Upgrade from Windows Server 2003 Standard to Enterprise Edition

July 18, 2007

We have Windows Server 2003 Standard edition installed on a box that supports

several SQL Server 2005 Enterprise database applications. We are running out

of memory and found that the standard edition has a 4 GB limit on RAM. AS

such, we need to upgrade to Windows Server 2003 Enterprise 32 bit in order to

allow additional RAM to be installed. My question is: Can we install Windows

Server 2003 Enterprise directly over the Standard edition? If so, are there

any limitations or potential problems with SQL Server 2005? Or, do we need to

install Windows Server 2003 Enterprise directly from scratch and then install

SQL Server? Thank you.

David

July 19, 2007

RE: Upgrade from Windows Server 2003 Standard to Enterprise Edition

You'll find the MS upgrade paths chart here:

I would agree wiht this that the best policy is not to do an in-place

migration. You should look at moving to other hardware as a better option.

No matter what you decide to do, backup all of your databases and move the

backups to a safe location just in case.

If you are doing the upgrade in place, you'll want to detach the databases

and stop SQL. You should be ok reattaching when you are done, but if you do

have to reinstall SQL you'll have an easier time this way.

Best Wishes.

--

Ryan Hanisco

MCSE, MCTS: SQL 2005, Project+

Chicago, IL

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"Davidg12" wrote:

> We have Windows Server 2003 Standard edition installed on a box that supports

> several SQL Server 2005 Enterprise database applications. We are running out

> of memory and found that the standard edition has a 4 GB limit on RAM. AS

> such, we need to upgrade to Windows Server 2003 Enterprise 32 bit in order to

> allow additional RAM to be installed. My question is: Can we install Windows

> Server 2003 Enterprise directly over the Standard edition? If so, are there

> any limitations or potential problems with SQL Server 2005? Or, do we need to

> install Windows Server 2003 Enterprise directly from scratch and then install

> SQL Server? Thank you.

>

> David

>

July 20, 2007

RE: Upgrade from Windows Server 2003 Standard to Enterprise Edition

Back up your databases before doing the upgrade :-)