SQL Server lifecycle and the compatibility level settings

I've had several people ask how the compatibility mode/level fits in with the SQL Server lifecycle. For example, the question might be: once we no longer support SQL Server 2000, does that mean we don't support databases restored/attached to later versions of SQL and still set to 80 compatibility mode for example? The answer is that each version of SQL Server has a set of compatibility levels it supports. That support does not change based on the lifecycle. So for example, SQL Server 2008 R2 supports compatibility levels 80 (SQL 2000), 90 (SQL 2005), and 100 (SQL 2008). When you restore a SQL Server 2000 database to SQL Server 2008 R2 it remains in 80 compatibility mode until you issue ALTER DATABASE {dbname} SET COMPATIBILITY LEVEL = 100 (in older versions use sp_dbcmptlevel). When extended support for SQL Server 2000 ends in 2013, Microsoft will not support SQL Server 2000 any more. But we will still support a database on SQL Server 2008 R2 that is in 80 compatibility mode because that is a supported level/mode for R2. So the lifecycle refers to the actual instance, not the database level.

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