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Operating System Support for SQL Server Versions

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There are currently six major versions of SQL Server that I commonly see being used in Production, along with five major versions of Windows Server. Only certain combinations of SQL Server and Windows Server are officially supported by Microsoft, but tracking down this information is a little tedious.

Table 1 shows these possible combinations and whether they are officially supported by Microsoft. One possibly surprising combination is the fact that SQL Server 2012 is not officially supported on Windows Server 2016. Perhaps this is less surprising if you keep in mind that SQL Server 2012 will fall out of mainstream support on July 11, 2017, which is not that far away.

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Table 1: OS Support for Recent Versions of SQL Server

The available links that document this are listed below:

Hardware and Software Requirements for Installing SQL Server 2008 R2

Hardware and Software Requirements for Installing SQL Server 2012

Hardware and Software Requirements for Installing SQL Server 2014

Hardware and Software Requirements for Installing SQL Server (for 2016 and later)

If you are getting ready to deploy a new instance of SQL Server 2014 or SQL Server 2016, then you should prefer Windows Server 2016, even though they are also supported on older operating systems. If you are getting ready to deploy a new instance of SQL Server 2008 through SQL Server 2012, then you should prefer Windows Server 2012 R2, even though they are supported on older operating systems.

Finally, if you are getting ready to deploy a new instance of SQL Server 2005, then I feel a little sorry for you! SQL Server 2005 is out of extended support, and it is missing so many useful features that were added in newer versions of SQL Server.

Actually, I recently helped a client deploy some new instances of SQL Server 2005 for some pretty valid business reasons. We ended up deploying to a VM (on new, very fast host hardware) that was running Windows Server 2008 R2, which worked perfectly fine.

24 thoughts on “Operating System Support for SQL Server Versions

    1. Most other Microsoft links (and some senior people at Microsoft) have stated that SQL Server 2012 is not officially supported on Windows Server 2016. I am trying to get to the bottom of this. Thanks!

      1. Hi Glenn, Did you ever find out anything about SQL Server 2012 support on Windows Server 2016 and the link above showing where it is supported?

  1. Thanks for this excellent post, Glenn. The table above for WS 2012 was precisely what I was looking for. Frustrating that Microsoft doesn’t seem to have published this information concisely from this perspective for those undertaking migration projects. Your post has most likely rescued me from hours of digging through MSDN links to figure this out.

  2. Hi Glenn! Congratulations for the excelente post.
    I am searching for similar information for SQL Server 2017. Do you have any other article or tips on how can I find it out?

    Regards

      1. Are there any important improvements to be had if using Windows Server 2016 instead of 2012 for SQL Server 2017? I couldn’t find anything in the official documentation to suggest this.

        1. Windows Server 2016 has a higher OS memory limit than Windows Server 2012 R2 (but that won’t affect most people). Windows Server 2016 supports Intel Speed Shift (with a Xeon Skylake-SP processor or newer). Windows Server 2016 will also be supported for a longer period of time.

  3. SQL Server 2014 runs on anything! Just an observation I needed to share 🙂
    Very helpful post, Glenn!

      1. I have found the Microsoft states that SQL Server 2016 Service Pack 2 is supported on the following operating systems: Windows 10 , Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016 (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=56836), but when trying to install it on Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, you will get a message that the operating system or its service pack level do not meet the minimum requirements. So it appears this is correct, but that Microsoft is publishing incorrect information.

  4. Assuming SQL2016 Enterprise – any meaningful differences between Windows2016 Standard and Windows 2016 Data Center?

  5. Do you have information on window server supported for SQL 2019 that you can share?
    Additionally minimum SQL supported for Windows Server 2019?

  6. Do you have information on window server supported for SQL 2019 that you can share?
    Additionally minimum SQL supported for Windows Server 2019?

  7. Here is my problem, I have a server that is connecting to an old Oracle 8I database and I’m using Linked Servers that is using MS OLE DB Provider for Oracle that is no longer available when I tried to update to SQL 2008 R2 a couple years ago. Does anyone know if MS added it back in the new version in SQL? I was really hoping that the other department would have gotten there act together and updated the software to SQL, but I still stuck trying to connect SQL to Oracle to retrieve data.

    I’m using Server 2008 and SQL 2005.

    1. No, you can’t do that. The newest OS that will run SQL Server 2008 R2 is Windows Server 2012 R2. Really, you should be really trying to upgrade from SQL Server 2008 R2 to something newer, that is still supported by Microsoft.

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