Eight Ways to Find SQL Server Internal Version Number (SQL Server 2012 Version 706 and SQL Server 2014 Version 782)

The Internal version number of the SQL Server code with which the database was created. It is not a supported value from Microsoft. Future compatibility is not guaranteed but it works for SQL Server 2008 and 2012.
Howerver, many users are coming across this value in error message when they were trying to restore/copy database from a lower version instance. You may not find a good source for documentation about this value.  I compiled six ways(T-SQL query) to get this value for your database: the first two are to restore from the the bak file Header and the four other ways are  to query online database to get this Internal Version Number.

The quickest way to get this Version value for an online database is to query the sysdatabase:

SELECT name,version FROM sys.sysdatabases

I have added two Powershell methods at the end:

Approach A: Extract this value from backup file Header Infomation:

Method 1. Run the following command from most recent SSMS ( if you run from lower version SSMS, you may not get this value):

RESTORE HEADERONLY FROM DISK=N’c:\backup\sampleDB.bak’

Check these columns from the result panel:DatabaseName,DatabaseVersion,DatabaseCreationDate

The DatabaseVersionison (Internal Version Number) are one of these values:

706(SQLServer 2012), 665/661(SQLServer 2008/R2),611/612(SQLServer 2005/SP2) and 539(SQLServer 2000)

Method 2. Run this script

sp_configure 'show advanced options',1
GO

reconfigure
Go

sp_configure 'Ad Hoc Distributed Queries', 1
GO

reconfigure
GO

SELECT * INTO #myVersion

FROM OPENROWSET('SQLNCLI','Server=USWDM2ML5054498\SQL08R2;Trusted_Connection=yes',

'EXEC(''SET FMTONLY OFF RESTORE HEADERONLY FROM DISK =''''C:\backupserver\sql_backups\mytest1.bak'''''')') AS t

SELECT DatabaseName,DatabaseVersion,DatabaseCreationDate FROM #myVersion

DROP TABLE #myVersion

 

 

Approach B. Database Online methods:

Method 3. Get the version value from DATABASEPROPERTYEX: (DATABASEPROPERTY still works but deprecated)
Run the following query from SSMS for your database:

SELECT SERVERPROPERTY(‘productversion’) as [Product version],
SERVERPROPERTY (‘productlevel’) as [Product level] ,
SERVERPROPERTY (‘edition’) as [Edition],
DATABASEPROPERTYEX((select DB_Name()),’Version’) as [Internal Version Number]
–,DATABASEPROPERTY((select DB_Name()),’Version’) as [Internal Version Number–Deprecated]
,(select DB_Name()) as DBName,
(SELECT COMPATIBILITY_LEVEL FROM SYS.DATABASES WHERE NAME = (select DB_Name())) as compatibilityLevel

Method 4.Retrieve the value from sysdatabase

DECLARE @dbName VARCHAR(128)
SET @dbName=(SELECT Db_name())
SELECT name, version FROM sys.sysdatabases WHERE name = @dbName

Method 5.Use DBCC Command DBINFO (yourdbName)

5.1 Get the values from the result of  DBINFO (yourdbName)
You need to turn on undocumented trace flag 3604 to run DBINFO and check the value of dbi_version from the message screen.
DBCC TRACEON (3604)
GO
–get your database name
declare @dbName varchar(128)
Set @dbName=(select DB_name())

DBCC DBINFO (@dbName)
GO

DBCC TRACEOFF (3604)
GO

There is another value for this database that may be useful to your: dbi_createVersion
You will know the version this database is created from.

5.2 Get these values from a temp table

You can run the following query to get the value in atable:

DBCC TRACEON (3604)

GO

CREATE TABLE #t (ParentObject VARCHAR (255), [Object] VARCHAR (255), Field VARCHAR (500), [Value] VARCHAR (500))

––get your database name

declare @dbName varchar(128)

Set @dbName=(select DB_name())

insert into #t

exec (‘DBCC DBINFO (‘+@dbName+’) WITH TABLERESULTS’)

GO

select [dbi_dbname],[dbi_version],[dbi_createVersion] from (SELECT Field, Value FROM #t) src

PIVOT (Max(Value) For Field IN ([dbi_dbname],[dbi_version],[dbi_createVersion])) pvt

drop table #t

DBCC TRACEOFF (3604)

GO

5.3 Get these values on the fly:

<code>

EXEC sp_configure ‘show advanced options’,1

GO

reconfigure

Go

EXEC sp_configure ‘Ad Hoc Distributed Queries’, 1

GO

reconfigure

GO

DBCC TRACEON (3604)

GO

declare @dbName varchar(128) = (select DB_name())

declare @cmd varchar(1000);

select @cmd = ‘SET FMTONLY OFF;SET NOCOUNT ON; EXEC(”” DBCC DBINFO (‘+@dbName+’) WITH TABLERESULTS””)’;

EXEC(‘SELECT * INTO myVersion from OPENROWSET(”SQLNCLI”,”Server=USWDM2ML5054498\SQL08R2;Trusted_Connection=yes;”,”’ + @cmd + ”’) AS t;’ )

SELECT Field, Value FROM myVersion

WHERE Field =’dbi_createVersion’ or Field =’dbi_crdate’ or Field =’dbi_Version’ or Field =’dbi_dbname’

DROP TABLE myVersion;

DBCC TRACEOff (3604)

GO

</code>

Method 6: Use DBCC Command PAGE (yourdbName,1,9,3)

6.1 Get the value from the result of PAGE (yourdbName,1,9,3)

DBCC TRACEON (3604)
GO
–get your database name
declare @dbName varchar(128)
Set @dbName=(select DB_name())
DBCC PAGE (@dbName, 1, 9, 3);
GO
DBCC TRACEOFF (3604)
GO

You can get the same information(dbi_version  and  dbi_createVersion) for the database from this DBCC command.

6.2 Get the values from a temp table

You can run another query to get the values in a table:

DBCC TRACEON (3604)

GO

CREATE TABLE #t (ParentObject VARCHAR (255), [Object] VARCHAR (255), Field VARCHAR (255), [Value] VARCHAR (255))

––get your database name

declare @dbName varchar(128)

Set @dbName=(select DB_name())

insert into #t

exec (‘DBCC PAGE(‘+@dbName+’,1,9,3) WITH TABLERESULTS’)

GO

select [dbi_dbname],[dbi_version],[dbi_createVersion] from (SELECT Field, Value FROM #t) src

PIVOT (Max(Value) For Field IN ([dbi_dbname],[dbi_version],[dbi_createVersion])) pvt

–select * from #t

drop table #t

DBCC TRACEOFF (3604)

GO

6.3 Get the values on the fly:

EXEC sp_configure ‘show advanced options’,1

GO

reconfigure

Go

EXEC sp_configure ‘Ad Hoc Distributed Queries’, 1

GO

reconfigure

GO

DBCC TRACEON (3604)

GO

declare @dbName varchar(128) = (select DB_name())

declare @cmd varchar(1000);

select @cmd = ‘SET FMTONLY OFF;SET NOCOUNT ON; EXEC(”” DBCC PAGE (‘+@dbName+’, 1,9,3) WITH TABLERESULTS””)’;

EXEC(‘SELECT * INTO myVersion from OPENROWSET(”SQLNCLI”,”Server=USWDM2ML5054498\SQL08R2;Trusted_Connection=yes;”,”’ + @cmd + ”’) AS t;’ )

SELECT Field, Value FROM myVersion

WHERE Field =’dbi_createVersion’ or Field =’dbi_crdate’ or Field =’dbi_Version’ or Field =’dbi_dbname’

DROP TABLE myVersion;

DBCC TRACEOff (3604)

GO

Paul Randal has an valuable information page for this undocumented DBCC PAGE command at this link:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sqlserverstorageengine/archive/2006/06/10/625659.aspx

The syntax: dbcc page ( {‘dbname’ | dbid}, filenum, pagenum [, printopt={0|1|2|3} ])

Here is a short list of version for the major SQL Server versions I compiled:

SQL Server Version	Compatibility Level	Internal Database Version	Build
SQL Server 2012 RTM	110	706	11.0.2100.60
SQL Server 2008 R2	100	665	10.50.xxxx
SQL Server 2008	100	661	10.00.xxxx
SQL Server 2005  SP2	90	612	9.00.xxxx
SQL Server 2005	90	611	9.00.xxxx
SQL Server 2000	80	539	8.00.xxx(x)

There is a rule here you have to follow: you can move up yourdatabase to newer version but not reverse the order.

If you want to know all database versions on your server, you can try this script from Sankar Reddy: http://sqlserverpedia.com/blog/sql-server-bloggers/database-internal-version-create-version-and-current-version/

You may be interested to read Jonathan Kehayias’ blog post to know more background information: http://sqlblog.com/blogs/jonathan_kehayias/archive/2009/07/28/database-version-vs-database-compatibility-level.aspx

Another source with many responses:

http://beyondrelational.com/quiz/sqlserver/dba/2011/questions/demonstrate-the-different-ways-to-get-the-internal-database-version-for-sql-server.aspx

 

Approach C with Powershell:

Method 7: Another way is to use Powershell  (Run the following within SSMS 2014)  and my DB returns: 782 for SQL Server 2014 RTM.

 $srcinst='MC\MSSQL2014' 
$srv = new-object ('Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.Server') $srcinst 
$srv.Databases.Item("myDB").Version 

 

Method 8:

 Import-Module -Name 'SQLPS' -DisableNameChecking 

$svrname = "MC\MSSQL2014" 
$mydbName="*" # all databases

$myTablePath= "SQLSERVER:\SQL\$svrname\Databases" 

Get-ChildItem $myTablePath | ?{$_.name -Like $mydbName} | Select-Object Name,Version | Format-Table –AutoSize 

 

 

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