Back from vacation I decided it's time to upgrade our main server (about 3000 clients) from SEC4.0 to SEV4.5. Upgrade advisor told me that the SQL instance contains other databases besides SOPHOS4 and yes, back in the SEC3 days someone (not me this time) had selected the default instance to install the Sophos database in. Hadn't cared to fix this when I upgraded to SEC4.0 but this time I wanted to resolve it.
So I installed a SOPHOS instance (2005 Express), stopped the services, backed up the database from the default instance, used InstallDB to create the SOPHOS4 database on the SOPHOS instance, restored it from the backup, changed the DatabaseConnectionMS registry value and started the services.
SEC came up fine and I verified it's using the correct instance. Upgrade advisor gave all green and I started the upgrade. Some pre-requisite installs and a few reboots later came the interesting part, creating database ... and then it told me that UpgradeDB had failed miserably and I should re-run it when it's convenient but anyway it decided to finish the install and start the management service which also failed (as expected - with some unknown exception). Rats.
Logs weren't much help. UpgradeDB isn't very talkative about which switches it expects but using the knowledgebase I soon found out (and by trial-and-error that the switches are case-sensitive) - but no luck. Even using -debug I could not immediately figure out what was wrong, just that it somehow didn't find the database it expected. Checking the instance for the existing databases only SOPHOS4 was there. Hmmm. Checking the default instance there was the SOPHOS45 database. ??? Oh, there's another registry value (Instance under the key Database Installer) and it contained the default instance. The advisor had missed this.
Created the database in the correct instance using InstallDB. Meanwhile Windows continued to attempt to start the Management Service (as instructed) and this obviously came in the way as UpgradeDB failed half-way. Ok, you want it the hard way? Disabled the service, dropped and re-installed the SOPHOS45 database, ran UpgradeDB - success! Enabled the service and SEC4.5 came up fine. Phew!
Now, it took me longer to write this than actually doing the upgrade (if you don't count waiting) and while the advisor should have warned me the whole process is quite forgiving. I didn't even need the backup (a common experience when you have one :smileywink:). Just don't panic and if you have no idea what to do next call support before doing something you might regret immediately. And make sure you have the backup in a safe place (ideally on offline storage).
Christian
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