How to migrate a SQL Server database to a newer version of SQL Server

DBAs are well aware that downgrading a SQL Server database cannot be done out of the box. Even when the compatibility level of the database that needs to be migrated to an older SQL Server version matches that version, the backup can’t be simply restored. Upgrading can also be a problem.

Restoring a database backup created on a SQL Server 2008 R2 to a SQL Server 2012 instance goes smoothly. But, if a SQL Server 2000 backup is tried to be restored on a SQL Server 2012, the following error will be shown:

One of the solutions is to:

  1. Restore the SQL Server 2000 backup on SQL Server 2008
  2. Set the compatibility level to 100
  3. Create a database backup on SQL Server 2008
  4. Restore the SQL Server 2008 backup on SQL Server 2012
  5. Set compatibility level to 110

The downside of this solution is that there has to be 3 versions of SQL Server installed and the discontinued or deprecated T-SQL features would have to be manually removed.

If there is no access to the live database from which the backup was taken from:

  1. Start SQL Server Management Studio and connect to the instance that contains the database

  2. In the database context menu, right-click a desired database and navigate to Tasks => Generate Scripts:


  3. This will invoke the Generate Scripts wizard. In the Introduction step of the wizard, click the Next button:


  4. In the Choose Objects step of the wizard, make sure that the Script entire database and all database objects option is selected and click the Next button:


  5. In the Set Scripting options step of the wizard:

    1. Select the Save scripts to a specific location option

    2. Specify whether database objects and data will be scripted to a single or multiple files, as well as the path and encoding of the generated scripts:


    3. Click the Advanced button

    4. In the Advanced Scripting Options window that will appear:

      • In the Script for Server Version option, set SQL Server 2012
      • In the Types of data to script option, set Schema and data
      • Set the following options to True:
        • Script Logins
        • Script Full-Text Indexes
        • Script Triggers
      • Click the OK button


  6. Click the Next button

  7. In the Summary step of the wizard, click the Next button:


  8. In the Save Scripts step of the wizard, click the Finish button:


  9. Execute the generated SQL script(s) against the newer SQL instance

Although the procedure listed above should work:

  1. The discontinued or deprecated T-SQL features would have to be manually removed
  2. It might fail if a database contains dependencies which SQL Server fails to recognize (e.g. dependencies to databases located on linked servers)

If there is no access to the original database for any reason (e.g. migrating a database to an off-site location with no network connectivity), the procedures above are not applicable.


This is where ApexSQL Diff and ApexSQL Data Diff can help.

ApexSQL Diff is a SQL Server database comparison and synchronization tool which detects differences between database objects and resolves them without errors. It generates comprehensive reports on the found differences and can automate the synchronization process between live and versioned databases, backups, snapshots, script folders and source control projects.

ApexSQL Data Diff is a SQL Server data comparison and synchronization tool which detects data differences and resolves them without errors. It can compare and synchronize live databases and native or natively compressed database backups, script folders and source control projects, and it generates comprehensive reports on the detected differences.

To restore the backup to a newer SQL Server version:

  1. On the target SQL instance, create an empty database to hold the data and objects restored from the backup

  2. Start ApexSQL Diff

  3. Click the New button in the Project management window:

  4. In the Source panel:

    • Select Backup from the Source drop-down list
    • Click the Add button and navigate to the folder where the backup file is located
    • Select the backup and click the Open button

  5. In the Destination panel:

    • Select Database from the Destination drop-down list
    • Specify the SQL instance where the database, in which objects that need to be recovered, is located, from the Server drop-down list
    • Specify the authentication method for that SQL instance (and a valid set of credentials if the SQL Server authentication is chosen)
    • Specify the name of the database where the objects will be recovered to, in the Database drop-down list

  6. Click the Compare button in the bottom-right corner of the New project window

  7. Select all the objects listed in the Results grid:

  8. Click the Synchronize button in the Actions region of the ribbon’s Home tab:

  9. Click the Next button in the Synchronization direction step of the Synchronization wizard:

  10. Click the Next button in the Dependencies step of the Synchronization wizard, since all objects will be synchronized all depended objects are included and this list will be empty:


  11. In the Output options step of the Synchronization wizard, select the Synchronize now action and click the Next button:

  12. Review the synchronization summary and warnings, if there are any, and click the Synchronize button:

  13. The Results window will be shown upon finished synchronization process:

  14. Start ApexSQL Data Diff

  15. Click the New button in the Project management window:

  16. In the Source panel:

    • Select Backup from the Source drop-down list
    • Click the Add button and navigate to the folder where the backup file is located
    • Select the backup and click the Open button

  17. In the Destination panel:

    • Select Database from the Destination drop-down list
    • Specify the SQL instance where the database from which the data that is going to be recovered from is located, from the Server drop-down list
    • Specify the authentication method for that SQL instance (and a valid set of credentials if the SQL Server authentication is chosen)
    • Specify the name of the database to which the data will be recovered to in the Database drop-down list

  18. Click the Compare button in the bottom-right corner of the New project window

  19. In the Results grid, select the database tables the data is to be recovered to:

  20. In the Data difference view panel, select the rows to be recovered:

  21. Click the Synchronize button in the Actions region of the ribbon’s Home tab:

  22. Click the Next button in the Synchronization direction step of the Synchronization wizard:

  23. In the Output options step of the Synchronization wizard, select the Synchronize now action and click the Next button:

  24. Review the synchronization summary and warnings, if there are any, and click the Synchronize button:

  25. The Results window will be shown upon finished synchronization process:

This way, migrating an old version of SQL Server database to a newer version is done via the schema synchronization of the original database backup and a blank live database first, and data synchronization afterwards. ApexSQL Diff and ApexSQL Data Diff will take care of all depreciated and discontinued features.

Related posts:

  1. How to restore a SQL Server database backup to an older version of SQL Server
  2. How to compare and synchronize databases programmatically
  3. SQL Server database continuous integration workflow SYNC step – Creating the synchronization/migration script
  4. How to automatically compare and synchronize multiple databases on different SQL Server instances
  5. How to automatically pull SQL Server database objects from a shared script folder to a local database
April 4, 2013