I was watching a great presentation by Brent Ozar(b/t) on why to move to SQL 2014 and in the Q & A someone asked about jumping from SQL 2005 up to 2014. This immediately got me to thinking about the Breaking Changes pages that Microsoft puts out. And I thought that it’s very likely that most people haven’t seen them. So what are they and what are they for?
For each new version of SQL Server Microsoft puts out a Backwards Compatibility page that has links to the following pages.
- Deprecated SQL Server Features
- Discontinued SQL Server Features
- Breaking Changes
- Behavior Changes to SQL Server Features
In my opinion when you are planning an upgrade these should be required reading. Learning about the new features is the fun and interesting part, but if you are doing an upgrade this is the important stuff. These pages contain a huge wealth of information on what might break or change when you do your upgrade. So if you are going from 2005 to 2014 you need to read through everything from 2008 up to 2014 in order to understand what this upgrade is going to effect. There are probably lots of features that you aren’t using and you can skim through those parts. But for those bits being used in your environment read carefully and take notes. I’m including links back through 2005 however you only need to look at the 2005 page if you are upgrading from SQL 2000.
- 2014 Backwards Compatibility
- 2012 Backwards Compatibility
- 2008 R2 Backwards Compatibility
- 2008 Backwards Compatibility
- 2005 Backwards Compatibility
Filed under: Documentation, Microsoft SQL Server, SQLServerPedia Syndication, Upgrades Tagged: microsoft sql server, upgrades 
