How does ADO.Net know which version of the SQL Native Client to use if you have both SQL 2005 and 2008 in your environment?

Question

How does ADO.Net know which version of the SQL Native Client to use if you have both SQL 2005 and 2008 in your environment?

Answer 1

For basic services, they're backward compatible so you don't even have to worry about it: if 2008 native client is installed, it should connect to 2005 or 2008 databases transparently.

The only problem you run into is some parts such as DTS or SQL-DMO, which apparently require a separate download for backwards compatibility:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=C6C3E9EF-BA29-4A43-8D69-A2BED18FE73C&displaylang=en

Installing those will mean that you won't have to worry about the existence of the 2005 native client on the system.

Does that help?