upgrading SQL express 2008 to standard2019

Question

Due to data capactity size lime, pnr of application needs to be upgraded to SQL standard 2019.
I have received DVD disk titles "embd SQL svr,RunTime 2019 EMB ESD OLC 5 clt std"
Can this be installed to replace Express and upgrade to "2019 SQL Standerd"
Or we got something totally different ?

Answer 1

According to Supported version & edition upgrades (SQL Server 2019) the lowest version from which upgrades are supported are SQL 2012. This may be due to the fact that when SQL 2019 was released, SQL 2008 was already unsupported version. That is, it may work, but it would be not supported, so if things fail half-ways, you cannot get any help. You may also find that Setup actively blocks you from upgrading.

There is also the question about the operating system. There may not be any operating system that supports both SQL 2008 and SQL 2019, so you may have to upgrade the OS as well.

The alternative is to install a new instance of SQL Server, and then copy the databases with backup and restore. (This does work.) You would also have to copy logins from the new instance. You will also have to change clients to refer to the new instance. Then again, if you install new instance on a new machine, but use the instance name of SQLEXPRESS, you can give the new machine the same as the old one.

Answer 2

Hi @hank noguchi ,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A!
Upgrading directly from 2008 to 2019 version is not supported. However, upgrading from version 2008 to version 2016 and 2016 to version 2019 is supported.
See this official document: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/database-engine/install-windows/supported-version-and-edition-upgrades?view=sql-server-ver16#upgrades-from-earlier-versions-to-
Here is an article about How to Upgrade SQL Server 2008 to 2016.
Also, you can give the current instance and install a new one.

Best regards,
Seeya

---

If the answer is the right solution, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".
Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.