Moving SQL to a new array 1

[SQLBill]

I know I'm probably missing something obvious, but...

We are moving our SQL Server 2000 to a new set of hard drives. I can detach the user databases, but the master, msdb, and tempdb can not be detached. I can put them into single-user mode via OSQL.

Issue: we are going to copy the files over from one array to the other. My understanding is that you can only copy the .mdf and .ldf files if they are detached. Is this true? If so, how do I detach the master, msdb, and tempdb databases or does putting them in single-user mode do the same thing?

-SQLBill

 

[tlbroadbent]

You'll have to stop the SQL Service in order to move the master database. See the following link for complete details about moving system databases.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=224071

If you want to get the best answer for your question read faq183-874 and faq183-3179.
Terry L. Broadbent - DBA
SQL Server Page:

http://tlbroadbent.home.attbi.com/sql/sql_articles.htm

 

[SQLBill]

Thanks Terry,

The big thing here is that we are NOT moving SQL to new directories, new drives letters, etc. We are just moving to a new set of hard drives that are being built the exact same way the original ones are set up. So, I'm thinking stopping services and just copying the data over will work. But I wanted to have that 'warm and fuzzy' feeling that it was going to work.

Well, it happens today. I'll let everyone know what we did and how it worked.

-SQLBill

 

[SQLBill]

Here's the update (after working 36 hours of overtime). SQL Server and my data came up just fine. If you are moving SQL Server databases to a new set of hard drives and nothing else is changing (drive letters stay the same), then all you need to do is stop the services and copy everything over. I didn't even have to reload SQL Server, just copied all the files over to the hard drives.

We did have major hardware issues, but that wasn't caused by SQL Server.

Thanks for all the inputs.

-SQLBill