Silent Install of SQL Server 2008 R2 Still Shows UI to User - How do I keep the UI from showing?

Question

I have an install project built with InstallShield 2014 Pro and I am having trouble with one part of the install.

After reading several blogs, MSDN articles, and posts here on stackoverflow, I am asking for help with doing a quiet install of Sql Server 2008 R2 as one of the pre-reqs of my application. Here is what I have done so far:

1. added the pre req to the install project, making sure that all of the necessary pre reqs for Sql Server 2008R2 are added.
2. set the pre req install order to make sure the necessary pre reqs for Sql Server are installed first.

3. opened up the Sql Server pre req in the editor to set the command parms.

   Those original parms I set were:

   /QS /HIDECONSOLE="True" /ACTION=Install /IACCEPTSQLSERVERLICENSETERMS /FEATURES=SQLENGINE /INSTANCENAME=MSSQLSERVER /SECURITYMODE=SQL /SAPWD="**********" /TCPENABLED= 1 /SQLAUTOSTART=1 /AGTSVCACCOUNT="NT AUTHORITY\Network Service"

   That didn't work, so I tried this:

   /QS /Action=Install /Hideconsole /IACCEPTSQLSERVERLICENSETERMS /SkipRules=RebootRequiredCheck /FEATURES=SQLENGINE /InstanceName=MSSQLSERVER /AGTSVCACCOUNT="NT AUTHORITY\Network Service" /AGTSVCSTARTUPTYPE=Automatic /SQLSVCACCOUNT="NT AUTHORITY\Network Service" /ASSYSADMINACCOUNTS="NT AUTHORITY\Network Service" /SQLSYSADMINACCOUNTS="Builtin\Administrators" /BROWSERSVCSTARTUPTYPE=Automatic /SECURITYMODE=SQL /SAPWD=********* /ADDCURRENTUSERASSQLADMIN=True /TCPENABLED=1

   Now, the pre req is recognized during the install and the Sql install is unpacked, but then the UI is displayed to the user. This is what I need to avoid!

   So What exactly am I missing or doing wrong here? I appreciate any and all responses to this!

   Thanks in advance, Eric

Answer 1

You can read about all the different command prompt options here.

QS means Quiet Simple. This still shows the UI but doesn't accept any user input. What you're looking for is the Q option. This will hide the UI.

/QS

Specifies that Setup runs and shows progress through the UI, but does not accept any input or show any error messages.

/Q

Specifies that Setup runs in a quiet mode without any user interface. This is used for unattended installations.