February 23, 2023

Autodesk Vault 2023 and 64-Bit SQL

Aldred Boyd | Application Engineer - Technical

If you have been running Autodesk Vault in your drawing office you probably installed the SQL Express from the installation files. If you installed the software many moons ago you would have in most likely hood installed a 32 bit version of SQL. Upgrading through the years what would have happened is that when upgrading your SQL version it would have been the 32 bit version as Microsoft does not allow the upgrading of a 32 bit instance of SQL up to a 64 bit instance of SQL. It is not possible. So why am I telling you this?

As of Autodesk Vault 2023 the instance of SQL that needs to be used is 64 bit. I found this out as I was trying to upgrade Vault server 2021. It kept on giving me really funny errors. After much digging around on the internet I found my answer and to my delight I found the most unfriendly way of getting around it (if you have an extremely large vault). Because Microsoft does not allow you to upgrade a 32 bit SQL instance to a 64 bit SQL instance you literally have to create your Vault from scratch. So what is the procedure.

As per Autodesk Knowledge Network you have to do the following in this order.

Create a backup from the Vault server
Uninstall Autodesk Vault SQL instance
Uninstall Autodesk Vault server
Manually delete the filestore and the SQL database (if you do not do this, when you do the Vault restore it will pick it up and give errors)
If you are utilising fiull SQL, install it now and preconfigure for Autodesk Vault
If you are not using full SQL you can just install Autodesk Vault and it will install a 64 bit SQL Express instance
Install all the Autodesk Vault server updates
Start the Autodesk Vault server and restore your backup

Once this is done you should be good to go and have no more issues.

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About the Author

Aldred Boyd | Application Engineer - Technical

Aldred is an Application Engineer with over 22 years of experience working with Autodesk products. His primary focus is in a consultative role for the manufacturing industry, where he identifies potential challenges within a company's workflow and processes. His extensive experience enables him to identify these challenges and resolve them through the addition of software, training, or further development to address the issues encountered.