A critical error occurred: Failed to configure database settings. SQL compatibility mode is too low: SQL Server 2005 (required: SQL Server 2008)

Products

• IT Management Suite

Issue/Introduction

Customer is upgrading from ITMS 7.5 SP1 to ITMS 7.6. Symantec Installation Manager (SIM) 7.6.67 has introduced a new compatibility check that prevents older SQL Server versions (specifically SQL Server 2005) for been able to upgrade.

However, customer already upgraded to SQL Server 2008 or later before the upgrade to ITMS 7.6 but still the upgrade fails with the following message:

"A critical error occured: Failed to configure database settings -> SQL compatibility mode is too low: SQL Server 2005 (required: SQL Server 2008)".

 

Cause

The Symantec_CMDB database was set to 2005 compatibility mode. For new installations or upgrades, we don't support old versions of SQL Server, even in compatibility mode. See HOWTO109671 "Migrating CMDB from Microsoft SQL Server 2005 before installing IT Management Suite 7.6"

Resolution

This issue has been reported to our Symantec Development team.

To correct this issue:
1. Launch Microsoft SQL Studio Manager
2. Right-click on the Symantec_CMDB and click on 'Options'



3. The compatibility mode will be SQL Server 2005 which needs to be changed to 2008 or later before the upgrade will be successful. 


Note:
In case you can't change the database compatibility level via UI because it is grayed out, please try the following SQL Query:

1. Use sp_helpdb so you can get the information for all databases at once and verify the current SMP database compatibility level:
exec sp_helpdb

Or select directly from the sys.databases catalog to get the information for all databases:
select * from sys.databases

2. In order to make the proper change, use the following format:
ALTER DATABASE database_name
SET COMPATIBILITY_LEVEL = {90|100|110}

 where:
80= SQL Server 2000
90= SQL Server 2005
100= SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 R2
110= SQL Server 2012
120= SQL Server 2014
-- Compatibility level can be 80,90,100 on SQL server 2008/SQL server 2008 R2
-- On SQL Server 2012 the allowed values are 90,100,110

So, the query will look like this to set the database compatibility level to SQL Server 2008:
ALTER DATABASE Symantec_CMDB
SET COMPATIBILITY_LEVEL = 100;
GO

References:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/library/bb933794(v=sql.105).aspx
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb510680.aspx

Note: In case that this change in the SQL compatibility mode still doesn't allow you to continue with the install/upgrade, check the following regkeys and validate that the values on them are correct for the SQL Server (in case the customer is not aware that the database has been moved to a different SQL Server):

• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Altiris\AIM\Configuration\NsConfiguration\SQLServerName​
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSSQLServer\Client\ConnectTo (if it exists: check for any aliases that could be forcing a
  different SQL server)
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Altiris\eXpress\Notification Server\DBDsn

 

Applies To

Upgrade from ITMS 7.5 SP1 or earlier to ITMS 7.6
Symantec Installation Manager 7.6.67