Windows Server 2007 supports out of the box most of the pre-requisites for SQL Server 2005 with the exception of the IIS components required for some SQL Server 2005 features.  To install the IIS 7.0 pre-requisite components to be able to perform a complete installation of SQL Server 2005 on Windows Server 2008 you can run the following ServerManagerCmd.exe command:

C:\>ServerManagerCmd.exe -i Web-Server Web-Asp-Net Web-Http-Redirect Web-Windows
-Auth Web-Metabase Web-WMI
............................................

Start Installation...
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Management Tools.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Web Server.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Performance.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] IIS 6 Management Compatibility.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Security.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Application Development.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Common HTTP Features.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Health and Diagnostics.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] IIS 6 Metabase Compatibility.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] IIS 6 WMI Compatibility.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] IIS Management Console.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Directory Browsing.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Static Content.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Default Document.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] ISAPI Filters.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] HTTP Errors.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] HTTP Logging.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] HTTP Redirection.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] ISAPI Extensions.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Request Filtering.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Static Content Compression.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Request Monitor.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] Windows Authentication.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] .NET Extensibility.
[Installation] Succeeded: [Web Server (IIS)] ASP.NET.
<100/100>

Success: Installation succeeded.

The components included in the command line are:

• Web-Server
• Web-Asp-Net
• Web-Http-Redirect
• Web-Windows-Auth
• Web-Metabase
• Web-WMI

SQL Server 2005 setup will now pass all pre-requisite checks when installing on Windows Server 2008.

On a Symantec Backup Exec 11d server that is backing up Microsoft SQL Server databases you may encounter failed backups with an error:

The path for this database is invalid because it contains extra backslash characters. You must remove the extra backslash characters before the database can be backed up.

The solution provided by Symantec is here, and references instructions from Microsoft here on detaching and reattaching the database with the correct path.

In some cases the database in question will actually be the Symantec Backup Exec database created by the installation.  The database is usually named “BEDB”.  In these cases you may follow the instructions above, and then find that the problem returns after the next backup is run.  In the case I worked on no matter how many times I detached and reattached the database to remove the extra backslashes in the paths, the problem would return.

I found the solution to be a registry change on the Symantec Backup Exec server.  In the registry key HKLM\SOFTWARE\Symantec\Backup Exec For Windows\BEDatabase look for the values “Server Database Path” and “Server Database Log Path“.  If these values have trailing backslashes like so:

“Server Database Path”=”E:\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Data\”
“Server Database Log Path”=”D:\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Data\”

then remove them so that they appear like this instead:

“Server Database Path”=”E:\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Data”
“Server Database Log Path”=”D:\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Data”

You should now find that the documented solution from Symantec works properly.