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habibalby
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Hot Shot

Upgrading vCenter 4.1 to vCenter 5.0 what about SQL Express 2005

Hi,

I'm in the process of upgrading from vSphere 4.1 to vSphere 5.0 I have read that the SQL Express 2005 is not supported. Currently the vCenter 4.1 is running under SQL Express 2005. What would be the case of SQL Express 2005 if I'm doing in-place upgrade from vCenter 4.1 to vCenter 5.0 will it be upgraded to Express 2008? Or I have to do the SQL Express upgrade separately, once I'm done I can upgrade the vCenter to 5.0?

Thanks,

Hussain

Best Regards, Hussain Al Sayed Consider awarding points for "correct" or "helpful".
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Troy_Clavell
Immortal
Immortal

see if the below article will be helpful

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2005328

TedH256
Expert
Expert

The data migration tool does NOT support upgrading a sqlexpress 2005 db in place, unfortunately.

The process that I worked out in conjunction with vmware support, was this:

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

Good luck - this seems hairy scary - but it works and support will help you if needed. Just make sure you have a good backup!

habibalby
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Hi,

I think step 3 and 5 not needed since the new install will create its own new db, and then restoring the existing db over the new db created in SQL 2008. what's the point of uninstalling the new installed vCenter created with new db, then uninstall it and re-attach it to an existing db that restored from SQL 2005?  Could you please elaborate a bit?

Thanks,

Hussain

Best Regards, Hussain Al Sayed Consider awarding points for "correct" or "helpful".
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habibalby
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Hi,

I ended up doing the following;

  • Backup the vCenter DB from Express 2005.
  • Installed new SQL 2008 STD R2 in a new VM.
  • Backup DB from 2005 Express.
  • Created new DB with the same old name VIM_VCDB
  • Restored to SQL STD 2008 R2 to the same destination VIM_VCDB
  • Conifgured the DSN ODBC in the vCenter to point to vCenterSQL01 with the same DB Name VIM_VCDB..

=======================================================

  • Uninstall the SQL Express 2005 in vCenter VM
  • Install fresh SQL 2008 STD R2 in vCenter VM
  • Backup the DB from vCenterSQL01
  • Created new DB with the same name VIM_VCDB
  • Restore DB VIM_VCDB to vCenter01 SQL 2008 R2.
  • Configure the DNS ODBC to point to vCenter Server with SQL Native Client
  • Upgrade vCenter from 4.1 to vCenter 5, yet to be done Smiley Happy
Best Regards, Hussain Al Sayed Consider awarding points for "correct" or "helpful".
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habibalby
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Hot Shot

Hi All,

All the upgrade went fine. I encountered a small issue after uninstalling the SQL 2005 Express completely, and after I install the SQL 2008 R2 and restored the DB, when I attempted to start the service it was giving me error 1000 in the event viewer. Simple solution for this is to uninstall the vCenter, and reinstall it again pointing to the same DB.

After that, I have upgraded to vCenter 5.0 upgrades went fine without any issue.

Thanks,

Hussain

Best Regards, Hussain Al Sayed Consider awarding points for "correct" or "helpful".
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habibalby
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Hot Shot

Hi, Here's an update to clarify the above steps.

Once I moved the VIM_VCDB to another Temporary SQL Server, I have  pointed the DSN to that SQL Server. I uninstalled the SQL Express 2005  from vCenter, then reboot it and I installed fresh SQL Standard 2008 R2  on the vCenter itself. After that I moved the VIM_VCDB “vCenter DB” to  the vCenter VM reconfigured the DSN to point on localhost. The Service  of the vCenter stopped in this stage. Hummmm, I was thinking what went  wrong, then I have realized that the I have uninstalled the SQL 2005  Express I thought that linked with the VIM_VCDB attributes. I tried a  bit with no success. I decided to uninstall the vCenter and reinstall it  pointing it to the same DB. Reinstall success.

After all this hassle, I upgraded from vCenter 4.1 to vCenter 5.0 pointing to the same DB.

I think there is no way to upgrade the SQL 2005 since the VIM_VCDB  has a relationship attributes it. As I have tried upgrading the SQL  Express 2005 to Express 2008 and I failed. I have tried upgrading the  SQL 2005 Express to STN 2005, and not success. I have tried upgrading  the SQL Express 2005 to SQL 2008 STD R2 with no success.

This because the vCenter install the embedded SQL 2005 as 32bit and  the Machine where the vCenter installed it has to be 64bit. Upgrading  from SQL Express 2005 32bit VMWare embedded to SQL Express 2008 32bit,  not possible because the Machine where the vCenter installed is 64bit.  Installing 32bit.exe on 64bit.exe to upgrade a product that already  installed, not possible.

That’s why I went with the above configuration steps to get rid of from SQL Express to SQL Standard 2008 R2.

All the best and hope someone else will benefit from it.

Regards,

Best Regards, Hussain Al Sayed Consider awarding points for "correct" or "helpful".
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