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Currently, we have three workstations in the field. Each one has Windows XP Server and SQL Server Express 2005 installed on them. So they operate locally for now.

But our customer added two servers to the system. These two servers have Windows 2003 Server and SQL Server 2005 Standard installed. All three workstations will use these common databases on the servers.

So, what is the easiest way to achieve this? Is it possible to move workstation databases to servers?

Thanks in advance.

1 Answers1

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Do a backup of each of the databases on the workstations and then restore them on the server, as easy as that. Remember to change the connection strings of the applications to point to the new server

Backup

Restore

Edit After Comment

It is important to note the version, and I am unsure if Standard supports any of the below, you will have to make sure.

Interms of using the workstations as failovers there are a couple of options:

  1. Log Shipping
  2. Database Mirroring
  3. Replication
  • These two servers will be redundant. I mean, if one of them encounters a problem, the other will continue to be used. So Is there anything else I need to do? –  May 16 '11 at 10:11
  • Well that depends, This can be a tricky exercise, You can either do a daily backup of your database to a network store and if the database falls over you can use that restore file on the applicable workstation. Otherwise if you want it to be the latest version possible you will have to implement something like replication (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms151198(v=SQL.90).aspx) or some other messaging service. You can also look at mirroring (http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/sqldatabasemirroring/thread/ee05954e-0934-4305-8936-b9226e231d06/) –  May 16 '11 at 10:18
  • Also look here: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/sqldatabasemirroring/thread/57f8a84e-d83a-444c-9ca5-460fbb3717e0/ –  May 16 '11 at 10:23