1. I know next to nothing about SQL, Network Administration, and Windows Security, but a lot about Raiser’s Edge and getting a test environment up and running. Proceed at your own risk, but you really should be able to do this without your IT Department or paying a consultant (even me — but if you want to spend the money, just say the word).

2. The instructional how to video is looooong (1 hour) but shows exactly how SQL 2008 R2 Express with SP1 can be made to work with Raiser’s Edge on a Virtual Machine in the cloud (instructions would also work for physical machine).

3. If you end up using the Amazon EC2 method for a virtual machine in the cloud and you STOP and START your instance, be sure to Detach the RE database from the Blackbaud Management Console (BMC) before stopping the Amazon instance as stopping and starting the Amazon Instance causes the machine to be renamed and thus your sql server instance to be renamed and will not work on restart if left attached in the BMC.

4. Some of these instructions were originally from Blackbaud, some from Microsoft, I’ve edited and compiled them here to try to put all the resources in one place.  Omission and editing errors are, no doubt, mine.

Step by step how to video [click view full screen by clicking computer screen icon when you hover over bottom-right of video for best view] is at the end of these instructions…

How to Install SQL 2008 R2 Express SP1 on Windows Server to work with Raiser’s Edge

1. Make sure Windows machine has .NET framework 2.0 or higher – you can download for 3.5 SP1 here:

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=22

[Download and install - if you're not sure if you need it Windows 7 already comes with .NET 4 or you can always go to Control Panel, Add/Remove Program [xp] or Uninstall Program and look for the .NET framework there. It will be alphabetized under “M for Microsoft .NET framework. ]

2. Download SQL 2008 R2 Express SP1 with advanced tools here:

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=26729

[Download and install as follows:

--> Name instance something useful like SQL08ER2

--> Use mixed mode SQL and Windows

--> Create and Write Down the sa [SQL Administrator] Password

–> Once installed go to Services on machine [START --> Computer (right click and select manage, then select Configuration --> Services] and change all sql services to run locally (not under NT)

–> Launch SQL Server Management Studio and make sure you can log in to your instance and that version number is 10.50.2500 (or higher)

–> Make sure both NAMED PIPES AND TCP/IP are enabled

SQL Server 2008 R2 Express:

1. Go to Start, Programs, Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2, Configuration Tools, SQL Server Configuration Manager
2. Expand SQL Server Network Configuration, and highlight Protocols for <InstanceName> (where <InstanceName> is the name of the SQL Instance which you  created earlier “SQL08ER2″ )
3. Verify that TCP/IP and Named Pipes are enabled. If they are not, right click on each protocol, and select Enable

–> Enable xp command shell:

SQL Server 2008 R2 Express:

1. Connect to your SQL Server 2008 R2 Express instance using SQL Server Management Studio.
2. Right-click the SQL Server 2008 R2 Express instance and select Facets.
3. In the Facet drop-down list, select Surface Area Configuration.

–> Grant view Server state to all users groups in SQL

1. Go to Start, Programs, Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2, and select SQL Server Management Studio
2. Connect to the appropriate SQL instance, and open <servername>, Security, Logins in the Object Explorer pane
3. Right-click on the appropriate user or group, and select Properties
4. Highlight Securables on the left-hand pane
5. On the right-hand pane, click Add [for 2005] or Search [for 2008]
6. In the Add Objects dialog box, select ‘The server <servername>’ option and click OK

8. Scroll to the View Server State permission, and check the box in the Grant column

9. Click OK

]

3. Download Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Backward Compatibility Components here (scroll down page to find):

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=3522

[Download and install with all defaults]

1. I hated having to manually change all my links to left outer joins.

2. (More importantly) I thought version 11 removed the ability to set a relative reference for your database file to make it the same as your report location.

Well, shame on me — at least for the second part. Crystal Reports 11 DOES let you set a relative reference to make your database file the same as your report so you don’t have to worry about everyone having the same network resource mapped to the same drive letter on her/his computer.

Here’s a how to video showing how to set your database (MDB file) to be the same location as your report (RPT file). Enjoy….

The screencast below shows how you can “trick” the database into building a query for you by going out and back-in through the easiest import ever. Video is 9 minutes, but once you get the hang of this trick, you can set it up in 5 minutes and save yourself tons of time.

Best watched in full-screen mode — just click the four arrows in the bottom-right of video controller bar.

Enjoy….

Previously, we used Camtasia or Camstudio (free) to record and edit (adjust audio, add callouts, narrations, etc.) and then we would upload the finished file to Viddler to paste into our Tips + Support blog, here.

Jing turns a multi-hour process into multi-minutes. The trade-offs for ease of use (and no-cost software) are:

1. Limited to 5 minute screencasts.

(but if you can’t explain something in a five minute screencast, a screencast may not be the right medium for the task in the first place)

2. Cannot edit audio or video.

(again if it is under five minutes, not such a deal-breaker, given that re-recording a 5 minute how-to is often easier than recompiling audio, adding callouts, etc.)

3. Overall limit for hosted videos on screencast.com (Jing’s partner) is 2GB for the free account.

Just to show how easy it was below is a mock screencast that was done with Jing. Total time from downloading Jing software, registering email to embedding on this blog = 9 minutes.

Team Verdict:  Jing rocks!

Here it is:

Enjoy…