Challenge

aaronchristenson · November 2014

I have a challenge for anyone that wants to take it up.

I have a physical 2 node Windows 2008 R2 cluster running SQL Server 2012. I want to upgrade the Windows to 2012 R2 and everything I have read thus far says that you cannot migrate a SQL cluster to Windows 2012 R2. I do not have the resources to build a new physical server cluster and move databases individually to the new SQL Server. This plan must some how use the same hardware and cluster node name.

nachodba · November 2014

I haven't done this yet, but I think the following would be feasible.

1) Is breaking the cluster and installing Windows 2012 on the non active node, then setting up a cluster (single-node, new virtual network name), then detach/attach or backup & restore databases an option? Granted, there would be a lot of work with SQL configuration, users, etc., but that can be scripted out ahead of time.

2) Is breaking the cluster and installing Windows 2012 on the non active node, then setting up a cluster (single-node, new virtual network name), then configuring an SSIS job to copy the databases an option?

Either way, once the db's are move you could wipe the other server and install Windows 2012, then add the freshly installed server to the cluster. Once everything is tested and you can logon via SSMS, modify the DNS entry for the virtual network name to point to the new cluster. All your old applications should work as expected.

aaronchristenson · November 2014

Either of those options might be viable. I am hoping to reduce down time as you can guess. Option 1 you gave would be the quickest. I am scheming to virtually setup a copy of my production environment to experiment. Then I can try a few options and see what works best.

Challenge

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