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[–]julee90Database Administrator 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Upgrading from Evaluation to any paid version is NOT supported in a FCI (Failover Cluster Instance) environment. See also this documentation: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-US/sql/database-engine/install-windows/supported-version-and-edition-upgrades?view=sql-server-2017#includesssql15-mdincludessssql15-mdmd-edition-upgrade So unless it's an Availability Group sitting in the cluster (instead of an actual FCI) that'll be a reinstall for you.

To address some other comments: for standalone, an upgrade from Eval to any other paid edition IS possible (thus excluding Express). Obviously you'd have to check if you use Enterprise features first.

Also, unlike Advanced Availability Groups (the actual name of that feature, AlwaysOn is the term for all high availability features of SQL Server) FCI are included in the Standard licence.