I was asked to test the installation of BC14 on a windows server 2022 in combination with SQL server 2022.
After installing windows server 2022 and SQL Server 2022 all was ready to start installing Business Central 2014.
I did install SQL Server 2022 first, so BC would not try to install it’s own database.
At first glace everything looked fine, als Business Central installed and did not show any errors. But, in fact there are some hidden fails in the install. The RTC client was nog installed properly and the development environments gives error IM002: Data source name not found and no default driver specified.
The problem is:
‘The SQL Server Native Client (often abbreviated SNAC) has been removed from SQL Server 2022 (16.x) and SQL Server Management Studio 19 (SSMS). The SQL Server Native Client (SQLNCLI or SQLNCLI11) and the legacy Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server (SQLOLEDB) are not recommended for new application development. Switch to the new Microsoft OLE DB Driver (MSOLEDBSQL) for SQL Server or the latest Microsoft ODBC Driver for SQL Server going forward. For SQLNCLI that ships as a component of SQL Server Database engine (versions 2012 through 2019), see this Support Lifecycle exception.’ (From: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/relational-databases/native-client/applications/installing-sql-server-native-client?view=sql-server-ver16)
But also:
‘Support Lifecycle exception
Limited support is provided for the SQL Native Client 11.0 that gets installed by SQL Server 2012 through 2019 until the SQL Server respective end-of-support lifecycles. This support exception only applies to the SNAC 11 driver that is installed and used by SQL Server components (e.g. SQL Server Engine Linked Servers). This means the driver is supported on Windows versions where SQL Server 2012 through SQL Server 2019 are supported. Do not remove the SQL Native Client provider that gets installed by SQL Server on the system. The support exception only covers critical security fixes and does not include enhancements or fixes to SQL Native Client 11.0. This support exception does not cover using SQL Native Client 11.0 as a driver for database applications to connect to SQL Server. Any applications using SNAC 11.0 must be updated to use newer versions (see Download ODBC Driver for SQL Server – ODBC Driver for SQL Server and Download Microsoft OLE DB Driver for SQL Server – OLE DB Driver for SQL Server).’ (From : https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/relational-databases/native-client/applications/support-policies-for-sql-server-native-client?view=sql-server-ver16#support-lifecycle-exception)
So if you install sqlncli.msi from the referenced source in the above articles before you install BC14, you can in fact start and use BC14 successfully on a windows server 2022 with SQL server 2022 installed. But, as Microsoft states in the referenced articles, it’s unsupported.
