Updated: July 14, 2020 (February 3, 2014)
Charts & IllustrationsImportant Dates for SQL Server
SQL Server 2012 now requires SP1 support. Shown here are important upcoming support dates for recent versions of SQL Server.
SQL Server 2008 R2 now requires SP2 for continued support, and customers running SQL Server 2008 should have SP3 applied. Hotfixes or other support for SQL Server 2005 will require a custom support contract beginning Apr. 12, 2016, and it will probably become progressively more difficult to maintain and ensure the security of SQL Server 2005 deployments; recent Microsoft application versions are not compatible with it and newly discovered security vulnerabilities might go unpatched, as has happened with older versions of Windows and Exchange. Consequently, organizations running SQL Server 2005 should be planning migrations.
| Date | Version | Event |
| July 8, 2014 | SQL Server 2008 | Mainstream support ends |
| July 8, 2014 | SQL Server 2008 R2 | Mainstream support ends |
| Apr. 12, 2016 | SQL Server 2005 | Extended support ends |
| July |
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