Microsoft announced few month ago SCOM 2012 R2 offers support for SQL Server 2014…
And if we go to the TechNet article it also clearly says, SCOM 2012 R2 is supported on SQL Server 2014 here described…
There is even a perfect table which explains everything clearly…
From my point of view, this let’s us assume, that we can just pick SQL Server 2014 and used it for a clean installation of SCOM 2012 R2. In this TechNet article we find even this sentence…
Use this information to evaluate if your SQL Server environment is ready to support the installation of or upgrade to System Center 2012 R2. Use this information whether you are deploying one or multiple components of System Center.
(Source)
So there is no doubt, that it is fully supported to install a clean installation of SCOM 2012 R2 on SQL Server 2014.
BUT I found a comment from Kevin Holman on his blog, and he says here:
I am not sure what I should believe now . There is a clear statement from Kevin Holman saying, it is not supported to use SQL 2014 for a clean SCOM 2012 R2 installation, only if we would migrate the databases with SCOM 2012 R2 UR5 installed. His comment makes sense from a technical standpoint, but it says the opposite from the above TechNet article as far I understand.
Now what does the real world experience say? Is it possible to install a clean copy of SCOM 2012 R2 installation on SQL Server 2014? Yes. I did not hit any problems installing the databases OperationsManager and OperationsManagerDW. My setup was a single SQL Server 2014 Standard and added two SCOM 2012 R2 management servers without any UR’s. When I tried to install the reporting part of SCOM, we started the setup under non-administrative credentials and we had to rollback the reporting installation. After fixing the user credential issue, I had to use ResetSRS.exe to restore the SSRS instance. This also worked as expected on SQL Server 2014 SSRS instance.
When I tried to install the SCOM 2012 R2 console I needed to install Report Viewer 2012 Redistributable Package…
as described here…
But hold on one moment. I used SQL Server 2014, should I not use Report Viewer 2014 Redistributable Package? Hmm…I could not find any clear statement from Microsoft, so I tried to install Report Viewer 2014 Redistributable Package and then run the SCOM console install wizard again. But first I needed to find the Report Viewer 2014 Redistributable Package source. There is no download from Microsoft directly, so I searched the SQL Server 2014 sources for this program. Finally I found it in the 1033_ENU_LP\x64\Setup\ReportViewer.msi path
…and the required CLR types you will find in this directory 1033_ENU_LP\x64\Setup\x64\SQLSysClrTypes.msi…
After I installed the Report Viewer 2014 component, I re-run the wizard and it did not recognize this version…
So I installed the the Report Viewer 2012 Redistributable Package and everything worked as expected. After all SCOM 2012 R2 components were installed I updated the environment with UR6.
Conclusion:
You are able to install a clean copy of SCOM 2012 R2 using a single SQL 2014 Standard server. It is not supported, according to Kevin Holman, according to TechNet it sounds like that it is supported. If you apply at least the UR6 you are in a supported configuration mode according to Kevin Holman.
This is still everything confusing and I am trying to get some more insights from the product team. If I receive any update I will post it here.
If you need to install the SCOM 2012 R2 console you need to pick the Report Viewer 2012 Redistributable Package otherwise you will not be able to proceed.
Update 05.08.2015: Microsoft confirmed, that the installation of SCOM 2012 R2 RTM and SQL Server 2014 without any UR / CU is supported and works. Thanks to Suraj Suresh Guptha for clarifying! According to Microsoft at that point, when the TechNet article was initially written all System Center product required a fix which was in UR5 to work with SQL Server 2014. Later on the fix was not required for SCOM. That’s why there might be some confusion.
