SQL Server 2005 and 2008 on same developer machine?

Question

Has anyone tried installing SQL Server 2008 Developer on a machine that already has 2005 Developer installed?

I am unsure if I should do this, and I need to keep 2005 on this machine for the foreseeable future in order to test our application easily. Since I sometimes need to take backup files of databases and make available for other people in the company I cannot just replace 2005 with 2008 as I suspect (but do not know) that the databases aren't 100% backwards compatible.

What kind of issues would arise? Do I need to install the new version with an instance name, will that work? Can I use a different port number to distinguish them?

I found this entry on technet: http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=3496209&SiteID=17

It doesn't say more than just yes you can do this and I kinda suspected that this was doable anyway, but I need to know if there are anything I need to know before I start installing.

Anyone?

Answer 1

Yes this is possible. You will have to create a named instance not used by another version of SQL Server as per the previous answer and version 3.5 of .Net installed. Works great!!

Here the list of prerequisites:

• .NET Framework 3.5 SP1
• Windows Installer 4.5
• Windows PowerShell 1.0

Answer 2

If you have Visual Studio 2008 installed you will get a validation error and you cannot install SQL server 2008 until you install Visual Studio 2008 SP1. If you don't have Visual Studio 2008 installed it should not be a problem. So if you do have Visual Studio 2008 wait till August 11th since that is the day that Visual Studio 2008 SP1 will ship

Answer 3

I believe that this is perfectly possible. I am currently running both SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005 on my development server while I transfer applications over.

The only thing you will have to do is create a new instance which isn't already being used by SQL Server 2005.

As with anything new, there will probably be some bugs, however, it should generally "just work".

Answer 4

my experience is after having sql sever 2005 and 2008 on same machine SSIS 2005 does not work properly... specially with script task, data flow and sequence container

Answer 5

You could run just SQL 2008 as the single instance and then attach/create databases with compatability level of 2005? The problem with that is that its a theory. Im not 100% positive that if you create a database on 2008 , with a compatability level of 2005, and then detach it, that a SQL 2005 instance is capable of attaching it.

I think its a good enough chance to try though. But I agree with the previous answers, the multiple instance options will work fine.

Answer 6

Unfortunately, it seems SQL Server 2008 Client Tools requires Visual Studio 2008 SP1, and I'm loath to install a beta of this on my main development machine.

I'll wait until SP1 is RTM before I move on.

Edit: Yes, I do have Visual Studio 2008 on this machine, but I'd like to avoid beta installations of debugger applications. They tend to dig themselves too deep in for my taste.

Answer 7

I have try it with negativ result. The 2k8 installation breaks with a mysterious error-message. The installation-protocol looks fine, but it will not work. After this the 2k5 installation was buggy too. The 2k8 installation was half-ready, so it´s already in controlpane / software, but uninstallation is not possible.

So my result - don´t do it on a productive server / workstation. If you need both versions, use a virtual machine instead.