August 29, 2013 at 1:01 pm
This is a warning to anyone running SQL 2008 R2.
If you back up any of your system databases on version/build (10.50.3720) , they will not be able to be restored on anything except the same build, and IT is no longer available from Microsoft. This service pack came out on May 13, 2012. It was named, “SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 2 Community Technology Preview (CTP)”.
On July 26, 2012, another service pack 2 came out, “SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 2 (SP2) aka (10.50.4000)”.
If you try to restore a backup created from the May build, you will not be able to restore on a server running the June build, you will get the following error; “The backup of the system database on the device D:\sqlbackups\msdb.bak cannot be restored because it was created by a different version of the server (10.50.3720) than this server (10.50.4000).”
Microsoft’s work-around is to remove SQL, reinstall, then install the updates to the same build that the backup was created, but it is no longer available.
Is anyone at MS using a brain?
Hopefully, Steve Ballmer leaving will improve things, but the track record from MS has not been promising.
My boss has been wanting to move to MYSQL, and although I have been trying to discourage it, these kinds of issues make it hard to find reasons to stay with MS-SQL.
For the money we pay for SQL, there should be more value in the products they push out. I guess they expect us all, their paying customers, be be their beta testers.
August 29, 2013 at 1:19 pm
You were running a production system on a CTP release? Those are usually put out so the community can try them out and provide feedback to MS about issues and production readiness. I'm pretty sure there are some stringent warnings about not actually using them for anything you really care about. So I'm not really surprised there would be some incompatibilities that couldn't be overcome. You might be able to find someone in your local user group who had an old download or an MSDN subscription with access to the file.
August 29, 2013 at 2:32 pm
No, it was a development server, but it is still a pain to not be able to restore system databases.
Especially when the builds were released only a month apart, they should be compatible.
August 29, 2013 at 3:29 pm
Jay Purvis (8/29/2013)
No, it was a development server, but it is still a pain to not be able to restore system databases.Especially when the builds were released only a month apart, they should be compatible.
Typically (always?) on SQL Server, system dbs can and should be restored only to exactly the same version, including SPs and hot fix(es).
SQL DBA,SQL Server MVP(07, 08, 09) "It's a dog-eat-dog world, and I'm wearing Milk-Bone underwear." "Norm", on "Cheers". Also from "Cheers", from "Carla": "You need to know 3 things about Tortelli men: Tortelli men draw women like flies; Tortelli men treat women like flies; Tortelli men's brains are in their flies".
August 29, 2013 at 4:01 pm
Jay Purvis (8/29/2013)
No, it was a development server, but it is still a pain to not be able to restore system databases.Especially when the builds were released only a month apart, they should be compatible.
For crying out loud!
If you have CTP release around on a server you care about, one year after the CTP programme ended, you should point fingers at no one but yourself.
A CTP is a beta, and beta testing should not be conducted on important servers. You have no reason to expect compability between a CTP and the final release. Maybe the CTP programme uncovered a serious bug which required change incompatible with the CTP. (For instance a bug which made the CTP incompatible with the previous service pack!)
[font="Times New Roman"]Erland Sommarskog, SQL Server MVP, www.sommarskog.se[/font]
August 29, 2013 at 4:47 pm
Jay Purvis (8/29/2013)
This service pack came out on May 13, 2012. It was named, “SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 2 Community Technology Preview (CTP)”.....
For the money we pay for SQL, there should be more value in the products they push out. I guess they expect us all, their paying customers, be be their beta testers.
You install a (free) beta version of the software and then complain about being a beta tester?
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability
August 30, 2013 at 5:50 am
Wow....it isn't often I see one person this flamed....!
August 30, 2013 at 1:04 pm
This is typical of jerks that can post anonymously, and say things that would cause them to get their butts kicked if they said them to anyone face to face.
Like the idiot that said, "If you have CTP release around on a server you care about, one year after the CTP programme ended, you should point fingers at no one but yourself."
He just assumed that the CTP was still on the server. It is not.
He spouted off before thinking about the different scenarios that may exist in the real world.
He probably could not comprehend that if it had only been installed for a month, that someone may want to revert one of the databases back to a point in time when a backup was created while CTP was installed.
These people have little minds and big mouths.
While most people on this site like helping and contributing to the community, these simple minded people contribute nothing.
Their comments do nothing but take up space.
August 30, 2013 at 1:23 pm
So, normally I don't weigh in on stuff like this, but here goes. Your original post speculated that your difficulties were caused by the lack of brainpower at Microsoft, the duplicity they exhibited by suckering someone in your organization into being an unwitting beta tester, and the unpredictable incompatibility of the CTP vis a vis the GA release of the service pack. None of those things are true, and MS is quite up-front about the nature of the software made available in the CTP program and the potential it has for completely hosing your entire system.
I apologise if I was snide or snarky in my reply. I expect that some of the force behind the reactions you got was the fact that you came out with guns blazing and folks blazed back. Most of the people who attempt to help here are not currently idiots, though, speaking for myself, I may have been one in the past. From the actual state of idiocy, it's sometimes difficult to obtain an objective perspective.
August 30, 2013 at 1:31 pm
Jay Purvis (8/30/2013)
This is typical of jerks that can post anonymously, and say things that would cause them to get their butts kicked if they said them to anyone face to face.
I'd say the same thing face to face to anyone. You can come find me at any SQL conference if you like. My real name is in my sig, so's Erland's, hardly anonymous.
The fact is, CTPs are beta software, by using them you are agreeing to do free beta-testing for Microsoft. They are not licensed for real-world usage (unless you happen to be in the TAP program). There's clear warnings in the installations thereof that they are pre-release and that nothing but nothing is guaranteed to stay the same or work consistently. You cannot expect the same kind of support and guarantees that full release versions have to apply to beta software and that includes the ability to restore their backups to anywhere other than the exact same version (normally you can restore up-version without a problem, and usually to an earlier service pack within the same version)
A CTE installation should not be used for anything where you might in any way want to keep backups of (especially system databases) because they are pre-release beta versions. They should be used for beta testing and evaluation of new features. I won't even install them on a machine I'm not willing to wipe because the install and uninstall often are not 100% effective.
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability
August 30, 2013 at 3:57 pm
Jay Purvis (8/30/2013)
This is typical of jerks that can post anonymously, and say things that would cause them to get their butts kicked if they said them to anyone face to face.
For the record, Erland Sommarskog is my real name.
As for getting butts kicked... You have already showed a level of professionalism below normal, but admittedly starting kick people in the butt because they tell you have mad a mistake certainly are a few levels even lower.
He just assumed that the CTP was still on the server. It is not.
He spouted off before thinking about the different scenarios that may exist in the real world.
He probably could not comprehend that if it had only been installed for a month, that someone may want to revert one of the databases back to a point in time when a backup was created while CTP was installed.
Just as bad. If you have those needs, you should not have installed the CTP on that server.
Furthermore, have you ever heard "test your backups"? I have - and I learnt it the hard way. Had you tested the backups in due time, you could have installed the CTP on a different server, upgraded it, and taken new backups. Format mismatch is just one accident that can happen to a year-old backup.
[font="Times New Roman"]Erland Sommarskog, SQL Server MVP, www.sommarskog.se[/font]
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