Evaluation Period has expired

I have run into this issue today. I was trying to update some business rules on a client's computer. They have a SQL and a separate BizTalk environment. So I have tried opening the SQL Management Studio from the BizTalk box, and I got this dialog box:


it says:

Evaluation period has expired. For information on how to upgrade your evaluation software please go to http://www.microsoft.com/sql/howtobuy

which of course takes you to a Microsoft Page not found. ;)

Apparently, they had installed the evaluation trial version of SQL Server 2005 client tools. BTW, this was never an issue with SQL Server 2000. If you went and installed the client tools, they did not expire.!

I put the Enterprise SKU binaries for SQL Server 2005, and ran the Setup.exe from the tools directory, and then I got this information:



clicking on the messages details, it mentions this:

- Edition Change Check (Warning)
Messages

• Edition Change Check

• To change an existing instance of Microsoft SQL Server 2005 to a different edition of SQL Server 2005, you must run SQL Server 2005 Setup from the command prompt and include the SKUUPGRADE=1 parameter.

FYI, you will need to run the setup.exe that is located in the SERVERS folder and not on the tools folder. Bring up a command prompt window and execute the

cmd> SETUP.exe SKUUPGRADE=1

then after running through the wizard, it will upgrade your SQL Management version to not be the trial version.



ahhh, that's much better.!