How to move the SCVMM database to another server

[System-Center-Team]

First published on TECHNET on Feb 01, 2010

You may find yourself in the position of needing to move the SCVMM database from one server to another for various reasons. For instance, this situation can occur when moving from local to remote SQL or from a stand-alone SQL server to a SQL cluster. The following instructions are provided as a guideline on how to accomplish this move from a SCVMM perspective.

Important! It is strongly encouraged that before undertaking this process that a complete backup of the SCVMM database is captured.

There are two methods to accomplish the task of backing up and moving the SQL database. You can use either SQL Server Management Studio or the built in scvmmrecover.exe tool built into SCVMM.

Method #1 -- Using SQL Server Management Studio

How to move SCVMM database to another server (local to remote SQL)

1. Take a backup of the existing VMM DB

2. Uninstall VMM with the Retain Data option

3. On the remote SQL server, import VMM db

4. Install VMM pointing at the new SQL server and using the imported VMM db

5. If any managed host has the status of Access Denied, right click and select Reassociate

Method #2 -- Using the scvmmrecover.exe tool

The scvmmrecover.exe tool is discussed in great detail at the following TechNet article: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc956045.aspx

More Information

How to: Attach a Database (SQL Server Management Studio)

How to: Attach a Database File to SQL Server Express

SCVMM R2 operations Guide

Mike Briggs | Senior Support Escalation Engineer