Upgrade from Windows Server 2003 Standard to Enterprise Edition

[Davidg12]

We have Windows Server 2003 Standard edition installed on a box that supports
several SQL Server 2005 Enterprise database applications. We are running out
of memory and found that the standard edition has a 4 GB limit on RAM. AS
such, we need to upgrade to Windows Server 2003 Enterprise 32 bit in order to
allow additional RAM to be installed. My question is: Can we install Windows
Server 2003 Enterprise directly over the Standard edition? If so, are there
any limitations or potential problems with SQL Server 2005? Or, do we need to
install Windows Server 2003 Enterprise directly from scratch and then install
SQL Server? Thank you.

David

 

[Ryan Hanisco]

You'll find the MS upgrade paths chart here:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/evaluation/whyupgrade/supportedpaths.mspx

I would agree wiht this that the best policy is not to do an in-place
migration. You should look at moving to other hardware as a better option.
No matter what you decide to do, backup all of your databases and move the
backups to a safe location just in case.

If you are doing the upgrade in place, you'll want to detach the databases
and stop SQL. You should be ok reattaching when you are done, but if you do
have to reinstall SQL you'll have an easier time this way.

Best Wishes.
--
Ryan Hanisco
MCSE, MCTS: SQL 2005, Project+
Chicago, IL

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"Davidg12" wrote:

> We have Windows Server 2003 Standard edition installed on a box that supports
> several SQL Server 2005 Enterprise database applications. We are running out
> of memory and found that the standard edition has a 4 GB limit on RAM. AS
> such, we need to upgrade to Windows Server 2003 Enterprise 32 bit in order to
> allow additional RAM to be installed. My question is: Can we install Windows
> Server 2003 Enterprise directly over the Standard edition? If so, are there
> any limitations or potential problems with SQL Server 2005? Or, do we need to
> install Windows Server 2003 Enterprise directly from scratch and then install
> SQL Server? Thank you.
>
> David
>

 

[Rob (Microsoft)]

Back up your databases before doing the upgrade

"Davidg12" wrote:

> We have Windows Server 2003 Standard edition installed on a box that supports
> several SQL Server 2005 Enterprise database applications. We are running out
> of memory and found that the standard edition has a 4 GB limit on RAM. AS
> such, we need to upgrade to Windows Server 2003 Enterprise 32 bit in order to
> allow additional RAM to be installed. My question is: Can we install Windows
> Server 2003 Enterprise directly over the Standard edition? If so, are there
> any limitations or potential problems with SQL Server 2005? Or, do we need to
> install Windows Server 2003 Enterprise directly from scratch and then install
> SQL Server? Thank you.
>
> David
>