Choose the right SQL Collation during installation

During SQL Server installation you must choose which SQL Collation will be installed. With ConfigMgr 2012 there is just one choice which will work: SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS. See my other blogpost about "SQL Server requirements for ConfigMgr 2012 installation" for that HERE. With OpsMgr 2012 it seems you have the choice between Latin1_General_CI_AS and SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS during installation. Unfortunately that isn't the case. For OpsMgr 2012 the SQL Collation must also be SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS.

This because the information on "Supported Configurations: System Center 2012 - Operations Manager" contains wrong information. It mentions: "SQL Server collation settings for all databases must be one of the following: SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS, French_CI_AS, Cyrillic_General_CI_AS, Chinese_PRC_CI_AS, Japanese_CI_AS, Traditional_Spanish_CI_AS, or Latin1_General_CI_AS. No other collation settings are supported." This can be found HERE.

Can you still follow me? Well, the reason for that is because some functionality won't work on Latin1_General_CI_AS. With SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS you won't have an issue on that. The issue is especially seen on the reporting functionality in the OpsMgr Data Warehouse. There will be error messages then in the Reporting pane.

On "Clarification on SQL Server Collation Requirements for System Center 2012" the following message is displayed: The SCOM data warehouse installer will always install the data warehouse with SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS regardless of the SQL Server collation. Until this issue is fixed, please always install the SCOM operational database using SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS. There are some compatibility issues when the SCOM operational database is Latin1_General_CI_AS and the data warehouse DB is SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS. This can be found HERE.

I learned my lesson the hard way unfortunately. Just use the SQL Collation SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS for every new SQL Server installation used for Microsoft System Center 2012 components from now on! Pity that Microsoft displays wrong information on the Microsoft TechNet website on this specific topic.