SQL 2014 to 2019 Migration Utility on DC

Hi All,

apologies for the delay - you can find information on using the SQL Upgrade Utility to upgrade SQL Express 2014 to SQL Express 2019 on a Domain Controller here.

Please be aware that there are some caveats when installing SQL Server on a Domain Controller - and you should definitely be aware of them, the implications and so on.

Hi everyone,

For the sake of clarify, MYOB does not explicitly prevent the installation of SQL 2019 on a Domain Controller, however it is not recommended from a security perspective by Microsoft.

Microsoft's own SQL installer (which our SQL upgrade utility uses) does not prevent the installation of SQL on a Domain Controller.

Our SQL 2014 - 2019 Upgrade utility not only runs the Microsoft provided SQL 2019 installer, and upgrades your 2014 instance to 2019, but also does a number of other steps as well.  

The upgrade utility will block an upgrade on a Domain Controller because of security complications that can occur with SQL on a Domain Controller - including, but not limited, to services that need to interact with the SQL server may not be able to without permission changes and so on.  It's important to note that much of this is beyond the scope of MYOB support.  

As such, the tool - out of the box so to speak - does not allow a direct upgrade.  

I've written a KB on this that is currently in the process of being published - once It's published, this will cover off the steps you can take to use the SQL Upgrade utility to upgrade your SQL instance on a Domain Controller.

I will post the link to this thread as soon as it's ready.

Thanks for your reply.

However it's not that Microsoft prevent SQL2019 from running on a domain controller, they just don't recommend it, for security and a few other reasons.

Can you say at what point current installs of AO will no longer be usable without SQL2019?

This will also mean that single-box installs of Windows Server Essentials will no longer be suitable for any future versions of AO. Perhaps you could highlight that somewhere?

Hi PaulDigitalD,

Apologies for a late response. I checked this and found that the issue is not with MYOB software but that MS SQL server 2019 doesn't work on DC. Here is the link from microsoft detailing this. 

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/571019/domain-controller-sql-server-2019

As advised before, MYOB is moving AO from SQL server 2014 to 2019 because Microsoft has stopped support for SQL 2014 and hence we cannot continue to use it for our software.

FYI - ITWorx_NZ and freedomit

Regards

Daljit

Hi ITWorx_NZ , sorry to leave you on read here!

I have been trying to hunt down some help/answers internally since your last comment on the 18th but have not had success yet.

I'll definitely keep on the case and hope to provide some information or answers soon.
Should have replied earlier to let you know but I think I was hopeful to have the info before now!

Hello? Can we get an admin/support person for a comment on this, please?

Also a +1 on this. I attempted this update last night for a client (although it didn't fail, it seemed to freeze on the pre-requisite check, so I killed the task), and they are a small shop running on a single server that is a domain controller. And this is a pretty powerful box, with 32Gb of memory, a decent CPU, and enterprise-class SSDs. Separating out the DC is of course do-able, but it would involve major reconfigurations and lots of money for new hardware and/or Microsoft server licenses. 

So, is there any way around this from MYOB's end?

Not an answer to your question but +1. I would like know how many small shops are running the MYOBAO on a DC. My client only installed the previous version at the beginning of the year and nothing was mentioned then about SQL Server and a Domain Controller. I note that Microsoft only 'recommend' not installing on a DC. So presumably the Microsoft SQL Server installer DOES allow it.