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I need to configure SQL Server aliases on a public-facing production server. To do that, I need to install SQL Server Configuration Manager.

I was not able to find a standalone installer for that, so I am having to install SQL Server 2005 Client Components. This approach is not ideal as we don't want to have SSMS on an public-facing production server.

Is there a way to install SQL Server 2005 Configuration Manager without installing SQL Server Management Studio?

EDIT: Found a way. See my answer below.


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2 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

I've found a way to configure aliases that doesn't involve installing client tools on the production server.

Aliases can be setup using SQL Server Client Network Utility (cliconfg.exe) as described in this article: How to setup and use a SQL Server alias

This utility is part of a standard install since Windows 2000 Server and I can confirm that it worked for me on Windows 2008 Server R1 (64-bit).

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Yes, its true, you need client tools to access this console. Obviously if you don't have SSMS running locally, then you have another computer that has the client tools running that can access the database server.

You can either use the computer management console from the computer with SSMS to connect to your SQL Server box as described here or, there is a lesser known method to get access to this from within SSMS:

  1. Register the server in the registered servers console
  2. Right-click on registered server and click SQL Server Configuration Manager...

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The tool is actually a mmc snap-in called SQLServerManager.msc, although I don't think it's portable enough to simply copy to a box to run stand alone.

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