How do I upgrade my Microsoft SQL cluster on my EC2 Windows instances?

Short description

Upgrading your Microsoft SQL cluster consists of the following three steps:

1. Upgrade the Windows OS that SQL is running on.
2. Upgrade the SQL DB engine version.
3. Upgrade the SQL edition.

Resolution

Upgrade the Windows OS that SQL is running on

When upgrading the underlying OS, make sure that the version of Windows you're using is compatible with your SQL version. For more information, see How can I upgrade my EC2 Windows Server instance OS to a newer version?

If your cluster is 2012R2 or later, use a cluster rolling upgrade to minimize downtime.

Note: Make sure that you have your SQL licensing information for reference when upgrading.

Upgrade the SQL version on your Windows instance

There are two scenarios when upgrading SQL:

Upgrade a failover cluster instance (FCI) or Availability Group (AG).

For more information on upgrading an FCI, see Upgrade a failover cluster instance.

For more information on upgrading an AG, see Upgrading Always On Availability Group replica instances.

Migrate from an older version to newer version for FCI or AG: For more information, see Upgrade SQL Server instances running on Windows Server 2008/2008 R2/2012 clusters.

Upgrade the SQL Server edition

Upgrade SQL Server on a failover cluster instance. On SQL Server failover cluster instances, run edition upgrade on any one of the instance's active or passive nodes.

Upgrade SQL Server on AG. On AG, both nodes must be upgraded separately. In the SQL Server Installation Center, make sure to select Maintenance, Edition Upgrade.

For more information, see Upgrade to a different edition of SQL Server (Setup).

Related information

How do I troubleshoot Microsoft SQL issues on my EC2 Windows instance?

How do I launch Microsoft SQL Server on an EC2 Windows instance?