I decided to created a blog on how to perform an Edition Upgrade as I have been getting several related questions each month. These steps are valid for SQL Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 R2, and likely the same in the next version of SQL Server (“Denali”).  If you need to change your edition, let’s say you want to switch from the Evaluation to Enterprise edition, you launch the “Edition Upgrade” wizard. The “Edition Upgrade” Wizard is available as an option on the Installation Center.

 

Additional Information and references:

  • Expired Installation: If you have an expired installation, follow this knowledge Based article to address: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2020443
  • Edition upgrade matrix: The full upgrade edition matrix is at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms143393.aspx
  • It is not possible to downgrade the edition, for example to go from Enterprise to Standard or Standard to Developer
  • SQL Server in a clustered environment: You just need to run edition upgrade on a single node, you can choose to run from either an active or passive node. After running, you need to cause a failover to happen. Once the failover happens, all of the nodes along with the database engine will be updated.

 

1. Launch the “Edition Upgrade” Wizard.

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2. After the Wizard launches, on the “Product Key” dialog, enter the new product key.

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3. Now accept the License Terms for the new edition.

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4. Now select the instance that you want to upgrade the edition.

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5. Continue on the “Edition Upgrade Rules” dialog, if all run pass. If there is a failure, investigate the reason for failure.

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6. Click next on the “Read to upgrade edition” dialog to start the process.

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7. After a short time (a few seconds to a couple of minutes), the edition upgrade process completes.

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