upgrading and virtualizing

[Zen216]

Hi Everyone,
My next project is to move my 2 SQL db servers over to my VMware enviroment, so I can free up those boxes, and have them utilize the SAN. So, I really don't want to screw it up, since it is production data, and that would be bad. I also dont want to do it twice or create more work, since we are also looking at the SQL upgrade real soon. I believe the new SQL has to run on 64bit windows, right? So, if I clone the current servers, (they are on 32-bit windows 2003) then I would sill need to create a new 64-bit vm when I upgraded,,, right? Would it be better to just create a new 64-bit windows machine, new SQL right away, and then migrate the data over to the new servers? And if so what is the best wat to do so. At teh end of the day, the servers also need to keep the same names, etc, so the applications won't freak out. Right now we are running SQL 2000, and plan on going to 2008. Thank You

 

[wbodger]

I have a very similar issue, but have found that we utilize some DLLs that are either not supported within SQL 2008R2 or Windows 2008R2. Personally, I think it is much cleaner to create a new instance and migrate the data over. This can be tricky if you have on OLTP database as it will require down time, but it will give you the cleanest install. Ideally, I believe you will want to migrate/update any DTS packages, setup the users and the do one final data refresh before switching everything over.

wb