Freigeben über

Upgrade from SQL Server Evaluation Edition to full blown editions?

  • Artikel

Well, the last month has been really hectic and I have been involved with a lot of stuff that I never planned for – as you can see, I didn’t get much of a chance to blog this month.

But now that things are back to normal pace, I am coming back!!!

Recently, one of my customers had an Eval edition of SQL 2005 which expired. But they had some critical data that they wanted to retain. I helped them out and thought will blog about it too.

Eval Edition of SQL 2005

SQL Server 2005 Evaluation edition provides the same functionality as the Enterprise Edition – however, it has a pre-set expiration date.

You can learn more about the eval edition and download it from here.

Upgrading from Eval Edition

In an ideal scenario, you would install SQL 2005 Eval edition to evaluate the features and then upgrade to the full blown versions (Standard or Enterprise Edition) for production use. For more supported upgraded paths from Evaluation Edition, refer to the Version and Edition Upgrades section at MSDN.

To perform an in-place upgrade of SQL 2005 Eval edition to other SQL Server 2005 full blown editions, simply run the setup and it will identify the existing installation, and will run an upgrade check. It will then let you know if the upgrade is possible or not. If the upgrade is possible, simply go through the setup wizard and it will automatically upgrade the already installed instance of eval edition.

Upgrade from Eval Edition 2005 after it has expired

Now, this becomes a little tricky. You have to first uninstall SQL 2005 Eval edition and then install the full blown edition on the machine.

In case you want to keep the existing databases, you can use the SAVESYSDB parameter at command prompt. For more information on this, refer to KB 914158

In case you are still running SQL 2000 Eval edition (I would doubt that), you can refer to KB 281574 for steps on how to upgrade the same to a full blown edition of SQL 2000.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    September 07, 2006
    Microsoft states:
    "... If upgrading to the fully licensed version of SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition, Workgroup Edition, or Developer Edition, it is recommended that you uninstall the 180-day trial version of SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition before installing the fully licensed version of the other editions..."

    See URL:
    http://www.microsoft.com/sql/downloads/trial-system-requirements.mspx

    So will the method for upgrading from eval edition as described above work for the standard edition?

  • Anonymous
    September 11, 2006
    It is recommended to uninstall the trail version, but not necessary.

    Sanchan

  • Anonymous
    September 14, 2006
    Does using SAVESYSDB preserve the stored procedures as well as the tables within the Databases?

  • Anonymous
    March 05, 2007
    How can I check the days left to expire SQL 2005 Evaluation!

  • Anonymous
    June 01, 2007
    Ram: We are using SQL 2005 Evaluation Copy in our shop and we have already setup production databases and jobs in it. Our evaluation copy is going to expire within 2 months and we are already getting notifications for the Enterprise Manager. Can any one of you please let me know whether I can install the full licensed version of the SQL server 2005 without losing the the Production Databases and Jobs. Also, how long the upgradation takes place. Does it require any outage. What are the simple & reliable steps that can be followed in this case. Please advise. Thanks Rama Kishore

  • Anonymous
    January 18, 2009
    PingBack from http://www.hilpers.it/2770367-ms-sql-server-2008-standard

  • Anonymous
    January 20, 2009
    PingBack from http://www.hilpers.com/347119-ablauf-der-sql-2005-testversion