Using Citavi for DBServer with Microsoft SQL Server Express

Citavi for DBServer requires Microsoft SQL Server. If you can't use Citavi for DBSever on your organization's Microsoft SQL Server or if no Microsoft SQL Server is available, use Microsoft® SQL Server® Express. Other SQL servers, such as MySQL are not supported.

Microsoft® SQL Server® Express is the free edition of Microsoft SQL Server. This table shows the main differences between the versions. For additional differences see this Microsoft page.

SQL Server Express

SQL Server - other editions

Price

Free

Must be purchased

Maximum memory utilized

1.4 GB

Up to the operating system maximum

Maximum relational database size

10 GB

524 petabytes

Citavi does not require a lot of memory or a large database. So, even though SQL Server Express comes with memory and database size limitations, it can still be used with hundreds of users and a large number of projects.

Downloading and Extracting Microsoft® SQL Server® Express

Please note:

Before installing Citavi for DBServer, please make sure that .NET framework 4.8 (or later) is installed on the computer. If necessary, download the update from the Microsoft website and install it before starting the installation of Citavi for DBServer.

  1. On the computer on which Microsoft® SQL Server® Express will be installed, log in to Windows with a domain account that has administrator rights. An account without administrator rights that is "elevated" by UAC after starting the setup will not work.
  2. On the Microsoft download page, download the Setup for Microsoft® SQL Server® Express. Save the Setup file and then run it. (Alternatively, log in to my.visualstudio.com and activate the free Visual Studio Dev Essentials subscription. Under "Downloads" download the relevant setup file.)

Start SQL Server Express for Citavi Setup

Install Citavi if you haven’t already done so. You can download the current setup file from www.citavi.com/download. The following steps can be carried out without your own Citavi license. Launch the Citavi helper tool to install SQL Server Express by double-clicking the file SQL Server Express for Citavi Setup.exe, which you’ll find in the program folder \Citavi 7\bin\. The wizard will guide you through the rest of the installation. After completing the installation, use Citavi DBServer Manager to continue the setup.