You can use the SQL Server setup program to install the software on a remote computer. When you do so, you are prompted for the following information:
For example, to install SQL Server on the default share for the D drive (D$) on a remote computer, you would specify remote logical drive D for the SQL Installation Drive.
For example, if the Windows NT root for a remote computer is on the default share for its D drive (D$), you would specify remote logical drive D for the Windows NT Installation Drive.
For example, to install the master database on the default share for the D drive (D$) on a remote computer, you would specify remote logical drive D for the Master Database Installation Drive.
The default remote logical drive for the SQL Server Installation Drive is C. The default for the other two options is the current setting of the SQL Server Installation Drive.
On the local computer, the setup program assigns as many as three unused drive letters to correspond to the logical drives on the remote computer. This is not the same drive letter as the remote logical drive (which corresponds to the actual drive on the remote computer on which the files are to be installed). For example, if you're installing SQL Server on the D drive of a remote computer named \\REMOTE from a local computer named \\LOCAL, you would enter REMOTE as the Remote Server Name and D as the SQL Installation Drive.
On the local computer, the setup program assigns a unique logical drive letter (for example, X) for the drive on the remote computer (in this example, \\REMOTE\D$). You cannot change the logical drive letter assigned by the setup program. During the installation process, when prompting for a path, the setup program adds this unique logical drive letter to the default. In this example, when prompting for the SQL Server root directory, the setup program would use X:\SQL60 to correspond to \\REMOTE\D$\SQL60.
After you've installed the software on the remote computer, you can use SQL Enterprise Manager or SQL Service Manager to start and stop the remote SQL Server. For more information, see Chapter 5, Running SQL Server and Running SQL Executive.