Azure DevOps Server 2022.2 has recently been released. Unexpectedly this minor 2022.2 release includes a change in supported versions of SQL, SQL2017 support has been dropped. So, if someone attempted an upgrade from 2022.1 to 2022.2 they will get the error

“TF255146: The SQL Server instance you specified (nnnnn) is version ‘SQL Server 2017 RTM’, which is not supported by this version of Azure DevOps Server. For more information about supported versions of SQL Server, visit https://www.visualstudio.com/docs/setup-admin/requirements "

This issue has been detailed on the Visual Studio Developer Community site, and Microsoft have retrospectively updated the product documentation.

However, it is fair to say Microsoft have not done a great job with the messaging here

  • Unusually, there was no prior announcement that the system requirements were changing with a minor .X update. In the past supported version changes have been made only with a major update.
  • There was also nothing in the 2022.2 official release notes about the SQL change. Only, belatedly, in the primary product documentation, a place easily missed when doing an upgrade.
  • The information in the primary documentation is only partially correct. It states SQL 2017 does not work with 2022.X, but it does for 2022 RTM and 2022 Update 1. This is confusing.

So the key point to take away is that any future updates from Azure DevOps 2022.1 will require a migration to a newer SQL version than 2017.

You will want to consider this SQL change if you are planning to migrate to Azure DevOps Services as only the current and current -1 version of Azure DevOps Server are supported, hence this SQL version limitation will be important.

The key point is that the clock is ticking before the migration tools from 2022.1 are retired and you are forced to move to 2022.2 or later prior to yur migration. On past update history my guess is you have around 6 months before this occurs.

So if a migration is on your horizon, and you are on Azure DevOps Server 2022.1 you might want to start planning it now.