Upgrading to Microsoft SQL Server 2014 John Q Martin | Premier Field Engineer, SQL Server Debbi Lyons | Senior Product Marketing Manager, Data Platform

Meet Debbi Lyons Senior Product Marketing Manager, SQL Server Microsoft Data Platform for Small and Medium Business SQL Server Standard and Express Editions Hybrid on-premises to Microsoft Azure data scenarios 15 years in the IT industry Product marketing for a variety of SQL Server-based applications Tools for SQL Server backup, security and performance SQL Server upgrade

Meet John Martin | ‏@SQLServerMonkey Premier Field Engineer, SQL Server SQL Server Infrastructure Focused on HA/DR and SQL Server Infrastructure Working with Azure IaaS and PaaS systems Over ten years in IT, eight working with SQL Server Chalk & Talk, Training Workshop delivery and system health and performance reviews Working with Finance, Government and Retail industry leaders Presenting at community events, user groups and conferences

Course Modules Upgrading to Microsoft SQL Server 2014 01 | SQL Server Upgrade Planning, Process and Tools 02 | Planning Your Upgraded SQL Server Environment 03 | Performing and Validating a SQL Server Upgrade

Setting Expectations Target Audience Microsoft SQL Server DBAs Microsoft SQL Server Developers Suggested Prerequisites/Supporting Material Knowledge of Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Features

Join the MVA Community! Microsoft Virtual Academy Free online learning tailored for IT Pros and Developers Over 1M registered users Up-to-date, relevant training on variety of Microsoft products

01 | SQL Server Upgrade Planning, Process and Tools John Q Martin | Premier Field Engineer, SQL Server Debbi Lyons | Senior Product Marketing Manager, Data Platform

Module Overview Identifying Key Business Requirements Migration Process Steps Discussion on the Free Tooling available from Microsoft

Identifying Key Business Requirements

Why Upgrade? Supportability SQL Server 2005 ends support in April 2016, additionally getting SQL Server staff with the skills to support older versions is more difficult. SQL Server 2008 & 2008 R2 are now in the extended support portion of their lifecycle Microsoft will not accept requests for warranty support, design changes, or new features during the Extended Support phase.

Why Upgrade? Features Many new features or existing features are enhanced in the new product. SQL Server 2012 introduced Availability Groups, Columnstore Indexing, Failover Cluster Instance enhancements, FileTable and many more SQL Server 2014 introduced In-Memory OLTP, Buffer Pool Extensions and Encrypted Backups, enhancing Columnstore and Availability Groups

Why Upgrade? Scalability SQL Server 2014 Standard Edition can now address 128GB of RAM Increased number of partitions for partitioned tables Increased amount of compute that can be accessed with the different versions Larger more complex and reliable configurations

Deprecated Features Check for changes SQL Server documentation covers features that are deprecated or discontinued Breaking changes are also documented along with changes in SQL Server behavior Backward Compatibility documented for each component

The Path Upgrade Paths - 2012 SQL 2000 SP4 SQL 2012 SP1 SQL 2005 SP4 SQL 2008R2 SP1

The Path Upgrade Paths - 2014 SQL 2000 SP4 SQL 2012 SP1 SQL 2005 SP4 SQL 2008R2 SP2

Migration Process Steps

The Process It’s a simple backup & restore right? What might have been the case previously is not always the case now, systems have got bigger and more complex. But we can just do it internally? In some cases yes, but more often than not it will require interacting with the business now. It is a project and should be treated like one!

The Process Important to understand whole system With the more complex systems that are in place today, it is important to understand what relies on the database systems we manage. Identify and work with business owners By involving the business application owners you can leverage their expertise when it comes to testing and validating.

The Process Communication is key Communicating when systems will be affected will manage business expectation about the impact.

Methods Side-by-side In-Place upgrade This involves building a new system alongside the existing one and moving databases to it. In-Place upgrade Upgrading the existing software to the new version, without the need to move the databases.

Build & pre-production The Process Upgrading SQL Server requires effort It is a multi-stage process that should be tackled in iterations feeding back into the process, flexing with what is discovered. Scoping Initial Analysis Planning In-Depth Analysis POC & Testing Build & pre-production Commissioning Testing Documentation

Free Tooling from Microsoft

Tooling Many tools available There are a large number of tools that are available for helping capture data and analyze it. Two main areas that tools can help, analysis of existing infrastructure and benchmarking and testing new systems.

Tooling Free tools 01 | SQL Trace 06 | Best Practice Analyzer 02 | RML Utilities 07 | Database Upgrade Advisor 03 | Distributed Replay 08 | MAP Toolkit 04 | SQL Nexus 09 | PSSDiag Manager 05 | Performance Analysis of Logs (PAL) 10 | Dynamic Management Views/Functions

Tooling Useful Tools Relog – Great for decomposing Perfmon BLG files to get the counters you want into another format logparser – Useful for performing analysis of log files and also changing the format of files. Excel – De-facto software for analysis of data and generating pretty pictures for management.

Extracting counters from Perfmon logs with Relog

Tooling MAP Toolkit Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit – Solution Accelerator Very good for discovery and data capture of existing infrastructure Can be used to scan the network, cross domain, for systems Excellent if you are looking to consolidate to a virtual infrastructure or migrate to Azure

Tooling Database Upgrade Advisor Use to identify any issues that will need to be resolved prior to upgrading to the desired version of SQL Server When analyzing SQL Server Reporting Services, you will need to run the tool locally to the instance The SQL Server 2014 Upgrade Advisor is being enhanced to provide full support for SQL Server 2005

Tooling Best Practices Advisor Performs a number of checks on the SQL Server components that are installed Requires PowerShell remoting to be enabled Use this tool in conjunction with KB 2964518 for SQL Server 2012 and SQL Server 2014 configurations Remember that a Best Practice might not be right for your environment

Tooling PAL Performance Analysis of Logs, free tool on Codeplex Can be automated with PowerShell SQL Trace Use to capture workload for analysis and replay against other systems Tried and tested with mature toolset for processing and working with the trace output

Tooling DMVs Built in Dynamic Management Views & Functions Collect data about SQL Server such as buffer pool composition, file access patterns, connection and query details Can be very low impact, though there are some functions that need treated carefully

Tooling SQLIO SQLIOSim Storage Benchmarking tool that can be configured to stress test the storage sub-system with different IO workloads. SQLIOSim Storage Benchmarking tool that can be configured to simulate the IO patterns of a SQL Server Instance.

Summary Define what needs to be done Communicate Question yourself Define the work (Scope) and quantify the success criteria and establish the process by which you intend to achieve it Communicate Working with the business and customer is always better than hiding from them Question yourself Don’t be afraid to re-visit and revise your objectives

Summary Use the right tools Repeatability is important Build your own toolset from the available tools and become comfortable with them Repeatability is important Automate where you can with scripting to make tests and collections repeatable Capture a wide variety of workload data that takes place on the server