  • Local Policy Settings are managed centrally (using GPOs);
  • Membership in Local Groups is managed centrally (using GPOs);
  • The environment is used for a single purpose only (database server only and no IIS for example);
  • Non server software is not installed on the environment;
  • No local Users or Groups have been created (e.g. managed through Active Directory);
  • Environment has been included in monitoring;
  • OS backup has been configured;
  • OS configuration has been documented and stored in a repository;
  • Domain user/s have been created for the SQL Server services;
  • Service account (domain user) has the Local Policy Settings required by SQL Server services set;
  • Data partition/s aligned to 64Kb or greater (not necessary for Windows 2008 and later) – see diskpart.exe;
  • Data partition/s have been formatted using 64Kb allocation units – see fsutil.exe;
  • SQL Server installation media is available (obvioulsy…);
  • Latest SQL Server Service Pack downloaded and available;
  • Non-default listening port/s to be used by applications have been identified;
  • Network access from the client machines to the server environment is open.

This of course is a non-exhaustive list of checks and you might remove or add items to the list. In any case I guess it is a good starting point. Now where did I store that ISO…?