Using SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2005 and date time

I've built a entity framework model against a 2008 database. All works ok against the 2008 database. When I try to update the entity on a 2005 database I get this error.

The version of SQL Server in use does not support datatype 'datetime2

I specifically did not use any 2008 features when I built the database. I can't find any reference to datetime2 in the code. And, yes the column is defined as "datetime" in the database.

A quick google points me to what looks like the solution.

Open your EDMX in a file editor (or “open with…” in Visual Studio and select XML Editor). At the top you will find the storage model and it has an attribute ProviderManifestToken. This has should have the value 2008. Change that to 2005, recompile and everything works.

NOTE: You'll have to do this every time you update the model from database.

Quick view of line:

<Schema Namespace="Foobar.Store" Alias="Self" Provider="System.Data.SqlClient" ProviderManifestToken="2005" >

This is very frustrating and I am surprised MS decided not to make it so you could target a given SQL version. To make sure we are targeting 2005 I wrote a simple console app and call it in a PreBuild step.

The prebuild step looks like this:

$(SolutionDir)Artifacts\SetEdmxVer\SetEdmxSqlVersion $(ProjectDir)MyModel.edmx 2005

The code is here:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Xml;

namespace SetEdmxSqlVersion
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            if (2 != args.Length)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("usage: SetEdmxSqlVersion <edmxFile> <sqlVer>");
                return;
            }
            string edmxFilename = args[0];
            string ver = args[1];
            XmlDocument xmlDoc = new XmlDocument();
            xmlDoc.Load(edmxFilename);
            
            XmlNamespaceManager mgr = new XmlNamespaceManager(xmlDoc.NameTable);
            mgr.AddNamespace("edmx", "http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2008/10/edmx");
            mgr.AddNamespace("ssdl", "http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2009/02/edm/ssdl");
            XmlNode node = xmlDoc.DocumentElement.SelectSingleNode("/edmx:Edmx/edmx:Runtime/edmx:StorageModels/ssdl:Schema", mgr);
            if (node == null)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Could not find Schema node");
            }
            else
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Setting EDMX version to {0} in file {1}", ver, edmxFilename);
                node.Attributes["ProviderManifestToken"].Value = ver;
                xmlDoc.Save(edmxFilename);
            }
        }
    }
}

Using @Vance's handy console app above, I used the following as a BeforeBuild event

<Target Name="BeforeBuild">
    <!--Check out BD.edmx, Another.edmx, all configs-->
    <Exec Command="$(SolutionDir)\Library\tf checkout /lock:none $(ProjectDir)Generation\DB.edmx" />
    <Exec Command="$(SolutionDir)\Library\tf checkout /lock:none $(ProjectDir)Generation\Another.edmx" />
    <!--Set to 2008 for Dev-->
    <Exec Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == 'DEV1' " Command="$(SolutionDir)Library\SetEdmxSqlVersion $(ProjectDir)Generation\DB.edmx 2008" />
    <Exec Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == 'DEV1' " Command="$(SolutionDir)Library\SetEdmxSqlVersion $(ProjectDir)Generation\Another.edmx 2008" />
    <Exec Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == 'DEV2' " Command="$(SolutionDir)Library\SetEdmxSqlVersion $(ProjectDir)Generation\DB.edmx 2008" />
    <Exec Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == 'DEV2' " Command="$(SolutionDir)Library\SetEdmxSqlVersion $(ProjectDir)Generation\Another.edmx 2008" />
    <!--Set to 2005 for Deployments-->
    <Exec Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == 'TEST' " Command="$(SolutionDir)Library\SetEdmxSqlVersion $(ProjectDir)Generation\DB.edmx 2005" />
    <Exec Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == 'TEST' " Command="$(SolutionDir)Library\SetEdmxSqlVersion $(ProjectDir)Generation\Another.edmx 2005" />
    <Exec Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == 'PRODUCTION' " Command="$(SolutionDir)Library\SetEdmxSqlVersion $(ProjectDir)Generation\DB.edmx 2005" />
    <Exec Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == 'PRODUCTION' " Command="$(SolutionDir)Library\SetEdmxSqlVersion $(ProjectDir)Generation\Another.edmx 2005" />
  </Target>

This is super handy, as avoids annoying redeployment. Thanks for sharing Vance.

I've added TF.exe to the Library solution folder and this helps, as I can now check out the edmx files before trying to edit them, as part of the build. Also I have added this with conditions, so that it sets to 2005 for deployments to the server and back to 2008 for the Dev machine sln configurations. Also to mention you need to add the actual SetEdmxSqlVersion.exe (and .pdb) file(s) to the Library folder (or wherever else you want to keep these bits).

Thanks very much @Vance. Really neat, massive time saver and keeps my builds totally automated and pain free :)

Had a similar problem with 2012 vs. 2008. It can be solved with a BeforeBuild event using XmlPeek and XmlPoke:

   <Target Name="BeforeBuild">
      <XmlPeek XmlInputPath="$(ProjectDir)MyModel.edmx"
               Namespaces="&lt;Namespace Prefix='edmx' Uri='http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2009/11/edmx'/&gt;&lt;Namespace Prefix='ssdl' Uri='http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2009/11/edm/ssdl'/&gt;"
               Query="/edmx:Edmx/edmx:Runtime/edmx:StorageModels/ssdl:Schema/@ProviderManifestToken">
         <Output TaskParameter="Result" ItemName="TargetedSQLVersion" />
      </XmlPeek>

      <XmlPoke Condition="@(TargetedSQLVersion) != 2008"
               XmlInputPath="$(ProjectDir)MyModel.edmx"
               Namespaces="&lt;Namespace Prefix='edmx' Uri='http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2009/11/edmx'/&gt;&lt;Namespace Prefix='ssdl' Uri='http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2009/11/edm/ssdl'/&gt;"
               Query="/edmx:Edmx/edmx:Runtime/edmx:StorageModels/ssdl:Schema/@ProviderManifestToken"
               Value="2008">
      </XmlPoke>
   </Target>

If you dislike automated replacement, you can simply replace the XmlPoke task with an Error task.

For the benefit of people who encounter the same issue but are using Code First, check out my answer here about how to change the ProviderManifestToken in Code First. It involves creating a DbModelBuilder manually and passing a DbProviderInfo instance (with the appropriate token) when calling the model builder's Build method.

Better solution to me is instead of manually editing EDMX file is just open edmx in design mode and in context menu "Update Model from Database...". You have to be pointing to right SQL version of course whatever this is for you.

We had this error on SQL2005 v.3, where we did not have it on SQL2005 v.4.

Adding SQL2005 to the connection string fixed our specific problem.

We haven't identified why yet, and did not want to modify code to provide the token as solved above (issue manifested during deployment).