I am doing some learning to prepare for a new VM instance of Windows Server 2012 Datacenter hosting SharePoint 2013 Foundation. Looking at a similar VM instance hosting an intranet data portal (C#/.Net) and an SQL based document archive, PaperVision. Running command prompt with "OSQL -L" I see my similar VM server listed twice as EOWYN and EOWYN\SQLEXPRESS2012.
Connecting to my similar server via SQL Server Studio Management to each instance I see the version listed at 11.0.6020.0 for both connections and I see the same dB in both cases. I assume this means I have only one instance with two Aliases.
Looking at the installed programs I see a few more software instances. See images.
1. What SQL versions are installed by default by Server 2012 Datacenter? Which versions are installed by default on an SQL Server?
I assume other SQL versions were installed via VisualStudio/SQL Studio.
2. Are all the listed SQL installations concurrently operational as seen in my installed programs listing? How do I determine which version is active? My command line query indicated two instances.
3. For a single purpose server, such as my to be deployed SharePoint instance, should I only have one instance of SQL?
4. For a server with more than one hosted application, should I remove all SQL instances but the active one(s)?
5. If more than one vintage, as my list of installed programs suggests, how do I connect VS to each vintage of SQL?
Thanks in advance for you assistance. Any best practices document covering such Server/SQL 101 questions would be appreciated.
Regards,
Kurt