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Support Policies for SQL Server Native Client in SQL Server 2008 R2

This topic discusses how various data-access components can be used with SQL Server Native Client.

Server Support

SQL Server 2008 R2 Native Client supports the version of SQL Server in which it is released, and SQL Server 2000 SP4, SQL Server 2005, and SQL Server 2008.

When using ODBC, SQLBrowseConnect, SQLConnect, and SQLDriverConnect will fail if a connection is made to a server version older than SQL Server 2000. The connection will be terminated and SQL_ERROR will be returned.

When using OLE DB, IDBInitialize::Initialize and IDataInitialize::GetDataSource will return E_FAIL if a connection is made to a server version older than SQL Server 2000.

Supported Operating System Versions

The following table lists which operating systems support SQL Server Native Client.

SQL Server Native Client version

Supported operating systems

SQL Server Native Client (SQL Server 2005)

  • Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 or later

  • Microsoft Windows Server 2003 or later

  • Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 1 or later

  • Microsoft Windows Vista (requires SQL Server Service Pack 2, or later)

  • Microsoft Windows Server 2008 (requires SQL Server Service Pack 2, or later)

SQL Server Native Client 10.0 (SQL Server 2008)

  • Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2, or later

  • Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2, or later

  • Microsoft Windows Vista

  • Microsoft Windows Server 2008

SQL Server Native Client 10.5 (SQL Server 2008 R2)

  • Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2, or later

  • Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 or later

  • Microsoft Windows Vista

  • Microsoft Windows Server 2008

  • Microsoft Windows 7

ADO Support Policies

ADO applications can use the SQLOLEDB OLE DB provider that is included with Windows if they do not require any of the features of SQL Server 2005 or later.

ADO applications can use the version of SQL Server Native Client included in SQL Server 2005. ADO applications can also use SQL Server Native Client 10.5 (included in SQL Server 2008 R2), but if they do so they must specify DataTypeCompatibility=80 in the connection strings. Only features from SQL Server 2005 are available when DataTypeCompatibility=80 is present in the connection strings.

BCP Support Policies

Beginning in SQL Server 2008, bcp.exe supports data files that are no more than three SQL Server versions older than the version of SQL Server in which bcp.exe shipped.

This means that the version of bcp.exe in SQL Server 2008 R2 does not support the 70 option of the –V command line option.

The BCP APIs no longer support data file formats in 7.0 or earlier. For ODBC, the BCP6xFILEFMT option is removed from bcp_control and the associated constant made specific to version 90 in sqlncli.h. For OLE DB, the BCP_OPTION_FILEFMT option of IBCPSession::BCPControl will no longer accept the values 70, 60, or 65. If these values are used, E_FAIL will be returned. The associated SSERRORINFO returned by ISQLServerErrorInfo will contain the message "The specified data file format is no longer supported" in pwszMessage.

ODBC Support Policies

Applications should use the SQL Server ODBC driver included with the Windows operating system. You can use the SQL Server Native Client ODBC driver if the application is certified it for use with a specific version of SQL Server Native Client.

OLE DB Support Policies

Applications should use the SQL Server OLE DB provider included with the Windows operating system. You can use the SQL Server Native Client OLE DB provider if the application is certified for use with a specific version of SQL Server Native Client.

OLE DB applications that have not been certified for use with SQL Server Native Client can use SQL Server Native client if they specify DataTypeCompatibility=80 in their connection strings.

OLE DB applications that use OLE DB Service Components can only use SQL Server Native client if they specify DataTypeCompatibility=80 in their connection strings. However, no features added after SQL Server 2005 will be available in this case.