Obtain Service Pack 1 for SQL Server 2012

Microsoft Announced Service Pack 1 for SQL Server 2012 on November 2013 and here is the full list of Fixes/Improvements included with it – http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2674319/en-us

Improvements of SQL 2012 SP1 in SharePoint Perspective 

One of the major reason to Obtain SQL 2012 Service Pack 1 in SharePoint Environments is that you cannot enable SQL Server Reporting Instance without having SP1 which was the reason for me to obtain this. when you trying to enable SQL Server Reporting for SharePoint, You may get the issue in SharePoint Management Shell saying "The term ‘Install-SPRSService’ is not recognized as the name of the cmdlet".

Installing SP 1 for SQL 2012 resolved the above issue for me.

Take below steps to Obtain the SQL Service pack 1.

Note:

1. Make sure that you test this in a Staging environment before update your production SQL.
2. Also there is an mandatory KB (Non Security Update for SQL Server 2012 SP1 [KB2793634]) which needs to be Installed after SP1 Installation. This KB will fix "windows Installer Starts repeatedly" issue. Get in here to know more about known issues on SP 1 – http://blogs.msdn.com/b/psssql/archive/2013/07/31/after-applying-service-pack-1-for-sql-server-2012-you-may-encounter-a-known-issue-details-inside.aspx

1. Download SP 1 for SQL 2012 here – http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35575. And run it on your Server

2. Accept the license Terms

3. Select the Features that you need to Update and hit next

4. Give it a moment

5. Hit "Update" to Install

6. It will take a while and make sure that your users are not using any services related to SQL.

7. If everything went well, you will get the below green lights on each feature.

8. Go ahead and now install the KB mentioned above

9. Restart the Server and you are done with the update !

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Upgrade SQL Server Edition–SQL Server 2008 R2

There will be some incidents that you need to upgrade Existing SQL Edition to another Such as Standard to Enterprise. in my scenario I had a SharePoint Foundation Farm Installed on a SQL Express 2008 R2 and I needed to upgrade it in to Enterprise due to huge growth of Databases. finally it became crucial while giving me an error when restoring a Database of 50 GB as SQL Express 2008 R2 allowed only 10GB Max and that’s where this upgradement decided.

nothing much to do as you have got the feasibility for this on SQL installer. just take below few steps to complete you Edition upgrade.

1. Run SQL Server Installer Setup from your media.

2. Direct to – Maintenance –> hit on Edition Upgrade

3. Place License Key and click next.

4. Agree to the License Agreements here

5. Select the instance which you need to upgrade as below and click next.

6. Make sure on everything by looking at the summary and hit Next to proceed with upgrading.

7. Give it a moment and you will see the below result as success shortly.

that’s it and your instance is upgraded for selected edition and there will be no harm to Databases or any settings you have done in the instance. Enjoy !