One estate, three answers: upgrade, buy time, or let Microsoft run it

Overview

When extended support ends, an estate rarely has one right answer. Some instances can move this quarter, some are pinned by a vendor application, and some nobody can account for. This scenario describes how an AceMQ upgrade and ESU planning engagement runs.

Environment

SQL Server 2016 and 2017 on virtual machines in plant data centres and on Azure virtual machines, a mix of standalone instances and one availability group, and several applications whose vendors had not published support for newer versions.

Approach

AceMQ builds the inventory first: version, edition, cumulative update level, features in use and the application behind every instance. Each instance is then placed on one of three routes, using Microsoft's published rules for Extended Security Updates through Azure Arc or the SQL IaaS Agent extension, and for Azure SQL Managed Instance. For upgrades, the compatibility level is raised with Query Store collecting so regressions can be forced back, and the cutover is rehearsed on a restored copy.

Solution

1. 01Inventoried every instance with version, edition, cumulative update level and owner
2. 02Validated the latest cumulative update on test copies before any subscription, as Microsoft advises
3. 03Assigned each instance to upgrade, ESU as a time-boxed bridge, or Managed Instance, with the reason recorded for the auditor
4. 04Planned the upgrade with Query Store enabled and a written rollback for each cutover
5. 05Documented the ESU enrolment steps and an end date for each subscription

Technologies