With SQL Server 2012 due to be released sometime hopefully in the first half of 2012 some of us need to be thinking about upgrading our environments to SQL Server 2012. Great this should be nice and easy and I should be able to upgrade in a very short time with little or no issues. Who has heard that before? I like the old analogy of “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”. So just like previous editions there is a little help for us to undertake these migrations.
The SQL Server 2012 Upgrade Assistant is available for download from Scalability Experts. A Wiki article is available on TechNet Wiki outlining what can be achieved and how to achieve it.
SQL Server 2012 Upgrade Assistant should not be confused with SQL Server Upgrade Advisor, which can help you prepare for upgrades to SQL Server 2012, generating a report that identifies issues that need to be fixed before the upgrade. SQL Server 2012 Upgrade assistant is more designed at your application’s behavior.
To Install SQL Server 2012 Upgrade Assistant you need to have the SQL Server 2012 Management Tools installed.
To get the best out of your upgrade preparation with this tool you will need to capture a good slice of your current workload in a trace from SQL Profiler and put this through the SQL Server 2012 Upgrade Assistant. This capture process can be undertaken in the tool itself and to read more on how to do this – section 3 in the wiki covers this in great details.
This tool used in conjunction with the SQL Server Upgrade Advisor should put you in a good position to undertake your migration to SQL Server 2012.
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