UpGrading from SQL 2005 to 2012

  • Hi Guys,

    I have to upgrade my SQL Server from 2015 to 2012. the problem with me is the OS (Windows 2003) with which I cannot upgrade to 2012.

    So IT have to first install windows 2007 or higher and then a fresh installation of SQL 2012.

    Can you please guide me with the process I have to follow.

    things to remember:

    1. This is a replicated server so I don't want to rebuild the replication, is there a way we can stop replication for this subscriber and after rebuilding the server and attaching the DB's we can start the replication and it will pick it from where we stop it?

    2. the Disk is on SAN, so we are planning to just add the Drives to the new server with same name but still IT cannot guarantee so we need to take backup. now my problem is first stop the replication...take full backup of close to 1TB of DB's and then handover the server to IT ( this will take time). any other suggestions?

    3. what's the best way to script out all the jobs ? I don't want to script close to 50 jobs 1 by 1?

    Thanks in advance 🙂

  • As you say, you can not install SQL 2012 or above on Windows 2003. You need Windows 2008 or above to install these versions of SQL Server.

    I have some questions you should be asking yourself and your management - no need to answer them on the forum...

    1) Why are you considering SQL 2012, and not upgrading direct to SQL 2014? You get many more new features in SQL2014, and it will give you a stable platform for innovation for the next 4 years. SQL 2012 should already be considered as obsolete.

    2) Why are you considering any OS lower than Windows 2012 for your new SQL Server. With a new build you should go direct to Windows 2012 R2. This gives you better performance than Windows 2008 R2 or lower, and significant improvement in networking.

    3) What is your main design point for the upgrade. Is it short term cost minimisation, or risk minimisation that could help keep your business running. Your current plan seems to be based on cost, and bypasses the risks that things may not work cleanly at cut-over which would cost your business far more than a bit of disk space saving.

    To do the upgrade, you should consider to build and test your new server while keeping your old server running. You can add your new server as a subscriber into your replication topology, then at cut-over simply stop replicating to your old server. This will mean you need disk space for an extra copy of your production databases, but minimises risk that things may not work.

    It is also worth looking at SQL P2P replication. We currently use this between our data centres to provide load sharing, high availability and DR. Many of the published issues with P2P can be eliminated by designating one server to receive all the write traffic, while using all the P2P servers for read traffic. We do this using a DNS vanity name to identify which server should get the write traffic, and this has avoided any re-write of our applications to cope with multiple-site update.

    If your publisher is on SQL 2005 then you can not have a SQL 2012 subscriber or a SQL2012 P2P node. In this case you will have to upgrade to SQL 2008 R2, then make another upgrade to SQL 2014.

    Original author: https://github.com/SQL-FineBuild/Common/wiki/ 1-click install and best practice configuration of SQL Server 2019, 2017 2016, 2014, 2012, 2008 R2, 2008 and 2005.

    When I give food to the poor they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor they call me a communist - Archbishop Hélder Câmara

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