How to change SQL Collation for SQL Server 2008 R2

 

Have you ever been in a situation where you wanted to change the SQL Collation to match SQL Database Collation?? Last year I have posted a script that resolves this for SQL Server 2005, but the same syntax is not applicable for SQL 2008 R2, while investigating this I found the correct syntax that need to be used as below:

"E:\SQL\setup.exe" /QUIET /ACTION=REBUILDDATABASE /INSTANCENAME=MSSQLSERVER /SAPWD=P@ssW0rd /SQLCOLLATION=Arabic_CI_AI /SQLSYSADMINACCOUNTS="DAOUD-PC\DAOUD"

E:\SQL\setup.exe will need to be replaced with the locations of the SQL Server 2008 R2 setup.exe path.

MSSQLSERVER represents the default instance, if you have a named instance this must be changed to hold the instance name.

P@ssW0rd: is the new SA user password, it must be strong password or otherwise the repair will fail.

Arabic_CI_AI: is the new collation name.

DAOUD-PC\DAOUD need to be replaced with the local administrator of the server or PC you are installing the SQL on.

Paste above command into CMD and wait for 3-4 minutes, you will have your SQL Collation changed.

Warning: this operation will recreate your master database, were all existing setting will be reset, if you had databases attached it will be de-attached and will be found in the database folder.

---

Regards,
--
Mohammad R. Daoud MVP - MCT
MCP, MCBMSP, MCTS, MCBMSS
+962 - 79 - 999 65 85
me@mohdaoud.com
www.mohdaoud.com