We are considering upgrading SQL 2000 to SQL 2005. I just love the idea of getting newer technology, But i'm hesitant to upgrade MS stuff, cause of bugs and licensing stuff... So here's what i'm wondering:

1. If we move to 2005, will we lose any databases/querys/dts packages/etc ?? or is it a seamless upgrade from 2000?

2. Would we have to uninstall 2000 and then install 2005, or is it an in-place-upgrade type of thing?

3. Does 2005 have a forced on-line registration that you have to go through (sort of like how XP has to be "activated")?

4. If we use SQL 2005, and end up using more connections that we purchased, will SQL fail or give an error message? SQL 2000 does not give this problem.

1. You won't lose anything -- you can import the old into the new as legacy DTS packages. SQL Server 2005 comes with SSIS, which is a little more complex than DTS, but definitely better!

3. No, it does not. There are many invitations to provide feedback, but none are required. Various pieces of the suite *will* try to contact crl.microsoft.com to verify that the .Net software's license (?) wasn't revoked, but that doesn't do any type of SQL registration or anything. You may just use the hosts file to block crl.microsoft.com.

4. I really don't think so, but I'm not sure. Nowhere in the software do you actually put how many CALs you have. Of course, you should always have properly licensing!

1) I am in the process of doing this right now and so far it has been relatively painless. There are some minor tweaks you may have to make, but it is pretty easy to convert. Two problems we have had is that we couldn't import the master database, so had to recreate users and permissions. All the other databases imported fine. Second was that we had 2 stored procedures (out of more than a hundred) that did not work and had to be rewritten. I believe it was the syntax of using *= for joins so it was a minor change. We didn't try an upgrade in place so I don't know anything about that, we installed 2005 on a brand new box and importing the databases and such.