SQL Server 2014 backup to 2012

Question

Are there any tools to convert SQL Server 2014 database to 2012?

I tried Generate Script but the generated script with data is too large and SQL Server Management Studio did not execute it, I need to have both schema and data.

Answer 1

To my knowledge, there are basically three two options for migrating a database to a lower version of SQL Server, without using 3rd party tools:

• Generate Scripts (not really suitable for large amounts of data)
• Custom Scripting and BCP or Import/Export Wizard
• SQL Server Integration Services (Transfer Database Task)

First option is not suitable in your case, as noted.

Second option is to simply script the structure of the database, and then use the Import/Export Wizard to copy the data, one table at a time. Note, that if you have foreign key constraints in your database, you might want to disable the constraints until after you have populated all your tables with data. This blog post explains in details how this can be done.

Third option uses the SISS Transfer Database Task which basically uses SMO to create the objects on the destination server and then transfers the data. This is the recommended way of migrating a database between SQL Server instances of different versions. SSIS requires that you have installed SQL Server Data Tools - Business Intelligence (SSDT-BI) for Visual Studio. Before SQL Server 2012, this was called Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS). You can download these here:

• Microsoft SQL Server Data Tools - Business Intelligence for Visual Studio 2013
• Microsoft SQL Server Data Tools - Business Intelligence for Visual Studio 2012
• If you don't have Visual Studio, SSDT-BI / BIDS is included in the SQL Server installation.