I am in the process of migrating a SQL Server Cluster. I would like to hear considerations for a successful migration.
The specs of production cluster are:
- Windows Server 2003 SP2 32bit.
- SQL Server 2005 Enterprise edition - 9.00.3152.00 (Build 3790: Service Pack 2)
- Disk space is about 1.5TB including all databases. (IBM v7000)
The specs of destination cluster are:
- Windows Server 2016 Standard 64 Bits
- SQL Server 2016 Standard 64 Bits
- Same disk as old cluster, but faster (IBM v9000 Flash system)
Special Considerations:
- Cluster Name must be the same to avoid changes in applications, linked servers and other connections. I mean, we have to migrate with a different cluster name, then shut down old cluster and rename the new one using the old name (I hope this to be clear)
At this time what I have done and tested is the following:
- Create and configure a Windows Failover Cluster using Windows Server 2016 (with a different name)
- Configure Active Directory to allow cluster to create objects
- Restoring a database from MSSQL 2005 to MSSQL 2016, run some queries and explore objects.
Also:
- I have split the drives following the best practices.
- We are cleaning "super users" and giving just the right permissions to users.
- Setting and testing compatibility mode to 130
- Backup strategy was defined about 1 week ago to ensure data availability
Things to do or consider:
- Download all SSIS packages to new project and test them against the new cluster. Once the cluster name changes, change SSIS to original name
- Migrate all Jobs and make sure they run successfully
- Test application that uses the migrated database
- Create ODBC connections for Linked Servers pointing to SQL Server 2000 Databases (yes, we still use MSSQL 2000)
- Backup Active Directory to have a rollback point in case something fail regarding cluster names (we have to delete old object and create a new one)
- Configure SQL Replication.