Specifications

Installation, Upgrade, and Migration Strategies CHAPTER 1 17
In-Place Upgrade Pros and Cons
The in-place upgrade strategy is usually easier and considered less risky compared to the
side-by-side migration strategy. Upgrading is also fairly quick, and additional hardware is not
required. Because the names of the server and instances do not change during the upgrade
process, applications still point to the old instances. As a result, this strategy is less time con-
suming, because there is no need to make changes to application connection strings.
The disadvantage is that there is less granular control over the upgrade process. For ex-
ample, when running multiple databases or components, a DBA does not have the exibility
to choose individual items for upgrade. Instead, all databases and components are upgraded
to SQL Server 2008 R2 at the same time. Note also that the instance remains ofine during
the in-place upgrade. This means that if a mission-critical database, an application, or an
important line-of-business application is running, a planned outage is required. Furthermore,
if a disaster transpires during the upgrade, the rollback strategy can be a complex and time-
consuming affair. A DBA might have to install the operating system from scratch, and then
install SQL Server and restore all of the SQL Server data.
SQL Server 2008 R2 High-Level In-Place Strategy
The high-level in-place upgrade strategy for upgrading to SQL Server 2008 R2 consists of the
following steps:
1. Ensure that the instance of SQL Server you plan to upgrade meets the hardware and
software requirements for SQL Server 2008 R2.
2. Review the deprecated and discontinued features in SQL Server 2008 R2. Refer to “SQL
Server Backward Compatibility” at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library
/cc707787(SQL.105).aspx for more information.
3. Ensure that the version and edition of SQL Server that will be upgraded is supported.
To review all the upgrade scenarios supported for SQL Server 2008 R2, see “Version and
Edition Upgrades” at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms143393(SQL.105).aspx.
4. Run the SQL Server Upgrade Advisor for SQL Server 2008 R2. The Upgrade Advisor is
a tool included with SQL Server 2008 R2 or downloaded directly from the Microsoft
Web site. It analyzes the installed components on the SQL Server instance you plan to
upgrade to ensure that the system supports SQL Server 2008 R2. The Upgrade Advisor
generates a report identifying anomalies that require xing or attention before the
upgrade can begin.
5. Install the SQL Server 2008 R2 prerequisites.
6. Begin the upgrade to SQL Server 2008 R2 by running Setup.