February 1, 2012 at 1:56 pm
I'm hoping for some clarification on SQL 2008 R2 cluster instance upgrades. I have an existing SQL 2005 Standard x64 cluster instance with 2 nodes running Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise. There are 3 instances on the cluster. I need to upgrade one of these instances to SQL 2008 R2. I want to perform an inplace upgrade on this instance for two reasons:
1. I don't want to reconfigure 100's of client computer connections
2. There are current SAN space limitations that are preventing me from creating a new SQL 2008 instance and migrating.
I'm not understanding if, in SQL 2008 R2, an inplace upgrade is truly an inplace upgrade or a migration. I see a lot of information about SQL 2008 is setup "side-by-side" SQL 2005. For example, Full Text Search upgrade http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms142490(v=sql.100).aspx. The article states:
For an in-place upgrade, an instance of SQL Server 2008 is set up side-by-side with the old version of SQL Server, and data is migrated. If the old version of SQL Server had full-text search installed, a new version of full-text search is automatically installed.
In a cluster, each SQL instance needs Name, IP and Disk resources. What does "SQL Server 2008 is set up side-by-side with the old version of SQL Server" mean? Does this mean I really need a new SQL clustered instance or does it sit side-by-side on the existing instance? If I do need a new instance I will need to wait to perform the upgrade until the SAN is upgraded.
Thanks in advance for helping clear the fog.
February 2, 2012 at 3:17 am
An in place upgrade is what it says. All binaries and databases are upgraded in situ. Its generally not best practice as if it goes wrong you will have uninstall, clean up and rebuild the whole instance from backups and scripts.
Ensure you do at least the following:
-Script all jobs
-Sp_rev_logins all to script logins
-Script server role membership.
-Back up all databases
-Document all server settings
You could also consider doing a side by side migration and simple detach the data files and reattach them to the new instance. This would require minimal extra space. In the event of a roll back you would still have to restore the databases from a backup but this would require far less reconfiguration time.
To reconfigure all the clients could you ask your domain admin to send out a registry file containing a new SQL Alias until all client configurations can be changed?
February 2, 2012 at 6:33 am
MysteryJimbo,
Thanks for clarifying. This is, much to my dismay, a bit of a rush job. The DB/application are related to the upcoming tax season. It had been sitting there for some time and no one touched it. My customer came to me just the other day to explain the situation and state it's urgency.
I would have liked to done either 1) a migration or 2) upgrade in a test environment before doing the real thing. But time and SAN space are preventing that. The SAN will be upgraded soon, but this needs to be done yesterday.
I appreciate your advice regarding the scripts and etc. I have also found this article http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Clustering/74804/ which should be very helpful. I think I have found my new favorite website 😀
Thanks again.
Viewing 3 posts - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply