Upgrading SQL Storage Compress

SQL Storage Compress comprises:

• The HyperBac Compression Engine Components

  – required to create and use SQL Storage Compress databases.

• The SQL Storage Compress user interface (optional)

  – includes a database browser to help you analyze the space savings you could achieve by compressing your databases and a wizard to help you create compressed databases.

These are upgraded separately.

Upgrading the SQL Storage Compress user interface

To check if new versions of the SQL Storage Compress user interface are available, from the Help menu select Check for updates and follow the instructions.

Upgrading the HyperBac Compression Engine Components

You may want to upgrade the HyperBac Compression Engine Components if:

• you are upgrading to a new version of SQL Storage Compress, which includes a new version of the components, or
• you are installing SQL Storage Compress and already have an older version of the components installed for SQL HyperBac or SQL Virtual Restore.

To find out which version of the HyperBac Compression Engine Components you are using, see Version Information.

Note: you will need to restart your machine in order to complete the upgrade.

Before upgrading

If you have active SQL Storage Compress or SQL Virtual Restore databases on your server, you must do one of the following before proceeding:

• Take each compressed or virtual database offline. You can do this in two ways:
  • Right-click each database in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS), and select Tasks > Take Offline. You may need to run this task twice before SSMS reports the database as being offline.

  or,

  • Ensure you are connected to the master database, then run the following T-SQL statement for each database:

    ALTER DATABASE <database name> SET OFFLINE

    You may need to run this statement twice before SQL Server reports the database as being offline.

• Stop the SQL Server instance.

  Right-click the instance in SQL Server Management Studio, then click Pause, followed by Stop. Alternatively, stop the service in the Windows Services list.

If you are using SQL HyperBac, ensure that no backups are in progress before proceeding.

Upgrading

1. Download the new version of SQL Storage Compress from the Red Gate website.
2. Extract the contents of the downloaded zip file to the server that will host your compressed databases.
3. Open Step 1_HyperBac Engine and install the HyperBac Compression Engine Components:
   • for 64-bit machines, run HyperBac_Installer_x64.exe
   • for 32-bit machines, run HyperBac_Installer_x86.exe

   The HyperBac Compression Engine Components are required to create and use SQL Storage Compress databases. The components include a Windows service (the HyperBac Control Service), and several utilities (HyperBac Configuration Manager, HyperBac WinExtractor, and the HyperUtil command line utility).

   By default, the HyperBac Compression Engine Components are installed in %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Red Gate\HyperBac on 64-bit machines and %ProgramFiles%\Red Gate\HyperBac on 32-bit machines.

4. When the components installation completes, you are given the option to open the Activation Dialog for HyperBac Tools.

   

   To view the status of your license for SQL Storage Compress (and SQL Virtual Restore and SQL HyperBac), select this option and click Finish. The activation dialog is displayed. You can activate a new license if required, or continue using an existing license if applicable. For more information on activation, including how to activate later, see Activating SQL Storage Compress.

After upgrading

1. Restart your machine. Until the machine has been restarted, the latest version of the HyperBac Compression Engine Components will not be installed and you will not be able to access existing compressed databases or create new compressed databases.
2. If you stopped the SQL Server instance, start it again now. You can do this from SQL Server Management Studio or from the Windows Services list.

   If you took any existing SQL Storage Compress or SQL Virtual Restore databases offline, bring them back online now. You can do this using the Bring online task in SQL Server Management Studio, or by running the following T-SQL statement against the master database for each compressed database:

   ALTER DATABASE <database name> SET ONLINE

Upgrading to SQL Storage Compress 6: configuring file extensions for encryption

SQL Storage Compress 6 supports encrypted compressed databases using the file extensions: .mdfe, .ndfe and .ldfe. For new installations of SQL Storage Compress 6, these extensions are pre-configured in the HyperBac configuration file.

However, if you are upgrading from a previous version to SQL Storage Compress 6, these file extensions are not added automatically. This is because the existing HyperBac configuration file (which is used by SQL Storage Compress, SQL Virtual Restore and SQL HyperBac) is not overwritten on upgrade to prevent any configuration changes you have made from being undone, which could cause access failures. To use these file extensions, you should do one of the following:

• If you have not made any changes to the HyperBac configuration file, replace it with the SQL Storage Compress 6-compatible version.

  Download the file from the Red Gate website and use it to replace the existing hyperbac.conf file. This is normally located in %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Red Gate\HyperBac\bin on 64-bit machines and %ProgramFiles%\Red Gate\HyperBac\bin on 32-bit machines.

• If you have made changes to the HyperBac configuration file, such as adding file paths and extensions or changing default folder locations, you will need to add the encryption extensions manually. See Adding encryption extensions to the HyperBac configuation file for more information.

If you don't add these file extensions and select Use encryption on step 2 of the SQL Storage Compress wizard or use the encryption file extensions in T-SQL scripts, the restore will appear to work as expected, but no compression or encryption will result.