Supported version and edition upgrades (SQL Server 2025)

Applies to: SQL Server - Windows only

This article lists the supported upgrade paths from the following SQL Server versions, and the supported edition upgrades for SQL Server 2025 (17.x).

You can upgrade from:

• SQL Server 2014 (12.x) SP3 or later
• SQL Server 2016 (13.x) SP3 or later
• SQL Server 2017 (14.x)
• SQL Server 2019 (15.x)
• SQL Server 2022 (16.x)

For older versions of SQL Server, you can also Migrate to SQL Server 2025.

Pre-upgrade checklist

• Before you upgrade from one edition of SQL Server 2025 (17.x) to another, verify that the functionality you're currently using is supported in the edition to which you're moving. For more information, see Editions and supported features of SQL Server 2025.

• Verify supported hardware and software, including the supported operating system. For more information, see Hardware and software requirements for SQL Server 2025.

• Before upgrading SQL Server, enable Windows Authentication for SQL Server Agent and verify the default configuration, that the SQL Server Agent service account is a member of the SQL Server sysadmin group.

• Upgrade is blocked if there's a pending restart.

• Upgrade is blocked if the Windows Installer service isn't running.

Unsupported scenarios

• Cross-version instances of SQL Server 2025 (17.x) aren't supported. Version numbers of the Database Engine components must be the same in an instance of SQL Server 2025 (17.x).

• SQL Server 2025 (17.x) is only available for 64-bit platforms. Cross-platform upgrade isn't supported. You can't upgrade a 32-bit instance of SQL Server to native 64-bit using SQL Server Setup. However, you can back up or detach databases from a 32-bit instance of SQL Server, and then restore or attach them to a new instance of SQL Server (64-bit), if the databases aren't published in replication. You must re-create any logins and other user objects in master, msdb, and model system databases.

• You can't add new features during the upgrade of your existing instance of SQL Server. After you upgrade an instance of SQL Server to SQL Server 2025 (17.x), you can add features by using the SQL Server 2025 (17.x) Setup. For more information, see Add Features to an Instance of SQL Server (Setup).

Upgrades from earlier versions to SQL Server 2025

SQL Server 2025 (17.x) supports upgrade from the following versions of SQL Server:

• SQL Server 2014 (12.x) SP3 or later
• SQL Server 2016 (13.x) SP3 or later
• SQL Server 2017 (14.x)
• SQL Server 2019 (15.x)
• SQL Server 2022 (16.x)

The following table lists the supported upgrade scenarios from earlier versions of SQL Server to SQL Server 2025 (17.x).

¹ Microsoft support to upgrade from release candidate software is specifically for customers who participated in the Early Adopter Program.

Migrate to SQL Server 2025

You can migrate databases from older versions of SQL Server to SQL Server 2025 (17.x), as long as the source database compatibility level is 90 or higher. Databases with a compatibility level of 90 (for example, on SQL Server 2005 (9.x)), are automatically upgraded to a compatibility level of 100 when migrated to SQL Server 2025 (17.x). If the compatibility level on the source database is 100 or higher, it's unchanged on SQL Server 2025 (17.x).

For information, see Upgrade SQL Server to the latest version.

The following tips and tools can help you plan and implement your migration.

• Migration tools. Migration is supported through the SQL Server migration component in SQL Server Management Studio.

• Backup and restore. A backup taken on SQL Server 2008 (10.0.x) and later, can be restored to SQL Server 2025 (17.x) without changing its compatibility level, as long as the database backup has a compatibility level of 100 or higher.

  Databases with a compatibility level of 90, including backups taken on SQL Server 2005 (9.x), are automatically upgraded to a compatibility level of 100 when restored to SQL Server 2025 (17.x).

• Log shipping. Log shipping is supported if the primary is running SQL Server 2008 (10.0.x) SP3 or later, or SQL Server 2008 R2 (10.50.x) SP2 or later, and the secondary is running SQL Server 2025 (17.x).

  Warning

  If an automatic or manual failover happens and the SQL Server 2025 (17.x) instance becomes primary, SQL Server 2008 (10.0.x) or SQL Server 2008 R2 (10.50.x) instance becomes secondary and can't receive changes from primary.

• Bulk load: Tables can be bulk copied from SQL Server 2008 (10.0.x) or SQL Server 2008 R2 (10.50.x) to SQL Server 2025 (17.x).

SQL Server 2025 edition upgrade

The following table lists the supported edition upgrade scenarios in SQL Server 2025 (17.x).

For step-by-step instructions on how to perform an edition upgrade, see Upgrade to a different edition of SQL Server (Setup).

Additionally you can also perform an edition upgrade between SQL Server 2025 (17.x) Enterprise (Server+CAL license) and SQL Server 2025 (17.x) Enterprise (Core License):

¹ Changing the edition of a clustered instance of SQL Server 2025 (17.x) is limited. The following scenarios aren't supported for SQL Server 2025 (17.x) failover clusters:

• Enterprise to Enterprise Developer, Standard Developer, Standard, or Evaluation.
• Enterprise Developer to Standard or Evaluation.
• Standard Developer to Standard or Evaluation.
• Standard to Evaluation.
• Evaluation to Standard.

Related content

• Editions and supported features of SQL Server 2025
• Hardware and software requirements for SQL Server 2025
• Upgrade SQL Server
• Upgrade the Database Engine
• Upgrade to a different edition of SQL Server (Setup)