“Moves Like Jagger”Upgrading to SQL Server 2012

Mark BroadbentPrincipal SQL Consultant

SQLCloudSQLCLOUD.CO.UK

About

Mark Broadbent“Possibly the hardest drinking DBA on the planet”“30 billion times more intelligent than a live mattress”

Email: mark.broadbent@sqlcambs.org.uk

Twitter: retracement

Blog: http://tenbulls.co.uk

PASS UK Regional Mentor

Event Lead to the UK’s first ever SQLSaturday (Cambridge)

Event #2nd due on Friday 27th Sept 2013 (pre-con) 28th Sept (Community day)

http://www.sqlsaturday.com/228/eventhome.aspx

Cambridgeshire PASS Chapter UG Leader http://sqlcambs.org.uk

Agenda

• Upgrade path

• Preparing and reporting for upgrade

• Upgrade strategies

• Measuring success

• Advanced scenarios

But first... why upgrade to 2012?

New Features

Move to 64-bit

New Hardware

Mainstream Support

Virtualization

Consolidation

SQL Failover Clustering enhancements

“My Favourite” New Features

AlwaysOnAvailability Groups

Contained Databases

Local TempDBSupport

Multi Subnet Clustering Support

Server Core Support

Mainstream Support

Product Mainstream Support End

Extended Support End

Service Pack Support End

Windows 2003 2010-07-13 2015-07-14 2009-04-14

Windows 2003R2 2010-07-13 2015-07-14 2009-04-14

Windows 2008 2015-01-13 2020-01-14 2011-07-12

Windows 2008R2 2015-01-13 2020-01-14 2013-04-09

SQL 2005 2011-04-12 2016-04-12 2007-07-10

SQL 2008 2014-07-08 2019-07-09 2010-04-13

SQL 2008R2 2014-07-08 2019-07-09 2012-07-10

http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/#ServicePackSupport

Supported Upgrade Path

SQL 2005 SP4

SQL 2008R2 SP1

SQL 2012

SQL 2008 SP2

SQL 2000

Requires staged

Upgrade to SQL 2005,

SQL 2008 /R2

Slipstream?

Edition Hierachy

• New Editions

• No Datacenter or Workgroup Editions

• No AWE support

• No Itanium support

• Enterprise• Business Intelligence• Standard

Principal Editions

• Web

Specialized Editions

• Developer• Express• Express LocalDB

Breadth Editions

Evaluation Edition

Core Based Licensing

Server + CAL Licensing

Core Based or Server + CAL Licensing

Database UpgradeDemo

Preparing and Reporting for Upgrade

• Discover candidates for consolidation

• Document the candidates for upgrade

• Baseline existing candidates

• Load test new server

• Check new server configuration

Capture…

Wait Stats

Application LoadLPIM

Instant File Initialization Statement Execution timeQuery Plans

MAXDOP

CPU count

Server Shares

NTFS Security Performance Trace

Partition Alignment

RAID Stripe Size

NTFS Cluster SizeSQL Errorlogs

Collation

Backup History

Windows Event Logs

Discovery and Analysis Toolkit

System Center

MAP Toolkit

Upgrade Advisor

Upgrade Assistant

TSQLProfiler WMI

PowerShellMsinfo32.exeCPU-Z

SQLIO SQLStress

SQLIOSimDistributed Replay

fsutil

Hardware Vendor Tools

Performance Monitor

Upgrade Strategies

• Risky, direct change• Backout can be difficult• Definite downtime

• Side by side• Risk to live instance• Connectivity considerations

• Less risk, backout easier• Upgrade requires less downtime

• Implement new features• Can remove deprecated ones

Side By Side

In Place

Migration to New

Reporting for UpgradeDemo

Moving SQL to Server Core

• How to install or upgrade?

• Configuration and management

• Performance Monitoring

• Restrictions

Considerations for moving SQL to AlwaysOn

Listener? MSDTC MSDTC

Availability Group Considerations

SQL Failover Clustering…and for both

Do you use a listener?

No distributed transactions.

Abstraction is at the database NOTthe instance.

Shared storage and cluster validation requirements

Windows failover Cluster

Do you configure node weighting?

Summary

• Understand the reason for upgrade before leaping

• Always look to consolidation candidates

• Ensure you analyse your upgrade targets & destinations

• Retain useful historical metrics for future issues

• Understand your upgrade path

• Implement new capabilities to your advantage

• Aim to minimize downtime and maximize availability

• Be prepared for failure

• This is your neck on the line, be prepared and be careful!

• Good luck!

(Don’t forget to fill in your evaluation forms!)

for attending this session and SQLBits XI in Nottingham

Thank you

Coming up…

#SQLBITS

Speaker Title Room

Fusion-io Quantifying the cost of Compression Theatre

Microsoft SQL Azure for the DBA Exhibition B

Pyramid Analytics Introduction to the Pyramid Analytics BI Platform Suite 3

LSI Enabling Flash to Support Mission-Critical Applications Suite 1

SQLSentry Monitoring and Performance Tuning for AlwaysOn Suite 2

SIOS High Performance SANLess Clustering Suite 4