Welcome to Part 2 of Installation Options and in Part 1 we talked a little bit about the options that are available for you and we talked about the In-Place Upgrade. And here in Part 2 we are going to talk about a Side-By-Side Migration Strategy. Now with a Side-By-Side Migration Strategy you are basically going to deploy a New SQL Server 2012 instance and we'll talk about what that's going to mean for you and what that implies. Some of you might already be all over what that implies. Okay. So we're going to basically install SQL Server 2012 onto a new machine, meaning new hardware, this can be done on the same machine. Keep in mind you can have multiple versions of SQL Server running on the same server on the same hardware box. You can also have multiple instances of SQL Server. Any one version running on a machine at a time so you can mix and match here pretty liberally and you can get all kind of things going on. So it would be very easy to install SQL Server 2012 on the same machine as the old machine just do a new installation and then migrate across. Now the big deal here though is going to be the fact that we create a New SQL Server. We're going to install 2012, create a new total instance of SQL Server and then we're going to do a Data Migration from the old SQL Server over to there. And I've already mentioned it can be completed on the same server. Now a Side-By-Side Migration has some strengths and weaknesses and so let's kind of talk about these. First of all, the advantages or the pros of doing a Side-By-Side Migration means that the database administrator has more granular control of the upgrade process. Well certainly because we can migrate over whatever databases or functionalities that we would like one at a time and the Legacy Instance remains online. Now if you remember if you do an In-Place Upgrade everything goes offline for the amount of time that, that In-Place Upgrade is being carried out. And so with the Side-By-Side the Legacy Instance remains online the entire time during the migration. Performing a rollback, deciding hey wait a minute, this is not working, I'm starting to see little problems, I can just forget this, very, very much easier and testing and verification can be conducted. We can move across one database, do some tests on it, see what's all got to happen with our DNS Settings with making changes to a new name. That sort of thing. See if we like 2012, see if breaking changes in 2012, things are no longer supported there were indeed part of our database and we just didn't realize it and we've got some issues to work through. So it's very easy to test and chase some issues down. Now the cons on this are going to be just those kind of things. First of all and this can be a big one on the budget, additional hardware maybe required. If you want to move this to a new machine then obviously you got to buy the new machine. The second one and probably the biggest one here is that applications have to be directed to the new instance. Meaning we're going to create a new SQL Server, a new instance, that means a new name, maybe even a new IP address. And so all those things are going to have to be changed and all the applications that are hitting the SQL Server and that could be somewhat involved and that could be an issue. So while a Side-By-Side is probably better for the control freaks and it does give us a little more leeway, it does leave us online. It is a little more complex especially in the fact that we've got to change that name. We've got to change that instance name and we're going to have to do something to our applications and stuff. So you'll have to look at your particular situation, different environments are going to demand one or the other. A Side-By-Side Migration maybe what you have to do if you have really large databases and you simply can't afford the down time. Or you can't even stand the downtime for it to actually do an In-Place Upgrade. So lots of things to happen, make sure you understand these, look at the pros and cons on these and be ready to watch for these scenarios on the exam and in real life.
| Course: | Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Admin (70-462) |
| Author: | Mark Long |
| SKU: | 34342 |
| ISBN: | 978-1-61866-048-0 |
| Release Date: | 2012-06-18 |
| Duration: | 9 hrs / 99 lessons |
| Work Files: |
Yes |
| Captions: | No |
| Compatibility: |
Vista/XP/2000, OS X, Linux QuickTime 7, Flash 8 |