Is it possible to do database maintenance using an older version of SSMS?

  • This question isn't so much about SQL Server 2005, as it is about SQL Server 2008 R2 Express. My colleague has SSMS 2005 installed on her PC. And we're working on developing a new application using SQL Server 2008 R2 Express, on the users' desktops, which means it has to be on our development boxes as well. We downloaded and installed SQL Server 2008 R2 Express onto her PC, I scripted out the definition of the database from my SQL Server 2008 R2 Express database, and ran the .sql in her instance. We've had to make some changes to some constraints, so I tried getting into SSMS 2005 on her system (since that's the only version of SSMS she has installed) and fix it that way. However, she got errors when we tried to go into the table's design view in SSMS 2005.

    This leads me to wonder, is it possible to do table design editing in a SQL Server 2008 R2 Express database, using SSMS 2005?

    Kindest Regards, Rod Connect with me on LinkedIn.

  • I tried this as I have SSMS 2005 and SSMS 2008 R2 installed on the same machine.

    opening SSMS 2005, I CAN connect to the 2008 R2 database.

    When I check database options, it does not have an entry in compatibility level, though in object explorer it does report the server as 10.50.200

    Obviously no intellisense, but it seems to work fine.

    However the design view doesn't work as you state, but nothing to stop you using ALTER TABLE etc

  • t.brown 89142 (10/9/2012)


    I tried this as I have SSMS 2005 and SSMS 2008 R2 installed on the same machine.

    opening SSMS 2005, I CAN connect to the 2008 R2 database.

    When I check database options, it does not have an entry in compatibility level, though in object explorer it does report the server as 10.50.200

    Obviously no intellisense, but it seems to work fine.

    However the design view doesn't work as you state, but nothing to stop you using ALTER TABLE etc

    I've thought about doing an ALTER TABLE to add the constraint, but that doesn't sit well with my colleagues. If they don't have a nice GUI to work with, then forget it. So I'm downloading SQL Server 2008 R2 RTM Express with Advanced Services now on a test machine, so I can see if I can give them their GUI. I can get SSMSE later for my colleague; I just want to see what it looks like and how to do it, first.

    Kindest Regards, Rod Connect with me on LinkedIn.

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