possible to move system dbases to a new machine?

[groovin]

hi, i was wondering if it's possible to move the system dbases (master, msdb, and so on) to another new server? The old server was NT4 with SQL Server 2000 sp2... the new server is Win2k3 with SQL Server 2000 sp2. is there anything in the system dbases that would prevent them from running on a new server (like network names, or other info specific to the old server?)

thanks!

 

[fredericofonseca]

unless you have created some code for it, or some linked servers are referring to that server by IP/name, and these get changed, then you should not have any problem as long as

1- All drives letters remain the same
2- You copy all your data files and directory structures to the new server.


Reason behind this is, for example, the fact that you may have some jobs (DTS packages for example) that are writin job logs to certain places, or that are reading/writing files to local drives/folders, and if these do not exist then you will have to change all code.

Regards

Frederico Fonseca
SysSoft Integrated Ltd

http://www.syssoft-int.com

 

[timscronin]

Just did this last week, a few other things
if you have any pai memory settings, they need to be the same when you first bring up the new box as they were before, and the boot.ini file needs to be the same, you can change them later. You can change OS, we went from Win 2000 to 2003, but you need to have the same SP level for sql server

 

[groovin]

thanks for the advice guys,

1- All drives letters remain the same

yes, the drives will have the same letters.

2- You copy all your data files and directory structures to the new server.

sql server is installed on C: the logs are in D: and the databases are on E:... I'll copy over the contents of D and E exactly as they are... but do I need to copy over the entire C:\program files\microsoft sql server directory or parts of it as well?

thanks again!

 

[SQLBill]

How can you have Windows 2003 with SQL Server SP2? It doesn't like that and is unsupported by Microsoft. You need to have at least SP3a on Windows 2003.

-SQLBill

Posting advice: FAQ481-4875

 

[timscronin]

You need to upgrade to SQL sp3 ASAP,

 

[groovin]

SQLBill, yeah the first thing sql server installation told me was that it needs sp3a... so i figured i'd get all the databases moved over and then upgrade to sp3a...

otherwise this server isnt actually in use except for me moving databases over and so far, nothings exploded (yet).

 

[fredericofonseca]

you only need your database files, and any other folder structure required by any SP or DTS package you run.

Regards

Frederico Fonseca
SysSoft Integrated Ltd

http://www.syssoft-int.com