Is there a defined procedure to follow for moving a SQL Server 2012 Management Data Warehouse to a new server\instance?
We intend to setup MDW on a test SQL Server instance first, but will then want to migrate it to a production installation. I can't find any information on this. Two points which are concerns are:
- To migrate the databases without losing data.
- How to update the registered instances to report their data to the new MDW instance.
Best Answer
I understand this is an old thread, but it was the first hit when I searched "how to move mdw database" on Google.
I had configured MDW (Data Collection) on a SQL Server 2008 R2 production server, and I hosted the MDW database in a QA instance. Later on I had to move the QA instance to a different machine, with a different name (migration and name change mandatory for business reasons) and I wanted to keep the MDW data that was already collected. I could not find anything on that, so I gave this procedure a try and it worked for me:
The data collectors should start automatically after the Configure Management Data Warehouse wizard finishes, and you can view the MDW reports in the new database location.
Then again, this worked for me in a SQL Server 2008 R2 environment, I am not sure if it works in SQL Server 2012.