Restrict how many CPUs SQL Server 2005 uses

This solution addresses (from here) your problem:

Follow these steps to manually set the increment for the counter registry key & to overcome this error & proceed further with the SQL Server installation.

1. On the Microsoft Windows 2003 or Windows XP desktop, click Start, click Run, type regedit.exe in Open, and then click OK. On Windows 2000, use regedt32.exe The Registry Editor appliction launches.

2. Navigate to the following registry key: Quote: [HKEY _ LOCAL _ MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Perflib] "Last Counter"=dword:00000ed4 (5276) "LastHelp"=dword:00000ed5 (5277)

3. The "Last Counter" value from the previous step (5276) must match the maximum value of the "Counter" key from "Perflib\009" in the following registry key, and the "Last Help" value from the previous step (5277) must match the maximum value of the "Help" key from "Perflib\009" in the following registry key: Quote: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Perflib\009] Note : The "Last Counter" and "Last Help" values are dynamically assigned by Windows; they will vary from machine to machine...

4. If necessary, modify the value for the "Last Counter" and "Last Help" values in the "\Perflib" key: Right-click "Last Counter" or "Last Help" in the right-hand pane, click Modify, click Base = "Decimal" set the value in Value data, and then click OK. Repeat for the other key, if necessary, and then close the Registry Editor.

5. Restart the machine for the changes to come into effect.

6. Run SQL Server Setup again.

This error seams to be related to the Setup Configuration Checker (SCC) in Microsoft SQL Server Setup which verifies the value of the counter registry key before SQL Server installation begins.

Doing it right now. I have SQL 2005 and two SQL 2008 instances running.

It's easy to do. Just install SQL Server 2005, and when it asks you which instance, make sure you choose "Named Instance", and give it a name you will remember (such as, I dunno, SQL2005?).

Then, install SQL Server 2008. Same thing when it comes to the instance - make sure it's a named instance (Say, SQL2008). In your Services control panel you will see all the SQL stuff duplicated, but it will have the instance name after each entry (SQL2005/SQL2008).

When you need to connect, you connect to machine\instance, so you would connect to localhost\SQL2005 or localhost\SQL2008 as the server name, and off you go.

It is definitely memory intensive, so you might choose to disable them if you're not using them right at the moment. Under idle with nothing happening right after bootup they're using about 150mb each.