- Adam Thurgar
Patching and upgrading dilemma
What would you do if you started a job at a company with the following SQL Server production farm.
16 SQL Servers - none of which are patched to even closely the current version.
Only 2 servers have versions that are still supported by Microsoft.
2 servers are SQL Server 2005 and another 2 are SQL Server 2008R2.
5 servers are SQL Server 2012, but one of these is running Express edition.
5 servers are SQL Server 2014 but not patched to SP2 or above.
One each for SQL Server 2016 and 2017. The 2016 server is running Enterprise edition which they are not licensed for. At least these servers are still supported by Microsoft.
Where would you start and what would you do with an environment that clearly shows neglect, lack of due diligence and doesn't regard its database server to be important, even though the business would not survive with a prolonged outage of some of these servers (greater than a business week)?