Trial period for SQL Server 2019 Evaluation ended, can I move the instance to express on the same server?

Question

Trial period for SQL Server 2019 Evaluation ended, can I move the instance to express on the same server? I'm using it for just a test environment, but don't want to lose the work done already.

Answer 1

Hi @Justin Yandall,

move the instance to express on the same server

Do you mean that you want to upgrade the Evaluation to Express directly? If yes, you may try to use Edition upgrade to do that.

In addition, you need to consider limitations of Express edition, DB size is one.

Regards，

Zoe Hui

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Answer 2

Officially an Edition "Upgrade" Evaluation => Express is not supported, see

See https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/database-engine/install-windows/supported-version-and-edition-upgrades-2022?view=sql-server-ver16

Other way is uninstall Evaluation and reinstall Express.

Answer 3

Another alternative is move to Developer Edition instead. In this case, you will not face any obstacles with databases sizes etc. And this is a supported Edition Upgrade.

Just beware that Developer Edition is not supported for production. But if it is true as you say that you are only testing, Developer Edition is fine.