IAS - End of Life for SQL 2008 and 2008R2

end-of-life-for-sql-2008-and-2008r2

IAS - End of Life for SQL 2008 and 2008R2

4th September 2019

IRIS Business Tax, IRIS Accounts Production, IRIS Personal Tax, IRIS Practice Management, IRIS Time and Fees, IRIS AutoMail

On 9th of July 2019, SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 R2 go out of Microsoft’s extended support. As a result; our IRIS products will no longer be supported with use of SQL Server 2008 (incl. R2) after our 2019 Spring release version 19.1 This means that while the IRIS product may continue to work using this version of SQL Server, they will no longer be tested in these environments and we will not be able to offer support to customers using them.

Our guidance on this would be not to upgrade your existing instance but to create a new instance and restore a copy of your database via a backup. You would then connect your install to this new instance and restored database.
This method gives you a fall back option if there are any issues during the process and much of the work can be carried out without disruption to the practice.
To start, you will need a backup of your database, to backup the Iris SQL database, follow the guide here.
“Start | All Programs | IRIS Software Ltd | Utilities | IRIS Accountancy Suite Database Manager and click Run Now.“ 
To migrate you will firstly need to do a new install of SQL Server.

Installation of your new SQL Server

Download SQL Server 2017 Express here.
If you are on Windows 7 then you will have to install SQL Server 2012 Express. The download for 2012 can be found here.
Instructions for installing and configuring SQL Server to work with IRIS can be found here. 

Note: Management Studio is a separate install process under the 2017 install and will be required, however, you may already have this installed as part of your previous SQL Instance.
You can obtain SQL Server Management Studio here.

Note: SQL Express is only recommended for use for up to 6 users.
Full System Requirements for the IRIS Accountancy Suite can be found here.  

Restoring the IRIS database into your new instance and connecting your install

For this step you will need to connect to the SQL Server Instance using SQL Server Management Studio and restore the IRIS database.
To open SSMS you can click the start button and search for SSMS or use a run prompt and type SSMS.
Find the steps on how to restore your IRIS database click here.
Note: When you view your new instance in SSMS you will not have a database to right click, you will need to right click the Databases folder option instead.
Note: You will need to go to the Files page in the top left and tick the relocate all files to folder option to successfully restore.

You will then need to connect your install to the restored database by recreating the IRIS database logins, find the steps on how to do this here.

NB: If you have IRIS OpenDocs you will need to speak to IRIS Sales ( 0344 815 5550) as this a chargeable service which needs to be carried out by our Professional Services Team.