Getting Started with SQL Server 2008 R2 - Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Administration - page 14

Whether you choose an 'in-place' upgrade or a 'side-by-side' upgrade, you can still run Upgrade
Advisor on your legacy systems. We can run Upgrade Advisor from a local or remote server. To
execute from a Command Prompt window, we require a configuration file name as an input
parameter as follows:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Upgrade Advisor\
UpgradeAdvisorWizardCmd.exe" -ConfigFile "C:\Documents and
Settings\SSQA.net\My Documents\SQLServer 2008 R2 Upgrade Advisor
Reports\MyServer\Config.xml"

How it works...

As we discussed, the best practices approach for a server instance or database upgrade
process, it is essential to understand how the process works when you adopt any two upgrade
choices that are available in SQL Server 2008 R2 and their characteristics.

F In-place upgrade: Using the SQL Server 2008 Setup program to directly upgrade an
instance of SQL Server 2000, or SQL Server 2005 to SQL Server 2008 results in the
older instance of SQL Server being replaced. The number of servers used in 'In-place'
upgrade is 1 , which implies that all the steps within an upgrade are performed on the
same server.
F Side-by-side upgrade: Using steps to move all or some data from an instance of
SQL Server 2000 or SQL Server 2005 to a separate instance of SQL Server 2008.
Inside the side-by-side upgrade strategy, we have two variations of how upgrade
is processed:
One server: The new instance exists on the same server as the
target instance
Two servers: The new instance exists on a different server than the
target instance

Characteristics of an In-Place Upgrade vs. a Side-by-Side Upgrade are as follows:

Process In-Place Upgrade Side-by-Side Upgrade

Number of resulting instances One only Two

Number of physical servers involved One One or more

Data file transfer Automatic Manual

SQL Server instance configuration Automatic Manual

Supporting tool SQL Server Setup Several data transfer

methods