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We have an on-premise DB instance server using SQL Server 2012, we want to migrate this to AWS RDS running SQL Server 2019 using AWS DMS managed service. is this going to be considered as Homogeneous migration or Heterogeneous Migration? May I know what are the challenges and limitations we would face when doing this please? Thanks.

marc_s
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Karikalan
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1 Answers1

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AWS new RDS instance doesn't support 2012, Means it's not possible to create the RDS instance for version 2012.

I will suggest migrating it to the slight upper version like 2014 which have less or no breaking changes.

Step 1 --> On prem SQL Server 2012 to AWS SQL Server 2014

Once step 1 is done, you can utilize AWS provides the blue/green strategies to upgrade your RDS from lower to upper version in stages.

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There are two kinds of upgrades for SQL Server DB instances: major version upgrades and minor version upgrades.

Major version upgrades can contain database changes that are not backward-compatible with existing applications. As a result, you must manually perform major version upgrades of your DB instances. You can initiate a major version upgrade by modifying your DB instance.

However, before you perform a major version upgrade, we recommend that you test the upgrade by following the steps described in Testing an upgrade.

In contrast, minor version upgrades include only changes that are backward-compatible with existing applications. You can initiate a minor version upgrade manually by modifying your DB instance.

As per provided documents by AWS, its already mentioned that its being supported by AWS.

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Reference: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/USER_UpgradeDBInstance.SQLServer.html

marc_s
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prashant thakre
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  • Thanks @marc_s, its helpful. Just want to make sure from your clarification, that I should upgrade my on-premise sql server to 2014 version first then upgrade into 2019. Its two steps process. On-premise MSSQL 2012 migrate into MSSQL2014(This step is mandatory, we can't exclude?) Step2: Upgrade RDS MSSQL 2014 into MSSQL 2019? Do we need to use DMS or Snap-shot for this migraration from on-premise to AWS RDS pls? Thanks. – Karikalan Jan 30 '22 at 09:31
  • for step 1 yes it needs to be done as AWS RDS not supporting 2012 so you can try DMS directly but if not working then upgrade it first. For second step you dont need DMS or snapshot , AWS provide automated ways that you can adopt. – prashant thakre Jan 30 '22 at 10:30