SQL Server Express 2008 R2 installation on Windows Server 2008

Question

I have installed Windows Server 2008R2x64 under VMWare Workstation, to test installation of my application. I then installed the .Net 4.0 distributables and then SQL Server Express 2008 R2 SP1 ( SQLEXPRWT_x64_ENU.exe from http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=22973 ). I accepted all defaults and including the default instance SQLExpress .

When I can start the management console, SQLEXpress is not available as an instance.

In Administrative Tools > Services , SQL Server is running, with instance SQLServer . I have enabled the Agent and Browser services.

This is killing me as I need to install at a customer site on Monday...

Any ideas?

Answer 1

Seems like all that was required was a restart. After that I was able to browse to the instance...