How to install SQL Server Client Tools?

In order to install SQL Server Client Tools or SQL Server Client we need to follow below steps.

Start installation by clicking on ‘Setup.exe’ file as how we do for normal installation and it will open wizard which contains different options like Planning, Installation, Maintenance, Tools and so on.

In that select ‘Installation’ and here it will have several options like New Installation, New SQL Failover instance, Add Node and so on.. Here select ‘New installation or add features to existing installation’ option. Then proceed with clicking OK on ‘Setup Support Rules’ , then select ‘New Installation or add features’ option, then enter product key, then select ‘I accept terms and ….’ Option, ‘Next’ button will take you to feature selection page.

Here while installing only SQL Server Client Tools we need to select only below selected options. There is no need to select any other options.

The options we need to select while installing SQL Client tools are

·         Client Tools Connectivity

·         Client Tools Backwards Compatibility

·         Client Tools SDK

·         Management Tools – Basic

·         Management Tools – Complete

·         SQL Client Connectivity SDK

Then proceed clicking on Next by leaving all default options as it is. While selecting the ‘Service Accounts’ select the one as required or you can select  any one of the NT Authority\SYSTEM or NT Authority\Network Service and once installation is done you can change to whatever account needed. Select ‘Authentication Mode’ also as per your company policy. I prefer Windows Authentication and add any of the account that will have Admin rights by clicking on ‘Add’ button and proceed clicking next options leaving the default values and it will finish the installation.

In short in order to install SQL Client Tools we need to select only the below options:

·         Client Tools Connectivity

·         Client Tools Backwards Compatibility

·         Client Tools SDK

·         Management Tools – Basic

·         Management Tools – Complete

·         SQL Client Connectivity SDK

Thanks