"SQL Server 2012 Upgrade Technical Guide" 454 page PDF on upgrading from SQL Server 2005, 2008, 2008 R2 to SQL Server 2012

SQL Server Journey with SQL Authority - SQLAuthority News – SQL Server 2012 Upgrade Technical Guide – A Comprehensive Whitepaper – (454 pages – 9 MB)

"Microsoft has just released SQL Server 2012 Upgrade Technical Guide. This guide is very comprehensive and covers the subject of upgrade in very much depth. This is indeed a great detailed white paper. Even writing a summary of the whitepaper would be over 100 pages. SQL Server 2012 is quite a important release from Microsoft. This white paper discusses how to Upgrade from SQL Server 2008/R2 to SQL Server 2012. ...

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SQL Server - Why SQL Server

"Microsoft SQL Server is a comprehensive database server and information platform offering a complete set of enterprise-ready technologies and tools that help people derive the most value from information at the lowest total-cost-of-ownership. Enjoy high levels of performance, availability, and security; employ more productive management and development tools; and deliver pervasive insight with self-service business intelligence (BI).

A complete and integrated platform, Microsoft SQL Server brings it all together to get more value out of existing IT skills and assets, increase the productivity and agility of IT departments, and quickly build flexible, innovative applications.

Key Resources

• SQL Server 2012 What's New Whitepaper
• SQL Server 2012 Overview
• SQL Server 2012 Upgrade Technical Reference Guide Whitepaper
• Download SQL Server 2012

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SQL Server 2012 Upgrade Technical Reference Guide Whitepaper

Published: May 2012
Applies to: SQL Server 2012

Introduction
To attain a smooth and trouble-free upgrade to SQL Server 2012, you must plan for the upgrade and address the complexities of your application. Like all IT projects, planning and then testing your plan gives you confidence that you will succeed. But if you ignore the planning process, you increase the chances of running into difficulties that can derail and delay your upgrade.

This document takes you through the essential technical details for planning and testing an upgrade of existing SQL Server 2005, 2008, and 2008 R2 instances to SQL Server 2012. You will be presented with best practices for preparation, planning, pre-upgrade tasks, and post-upgrade tasks. All the SQL Server components are covered, each in its own chapter.

This document is a supplement to SQL Server 2012 Books Online. It is not intended to supersede any information in SQL Server Books Online or in the Microsoft Knowledge Base articles. The reader will notice many links to SQL Server Books Online topics and Knowledge Base articles. In all such cases, the information in this document is included to provide the context you need to decide whether to spend the time to read the linked article. If there are any discrepancies between this document and a linked article, the linked article is assumed to be more accurate.

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If your thinking about upgrading to SQL Server 2012 this is a must have guide...