I am currently using MS SQL 2008 R2 on sql 8.0 compatibility. (ie: the last version available that supports PB OJ syntax)
however, I'll be "forced" to upgrade to sql server 2014/2016 eventually (I'm hosting ms great plains dynamics. this software is currently version GPS2013, but the next version upgrade that we do eg: GPS2015/GPS2017 and onwards will only run on sql server 2014 onwards).
due to licenses costs etc, as well as server os upgrades in the near future, there's no point sticking with an older sql server version.
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I'm not sure if there are other things I need to take care of such as image/text to varbinary (max). and dropping ODBC for SNC .. I'm quite confused right now about this
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms131321.aspx
Download Microsoft® ODBC Driver 11 for SQL Server® - Windows from Official Microsoft Download Center
Microsoft SQL Server Native Client 11.0 is installed when you install SQL Server 2016 Community Technology Preview 2 (CTP2). There is no SQL Server 2016 Community Technology Preview 2 (CTP2) Native Client.
Microsoft SQL Server Native Client 11.0 is installed when you install SQL Server 2014. There is no SQL Server 2014 Native Client.
I'm not sure what that means, does it mean that sql server 2016/2018 might drop SNC (ie: SQLCA.DBMS = "SNC SQL Native Client(OLE DB)" " and we revert back to ODBC for driver 11? (ie: DBPARM ="ODBC" ??)
although it seems i need not bother with it for sometime since things just work fine connecting to a test environment on sql server express 2014