AgWare MGR requires the installation of SQL server, and both SQL Server 2022 and 2025 are supported. If you need to run an older version of SQL, please contact AgWare so that we can discuss it. We do not have any specific server requirements outside of the standard Microsoft minimum server requirements which you can find here. The expected size of the database is less than 2 GB, so the server should have at least that much space plus room for your backup plan.
There are three options for installing SQL server:
- Use an existing or new full version of SQL Server. MGR does not require its own server. If you have an existing SQL Server, you can add a new database to that server. The cost of the MGR software does not cover any license fees for Microsoft SQL Server. Those will need to be purchased directly from Microsoft, or one of the free options needs to be used.
- SQL Server Express – Microsoft provides a free version of SQL Server called SQL Server Express. You can download SQL Server Express here. It is free for databases up to 10GB in size, which is much larger than MGR users should need.
- SQL Server LocalDB. LocalDB is a free, non-server, single user version of SQL Server. It can be used when a single user is running MGR on a single computer. This will not work on network drives and cannot be shared with other users. The main advantage is that no security setup is required. To install LocalDB use the same link for SQL Server Express.
When installing SQL Server, we also recommend installing SQL Server Management Studio. This is a free tool from Microsoft that can be downloaded here. This will be needed to create a new database and configure the security for the database. Other third-party tools are also available for these tasks. This is only needed on the server and any IT admin computers.
Client computers will also need the SQL Server ODBC Driver version 18 installed. You can download that from Microsoft here. In almost all cases, you will install the (x64) version of the driver. This is needed on every computer that has the MGR client software installed.