SQL Server 2005 Default Port and Services
A reader wrote in with a two-part question: what is the standard default port for Microsoft SQL Server 2005, and what services are running after installation?
SQL 2005’s default port is 1433 for the first instance. Additional instances will be installed on other ports.
After installation, you can see what services are running by going into Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services, and look at the ones that start with “SQL Server”. Here’s a screenshot of a server with two instances of SQL Server installed:
SQL Server Services
Some services like SQL Server Browser are shared between all of the instances that you’re running on a server. Other services, like SQL Server (the engine itself), show up with one line running per instance along with the instance name in parenthesis. In the example here, we have an instance called CASEINSENSITIVE, and an instance called MSSQLSERVER (which is actually the default instance.)
During installation, there are checkboxes to choose which services you’d like to start. Keep in mind that if you want SQL Server Agent jobs to run automatically, you need to set the SQL Server Agent service to automatically start. In the Services control panel in this screen shot, right-click on the SQL Server Agent service, choose Properties, and change the start type to automatic as opposed to manual or disabled.
This control panel can also be used to change which service account the SQL Server services run under. Do not use the control panel for this purpose, though: during installation, SQL Server makes configuration changes to grant the service account specific permissions. If you change the account in this screen, you’ll bypass that setup, and SQL Server may not start correctly.
