Recently, one of the SQL Server Instance suddenly stopped working and shutdown automatically. We failed to bring its services online. Even we were not able to launch SQL Server Management studio. When we checked windows event viewer, we had seen multiple event ids for SQL Server like Event ID 7024, Event ID 17051 etc. We got this error because SQL Server evaluation period has expired for this instance.

As I said, SQL Server was down and I tried starting it from SQL Server Configuration Manager. It never come online so I decided to check Windows event viewer. I saw event id 7024 that says something wrong with application SQL Server. You can see the screenshot of event id 7024.

We can see error 17051 is captured for SQL Server in above screenshot. When I scrolled next error details I saw below details with event id 17051 that says “SQL Server evaluation period has expired”. When you look into SQL Server error log, you will get below details.

Error: 17051, Severity: 16, State: 1.
SQL Server evaluation period has expired.

Then I decided to check the installed version of SQL Server that clearly says that we had installed SQL Server Evaluation version on this database server. You can get it by launching property window of SQL Server service in SQL Server Configuration Manager. You can see this in below screenshot.

Now we had to upgrade SQL Server evaluation edition to bring it online and make it work as it was working before. To start this, we need SQL Server setup files to perform this upgrade. Follow below steps to activate your expired SQL Server evaluation version to either standard, enterprise or developer edition.

Upgrade SQL Server Evaluation Edition to Enterprise Edition

First decide on which edition you want to upgrade your expired SQL Server evaluation edition instance. Copy identified edition of SQL Server setup files to the target or impacted SQL Server machine. Now we will launch SQL Server Installation Center to run this upgrade. Make sure to run this whole process using sysadmin account.

Double click on Setup.exe file to start the upgrade. You will get SQL Server Installation Center once you run setup.exe file of SQL Server setup. Click at “Maintenance” tab from left side pane as shown in below image and then click on “Edition Upgrade” option from right side pane.

Once you click at Edition upgrade, below image will come to proceed. This screen will come to enter the product key of SQL Server. Verify the correct product key and click on next button to proceed.

Once you click at next button you will get below pop up “Evaluation period has expired”. Click on Ok button to proceed.

Next screen will come to accept the License Terms. Click at Next button after selecting “I accept license terms” checkbox option.

Here, you will get installed components of SQL Server. Verify the SQL Server instance and click on next button to proceed. You can see edition is showing as Evaluation in below screenshot.

Once you will click at Next button, rules will be checked by the setup and you can see the progress bar in below image.

Now it’s time for final window of this upgrade process where you need to recheck and verify the details and if everything looks good then click at “Upgrade” button to start the upgrade process.

Setup will process and end up with new upgraded edition. You have been activated SQL Server to run it on your server and it has been upgraded to your identified edition of SQL Server i.e Enterprise edition.

You can check the upgraded edition by launching property window of SQL Server service in SQL Server Configuration window. We can see now edition is showing as Enterprise Edition. Here, we have upgraded SQL Server evaluation version to Enterprise edition of SQL Server 2014.

Now you can go ahead and launch SQL Server Management Studio and establish database connection to check and verify all details to make sure everything is ok on your database server.
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The post SQL Server Evaluation Period has Expired and How to Upgrade it? appeared first on Techyaz.com.

Read attached article if you want to upgrade your SQL Server Evaluation Edition to Standard, Enterprise or Developer Edition. You can also activate your SQL Server Instance if its evaluation period has been expired using same article.

Note: – Take proper Full backup of your all databases before starting this activity. Make sure to create script of all Logins and SQL Server Agent Jobs etc. You can also Rename your Data folder where you have placed your database files to secure the databases during this process post stopping SQL Server services .

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Change SQL Server License key

Step 1- First step is to stop all SQL Server services. Launch SQL Server Configuration Manager and shutdown all services.

Step 2-  Copy SQL Server Enterprise/Standard edition setup to your server where you want to change the SQL Server product key. Run Setup.Exe with an Administrator account. SQL Server Installation Center will appear on your screen to proceed. Click on Maintenance tab from left side pane. You can see multiple options in right side pane. Select first option Edition Upgrade as shown in below image and click Next.

Step3- SQL Server will check all required rules, once all rules will be passed next button will enable to proceed. Click on Next button here.

Step 4- Once you click on Next button of above screen, next window will come to enter the License Key or product Key of SQL Server Instance. Enter your Product Key or if EXE has a valid license key to cross verify then proceed for Next button with the same License key. Make sure that License key is not for MSDN or from any invalid source.

Step 5- Accept License Term and Condition and Click on Next button to proceed.

Step 6- Select MS SQL Server Instance for which you are going to change license key if you have multiple instances.

Step 7- Click on Next button of above screen, it will check all rules for edition upgrade. If all rules shows as Passed you are good to go ahead. If your are getting any warning or error verify and try to fix it before going with the next step.

Step 8- Below will be the final window that prompt for Ready to upgrade the edition. Click on Upgrade button if all looks ok.

Step 9- Once License will be updated below window will prompt with succeeded status.

Now you MSDN license has been changed to valid SQL Server Enterprise License. License will change based on the SQL Server setup you used for edition upgrade.

You might face Access Denied error during this edition upgrade, here is the solution to fix this error. You may get access denied error on SQL Server License.rtf file for that you need to uncheck read only attribute from file name.

If you have renamed your Data folder before starting this process as suggested in Note section, you can rename back it to Data folder again and then start the SQL Server services. Now, start MS SQL services which you have stopped initially before starting upgrade activity and check SQL Server Instance version and license type . You can see our output looks like below details.

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 (SP3) (KB#######) - 11.0.6020.0 (X64)
Date and time
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation
Enterprise Edition: Core-based Licensing (64-bit) on Windows NT 6.3 <X64>
(Build 9600: ) (Hypervisor)

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