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I'm writing a recommendation for an upgrade scenario from SharePoint 2007 to SP2010.

Customer is currently running x64 SQL Server 2005 SP3 on Windows 2003 Server.

Does anyone have pros/cons for upgrading to 2008 server?

From what I saw in benchmarks, it's not a huge performance gain to upgrade to SQL 2008.

Any insight will be appreciated :-)

From what i have read so far, i am aware that SQL Server will need to be 64-bit and at least SQL Server 2005 SP3 Cumulative Update 3 to run SP2010.

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  • Another issue that alone could convince you to upgrade to SQL Server 2008, is that Remote Blob Storage (RBS) only works if you use SQL Server 2008 (its a downloadable conponent in the SQL 2008 R2 Feature Pack) – Anders Rask Feb 22 '10 at 12:59
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Here are a few resons on why to upgrade

  1. Upgrade to SQL Server 2008 R2 - performance and availability
  2. SQL Server 2005 mainstream support will end fairly soon (read more at http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifesupsps)
  3. Security
  4. Better Reporting Services
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  • thanx wictor! i have looked quickly after performance comparisons btwn 2k5 and 2k8 but what i found didnt indicate any significant change. Do you have a specific article to back it up? What security issues has imporoved? – Anders Rask Feb 3 '10 at 13:58
  • regarding the security features I've read some article (dont remember exactly which) but it stated that SQL Server 2008 was the most secure DB, when counting number of critical security patches/fixes released – Wictor Wilen MCA MCM MVP Feb 3 '10 at 14:25
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I'd add to Wictor's items:

  • Transparent Encryption
  • Improved Performance Plans
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  • with performance plan do you mean execution wize? aka it is smarter to enterpret and optimize? – Anders Rask Feb 3 '10 at 13:59
  • Yep, they've added not only better execution analysis for Stored Procedures but for standard SELECT queries as well. – Craig Pilkenton Feb 5 '10 at 14:29
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Anders, slightly off topic for your SQL question, but I put some stuff down in a blog post regarding the upgrade path for SP2010, it might be useful for your recommendation. Then again it might not be, but its there if you want to take a look.

http://www.simple-talk.com/community/blogs/charleslee/archive/2010/01/22/88088.aspx

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  • oh i already read that and about 10 other articles including Joel and Chandima's articles, all the stuff on Technet and Sean's SPC sessions! But thanx and good article :-) – Anders Rask Feb 3 '10 at 15:53
  • at least someone did :-) – Charles Lee Feb 4 '10 at 11:31
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Take a look at this article for lots of reasons to use SQL 2008 http://blogs.msdn.com/bobgerman/archive/2009/04/07/moss-2007-and-sql-server-2008-better-together.aspx

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  • Not much in that one specifically on SQL 2008 methinks, but there was a link to an article by Mike that was interesting blogs.msdn.com/mikewat/archive/2008/08/19/… thx – Anders Rask Feb 3 '10 at 15:58
  • Anders, I have been contemplating the same question and ran across a similiar post (SQL 2005 vs. 2008) on StackOverflow with an exhaustive list of reasons to choose SQL 2008: stackoverflow.com/questions/198478/… It seems to come down to better tools/management/new features... I have yet to find conclusive evidence that you will enjoy increased performance across the board simply by upgrading to SQL 2008. Have you found anything to the contrary? – Anonymous Feb 3 '10 at 19:16
  • As on que Joel posted a blog post only yesterday that i just read: SharePoint 2010 Better Together with SQL 2008 R2 Database Enhancements Top 10 sharepointjoel.com/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=297 Its got alot of the same points that Mike gets around in his article: Better mirroring, Higher Availability through improved patching capabilities, improved locking and throttling making blocking less of an issue, more robust backup are some of the highlights. – Anders Rask Feb 3 '10 at 20:56
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So here's the next question: if you decide to go ahead and upgrade, how would you do it? For instance (assume dedicated db server is SQL2k5 x64 on Win2k3 R2 x64, one frontend MOSS server also on Win2k3 R2 x64)

DB

  1. inplace upgrade to Win2k8 R2
  2. inplace upgrade to SQL2k8 R2

Frontend server

  1. inplace upgrade to Win2k8 R2(or maybe add a second server and retire the original)
  2. MOSS upgrade to 2010

I don't like the idea of inplace upgrades but I'm concerned about losing and/or needing to recreate all my configuration otherwise

Thanks Mark

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  • if you have a question, please add a new question :-) – Anders Rask Dec 11 '10 at 18:56

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