Ashish MehtaMicrosoft Introduced SQL Server Discovery Tool is widely used by SQL Server Database Administrators to quickly identify SQL Server Components which are already installed on a local SQL Server. The report shown in the snippet below will give DBA a complete overview of all the SQL Server Components which are installed for a specify instance of SQL Server.
In this article we will take a look at how to install and use SQL Server Discovery Tool to discover all the SQL Server Components which are already installed on a local server.
SQL Server Discovery Report includes
- Product Name
- Instance Name
- Instance ID
- SQL Server Feature / SQL Server Component
- Language
- SQL Server Edition
- Version or Build Number
- Clustered or Non Clustered
- Configuration Status
Once you install SQL Server features Discovery Report it will display a report for products and features that are installed on the local server for SQL Server 2000, SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2012, SQL Server 2014, and SQL Server 2016.
SQL Server Feature Discovery Report can be generated in two different ways:
- Open SQL Server Discovery Report Using SQL Server Installation Center
- Open SQL Server Discovery Report Using Command Prompt
Let us discuss each of the above options in detail.
Open SQL Server Feature Discovery Report Using SQL Server Installation Center
Login to Server and right click Start and click Search option. In the Search enter “SQL Server 2014” and then select any version of “SQL Server Installation Center” as shown in the snippet below. On our local server SQL Server 2014 was installed hence I would click “SQL Server 2014 Installation Center (64-bit)“.
In SQL Server Installation Center click on Tools on the left pane and click on “Installed SQL Server features Discovery Report” as highlighted in the snippet below.
This will open up Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Setup Discovery Report in your default browser with all the relevant information as shown in the snippet below.
Open SQL Server Feature Discovery Report Using Command Prompt
Open SQL Server Installation Folder from where you had installed SQL Server. Yes, you need to remember it. As a best practice we recommend you to store an installation setup copy on the server as this helps you during feature or component installation as well as during disaster recovery. In our scenario the installation setup is located on “G:\Softwares\SQLServer2014\” folder.
Open Command Prompt and then navigate to the SQL Server Setup Folder and type “Setup.exe /Action=RunDiscovery” as shown in the snippet below. To generate the report hit ENTER.
In a while you will see the below popup window as shown in the snippet below and once the popup closes you will see the Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Discovery Report which will open up in your default browser. Take a look at the above section to view different data which is captured by the report.
Important Note: Note: The Generated SQL Server Component Discovery Report will be saved for future reference in %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft SQL Server\130\Setup Bootstrap\Log\
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Chetna Bhalla