This topic provides additional information for you if you are upgrading a database that is on a different version of Microsoft® SQL Server from the source database.

SQL Server 2008, SQL Server 2005, and SQL Server 2000

You can upgrade to a SQL Server 2008 database from a SQL Server 2005 or SQL Server 2000 database. Upgrading from SQL Server 2005 requires no additional actions. Upgrading from SQL Server 2000 may require changes to the packaging options.

For upgrading the database structure:

If you are upgrading to a SQL Server 2008 or SQL Server 2005 database from a SQL Server 2000 database, you must not change the default schema packaging options.

However, if your database is on a SQL Server with case-sensitive sort order, you must select Treat items as case sensitive in the schema packaging options.

When you create a default value or constraint in SQL Server 2008 or SQL Server 2005, the definitions of the default value or constraint are parsed and the parsed version is stored. The syntax of the SQL Server 2008 or SQL Server 2005 parsed version is not the same as the parsed version in SQL Server 2000. For example, in SQL Server 2005, (1) is parsed to ((1)). If these are the only differences, SQL Packager considers the objects to be identical.

For upgrading the data:

• You can upgrade CLR data in a SQL Server 2008 or SQL Server 2005 database with values from a text or string data type in a SQL Server 2000 database. Ensure that the Transport CLR data types as binary data packaging option is not selected.
  SQL Packager considers the collation order for string data. Therefore, if the ordering is not the same as the CLR order, differences are reported.

• You can upgrade XML data in a SQL Server 2008 or SQL Server 2005 database with values from a text or string data type in a SQL Server 2000 database. SQL Packager will attempt to preserve white space. SQL Packager supports DTD (Document Type Definition), except for default attributes and entities.

  Some data, such as XML encoding and DTD, cannot be stored in the SQL Server 2008 or SQL Server 2005 representation. Therefore, if you convert data from a string data type to an XML data type, and then you convert back to a string data type, this information will be lost. SQL Packager considers the collation order for string data. Therefore, if the ordering is not the same as the XML order, differences are reported.

SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2005 compatibility level 80 databases

If a SQL Server 2008 or SQL Server 2005 database has its compatibility level set to 80, it conforms to strict rules for views, stored procedures, functions, and DML triggers. Therefore, upgrades may fail.