• Be sure the computer meets the system requirements for SQL Server 2005. For more information, see Hardware and Software Requirements for Installing SQL Server 2005.
  
• Review Security Considerations for a SQL Server Installation.
  
• Setup includes a preinstallation check that identifies unsupported configurations on installation computers and guides users to remedy blocking issues. For more information, see Check Parameters for the System Configuration Checker.
  
• Make sure you have administrator permissions on the computer where SQL Server will be installed. If you install SQL Server from a remote share, you must use a domain account that has read and execute permissions on the remote share. To create a failover cluster, you must be a local administrator with permissions to logon as a service, and to act as part of the operating system on all nodes of the virtual server.
  

  Security Note:
  If you modify permissions on a domain user account to run SQL Server Setup, be sure to revoke those permissions after Setup completes.

• Create one or more domain user accounts if you are installing SQL Server 2005 on a computer running Microsoft Windows XP or Windows 2003, and you want SQL Server 2005 to communicate with other clients and servers. For more information, see Setting Up Windows Service Accounts.
  
• Do not install SQL Server 2005 on a domain controller. For more information, see the "Isolation of Services" section in Security Considerations for a SQL Server Installation.
  
• Back up your current installation of SQL Server if you are running an instance of SQL Server on the computer where SQL Server 2005 is to be installed.
  
• Verify that the disk where SQL Server will be installed is uncompressed. If you attempt to install SQL Server to a compressed drive, Setup will fail.
  
• Exit antivirus software while installing SQL Server.
  
• Stop all services that depend on SQL Server, including any service using Open Database Connectivity (ODBC), such as Internet Information Services (IIS). Exit Event Viewer and registry editors (Regedit.exe or Regedt32.exe).
  
• Review all SQL Server installation options, and prepare to make the appropriate selections when running Setup. For more information, see Editions and Components of SQL Server 2005, Setup User Interface Reference, and How to: Install SQL Server 2005 (Setup).
  

• For a list of supported upgrade scenarios, see Upgrading to SQL Server 2005.
  
• For information on running SQL Server 2005 along with previous SQL Server versions, see Working with Multiple Versions of SQL Server and Backward Compatibility.
  
• For a procedural topic with step-by-step upgrade instructions, see How to: Upgrade to SQL Server 2005 (Setup).
  
• For known issues and backward compatibility considerations, see Version and Edition Upgrades, Using Upgrade Advisor to Prepare for Upgrades, and Backward Compatibility.
  

If you are installing a failover cluster, see Before Installing Failover Clustering.

If you are using an operating system with regional settings other than English (United States), or if you are customizing character set or sort order settings, see Collation Options and International Support.

For default collations assigned by Setup, see Collation Settings in Setup.

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