How to restore a SQL Server 2012 database to SQL Server 2008 R2

Question

I am trying to restore the backup taken from a SQL Server 2012 to SQL Server 2008 R2  and it giving an error      Specified cast is not valid   SqlManagerUI    If you have any solution to this please give comment  thanks

User · Answer

Merge replication   You can create the subscriber  2008  from the distributor  2008    After the database has fully synchronized  drop the subscription and the publication

User · Answer

Right click on your database and select Tasks -  Generate Scripts   Select things you want to restore or just let the complete database be selected by default    Now click Next -  Click Advanced and Choose  Script for Server Version  to the  ssms version  you want to restore like 2008 or 2008 R2 or other   also  select  type of data to script  to  Schema and Data   Finally execute this  sql file on destination ssms and Change Database Name in first Line Use Database  if database is not there then create one and if you get error with executing the script execute the script from alter keyword to complete bottom

User · Answer

If you are in same network then add the destination server to the MS Server management studio using connect option and then try exporting from source to destination  The most easiest way

User · Answer

You won t be able to restore from 2012 to 2008   You will be able to use a tool like red-gate SQL compare to copy the schema etc  provided nothing 2012 specific is used    If you have data to copy across too  you can use their Data Compare tool  and I think you get a 14 day free trial

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The only built-in way to  downgrade  a database from one SQL Server version to a lower one is the hard way   Script out the whole database  schema and data  then execute the script on the target server     This is do-able but tends to be brutal

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To  Killercam Thanks for your solutions  I tried the first solution for an hour  but didn t work for me   I used scripts generate method to move data from SQL Server 2012 to SQL Server 2008 R2 as steps bellow   In the 2012 SQL Management Studio   Tasks -  Generate Scripts  in first wizard screen  click Next - may not show  Choose Script entire database and all database objects -  Next Click  Advanced  button 3 1 Change  Types of data to script  from  Schema only  to  Schema and data  3 2 Change  Script for Server Version   2012  to  2008  Finish next wizard steps for creating script file Use sqlcmd to import the exported script file to your SQL Server 2008 R2 5 1 Open windows command line 5 2 Type  sqlcmd -S  -i Path to your file   Ex   sqlcmd -S localhost -i C  mydatabase sql     It works for me

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You can t  you can NEVER restore from a higher version to a lower version of SQL Server  Your only option is to script out  the database and then transfer the data via SSIS  BCP  linked server or scripting out the data

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As has been mentioned already  you cannot use the  Back up  and  Restore  features to go from a SQL Server 2012 DB to a SQL Server 2008 DB   A program I wrote  SQL Server Scripter  will however connect to a SQL Server database and script out a database  its schema and data   It can be git cloned from BitBucket  and compiled with Visual Studio 2010 or later  if it s a later version  just open the  csproj

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Here is another option which did the trick for me  https   dba stackexchange com a 44340  There I used Option B  This is not my idea so all credit goes to the original author  I am just putting it in here also as I know that sometimes links don t function and it is recommended to have the full story handy   Just one tip from me  First resolve the schema incompatibilities if any  Then pouring in the data should be a breeze     Option A  Script out database in compatibility mode using Generate script option   Note  If you script out database with schema and data  depending on your data size  the script will be massive and wont be handled by SSMS  sqlcmd or osql  might be in GB as well      Option B   First script out tables first with all Indexes  FK s  etc and create blank tables in the destination database - option with SCHEMA ONLY  No data    Use BCP to insert data  I  BCP out the data using below script  Set SSMS in Text Mode and copy the output generated by below script in a bat file   -- save below output in a bat file by executing below in SSMS in TEXT mode  -- clean up  create a bat file with this command -- gt  del D  BCP   dat   select   C  Program Files Microsoft SQL Server 100 Tools Binn bcp exe       path to BCP exe           QUOTENAME DB NAME            Current Database           QUOTENAME SCHEMA NAME SCHEMA ID                          QUOTENAME name             out D  BCP       Path where BCP out files will be stored           REPLACE SCHEMA NAME schema id                        REPLACE name                  dat -T -E -SServerName Instance -n     ServerName  -E will take care of Identity  -n is for Native Format    from sys tables where is ms shipped   0 and name  lt  gt   sysdiagrams                           sysdiagrams is classified my MS as UserTable and we dont want it      and schema name schema id   lt  gt   unwantedschema                                       Optional to exclude any schema     order by schema name schema id    II  Run the bat file that will generate the  dat files in the folder that you have specified   III  Run below script on the destination server with SSMS in text mode again   --- Execute this on the destination server database from SSMS   --- Make sure the change the  Destdbname and the bcp out path as per your environment   declare  Destdbname sysname set  Destdbname    destinationDB     Destination Database Name where you want to Bulk Insert in    select  BULK INSERT     Remember Tables must be present on destination database       QUOTENAME  Destdbname           QUOTENAME SCHEMA NAME SCHEMA ID            QUOTENAME name       from   D  BCP      Change here for bcp out path       REPLACE SCHEMA NAME schema id                    REPLACE name                dat   with   KEEPIDENTITY  DATAFILETYPE     native    TABLOCK       char 10      print   Bulk insert for     REPLACE SCHEMA NAME schema id                    REPLACE name               is done           char 10     go  from sys tables where is ms shipped   0 and name  lt  gt   sysdiagrams     sysdiagrams is classified my MS as UserTable and we dont want it    --and schema name schema id   lt  gt   unwantedschema     Optional to exclude any schema        order by schema name schema id    IV  Run the output using SSMS to insert data back in the tables   This is very fast BCP method as it uses Native mode

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NOTE  SOME OF THE ABOVE ANSWERS ARE MASSIVELY OUT-OF-DATE  THIS CAN BE DONE AND ALL WITHIN SQL SERVER MANAGEMENT STUDIO  SQL MS     There are numerous methods you can adopt to  downgrade  a database  but one I have found recently and that I believe was not found in early releases of SQL MS 2012  is the Copy Database Wizard  Here is how you can copy a database from a 2012 server instance to a 2008 R2 instance    In the 2012 instance  right click on the database you want to copy  downgrade  and select  Tasks     Copy Database       Welcome to the Copy Database Wizard  click  Next    Select a Source Server   Set the  Source server  as the 2012 instance  or the higher version server instance   and set the appropriate authentication  click  Next    Note  the Server Agent services must be running   Select a Destination Server   Set the  Destination server  as the 2008 R2  or lower version instance   and set the appropriate authentication  click  Next     Note  the Server Agent services must be running   Select the Transfer Method  For the sake of this example  select  Use the SQL Management Object method   click  Next   Select to move or copy the required databases  click  Next   Configure the destination database path and logical names etc  Select the required option for if the database exists  Click  Next   Configure the integration services package  click  Next   For this example  select the  Run Immediately  option for  Schedule the Package  options  click  Next    Complete the Wizard   click  Finish  to execute the package and create the  downgraded  database     You are done  happy days        Another method I found was the SQL Database Migration Wizard which was created by Microsoft and which I think  I don t know  that the wizard above was created from  Get it here http   sqlazuremw codeplex com   To use this package to migrate a databases from SQL Server 20012 to 2008 R2  you can do the following    Note  Microsoft have now removed SQLAzureMW from Codeplex  I have personally made it available here   Run SQLAzureMW exe  Select the Analyse Migrate radio button from the right hand side of the main window  Select the Target Server as    SQL Database latest service version  V12      Click  Next   Connect to the SQL Server 2012 instance  Server name for my machine is    VAIOE SQLSERVER2012     use Windows authentication  select    Master DB  list all databases     from the database options and    Save Login Information     Click  Connect   Select the required database to migrate  use GVH Report database for now   Click  Next   Select    Script all database objects     Click  Advance  and change the following options    a   Under General set    Target Server    to    SQL Server       b   Under    Table View Options    set    Script Table   Data    to    Table Schema with Data     Set    Database Engine Stored Procedures    to    True     Set    Security Functions        Security Stored Procedures    and    System Functions    to    True       Click  OK   Click  Next     Review your selections  Click  Next   You will be prompted    Ready to Generate Script      click  Yes   This will start the script generation  Once this is done  click  Next   Now you will get another connection dialog  This time select the database on the target server  the SQL Server 2008 R2 instance   Select Master database so you get a choice of target DB  Click  Connect   Now  it is likely that you want to migrate into a new database  so click  Create Database   Enter a database target name and leave the    Collation    as the         this does not concern us  Click  Create Database   Click  Next   You will now be prompted    Execute script against destination server      click  Yes   This will now go off and do loads of stuff  setting up the schema using the generated script  but unlike the previous method we found  the data is bulk loaded using BCP  which is blazingly fast  All of this is also done internally  so no generation of massive  sql script files etc   Click  Exit      You are done  Now if you open up Management Studio and connect to both the SQL Server 2012 and 2008 R2 instances we have just worked with you can see that the schema for the 2012 source database matches the target database which was just created      The two processes above are almost identical and provide the same functionality  I would not perform the latter unless you specifically need to migrate to Azure or method 1 fails for you   I hope this helps someone out

[sql] How to restore a SQL Server 2012 database to SQL Server 2008 R2?

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