If the compatibility level in an Sql Server 2008 R2 database is changed to 2005, can the copy database wizard copy the database without any issues from 2008 R2 to 2005?
Or is Generating scripts the only way to copy a 2008 R2 database to a 2005 database.
I don't believe you can use the Copy Wizard to downgrade your database back to 2005. However, the DataImport... task in SSMS should be able to help you move your data tables and views. (Basically it creates an SSIS package to transfer table definitions and data)
But if you want to truly move the database scripting is your best bet. Also you can check out tools from Red Gate such as SQLCompare and SQLDataCompare.
Just becasue a compatibility level is set to a lower value than the current version does not forbid you to use the newer features. All it does is stop enforcing the removal of features to preserve backward compatibilty of existing code. Since you can use new datatypes and features in your 2008 database, you cannot directly copy back to 2005 without analysis of what new features were used.
If you are developing in 2008 and prod is 2005, you need to stop that practice immediately. Otherwise you will waste a lot of time using new features without realizing it until you try to send to prod.
Database changes should only ever be done through scripts in general as you do not want to risk dropping and recreating tables that have existing data. Also database change scripts should be in source control for the version you are deploying like any other code. Part of making the changes in scripts is that the script you then run on prod has been tested on dev and QA.
Related
I know that you can't (at least not easily) restore a SQL Server 2012 backup on SQL Server 2008. But how does it work for SQL Server 2014 to SQL Server 2012 ?
On database level there is the property to adjust the compatibility mode to any other SQL Server version.
How does this helps or work ? Will it only disallow the features from 2014?
To be honest I already tried to restore a backup, but 2012 didn't recognize the datafile, so I couldn't click ok Button to start the restore procedure.
Did I miss some important option ?
You CANNOT do this - you cannot attach/detach or backup/restore a database from a newer version of SQL Server down to an older version - the internal file structures are just too different to support backwards compatibility. This is still true in SQL Server 2014 - you cannot restore a 2014 backup on anything other than another 2014 box (or something newer).
You can either get around this problem by
using the same version of SQL Server on all your machines - then you can easily backup/restore databases between instances
otherwise you can create the database scripts for both structure (tables, view, stored procedures etc.) and for contents (the actual data contained in the tables) either in SQL Server Management Studio (Tasks > Generate Scripts) or using a third-party tool
or you can use a third-party tool like Red-Gate's SQL Compare and SQL Data Compare to do "diffing" between your source and target, generate update scripts from those differences, and then execute those scripts on the target platform; this works across different SQL Server versions.
The compatibility mode setting just controls what T-SQL features are available to you - which can help to prevent accidentally using new features not available in other servers. But it does NOT change the internal file format for the .mdf files - this is NOT a solution for that particular problem - there is no solution for restoring a backup from a newer version of SQL Server on an older instance.
Sure it's possible... use Export Wizard in source option use SQL SERVER NATIVE CLIENT 11, later your source server ex.192.168.100.65\SQLEXPRESS next step select your new destination server ex.192.168.100.65\SQL2014
Just be sure to be using correct instance and connect each other
Just pay attention in Stored procs must be recompiled
On my development box, I always run the latest version of SQL Server. I often deploy databases from my dev box to a live/staging area for review or testing. I've done this many times and it has always been a painful process, but I am realizing that I need to find an easier, more reliable and consistent way of performing this basic operation.
I normally use WebMatrix purely for deployment and it's worked fine, but I've been having problems getting it to work on my server for some reason. Consequently, I am seeking an alternative solution.
Creating a SQL dump file would probably work, but it's not an acceptable solution a database contains images and easily exceeds 2 gigs of data which would take forever.
The Import/Export utility fails due to issues with incomplete schema copies, identity inserts and checks. The solutions offered for these issues has failed to work in my particular case.
The Backup and Restore method also fails due to some strange incompatibilities between SQL Server 2008 and 2012. SQL Server 2008 Management Studio throws exceptions during the restore process of a 2012 database. It's odd that this happens, even though I set the compatibility of the database to version 2008.
I haven't tried the Detaching, copying and reattaching files method, but I haven't bothered trying since it would probably fail for the same reasons the backup and restore method did.
Are there other alternatives out there? Also, why is this so unbelievable hard for a task that is so common and important, especially in this day in age of 2013? Get real Microsoft!
We changed our method of deploying and moving databases between servers, instances and versions by adopting the tools from RedGate. They are expensive, but worth it IMHO.
My team creates scripts for ~everything.
Database Creation, Alter, Inserts, etc, etc.
And we write all scripts that check for the existence of things before trying to create them.
Aka, we can run the scripts over and over and get the same results.
And we deploy to different environments by using SqlCmd.exe.
EDIT
See:
http://odetocode.com/blogs/scott/archive/2008/02/02/versioning-databases-views-stored-procedures-and-the-like.aspx
and
http://odetocode.com/blogs/scott/archive/2008/01/30/three-rules-for-database-work.aspx
=============
If that is "too much" then I agree with the other poster, RedGate is your friend.
Points below aside, have you considered the Database Projects within VS2012? they allow you to script off the tables, sp's, triggers, users etc you want, generate sql cmd scripts, make changes and schema compare and version control your database code, I'd certainly recommend it
"Creating a SQL dump file would probably work, but it's not an
acceptable solution a database contains images and easily exceeds 2
gigs of data which would take forever."
Why is this a problem? where are you transferring the file from and to and over what connection?
"The Backup and Restore method also fails due to some strange
incompatibilities between SQL 2008 and 2012. SQL 2008 Management
Studio throws exceptions during the restore process of a 2012
database. It's odd that this happens, even though I set the
compatibility of the database to version 2008"
This shouldn't be an issue if file is created in 2008 prior to restoring. If you create a new DB in your 2008 instance, then take a backup from that and restore it to a 2012 instance with 2008 compatiblity, then you should be able to use it there, back it up from the 2012 instance and restore to 2008 again afterwards.
So at work, my team is using a central SQL server 2005 database server for integration testing and I want to move to testing on my local database. The only problem is that the central database is in excess of 10 Gb.
I am interested in importing the data objects and a rows for each table to ensure I can be up and running. Can you guys advise me on how I can do this?
I have VS 2008 professional and SQL Server management studio express. Would I need VS 2008 database edition?
Thanks
-Venu
EDIT : I will try logging into the central database server and seeing if the host machine has better tools. Thanks kpollock, I didn't think of that.
Both 2005 and 2008 Express editions have 4 gb limitation.
Have you thought about making a db copy on central server and dealing with it (just restore it into new db with other name)?
See also BACKUP and RESTORE in SQL Server -- Full Backups
Looks like an SSIS job to me - which I think Express version of Management Studio doesn't have.
Or you could do it in C# calling Stored procs on the source database to extract the data if that's where your skills lie. (this is how I would do it as I think it's more widely comprehensible - but that's just my opinion).
If the database is live and new data comes in all the time perhaps you could set up the schema and reference data only then use replication to get the new data as it comes in (if you think that will get you a representative sample).
You will have to code up the sample extraction based upon an understanding of the schema - i.e. ensure you get a full set of linked records (e.g detail records for orders and all lookups e.g. customer, addresses, etc.).
Got myself in a bit of a pickle here ... working on a CMS project, under the assumption that sql server 2008 was greenlighted as the db of choice. Well it wasn't, we now have to backport all of our content out SQL Server 2008 and into SQL Server 2005.
A simple backup/restore procedure yields: "RESTORE HEADERONLY is terminating abnormally. (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 3241)".
Unfortunately, exporting the data to an excel spreadsheet yields multiple OLE errors which I believe is actually a problem in the db of the cms.
Does anyone out there have other approaches they would like to recommend for this task? Thanks in advance
Use RedGate:
tool for comparing and deploying SQL Server database contents.
You can work with live databases, backups, or SQL scripts in source control. Damaged or missing data can be restored to a single row, without the need for a full database recovery.
SQL Data Compare helps you compare and deploy changes quickly, simply, and with zero errors...
There is no way to do this by default. You can generate scripts for 2008 database on 2008 server and then execute these scripts on 2005 version. Note that you’ll have to manually review scripts and remove all parts that are unique to 2008 version.
Another way is to use third party tools such as Red Gate or ApexSQL Diff (move schema) and ApexSQL Data Diff (move data).
Use the Generate SCripts to create the database and schema and ensure you target SQL Server 2005 and script data.
Rather than do a backup and restore you might try using SQL 2005's Import/Export Data wizard.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314546
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms140052(SQL.90).aspx
I've just hit the same problem and here is how I worked around it.
The problem was to copy a database from an operational SQL Server 2008 database to a new SQL Server 2005 database.
I scripted the database using Management Studio on the 2008 server. I only scripted the database design, not the data. I should add also that the DB only has tables and indexes, so I haven't tried this with any cleverer objects although I can't think why they wouldn't work.
On the 2005 server I created a new database by hand and then ran the script to set up all the tables and indexes.
The in Management Studio back on the 2008 server I used the Export Data wizard to export the data from the 2008 server to the 2005 server. It's currently running and seems quite happy moving the data.
Once all the data is across I'll have a couple of small things left to do - create the users and set-up the security in the 2005 DB, but all-in-all it doesn't look like a bad way of doing it. It's not quite point-and-click but it's not too strenuous.
So it seems that the Copy Database wizard won't work (I think because the package ultimately runs on the 2005 server and 2005 Management Studio can't talk to 2008) but the Export Data wizard is quite happy moving data ... as long as the DB already exists on the target server.
Hope that's useful.
It's not possible to restore to previous versions in SQL Server
Is there no SQL 2005 backup around? Otherwise you really are limited to export the entire database in 2008, and re-import back into 2005, or the Import/Export wizard in 2008
Or rely on 3rd party tools. e.g. Red Gate Data Compare is able to sync. the DATA between 2 servers/databases
I only use mysql but can you export your data into sql statments, and then import then into sql2005? Just a thought..
I faced a similar problem (sql 2005 to sql 2000), and found that I happened to have a blank database at the older version. I used bcp.exe to copy all the data.
check this link click here
You can create the database script in sql server 2008 and you can use it sql server 2005 and lower version....
I need to migrate Access databases to SQL Server 2005. Since this needs to be done from within a setup so that a customers' installation is transparently migrated to SQL Server 2005, I wonder if it is possible to automate the SSMA toolkit from Microsoft.
Actually SSMA had command-line interface (special console executable in the SSMA installation folder). It was available at some time but I'm not sure whether it made its way to last release. You should ping SSMA support about what versions had it and what examples of its usages are available. I hope this will help you.
To my own knowledge, such an automation is not available. But it is still possible for you to generate the SQL code that creates the database (the one that will begin with the "CREATE DATABASE" sentence) and launch it through your user interface on your SQL server.
To generate this code, you can
Create the access database with the Access toolkit
Generate the corresponing "CREATE DATABASE" SQL code with (for example) SQL Server Management Studio (right-click on database, choose "script database as CREATE". EMS SQL Studio offers a very nice alternative to SQL Server Management Studio
Save the code for further use
With EMS Studio, You can even decide if this code also updates the data. But I'd prefer to automate data transfer through code: you can for example browse the tables (in the right order, depending on relationships), open recordsets (one local, one SQL), and transfer data by browsing the fields (you do not even need to name them) with code like:
(localRecordset links to local table. can be DAO or ADODB; Adjust code accordingly)
(sqlRecordset links to the SQL server. can be DAO or ADODB; Adjust code accordingly)
localRecordset.moveFirst
Do while not localRecordset.EOF
sqlRecordset.addnew
For each field in localrecordset.fields
sqlRecordset.fields(field.name).value = field.value
Next field
sqlRecordset.update
localRecordset.moveNext
Loop