Downgrade Enterprise to Standard

Question

I need assistance with downgrading SSRS from 2019 Enterprise to 2017 Standard. I have an installation that was using 2019 Evaluation although we are using SQL 2017 Standard and the Evaluation has expired. I am now trying to downgrade it to our licensed version. I have tried reinstalling but then it says it cannot validate the integrity of the encrypted data in the database. I have the original backup of the databases before the uninstallation. I have also tried replacing the InstallationID in the Keys table with the ID in the rs config, still no luck. I have now tried to reinstall 2019 Evaluation just to get it running again and start from the beginning but still getting the same error. Please assist

Answer 1

SQL Server does not support downgrading versions.

Under some circumstances, you can change the "edition" from enterprise to standard.

Answer 2

Check database encryption

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/relational-databases/system-dynamic-management-views/sys-dm-database-encryption-keys-transact-sql?redirectedfrom=MSDN&view=sql-server-ver15

If it's encrypted, maybe you'll need the master key that resides on the master table from your 2019 Ent installation.

Also, if possible try to downgrade the edition as mentioned but not the version..

Answer 3

So I managed to get it back to normal and working, on 2019 Evaluation. But this is only going to work for 180 days. I still need to figure out how to downgrade from Enterprise to Standard. This is my main issue as when I tried to install 2017 Standard I got the error saying this edition does not support "Scale out deployment"

Answer 4

Hi @Dimitri Stamatiadis ,

scale-out deployment” feature of SSRS

If you want to use the “scale-out deployment” feature of SSRS, you will have to have an Enterprise Edition.
This happens because the key you restored belongs to the old server, and now your Reporting Server instance believe that it is part of a multi server deployment , that is not supported in standard edition of Reporting Services.
For more information, please refer to these:
https://www.sqlnethub.com/blog/how-to-resolve-the-feature-scale-out-deployment-is-not-supported-in-this-edition-of-reporting-services/
https://www.codewrecks.com/post/old/2016/07/scale-out-deployment-error-when-migrating-reporting-services/

So the solution is getting the new license of the Enterprise Edition and SQL Server SQL Server does not support downgrading versions like Tom mentioned.
However, considering that you have a license of version 2017, you can try the method in this link to avoid this version limit.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/534709/backup-sql-2017-to-sql-2012-using-sql-2016-a-middl.html

If this method does not work, it is recommended that you continue to use the Enterprise edition by purchasing a license. Or you can give up using Scale out deployment and downgrade to the Standard edition.

Best regards,
Seeya

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Answer 5

We don't actually use Scale out deployment. I think it is just picking it up because we used the Evaluation installer. So I have no issue with losing that feature. I found articles that say to resolve this you need to replace the InstallationID in the Keys table with the ID in the rs config file. But when I do this I get an error regarding integrity. I then checked the logs file and found this - "Database downgrade detected. The database schema version is newer than service schema version"