Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 StreamInsight Installation

By: Tim Cullen | Comments (1) | Related: More > StreamInsight

Problem

Our company has decided to implement Microsoft's StreamInsight technology so our next step is to plan for and install it. Do you have any tips on what to plan for and how to install it? Check out this tip to get these questions and more answered.

Solution

Although there are many areas to plan when implementing a StreamInsight instance, only a few are required as far as the installation goes. The first evaluation to be made is an estimated number of transactions per second and the maximum latency tolerated, as these will determine the edition of StreamInsight to use. As mentioned in the previous tip, the edition of StreamInsight is determined by the edition of SQL Server 2008 R2 that you have. When you install StreamInsight you are required to either enter a valid SQL Server 2008 R2 product key or select the Evaluation Edition. The next decision to be made is the deployment model. There are two deployment models: hosted DLL deployment and stand-alone server deployment.

StreamInsight Hosted DLL Deployment

With the hosted DLL deployment model the StreamInsight server is embedded into the application and access to it is controlled entirely by the embedding application, including both the metadata and the data within the streams. This deployment model is utilized when a single process for both the application and StreamInsight server is desired. When the application interacts with the StreamInsight server it instantiates a new instance of the StreamInsight server.

StreamInsight Stand-alone Server Deployment

With the stand-alone server deployment model a separate server and host service is utilized, allowing devices to share the same data sources and metadata objects. This deployment model ensures metadata consistency by storing only one copy on the server. When an application interacts with the StreamInsight server it connects to an endpoint address.

Microsoft StreamInsight Installation

Installation of Microsoft StreamInsight includes both the installation of StreamInsight and SQL Server Compact Edition. The prerequisites for installation are:

The user account of the person performing the installation must be a member of the Administrators group on the machine
At a minimum, the machine must have the .Net Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 installed

The first few screens are similar to most other Microsoft installations, the first of which is the Welcome screen:

Welcome screen for installing StreamInsight

The next screen is the License Agreement:

The next screen is for Registration Information:

The next screen is for Instance Configuration. Although multiple instances can run on one machine each installation must have a unique instance name. This is because the connection is an endpoint accessed via a URL, i.e., http://localhost/StreamInsight/R22008:

The next screen is where you can either enter a product key for the SQL Server 2008 R2 instance or choose the Evaluation Edition. The Evaluation edition is valid for 180 days:

The next screen is where you choose to create the Windows service and assign the current user to the StreamInsight Users group:

The next screen indicates that the installation program is ready to install:

The final screen indicates installation completion and gives additional information about SQL Server Compact Edition:

Once StreamInsight is installed you must install SQL Server Compact Edition if not already installed on the machine. There is a version for 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems, named SSCERuntime_x86-ENU.msi and SSCERuntime_x64-ENU.msi, respectively. These files are located in the [%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft StreamInsight [version]\Redist] folder on a 64-bit operating system. If you installed the 32-bit version the location is [%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft StreamInsight [version]\Redist] folder. The 32-bit version of SQL Server Compact Edition must be installed regardless of the version you intend to install. If you execute the 64-bit version first you will receive the information message below:

Error message for 64-bit prior to 32-bit installation

Microsoft StreamInsight comes with its own event flow debugger application which is located in the Start Menu's StreamInsight directory:

The Event Flow Debugger has a couple of options at the top. The first is an open folder button which can be used to open a StreamInsight trace flow. The second is a server button with an arrow on it. This button can be used to make a connection to a StreamInsight instance:

In this case we are going to make a connection to the instance we just installed. The connection is actually an endpoint, so it will be represented as a URL:

I click OK and receive an error message, indicating that a connection cannot be made to the instance:

Error when attempting to connect to a StreamInsight instance

Although the service was created during installation the startup type is set to Manual. Open the Services applet, find the service named StreamInsight ([instance name]), change the startup type to Automatic, and click Start: