How to install Dynamics NAV 2009 Demo Database to named instance of SQL

By default when you are installing the demo database it will get installed on the instance named MSSQLSERVER. That is the default instance name for SQL Server 2005. But if you have a SQL Server with another instance name where you would like to install the Demo Database, how do you do then? The answer to that question is to use the msi for the Demo Database installation and not the installation program in the root of the DVD. A small not is that you can’t run the installation program found in the root of the DVD (setup.exe) on the computer after you have installed the demo database using this work around since this will uninstalled the demo database. This happens because the central installation program keeps an inventory of the NAV products that have been installed to the computer and will uninstall those which are not in the inventory.

So let’s take a look how you do it. I assuming that you already have SQL Server installed with a none default instance name with service account “NETWORK SERVICE”. I will call it NAVDEMO in my example. The machine you have installed it will simple be called SQLSERVER in my example. I will also assume that you have the DVD in “D:”.
1. Open a “command prompt” on SQLSERVER machine. If you are running Vista or above you need to start the “command prompt” as an Administrator.
2. Run the following command:
msiexec -I “D:SQLDatabaseMicrosoft_Dynamics_NAV_SQL_Database.msi” INSTANCENAME= NAVDEMO
3. Run the following command:
msiexec -I “D:SQLDatabaseMicrosoft_Dynamics_NAV_SQL_DemoDatabase.msi” INSTANCENAME= NAVDEMO

To use the newly installed Demo Database with an already installed NAV server you need to update the server configuration file. To do this follow this steps:
1. Open “CustomSettings.config” file in notepad. The file is normally located under “C:Program Files Microsoft Dynamics NAV60Service”.
2. Locate the DatabaseServer key.
3. Change the value attribute to SQLSERVERNAVDEMO
4. Restart the “Microsoft Dynamics NAV Server” service in the Windows Service manager