I accidentally installed SQL Server express 2008 R2 ArcSDE Personal Server class rather than Workgroup class on our new server. Is there a way to change it now that it's installed, or should I uninstall and re-install?

[heatherdaw]

My understanding is that ArcSDE Personal will only allow 3 connections while Workgroup level allows 10 connections, so I need to change to Workgroup or somehow reconfigure to allow more connections.

[Asrujit_SenGupta · Accepted solution]

• Which version of ArcGIS are you working with?
• Have you created any geodatabase as well on this Instance of SQL Server Express?

In case you have not created any geodatabase on that geodatabase yet, just re-run the setup for ArcSDE Workgroup and enable the instance with the Workgroup license. That should be all.

In case you have already created a geodatabase on that instance, you will need to Detach and then Attach that geodatabase using the ArcCatalog interface, to update its license with the workgroup one. 

SQL Server 2008 R2 is quite old now and support for it has been deprecated in recent versions. So in case you are starting fresh, consider using a higher version of SQL Server Express.

[heatherdaw]

Thanks Asrujit.  I think we'll upgrade to SQL Server 2012 and change to Workgroup while we're at it.  We have several geodatabases and non-spatial databases that we'll have to detach first.  We'll do that in a couple of weeks.  I'll post again then to let you know how it went.

[heatherdaw]

Hi again.  I've now upgraded to SQL Server Express 2012 Workgroup, because that's what's included with our ArcGIS for Server 10.3.1 install files (and we're using ArcGIS for Server 10.3.1).  Most of our clients are 10.3.1, but we are in the midst of upgrading clients to 10.4.1.  Everything looks fine, but I haven't done a ton of testing.  I'm wondering if I should upgrade to 2012 SP3, but the following page doesn't list it as compatible:  Microsoft SQL Server database requirements for ArcGIS 10.3.x—Help | ArcGIS Desktop 

Does anyone know if it is?

And then I read a bunch of scary posts about poor performance with SQL Server 2012 and ArcGIS for Server 10.3.1, so should I actually upgrade to SQL Server 2014?

Thoughts?

Thanks

[Asrujit_SenGupta]

Yes, as per that link SQL Server 2012 SP3 is supported with 10.3.x and 10.4.x both. That link mentions only the supported base versions, indicating SPs above it are automatically supported, unless specifically mentioned as 'not supported' on that same page.

Just because others faced issue while using SQL Server 2012, does not mean that you may do so as well. A lot of things may matter: data size, Server Configuration, DBMS configuration, N/w. 

So you should rather test with SQL Server 2012 first on a test server, to see for yourself whether you face any such issues.

[Asrujit_SenGupta]

Also, if the original question was answered and that issue is resolved, you may go ahead and close the Thread as answered.