Support of 'Cross Language Support'

by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2006/07/02 03:21 -04:00, original URI: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2006/07/02/654166.aspx

Reader Tina asked me about the 'cross-language support' section of the Knowledge Base article 910228 the other day:

Cross-Language Support:

For upgrades:

• English-language versions of SQL Server can be upgraded to any localized version of SQL Server 2005.
• Localized versions of SQL Server can be upgraded to localized versions of SQL Server 2005 of the same language.
• Localized version of SQL Server cannot be upgraded to the English-language version of SQL Server 2005.
• Localized versions of SQL Server cannot be upgraded to localized SQL Server 2005 versions of a different localized language.

All localized upgrades must follow supported upgrade paths. For specific information on supported upgrade paths, see "Version and Edition Upgrades" in SQL Server 2005 Books Online.

Additional cross-language support:

• The English-language version of SQL Server 2005 is supported on all localized versions of supported operating systems.
• Localized versions of SQL Server 2005 are supported on localized operating systems that are the same language as the localized SQL Server version.
• Localized versions of SQL Server 2005 are also supported on English-language versions of supported operating systems through the use of Windows Multilingual User Interface Pack (MUI) settings. However, you must verify certain operating system settings before installing a localized version of SQL Server 2005 on a server that is running an English-language operating system with a non-English MUI setting. You must verify that the following operating system settings match the language of the localized SQL Server to be installed:
  • The operating system user interface setting
  • The operating system user locale setting
  • The system locale setting

If these operating system settings do not match the language of the localized SQL Server, then you must correctly set these operating system settings as described in "How to: Change Operating System Settings to Support Localized Versions" in SQL Server 2005 Books Online.

Tina was curious about the motivation behind these restrictions -- and whether they were enforced by the software itself.

The truth is that for the most part, "restrictions" like this are not enforced, and in some cases they are not even a problem anyway. If it appears in a document like that KB article, there are two possible reasons why:

1. They may have tested it and found problems, and there was either insufficient time to fix the problems or they were far enough away fron actual supported scenarios that it was decided to make them unsupported for the tine being;
2. They may not have had time to do the full testing for some of it, and based on Software Tester's Axiom I, it is most likely broken in some unknown way for that reason alone.

I haven't tried out these various cases exhaustively, but I suspect based on the pattern (which is to basically control all settings prior to installing anything) that there is a lot more of #2 than #1 in this particular case. The honest truth is that when testers have really worked a scenario out, the information on the actual dangers is usually a lot more specific as to where the dragons may be....

Just my opinions, like I said I have not tried these things out extensively enough to claim an expert opinion. :-)

But hopefully that is a little helpful, Tina....

(There is a separate issue here that will be the topic of a future post, to do with the general support when crossing the English/~English barrier. I'll be talking about that soon!)

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