Ultimate guide for upgrading to SQL Server 2008

Last week, our SQL Server engineering team in association with Solid Quality Mentors released an unprecedented 490-page free whitepaper called SQL Server 2008 Upgrade Technical Reference Guide that provides in-depth information on how to upgrade to SQL Server 2008. The guide can be downloaded from here, and the following is a listing of topics covered in each chapter:

  • Chapter 1 (Pages 17-68)

Overview of technical issues and decisions involved in upgrading to SQL Server 2008, as well as recommendations for planning and deploying an upgrade.

  • Chapter 2 (Pages 69-90)

Addresses issues related to upgrading to SQL Server 2008 Management Tools.

  • Chapters 3-8 (Pages 92-243)

Upgrade issues for SQL Server relational databases.

Chapter 3: Relational Databases (Pages 92-117)
Chapter 4: High Availability (Pages 118-181)
Chapter 5: Security (Pages 182-198)
Chapter 6: Full-Text Search (Pages 199-210)
Chapter 7: Service Broker (Pages 211-216)
Chapter 8: Transact-SQL Queries (Pages 217-243)
Chapter 9: Notification Services (Pages 244-251)

  • Chapter 10 (Pages 252-270)

Upgrading to SQL Server 2008 Express

  • Chapters 11-14

Upgrading to SQL Server 2008 Business Intelligence components: Analysis Services, Data Mining, Integration Services, and Reporting Services.

Chapter 11: Analysis Services (Pages 271-302)
Chapter 12: Data Mining (Pages 303-329)
Chapter 13: Analysis Services (Pages 330-420)
Chapter 14: Reporting Services (Pages 421-468)

  • Chapter 15 (Pages 469-477)

Implications of upgrading to SQL Server 2008 for other Microsoft applications and platforms.

  • Appendix 1

Detailed table of allowed SQL Server 2008 version and edition upgrade paths.

  • Appendix 2

Upgrade planning checklist.

Additional Resources