Every
so often we come across a client who wishes to upgrade from a
SalesLogix instance setup on SQL 2000. This discussion usually comes up
when we start the process of analyzing hardware requirements for the
upgrade. Here are a few key points that come up in order to help with
understanding the issues you could potentially run into.
Server considerations:
SalesLogix 7.5.3 supports SQL 2005 & SQL 2008. Refer to the
SalesLogix compatibility checklist for more details. Most of our clients
are on SQL2005, which makes it easy to detach such a database and
attach it to a SQL 2008 environment.
If you are on an older version like SQL 2000, then you will have to
attach it to a sql2005 instance which should upgrade it to SQL2005
format. Then repeat the same process to attach the database to SQL 2008.
If you don’t have a SQL 2005 environment, it is always possible to setup
the free SQL2005 express edition and use that for the intermediate
step. Keep in mind though that there is a 4GB database limit on the
express edition. For larger databases, you will need a standard 2005 SQL
Server edition.
You could also use the SQL2008 migration tools for this, but you will
need the SQL2000 environment running in parallel with the SQL 2008
environment so that the migration tools can properly analyze and migrate
data to SQL2008.
Considerations for client computers:
If the implementation involves a sync server and remote users, then
you will need to consider the SQL edition that will be installed on
their computers:
The standard install files provided by SalesLogix provide you with a
SQL 2005 express edition installation which is convenient if the SQL
server on the host is also on SQL 2005.
If you plan to install SQL2008, then you will need to make sure you have
a process to download and roll out SQL2008 express editions to users.
The standard remote install looks for a SQL express instance called
"SALESLOGIX". So to keep things consistent, it would be best to have the
SQL2008 instance be setup with the same instance name.
On the client machines that run the windows/LAN client or remote
clients, you will also need to get the appropriate SQLNative client
drivers installed to match the SQL server that has been chosen.
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