SQL 2012 Cluster with SQL 2008 R2 Cluster

  • I am planning a clustered SQL 2012 instance on a Windows Server 2008 R2 cluster which already hosts a Production SQL 2008 R2 clustered instance.

    I am aware that I will need a separate set of SAN drives, a separate IP, and will configure the Max Memory settings to that the total memory used by the two instances plus the OS should not exceed the installed RAM when both instances are running on the same server.

    I am thinking that the best approach would be to run the SQL 2012 clustered installation on the passive node. Then when I can failover the 2008 R2 instance, perform the the SQL 2012 installation on the other instance, completing the installation.

    Is that a viable high-level view of the process? Are there any "gotchas" in this process that I wouldn't have dealt during my previous experience installing SQL 2008 R2 clusters (by themselves)?

  • Your proposal should be fine as its not really any different to adding a secondary SQL 2008 SQL Cluster.

    What you can do is take the passive node out from the available nodes property for the SQL Server 2008 clustered instance whilst you install the SQL 2012 cluster, obviously add it back in once your install is complete, this will prevent the SQL Server on the active node failing automatically to the passive node, however it will limit your HA at that time.

    One other thing to watch for is SSIS, you cannot have two different SSIS versions installed on the same machine so if you plan to use SSIS for both this would not be possible as far as I am aware.

    MCITP SQL 2005, MCSA SQL 2012

  • Good point about SSIS. Is SSIS 2012 compatible with SQL 2008 R2? In other words can SSIS 2012 run packages created in VS 2008 to load data into the 2008 R2 instance?

  • For any packages we had that were developed in 2008 have been upgraded to 2012 so they can be stored in the SSISDB.

    Im not 100% but I think I remember reading that only packages updated to 2012 can be stored in the SSISDB, but legacy packages can be stored in the file system \ msdb as before.

    MCITP SQL 2005, MCSA SQL 2012

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