Appendix A. Upgrading to SQL Server 2005

Depending on the kind of person you are, you have probably arrived here from one of two places. You may be the type of person who likes to get all the information you can and then make a plan to implement what you have learned. If that sounds like your personality, you probably read the entire book and are here now to find out how to put it all to work.

On the other hand, you might be the kind of person who eats dessert first. When you get new software, you toss the manual to one side and start loading. Perhaps you even tried that with SQL Server 2005 and maybe you hit a glitch or two. So, you bought this book and turned to this chapter first.

Good newsthis section can help personality types. If you are here after reading the previous chapters in the book, you have gained some insights into how you want to implement your platform. You have learned all about the design decisions you need to consider. If you are here first, you can use this information as the first part of your system planning, as well as a guide for upgrading your test systems. This Appendix does not cover the same information contained in other chapters, so if you are reading this first, make sure you check out the other chapters to gain a complete understanding of all the choices you have during the upgrade.

Although I mention features such as Analysis Services, Notification Services, Reporting Services, Replication, and Clustering, this Appendix focuses on upgrading the database engine. Each feature has several upgrade caveats based on how it is installed now, and most features can be migrated or moved to SQL Server 2005 versions without disturbing the original system. In some cases, you do not have to upgrade the feature at all, keeping them on the same server as the 2005 version (which is called a side-by-side installation). You can find more about upgrading features such as Analysis Services and Data Transformation Services in Books Online after the base system is upgraded. Search on "Upgrading" and the feature name to find out more. Reporting Services and Analysis Services largely upgrade in place with few issues.