Best way to migrate SQL Server

Firefly86

Firefly86

Firefly86

Associate
Joined
19 Jul 2006
Posts
258
Location
Gibraltar
Well, as per title.
Need to move current SQL server over to a nice new server xD

the current server setup is like :

C Drive
system files, program files etc
D Drive
Contains all SQL server information and other database log files etc.

What is the best way to clone the server including its partition information and database files, over to a new server :S

Any advice appreciated

EDIT - total size for all the files on the D drive is about 80GB
 
Last edited:
Install SQL server on the new server
Backup existing database to a .BAK
Unattach database from old server
Copy .MDF and .LDF (i think) files from old server
Attach new database from copied files.

Burnsy
 
hmm yea i spose...problem is it needs to be done out of office hours and id like to keep it as quick as possible.
Apart from that there are databases from both SQL server 2000 and SQL server 2005.

Im really not that knowledgeable with SQL I just do general maintenance of the databases adding users etc. So the above seems a little daunting :S

what u think?

EDIT - theres also a couple of proggies not installed by myself like Mailmeter, where they had to connect remotely to install, that I'd rather not have to reinstall :/

PS - thanks for help :)
 
Last edited:
I wouldn't image on a server, especially where reliability and performance are a must.

I would seriously suggest you do this properly and install all the apps and migrate the DB, the last thing you need are BSODs.

Burnsy
 
a bit out of the loop here ,the last time I imaged a server NT4 running SQL6.5 ,when I booted up the image the SQL services wouldn’t start ,had to image with some service disabled ,then enable them on the new image .

Could just be a NT4 ,SQL6.5 thing but be careful when imaging a server !

If you must go the image route ,and your running any sort of SCSI disk controller ,install the driver for the new server on the old server before imaging or it wont boot up.

I would rather take Burnsy’s advice .
 
Burnsy2023 said:
I wouldn't image on a server, especially where reliability and performance are a must.

I would seriously suggest you do this properly and install all the apps and migrate the DB, the last thing you need are BSODs.

Burnsy
Click to expand...

As stated, don't image for migrations - images are really only useful for recoveries onto the same or similar hardware.

Best to do it the right way now and avoid the pain of taking a shortcut.
 
hmm i spose i should have mentioned this then.
The old server is a DL360G4p the new server is a DL360 G5...reckon that would still give problems?
 
I would highly recommend against it, especially if you get unforseen errors in the future that seem to come out of nowhere. When your moving a whole OS from one system to another, you just can't account for everything.

Burnsy
 
Burnsy2023 said:
I would highly recommend against it, especially if you get unforseen errors in the future that seem to come out of nowhere. When your moving a whole OS from one system to another, you just can't account for everything.

Burnsy
Click to expand...

I would advise against imaging servers also.

I work very closely with IT Dept at school, and they recently got a new server which they wanted to replace an old server that ran server 2003 with Virtual Machines in VmVare for Moodle, ECDL Testing Software and minor apps such as the Gantt Project Software. All VmWare machines where Linux apart from the minor apps server which was Server 2003.

They imaged the server and within the first week it went down and was forced to do a re-install of everything.

And we use Moodle a lot for homework which is a core system. But they have an image for backup purposes now....rather than transfer.

It saves a lot of messing about, but as Burnsey pointed out it doesn't give stability and great performance.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom