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Downgrade SQL 2005 Enterprise Edition to SQL 2005 Standard Edition

  • May 18, 2007 at 11:02 am

    #120148

    Hello,

    We accidentally installed Enterprise Edition on our Production system instead of Standard Edition. We realised after we went live. I would like to know if there is any way we can Downgrade the version to Standard without Uninstalling Enterprise Edition and Re-Installing it. I'm looking for a solution with minimum downtime.

    Thanks.

  • September 11, 2007 at 5:00 am

    #732735

    *bump*

  • September 11, 2007 at 8:32 am

    #732807

    don't tell MS and don't fire any of your IT people so they won't suddenly get an urge to come forward to the BSA or MS

  • September 11, 2007 at 8:33 am

    #732808

    exec sp_update_resume


    * Noel

  • March 29, 2009 at 3:13 pm

    #968087

    Has anyone had any luck with this? We've done this on one of our servers by accident and wanted to downgrade to SQL Standard Edition. Are there any 'easy' ways of doing this?

    Cheers

  • March 30, 2009 at 2:34 am

    #968173

    Hey,

    SQL Enterprise edition is different by design from SQL standard edition but in 10 steps, here's a straight forward way to avoid expensive work and the lengthy error fixing in case one comes up:

    Request for downtime like 3-5 hours for this exercise depending on how fast your server is, then go ahead and perform the following tasks.

    1. Take users off your application & ensure that all transactions are complete.

    2. If you have many jobs that run frequently, simply stop SQL server agent so that nothing starts up automatically while you're trying to make major changes.

    3. Do a full database backup of your production databases, verify backups after. This is a good practice. Checking database integrity (data & index linkage) before backing up will show you the state of your database, hence reducing the risk of losing your data.

    4. If you want, script out your jobs and logins (use a procedure sp_help_revlogin from Microsoft for logins).

    5. Note the path of your production database files first, then detach your production databases.

    6. User database files are not deleted by uninstalling. Therefore uninstall the SQL Enterprise instance, restart the operating system.

    7. Install SQL Standard. I recommend you to apply the latest service pack at this point. A restart might be required.

    8. Note that user databases from an Enterprise SQL instance can be managed by one running SQL Standard. So, go ahead and attach the production databases.

    9. Viola! 😎 Now you have an SQL Standard instance running your production databases.

    10. If you scripted your jobs and logins, run your scripts to re-create them on the newly installed instance otherwise manually create logins and write your agent jobs.

    Let us know how it all goes.

    Regards,

    Chris Musasizi.

  • February 8, 2011 at 9:42 am

    #1283821

    Hi Murali, have you tried what SSC-Enthusiastic suggested?

    I don't know what happened here but we have the same situation and before anyone think it, it is nothing to do with me.

    Anyway I am about to carry out what sounds a very workable and hopefully succesfull procedure that SSC-Enthusiastic kindly suggested. Will update here soon after.

    Thanks

  • February 8, 2011 at 9:54 am

    #1283828

    First try it on a dev server and see how it goes before trying to do on a prod server.

    Regards,

    Sushant

    Regards
    Sushant Kumar
    MCTS,MCP

  • February 8, 2011 at 10:06 am

    #1283838

    Thanks Sushant for your suggestion, I don't know if I'll have the time and luxury of antoher system and tiral. That is why I am searching around to see if others have done this before and if it is a) it is possible and b) safe practice.

    I will be taking a server image using symantec's Live State Recovery product of the system image (windows 2003) and of the partition where SQL is installed. If things go drastically wrong I can put the server back as it was.

    Thanks

    Jawdat

  • February 9, 2011 at 12:31 am

    #1284229

    Hello good people,

    I tested my solution before I posted it here so I am speaking from experience which I am sharing.

    I manage a large number of database servers which I have upgraded, migrated, downgraded etc and I have used this very procedure on both standalone database instances as well as clustered instances.

    There could be a few issues arising especially if you do not restart your server after uninstalling, re-installing or patching so please take note and ensure that you restart your server(s) after each task that affects registry entries at the OS.

    Regards,

    Chris Musasizi

    Check out my profile on Experts Exchange

  • February 9, 2011 at 4:22 am

    #1284324

    Thanks Chris,

    I am a lot more reassured now. I'll go for it after scheduling the downtime for out of hours and will report back here.

  • February 10, 2011 at 8:05 am

    #1285219

    Are there any additional "gotchas" to be mindful of if the server you need to downgrade is being replicated to? In the 10 step process above, it just talks about copying over the logins and jobs to the new system databases. Couldn't you just keep the system databases from the enterprise edition to use on standard? Does anyone know if what "makes" a system enterprise/standard is stored in the databases itself or just in the registry?

  • February 10, 2011 at 11:27 am

    #1285369

    Here is more on this subject from the wonderful Mr. Bru who seem to have perfected it to a T.

    http://beyondrelational.com/blogs/brumedishetty/archive/2010/04/29/downgrading-sql-server-enterprise-edition-to-standard-edition.aspx

  • February 12, 2011 at 6:52 am

    #1286018

    LOL!! ha...ha... 😀

    ____________________________________________________________________
    Going in one more round when you don't think you can - that's what makes all the difference in your life --Rocky Balboa

    Believe you can and you're halfway there. --Theodore Roosevelt

  • February 12, 2011 at 6:53 am

    #1286019

    dougjjj (3/29/2009)

    sp_exec_update_resume

    Cheers

    LOL!! ha...ha... [BigGrin]

    ____________________________________________________________________
    Going in one more round when you don't think you can - that's what makes all the difference in your life --Rocky Balboa

    Believe you can and you're halfway there. --Theodore Roosevelt

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