Can I use a SQL Server Express database backup file to restore that database on a full fledged version of SQL Server. I am particularly looking at SQL Server 2008 Express to SQL Server 2012 Enterprise. And if so how?
Lets be clear about one thing first, SQL Server Express , Standard and Enterprise are the Editions.
SQL Server 2005 , 2008, 2008 R2 and 2012 are SQL Server versions.
Now coming to your question whether you can restore a database from 2008 Express to 2012 Enterprise?
The Simple Answer would be YES you can.
A couple of things to keep in mind.
SQL Server Editions has no limitation you can backup and restore databases from one Edition to another without any restrictions (Except SQL Server Express which can only accommodate databases upto 10 GB). Other than this size limitation in SQL Server express, all is good.
Whereas SQL Server Versions has a very strict limitation, You can go up 3 versions but cannot go down at all.
For example if you had taken a backup on SQL Server 2008 (regardless of Edition) you can restore this backup onto a SQL Server 2008, 2008 R2 , 2012 and I think also on 2014. But you cannot restore this onto a SQL Server 2005.
I hope the explanation clears some confusions.
Related
Can I create a snapshot from SQL Server 2012 on a SQL Server 2008 R2 Server?
The goal is to build reporting and queries without locking the live database.
I need only a DB copy (Getdate()-1)
No, the SQL Server 2012 snapshot has specific SQL Server 2012 features in it that are not compatible with SQL Server 2008 R2. These are incompatibilities that you will not see. They are deep in the SQL Server engine. You cannot do this.
It's a similar concept to trying to restore a SQL Server 2012 database backup to a SQL Server 2008 R2 instance. The higher database version cannot backstep to a lower version.
You need to use a SQL Server of the same level or higher (I believe or higher) for your snapshot server.
I don't know if the title is correct but well what I'd like to ask: is it possible to import my database from SQL Server 2005 to 2008 or is the database in SQL Server 2005 compatible with 2008? I'm still a newbie.
Thanks
You can restore an SQL Server 2005 database on SQL Server 2008.
You can not restore an SQL Server 2008 database on SQL Server 2005.
Generally speaking, at the time of writing,
you can restore any database starting from SQL Server 2005 on a newer version of SQL Server (up to 2016), and
you can not restore any database on an earlier version.
You might want to increase the compatibility level of your DB after restoring it on a newer SQL Server version.
Yes. They are compatible. You can use a backup to transfer all the data.
We are considering to upgrade our Database from SQL Server 2008 R2 to SQL Server 2014. However, The new licensing with Core based seem to be very expensive.
We have one primary database and one secondary database. If we have SQL Server 2014 Enterprise Edition for the Primary database and SQL Server 2014 Standard Edition for the Secondary Database.
Question 1)
Is it possible to run transaction log shipping in different edition as above?
Question 2)
Could it be possible to run it from SQL Server 2014 to SQL Server 2008 R2?
Is it possible to run transaction log shipping in different edition as above?
Going for possibility yes it is possible to configure log shipping between SQL Server 2012 Enterprise and standard edition. But Just think of scenario where you are using enterprise features in Enterprise edition and failover happens now SQL server is on standrad edition and enterprise features will not work and you might face issue with application, some functionality crashing. I dont think you want this.
Plus again if you are using enterprise features and to configure loghshipping you take backup of enterprise edition and try to restore it on standard it would fail saying the backup has enterprise features and DB cannot be brought online because current database does not supports it
Could it be possible to run it from SQL Server 2014 to SQL Server 2008 R2?
No because you cannot restore database backup taken on SQL Server 2014 on SQL Server 2008 R2. If you like to make SQL Server 2008 R2 as primary and 2014 as secondary then you may succeed in configuring logshipping using T-SQL scripts( you cannot do it using GUI) but consider scenario where failover occurs and 2014 is new primary you cannot fail it back to 2008 r2 as Higher to lower version is not allowed.
Hope this is clear
I have this error using MSMS 2008 trying to connect to SQL 2012. The problem is that the database under SQL 2012 has compatibility level: SQL Server 2008 (100)
https://support.powerdnn.com/kb/a1781/you-receive-errors-when-connecting-to-mssql-2012-using.aspx
My question is: when you restore a SQL 2008 db in SQL 2012, even if the database has compatibility level 2008, the db is converted to 2012 and we can't put it back again in a 2008 server again?
Yes, the database format is not backwards compatible as far as I know
What you can do is use the "generate scripts" functionality to script the entire database out in SQL2008 format and run that on a 2008 server to get a working 2008 version.
Depending on the size of the DB this may be impractical though
I need to restore backup taken from SQL Server 2008 R2 to SQL Server 2008 R2 Express edition. Is it possible ?
You can only restore backups to servers running the same or higher version. Normally you can restore backups on SQL Express that were made on servers running other editons (Standard, Enterprise, ...) as long as the database size is not greater than the max size supported by SQL Server Express (10GB on latest versions).
In your case, the backup was made on a server running SQL Server 2008 R2 (version 10.50) and you are trying to restore it to a server running SQL Server 2008 (version 10.00).
In SQL Server 2005 and later, some Enterprise Edition–only features make a database Enterprise Edition–only (i.e., it can’t be restored on a Standard Edition or lower SQL Server system) if the features are present in the database.