Upgrading OS W2012 to W2012R2

[Adama_T]

Hi all,

A customer has EV 11 implemented on windows server 2012 and everything is OK, but since a moment this customer want to upgrade the operating system from Windows server 2012 standard to Windows server 2012 R2 standard. Knowing that EV and SQL binary have been installed on the (D:) drive, Index (H:), ...

Can they do this upgrade without issue?

[AndrewB]

If EV and SQL are on the same server, that's generally not recommended outside of a POC or lab for testing.

I would not attempt or recommend an in-place upgrade, if it's even a possibility.

Best bet would be to build your new Win2012 R2 server and follow the DR process to move EV from the old server to the new one (and swing over all your data.)

[Adama_T]

Hi AndrewB,

Thank you for your quick response, but this customer said that he hadn't another available server. So we have to use this same server. However, this customer confirmed me today that  he uses Symantec Backup Exec 2014 sp2 to backup the EV server and all backups (Full, Incremental and SDR) are OK. So now I want to know can I build a new Win2012 R2 server and restore totally (Directory Database, Vault store databases, indexes, and partitions) the old EV server (EV11 & SQL2012) and keeping that same hostname and IP adress? without problem?

PS: EV11 and SQL2012 are installed on same server (even if it's not recommended)

[Adama_T]

Hi AndrewB,

Thank you for your quick response, but this customer said that he hadn't another available server. So we have to use this same server. However, this customer confirmed me today that  he uses Symantec Backup Exec 2014 sp2 to backup the EV server and all backups (Full, Incremental and SDR) are OK. So now I want to know can I build a new Win2012 R2 server and restore totally (Directory Database, Vault store databases, indexes, and partitions) the old EV server (EV11 & SQL2012) and keeping that same hostname and IP adress? without problem?

PS: EV11 and SQL2012 are installed on same server (even if it's not recommended)

[AndrewB]

It sounds like you're asking if you can wipe your existing EV 11 server which has Win2012, SQL2012, and all the EV data on it and then rebuild it from scratch using Win2012 R2 and then restore all the EV data from backup.

There really isn't an EV question here unless you're asking how to perform a restore or how to perform the DR process I recommended in my first reply. Is it possible, sure, but is it worth the risk?

Can you leave all the EV and SQL data in place on the server and only redo the OS drive, then reinstall EV and point it to the existing config? If the host, IP, drives, etc, all stays the same then it should be just like the basic DR process.