Question : Transaction log shipping from SQL 2000 to 2005 - Issue with Database upgrade required

Some quick background - we have a remote server with SQL 2000, and a local server with SQL 2005.

Our local server is a reporting server that reports on a copy of the SQL database on the 2000 server (our 'live' database)

We're currently backing up the entire 2000 database each night, downloading it and restoring it onto the 2005 server each night, so our local copy of the live database is updated every 24 hours.

I'm looking at transaction log shipping as a way to automate this process to keep the local copy up to date throughout the day. However I'm having a lot of problems caused by going from 2000 to 2005.

Firstly, I begin with a complete backup of the remote/live database and restore that to the local 2005 server in Standby / READ ONLY mode, so it is read-only, but transaction logs can still be applied at regular intervals. However I get an error message saying a database upgrade is required.

I got round this by restoring the backup normally on our SQL 2005 server (RESTORE WITH RECOVERY). I then backed up again from this restored copy (thus making the backup file 2005 compatible) and restored this 2nd backup in the STANDBY/READ ONLY mode.

First problem solved - a bit of hassle, but you should only need to do this the once to get the process started...

The second task was then to get the transaction logs restored onto the read only database (we'll do this hourly).
A contact gave me the attached code (edited) to schedule the restore of the latest transaction log from a fixed filename.
When I run this code though, I again get the error message:

"This backup cannot be restored using WITH STANDBY because a database upgrade is needed. Reissue the RESTORE without WITH STANDBY."

If I run it without 'WITH STANDBY' though, it'll go out of standby and further transaction logs cannot be applied... Any ideas? How could I 'upgrade' a 200 transaction log to 2005?

Code Snippet:

         
             RESTORE LOG [LOG NAME] FROM  
 
DISK = N'C:\Transaction Logs\DB\DB_tog_200711300000.TRN' 
 
WITH  FILE = 1,  NOUNLOAD ,  STATS = 10,  
 
STANDBY = N'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\BACKUP\UNDO_DB20071130Restore.DAT'

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Answer : Transaction log shipping from SQL 2000 to 2005 - Issue with Database upgrade required

Yeah, it looks like the different versions are really going to be a pain for you...unfortunately.

One last thought...have you tried restoring with norecovery, then immediately changing it to standby? So, something like this:

restore log dbname from disk = 'filepath' with norecovery
restore database dbname with standby

might be worth a shot.