visual studio 2017 sql server which one to install first

You use Standard Edition – because it supports 128GB RAM (and can even go beyond that for some internal stuff like query plans.).

You want an extremely well-known, well-documented product – it’s pretty easy to find material off the shelf and hire people who know how to use the tools in this version.

This meant you could write one version of your application that worked at both your small clients on Standard, and your big clients on Enterprise.

You’re an independent software vendor (ISV) – because 2016 Service Pack 1 gave you a lot of Enterprise features in Standard Edition.

In all, I just can’t recommend 2014 new installs today. You still have to put in time to find the queries that are gonna get slower, and figure out how to mitigate those.

You need faster performance without changing the code, and you have lots of time to put into testing – 2014’s Cardinality Estimator (CE) changes made for different execution plans, but they’re not across-the-board better.

You use log shipping as a reporting tool, and you have tricky permissions requirements (because they added new server-level roles that make this easier.).

You need to encrypt your backups, and you’re not willing to buy a third party backup tool.

I’d just consider this a minimum starting point for even considering AGs (forget 2012) because starting with 2014, the secondary is readable even when the primary is down.

You want to use Always On Availability Groups – but I’m even hesitant to put that here, because they continue to get dramatically better in subsequent versions.

You’re dealing with an application whose newest supported version is only SQL Server 2014, but not 2016 or newer.

But I got a really good deal on this CD at a garage sale You should consider SQL Server 2014 if… I’m going to go from the dark ages forward, making a sales pitch for each newer version.

I know, management wants you to stay on an older build, and the vendor says they’ll only support older versions, but now’s your chance to make your case for a newer version – and I’m gonna help you do it. Are you sure you’re using the right version?

Wait! Before you install that next SQL Server, hold up.

Visual studio 2017 sql server which one to install first