Your on SP17.1???? I don't think your previous guy was watching your environment.
For SQL 2005 you need to be at least on SP23 but preferably Tools 24. My recommendation would be that you consider skipping SQL 2005 altogether and going directly to SQL 2008. (SQL 2005 is now two versions back as SQL 2008 R2 has been released.)
Here is half of a 10,000 ft high plan to get you started:
1.) Get JDE current. Upgrade to a supported tools level. Make sure all critical baseline ESUs have been applied. Make sure the latest planner ESUs is installed.
2.) On your client said install the latest SNAC drivers on all your workstations, TSEs, etc.
2.) For SQL upgrades there are several different methods available to you. My preference is the side-by-side upgrade. This leaves your old SQL install available if you need to roll back.
3.) Upgrade non-production SQL server first. Update data sources and ODBC accordingly.
5.) Test the hell out of it and I mean everything. I've done about ten of these upgrades and EVERY problem ever encountered in production was always reproducible in non-PD environments. This meant people did not test enough.
This should get you started. Feel free to give a call to discuss further if you like.