Microsoft SQL Server OLEDB Provider Deprecation Announcement

The commercial release of Microsoft SQL Server, codename “Denali,” will be the last release to support OLE DB.  Support details for the release version of SQL Server “Denali” will be made available within 90 days of release to manufacturing. For more information on Microsoft Support Lifecycle Policies for Microsoft Business and Developer products, please see Microsoft Support Lifecycle Policy FAQ. This deprecation applies to the Microsoft SQL Server OLE DB provider only. Other OLE DB providers as well as the OLE DB standard will continue to be supported until explicitly announced.

It’s important to notice that this announcement does not affect ADO’s and ADO.NET’s roadmaps.  In addition, while Managed OLEDB classes will continue to be supported, if you are using it to connect to SQL Server through the SNAC OLEDB Provider, you will be impacted.

If you use SQL Server as your RDBMS, we encourage you to use SqlClient as your .NET Provider.  In case you use other database technologies, we would recommend that you adopt their native .NET Providers or Managed ODBC in the development of new and future versions of your applications.  You don’t need to change your existing applications using OLE DB, as they will continue to be supported, but you may want to consider migrating them as a part of your future roadmap. Microsoft
is fully committed to making this transition as smooth and easy as possible.  In order to prepare and help our developer community, we will be providing assistance throughout this process. This will include providing guidance via technical documentation as well as tools to jump start the migration process and being available right away to answer questions on the SQL Server Data Access forum.

Luiz Santos

ADO.NET Program Manager