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Using Desired State Configuration To Install SQL Server

Chris Lumnah shows how to use Powershell Desired State Configuration to automate installation and configuration of a new SQL Server instance:

So the installation of SQL Server is now fairly straightforward. The wizard does a nice job of guiding you along the way. 2016 even includes best practice suggestions for tempdb and instance file initialization. Along the way, Microsoft as given us ways to automate the installation of SQL Server. You can sysprep an instance, but this does not really automate the installation. It just helps create a template of an instance. At the end of the day, you still need to do things manually. You can also use a configuration file to assist here. This is a great step forward, but it does not allow for all of the things you need to do to configure a SQL server.

Powershell does. Desired State Configuration (DSC) is functionality built into Powershell that allows for the installation and configuration of a SQL Server.

Chris includes his script as well as a link for more information on DSC in case you aren’t familiar with the concept.