Do you want to safely upgrade or migrate to SQL Server 2012? This presentation will give you ideas on how to do this as safely as possible with the least downtime.

1. “Moves Like Jagger”
Upgrading to SQL Server 2012
Mark Broadbent
Principal SQL Consultant
SQLCloud
SQLCLOUD.CO.UK

2. About
Mark Broadbent
“Possibly the hardest drinking DBA on the planet”
“30 billion times more intelligent than a live mattress”
Email: mark.broadbent@sqlcambs.org.uk
Twitter: retracement
Blog: http://tenbulls.co.uk
PASS UK Regional Mentor
Event Lead to the UK’s first ever SQLSaturday (Cambridge)
Event #2nd due on Friday 27th Sept 2013 (pre-con) 28th Sept (Community day)
http://www.sqlsaturday.com/228/eventhome.aspx
Cambridgeshire PASS Chapter UG Leader http://sqlcambs.org.uk

3. Agenda
• Upgrade path
• Preparing and reporting for upgrade
• Upgrade strategies
• Measuring success
• Advanced scenarios

4. But first... why upgrade to 2012?
New Features
Move to 64-bit
New Hardware
Mainstream Support
Virtualization
Consolidation

5. SQL Failover Clustering enhancements
“My Favourite” New Features
AlwaysOn
Availability Groups
Contained
Databases
Local TempDB
Support
Multi Subnet
Clustering Support
Server Core
Support

6. Mainstream Support
Product Mainstream
Support End
Extended Support
End
Service Pack
Support End
Windows 2003 2010-07-13 2015-07-14 2009-04-14
Windows 2003R2 2010-07-13 2015-07-14 2009-04-14
Windows 2008 2015-01-13 2020-01-14 2011-07-12
Windows 2008R2 2015-01-13 2020-01-14 2013-04-09
SQL 2005 2011-04-12 2016-04-12 2007-07-10
SQL 2008 2014-07-08 2019-07-09 2010-04-13
SQL 2008R2 2014-07-08 2019-07-09 2012-07-10
http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/#ServicePackSupport

7. Supported Upgrade Path
SQL 2005 SP4
SQL 2008R2
SP1
SQL 2012
SQL 2008 SP2
SQL 2000
Requires staged
Upgrade to SQL 2005,
SQL 2008 /R2
Slipstream?

8. Edition Hierachy
• New Editions
• No Datacenter or
Workgroup Editions
• No AWE support
• No Itanium support
• Enterprise
• Business Intelligence
• Standard
Principal Editions
• Web
Specialized Editions
• Developer
• Express
• Express LocalDB
Breadth Editions
Evaluation Edition
Core Based Licensing
Server + CAL Licensing
Core Based or Server +
CAL Licensing

9. Database Upgrade
Demo

10. Preparing and Reporting for Upgrade
• Discover candidates for consolidation
• Document the candidates for upgrade
• Baseline existing candidates
• Load test new server
• Check new server configuration

11. Capture…
WaitStats
ApplicationLoad
LPIM
InstantFileInitialization StatementExecutiontimeQueryPlans
MAXDOP
CPUcount
ServerShares
NTFSSecurity PerformanceTrace
PartitionAlignment
RAIDStripeSize
NTFSClusterSize
SQLErrorlogs
Collation
BackupHistory
WindowsEventLogs

12. Discovery and Analysis Toolkit
SystemCenter
MAPToolkit
UpgradeAdvisor
UpgradeAssistant
TSQL
Profiler WMI
PowerShell
Msinfo32.exeCPU-Z
SQLIO SQLStress
SQLIOSim
DistributedReplay
fsutil
HardwareVendorTools
PerformanceMonitor

13. Upgrade Strategies
• Risky, direct change
• Backout can be difficult
• Definite downtime
• Side by side
• Risk to live instance
• Connectivity considerations
• Less risk, backout easier
• Upgrade requires less downtime
• Implement new features
• Can remove deprecated ones
Side By Side
In Place
Migration to New

14. Reporting for Upgrade
Demo

15. Moving SQL to Server Core
• How to install or upgrade?
• Configuration and management
• Performance Monitoring
• Restrictions

16. Considerations for moving SQL to AlwaysOn
Listener
? MSDTC MSDTC
Availability Group Considerations
SQL Failover Clustering
…and for both
Do you use a
listener?
No distributed
transactions.
Abstraction is
at the
database NOT
the instance.
Shared
storage and
cluster
validation
requirements
Windows
failover
Cluster
Do you
configure
node
weighting?

17. Summary
• Understand the reason for upgrade before leaping
• Always look to consolidation candidates
• Ensure you analyse your upgrade targets & destinations
• Retain useful historical metrics for future issues
• Understand your upgrade path
• Implement new capabilities to your advantage
• Aim to minimize downtime and maximize availability
• Be prepared for failure
• This is your neck on the line, be prepared and be careful!
• Good luck! 

18. (Don’t forget to fill in your evaluation forms!)
for attending this session and
SQLBits XI in Nottingham
Thank you

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