Great, thanks alot. It makes sense. I am meeting the Lutron rep tomorrow to sign up. Hopefully then we can get our hands on the new software to check it out. RA2 sounds awesome from everything I have read so far.

So I was able to get the software loaded on an employees computer but now I cant get the main repeater to activate because it keeps failing on updating the firmware.

3 wasted days ONSITE and the client is losing patience.

Any ideas?

Call your Lutron rep, and Lutron Tech Support.

I unppugged the repeater a couple of times and it worked. I found that you need to have the repeater manually set as the main before you activate it. The software, although very easy to work with, still has it's share of bugs.

This from Lutron if you having trouble downloading Essentials

If the RadioRA 2 installation or RadioRA 2 program displays any error message about Microsoft SQL
Server 2008, please try the following procedure:
1) Navigate to the Windows Control Panel to “Add or Remove Programs” (on Windows XP) or
“Uninstall a program” (on Windows Vista and Windows 7)
2) Remove/uninstall the RadioRA 2 program
3) Remove/uninstall all references to Microsoft SQL Server. This can include the following items:
WARNING!!! Other software installed on your computer may depend on a specific instance
of SQL Server. You may have to reinstall this software for it to work properly after
performing these steps.
a. Microsoft SQL Server 2008 *
b. Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Browser
c. Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Management Objects
d. Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Native Client
e. Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Setup Support Files
f. Microsoft SQL Server 2005 *
g. Microsoft SQL Server Native Client
h. Microsoft SQL Server Setup Support Files
i. Microsoft SQL Server VSS Writer
* Note: You may need to run steps a & f multiple times to remove each instance that is
installed on the machine.
4) Reinstall the RadioRA 2 program
How can I participate in helping Lutron further improve the RadioRA 2
Essentials software installation process?
After a failed installation, please zip up and email the following folders to [email protected]
for analysis. Make the email’s subject contain “Failed RadioRA 2 installation files”:
1) C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Setup Bootstrap\Log\
2) C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.RADIORA2\MSSQL\Log\

Does anyone know what other software would rely on MS SQL Server?

That list would be endless...

But a few you might have as an integrator

Microsoft Business Contact Manager
Bid Magic
DTools Latest Version?

A lot these types of solutions use their own instance, so a little hard to find on a default install.

thank you very much, appreciated