How can restore a backup on lower version of SQL Server:
We have SQL command to find out
SQL version.
SELECT @@VERSION by this
commant we can find out our SQL version.
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2
(RTM) - 10.50.1600.1 (X64) Apr 2 2010 15:48:46 Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation Developer Edition (64-bit) on Windows NT 6.2
<X64> (Build 9200: )
Meaning of 4 digit output - 10.50.1600.1
1st digit product
version (8 means, SQL 2000, 9 means SQL 2005, 10 means SQL 2008, 11 means SQL
2012).
2nd digit product level
- different releases have different numbers. 10.00 is SQL 2008, 10.50 is SQL
2008 R2.
3rd digit - Service
Pack to you SQL Server installation.
4th digit - one is a
build number
Three cases we will face when restore SQL database one version to other version:
Three cases we will face when restore SQL database one version to other version:
Source server is an older version and target server is a
newer version of SQL Server.
For example:
Source: 9.00.2234.0 (SQL 2005)
Target: 10.00.5500.0 (SQL 2008
SP2)
Backups are compatible. You can
restore a database backup on a newer version of SQL Server.
Source server and target server are the same product version
and product level. They may differ on 3rd or 4th digit in the version number.
For example:
Source server is 10.50.2876.0 and
target is 10.50.2799.0.
Backups are compatible. Microsoft
does not introduce significant changes in BACKUP/RESTORE functionality that
breaks backward compatibility by a hotfix or Service Pack.
Source server and target server differ by 1st or 2nd digit - a product version or a product level
and the target is older than the source.
For example:
Source: 11.00.2100 (SQL 2012)
Target: 10.00.5500 (SQL 2008 SP2)
Backups are incompatible.