Using Upgrade Advisor to Prepare for Upgrades

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Upgrade Advisor helps you prepare for upgrades to SQL Server 2005. Upgrade Advisor analyzes installed SQL Server 2000 or SQL Server 7.0 components, and then generates reports that identify issues to fix either before or after you upgrade to SQL Server 2005.

How Upgrade Advisor Works

When you run Upgrade Advisor, the Upgrade Advisor Home page appears. From the Home page, you can run the following tools:

• Upgrade Advisor Analysis Wizard
• Upgrade Advisor Report Viewer
• Upgrade Advisor Help

The first time that you use Upgrade Advisor, run the Upgrade Advisor Analysis Wizard to analyze SQL Server components. When the wizard finishes the analysis, you can view the resulting reports in the Upgrade Advisor Report Viewer. Each report provides links to information in Upgrade Advisor Help that will help you fix or reduce the effect of the known issues.

Upgrade Advisor Analysis

Upgrade Advisor analyzes the following SQL Server components:

• Database Engine
• Analysis Services
• Notification Services
• Reporting Services
• Integration Services, formerly referred to as Data Transformation Services (DTS)

A dedicated analyzer runs in the context of Upgrade Advisor for each SQL Server component. The analysis examines objects that can be accessed by the individual analyzers, such as scripts, stored procedures, triggers, and trace files. Upgrade Advisor cannot analyze desktop applications and encrypted stored procedures.

The output of each analyzer is an XML report for that component. View the XML report using the Upgrade Advisor report viewer.

How to Install and Run Upgrade Advisor

The location where you install Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Upgrade Advisor depends on what you will be analyzing. Upgrade Advisor supports remote analysis of all supported components except Reporting Services. If you are not scanning instances of Reporting Services, you can install Upgrade Advisor on any computer that can connect to your instance of SQL Server, and that meets the Upgrade Advisor prerequisites. If you are scanning instances of Reporting Services, you must install Upgrade Advisor on the report server.

Upgrade Advisor is available in the Servers\redist\Upgrade Advisor folder of the SQL Server 2005 product disc and from the Microsoft Download Center. The prerequisites for installing Upgrade Advisor are as follows:

• Windows 2000 SP4 or a later version, Windows XP SP2 or a later version, or Windows Server 2003 SP1 or a later version.
• Microsoft Windows Installer 3.1 or a later version.
  The .NET Framework version 2.0 requires Windows Installer 3.1. You can install Windows Installer from the Windows Installer 3.1 Web site.
• The Microsoft .NET Framework version 2.0 or a later version. The .NET Framework version 2.0 is available on the SQL Server 2005 product disc, and from the .NET Framework Developer Center.
  • To install the .NET Framework version 2.0 from the SQL Server 2005 disc, locate the root of the CD or DVD drive, double-click the redist folder, double-click the 2.0 folder, and run dotnetfx.exe (for 32 bit) or dotnetfx64.exe (for 64 bit), depending on the operating system you have.
• SQL Server 2000 decision support objects (DSO) are required to scan upgrade issues in Analysis Services . To install DSO, insert the SQL Server 2000 disc into the CD or DVD drive. This starts the SQL Server 2000 Setup program. Click Install SQL Server 2000 Components. Click Analysis Services to start the Analysis Services Setup program. In Select Components, make sure that the Decision Support Objects component is selected.
• SQL Server 2000 client components are required to scan DTS packages. If your computer does not have these components, insert the SQL Server 2000 disc into the CD or DVD drive and install them.

To install Upgrade Advisor from the Web, click the download button on the download page. You can then run installation immediately, or save the SQLUASetup.msi file to run later. If you are installing from the product disc, run SQLUASetup.msi directly from the product disc.

After you install Upgrade Advisor, you can start Upgrade Advisor from the Start menu:

• Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Microsoft SQL Server 2005, and then click SQL Server 2005 Upgrade Advisor.

For more information about how to run Upgrade Advisor, see the Upgrade Advisor Help and the Readme. These are installed with Upgrade Advisor.

See Also

Concepts

Working with Multiple Versions of SQL Server

Other Resources

Upgrading to SQL Server 2005
Backward Compatibility

Help and Information

Getting SQL Server 2005 Assistance

Change History