I agree with the 2 previous posts. I'd just take it out of the AG for your outage in that server room and add the DBs back once it's...

prem.m38 (10/4/2016)

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Hi Kris,

I want keep my secondary database in standby/read-only mode,will the same process work for standby mode??

Or till differential restore Can I keep my secondary in No Recovery and...

If you want to get tricky with it, you can leave the primary DB in SIMPLE mode during the FULL backup. I've done this on a 3.5TB and had...

Patching the instance does shut it down the 'proper' way and restarts it.

The 'proper' way to shut down an instance is pretty much anything besides going and killing the process...

There's no real need to shut down the instance externally. When you apply a SQL patch, the software will restart the instance for you by itself.

Why Evaluation edition, in any case? It has a time limit, why not just go to developer edition and not have to worry about it?

I'm not entirely sure but I don't think evaluation edition can be upgraded. It's not listed in the supported upgrade paths from MS.

Might I offer a suggestion? Try...

In SQL Server 2014, you must have SA (Software Assurance) for a standby or passive node. This includes DR.

We no longer get 'free standby' servers, unfortunately.

bfortner (8/26/2015)

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You can't upgrade from 2005 to 2012 or above. You will have to go to 2008 first, and then to 2014.

Edit: It appears you can go to 2012 from...

I would just change it from Config Manager as stated above. I've done this before and using PoSH is overcomplicating things.

I, personally, recommend a clean restart of...

Alot of it depends on what kind of DBA you'd like to be. There's many different paths including architecture, development, operations, devops, etc.

I'm more passionate about operations/high availability so...

-Correct

-Sort...

One thing which is not mentioned: You can only restore 2008+ in SQL 2014, if you have a SQL2005 (or SQL2000 :w00t: database), you'll have to restore it first to...

If you're doing 2014 on Server 2012, you'll need to install .NET 3.5 from the Server 2012 installation media, if it hasn't already been done.

Here's a link to the quick...

I agree with all above, it definitely depends on how much data you have and how much you think it will grow. Don't use %s, at all, ever.

Sidebar, if...