I have a customer that currently has Windows 32 bit OS, running a SQL 2005 32
bit cluster. They want to install Windows 64 bit OS and a new SQL 2005 32
bit cluster. Are there any procedures out there, on how the SQL data will be
migrated from one to the other?

That is pretty much a nuke and pave operation.

You can evict a node, reformat it, then build the new cluster around that
hardware, but that is tricky. The data is fairly simple since the on-disk
formats do not vary. You can detach from one cluster, switch zoning, import
the disks to the new cluster, define resources arounbd them and apply to the
new SQL instance.

Unfortunately I don't have any good public resources on that. I have done
it before for a client, but I used Windows 2008 along with a mix of old and
new hardware since they wanted to expand the cluster anyway.

However you do this, careful planning is the key. I am probably biased
towards the consultant business model, but this is a place where you might
find it worthwhile to hire somebody who has experience in cluster
migrations.

--
Geoff N. Hiten
Principal SQL Infrastructure Consultant
Microsoft SQL Server MVP


"eternoamar" <angeltides (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote

Thanks for replying Geoff! I actually failed to mention that they will be
doing this on new hardware. So with the old OS and SQL still intact, we will
build a new Windows OS 64 bit, and build a new SQL 2005 32 bit cluster.

So being that we are using completely new hardware, is it just a matter of
detaching the database from old cluster, and re-attaching to the new cluster?
Would I be able to refer to documents that talk about moving SQL database
for this scenario?

SQL 2005 32 bit can run on Windows 64 bit OS ok?

Thanks!



"Geoff N. Hiten" wrote:

Yes, you can run SQL Server 32bit on Windows 64bit - but why would you?
What are the reasons behind setting it up this way?

As for moving the databases, you can detach, copy the mdf/ldf files and
attach, or you can use backup and restore.

Jeff

"eternoamar" <angeltides (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote

Since you are going to the trouble, why don't you go ahead and run 64-bit
SQL? The on-disk data files are identical across all architectures (X86,
x64 and Itanium). Your scenario is referred to as a side-by-side migration,
but if you detach, move, and reattach, it is a data-in-place migration.
There are other ways to synch up data files in the migration.

--
Geoff N. Hiten
Principal SQL Infrastructure Consultant
Microsoft SQL Server MVP




"eternoamar" <angeltides (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote