I'm having problems with SQL Server upgrade.

Question

I need to upgrade from SQL Server Express to SQL Server 2022 Standard.

I was using SQL Server 2019 Express edition, met the 10GB data threshold (almost), and tried to upgrade to SQL Server 2022 Evaluation edition. This nearly worked, but on the Feature Rules step of installation, an error notified that this particular upgrade was not allowed. This was all done with my IT company, but they had no solution at this point.

...So I upgraded SQL Server from 2019 to 2022 (Express editions), to see if I then could update Express to Evaluation. That attempt errors out at the "Select Features" step, disallowing any selection of features, and thereby halting progress to the Feature Rules page.

Question 1 is: can I not upgrade from Express to Evaluation for the free 180 day trial, to make sure Standard edition is going to work for the solitary software I use that depends on SQL Server?

Question 2 is: if I just need to purchase the SQL Server Standard software and license, will it be immediately available electronically? I'm in a time crunch with this software update.

Answer 1

Express to Evaluation is not a supported upgrade path. For one thing, Express is licensed for production use. Evaluation is not.

You could install a new instance that runs Evaluation, and attach the database to that instance. However, I get the impression that you are usage of the database is for production, so you would violate the license agreement for Evaluation.

So, yes, your company will need to buy you a license for Standard Edition for you. How quickly the license and the download becomes available is nothing I can answer, as those routines are up to the reseller. But I would expect it to be a swift operation that is sorted out in a day as soon as the payment is processed.