Moving Instance to new Hardware (drive)

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Moving Instance to new Hardware (drive)

jparks-1090949

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Points: 137
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March 16, 2010 at 8:31 am

#137894

Hi,
I have a clustered environment with 2 instances: a and b. We are replacing the storage and I need to know the best way to move the instance (a and b) to the new storage. My thoughts:
SQL2005
Backup all databases
Detach user dbs
Detach system dbs
move Instance folder (mssqlA) to new drive
Attach system dbs
Attach user dbs
I'm testing these steps now in our dev environment. Thoughts/Suggestions/Gotcha's to know about?
Thanks.

Viewing 7 posts - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

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f_ernestog Ten Centuries Points: 1217 More actions · Answer 1

When we have upgraded the servers here that's the way we do it, but if you use replication you can set up the new server as a subscriber of it and synchronize all the data at first, them move the jobs, users, log ins and roles.

Frank.

jparks-1090949 SSC Enthusiast Points: 137 More actions · Answer 2

Using the method above what happens to my instance name? Will it stay the same (sorry it may be obvious but I'm asking to be sure)

Thanks.

f_ernestog Ten Centuries Points: 1217 More actions · Answer 3

I hope your apps have the server name in the connection string... 🙂 rather than the IP Address

Once everything is ready, you should turn off the old server, then rename the new one to be as the old one and restart it, the downtime is less than 10 minutes. If you have good IT people, you can ask them to create a DNS rule that will redirect all the traffic that goes to the old server name to go to the new one, in this case, the downtime is zero.

Make sure to sync the databases after you move to the new server, since the old server could have active connections on it that may or may not modify data. in order to do this, instead of shut down the old server, just rename it (e.g. to oldProductionSrvr) and then rename the new one, if you use the DNS to redirect the traffic it will be easier.

Frank.

Steve Jones - SSC Editor SSC Guru Points: 736212 More actions · Answer 4

You're not changing servers, right? I mean keeping the Windows hosts (names, IPs, etc.) the same? Just changing storage? I think your original plan makes sense if you are doing that.

I might keep the paths the same from Windows as I replace storage (using same drive letters) if possible.

jparks-1090949 SSC Enthusiast Points: 137 More actions · Answer 5

Right just adding a new drive for storage to replace the current drive (but after we move over the data we can change the drive back if that's required?)

thanks for the replies.

Steve Jones - SSC Editor SSC Guru Points: 736212 More actions · Answer 6

You can change it in Windows. That maps the drives to a particlar LUN/storage path.

Or if you do the detach, attach, as long as you don't have code referencing drives, such as main plans or something similar), you will be fine.