In-Place Upgrade or Migration

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In-Place Upgrade or Migration

Jim Youmans-439383

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February 27, 2017 at 10:53 pm

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Comments posted to this topic are about the item In-Place Upgrade or Migration

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sqlstad SSCrazy Points: 2484 More actions · Answer 1

I would in most cases choose to migrate to another server.
During the years there are always new insights how to best configure the system, maybe you want to rearrange drives to make it a more logical setup.
And foremost I've had too many issues with in place upgrades creating all kinds of errors.

Another great factor is that in some cases you can leave the databases on the old system in a read-only state making it possible to let the application run as long as possible.

Migrating to another server has become a whole lot simpler with the right tools.
I don't want to advertise anything but the Start-Migration function in the PowerShell dbatools module has really made a difference.

fleet 10349 SSC Enthusiast Points: 160 More actions · Answer 2

Good article. I've done both upgrades and migrations and I favor the migration. In addition to the pros you mentioned if there are new features or functions in the application software using the database, migrating with new hardware and software gives you a training ground for your users to learn the changes before the go live date.

heb1014 Hall of Fame Points: 3790 More actions · Answer 3

I also favor migration. What we have done to address the issue with applications referencing the server name or even the IP address is to keep the same name and IP address. I'll set up a server with a new name, do the install and configuration and finally migrate. Then we take both down and re-name and re-IP the boxes. The service interruption is marginal to none (if we work off-hours).

David Todd SSC Veteran Points: 266 More actions · Answer 4

I've done a few in-place migrations on some virtual machines. Its a lot simpler if the upgrade isn't too big and the OS is aceptable. And the VM snapshot simplifies rollback - not that I've had to use it though.

Eirikur Eiriksson SSC Guru Points: 182916 More actions · Answer 5

sqlstad - Tuesday, February 28, 2017 3:27 AM
I would in most cases choose to migrate to another server.
During the years there are always new insights how to best configure the system, maybe you want to rearrange drives to make it a more logical setup.
And foremost I've had too many issues with in place upgrades creating all kinds of errors.
Another great factor is that in some cases you can leave the databases on the old system in a read-only state making it possible to let the application run as long as possible.
Migrating to another server has become a whole lot simpler with the right tools.
I don't want to advertise anything but the Start-Migration function in the PowerShell dbatools module has really made a difference.

dbtools are excellent but one might want to clean up some of the residuals rather than migrating everything.
😎

Shawn Melton SSC-Insane Points: 24685 More actions · Answer 6

Eirikur Eiriksson - Tuesday, February 28, 2017 12:29 PM
sqlstad - Tuesday, February 28, 2017 3:27 AM
I would in most cases choose to migrate to another server.
During the years there are always new insights how to best configure the system, maybe you want to rearrange drives to make it a more logical setup.
And foremost I've had too many issues with in place upgrades creating all kinds of errors.
Another great factor is that in some cases you can leave the databases on the old system in a read-only state making it possible to let the application run as long as possible.
Migrating to another server has become a whole lot simpler with the right tools.
I don't want to advertise anything but the Start-Migration function in the PowerShell dbatools module has really made a difference.
dbtools are excellent but one might want to clean up some of the residuals rather than migrating everything.
😎

The Start-SqlMigration is just a wrapper function for most of the Copy-____ functions. So you can piecemeal what you want to copy and what you want to leave. I rarely use the start functions to migrate customer servers for just a purpose/reason.

Shawn Melton
Twitter: @wsmelton
Blog: wsmelton.github.com
Github: wsmelton