Make Edition Upgrade in a SQL cluster scenario

Question

I have a question in regards to Enterprise Edition to Standard Edition Upgrade. I need to move a SQL Cluster based on couple of SQL Evaluation Enterprise Edition to a licensed Standard Edition. How do I use the new license key?

OS: Windows Server 2012 Std Edition SQL Server: SQL Server 2012

Answer 1

You aren't able to "downgrade" SQL Server Editions from Enterprise (including Evaluation) to Standard Edition. The Supported Version & Edition Upgrade article details supported upgrade paths.

In the upgrade matrix in the above link, you will notice that the section for Evaluation Edition includes the following note:

 Upgrading from Evaluation Enterprise (a free edition) to any of the 
 paid editions is supported for stand-alone installations, 
 but is not supported for clustered installations.

On a Failover Cluster Instance, in order to change from Evaluation Edition to Standard Edition, you will need to uninstall SQL Server, and re-install using Standard Edition. The same is true in all cases (clustered or standalone) if you are using Enterprise Edition, or Evaluation Edition with any Enterprise-only features.

• user3383611: Hi AMtwo, honestly I already test this scenario and I've got a good results testing the with the SELECT @@VERSION, but I don't know if the CLUSTER can change the results.
• anon: The upgrade matrix I linked to in my answer shows that evaluation-->Standard is possible, however, if your installation is using any Enterprise features (as you eluded to in your question), then downgrading is not possible.
• user3383611: Yeah, sure... but in my case I don't usa any ENTERPRISE features
• anon: Please take a look at the edits I've made to my answer.

Answer 2

Thank's a lot for link the documentation. Which step do you suggest to perform on cluster to do this update (uninst/inst)?

My intent it is to reduce the amount if time where Sql server (both) are unavailable.

Thank you very much Alto