TMS SQL Service Packs

[Gregory Brunn]

I am upgrading TMS from 14.4.2 to TMS 15.2.1 and have a question around the SQL version supported.

Old 14.4.2 system is deployed wtih SQL Standard Edition service pack 1 service 11.1.3000.0.

15.2.1 requires SQL 2012 service pack 3.

So my question is can I upgrade the old sql to service pack 3 prior to upgrade and not have issues, or will I just have up upgrade the SQL prior to running the installer of 15.2.1, or is service pack 3 a hard requirement, as it looks like these docs where changed in the past and at one point there was not a service pack requirement as was seen on an old support forum post.

[Wayne DeNardi]

Is there a specific reason you are only upgrading to TMS 15.2.1 whcih is quite an old version?

Being released in April 2016, that old version doesn't support many of the newer model endpoints or using CMS as a managed bridge, or other improvements in newer releases.  The current release as of the date of this post is TMS 15.8 (December 2018).

But, in any case, yes, you need to have the correct version of SQL installed before running the TMS installer.  You should back up your database, upgrade the SQL server, then restore the database to the new version of SQL, then run the TMS installer.

[Gregory Brunn]

Yeah Wayne, with you on the version stuff. Had the same convo with our sales teams about versions.

Are you absolutely sure with a service pack you have to restore the database in that manor you couldn't just install the service pack?

My windows guys seem to think the restore isn't really needed because it is just a service patch.

[Wayne DeNardi]

Sorry, I misunderstood your question as you didn’t make the starting version clear. 

If if you are going from the same SQL version to one with a SP, then there is no need for any restore.  You just install the SQL SP.  It is essentially just a set of patches.  

It’s only when changing versions of SQL or moving from one box to another that you should need to do the backup/restore.  

I would do a backup beforehand as a safety measure in case you need to roll back if it doesn't work at all.