Which is the best solution to co-exist both SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2008R2 on the same machine? [closed]

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The box contains a SQL Server 2000 installation on a 32 bit OS. We would like install a SQL Server 2008 R2 on the same a machine.

What is the best solution?

Is it possible to co-exist both on the same machine? Do we need to consider the OS?

Or can we take the back up of all the databases on the SQL Server 2000 instance and restore them into SQL Server 2012 ?

Answer 1

Many instances can co-exist on a single machine - no problem. The first one is the default instance - any other must have a separate, distinct instance name to address it.

You can connect to the default SQL Server instance by just specifying the machine name (or IP address) where it's located, e.g. MyDevPC - while for the named instances, you need to use the machine name and the instance name, e.g. MyDevPC\SQL2008R2. With this notation, you can easily have several versions and editions of SQL Server, side-by-side, on a single machine.

You CANNOT restore a SQL Server 2000 database in SQL Server 2012 - you need to restore it to a version in between (to 2005, 2008 or 2008 R2) first. The jump from 2000 to 2012 is just too big and SQL Server 2000 is just too old to be supported directly in SQL Server 2012 anymore

Answer 2

On my development machine (Windows 7 so not a Server OS) I've currently got SQL Server 2012 and SQL Server 2008, In previous jobs I've been known to have multiple earlier versions installed. Each instance of Sql Server will have its own name identifying it and allowing you to even have same-name databases on each server e.g. if you were to want to migrate over to the newer version but maintain the structure of the earlier edition whilst you test.

You can usually take backups of databases and restore them to newer versions or you can use one of the many comparison tools to generate the required scripts for duplicating the database on the newer server.