Restore SQL Server 2008 backup to SQL Server 2016

Question

Can you restore SQL Server 2008 backup to SQL Server 2016 ? Thank you

Answer 1

Yes. SQL Server is backward compatible with any version that was supported at the time the version was released.

For SQL Server 2016 that was SQL Server 2008-2014.

A full list of the compatibility modes available can be found on the documentation here .

Note that restoring a database on a newer version of SQL Server is a one way process . The database, from an older version, will be upgraded to work on the newer version and set to the appropriate compatibility level. You cannot restore a compatibility 100 database from SQL Server 2016 on a SQL Server 2008 instance (or anything else prior to 2016).