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

Question

I am creating log shipping for two databases, db1 and db2.

It will be from SQL Server 2008 R2 to a newer version, SQL Server 2012.

On SQL Server 2008R2, they are both dbi_version = 661:

DBCC TRACEON (3604);  
GO 
DBCC PAGE (db1, 1, 9, 3); 
GO 
DBCC TRACEOFF (3604); 

I restore them in standby mode:

RESTORE DATABASE db1 FROM DISK = 'Q:\db1.bak' WITH STANDBY = N'R:\SQLLog\db1.undo'

One of them restores ok, with upgrade, and another one is giving me error:

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

Answer 1

WITH STANDBY is only supported when both SQL Servers are the same version.

You can only use WITH NORECOVERY

An alternative if you need read access to the destination databases, is to use replication.