How to convert SQL 2008 Standard to Enterprise in ONE COMMAND!

by Christopher Kusek (PKGuild) Microsoft, SQL

So this conversation came up the other day, basically, “Hey, isn’t there a way to convert Std to Ent in one command?” Some might say, “No, you must re-install of your hosts and as part of that rebuild process I will charge you 1 million dollars in Consulting! MUAHHAHAHA!” But, no. The answer is. YES YOU CAN!   And so I don’t have to go hunting to find this at some point in the future… here is all the citing evidence to refer back to ;)

Thanks to our dear friend,  Jim Millard @millardjk – It’s as easy as seen in this tweet!

     Dism /online /set-edition:ServerEnterprise /product key:<KMS key>

But to cite some additional information, in case we need to troubleshoot something or we don’t fully understand WTF that means!  These additional articles can help out as well!

While this may not be the most authoritative source on the subject… if it solves for your problem, then BAM! And if not… well, we can track down those other scenarios! Unfortunately… I don’t have any Std versions to actually need to upgrade to Ent at the moment to screenshot through! But hopefully you find this useful.. eventually when I’m in that situation needing to use the cmd, I’ll look back upon this and give this a whirl! :) Enjoy!