How do I upgrade Microsoft SQL Server on my Amazon EC2 Windows instances?

Resolution

Prerequisites:

• To back up your EC2 instance, create an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) of all instances in the cluster. Also, create an Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) snapshot of all volumes.
• Complete a full backup of all SQL Server databases.
• Make sure that all instances in the cluster pass their status checks.
• Make sure that you can access storage from all instances in the cluster.
• Verify that you have local administrator rights on all nodes and the sysadmin role for SQL Server.

Note: It's a best practice to test upgrades in non-production environments first, and schedule a maintenance window for when instance traffic is low.

Upgrade the Windows OS that SQL Server runs on

Prerequisite: To upgrade your operating system (OS), you must have access to your SQL Server licensing information.

Make sure that your Windows version is compatible with your SQL Server version. For more information, see Version requirements for SQL Server in Windows operating system on the Microsoft website. If you use an incompatible OS version, then upgrade the OS of the EC2 instance.

To minimize downtime for clusters that are 2012 R2 or later, it's a best practice to use a rolling upgrade. For more information, see Perform a rolling upgrade or update on the Windows website.

Upgrade the SQL Server version on your Windows instance

Prerequisites: Make sure that you adhere to the version and edition upgrades for your SQL version. For more information, see the following resources for your SQL version:

• Supported version and edition upgrades (SQL Server 2019) on the Microsoft website
• Supported version and edition upgrades (SQL Server 2022) on the Microsoft website
• Supported version and edition upgrades (SQL Server 2025) on the Microsoft website

To upgrade the SQL Server version, upgrade from a failover cluster instance or from an Availability Group. Or, use the SQL Server installation for an in-place upgrade. For instructions, see Upgrade a failover cluster instance, Upgrade availability group replicas, or Upgrade SQL Server using the Installation Wizard (setup) on the Microsoft website.

(Optional) Upgrade the SQL Server edition

If you use a failover cluster instance, then you can upgrade either the instance's active or passive node. If you use an Availability Group, then you must upgrade each node separately. For instructions to upgrade the SQL Server edition, see In-place change of a SQL Server edition (setup) on the Microsoft website.

Related information

How do I troubleshoot Microsoft SQL issues on my EC2 Windows instance?

How do I launch Microsoft SQL Server on an EC2 Windows instance?