April 1, 2003 at 6:55 am
We have prod. servers running sql 7.0 on NT 4.0. We want to upgrade it to SQL 2000 on windows 2000.
I was thinking of upgrading from NT 4.0 to win. 2000 and then upgrading SQL server.
Our NT staff is not comfortable with upgrading NT 4.0. They think rebuilding Operating system is better option.
This will wipe out whole SQL server. I am just worried about building same kind of environment after we rebuild O/S.
How easy it is to bring same SQL environment( restore Master, have same jobs, DTS packages, users, operators, Main. plans etc.) and make sure that it will work the same way?
is this a good approch(wipe out o/s) or Upgrade O/s is not a big deal?
Thanks for your help.
April 1, 2003 at 9:11 am
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Let me put this way... If I would have been in your shoes, I would first opt to implement the same on the Non-Prod segment before even thinking of touching the production servers. Particularly on NT side. Upgrading from NT 4.0 server to Win2K server sometimes becomes trouble some. It all depends on the hardware and also whether Win 2k likes or not... :)... </font id=blue>
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But in general, there are so many issues with upgrading from NT 4.0 to Windows 2000. You might want to do very good home work with MSTechnet and news groups before moving ahead with the installation.
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April 1, 2003 at 11:19 am
I agree that it's better to format and reinstall when you upgrade. The data in SQL, including packages, is pretty easy - I just stop the service, copy all the mdf/ldf to a different drive. Reinstall SQL to same location, stop service, rename the data folder, create new data folder and copy all the original mdf/ldf back, start the service. You do have to go through and record shares (can export from registry), disk permissions, other files you might have put on the server perhaps as part of jobs.
Andy
April 2, 2003 at 9:20 am
Hope I'm allowed to disagree somewhat. The databases mdf/ldf files including master, model, and msdb should be installed on drives seperate from the OS and SQL Server applciation. That said, I never move the mdf/ldf, instead I rename master, msdb and model. Format the OS and app drives, install the OS and service packs, install apps, service packs and hotfixes, verify the install, shut down swap the master and msdb back, then come back online.
A big gottcha is knowing what service packs and hotfixes are on your database before doing anything. And always of course have backups to go to. An outstanding and easily over looked point Andy
quote:
record shares (can export from registry), disk permissions, other files you might have put on the server perhaps as part of jobs"
In my opinion, file copies can be bulky, time consuming and offer more failure points.
quote:
I agree that it's better to format and reinstall when you upgrade. The data in SQL, including packages, is pretty easy - I just stop the service, copy all the mdf/ldf to a different drive. Reinstall SQL to same location, stop service, rename the data folder, create new data folder and copy all the original mdf/ldf back, start the service.
John Zacharkan
John Zacharkan
April 2, 2003 at 4:01 pm
Sorry John, but I didn't really understand how your suggestion was different than Andy's except for the renaming Master, msdb.
First of all why do we need to even rename it and is it possible at all to rename system database?
Thanks.
April 2, 2003 at 5:09 pm
Sorry for the confusion.
You rename the system mdf & ldf database files after the services are stop.
Andy mention copying all mdf and ldf files. If you have a 1.3 tb database where do you put it and why would you when you don't need to.
If you have 30-50 databases would you want to really move all them?
Instead Stop all SQL services rename the system mdf and ldf files. Do your OS thing install SQL apply SP's and patches, delete/rename system mdf & ldf files, rename the old system mdf & ldf files back. Follow Andy's other advice and start up SQL Server.
I've done this several times, no problems.
Quick note Andy is first rate SQL Server DBA, and his is advice is right on. Next to him I'm probably junior, maybe an assistant. I'm just offering an alternative method and how I do it.
Cheers
John Zacharkan
John Zacharkan
April 3, 2003 at 7:10 am
Thanks, John & Andy. This sounds good and really helpful.
Now since you mentioned about service Pack and hot fixes before upgrade here is what I am thinking.
- Take backups.
- Current version(7.0) have patches and fixes applied to that.
So Upgrade sql 7.0 to 2000 first. Do not apply any sql patches.
- Take backups.
- Stop services and rename/copy/ move .mdf & .ldf files.
- Do NT upgrade and patches etc.
- Install SQL server 2000 at same location.
- Do renaming stuff.
- Start SQL server. This should bring SQL server up.
- Apply SQL patches and do post-upgrade stuff (like updatestats etc. )
Does this sounds like a plan?
Thanks for your help on this. Appreciate that.
April 3, 2003 at 7:33 am
One quick question. Is "upgrating SQL7 to SQL2K on NT4.0" any different than "upgrating SQL7 to SQL2K on WIN2K" ??
What are the impacts, if they are different? Please do let us know, since I might run into this soon.
Also One another question: Could you please include SQL Server 6.5 as well in this while comparing the migration?
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