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Verifying MS SQL Server Sort Order for a Siebel Upgrade

Upgrades: All Siebel upgrades.

Environments: Development, production test, production.

Databases: MS SQL Server only.

Platforms: Windows only.

This topic is part of an upgrade process. See How to Perform a Siebel Database Upgrade.

Verify that the sort order of the master database and the database instance are the same. This prevents repository merge failure due to sort order mismatch.

Binary sort order is required for the development environment upgrade and strongly recommended for the production environment upgrades.

When you install MS SQL Server, the collation method of the database instance is set by default to dictionary sort order. Every database you create thereafter inherits this setting.

When you create a database, you can accept the inherited sort order or specify the sort order. It is recommended that you set the sort order to binary at the MS SQL Server instance level so that this sort order is inherited by newly created databases.

The sort order of the master database cannot be changed without rebuilding the instance. Consult your Microsoft documentation for instructions on setting database collation.

For more information on database sort order, see About Database Sort Order in the Siebel Environment.

To verify that your database was created using a binary collation sequence

1. In the Query Analyzer window, enter the following command:

   sp_helpsort

   This command provides a sort order description.

2. Review the sort order description to verify binary sort order; for example:

   Latin1_General_BIN

   If you find that your Microsoft SQL Server database was not created using a binary collation sequence, you must rebuild your database and reload your data. Review the Microsoft documentation for detailed instructions.