My school is using SQL Server 2008. Last time I used it I only installed (at home) SQL Server Management Studio 2008 part, and used VPN to connect to school's server.
Now I want to install SQL Server Management Studio again, but this time the 2012 version is available.
Will SQL Server Management Studio 2012 work on the school's SQL Server 2008? Or do I need the 2008 version?
SSMS2012 is backwards compatible:
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sqltools/thread/0151c2e8-2281-4a78-86b0-20cc1bfd57ac
Edit Giving out Aaron's link instead of the old one! Thanks Aaron.
microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35579
As Kenneth mentioned, you could copy the 2008 BOL (Books online) so when you search the help it'll be relevant to 2008 instead of 2012.
No problem, I have SMS 2012 installed connecting to both SQL 2008 and 2005 servers with no issues.
Infact SSMS 2012 is better than 2008 and it is really worth the change
Some useful features
Usability : SSMS 2012 is powered by visual studio so the UI looks lot similar with Visual studio
I always have issues with 2008 intellisense (autofill) which is very slow and sometimes even manual refresh take longer time to refresh the metadata. But 2012 is very impressive and i am much surprised about the meta data management.
In 2012 intellisense accept part name search. E.g . If your table name is abc_xyz_ETL then you can type xyz which will pick all the tables which contains the xyz while writing the query
The new improved MDX query editor is very useful for SSAS testing.
New Source safe integration - the SSMS 2012 can be easily integrated with team foundation server with a free plugin. I am really hoping to see some free plugin for subversion soon.
Projects are easy to create and maintain
In built SQL Beautifier will help you to format your SQL quickly. This tool also comes with formatting options, so you can customize based on your organisation standard
Check this Blog
http://www.sqlblogspot.com/2013/05/use-ssms-2012-with-sql-server-2008.html
