SQL 2005-Express Database upgrade

[gparker]

Hi,

If I'm running vCenter 4.1 with the bundled SQL-2005-Express database and I attempt an in-place upgrade to vCenter 5.0 and I select the "Upgrade existing vCenter Server database" option, will it upgrade to the bundled SQL-Server 2008-Express that's on the vCenter 5 media? The information in the vSphere 5 upgrade guide and KB articles I've read is quite confusing on this matter.

Please help!

Regards,

George.

[Maximenu]

Hrello Gparker

The "Upgrade existing vCenter Server database" Don´t upgrade your SQL version, the vcenter installation will upgrade the tables and other features of the database, not the SQL version.

[UmeshAhuja]

Hi,

You cannot upgrade the SQL version along with the vCenter upgrade, Hence you can do it as below

1)install the sql management tool, and backup the existing database

2)then install the new vcenter, selecting to have it create a new (obviously, blank) database

3)uninstall vcenter

4)restore the db to the sql 2008express db that was created during the above install

5)re-install vcenter pointing to the existing db

[Sreejesh_D]

Hi George,

vCenter server installer will not do SQL express upgrade. It will do only the vCenter Server binary upgrade and the database upgrade (make necessary changes in vCenter database).

VMware published a KB for doing SQL Express upgrade.

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1028601

Note : to do inplace upgrade we've to make a minor modificaiton in step 4. After Stopping SQL service, uninstall 2005 and instlla SQL 2008.

Once its done you can go for vCenter Server upgrade.

[gparker]

Hi,

If vCenter v5 does not support SQL-2005-Express, why does the in-place upgrade installer upgrade the tables and other features of the database in the first place? Why doesn't the installer just stop the upgrade process altogether saying "We're sorry, we cannot continue the in-place upgrade dues to SQL version incompatibility. Please migrate the VC database to a SQL-Server that's compatible with vSphere 5 before attempting the vCenter in-place upgrade..." or woirds to this affect.

It seems silly that VMware states on the one hand that vSphere 5 isn't compatible/supported with SQL-2005-Express, but on the other hand allows you to do an in-place upgrade and let it upgrade the tables and other features of the database, leaving you with an unsupported vCenter environment.

George.

[gparker]

Hi UmeshAhuja,

If I follow your procedure, how will the tables and other features of the database that I backed-up from my SQL-2005-Express be upgraded? Doesn't the in-place upgrade process make changes to or upgrade tables etc in the VC database? If I just backup the VC database and restore it to the SQL 2008-Express, won't the tables tc still be in their original 2005-Express format?

George.

[gparker]

Hi Yezdi,

If I have a fully-blown SQL-2008 server in my environment, can I just follow the KB article as is and run vCenter 4.1 for a few days using the VC database now located on my SQL-2008 server and then do the in-place upgrade of my vCenter 4.1 to 5?

George.

[Sreejesh_D]

yes, you can. For that follow the steps from 6.

[UmeshAhuja]

Hi,

No , SQL have the feature of restoring the old version database to the new version, Hence if you restore the  SQL 2005 database backup on 2008 it will do.

The RESTORE operation iscapable of upgrading the database on the fly from the 2005 format to 2008 one. When you create a new database by means of restore you usually need to options added:

• REPLACE is needed to disable a normal check that occurs during RESTORE and which prevents you from replacing a database with the content of another database from a backup set. For details see Using the REPLACE Option.
  
• MOVE is needed to move logical files in the backup set to new locations. The RESTORE operation will attempt to create the same locations for the MDF, LDF and all NDF files in the database, and this may not work on your particular drive structure. For details see Copying Databases with Backup and Restore.
  

[gparker]

Hi Yezdi,

If I follow the steps from 6 onwards, steps 9 to 11 say:-

9. Uninstall vCenter Server.

10. Reboot the vCenter Server host.

11. Install vCenter Server.

Do I reaaly have to do these steps just to migrate the database across to SQL-2008? If I'm going to be running the current vCenter 4.1 for a few days before doing the in-place upgrade to vCenter 5, do I still have to carry out steps 9 to 11 with my vCenter 4.1 software? Can't I simply just restart my existing vCenter 4.1 services that were stopped in step 1?

George.

[gparker]

Hi UmeshAhuja, thanks for that.

So when restoring the database, I basically need to choose the REPLACE option to Overwrite existing database, and I may also need to choose the MOVE option if I want to restore the VC MDL & LDF files into different folders to the ones that these files were backed-up from on the SQL-2005-Express server, right?

George.

[Sreejesh_D]

you are correct, no need to re-install 4.1 if you are going to continue with 4.1 VC. Just make sure that the existing DSN is edited properly and can connect to database successfully.

[gparker]

Hi Yezdi, thanks for your reply. That document isn't related to performing a vCenter upgrade, it only relates to moving the VC database from SQL 2005-Express to SQL-2008. So why does it want to vCenter software un-installed and re-installed?

Regards,

George.

[MrSiddiqui]

will it include the LICENCE as well......??

[UmeshAhuja]

Hi,

No, for express you do not need License, For more clarifiaction and full details kindly find the attached file.

[MrSiddiqui]

Umesh i am talking about vCenter server Licence..

Thanks

[UmeshAhuja]

Hi,

I assume that you are upgrading the vcenter server , and database so in that case you are not having any additional vcenter server , hence you can use the same license what you were using previously.

[MrSiddiqui]

Umesh..

i am doing P2P MIGRATION of Vcenter 4.1 server. Below is the scenario.

vCenter4.1  server running on a physical host with bundled SQL express  database.There are 3 ESXi hosts mapped to the vcenter along with 5  datastores and Rawdisks mapped to the VMs.
Now the customer wants to move the vCenter server to a new server.
the SQL version is the default (bundled) that ships with vcenter4.1 SQLXpress2005....

NOw main task is to Migrate the vcenter 4.1 to another server...... ans also plz advice can i upgrade the vcenter to 5.0 afterwards..?

thanks

[UmeshAhuja]

Hi,

Yes you can migrate the vCenter server and use the same license key as finally you will be using single vCenter server and you can also move for newer version as and when required.

[gparker]

Hi all,

I've just successfully completed an in-place upgrade from vCenter 4.1 to vCenter 5.0-U1 and the accompanying SQL-2005-Express VCDB and VUM databases to SQL-2008-Express like this:-

1. If not already installed, install SQL Management Studio and use it to take backups of the databases.

2. Make a snapshot of the vCenter 4.1 VM (snapshots are GOOD, repeat GOOD!).

3. Run the vCenter 5.0 installer and do an in-place upgrade, telling it to preserve and upgrade the databases.

4. Log into vCenter, reconnect the hosts if necessary, check that the settings are still intact, check that vCenter Server Status shows green ticks.

5. Run the SQL-2008-R2-Express 32-bit installer and select the "Upgrade from SQL 2000, SQL2005 to SQL-2008" option. NOTE:- Use the 32-bit version of SQL-2008-R2-Express not the 64-bit version. The installer should detect the "SQLEXP_VIM" instance and prompt you to upgrade it. The upgrade went smoothly for me

6. Go into SQL Management Studio and execute the query "select @@version" and it should report that the databases are now on SQL-2008-Express

7. In Programs and Features, uninstall SQL-2005. The un-installer should not detect and instances which again confirms to you that they're running on SQL-2008.

Hope this helps,

George.