In this video, we will walk through the basic steps required to automate and silently install
Microsoft SQL Server 2019 Express using the EXE installer, and I will show you how to
generate a custom configuration file. First, we will open a browser to the Microsoft SQL Server 2019 Express download page
Click Download. I've downloaded the executable to the C Downloads folder. Open an elevated command prompt by right-clicking on Command Prompt and select Run as Administrator
Change the directory to the C Downloads folder. Enter the following command to extract the SQL Express media
Hit Enter
Please note that if you want to install Microsoft SQL Server 2019 Express with advanced services
then you would run the following command to extract the SQL Express advanced media
The difference is changing the media type switch from Core to Advanced
Now we will enter the following command to extract the setup installation files
The slash Q switch makes the command run in quiet mode, and the slash X switch tells the
installer where to extract the files to. In this instance, C Downloads SQL Express underscore 2019
Hit Enter. We can see the installation files inside the C Downloads SQL Express underscore 2019 folder
Back at the command prompt, we will change the directory to the C Downloads SQL Express
underscore 2019 folder. Enter the following command to generate a configuration file
Hit Enter. This will launch the SQL Server 2019 setup wizard. Click Next
Read and accept the license terms. Click Next. Click Next
Confirm your feature selections and your directory locations. Click Next
Select your named instance and instance ID. I'm going to leave the defaults in this example
Click Next. Specify the service accounts. Click Next. Configure the authentication mode, the data directories, the tempdb, and the memory allocation
Click Next. On the Ready to Install page, make a note of the configuration file path
Navigate to the directory where the configuration file.ini is located
Copy the configuration file.ini to C Downloads SQL Express underscore 2019
Now we're going to cancel the setup wizard without actually completing the installation
Click Cancel. Yes to quit. Okay, let's open the configuration file.ini with Notepad or your favorite text editor
There are two settings we need to modify and one setting we will need to add in order for
an unattended silent install to work. Change quiet equals false to quiet equals true
Next we need to comment out the UIMode equals normal setting. We can accomplish this by adding a semicolon before
Finally, we need to add an additional option to accept the SQL Server license terms
As you can see, I've added the I accept SQL Server license terms equals true setting to
the bottom of the configuration file. The rest of the settings in the configuration file can be changed or updated based on your requirements
Save the changes to the configuration file. Exit the configuration file. Enter the following command to install SQL Server 2019 Express
Press Enter. We can monitor the progress by watching the setup.exe process in Task Manager
Okay, after a few minutes, you should see the Microsoft SQL Server 2019 Express entries
in the start menu and programs and features in the control panel
Based on requirements in your environment, you may prefer to specify passwords at the
command prompt instead of in the configuration file. For this, you can use the following format
For more free content, check out fileandinstallhq.com. Thank you so much for watching