Having installed CRM (both v3 and v4) on Windows 2003 Server-based systems literally hundreds of times over the past few years, you get into a routine of being able to fix things before they break.  On Win2003 there were a few settings you could check before you installed CRM that would ensure the installer finished the first time.

Yesterday I did my first install on Windows 2008 Server.  Luckily, I spend some time in the CRM Public newsgroups and knew there were a lot of people that ran into a lot of snags while trying to get CRM 4.0 working on Win2008.  But their misfortune was my good fortune - Microsoft had received enough questions that they created a KB article on common issues resolution.  Armed with this KB, I went in with my usual 'what could possibly go wrong?' attitude.

To be honest, the CRM installation went pretty smoothly, but I am getting ahead of myself.  My first task was to get SQL Server and SSRS installed on the database server, which was also running Win2008.  There is surprisingly little in the way of quick references for installing SQL2005 on Win2008. 

Undaunted, I ran the setup.exe for SQL2005 Standard, only to be told that I was missing some features: namely IIS.  But I had installed IIS (and even the IIS6 compatibility components), so I was stumped by this one.  Eventually I came across this KB, which described how to install SSRS on Windows 2008.  Turns out there was one option I had not selected when installing the IIS Service Role, and as soon as I followed the instructions in the KB, the SQL installer finally recognized IIS.

So for Installing SQL Server 2005 on Win2008, here are my recommendations:

• Follow the steps in this KB to set up IIS properly.
• Also install the "Application Server" role, so that .Net 3.0 will be installed (SSRS doesn't use it, but the CRM Data Connector that you will install after the CRM will require it)
• Install SQL 2005 including the database engine, SSRS, and any other modules you like.
• During installation, check the box that says to 'install SSRS but do not configure'
• After SQL is installed, download and run the SQL2005 SP2 (this is mandatory).
• Reboot
• Configure Reporting Services as per normal

Once SQL is installed, you're nearly home-free.  Earlier in the article I mentioned a Microsoft KB that details the resolution of a number of common issues.  Being the pragmatic sort, I decided to go through each 'resolution' before I installed the CRM in the hopes of avoiding the big red X during installation.  This proved to be worthwhile, as there were a few settings that I had to tweak.

For installing CRM 4.0 on Win2008, here are my recommendations:

• Review each resolution in this KB, and ensure your server settings match up to what's documented
• Also install the "Application Server" role, so that .Net 3.0 will be installed
• Run the CRM installer - it should all go well from this point

Hope this helps someone with their installation!

Dave