1. Upgrading to SQL Server 2016
Thomas LaRock
Head Geek™
SolarWinds

2. Why Are You Here?
You want/need to upgrade

3. Why Are You Here? You want/need to upgrade
You’ve had trouble with upgrades in the past

4. Why Are You Here? You want/need to upgrade
You’ve had trouble with upgrades in the past
Users are scary when they’re mad

5. A Little About Me
Thomas has over 20 years experience in roles including programmer, developer, analyst, and DBA.
He enjoys working with data, probably too much to be healthy.

6. A Little About SolarWinds
solarwinds.com/products

7. Agenda 1 Why upgrade? 2 Pre-upgrade tasks 3 Upgrade tasks 4
Post-upgrade tasks 5
Questions

8. Agenda 1 Why upgrade? 2 Pre-upgrade tasks 3 Upgrade tasks 4
Post-upgrade tasks 5
Questions

9. Agenda 1 Why upgrade? 2 Pre-upgrade tasks 3 Upgrade tasks 4
Post-upgrade tasks 5
Questions

10. Agenda 1 Why upgrade? 2 Pre-upgrade tasks 3 Upgrade tasks 4
Post-upgrade tasks 5
Questions

11. Agenda 1 Why upgrade? 2 Pre-upgrade tasks 3 Upgrade tasks 4
Post-upgrade tasks 5
Questions

12. Why Upgrade? If it ain’t broke…
Upgrades seen as hard; things will break
Fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) around upgrades
Data is the most critical asset your company owns
Cost, benefit, and risk

13. Why Upgrade? New Features Always Encrypted Dynamic Data Masking
Row Level Security
Stretch Database
Temporal tables
Query Store

14. Why Upgrade? New Features Supportability
SQL Server 2005 ends support in April 2016
No additional fixes, SPs, or CUs released
You can purchase a VERY expensive yearly support plan
SQL Server 2008 ends extended support in July 2019*
Supportability

15. Why Upgrade?
New Features
3rd party tools may require latest version of SQL Server (or earlier, possibly)
Check with vendor prior to any upgrade
Supportability
Vendor Requirements

16. Why Upgrade? Possible rule: ‘No more than one major version behind’
New Features
Possible rule: ‘No more than one major version behind’
Company/industry standards vary
Auditors
Supportability
Vendor Requirements
Company Standard

17. Pre-Upgrade Tasks SQL 2000 SP4 SQL 2005 SP4 SQL 2008 SP3
Know your path
SQL 2000 SP4
SQL 2005 SP4
SQL 2008 SP3
SQL 2008R2 SP2
SQL 2012 SP2
SQL 2014

18. Pre-Upgrade Tasks SQL 2000 SP4 SQL 2005 SP4 SQL 2008 SP3
Know your path
SQL 2000 SP4
SQL 2005 SP4
SQL 2008 SP3
SQL 2008R2 SP2
SQL 2012 SP2
SQL 2014

19. Pre-Upgrade Tasks Know your path Licensing changes
Was per socket, now per core (as of SQL 2012)
Per core may be more expensive
In-place upgrades may not be reasonable
SQL 2016 SP1 allows for additional features available in Std edition

20. Pre-Upgrade Tasks Know your path Licensing changes Know your options
In Place
Upgrade current instance of SQL Server to be the next version of SQL Server
Side-By-Side
Install SQL Server on new/existing hardware and eventually cut over databases when necessary

21. Pre-Upgrade Tasks Know your path Licensing changes Know your options
Gather inventory details
Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit, SQL Power Doc (Codeplex)
Consider object counts (i.e., number of tables)
Inventory of applications using the server
Application-specific configurations

22. Pre-Upgrade Tasks Know your path Licensing changes Know your options
Gather inventory details
Data Migration Assistant

23. Pre-Upgrade Tasks
Deprecated features
Discontinued features

24. Pre-Upgrade Tasks Deprecated features Discontinued features
Breaking changes
Behavioral changes
Breaking
Changes that *might* break based on earlier versions of SQL Server
Behavioral
Changes that affect how features work or interact compared to earlier versions of SQL Server

25. Pre-Upgrade Tasks Deprecated features Discontinued features
Breaking changes
Behavioral changes
Read the Release Notes

26. Pre-Upgrade Tasks
New environment requirements

27. Pre-Upgrade Tasks
New environment requirements
Take baselines

28. Pre-Upgrade Tasks New environment requirements Take baselines
Capture workloads

29. Pre-Upgrade Tasks New environment requirements Take baselines
Capture workloads
Test server O/S

30. Pre-Upgrade Tasks New environment requirements Take baselines
Capture workloads
Test server O/S
Take backups

31. Upgrade Tasks Types of upgrades
In Place
Upgrade current instance of SQL Server to be the next version of SQL Server
Side-By-Side
Install SQL Server on new/existing hardware and eventually cut over databases when necessary

32. Upgrade Tasks Types of upgrades Data migration techniques In Place
Upgrade current instance of SQL Server to be the next version of SQL Server
Backup/restore (or detach/attach)
Database mirroring
Side-By-Side
Install SQL Server on new/existing hardware and eventually cut over databases when necessary
Pre-staging (log-shipping)
Availability Groups

33. Upgrade Tasks – In-Place Upgrades
Verify backups exist
Both user and system databases
If database not in SIMPLE recovery mode, make certain a transaction log backup exists
Verify that these backups can be restored

34. Upgrade Tasks – In-Place Upgrades
Verify backups exist
Review prerequisites

35. Upgrade Tasks – In-Place Upgrades
Verify backups exist
Review prerequisites
Run installation media

36. Upgrade Tasks – In-Place Upgrades
Verify backups exist
(will cover this later)
Review prerequisites
Run installation media
Do post-upgrade tasks

37. Upgrade Tasks – In-Place Upgrades
Verify backups exist
And then test some more, make sure everything is working as expected
Review prerequisites
Run installation media
Do post-upgrade tasks
Test, test, test

38. Upgrade Tasks – Side-by-Side Upgrades
For existing system
For new system
Review prerequisites
Install SQL Server
Run scripts
Data migration

39. Upgrade Tasks – Side-by-Side Upgrades
For existing system
For new system
Verify backups
Review prerequisites
Script system objects
Install SQL Server
Script SSIS packages
Run scripts
Take database offline
Data migration

40. Upgrade Tasks – Side-by-Side Upgrades
For existing system
For new system
Verify backups
Review prerequisites
Review prerequisites
Script system objects
Install SQL Server
Install SQL Server
Script SSIS packages
Run scripts
Run scripts
Take database offline
Data migration
Data migration

41. Upgrade Tasks – Rolling Upgrades
Choose your high-availability method (log-shipping, mirroring, Availability Groups)
Primary
Secondary

42. Upgrade Tasks – Rolling Upgrades
Upgrade one of the secondary nodes following the in-place upgrade steps
Primary
Secondary

43. Upgrade Tasks – Rolling Upgrades
Failover to that secondary node
Failover
Primary
Secondary

44. Upgrade Tasks – Rolling Upgrades
Perform any post-upgrade tasks
Secondary
Primary

45. Upgrade Tasks – Rolling Upgrades
Test, test, and test that everything is working as expected
Secondary
Primary

46. Upgrade Tasks – Rolling Upgrades
Repeat for any remaining secondary nodes
Node
Node
Node
Secondary
Primary

47. Upgrade Tasks – Rolling Upgrades
Repeat for any remaining secondary nodes
Node
Node
Node
Secondary
Primary

48. Upgrade Tasks – Rolling Upgrades
Repeat for original primary node
Node
Node
Node
Secondary
Primary

49. Upgrade Tasks – Rolling Upgrades
Perform any post-upgrade tasks
Node
Node
Node
Secondary
Primary

50. Upgrade Tasks – Rolling Upgrades
Fail back to original primary node
Node
Node
Node
Primary
Secondary

51. Upgrade Tasks – Rolling Upgrades
Test, test, and test that everything is working as expected
Node
Node
Node
Primary
Secondary

52. Post-Upgrade Tasks
Take backups

53. Post-Upgrade Tasks
Take backups
DBCC commands

54. Post-Upgrade Tasks
Take backups
DBCC commands
Updating statistics

55. Post-Upgrade Tasks Take backups DBCC commands Updating statistics
Refresh view definitions

56. Post-Upgrade Tasks Take backups DBCC commands Updating statistics
Refresh view definitions
Check compatibility levels

57. Post-Upgrade Tasks Take backups DBCC commands Updating statistics
Refresh view definitions
Check compatibility levels
Verify counts (data from inventory gathering)

58. Post-Upgrade Tasks Take backups DBCC commands Updating statistics
Refresh view definitions
Check compatibility levels
Verify counts (data from inventory gathering)
Check configurations

59. Tips & Tricks Rolling Upgrades But you only go 1-way: upwards
Great for large systems
Or systems that need minimal downtime

60. Tips & Tricks Rolling Upgrades Newer is Better
Backup/restore and detach/attach are easy
Great for small-mid size databases
Or systems that allow for downtime
Newer is Better

61. Tips & Tricks Rolling Upgrades Newer is Better Learn to Count
Simple counts of objects
Compare datatypes and collations worth effort
Compare configurations
Newer is Better
Learn to Count

62. Maintains consistency
Tips & Tricks
Script all the things
Scripting saves time
Maintains consistency
Inventory collection

63. Tips & Tricks Script all the things Azure option for POC
Azure is easy to use
Azure makes it easy to test
Just make sure you clean up when done
Azure option for POC

64. Tips & Tricks Script all the things Azure option for POC
Identify mission-critical queries
Build checklist of queries for testing
Test with minimal changes
Azure option for POC
Baseline performance

65. Tips & Tricks Query Store Help maintain performance
Freeze/unfreeze plans
Mitigate risk

66. Tips & Tricks Query Store DMA isn’t perfect
DMA may not catch everything
But it does catch a lot
Assists with migrating data
DMA isn’t perfect

67. Tips & Tricks Query Store DMA isn’t perfect Data Migration Guide
Create migration plybook
Discover, migrate, test, optimize
Build business case
DMA isn’t perfect
Data Migration Guide

68. Agenda 1 Why upgrade? 2 Pre-upgrade tasks 3 Upgrade tasks 4
Post-upgrade tasks 5
Questions

69. FOR MORE INFORMATION http://tinyurl.com/msdn-always-encrypted

70. 9/19/2018 6:29 PM
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