Does the lack of responses mean the steps above ARE the best way to do this?

First, contact the 3rd party vendors and ask if the versions of the app you're using supports 2008R2 or 2012.

Next, run the Upgrade Advisor for the SQL version you'd like...

Copy a full backup to the new server, restore with no recovery. Then do a differential backup, copy to the new server can restore with recovery. Take...

Questions for those of you building out the lab described in the 70-462 book:

Do you have several physical servers that you're building this on, or are you all invested in...

How about in a WHERE EXISTS clause?

According the the Querying SQL2012 exam prep book, a SELECT * inside an EXISTS clause returns true or false only - not all all...

sys.sql_modules worked great. Thanks!

I don't believe a serveradmin can query data in user databases unless given specific database level permissions to do so. This allows you to completely separate server admin...

Don't the settings in tools -options->open object Exlporer affect the local workstation only?

sneumersky's solution using MSDB Roles works partially, because it does allow users to be able to run, edit or create Agent jobs without being a sysadmin, but it has limitations.

1)...

Do the server nodes have 3rd party client software installed on them?

If the application is failing to connect but here is no failed login attempt in the SQL log, I'd verify the instanace name is correct on the applicaiton side, and...

I was hoping to update the binaries on the C: drive, then deal with the SAN drives issue afterward.

Unfortunately the Microsoft documentation for installing CUs is sparce. Also on our nonProduction server the SP and CU were installed on different dates, since the CU is to fix...

But you wouldn't miss an exam question because you picked the answer that left out the AS would you?

Is SSRS is not cluster-aware, can it be made highly available?