The VMguy

Thanks to Ryan for sending in this request.  As many of you know, when you install Virtual Center (VC) in your environment it requires a database.  By default, you may use SQL or Oracle.  If you do not have a database server handy, you can use the included MS SQL 2005 Express database engine.  This included SQL Express engine is supported by VMware in production environments up to 5 physical ESX hosts or 50 Virtual Machines.

What happens when we outgrow that?  Can we upgrade in-place?  The good news is, yes you can.

1. Take a backup of the VC server.  If you have VC running as a Virtual Machine, it’s best to take a snapshot of it so that you have a nice clean restore point in case anything goes wrong.
2. Shutdown any VMware services that may be using the SQL Express database.  For instance, the License service, VC service, or Update Manager.
3. Start the SQL Installer with an argument of SKUUPGRADE=1 (e.g. setup.exe SKUUPGRADE=1)  for more information about using this command argument, have a look here .
4. When you reach the point where the installer asks if you wish to upgrade the default instance or a named instance, select named instance.  Then browse to the instance named "SQLEXP_VIM" Then you can just accept the defaults for the installation.

If you want to move the instance off the VC server itself.  My advice would be to upgrade to SQL 2005 on the VC server first.  Then follow KB article 7960893 which describes how to relocate the VC database.

I can’t stress how important the first step above is.  Get that snapshot or backup before starting.  You want to have that failback plan just in case anything goes wrong, you’ll be able to put things back rather quickly.  You can then remove that snapshot after you’ve determined everything was upgraded correctly and running fine.