Windows Server 2003 Migration Planning Assistant - SQL Server

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The dive into the Migration Planning Assistant continues this week, starting with SQL Server.

Upgrade on new hardware

The current version of SQL Server is SQL Server 2014, and significant new features and improvements have been developed over the years. SQL Server 2014 runs on Windows Server 2012 R2.

You will need to consider which version(s) of SQL Server you have on Windows Server 2003/R2. The following list shows migration paths:

  • SQL Server 2000: Migrate to SQL Server 2014 via SQL Server 2008
  • SQL Server 2005: Upgrade to SP4, and then migrate to SQL Server 2014
  • SQL Server 2008: Upgrade to SP3 or later, and then migrate to SQL Server 2014
  • SQL Server 2008 R2: Upgrade to SP1 or later, and then migrate to SQL Server 2014

You will likely need to purchase new hardware to run SQL Server 2014 and Windows Server 2012 R2.

Technologies involved with this solution:

SQL Server 2014
Windows Server 2012 R2
Physical Server

Top Considerations:

Confirm that running this workload on a physical server is required. Running workloads as Virtual Machines offer more flexibility and tend to be more cost effective.

Upgrade on virtual machine

The current version of SQL Server is SQL Server 2014, and significant new features and improvements have been developed over the years. SQL Server 2014 runs on Windows Server 2012 R2.

You will need to consider which version(s) of SQL Server you have on Windows Server 2003/R2. The following list shows migration paths:

  • SQL Server 2000: Migrate to SQL Server 2014 via SQL Server 2008
  • SQL Server 2005: Upgrade to SP4, and then migrate to SQL Server 2014
  • SQL Server 2008: Upgrade to SP3 or later, and then migrate to SQL Server 2014
  • SQL Server 2008 R2: Upgrade to SP1 or later, and then migrate to SQL Server 2014

You will likely need to purchase new hardware to run SQL Server 2014 and Windows Server 2012 R2.

Technologies involved with this solution:

SQL Server 2014
Windows Server 2012 R2
New hypervisor

Top Considerations:

Licensing and datacenter benefits:

License individual VMs, and when licensing per core, buy core licenses only for the virtual cores assigned to the VM.

License for high VM density by buying Enterprise Edition core licenses and Software Assurance for all the physical cores on the server (or server farm) and deploying an unlimited number of VMs on the licensed hardware. Without Software Assurance , VM density is limited to one VM per Enterprise Edition core license.

For more information, go to
https://download.microsoft.com/download/6/1/D/61DDE9B6-AB46-48CA-8380-D7714C9CB1AB/Best_Practices_for_Virtualizing_and_Managing_SQL_