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I have recently updated my web application to target ASP.NET 4.5 which requires a deployment to a Windows Server 2012. achieved by setting the osFamily value to 3 in the ServiceConfiguration deployment file.

However once I have it deployed in staging I can't flip to product because production has a different OS version to staging and it errors telling me this isn't something it can do.

Stopping short of deleting the old production environment which will result in downtime and flipping staging to replace the empty production instance, how do I transition from Windows Server 2008 to 2012 without downtime?

EDIT: This is specific to migrating from 2008 to 2012, I believe it was possible with earlier versions however I get the error below when I try to edit the osFamily value of the hosted service from 2-3.

The Upgrade from OS family 2 to OS family 3 is not allowed

Thanks,

Christo
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2 Answers2

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Unfortunately upgrade from OS family 1 and 2 to 3 is currently not supported - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/hh472157.aspx

The following items are not supported during an update: • Changing the name of a role. Remove and then add the role with the new name.

• Changing of the Upgrade Domain count.

• Decreasing the size of the local resources.

• Updating from guest OS Family 1 or 2 to guest OS Family 3.

You can work around this limitation by deploying a new package that uses guest OS Family 3 to the staging environment and perform a VIP swap.

Yossi Dahan
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  • thanks for the confirmation Yossi. although I dont believe you can swap VIPs from 1 OS to another either so I would have to delete production and then flip staging to replace an empty production instance? make sense? – Christo Nov 06 '12 at 00:22
  • im thinking of just pointing my DNS to staging and then whilst the DNS propagates I will have 2 working websites. after 24 hours etc I will remove production and re-deploy. best plan that I can come up with??? you would think it would be a common problem though?? – Christo Nov 06 '12 at 00:23
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    I have just successfully used VIP swap between a .net 4 web app with osFamily 2 on production and a .net 4.5 web app with osFamily 3 on staging and it worked just fine. – Yossi Dahan Nov 06 '12 at 09:22
  • I have just done the same thing. Im certain this wasnt the case last week! almost certain MSFT has changed something in the last week but it didnt work. anyway, problem has been resolved. I will post my solution soon. – Christo Nov 07 '12 at 03:28
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You should be able to do that from the management portal. See How to Upgrade the Windows Azure Guest OS from the Management Portal.

Edit: This will work from 2008 SP2 to 2008 R2, but not to 2012.

Phil Bolduc
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  • thanks for your reply phil, however the link you suggested is over a year old and would possibly work going from osFamily 1-2 (Server 2003 - 2008) but I get the error message "The Upgrade from OS family 2 to OS family 3 is not allowed" when I try to upgrade to 2012 – Christo Nov 05 '12 at 06:31
  • I hadn't tried it myself. I thought the date of the article might have been wrong as it talks about referring to another article for the Silverlight portal. A number of articles in that secion have newer dates, ie Oct 2012. – Phil Bolduc Nov 05 '12 at 07:00
  • I just was able to upgrade from 2008 SP2 to 2008 R2, however, you are correct, it says 'The Upgrade from OS family 2 to OS family 3 is not allowed' when trying to go 2012. You may also want to ask on the Windows Azure Forums, http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/windowsazureplatform – Phil Bolduc Nov 05 '12 at 07:17