I am trying to upgrade to SQL Server 2012 from SQL Server 2008 R2 without installing any of the 2008 R2 service packs (1, 2, and 3).
The reason is that, at my work, we ship software with SQL Server Express RTM as a prerequisite and we include the RTM versions with our software.
Now the problem comes when we included SQL Server 2012 in our new release. For customers which are in 2008 R2 RTM, we have to ship the service packs with our software so that they can upgrade to the service pack and then upgrade to the SQL Server 2012. However, the service packs have significantly increased the size of our software package and downloading it is taking so much time for customers.
Is there a way to upgrade to SQL Server 2012 from SQL Server 2008 R2 without installing any of the three service packs?
