Upgrade sql 2005 environment to sql 2008

  • Hello,

    I have to upgrade a SQL 2005 box to SQL 2008 with jobs that run every 15 minutes. What approach should I take? I am a mid level SQL developer with some experience with DBA work, but I have never upgraded a SQL box before. Can someone please point me in the right direction or give some advice?

    Thanks

  • Upgrades are not as bad as some would try to make you think. The key is doing your home work.

    First I would use the UpGrade Advisor: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=11455

    Determine if you are going to upgrade in place or parallel. Meaning the same server or new server with migration. This fact will determine your approach. Make GOOD backups before you start as this is your only roll back option.

    Google is your friend in that you can find a wealth of information on this subject. Again, do your home work and pay attention to details. I have done this a number of times and execpt for one issue which was unrelated to the upgrade its self all went fine.

    Sorry that this post sounded like a pep talk. Good luck

  • Thanks very much for your response.

    Quick question, we do not have a DR environment set up, so how do you recommend I deal with the SQL jobs that run every 15 minutes on the production environment that I am upgrading?

  • You should find out what they are doing every 15 minutes, and what will or will not happen if they don't run for a while. You are going to have some period of un-availability during the upgrade, so it has to be determined where these jobs fit in.

    For example, are they pulling data from some other system, loading file from a share, etc. Once you know this information, then you can deal with the backlog as part of the overall upgrade plan.

  • Thank you very much for your time. This was helpful 🙂

    I would love to just kick it off and cross my fingers but we do not have DR. That is apparently another area where this company lacks. Our only DR is backups.

  • Glad to be of help. My current shop moves a lot of data back and forth from the mainframe, and we have lots of these jobs. In general, batch jobs should be disabled during an upgrade. They could kick in once the upgrade was complete, but before you have done your QA, and are ready to turn the server back to the application.

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