Earlier I posted that I had some problems installing SQL Server Express on a Windows VMWare instance. It turns out that the software would not install because it did not have the right patches for the operating system thus would not install the databases. I got the vmware images from someone in the office to do some testing and quickly realized that they would not work. The images could not be updated because they were licensed to someone else. I had…… wait for it….. pirated copies of the operating system. The horror. The shame. I was in violation of a copywright. It seems a little ironic that I work for a software company and was having trouble with software piracy from another company to learn my own product suite.
I swallowed my pride and obtained valid licenses, re-installed, re-patched, and updated my base installations with legal copies of the operating system. Once I did this, it was trivial to install the SQL Server Express Edition. I did have to install .NET Framework 2.0 before I could install the database. I also had to download and install a jdbc driver and open up port 1433 on the firewall so that SQL Developer could attach to the repository. Once I performed these steps, everything worked.
In summary, I have created vmware images for Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows 2003, Red Hat Enterprise Edition 4, and Oracle Unbreakable Linux Version 4. I have successfully installed Oracle Express Edition and mySQL on all five platforms. I have successfully installed SQL Server Express and SQL Server on the three windows platforms.
The simplest to install was any of the packages on Windows. The most difficult to install was Oracle Express Edition on Linux. With these foundations I am ready to start testing some basic features and sharpen my skills and knowledge of these products.
The only question that this exercise leaves me is how do I share my work with others? I can’t give copies of my work to my peers because it becomes a copywright violation with Windows. I can easily do this Oracle Linux because binary distribution is free, support is where money is involved. The SQL Developer, JVM, and Express Editions do not have cost associated with them. How do other people handle sharing vmware images when there is a license involved for the operating system or software suite? How can you use these for training and testing without purchasing a license for each of the products for everyone who wants to play and experiment? It seems like a large cost just to learn.
next, creation of a library schema to allow for checking out and checking in books for a school library……………