Obtain the SQL Server 2025 ISO to do inplace upgrade of SQL Server 2017 on Azure SQL VM

Hi @Ali Saoud ,
Hi Ali,

Yes — there's a fully supported path, and you don't need licensing portal access for it.

On the licensing portal

The Volume Licensing Center route only applies to customers with Software Assurance. Since you're on a PAYG Marketplace image, that portal isn't part of your path at all — nothing is blocked.

Getting the media (supported method)

Per the Azure SQL VM documentation: "Customers who don't have Software Assurance can deploy an Azure Marketplace SQL Server VM image with the desired version of SQL Server, and then copy the setup media (typically located in C:\SQLServerFull) from it to their target SQL Server VM."

1. Deploy a temporary SQL Server 2025 Marketplace VM — match the edition of your existing 2017 instance (Standard → Standard, Enterprise → Enterprise). A small VM size is fine; you're only copying files.
2. Copy the contents of C:\SQLServerFull to your SQL Server 2017 VM.
3. Delete the temporary VM and its disk once the copy is done, to avoid ongoing charges.

Important: the upgrade sequence

This step is easy to miss and causes problems on Azure SQL VMs:

1. Back up all user and system databases (except tempdb). An in-place version downgrade is not supported, so this is your only rollback.
2. Delete the SQL IaaS Agent extension before you start:

      Remove-AzSqlVM -ResourceGroupName <rg> -Name <sql-vm-resource-name>
   

3. Run Setup.exe → Installation → Upgrade from an earlier version of SQL Server. On the Product Key page, the Marketplace media supplies the key.
4. Re-register the VM with the SQL IaaS Agent extension afterwards, or you'll lose portal manageability.
5. Verify the version and edition show correctly in the Azure portal.

SQL Server 2017 → 2025 is a supported upgrade path, so you're good there.

References

• In-place change of SQL Server version — SQL Server on Azure VMs
• Supported version and edition upgrades (SQL Server 2025)
• In-place change of SQL Server edition — only if you're also changing edition

Kind Regards,
Microsoft Support Team.

Hi,

Yes, deploy new SQL Server 2-25 VM from the Marketplace image, then copy the install files over to the VM you would like to upgrade. When you are finished copying you can delete the new VM and its related resources. Details in article below:

In-place change of SQL Server version - SQL Server on Azure VMs

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-sql/virtual-machines/windows/change-sql-server-version?view=azuresql#prerequisites

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Thanks.

-TP